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Public Workers Face Continued Layoffs, Hurting the Recovery (NYT)

Shaila Dewan and Motoko Rich report that public sector cuts are still coming faster than economic growth, though conservatives say the government's just shrinking to an appropriate size. Haven't we all been feeling a little too educated and not on fire?

Americans Want to Keep Teachers, Cops, and Firefighters on the Job (The Nation)

NND Editor Bryce Covert notes that while voters have supported trimming public workers' benefits, their resentment of bureaucrats making them fill out imaginary 33-page change of address forms doesn't translate into a yearning for mass layoffs.

The Case for Wage-Led Growth (NAF)

In a new paper, Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick makes the case that neither export-driven nor debt-driven growth models are sustainable, but there is a better way to boost the economy: the ancient technique of "giving people more money."

Progressive action can move the candidates (WaPo)

Katrina vanden Heuvel argues that electoral politics and mass movements go hand in hand. If progressives don't call on our leaders to do the right thing, they won't hear us, and if we don't work to elect the right people, we'll be talking to ourselves.

Do we need a businessman in the White House? (Salon)

Michael Lind explains why claiming that business execs make natural presidents because of their economic expertise is like saying that a successful novelist would make a great lumberjack because both of their jobs involve lots of dead trees.

Why Republicans Worry About Hurting Corporate Feelings (Robert Reich)

Reich notes that Republicans who defend corporations from the vicious harassment of progressives who demand greater transparency are sticking up for their pals like any of us would, with the added incentive that their pals are paying them millions.

Follow the Dark Money (MoJo)

Andy Kroll traces the modern history of campaign finance scandals from Nixon making CREEP the most appropriate acronym ever to the present day, where we're about two steps removed from dropping sacks of cash at the White House doorstep.

'Back at Square One': As States Repurpose Welfare Funds, More Families Fall Through Safety Net (HuffPo)

Peter S. Goodman reports that the push to get people off welfare and make them self-sufficient has succeeded in getting plenty of people off welfare, but taking up prostitution to pay for dinner probably isn't what we think of as self-sufficiency.

Dimon, Testifying Before House, Sticks to Script (NYT)

Jamie Dimon followed up on his successful Senate hearing with an encore performance before the House Financial Services Committee, and while there were more questions from the audience this time, he didn't have many new answers.

JPMorgan's Connections to the House Finance Committee (ProPublica)

Luckily for Dimon, he doesn't have much to worry about no matter which government body or regulatory agency is questioning him about his bank's losses, since, as Cora Currier notes, he might as well be getting grilled by his LinkedIn network.

With additional research by Danielle Bella Ellison.