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A Big Banker's Belated Apology (NYT)

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick notes that while Sandy Weill says big banks should be broken up now that he's out of the game, he still insists deregulation was a good idea at the time. And it was, but only for the Sandy Weill Retirement Fund.

The Terrible Economy and the Anti-Election of 2012 (Robert Reich)

Reich writes that instead of laying out the bold economic agenda we need, both candidates are tearing each other down. But can the president claim a policy mandate if he wins reelection with the slogan "Obama '12: Because You Have to Vote for One of Us"?

Mitt Romney and the go-for-broke election (WaPo)

E.J. Dionne argues that Republicans are hammering Obama's out-of-context quote about small businesses because redefining moderate liberalism as radical socialism is the only way to make the far right's extreme ideas look like The New Reasonable.

Obama's Second-Term Agenda: Cutting Social Security, Medicare, and/or Medicaid (Naked Capitalism)

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Matt Stoller warns that defeating Mitt Romney won't be enough to protect the social safety net if the reelected Barack Obama follows the grand Democratic tradition of trying to undermine the Democratic Party's greatest achievements.

Crash of the Bumblebee (NYT)

Paul Krugman notes that Mario Draghi's commitment to saving the euro and crafting dubious analogies has reassured investors for now, but acknowledging that the euro zone is a weird freak of nature that shouldn't work is a lot easier than explaining how it can.

Poverty in America: Why Can't We End It? (NYT)

Peter Edelman writes that we aren't going to make headway in the war on poverty until the middle class recognizes that the top 1 percent aren't waiting at the top of the economic ladder to congratulate them, but to grease the rungs and laugh when they fall.

TANF, VAWA and Playing Politics with the Lives of Low-Income People (The Nation)

Greg Kaufmann notes that Republicans have suddenly become skeptics of turning more power over to the states when it involves allowing them to administer welfare benefits in a way that values effectiveness over making poor people's lives more difficult.

‘Big Government’ Isn’t So Big by Historical Standards. It’s Also Shrinking. (NYT)

Catherine Rampell points out that while Republicans are convinced that the growth of the federal government is out of control under Obama, he's actually been shrinking it down to a nice, bathtubbable size for them compared to socialists like Ronald Reagan.

Killing a Fly With a Bazooka (NYT)

Thomas Edsall argues that Republicans who don't care about the "collateral damage" of voting restrictions that prevent fraud that doesn't exist must also be unconcerned about damaging their credibility by winning elections only they get to participate in.

Olympinomics (Slate)

Matthew Yglesias writes that despite David Cameron's attempts to justify spending billions on the Olympics, the results have historically been a mixed bag. And once the games end, you're going to be staring at that International Horse Arena for a while.

With additional research by Danielle Bella Ellison.