In the Water, In the Air: Tuesday, December 03, 2013.

DEFICITS AND DEBT

The Next GOP Crackup?: Republican spenders want to break the annual budget caps (The Wall Street Journal, 12/03).

ECONOMIC REPORTS

America's Microbank Problem (Matthew Yglesias, Slate, 12/02).

No, America Doesn’t Have Too Many Banks (Sean Davis, The Federalist, 12/03).

ECONOMICS 101

Nationality Swapping: The Latest Craze Of The World’s Ultra Rich (Tara Loader Wilkinson, Wealth-X, 11/20).

Robert Bartley's 'The Seven Fat Years' - One of the Greatest Economics Books Ever Written (John Tamny, RealClearMarkets, 12/03).

REVENUE-SIDE REFORM

Please, there is a better way to help workers than the minimum wage, and everybody knows it (James Pethokoukis, AEIdeas, 12/03).

Primer: Minimum Wage and Combating Poverty (Ben Gitis, American Action Forum, 12/03).

SPENDING-SIDE REFORM

Please, there is a better way to help workers than the minimum wage, and everybody knows it (James Pethokoukis, AEIdeas, 12/03).

GLOBAL ECONOMY

The Coming Global Wealth Tax: Indebted governments may soon consider a big one-time levy on capital assets (Romain Hatchuel, The Wall Street Journal, 12/03).

America's greatest export is its debt (Frances Coppola, The Week, 12/03).

GLOBAL ECONOMY -- JAPAN

Japan in a Post-Growth Age (Norihiro Kato, The New York Times, 12/02).

PUBLIC PENSIONS

Detroit Pensions: Unsafe at Any Speed? (Megan McArdle, Bloomberg, 12/02).

MOBILITY AND EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

Training for Success: A Policy to Expand Apprenticeships in the United States (Ben Olinsky, Center For American Progress, 12/02).

Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better Bargain for Working People (Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research).

FACTION -- GRIDLOCK

The Congress that would rather fight than pass bills (Editorial Board, The Washington Post, 12/02).