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huffingtonpost.com — That fiscal cliff -- you know... the one everyone's all wound up about? Well, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released their analysis of its potential impact on the economy and it ain't pretty. Add up all the stuff that's scheduled to turn into fiscal pumpkins at midnight on December 31, and you get about 5% of GDP (all the Bush tax cuts, automatic spending cuts, alternative minimum tax fix, payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance (UI) extension, and more!).

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democracynow.org — Census data shows nearly one in two Americans live in poverty, and now the Congressional Budget Office warns things could soon get worse if President Obama and Congress remain at an impasse over the 2013 fiscal budget. House Republicans are calling for cuts to food aid, healthcare and social services, while protecting funds for the Pentagon. We discuss poverty with Peter Edelman, who resigned as assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services over then-President Bill Clinton’s signing of the 1996 welfare reform law that threw millions off the rolls. "Basically, right now, welfare is gone," Edelman says. "We have six million people in this country whose only income is food stamps.

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prospect.org — In the eyes of most of the world and in our own, to be an American is to be an optimist—entrepreneurial, positive-thinking, and future-oriented. It is not surprising, then, that our politics has not come to grips with the question of national decline. Yes, our governing elites have long debated America’s power in the world and whether it’s eroding. But about the future of Americans, as opposed to the future of the geopolitical hegemon, America, our most important politicians and pundits have much less to say.

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economonitor.com — Preventing blow-ups like the JPMorgan “hedge” that bears no resemblance to any known hedge isn’t difficult. What makes preventing it difficult is that banks that exist only by virtue of state-granted charters — and more recently, huge transfers from the public — have persuaded public officials and regulators that they have a God-granted right not just to high levels of profit but also high levels of employee and executive compensation.

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feedproxy.google.com — The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that if housing sales continue at the current rate of improvement, “2012 could be the strongest year for home sales since 2007,…” That’s good news indeed for anyone trying to sell a home, although we all know that the recovery won’t happen overnight. By contrast, though, the fortunes of some who are integrally involved in the housing market have been improving overnight, and in fairly dramatic ways.

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aflcio.org — The nation’s growing income inequality recently has generated considerable attention—and has sparked a backlash by billionaires. TED’s Chris Anderson showed what a hot button issue it is when he tried to repress a video talk on the subject by venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. Hanauer, like billionaire investor Warren Buffett, supports increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals for the good of the nation. Buffett and other billionaires have joined forces in a new pro-tax-increase-for-the-rich organization to assert: “We are the 1 percent, we stand with the 99 percent.”

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