She's not even a candidate, but Republicans just can't quit attacking Ashley Judd

by Laura Clawson
FRI MAR 08, 2013 AT 09:02 AM PST

 

Ashley Judd still isn't running for Senate in Kentucky, but Republicans are attacking her yet again, telegraphing just how worried they are for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In the latest hit, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is out with a web ad and emailquestioning Judd's Kentucky residency.

The email, which masquerades as a Democratic fundraising effort for Judd, cites places where she has lived or spent significant time outside of Kentucky—but it crosses a line when, after describing her as living in Tennessee, it ends "Go Vols." Judd is widely known to be a staunch University of Kentucky basketball fan, and there.

Judd has already taken incoming from Karl Rove's American Crossroads and has been the subject of a Republican poll testing messages against her such as that "she describes herself as a radical and has pledged to support President Obama." Then, of course, the Daily Callerwent after her for having done topless scenes. In short, if Republicans aren't positively terrified of an Ashley Judd candidacy, they're just doing a really good job demonstrating their commitment to attacking any woman who even dips her toe into the shallow end of politics.

The Sequester Cuts' Impact Goes Deeper Than White House Tours (VIDEO)


Posted: 03/08/2013 2:28 pm EST | Updated: 03/08/2013 7:33 pm EST





House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other Republicans are upset that White House tours are shut down because of sequestration. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


 
 WASHINGTON -- The debate over sequestration this past week has come down to two questions: Was the administration exaggerating the impact of the spending cuts, and did they really need to shut down White House tours because of them?

It's been the predominant theme at the White House briefings, a constant subject of discussion on cable news and a topic of fascination on Capitol Hill. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) even took up the cause at a press briefing this week, saying: "I think it's silly that they have insisted on locking down the White House, which the American people actually own."

Beneath that debate, however, is a different type of conversation about the impact of the $85 billion in cuts. While the national media has focused on those two questions, local coverage has been more directed at the tangible impact the budget restraints will have. The Huffington Post reviewed dozens of local television news broadcasts, using the service TVeyes.com, to survey coverage of sequestration outside of the Beltway.

The local stations didn't ignore the controversy over the White House tours being closed, and several broadcasts featured political analysts arguing that sequestration's impact had been dramatically overhyped by the administration. But they did tend to dig more deeply into the ramifications of the cuts, looking at how people around the country -- besides the lucky Americans who get to tour the White House each year -- will be affected in their daily lives.

Watch a mash-up video of these local news reports and the debate taking place in Washington:


Video mash-up created by Amber Genuske.
Some other examples: Could not embed two videos but links will take you to them

gop politicians vs businesses facing job cuts

• Recovery efforts following a tornado in Atlanta are being drained of federal help because of sequestration related cuts. [WAGA-TV]
• The Georgia Department of Labor is figuring out how to reduce unemployment benefits by nearly 11 percent starting on March 31. [WSB-TV]
• The Spokane County Meals On Wheels is looking at a45,000 budget cut. "I'm scared," the program quoted one official with the group saying. "How do we keep serving all the people that need it?" [KREM-TV]
• Cleanup efforts following the Hanford nuclear leak in Washington state are complicated by171 million in sequester-related budget cuts. "The largest part of those cuts would be in underground tank management," reported KCPQ in Seattle. "New leaks were just discovered in six of those tanks." [KCPQ-TV, KPTV-TV]

Watch the KPTV report:

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Border protection agencies in Arizona and elsewhere plan to furlough employees for up to 14 days, with notices already sent out to 24,000 people nationwide. [KPNX-TV]
• Sequestration will likely increase homelessness across Arizona. "In Maricopa county there is a waiting list for rental assistance with 3,700 names on it," reported KPNX. "That list is now closed and it could be a long time before anyone can get on it. [KPNX-TV]
• Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado is cutting623,000 from its budget because of sequestration, resulting in fewer employees, slower emergency response, and continued closure of the glacier basin campground. [KTVD-TV]
• Bell Helicopters in Fort Worth has started offering incentive programs to workers to encourage them to retire early so that they can save money to deal with sequestration. [KDAF-TV]
• Twenty-three Tooele County employees around Salt Lake City, Utah, were already laid off because of sequestration. "I thought it was a secure job, but apparently not," said one laid-off employee. [KTSU-TV]

Watch the KTSU report:

