Eric Alterman: The Missing “Least-We-Can-Do-No-Brainer Act of 2010”

  As I was reading Wednesday’s “Playbook” by Politico’s Mike Allen, the unofficial scorecard of Beltway obsessives (and those who wanna be), the story that caught my eye was, naturally, the one Allen labeled “The Big Idea/Pundit Prep/If You Read Only One Story.” In it, Bloomberg’s Lisa Lerer and Laura Litvan reported that “The 111th Congress made more laws affecting more Americans since the ‘Great Society’ legislation of the 1960s.” It quotes the great liberal historian Alan Brinkley calling this Congress “probably the most productive session of Congress since at least the ’60s.’”

  The authors note that it was also a historic year for the financial sector:

  Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are positioned to complete their best two years in revenue, General Motors Co. has emerged from bankruptcy with more than $23 billion repaid to the U.S. Treasury, and American International Group Inc. was able to sell $2 billion of bonds in its first offering since the company’s 2008 bailout. The S&P 500 Index has gained 38.9 percent since Congress convened in January 2009.