I don’t know whether this is a positive sign about policymakers recognizing the depth of our economic problems, or a negative sign about the depth of our economic problems. But the President of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, Narayana Kocherlakota, set a target unemployment rate he would like to see before the Fed raises the federal funds rate from its current position at 0%. This is seen as a shift for Kocherlakota, who had a far greater fear about inflation in the past.

Much like how the health care debate coincided with a last-minute failure on Medicare buy-in, the financial reform debate coincided with a last-minute failure on taxing the banks. In both cases, reformers and advocates haven’t given up on the idea. In the case of the bank tax, those reformers picked up a powerful champion.