The Tax Deal May be The Perfect Republican Trap for Obama
By: (Note: We're running a bit late this morning. No excuses really. Our apologies.)
WikiLeaks Founder Arrested (AP @CNBC) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange surrendered to London police Tuesday to face a Swedish arrest warrant, the latest blow to an organization that faces legal, financial and technological challenges after releasing hundreds of secret U.S. diplomatic cables.
WikiLeaks Says It Is Releasing More Cables Tonight (@wikileaks via Twitter) “Today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal," writes WikiLeaks from its official Twitter account.
U.S. Unloads Citi Stake for a $12 Billion Profit (WSJ) The Treasury is selling off the remainder of its stake in Citigroup. It says that taxpayers will reap a profit of $12 billion from the $45 billion cash investment in Citi. The deal, which was finalized Monday evening, signals a failure of the Treasury’s plan, announced a year ago, to sell off its position little by little over the course of six to 12 months. Until now, the Treasury had only sold 4.4 billion of its 7.7 billion shares.
Obama Summons CEOs to White House for Talks Amid Change (Bloomberg) The president is meeting with business leaders. What could go wrong?
Deal Struck on Tax Package (WSJ) President Barack Obama reached agreement Monday with Republican leaders in Congress on a broad tax package that would extend the Bush-era income tax cuts for two years, reduce worker payroll taxes for one year and give more favorable treatment to business investments.
The Problem With FrontLoading (NYT) Krugman points out that this package front-loads stimulus and is short-lived, just like the original stimulus package. What’s more, it’s effects will run out just around the time of the 2012 elections. So have the Republicans laid the perfect trap for Obama?
