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Why There's a Bull Market for Stocks and Bear Market for Workers (Robert Reich)

Reich notes that while giddy market analysts treated yesterday's Dow gains as a sign that happy days are here again, an economy's health is measured by the well-being of its flesh-and-blood people, not the corporate pod-people who are currently rolling in money.

The GOP Budget Divide: Don't Know vs. Don't Care (NY Mag)

Jonathan Chait writes that Republicans have decided to either pretend they don't know what President Obama is offering or deliberately avoid finding out, since exposure to heavy doses of reality has been proven to have harmful side-effects for their arguments. 

Paul Ryan Ups the Ante (TNR)

Jonathan Cohn writes that Ryan's plans to further gouge spending with once off-limits Medicare cuts show the GOP's not looking for a middle ground. There's where we are now and a point way off on the right that will one day be considered a leftist compromise.

Fear and the New Deal (Prospect)

Scott Lemieux writes that Ira Katznelson's Fear Itself, an account of how Southern Democrats shaped the New Deal, serves as a reminder of the political constraints that even FDR had to face, not a "gotcha" that proves the last 70 years of progress didn't count.

It's time to tax financial transactions (WaPo)

Katrina vanden Heuvel argues that instead of slashing basic government services through sequestration, we could be raising billions by taxing Wall Street's excess. If they even notice the money missing, they'll probably just assume they should be hushing it up.

To serve and protect... banks? (Salon)

David Dayen notes that there's clear evidence that banks have repeatedly broken the law by foreclosing on active duty service members serving overseas, but despite the criminal penalties in place, jail cells remain as empty as the service members' former homes.

He Who Makes the Rules (Washington Monthly)

Haley Sweetland Edwards looks at how the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law has become less of an exercise in rule-making and more of an elaborate brain-teaser for industry lawyers hired to make words mean the opposite of what they say.

GOP Senator Suggests New Way for Republicans to Gum Up Wall Street Reform (Think Progress)

Travis Waldron notes that Richard Shelby, a top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, wants to submit all new financial regulations to a cost-benefit analysis. You know, just on the off-chance that any of them cost more than the $22 trillion financial crisis.

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Does Dodd-Frank really end 'too big to fail'? (WaPo)

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal examines the three biggest ongoing debates surrounding the financial reform law and whether it has really changed the system enough to keep it from blowing up in our faces or simply lengthened the fuse a bit.

Just Because the World Didn't End Doesn't Mean That Sequestration Isn't Scary (TNR)

Jonathan Cohn notes that the design of the law and agency management will ensure that the full extent of sequestration isn't felt all at once, but it's still the economic equivalent of that scene where the cowboy gets shot, walks five paces, and then falls over.

Sequester Real Talk: The 3 Dumbest Things About This Truly Dumb Law (The Atlantic)

Derek Thompson highlights three major issues with sequestration, like how it's an intentionally bad solution to a problem we don't have and how Responsible Centrists have decided it's all Obama's fault for not riding to the rescue on his golden pegasus.

Stop the Madness (Prospect)

Paul Waldman writes that Congress can't have a constructive budget negotiation until Republicans agree to lay down their weapons, including the sequester, shutdown threats, and the debt ceiling. What are they supposed to do then? Just talk about stuff?

Recovery in U.S. Lifting Profits, Not Adding Jobs (NYT)

Nelson Schwartz reports that while corporate profits and stock prices are soaring, lifting the Dow Jones to near record highs, workers aren't seeing wage increases to match -- especially with several million people eager to take their place at a moment's notice.

American Conservatism's Crisis of Ideas (Project Syndicate)

Brad DeLong warns that conservatives are going to have an uphill battle winning converts to their cause as long as they continue to push the message that the worst thing government can do is create an easier, more secure, and comfortable life for them.

Mooching Off Medicaid (NYT)

Paul Krugman argues that Rick Scott gave away the game by accepting Obamacare's Medicaid expansion on the condition that it be run by private insurers, suggesting that the real debate isn't how much we should spend but whose palms we should grease.

This Week in Poverty: Gangnam-Style Counting With Senator Jeff Sessions (The Nation)

Greg Kaufmann analyzes a thought-provoking new report from conservative firebrand Jeff Sessions, which purports to show that poor people in America actually make more money than the middle class if you just add random numbers to the aid they receive.