- A Washington Post/ABC News poll finds President Obama’s disapproval rating back at 50%, seemingly driven by the highest economic pessimism — 44% say things are getting worse — since March, 2009. A likely culprit for that shift is rising food and fuel prices; 78% say inflation is getting worse in their area. Obama still wins all hypothetical matchups against potential opponents for 2012, who are dragged down by Republicans dissatisfied with their options.
- Four ways for candidates to deal with the “fatal flaws” behind the dissatisfaction.
- Dave Weigel notes the White House failed to jump all over S&P’s credit warning yesterday. Mitt Romney didn’t:
“The Obama presidency was downgraded today. And people recognize that this president is playing chicken with the U.S. economy … But if the interest costs are going up why it could be devastating to the U.S. economy and could make job growth even more difficult.”
- Interest rates didn’t go up. The treasury bond market rallied, ignoring yesterday’s gloomy report and, according to Business Insider, completing “The Market’s Middle Finger To S&P.”
- Multinationals spent the aughts cutting 2.9 million jobs in the U.S. and adding 2.4 million jobs overseas.
- FDIC releases a study finding Dodd-Frank’s resolution authority would have softened the blow to Lehman’s unsecured creditors.
- Two Pulitzer winners that are perennial must-reads: Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger’s coverage of the financial crisis for ProPublica (as heard on NPR’s Planet Money and This American Life), especially their blockbuster reporting on Magnetar’s role in feeding the bubble; and David Leonhardt for his excellent commentary at the Times.
- Barney Frank, lover of online poker, bemoans DOJ’s crackdown.
- Michele Bachmann is a money machine.
- Obama prepares to wade back into the Mideast peace process.
- Maryland political titan William Donald Schaefer dies.
- “True Finns” sound like “Real Americans.”
- And for your reference, referee signals for every philosophical argument.