23 Tooele County Employees Laid Off Due To Sequestration

• The San Diego Housing Commission is staring at $7.5 million in cuts. [KSWB-TV]
• Little Rock, Ark., faces potential losses in funding for domestic violence prevention services. [KARK-TV]
• Mississippi food pantries are likely to take a hit with officials expecting "to see more people in line." [WAPT-TV]
• Advocates in Kansas City, Mo., are going to Washington, D.C., to try and prevent expended cuts to scientific research into disease control and prevention. [KCTV-TV]
• Advocates in Nevada are pleading with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to try and protect food banks that the state's children depend on. [KTVN-TV]
• KABB in San Antonio reported that $140 million of the $150 million in federal grants that the city received could be endangered by sequestration, "affecting programs like Head Start, transportation programs for seniors and WIC (nutritional programs for women, infants and children)." [KABB-TV]
• Housing officials in Austin, Texas are bracing for the forthcoming penny pinch. "Austin currently serves about 18,000 Austinites and has close to 10,000 residents on the waitlist for public housing and rental assistance," the report went, "so, every dollar from the government counts." [KTBC-TV]

 Watch the KTBC report:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Detroit's airport is closing its control tower, forcing "pilots to coordinate their own arrivals and departures." [WXYZ-TV]
• Four local airport towers are closing in San Francisco. [KGO-TV]
• Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, Fla., is closing its tower. [WFTS-TV]
• Six air traffic control towers are closing in Oklahoma. [KJRH-TV]
• One official near a military base in St. Louis estimates that there could be a $28 million economic impact in the region. [KSDK-TV]
• Approximately 8,500 civilian defense employees at Fort Bragg are facing furloughs, and "officials and business owners say that could have a trickle down effect on the local economy" and that "the sequester will also impact schools at Fort Bragg and its five thousand students." [WRAL-TV]

Not every station was convinced that sequestration would spell doom for their communities, and a more thorough search of local television programs beyond the major markets could of course be done. But the coverage was pretty consistent at the local level, revealing that viewers of these channels are getting a different story about the ramifications of the budget cuts than those simply consuming their news from cable television.

Americans For Prosperity: Sequestration Will Help Economy 

The Huffington Post
By Bonnie Kavoussi
Posted: 03/04/2013 8:04 pm EST | Updated: 03/04/2013 8:10 pm EST

 

Julia Koch and David Koch attend the opening night celebration of the New York City Ballet at David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center on November 25, 2008 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)


Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers, says that lawmakers should be commended for doing nothing to prevent billions of dollars in across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration.

"With the sequester, Congress made a promise to the American people to cut spending. They deserve to be congratulated for actually keeping that promise," Levi Russell, a spokesman for Americans for Prosperity, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post Monday. "It definitely wasn't easy given the pressure from the White House."

"We feel absolutely that government overspending is the greatest threat to American prosperity," he added.

The conservative group funded by billionaires Charles and David Koch also sent its subscribers an email Saturday arguing its case.

Scroll down to read the full e-mail below.

Many economists disagree, instead arguing that sequestration, which took effect Friday, will hurt the U.S. economy. IHS Global Insight projects that the cuts will lower real annual GDP growth by 0.5 percentage points and cost the economy 400,000 jobs this year if it goes into full effect.

And economists ranging from Alan Blinder and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to Nobel Prize winners Paul Krugman and Robert Solow argue that austerity is holding the economy back. Bernanke said last week that sequestration will slow economic growth and have "adverse effects on jobs and incomes."

Still, some say that the sequestration's effects on the economy won't be as severe as some are predicting. Famed billionaire Warren Buffett told CNBC on Monday that while he doesn't like the cuts, they won't hurt the economy much. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) said Sunday on CNN that the sequestration's cuts are "modest" and "we have a spending addiction in Washington."

And since the cuts just took place Friday, their full impact is unclear.

Americans for Prosperity sent the following email to its subscribers on Saturday:

We often criticize GOP leaders for not standing firm on limited government principles, but today Americans for Prosperity thanks Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans for standing up to President Obama and making sure the $85 billion in much-needed sequester spending cuts took effect.

Despite a relentlessly hysterical campaign from President Obama and the Left claiming that sequester cuts would end American civilization as we know it, the sun still rose this morning. For the first time in a long time, genuine substantive spending reductions actually took effect and the government is running just a bit leaner.

