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Wonkbook’s Number of the Day: 4.6 percent. That's the new revised estimate for the annualized rate of economic growth in the second quarter, up from a previous estimate of 4.2 percent.

Wonkbook’s Chart of the Day: The jobless are receiving unemployment insurance at a record low rate.

Wonkbook's Top 5 Stories: (1) Finding Holder's replacement; (2) climate agreement challenges, here and abroad; (3) lesser-known Ebola barriers; (4) economy getting, staying strong; and (5) New York Fed cozy with bankers.

1. Top story: The challenges of finding Eric Holder's replacement

In replacing Holder, Dems face timing dilemma. "There are two different schools of thought among Democrats about when they make their move to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced on Thursday he was stepping down. The first school: The White House and Senate Democrats should push for the replacement’s confirmation during the lame-duck session after the midterms — in case Republicans win control of the Senate....The second Democratic school of thought: You wait until next year and possibly dare a GOP-controlled Senate to blow up an attorney general nomination, especially during a time the U.S. is waging a military campaign in Iraq and Syria." Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann in NBC News.

Interview: Holder: It's the right time for me to go. NBC News.

Does anyone even want this job? "Several potential candidates have already made it clear that they do not want to be considered for the high profile but politically treacherous Cabinet slot. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and California Attorney General Kamala Harris each bowed out of the running within hours of Holder’s announced resignation Thursday....Several other names are swirling around Washington’s rumor mill, but experts say any would-be successor — especially those with higher political aspirations — may have serious reservations about taking the Justice Department’s helm at the tail end of Obama’s presidency." Benjamin Goad and Justin Sink in The Hill.

Explainer: The who, how, when and if of replacing Eric Holder. Aaron Blake in The Washington Post.

How Holder's late resignation could curse his successor. "Even if Democrats were to lose the Senate in November’s mid-term elections, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) would remain majority leader until mid-January. And because he exercised the so-called 'nuclear option' in November of last year...even a Senate run by Democrats on their way out of power will be able to confirm whomever the president nominates. That said, confirmation under those circumstances, while legal, would open Holder’s successor to accusations that his or her confirmation was illegitimate. They would be legally false, but politically potent. Judging from the comments made by influential Republican lawmakers on Thursday, that’s exactly the line of attack they are likely to take." Rob Garver in The Fiscal Times.

But if Democrats wait, and GOP wins Senate... "First the GOP must decide whether to adopt Senate Democrats’ bellicose tactic to allow approval of most executive branch nominees by a simple majority vote....Republicans left Washington already divided over how they would approach this critical element of majority rule. GOP senators are undecided on whether to restore the previous 60-vote threshold for all presidential nominees except those to the Supreme Court or leave the filibuster hurdle where Democrats set it, at a simple majority. And, perhaps surprisingly, some Republicans say they aren’t bent on revenge." Burgess Everett in Politico.

A lame-duck confirmation wouldn't be totally unprecedented. "Could the White House be hinting at when President Barack Obama might nominate a new attorney general? The White House won't give away Obama's timeline. But press secretary Josh Earnest pointed out Friday that there is precedent for the Senate confirming nominees in a lame-duck session, the weeks in Congress between the midterm elections and the new lawmakers are sworn in and seated....Earnest raised the example of President George W. Bush's nomination of Robert Gates as defense secretary the day after the 2006 midterm election in which Republicans lost their Senate majority." Nedra Pickler in the Associated Press.

Some possible successors. "Kathryn Ruemmler and Donald Verrilli have gained traction as potential nominees, given long-standing relationships with the president, these people said. Ms. Ruemmler, the former White House counsel...was at the center of nearly every major legal argument Mr. Obama made between 2011 and 2014. Mr. Verrilli, as solicitor general, was tasked with making the administration's case to the Supreme Court on issues like the health-care overhaul, same-sex marriage and insurance coverage for contraception. If Mr. Obama taps either one to succeed Mr. Holder, he would continue a trend of choosing people with strong White House ties for second-term cabinet positions." Andrew Grossman and Carol E. Lee in The Wall Street Journal.

