It isn’t just contraceptives the Republicans want to take away:

During the labor protests of early 2011, Indiana Democrats walked out of the state, denying the legislature a quorum, to protest several bills, among them an education voucher law and legislation making Indiana a “right-to-work” state. Daniels immediately disavowed the latter bill, saying it wasn’t something he wanted to take up; then he was running for President. Now that’s over, and Daniels, going back on his earlier word, supports the right-to-work legislation.

The biggest reason I can find for economic optimism in 2012 is a belief that people will eventually have to buy new cars and form households, so why not this year? That appears to be the animating thought behind Matt Yglesias’ cheery forecast in the new year. But the economic story is a lot more mixed.

Manufacturing has been a bright spot over the past year in terms of jobs gained. Activity has picked up, and factories are coming back on-line. The problem is that this has come at a cost. Specifically, the US manufacturing jobs of the future feature lower pay and benefits.

The sides have been chosen. The political world has made their selections on Occupy Wall Street: Democrats are generally supportive though timid, and Republicans are claiming that it sows social unrest and class warfare. But Occupy movements are growing because Americans can see the difference between financial sector profits and what that sector did to their own paychecks.

See if you can spot what explanations for slow employment AREN’T in this MSNBC story.

The successful auto industry rescue is definitely a feather in the cap for the Administration, protecting up to a million direct and indirect auto industry jobs, and putting GM and Chrysler in a position to succeed. Now there’s a new contract with the United Auto Workers to share the success with labor.

One criticism of the rescue was that the UAW was forced to give up good wages for new employees and accept a two-tier structure for pay and benefits. But unless I have my timeline wrong, that all happened in a contract prior to the decision to forward additional loans to automakers in 2009. That contract expired, and the UAW just inked a new deal with GM that should serve as an industry standard. And they made some significant gains in this contract, a testament to how far back the industry has come.

One-trick ponies and one-foot bike riders; a story of right-wing economists.

James Carville thinks the White House should panic, something that usually doesn’t inspire confidence in leadership. I actually like some of his specific steps – indicting the banks is a good idea way past its time, and defending the Democratic Party platform sounds like a plan. Overall, a Carville agenda sounds like an improvement on the current agenda.

It may be too late for all this, however.

Age of Greed offers a long survey of the rise of regulation liberated financial markets and actors. The historical sweep is artful and well presented. The text argues for a return to more caged financial markets and actors. The steady and mounting pressures on the American middle class are correlated with the rising excesses, fortunes and missteps of financiers and their vehicles.