While Speaker Boehner and the GOP deserve credit and thanks for taking a gutsy stand, it’s important to realize what an incredible impact AFP activists like you are making in this fight. All across the country, folks like you have called their members of Congress, made visits in person to congressional district offices, sent emails, and kept the pressure on through Twitter and Facebook. These combined efforts helped spread a message across the country that enabled House Republicans to take heart and do the right thing knowing that conservatives back home had their back

As an example, I was out at a leadership event in Portland, Oregon this week where Beth, one of our dedicated AFP activists, told me how she had sent personal messages to each of her 243 Facebook friends asking them to contact their member of Congress to tell him to "keep the cuts" so we can "get our economy moving again." She had also personally visited her member's district office with her husband.

Even USA Today, the nation’s second largest newspaper after The Wall Street Journal, recognized the effectiveness of AFP activists and gave us the opportunity to articulate the importance of the sequester cuts. Here’s an excerpt:

“These modest cuts are an important step forward for economic growth. While perhaps painful at first, they will restore some balance to our fiscal system, allowing government to prioritize properly and function in line with the American people.” Click here to read more!

Our AFP Iowa state director Mark Lucas, who served combat tours in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger, went on FOX News pushing back against the Left's claims that sequester cuts should be stopped because of their impact on national defense. You can check out the video by CLICKING HERE.

We have big fights ahead of us to rein in government overspending. President Obama and his friends are going to continue their campaign of fear and intimidation against those of us who oppose their big government policies. But the $85 billion in cuts, while a modest start of just 2 cents on the dollar in federal spending, demonstrate that we can win.

Thank you again for all you’ve done in the fight for fiscal responsibility. We're proud to serve on the freedom team with you.

Much lies ahead,

Tim Phillips

PS: Growing up my mom taught me to promptly thank someone who stands up and does the right thing. I ask you to join me in dropping just a quick email to Speaker Boehner and other Republicans for standing up and forcing these $85 billion in genuine spending cuts.

Deeper Dive Into the Jobs Report: Labor Force Participation and Weekly Earnings
 
Posted: 03/08/2013 5:11 pm

Jared Bernstein

Fmr. Obama administration economist; CNBC and MSNBC contributor

  

Today's jobs report is widely being viewed as a sign  of an improving job market, a view I share with (of course) caveats. The biggest question is, as I noted earlier, whether the recent acceleration of payroll growth sticks, especially as the sequester takes hold, which it hasn't yet. So far, both the stock and the job markets have said "sequester?...what's a sequester?"

A few things jumped out at me that you might find interesting.

Labor Force Participation: First, there's the tick down in the labor force participation rate, explaining part of the decline in unemployment and one of not-so-bright parts of the report. I've heard some commentators suggest that this is due to unemployed people giving up and dropping out of the job market (remember, you're not counted as unemployed if you've given up looking).

But the data show that not to be the case. The BLS -- and yes, I'll admit it, I love the BLS -- publishes data on flows in and out of the labor force, and the figure below shows the monthly trend from unemployed to NILF (not in labor force). It's a jumpy series, but it clearly went up a lot in the heart of the recession but has flattened and drifted down since (though it ticked up last 
month).

 

Source: BLS


So why is the labor participation rate (LFPR) stuck in the tank, or slightly more technically, about 2.5 points below its per-recession peak (Dec07-Feb13)? Certainly, weak labor demand is the big story. But it's not the only factor at play -- research has attributed one-quarter to one-third of the decline to older workers leaving the workforce, presumably for retirement.

The flows data can also be used to decompose this decline in the LFPR between five flows (in order of the bars of the figure):

-not in labor force to labor force
-employed to employed (kept working)
-unemployed to unemployed (kept looking for work)
-un to emp and emp to un

 

Source: BLS, my analysis


By far the largest of these shares at any point in time is people who kept working and the drop in this share more than explains the decline, consistent with cyclical job losses driving the rate down. As unemployment is still elevated, the unemployed share of the labor force goes up, which is why the un-to-un bar is a positive factor. Interestingly, over this period flows from NILF into the labor force have actually boosted the participation rate a bit.

Weekly Earnings: With both weekly hours and hourly wages up last month, weekly earnings got a nice 0.5 percent bump last month -- that's before inflation, btw. On an annualized basis, that just below 6 percent, so a nice pace if it can be sustained. But don't go popping corks yet -- paychecks haven't caught up with the stock market.

