InsideSources

Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.

Energy

Steyer’s crony plan’s return on investment
WASHINGTON TIMES
Editorial
Earmark records suggest Mr. Steyer’s government activism isn’t all that selfless. His investment in politicians has been paying off for him and his business associates in a big way. Spending $100 million is pocket change compared to the $1 billion in taxpayer benefits Mr. Steyer’s past and present companies have taken advantage of over the past decade.

Steyer focuses on voter turnout for midterms
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
Steyer said he is focused “not so much on TV ads but on the things that will be old-fashioned, 18th-century politics, trying to get local people to talk to local voters and citizens and why it’s important enough for them to get off the couch and go down to the polling place in the second Tuesday in November,” according to KDVR.

The EPA’s Latest Threat to Economic Growth
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jay Timmons
Now is not the time to sacrifice millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in pursuit of dubious benefits and unreachable targets. The EPA should put on the brakes and allow the existing ozone standards to be implemented.

Awash in Coal, U.S. Imports Even More
WALL STREET JOURNAL
John W. Miller and Cassandra Sweet
Coal imports to the U.S. are rising sharply even as coal mines close throughout Central Appalachia. A big reason: price. It costs $26 a ton to ship coal from Central Appalachia to power plants in Florida compared with $15 a ton to get coal from a mine in Colombia, according to research firm IHS Energy.

Sarah Palin jumps in, Mark Begich ducks on Alaska oil tax vote
POLITICO
Rachael Bade
Alaskans will vote Tuesday on repealing oil tax cuts in a ballot fight so contentious and historic that it’s even sucked Sarah Palin back into the Last Frontier’s political whirlwind. But don’t ask Sen. Mark Begich about it. The vulnerable Democrat, who faces a tough reelection effort, is refusing to take a position on what political observers there call one of Alaska’s most consequential policy questions since statehood: whether to repeal year-old tax cuts that critics label a boondoggle for oil companies. The situation is making for odd political optics, with tea-party darling and former GOP vice presidential contender Palin siding with many Alaska Democrats.

Mexico Opens Oil Fields to Foreigners
NEW YORK TIMES
Elisabeth Malkin
Under the overhaul, most of the country’s production will remain with the state-owned oil monopoly Pemex. But private investors will have a chance to bid on a significant percentage of the prospective reserves, whose development will require deep expertise and substantial financing.

Technology

Where have all the entrepreneurs gone (continued)?
WASHINGTON POST
Robert Samuelson
Remember that it began in the late 1970s and that for much of this period — the mid- and late 1980s, the 1990s — the country was highly prosperous. Also, tax rates dropped, and entrepreneurs (Microsoft’s Bill Gates, FedEx’s Fred Smith) became folk heroes. These conditions favored new companies, and yet the decline quietly continued. I think we’re still struggling to understand why. Could it be that a society whose members are getting older is more risk-averse and less adventurous? Good question.

President Obama: No Internet Fast Lanes
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
The commission has a better option. It can reclassify broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service, which would allow regulators to prohibit phone and cable companies like Verizon and Comcast from engaging in unjust or unreasonable discrimination against content. The F.C.C. wrongly classified broadband as an information service during the administration of George W. Bush, a decision that has limited the F.C.C.’s ability to protect consumers and smaller Internet firms. Mr. Obama is sending Mr. Wheeler and his fellow commissioners a message. They should pay attention.

The Advocate’s Devil
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Privacy and national security are often said to be in tension in the surveillance debate, so congratulations to Senator Pat Leahy for the feat of managing to subvert both at once. That’s the verdict of Judge John Bates, “on behalf of the Judiciary,” in an unusual letter last week that deserves more readers.

Reagan-Era Order on Surveillance Violates Rights, Says Departing Aide
NEW YORK TIMES
Charlie Savage
“It’s a problem if one branch of government can collect and store most Americans’ communications, and write rules in secret on how to use them — all without oversight from Congress or any court, and without the consent or even the knowledge of the American people,” Mr. Tye said. “Regardless of the use rules in place today, this system could be abused in the future.”

Echoes of Y2K: Engineers Buzz That Internet Is Outgrowing Its Gear
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Drew FitzGerald
While a precise count is elusive, many technicians are reporting that the total number of world-wide Internet routes is near or already past half a million, usually abbreviated 512K. Older network routers from Cisco Systems Inc.  and other makers can’t hold any more unless they are tweaked.

Finance

To deter inversions, overhaul corporate taxes
USA TODAY
Editorial
The best way to stop companies from fleeing the United States in search of lower taxes is to write a rational tax code. Until that happens, though, limited action by regulators — and public pressure from consumers — are appropriate substitutes.

