NY Times:
Legislation should strengthen protection of consumers, firmly rein in derivatives and take steps to identify and resolve emerging risks.
Main Street does not like Wall Street. Remember that when you look at regulation.
Reuters:
U.S. stocks are poised to repeat their advance this week as investors bet that the economic recovery is gaining strength and company outlooks are turning rosier.
Despite the anniversary this week of Lehman Brothers Holdings' collapse and the tumult that subsequently rocked Wall Street, the mood in the market is likely to be more optimistic than gloomy.
Adam Nagourney:
As distasteful as the notion of intergenerational conflict may seem, the fight over health care — not to mention the election of health care reform’s current chief proponent, President Obama — suggests that something is going on. Older Americans are more likely to oppose Mr. Obama’s initiative than any other age group. The White House views this dynamic as one of the biggest obstacles to tamping down public concerns about its approach and assembling a legislative coalition to get a bill passed in Congress.
Anand Giridharadas:
At this moment, the conversation is not whether the Internet is important and is going to be widespread," said Clay Shirky, an Internet theorist and the author of "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations." He added, in a telephone interview: "Now that it is so important, it’s actually too important not to think through the constitutional and governance issues involved."
A search is on for the right metaphor. What is the new role for government — a platform? a vending machine, into which we put money to extract services? a facilitator? And what, indeed, is the new role for us — the ones we’ve been waiting for?
Ross Douthat:
When I asked him about the lessons of 1994, Luntz — whose latest book, "What Americans Really Want ... Really," is pitched to a bipartisan audience — happily rattled off the parallels between that era and this one: anxiety about deficits, furious distrust of Washington, growing doubts about a Democratic president.
Bipartisan audience???!? Must be the same audience Douthat aims at. The better 1994 parallel is that teabaggers are akin to angry Perot voters [particularly in the latter years with Buchanan], and that doesn't help clueless 2009 Republicans, who don't have an idea in their head to run on.
ABC/WaPo poll:
President Obama continues to face significant public resistance to his drive to initiate far-reaching changes to the country's health-care system, with widespread skepticism about central tenets of his plan, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But after a summer of angry debate and protests, opposition to the effort has eased somewhat, and there appears to be potential for further softening among critics if Congress abandons the idea of a government-sponsored health insurance option, a proposal that has become a flash point in the debate. The gap in passion, which had shown greater intensity among opponents of the plan, has also begun to close, with supporters increasingly energized and more now seeing reform as possible without people being forced to give up their current coverage.
I'm sorry, Republicans. This isn't 1994. The numbers:
As Congress begins its second week back from August recess, the playing field is virtually level: Americans remain almost deadlocked in their opinion of the Democrats' health-care initiative, with 46 percent in favor of the proposed changes and 48 percent opposed. There is also a clean split on Obama's handling of the issue, with 48 percent approving and the same number disapproving. But since mid-August, the percentage "strongly" behind the president on health care has risen to 32 percent, evening out the intensity gap that has plagued him on the subject.
Obama's health care speech did him a world of good. And the public option is not as popular as perceived (see comment).