The figure below shows the nominal year-over-year growth in weekly earnings, a better way to suss out the trend. Their growth got slammed in the heart of the downturn -- an hours' story more than an hourly wage one -- but climbed back when jobs and hours began to expand. But they're been trending down 
since.

 

Source: BLS


Inflation has been running low, thankfully, below 2 percent in recent months, so in real terms weekly earnings have been flat. But remember, this is the average, combining high-wage workers with low-wage ones. The latter face higher unemployment and have seen worse wage outcomes relative to higher earners.

So, yes -- a pretty solid jobs report with a decent payroll number. But unemployment is still high, the LFPR shows evidence of continued weak demand, and that's taking its toll on wage growth. We'll need a lot more months like this to get back on track.

This post originally appeared at Jared Bernstein's On The Economy blog.

Senate Republicans On Sequester: $85 Billion Cut Is Not So Bad (VIDEO)


The Huffington Post 
By Michael McAuliff 
Posted: 02/26/2013 6:48 pm EST | Updated: 02/26/2013 7:11 pm EST

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After all the talk of the harsh impacts of the fast-approaching federal budget "sequestration," the Senate Republican leadership on Tuesday argued that the impacts of the looming across-the-board budget cuts won't be so bad.

Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have warned repeatedly of the cuts' effect on the military, in particular.

But lacking an alternative plan, they seemed to be arguing that the $85 billion in spending reductions set to kick in March 1 for the rest of this year would not be that painful, considering they amount to less than 3 percent of the entire federal budget.

Russians Bring Dashcam War Reporting to Syria
By ROBERT MACKEY

March 8, 2013, 4:02 pm

Video recorded from the roof of a Syrian government tank during a recent battle.

As much of the world first learned last month, when so much extraordinary footage appeared of a meteor screaming across the sky above the Urals, Russians are unusually fond of mounting cameras on the dashboards of their cars to record the many bizarre things that happen on their roads.

Now, it seems, a Russian news crew in Syria has brought that sensibility to war reporting. As the Syrian blogger who writes as Edward Dark noted on Friday, Russia’s Abkhazian Network News Agency has released footage of recent battles recorded by a camera mounted on a government tank.

edward dark @edwardedark

amazing footage in HD of the fighting in Darya, Damscus + tank mounted cam from Russian media ANNA - MUST SEE http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=955_1362334323 …#Syria

12:35 AM - 08 Mar 13

As The Lede reported in January, not much is known about the origins of the Russian network, known as ANNA, but it regularly posts reports on YouTube, occasionally with English subtitles.

Like several recent ANNA reports shot almost entirely from the roof of a tank, the video that Mr. Dark found so striking was apparently recorded during intense fighting in the Damascus suburb of Darayya.

A video report from a Russian news agency on fighting in the Damascus suburb of Darayya.

No One Should Have to Live in Fear of Violence
Posted: 03/07/2013 2:30 pm

Valerie Jarrett

Senior Advisor and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls

Today, President Obama signed a bill that both strengthened and reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Thanks to this bipartisan agreement, thousands of women and men across the country who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking will be able to access resources they need in their communities to help heal from their trauma. In addition, thousands of law enforcement officers will be better equipped to stop violence before it starts, and respond to calls of help when they are needed.

President Obama and Vice President Biden have steadfastly supported reauthorization--it's what's right for our country. We thank Senators Patrick Leahy, Mike Crapo, and Patty Murray and Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Gwen Moore for guiding this legislation to passage.

For the past 18 years, since Vice President Biden initially wrote the Act in 1994, VAWA has helped to decrease the rates of domestic violence across the country. Three years ago, our federal interagency group on violence against women began meeting to consider gaps in our country's response to this violence and make recommendations to Congress to fill those gaps. We are proud that many of these recommendations were included in the final bill. Now, we will be better equipped to recognize violence in its early stages, and help to reduce the number of domestic violence homicides.

The reauthorization also makes a strong effort to address the extraordinarily high rates of violence among our young people. Last week, in honor of Teen Dating Violence Awareness month, I had the opportunity to speak, along with Vice President Biden, at an event with families of victims of dating violence, and youth and organizations. It was incredibly encouraging to see people of all ages united in the fight against teen dating violence.

