It seems fitting that the summer of 2010 is ending with yet another heatwave. This summer's intense heat, felt around the country, seems to have flared tempers, soured civil discourse and brought on political paralysis. How else does one explain the meanness of the season? There may be other, more rational explanations, having to do with gross political opportunism from the minority party and a lack of courage and imagination from the ruling party. But it is much more satisfying to blame the weather.

The drumbeat started sometime last week. The Press declared it would be the next big legislative battle. A number of  conservative pundits were deployed to sound the alarm: unless Congress acts this Fall, Bush's tax cuts will expire by the end of the year --- amounting to "the biggest tax increase in decades." They called it the ticking tax bomb.

Here's another example of the twisted logic of market fundamentalism: At today's congressional hearings on the BP oil spill, Representative Joe Barton (R, Texas) issued an apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward. Barton is ashamed that the White House has asked BP to set aside $20 billion to help oil spill victims, calling the request a 'shake-down.' You have to see the video to fully appreciate Barton's sense of shame. 

These past two years, we’ve been hit by one catastrophe after another: the spectacular explosion of the housing bubble, the Wall Street meltdown, high unemployment rates, and now, the worst environmental catastrophe that we’ve ever seen on our shores. 

In the months leading up to the Senate vote on financial reforms, grassroots mobilizations on the part of community, labor and faith-based groups injected much-needed energy into the debate. Now, while we wait for lawmakers in the House and Senate to reconcile their versions of reform, let's assess, and also celebrate, the role these mobilizations played in getting reforms this far along, against powerful lobbying on the part of Wall Street and tepid leadership in Congress.

The drumbeat for deficit reduction is growing louder. I can hear the deficit hawks in the background chanting “Austerity!” They would have us believe that the greatest threat to global economic security is runaway deficits. Given that we are still in a recession, that unemployment rates show no sign of coming down any time soon, and that financial institutions still are not channeling investments into the real economy, it seems fair to ask whether this obsession with deficits makes sense right now.

Some right wing pundits seem confused about predatory lending: what it is, why it’s wrong and what should be done about it. They misleadingly suggest that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) encourages predatory lending. By singling out community organizers and their allies in government, the Right is trying to tap two powerful themes: race-based resentment and distrust of activist government.

A new phrase has made its way into financial news stories: “‘designed to fail’ investments.” Once again, Goldman Sachs is being implicated in financial impropriety. This latest twist is part of the same old story: someone was tricked into buying a bad product by someone who was gaming the system. As Will Hutton says, "the financial meltdown wasn't a mistake --- it was a con."  

During the final stretch leading up to the House's historic vote on health care reform, Representative John Lewis said: "We may not have chosen the time, but time has chosen us." Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated these words when she closed the debate. She then used a phrase that I have been fond of saying for about thirty years: 'health care is a right, not a privilege.' And tonight, the House took major (if still not-quite-sufficient steps) toward making this phrase mean something in our country. 

Wall Street is using its campaign contributions to punish Democrats and reward Republicans, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Apparently, financial industry execs are sore that some Democrats, including the President, have started going ‘populist,’ calling them ‘fat cats,' trying to interfere with their bonuses and pushing for modest financial reforms.