Progressive Breakfast: Obama Heads To Wall Street

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Prez Heads To Wall Street To Recharge Reform Effort

LA Times previews financial reform speech: "The momentum for those reforms has been weakening recently as banks begin to repay their bailout money, the stock market climbs out of its deep hole and a less-chastened financial industry fights back against the specter of stricter government regulation. So on the anniversary of Lehman's collapse, Obama will try to seize back the high ground. He will deliver a major speech that will highlight his administration's efforts to halt the financial crisis and press Congress to approve changes that he believes are needed to prevent a repeat, the White House said."

W. Post reviews Senate resistance to WH plan: "In June, Treasury unveiled an 85-page paper that laid out a vision of regulatory reform in painstaking detail. Key pieces include a new federal consumer agency to oversee financial products such as mortgages and credit cards, expanded authority for the Federal Reserve to monitor the economy for systemic risks, streamlining the system of banking regulation, and creating a mechanism that allows the government to take over and unwind large, failing financial institutions. Since then, progress has slowed and lawmakers have chipped away at details. A bill taking shape in the Senate banking committee is likely to cede less power to the Federal Reserve and could seek more consolidation of banking regulation agencies than the administration originally proposed. Of the five primary federal bank regulators, the White House plan calls only for eliminating the Office of Thrift Supervision."

Politico notes successful, to date, business lobby pushback: "Industry efforts to kill the CFPA seem to be having an effect. And moderate Democrats still aren’t entirely on board. 'Distinct parts [of the bill] are real problems for a lot of people,' including the enforcement powers granted to the agency and the lack of state pre-emption, said a Democratic aide. 'It’s not outright opposition to it,' the aide added."

WH negotiating with top GOPer Shelby. Time: "When Dodd moved an aggressive, populist credit-card-reform bill out of committee without a single GOP vote, he negotiated with Shelby to craft legislation more appealing to the other side of the aisle. It passed the Senate in late March by a 90-5 vote. ... [But Shelby] doesn't like the Administration's proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, though he's willing to support enhanced protections of some sort. But he is firmly against an Administration proposal to let the Federal Reserve designate which financial institutions qualify as most important to the stability of the system."

US Enforcement of Trade Law Riles China

NYT on reaction to WH decision to levy tariff to stem illegal influx of Chinese tire imports: "Mr. Obama’s decision to impose a tariff of up to 35 percent on Chinese tires is a signal that he plans to deliver on his promise to labor unions that he would more strictly enforce trade laws, especially against China, which has become the world’s factory while the United States has lost millions of manufacturing jobs. The trade deficit with China was a record $268 billion in 2008. China had initially issued a fairly formulaic criticism of the tire dispute Saturday. But rising nationalism in China is making it harder for Chinese officials to gloss over American criticism ... China’s commerce ministry announced Sunday that it would investigate 'certain imported automotive products and certain imported chicken meat products originating from the United States' to determine if they were being subsidized or 'dumped' below cost in the Chinese market."

Bloomberg downplays notion of broad trade war:"'While there’s friction, I suspect that the two nations will keep any disputes under control,' said David Cohen, an economist at Action Economics in Singapore. 'They understand that they’re increasingly dependent as trading partners.'"

OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson predicts hysteria from the unfair trade posse: "Myths of Protectionism: Stories You Are Likely to Hear in the Wake of the China Tire Trade Tarriff Case"

OurFuture.org's Marcy Wheeler analyzes China's chosen targets: "I assume China is targeting chicken because our Ag is subsidized and the meat industry has a lot of clout in this country. I'm more fascinated by China's decision to go after auto parts ... In truth, China imposes huge tariffs on cars coming into its country ... And the import of parts is often limited to more complex parts that are the same in China as they are in the US. There's not much there there ... Except that the US Government owns a majority stake in GM, and GM will not succeed in turning around without continued growth in the Chinese market."

Beat The Press' Dean Baker reminds media of the trade rules: "When China was admitted to the WTO it agreed to allow the United States to impose tariffs to temporarily counteract the disruptive effects of an import surge. The agreement did not require the United States to show that China had in any way acted unfairly, simply that the growth of imports had seriously disrupted the domestic market. This clause was an important factor in selling China's entry to the WTO to interest groups in the United States. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the government would occasionally take advantage of a clause that it had demanded."

Brad DeLong breaks with Obama: "§421 gives the U.S. the right to impose tariffs in response to a surge. It doesn't make the surge a crime, or a violation. And it doesn't require the U.S. to impose tariffs--especially if imposing them would be a really bad idea for U.S. consumers."

Snowe vs. Harkin on Public Option

GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe urged the President to drop public option on CBS' Face The Nation, while new Senate health committee chairman Tom Harkin predicts public option in Iowa speech: "That bill — mark my word, I'm the chairman — is going to have a strong public option."

Dean Baker slaps W. Post for mis-analyzing own health care poll: "The Post Wants President Obama to Drop the Public Option. We know this because the subhead of a front page article told readers that: 'more support if public option dropped.' ... The Post could have also opted to highlight another poll finding: 55 percent of those polled support the public option. By comparison, only 46 percent of those polled supported the package as a whole."

ABC poll analysis of same poll notes: "[Our] June poll found that support for a public option drops dramatically if it would put many private insurers out of business, as critics claim. This poll shows a flip side: Support for a public option swells to 76 percent if it were available only to people who can't get coverage from a private insurer. The increase is most dramatic among Republicans, a 32-point gain to 59 percent support; and seniors, a 33-point gain to 68 percent."

Baucus' last stand. Bloomberg: "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus will make one last attempt this week to win Republican support before he joins Democrats in a party-line effort to overhaul the U.S. health-care system."

The Treatment's Anthony Wright debunks right-wing misinformation about uninsured population: "...let's go back to that conservative critique of the 46.5 million figure, which comes directly from the U.S. Census. Critics make three arguments here: 1) the number includes immigrants; 2) the number includes people who are eligible but not enrolled for public health programs like Medicaid and SCHIP; and 3) the number includes people who make more than a certain income, and supposedly could 'afford' coverage. The implication is there’s really no major problem, that people are simply choosing to be uninsured. This is wildly misleading, on multiple levels... "

Saturday's right-wing protest leaders defend widespread signs maligning the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, reports The Plum Line.

National Security Requires Climate Bill

LA Times on national security becoming lead argument for climate bill: "One recent poll from climate bill supporters tested voter opinions on the statement that global warming would 'destabilize developing countries, creating the conditions for war and a breeding ground for terrorism -- and lead to mass movements of people from places like Mexico and Central America that will overwhelm our borders.' The national poll by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman found voters agreed far more with that stance than with a statement echoing Republican arguments against the bill -- chiefly, that it would raise energy prices and kill American jobs. Buoyed by the poll results, and by other surveys that show voter support for a jobs-themed clean-energy pitch, climate bill supporters are fusing their security message with their ongoing focus on the economic opportunities of industries such as wind turbine and solar panel manufacturing."

Coal-state Dems look for additional compromises. CQ: "Eight senators sent draft legislation Sept. 10 to Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who plans to introduce a climate change bill by the end of this month. The bill will be modeled on House legislation (HR 2454) that would cap greenhouse gas emissions and create a market-based trading program for businesses to meet the cap. 'We have provided legislative suggestions to ensure the deployment of the next generation of coal technologies, and the future success of coal as an energy resource,' they wrote. They called it 'imperative' that Boxer include their language in her legislation. The group is led by Thomas M. Carper, D-Del., a committee member whom Boxer had designated to oversee a working group on coal research and technology. The others include Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.; Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Mark Warner, D-Va."

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