I am proud to say that now, teens and young adults will have better access to prevention and intervention programs to help break the cycle of violence aground the country. Studies have shown that one in five women will be the victim of an attempted or completed sexual assault while they are in college. We need to find a way to help these young scholars be able to focus on growing and learning, instead of being fearful of being assaulted on campus. This Act will help by requiring colleges and universities to provide information to students about dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking and improve data collection about these crimes. We call on all of our colleges and universities to make ending sexual assault a top priority.

In addition, the bill removes barriers faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) victims, whose needs are often overlooked by law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and victim service providers.

We are also thrilled that Congress held the line and maintained protections for battered immigrants and took the important step of also reauthorizing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in this same legislation.

Finally and very importantly, VAWA will bring justice for Native American victims. Rates of domestic violence perpetrated on Native American women are among the highest in the country. VAWA will help to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the tribal justice system and bring perpetrators of violence to justice.

No one should have to live in fear of violence, especially in her home, and VAWA affirms that belief. Today's signing ensures that victims and survivors can continue to be provided the vital resources they deserve. Our country is better off for it.

Christian Conservative Pearl-Clutchers Get JCPenney To Pull SNL Ads In Light Of ‘Djesus Uncrossed’ Sketch
I am a christian, and I find this very funny, I get the joke. Jesus did turn the other cheek, but what if he did not. I am not appalled, and if your a christian and have a problem with it, change the channel. Personally, I think Jesus might find it funny, because him being human, I am sure he thought about it more than once.  He just did not carry it out.  Good work SNL, very entertaining. 


by Andrew Kirell | 3:54 pm, March 8th, 2013

The perpetually-outraged folks over at American Family Association (home to eternally gay-bashing radio host Bryan Fischer) have successfully pressured Sears and JCPenney into pulling their ads from Saturday Night Live in the wake of last month’s controversial “Djesus Uncrossed” sketch.

The “anti-Christian” sketch re-imagined Oscar-winning Django Unchained, replacing the title character with Jesus Christ going on a bloody revenge fantasy, gunning down the enemies who persecuted him. “He’s risen from the dead, and he’s preaching anything but forgiveness,” said the voiceover.

As I’ve written before, it was actually a pretty funny reappropriation of the Tarantino-esque “oppressed person takes out incredibly bloody revenge” (a la Django and Inglourious Basterds). Todd Starnes, et al, said: “People need to understand something: Jesus wants to be your lord and savior, he doesn’t want to blow you to kingdom come.”

See… umm.. that’s actually the point of the joke.

Despite how prudish and annoying these people who have no ability to change the channel are, I am a firm believer in the power of the consumer and the market. And so one can’t help but respect the two companies’ wishes to please their customer base above all, however silly the whole “controversy” may be.

Watch “Djesus Uncrossed” below and decide just how outraged you are:

For the humorless: Everyone knows the story of Jesus turning the other cheek to his persecutors. And so there’s something called humor… and irony… which form the basis of what’s called a “joke.” In this case, the joke is that the man who turned the other cheek instead goes guns a-blazin’.

Then again, it’s a moot point to try and explain a joke to the type of people who find anything and everything an affront to Christianity if it’s not depicted in the way, say, someone like Starnes would prefer. 

A Bin Laden Son-in-Law’s Video Messages
By ROBERT MACKEY 
March 8, 2013, 2:24 pm


As my colleagues Marc Santora and William Rashbaum report, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who once served as a spokesman for Al Qaeda, was charged with conspiracy to kill Americans in federal court in Manhattan on Friday.

He pleaded not guilty, but Justice Department officials described Mr. Abu Ghaith as a propagandist who praised the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States in a video message broadcast on Al Jazeera only three weeks after the deadly strikes. Archival footage of Mr. Abu Ghaith with Bin Laden, and speaking on his behalf, was included in a new report from the Qatari network’s English-language channel. 


Archival footage of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, speaking on behalf of Al Qaeda in a report from Al Jazeera.

Officials said Mr. Abu Ghaith, who was married to one of Bin Laden’s daughters, Fatima, lived for about a decade in Iran, along with other members of that extended family.


