By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
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Seven Nobel Laureates Endorse Higher U.S. Minimum Wage (Bloomberg)
Lorraine Woellert reports that the laureates are part of a group of 75 economists pushing for a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour by 2016, and for indexing the minimum wage to inflation. Roosevelt Institute Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz is among the signatories of this letter.
Net Neutrality is Dead. Bow to Comcast and Verizon, Your Overlords (LA Times)
Michael Hiltzik explains yesterday's federal court decision, which struck down the FCC's net neutrality rules. He quotes Roosevelt Institute Fellow Susan Crawford, who says big telecommunications companies aren't really competing, which makes regulation even more necessary.
Blue-Collar Wage-Grade Federal Workers Waiting on Pay Raise (WaPo)
Emily Wax-Thibodeaux writes about the federal employees who haven't gotten a 1 percent raise yet, despite President Obama's executive order ending a three-year pay freeze. Congress could finally enact that raise in the omnibus spending bill that's under consideration now.
Extension of Unemployment Benefits Dead in Senate For Now (CBS News)
Rebecca Kaplan explains how a fight over the rights of the minority party in the Senate subsumed the push to renew extended unemployment benefits. Senate Democrats are criticizing their Republican colleagues for putting politics ahead of the needs of the long-term unemployed.
Whose Side Are Progressives on: The Poor or the Upper Middle Class? (PolicyShop)
David Callahan points out that the coalition that elected President Obama twice and just elected Mayor de Blasio in New York City looks like a barbell: plenty of poor voters, and plenty of upper-middle class voters. But thus far, political priorities have greatly favored the wealthier part of this coalition.
Poverty Is Literally Making People Sick Because They Can't Afford Food (The Atlantic Cities)
Matthew O'Brien looks at a new study that determined that low-income patients who are living paycheck-to-paycheck experience an increase in health problems related to lack of food at the end of each month. The easiest solutions ensure that people have more money to buy food.
Democrats Concede to Curb Funds for Wall Street Regulators in Spending Bill (The Guardian)
Dan Roberts explains some of the bargains made for the sake of Congress's omnibus appropriations bill, expected to pass this week. Financial reform advocates are angered by the cuts to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission budgets.
Regulators Ease Volcker Rule Provision on Smaller Banks (NYT)
Matthew Goldstein reports that regulators gave in to pressures from the banking industry and revised the Volcker Rule, supposedly to reduce its effects on smaller community banks. However, the revised rule will allow big banks to keep certain investments that could be seen as proprietary trading.