By Tim Price, originally published on Next New Deal
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Student Debt and the Crushing of the American Dream (NYT)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow and Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz argues that in order to strengthen the recovery and remove the boot from the foreheads of Americans trying to climb the economic ladder, we need to rethink how we finance higher education.
Thinking Utopian: How about a universal basic income? (WaPo)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal examines what the left might do next if it actually ended poverty by establishing a basic guaranteed income for all Americans, and why that's worth considering even if the checks would have to be airmailed via flying pig.
After Rana Plaza (New Yorker)
James Surowiecki writes that the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh is more proof that despite self-policing efforts by Western companies, workers' lives will remain as cheap as the products they make unless governments enforce better labor standards.
How Austerity Kills (NYT)
David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu write that between cuts to public health and nutrition programs making people sicker and high unemployment driving them to despair and suicide, austerity economics has become a global health crisis. Luckily, there is a cure.
Austerity and the Unraveling of European Universal Health Care (Dissent)
While American progressives may envy Europe's health care systems, Adam Gaffney notes that conservatives across the Atlantic are treating the economic crisis as an opportunity to dismantle them, like a doctor removing your leg during an appendectomy.
Fed Maps Exit From Stimulus (WSJ)
Jon Hilsenrath writes that some Federal Reserve officials are optimistic that they can begin winding down its bond-purchasing program as early as this summer, but to paraphrase Mike Konczal, they're worried we'll all be devoured by the expectations dinosaur.
What Is the Fed Thinking? (Bloomberg)
Evan Soltas notes that the Fed also recently introduced the possibility of expanding its stimulus program, and with jobs and GDP weak, inflation still low, and sequestration hanging over the economy like a poison cloud, it may want to keep its options open.
The Facts Are In and Paul Ryan Is Wrong (NY Mag)
Jonathan Chait writes that recent evidence contradicts everything the GOP's budget mastermind has been saying about austerity and health care costs, but no matter how loudly critics point out that the emperor has no clothes, he just keeps on strutting his stuff.
Tim Price is Editor of Next New Deal. Follow him on Twitter @txprice.