Related Posts

FROM THE LEDE

Court in Brooklyn to Hear Testimony From a Qaeda ‘Supergrass’

Experts Say Qaeda Image Unlikely to Be Real Warning of Attack

Stop the Conspiracy Theories, Al Qaeda Tells Iranian Leader

Updates on the Killing of Bin Laden, May 4

Updates on Bin Laden’s Death, May 2

Warren continues the assault. Why does Holder still have a job?

by taonow
THU MAR 07, 2013 AT 02:17 PM PST
 

Once again Sen Elizabeth Warren does America proud. Once again she asks the most obvious questions (why are banks not prosecuted) and gets the same stunned responses (what, prosecute banks, you must be kidding?).

Today we have the following classic Warren: http://www.rawstory.com/...

“You know, if you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you’re going to go to jail,” Warren said. “If it happens repeatedly, you may go to jail for the rest of your life. But evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate our international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night, every single individual associated with this. I think that’s fundamentally wrong.”

So while Warren was trying to get Treasury officials to acknowledge that HSBC should have faced criminal charges for its massive drug money laundering, the real person that needs to answer the question was absent - Eric Holder - AG.

Again I ask. Why does Eric Holder still have a job????? The man who said ...

I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions [banks] becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy

So yes ... prosecute the drug possessor, but if the drug money launderer is big enough let him/it go free (after payment of a small fine equal to a small percentage of the illicit gains.)

So a pretty short diary that covers some of the same ground as a diary on the rec listhttp://www.dailykos.com/... so lets add a bit more on why Holder really does need to get some himself some re-education.

I would recommend that Eric Holder watch this video. Maybe he will start to understand how he has been captured, how his background and how his experience make it almost impossible for him to "do the right thing" and fully prosecute law breakers, no matter how powerful they may be.

http://www.ted.com/....
This is a really excellent video, but for those that do not have the time to watch it, here are some snippets from the transcript.




In this video Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist, talks about cheating and our intuitions (about cheating and other things).

But it was actually more interesting than that, because she said, "I did not think that your intuition was right. I felt my intuition was correct." So, if you think about all of your intuitions, it's very hard to believe that your intuition is wrong. And she said, "Given the fact that I thought my intuition was right ..." -- she thought her intuition was right -- it was very difficult for her to accept doing a difficult experiment to try and check whether she was wrong.

But in fact, this is the situation we're all in all the time. We have very strong intuitions about all kinds of things -- our own ability, how the economy works, how we should pay school teachers. But unless we start testing those intuitions, we're not going to do better. And just think about how better my life would have been if these nurses would have been willing to check their intuition, and how everything would have been better if we just start doing more systematic experimentation of our intuitions.

So step 1. AG Holder, lets do an experiment and see what actually happens when you prosecute a TBTF bank (something that Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently very clearly demonstrated that you NEVER do). Please, just once ... actually test you intuition. Prove to us that it is right, because our intuition is actually the opposite of yours.

The other interesting thing in the video is the discussion about how cheating (think banks) is influenced by the social norms of the group. Basically Ariely says, all people cheat, but cheat just a little. But there are conditions under which they will cheat more or less. For example, they will cheat less if actual physical money is involved (not stealing form a petty cash box, versus stealing a pencil from work), but will cheat more if the money is one or more steps removed (think tokens, stock options, derivatives ...), and the further removed the more likely the cheating.

Here is an interesting experiment:

So, we did another experiment. We got a big group of students to be in the experiment, and we prepaid them. So everybody got an envelope with all the money for the experiment, and we told them that at the end, we asked them to pay us back the money they didn't make. OK? The same thing happens. When we give people the opportunity to cheat, they cheat. They cheat just by a little bit, all the same. But in this experiment we also hired an acting student. This acting student stood up after 30 seconds, and said, "I solved everything. What do I do now?" And the experimenter said, "If you've finished everything, go home. That's it. The task is finished." So, now we had a student -- an acting student -- that was a part of the group. Nobody knew it was an actor. And they clearly cheated in a very, very serious way. What would happen to the other people in the group? Will they cheat more, or will they cheat less?

Here is what happens. It turns out it depends on what kind of sweatshirt they're wearing. Here is the thing. We ran this at Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh. And at Pittsburgh there are two big universities, Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh. All of the subjects sitting in the experiment were Carnegie Mellon students. When the actor who was getting up was a Carnegie Mellon student -- he was actually a Carnegie Mellon student -- but he was a part of their group, cheating went up. But when he actually had a University of Pittsburgh sweatshirt, cheating went down.