Democrats Push Plan to Harness Tax Inversions
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Siobhan Hughes
The proposal, detailed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), would restrict the practice of earnings stripping, where U.S. companies borrow money from overseas parents and deduct the interest expense on U.S. taxes. … Legislation addressing earnings stripping may stand the best chance of winning bipartisan support in Congress. For example, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), a senior lawmaker with an interest in tax matters, has worked on the issue in the past.

Once Powerful, Mary Jo White’s S.E.C. Is Seen as Sluggish and Ineffective
NEW YORK TIMES
Jesse Eisinger
Mary Jo White took the helm of the Securities and Exchange Commission facing high hopes that she could turn around the once-proud agency. More than a year into her tenure, she has disappointed a wide swath of would-be allies.

GOP looks to shake loose more Wall Street cash
POLITICO
Patrick Temple-West
Republicans eager to challenge campaign spending limits before the Supreme Court have found their next target: a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that limits contributions from Wall Street financiers to governors and other state officials running for federal office. … Now opponents of the SEC’s rule say that the Supreme Court’s April decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which scrapped the overall caps on an individual’s campaign contributions, has given them the legal ammunition needed to get courts to reject the SEC restrictions. It also provided the incentive for a plaintiff to step forward and be the face of a legal fight to overturn an anti-bribery rule: state political parties.

Terrorism Trial of Mideast Bank Worries the Financial World
NEW YORK TIMES
Stephanie Clifford and Jessica Silver-Greenberg
The account and ones like it make up a critical financial infrastructure for a network that, at times, operates like a Social Security system for terrorists, the plaintiffs say. Family members were instructed to go to Arab Bank branches to collect charitable funds after their relatives died in a terrorism attempt, the plaintiffs say. While American authorities have prosecuted banks for processing tainted money, this is the first civil trial against a bank under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Opening arguments are scheduled for Thursday.

Delinquent-Mortgage Bonds Attracting Investors
NEW YORK TIMES
Matthew Goldstein
Rises in housing prices have been profitable to private equity firms and institutional investors that bought foreclosed homes to flip them or to rent them out. Now the recovery in housing is fueling a niche market for newly minted bonds that are backed by the most troubled mortgages of them all: those on homes on the verge of foreclosure.

Argentina slams U.S. judge, while holdout investors see no private debt deal
WASHINGTON POST
Hugh Bronstein and Daniel Bases
Prospects for a private-sector solution to Argentina’s sovereign-debt dispute deteriorated Wednesday after holdout investors said they entertained no realistic offers from bankers, while the Argentine government dashed hopes it might soon agree to restart talks.

Hedge Fund Targets Nevada Firms in Argentine Debt Dispute
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Taos Turner and Santiago Pérez
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Cam Ferenbach in Nevada issued a ruling to help NML uncover information about a network of 123 companies based in Nevada that Argentine prosecutors allege are affiliated with Argentine construction baron Lazaro Báez, who built a business empire after Mr. Kirchner was elected president in 2003.

Seeking clarity on the number of jobs the Export-Import Bank is responsible for
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
On average, Ex-Im calculates, a billion dollars of Ex-Im-backed exports supports 6,390 U.S. jobs; ergo, the $379.3 million exported by firms in Mr. Delaney’s district supported 2,423. GAO pointed out, additionally, that these figures do not differentiate between full-time and part-time work and, crucially, provide no information about what might have happened to employment at the firms in question, or others, if the resources marshalled by Ex-Im had flowed elsewhere in the economy.

Politics

House Democrats can’t figure out why Obama won’t talk to them
THE HILL
Mike Lillis
House Democrats are frustrated with what they say is a lack of election-year communication from the White House. The lawmakers say it’s difficult to defend President Obama from GOP attacks when he doesn’t confer with his allies about his strategy and intentions. Some are scratching their heads why, after nearly six years in office and a reshuffling of his legislative affairs team, Obama’s working relationship with Congress remains prickly.

While Some in G.O.P. See Obama’s Competence as Rich Vein to Mine, Others See Little Reward
NEW YORK TIMES
Jackie Calmes
In the Republicans’ campaign for the grand prize of the midterm elections, control of the Senate, some party strategists say the key to winning a majority comes down to one word — competence — and voters’ perception that President Obama lacks it. Apparently, that is debatable, even among Republicans.

Use of force against Islamic State could create a new void Into a new void?
WASHINGTON POST
George Will
One of Napoleon’s aphorisms — “If you start to take Vienna, take Vienna” — means: In military matters, tentativeness is ruinous. Are F-18s going to be used for a foreign policy of rightminded gestures — remember #BringBackOurGirls? — the success of which is in making the gesturers feel virtuous? “Success,” said T.S. Eliot, “is relative: It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.” There is much material — rubble, actually — to work with as we seek success.