The Wall Street Journal
And the Fed is still printing money, but more slowly.
OBAMACARE STILL FAILING
The government recently reported that 2.2 million people nationwide had selected a new health plan through December. But it’s unclear how many of these people have actually enrolled in a plan by paying a premium. And a Journal editorial notes that “even assuming an implausible 100% success rate, the exchanges are still well behind the original target of seven million, much less the 20 million or so necessary to ensure a viable insurance market.”
DEMOCRATS STILL CONTROL SENATE, BUT FOR HOW LONG?
Republicans are increasingly optimistic about their chances for winning a Senate majority this fall. The Journal reports that “polls show tighter-than-expected races for Democratic-held seats in Colorado, Iowa and Michigan, while a formidable Republican is challenging the Democratic incumbent in Virginia and another is weighing a bid in New Hampshire.”
FED STILL PRINTING MONEY, BUT MORE SLOWLY
The Journal’s Jon Hilsenrath reports that the Federal Reserve is likely to trim its monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion at this month’s meeting.
AND EASIER MONEY IN CHINA IS JUICING MARKETS TODAY
Dow Jones says “Stocks are expected to bounce at the open Tuesday following strong leads from Europe and Asia after the People’s Bank of China injected funds into the money markets to stave off a potential liquidity crunch ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.”
U.S. PRODUCING SO MUCH OIL, WE MAY HAVE TO SHARE IT
Output increased 15% last year, adding pressure to reconsider the U.S. export ban on crude oil.
FROM THE POCONOS, A MESSAGE THE HONEYMOON IS OVER
An influential imam in Pennsylvania gives the Journal an exclusive, and signals that the coalition that has governed Turkey for a decade is fracturing.
WE’VE COME A LONG WAY, BUBBA
Twenty-three years ago, candidate Bill Clinton felt he had to qualify his admission that he’d smoked marijuana with the caveats that he “didn’t like it,” and “didn’t inhale.” Now, in a long profile in the New Yorker our sitting president compares pot to drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes—a “vice” that he “doesn’t encourage,” albeit one he indulged in during his youth. We can’t decide whether the president’s remarks show how far cigarettes have fallen, or how far marijuana has risen in cultural esteem since the early ’90s. But when the president says pot—still a Schedule 1 controlled substance under federal law—is “not very different from cigarettes,” something is going on.
NO POINTS FOR GUESSING HOW WE WOULD ANSWER
Time Magazine asks, “Can Privatization Save the Treasures of Ancient Greece?” It’s good to see someone else is asking the question.
END OF THE EXTRA POINT?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the NFL Network that the league is considering eliminating the point-after-touchdown kick. One suggestion is that teams would get seven points for a touchdown. A team could then decide to “go for two,” getting a total of eight points if they scored, but losing a point, and knocking them down to six points if the conversion failed. This is perhaps just an acknowledgment of reality—only five extra points were missed in 2013. But it could change the psychology of the conversion—and therefore play-calling—since “going for it” would mean risking having a point deducted from the score board.
This column is available every day at wsj.com/morning.