(Laughter)

Now, this is important, because remember, when the moment the student stood up, it made it clear to everybody that they could get away with cheating, because the experimenter said, "You've finished everything. Go home," and they went with the money. So it wasn't so much about the probability of being caught again. It was about the norms for cheating. If somebody from our in-group cheats and we see them cheating, we feel it's more appropriate, as a group, to behave this way. But if it's somebody from another group, these terrible people -- I mean, not terrible in this -- but somebody we don't want to associate ourselves with, from another university, another group, all of a sudden people's awareness of honesty goes up -- a little bit like The Ten Commandments experiment -- and people cheat even less.

So what are the implications for AG Holder?

You might think, well the likelihood of getting caught does not impact cheating, so Holder is right for not prosecuting. That is not how I see it. Instead what we see is that the lack of prosecution creates a climate in which a group (bankers), as a group have developed the norm of cheating (because everyone does it), and since they are further removed form actual money, they don't really see what they are doing as cheating and so do a lot more of it.

The question then is how do we get a change in behavior.

Obviously a difficult question but we know part of the answer. When investment banks were separated from commercial banks (Glass-Steagall), and when investment banks were run as partnerships (not as public companies), there were far fewer problems. The main participants had to worry about reputation, and they were closer to the money (it was their money) than now (playing with shareholder or depositor money)

But it is also likely that prosecutions of TBTF banks, even if ultimately not successful, would send a message that is a bit like trying to recall the 10 commandments (reduced cheating in experiments), before a cheating opportunity. It would impact upon the mores of the individual and by extension upon the group. If everyone is looking around afraid that they could be dragged up to the front of the class, it is less likely that cheating will happen.

Speaker Boehner Statement on the February 2013 Unemployment Report
Posted by Speaker Boehner Press Office
March 8, 2013

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) released the following statement regarding the Department of Labor’s unemployment report for February 2013:

“Any job creation is positive news, but the fact is unemployment in America is still way above the levels the Obama White House projected when the trillion-dollar stimulus spending bill was enacted, and the federal government's ongoing spending binge has resulted in a debt that exceeds the size of our entire economy. As 180 economists said in a statement this week, our spending-driven deficit threatens our economy, and responsible spending cuts are needed ‘to help put the country on a path to a balanced budget within ten years.’ And yet there’s news today that the president's budget, which is already more than a month late, might slip to April.

“Without a plan to control spending and balance the budget, our national debt will keep piling up on the backs of our children and grandchildren; our most important safety net programs will grow weaker and weaker; and the prospects for long-term economic growth will dim. That’s why the House will begin work next week on a budget that offers a better path forward, one focused on more economic growth and more jobs. Our plan will balance the budget within 10 years. And it will lay the groundwork for a fairer, simpler tax code that closes loopholes and lowers rates to help create new jobs, increase wages, and grow our economy long-term. Every family has a stake in this debate. And we hope they’ll visit speaker.gov and share their thoughts as we work to address our debt and expand opportunities for all Americans.”

NOTE: CQ Roll Call reported today that, “The target date for the White House’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget is slipping deeper into April.” On Wednesday, Speaker Boehner unveiled a new website where Americans can share their thoughts on the government’s spending problem.

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  Stephen Beard • 4 hours ago

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  More complaining! This has become the Republican default mode. The deficit is not the problem, Mr. Boehner. It exists and grows because too many Americans are still out of work -- and you and your Republican colleagues just can't seem to figure out how to get them back on the job again. Want to fix the deficit? Do something positive for American workers, rather than refusing to negotiate with the President and the Democratic Senate to enable and pass legislation that will positive effects all the way around. You are going to cut our government and our country into bankruptcy.

“Millennial Meetup” with House RepublicansMarch 8, 2013

 
House Republicans recently met with 20 young leaders to discuss how Washington’s spending problem, and our rising national debt, are hurting young Americans and threatening future generations.

GOP Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan(R-WI) and other House Republicans – including Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), and Aaron Schock (R-IL) – took part in the discussion.

Every American has a $52,000 share of our national debt, which has soared to more than $16 trillion. And according to the Republican Conference, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis shows “each child born in 2010 will have inherited an individual debt responsibility of over $80,000 by 2023.”

As Speaker Boehner said today, “Every family has a stake in this debate” over government spending. Click here to watch the recap of the Millennial Meetup and here to watch the press conference.