A lot has changed since before the holidays, yet, as Yogi Berra put it, "It's deja vu all over again."

Bill Daley is back in Washington to exercise his negotiating skills on the Republicans as before.  Gene Sperling is also back.  He was responsible for pushing Bill Clinton's deregulation policies leading inexorably to the 2008 financial collapse.  Despite new laws, not much has changed and prominent economists fear a repeat eventually.  To give him his due, he was also responsible for the Earned Income Tax Credit which helped alleviate poverty.  Not much unfortunately, swamped as we are with the largess to the rich, for the latest census data released reveal a record 48 Million (1 in 6) lived in poverty last year.  It also shows a growing number of people over 65 struggling to make ends meet due to ever escalating out-of-control medical costs.

Senator Reid is now floating the idea of tightening up on filibuster rules to make the Democratic majority in the Senate more effective.  Deja vu again — isn't this what the Republicans did under George Bush?  The real question is why this did not occur to Mr. Reid when Democrats controlled both houses.  Then, he was busy bemoaning the lack of a 60-seat super-majority and blaming Republicans while Rahm Emanuel's protege Melissa Bean was busy undermining any legislation with real teeth to restrain the financial industry.  In a delicious irony, she lost her seat despite swimming in campaign money.

The lackluster jobs report last week found a less than expected 103,000 jobs added last month, which  totaled up to 1.3 million for the year — not enough to make a significant dent in the unemployment figure.  While the rate went down to 9.4 % (a drop of 0.4%), most analysts believe that was due to people not looking for jobs during the holiday month — our measure excludes those who do not actively seek work every week.  If the hidden unemployed are added, the real rate is judged to be closer to 20%, which is a horrendous figure, and more representative of the pain being endured in this country.

In the meantime, the perpetrators (inadvertent or otherwise) of this pain through the repeal of necessary financial industry controls — even through NAFTA as pertaining to Mexico — move comfortably in and out of government and high-paying financial service positions.

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