November 9

“What you need to know to navigate today’s economic debate.”

The Early Word: Bill Passage, Cao and Next Steps (NYT)
Answering President Obama’s “call of history”, Democrats in the House passed a health care bill with final vote, 220 to 215.

Socialist US Senator Proposes Most Capitalist Bill(BreakingView)
Bernie Sanders from Vermont has put forward the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act”, which says that any financial institution threatening the system must be broken up into pieces.

World Needs New Financial Architecture (Syndicate)
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, the world is facing another stark choice between two fundamentally different forms of organization: international capitalism and state capitalism.

Goldman Sachs Boss Says Banks do “God’s work” (Reuters)
The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing “God’s work.”

Wall Street Record Bonuses Return as Big 3 May Pay $30 Billion (BLM)
The firms — the three biggest banks to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program — will hand out $29.7 billion in bonuses, up 60 percent from last year and more than the previous high of $26.8 billion in 2007.

G-20 Splits on Tobin, Says Banks May Pay for Bailouts (BLM)
Group of 20 governments signaled banks will be forced to cover a greater cost of future bailouts even as they split over whether that should be achieved by taxing financial trading.

How We Can Restore Trust in Financial Institutions (FT)
Gordon Brown says we must all rise to the challenge

Economists Seek to Fix a Defect in Data That Overstates the Nation’s Vigor (NYT)
A widening gap between data and reality is distorting the government’s picture of the country’s economic health, overstating growth and productivity in ways that could affect the political debate on issues like trade, wages and job creation.

Twin Deficits Will Help Gauge Economic Health (WP)
The United States is importing (a lot) more than it exports, creating a trade deficit, and the government is spending (a lot) more than it brings in, the cause of the budget deficit.

IMF Exploring Insurance Levy on Banks (Reuters)
The International Monetary Fund is exploring the idea of making banks pay insurance fees to fund any future rescues in the sector.

UK Change of Heart on Banking Tax Plan (FT)
Brown changes tack after protests.

Markets’ Inflation Readings Edge Upwards (FT)
Demand for inflation-protected securities rises.