Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The Fed keeps lowering projections: “The Federal Reserve significantly reduced its forecast of economic growth over the next two years, the latest in a long series of acknowledgements that the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis is taking much longer than it had expected.”
* Greece fuels European turmoil: “With the government teetering on the verge of collapse, the Greek cabinet offered its full support early Wednesday to Prime Minister George A. Papandreou for his surprise plan to call a referendum on the Greek financial crisis.”
* What’s Europe’s Plan B in the event Greek voters reject the deal and move towards leaving the euro? There is no Plan B.
* On a related note, I found Kevin Drum’s “A Conversation About Greece” to be terrific and informative.
* Occupy Oakland: “Thousands of Wall Street protesters marched in the streets of Oakland on Wednesday as they geared up with labor unions to picket banks, take over foreclosed homes and vacant buildings and disrupt operations at the nation’s fifth-busiest port.”
* Auto industry: “U.S. car and truck sales were expected to top 1 million in October, a surprising number for a month when sales are usually slow. When adjusted for seasonal factors, that would be the best pace since the Cash for Clunkers program in August 2009.”
* “What a Jobs Plan Looks Like.”
* Hopefully, no one took Beck’s advice seriously: “Goldline, a company that used endorsements from Glenn Beck and other conservative icons to sell hundreds of millions of dollars to consumers, has been charged with theft and fraud in a 19-count criminal complaint filed Tuesday by local officials in California.”
* Ryan Cooper takes a look at the efforts to save AmeriCorps from the Republican axe.
* Mariah Blake has a great piece on a Ponzi scheme run by a guy named Tom Petters — a story that includes Michele Bachmann, a former U.S. vice president, a one-time governor, a sitting senator, a crafty entrepreneur, an ex-con turned devout Christian, illicit drugs, and a $130,000 airborne sex escapade.
* The right’s ongoing paranoia about Journolist is just sad. (Disclosure: I was on Journolist.)
* An outrageous story about four militia guys in Georgia, busted by the FBI this week, who plotted to launch a biological-weapons attack against Americans.
* And John Bolton believes the United States shouldn’t accept election outcomes in other countries if we believe the outcomes are counter to our interests, even in the case of “free and fair elections.” Remember when Bush/Cheney wanted this guy to represent us at the United Nations?
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
