By Tim Price, originally published on Next New Deal
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Policy Note: Will Crowdfunding Kickstart an Investment Revolution? (Roosevelt Institute)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Georgia Levenson Keohane examines the proliferation of peer-to-peer financing models like Kickstarter and the questions they pose for policymakers who must balance their support for business with their desire to protect investors and preserve the concept of public goods.
The Vultures' Victory (Project Syndicate)
Roosevelt Institute Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz argues that a recent decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals could prevent troubled countries like Argentina from restructuring their sovereign debt by allowing some unscrupulous hedge funds to buy up their old bonds and demand full repayment.
FCC's program-carriage rules mainly upheld by U.S. appeals court (LA Times)
Joe Flint writes that the Second Circuit also ruled against cable companies' claims that preventing them from discriminating against independent stations was an unacceptable violation of their freedom of speech. As Roosevelt Institute Fellow Susan Crawford notes, not all First Amendment cases are created equally.
In Fed Succession, Obama's Favorite Faces Opposition (NYT)
Jackie Calmes reports that many critics remain strongly opposed to the idea of Larry Summers replacing Ben Bernanke as Fed chair, but President Obama is still inclined to go with the "stand-up dude" with whom he's developed a working relationship instead of the non-dude he doesn't know as well.
How the Bank Lobby Loosened U.S. Reins on Derivatives (Bloomberg)
Once upon a time, CFTC commissioner Gary Gensler was pushing for much stricter regulation of domestic and overseas derivatives trading than he's likely to get now, but the banking industry managed to undermine him at every turn with a strategy that could be called Occupy Gary Gensler's Office.
Austerity Is for the Little People: Syria Edition (The Nation)
Allison Kilkenny notes that while public services are being slashed across the country due to budget cuts, officials who support military intervention in Syria seem confident that it can be done on the cheap and that we can scrounge up the money for it if we need to, just like our last multi-trillion-dollar war.
This chart shows why $270 billion in housing aid hasn't solved homelessness (WaPo)
Dylan Matthews highlights a report from the CBPP that shows most federal housing expenditures go to Americans who are making six figures a year or more, so they aren't helping poor people to afford a home so much as they're helping affluent homeowners afford the breakfast nook of their dreams.
States divert foreclosure prevention money to demolitions (Marketplace)
Kate Davidson reports that the Treasury Department has decided to allow states that are receiving money from its $7.6 billion foreclosure prevention program, the Hardest Hit Fund, to use some of those funds to knock down abandoned houses rather than using it all to keep current homeowners in place.