Portside

Congressional Progressive Caucus urged members to reject the so-called Cromnibus if a provision which helps big banks trade derivatives in units backstopped by a government guarantee remained in the spending measure. This kind of activity was a cause of the 2008 crisis - it a giveaway to wealthy campaign donors and Wall Street banks. Analysis for more information about key takeaways from the proposed spending bill, as well as a few controversial surprises.

If high unemployment is one of the obstacles to more equitable growth, then the question is: how do we achieve full employment? There are four main ways. Each route faces substantial political opposition, both because of powerful interests that would be hurt by paying higher wages and because of popular prejudices that are persistently promoted in the media.

In light of the report that the economy contracted in the last quarter of 2012 due partly to cutbacks, Ezra Klein notes that one man's big government socialism is another man's premature and destructive fiscal retrenchment.