Thursday's Daily Brief: GM Recall, Warren and Brown Neck and Neck, Romney Avoids Bain, Plus Arianna Huffington, Robert Reich, Conrad Black

Thursday, May 24, 2012 Arianna Huffington: JPMorgan, the Volcker Rule, and the Extreme Brevity of Financial Memory Arianna Huffington: Financial crises are a lot like childbirth -- they both involve a lot of pain and end up costing you a lot of money. But, after a while, you forget about all the negatives and are ready to do it again. This propensity to forget, so useful when it comes to having babies, is incredibly destructive when it comes to our economy. So why do we do it? According to John Kenneth Galbraith, it's a combination of "the extreme brevity of the financial memory" and a general ignorance of history. As a result, boom and bust cycles are repeated endlessly -- and so is the response, in which reforms are proposed but, as the public's anger -- and memory -- weakens, so does the "reform." By the time reform measures are passed, lobbying has weakened them enough to make another crisis inevitable. Exhibit A: the JPMorgan trading loss and the renewed the battle over the Volcker Rule. POLITICS Warren And Brown Neck And Neck In New Poll NEW YORK NYPD: Person Has Implicated Himself In Boy's 1979 Disappearance BLACK VOICES WATCH: George Zimmerman 'Comfortable' In Police Station After Trayvon Martin Killing POLITICS Romney Shies From Bain Debate BUSINESS GM Recalling Huge Number Of Cars Over Airbag Issue BLOG POSTS Arianna Huffington: The Moment I Knew I Needed More Sleep The moment I knew I needed more sleep was four years ago, when I learned the value of sleep -- the hard way. What was the moment you knew you needed to get more sleep? I want to hear your story. Conrad Black: Depend on Facebook For Smutty Photos, Not Economic Prosperity I hate to be a killjoy, but Facebook, in economic terms, is a mirage, other than for Zuckerberg and anyone else who has founders' stock. It illustrates the need for salvation, not the road to follow to achieve it. Bob Cesca: The Truth About the President and the Deficit Arguably the biggest lie coming from the Republicans and the Romney campaign is that President Obama is a tax and spend liberal who's directly and personally responsible for record deficits and a crushing national debt. Dr. Peggy Drexler: The Kids Are All Right: Gay Parents Raising Children These days, gay parents are no novelty: We see them strolling through our neighborhoods and appearing on our TV screen. But still many are left wondering: How will these children of gay parents fare? Robert Reich: Obama Has to Explain Why Fairness Is Essential to Growth (and Why Some Democrats Have to Stop Believing Otherwise) Mitt Romney epitomizes the unfairness of the American economy in this new Gilded Age. For that same reason, Romney is the quintessence of an economic approach shown to be anti-growth and anti-jobs. The president needs to tell this to the American people.

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