What you need to know to navigate today's most critical debates.

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The Eurozone Crisis: An End to Austerity? (NYRB)

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick argues that Europe's leaders could take recent election results as a wake-up call to focus on growth over austerity instead of hitting the snooze button and triggering an economic nightmare.

Apocalypse Fairly Soon (NYT)

Paul Krugman warns that a eurozone break-up would wreck the economy, discredit European solidarity, and give rise to extremists who could be even less capable of governing than current leaders, if one's imagination can stretch that far.

Investigating JPMorgan Chase (NYT)

Simon Johnson has five questions that need to be answered about what happened and who knew about it, but he notes that this isn't a witch hunt. We already know who's in the coven; we just need to find out what's cooking in the cauldron.

Why Markets Won't Fix JPMorgan (Baseline Scenario)

James Kwak argues that banks can't be trusted to learn from their mistakes because their entire business model is built around traders spinning the roulette wheel while the government steps in to make sure it always lands on black.

Mitt Romney, Servant of the Right (TAP)

Jamelle Bouie makes the case that Mitt Romney the Massachusetts Moderate is dead and buried. Say hello to the new model, who has essentially promised Republicans that he will govern as Paul Ryan wearing a Mitt Romney mask.

What do Republicans mean when they say 'spending-driven debt'? (WaPo)

Ezra Klein examines the GOP's new favorite neologism and determines that once they excuse themselves for their role in the Bush tax cuts, the wars, and the economic crisis, it translates into "things that do not actually drive the debt."

Preying on the Poor (TomDispatch)

Barbara Ehrenreich looks at how corporations and government alike have recognized that while robbing a single poor person might not net them much money, robbing the poor collectively is a lucrative heist they can always get away with.

"Leave women alone" act! (Salon)

Irin Carmon notes that women don't just have to ask Republicans to stop waving their transvaginal wands around. There's plenty of pro-woman legislation that has no chance to pass, but Democrats can make sure it hurts going down.

The Student Debt Bomb (CounterPunch)

Laura Flanders argues that President Obama's commencement address at Barnard failed to address the reality that today's grads need debt relief and need it now, but if they could pay off their loans with cliches, they'd already be debt-free.

The Real Super PAC Menace (Hint: It Has Nothing To Do With Jeremiah Wright Ads) (TNR)

Ed Kilgore points out that while Super PACs will spend lots of money this year to inform you that Romney is rich and Obama is black, they'll have the biggest impact in races like the one between Deb Fischer and Jon Bruning. Who? Exactly.

With additional research by Elena Callahan.

What you need to know to navigate today's most critical debates.

Click here to receive the Daily Digest via e-mail.

Obama and House Republicans Offer Taste of Renewed Fight Over Debt Ceiling (NYT)

President Obama invited John Boehner to the White House to talk about how they can address our existing economic problems in the year ahead, but Boehner's more focused on the problems he and the rest of the House GOP plan to create.

Boehner's debt ceiling crisis would be so much worse than you think (WaPo)

Ezra Klein points out that the debt ceiling probably won't need to be raised until next February, but by then a confluence of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts will ensure we contract economic hypothermia in lieu of another recovery winter.

JPMorgan's Trading Loss Is Said to Rise At Least 50% (NYT)

Smelling JPMorgan's blood in the water, financial market sharks have nibbled another $1 billion from the wounded giant in just four trading days. Everyone else can look on the bright side: your week at work is officially not going that badly.

What Did JPMorgan Execs Know and When Did They Know It? (ProPublica)

Jesse Eisinger argues that before we shift focus to implementing new laws in response to the JPMorgan fiasco, we should pause and investigate whether the bank's execs were breaking existing laws or "just" really terrible at their jobs.

Flawed Dimon (Slate)

Eliot Spitzer writes that despite Jamie Dimon's self-image as America's Favorite Banker, he's proven he shouldn't be on the New York Fed board that supervises his bank -- or rather, that the whole asylum should stop promoting its inmates.

The Dog That Didn't Bark: Obama on JPMorgan (Robert Reich)

Reich notes that Obama has been reluctant to say a cross word about Dimon or the system that produced him, but it would be a great opportunity to distinguish himself from Mitt Romney (though both probably want to avoid dog metaphors). 

Too Often, a New Baby Brings Big Debt (The Nation)

NND Editor Bryce Covert writes that while our family leave policies seem built around the idea that babies' umbilical cords come attached to big sacks of cash, many new moms must pile up debt to make ends meet while they're out of work.

Will You Be More Successful Than Your Parents? (NYT)

Catherine Rampell highlights a new survey that finds only half of recent college graduates think they'll wind up better off than their parents in the future, and they're even more convinced that the rest of their generation is a bunch of losers.

Will One of These Cases Be the Next Citizens United? (MoJo)

Gavin Aronsen looks at four campaign finance cases winding their way through the courts that reformers hope will provide an opportunity to roll back Citizens United, assuming the Supreme Court is capable of being persuaded by reason.

50 Years of Government Spending, In 1 Graph (NPR)

Lam Thuy Vo charts how government spending has shifted over the last half-century, which should console anyone who feared their taxes were being wasted on international affairs when we could still just blow everything else up.

With additional research by Elena Callahan.