Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Europe: “European leaders struggled into the night Wednesday to reassure the world that they were determined to find a comprehensive solution to the two-year-old euro zone debt crisis, hours after German lawmakers approved a proposal to more than double an emergency bailout fund.”
* Obama intends to ease student-loan burdens: “The administration’s new student loan plan, titled ‘Know Before You Owe,’ would allow college graduates to cap federal student loan repayments at 10 percent of discretionary income starting in January, two years before the cap was due to take effect under federal law. The accelerated ‘pay as you earn’ option, which Obama will authorize through executive authority, could benefit up to 1.6 million borrowers and reduce their payments by as much as a couple of hundred dollars a month…. All remaining debt on the federal loans would be forgiven after 20 years — five years earlier than under current law.”
* Occupy Oakland: “A small band of protesters … watched peacefully as city workers erected a chain-link fence around the grassy area that about 350 people had populated before police cleared the main encampment Tuesday. City officials said they planned to reopen the plaza to the public once the fence was up — to allow for protest but not camping.”
* It’s frustrating that this represents progress: “Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) is releasing his hold on Treasury Department nominees after officials there settled an issue with two of his constituents, his office announced on Wednesday.”
* Rubio isn’t out of the woods: “Documents give shape to Marco Rubio’s family history but raise new questions.”
* President Obama intervenes in support of Egyptian activists.
* Busted: “Rajat K. Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs director who surrendered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday morning, was charged with insider trading, the latest development in the government’s multiyear crackdown on illegal activity on Wall Street.”
* Health care at the high court: “The Supreme Court will take its first look at the challenges to the new federal health care law at its Conference on Thursday, November 10. Five of the six pending petitions (the sixth is not ready yet) were distributed to the Justices’ chambers on Wednesday, for consideration at that private session.”
* Michael Hiltzik gets it: “Students of the sciences can generally tell the difference between action and motion. The first produces results; the second is often designed to avoid results. For a laboratory experiment in how to spot the distinction, let’s examine the competing jobs plans offered by President Obama and congressional Republicans.”
* James Livingston makes the case for consumer spending: “As an economic historian who has been studying American capitalism for 35 years, I’m going to let you in on the best-kept secret of the last century: private investment — that is, using business profits to increase productivity and output — doesn’t actually drive economic growth. Consumer debt and government spending do. Private investment isn’t even necessary to promote growth.”
* Andy Sabl spent some time at Zuccotti Park and came away with some provocative observations about Occupy Wall Street.”
* How much would Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) cut federal student loans? He’d eliminate them entirely, of course.
* Steve Jobs had a chance to look at Fox News’ impact and concluded it had “become an incredibly destructive force in our society.” That seems more than fair.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
