This week marks the end of the public comment period on the Volcker rule. The usual suspects have all delivered their comments. The huge finance lobby delivered their mass of comments, in particular calls for multiple exemptions and waivers. But a new group, Occupy the SEC, a collection of experts in finance which sprung out of the Occupy Wall Street movement, delivered a 325 page letter to the SEC about the rule reminding the SEC about their obligations to the public.

Over the weekend I watched Earth Days, the PBS documentary by Robert Stone on the history of the environmental movement. The show closes with a discussion with Duke Energy CEO and how environmentalist and they all get along now. Then the folks at Greenpeace sent me the real story.

Senate Democrats have a plan for the payroll tax cut legislation that House Republicans basically gave up on yesterday. They can add the Unemployment Insurance extension and “doc fix” to the payroll bill, along with offsets for the UI and “fix” that the GOP might buy, and force the whole package on the House as the deadline nears.

Dayen’s news roundup from February 13, 2011 with links to stories on the bank settlement, Obama’s budget, Rick/Mitt/Newt, Syria, Israel, Iran, Apple in China, the safety net, and much more.

A variety of links to articles/interviews/speeches on current topics that may be of interest.

Maybe there’s a reason America’s Catholic Bishops are desperate to be up in arms about something, anything, they can get there hands on domestically. It distracts from this.

Bon Iver – Holocene

For what it’s worth, I have zero problem with people buying each other gifts or going out for a nice meal, if that’s what turns your crank. I have a major, major problem with yet another potentially sweet holiday being turned into a festival of misogyny and meanness.

Where does a 65-year-old geezer get the harebrained idea that he can walk a thousand miles with bunch of 20-to-30-somethings after training for ten days after four months sitting in front of the computer copying Tweets and recording livestream incidents in the comments of an FDL liveblog?

As I mentioned on Sunday, the Greek Parliament agreed to a bailout deal that exchanges funds from Europe for new austerity measures that will sink the economy even further. The measures effectively destroy labor law and decimate wages.