For now, Holder's still Obama's top cop. Voting rights will be key to his final days. "Holder's Justice Department has been fighting a multifront battle since the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act in the Shelby County v. Holder decision last year....Holder recounted ongoing court fights over voter identification laws, early voting and other issues in Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, Alaska and North Carolina — but also advocated for voting rights for 'the 600,000 taxpayers who, like me, live in the District of Columbia and still have no voting representation in Congress.'...Holder also announced a new juvenile justice initiative that will attempt to reduce the number of young people in the criminal justice system....The Justice Department did not provide any additional details about that initiative." Gregory Korte in USA Today.

Holder's mixed national-security legacy. "Holder...took office determined to turn the page from Bush administration policies that authorized harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. But he will leave with a mixed record of national security decisions....The department points to hundreds of terrorism-fighting successes during Holder's tenure, including prosecutions of plots to explode a bomb in Times Square and on a Detroit-bound airliner. But also under his watch, the department authorized targeted drone strikes against Americans abroad, subpoenaed journalists' telephone records in leak investigations and defended in court the government's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records." Eric Tucker in the Associated Press.

Interview: Holder reflects on his legacy. NPR.

On those national security matters...good luck, next AG. "War against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria has raised fears that American Islamist fighters returning from the Middle East could plot attacks on U.S. soil, U.S. officials say. At the same time, the Justice Department and other agencies must keep a watchful eye on the threat of home-grown U.S. extremists, an increasing source of concern to law-enforcement officials across the country. But even with the focus on stepped-up counter terrorism, the next attorney general will also need a deft political touch to deal with Americans' concerns over wide-ranging government surveillance exposed by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden." Matt Spetalnick and Mark Hosenball in Reuters.

Why next AG pick matters for housing industry. "Jim Parrott, a former housing advisor in the Obama White House, cast much of the blame for today’s tight mortgage lending on the Justice Department’s aggressive enforcement actions in the wake of the housing bust, including the record multi-billion settlements reached with big banks in recent years. It’s not so much the size or the number of the settlements, but rather the open-ended nature of the Justice Department’s agenda, and the sense that lenders are 'just not sure what closure looks and feels like,' Parrott said at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s housing summit in Washington this month." Dina ElBoghdady in The Washington Post.

Holder departure clouds fate on several civil-rights matters: "Possible federal charges in the deaths of black men including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and WTrayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. The November monitoring of congressional and statewide elections that will take place after the Supreme Court threw out a major protection in the Voting Rights Act. And projects he personally promoted such as the reduction of racial profiling in federal investigations, changes in how federal prosecutors negotiate sentencing, changes in the death penalty system and efforts to reduce tensions between local police departments and minority communities." Jesse J. Holland in the Associated Press.

Team Holder tells Ferguson, Mo., police to ditch 'I am Darren Wilson' wristbands. "Police officials in and around Ferguson, Mo., have agreed to prohibit their forces from wearing wristbands in support of the officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Justice Department also directed Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson to order his officers to follow policy and wear nameplates on their uniforms after federal investigators and residents spotted some with the identifiers removed or covered up. The ban on 'I Am Darren Wilson' wristbands was confirmed Friday in a letter to Jackson from Christy Lopez, deputy chief of special litigation for the Civil Rights Division." Michael Winter in USA Today.

Interview: Family of Michael Brown, slain teen, say they have more confidence in federal probe than in local process. Wesley Lowery in The Washington Post.

Mostly black cities, mostly white city halls. "Disparities between the percentage of black residents and the number of black elected officials are facts of life in scores of American cities, particularly in the South. The unrest that followed the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., has emphasized how much local elections can matter, and prompted a push there for increased black voter participation. The disparities result from many factors: voter apathy, especially in low-visibility local elections; the civic disconnect of a transient population; the low financial rewards and long hours demanded of local officeholders; and voting systems, including odd-year elections, that are often structured in a way that discourages broad interest in local races." Richard Fausset in The New York Times.

Other legal reads:

Study: Watching video of police violence may increase people's biases. Jesse Singal in The New Republic.

Growing use of police body cameras raises privacy concerns. Matt Pearce in the Los Angeles Times.

WITTES: The best Holder replacement nobody's talking about. "The nature of the job of attorney general has changed—irrevocably. And we should never again have an attorney general, of either party, capable of expressing surprise at the role that national security issues now play in the life of the Justice Department or in the role of its chief....The next attorney general, rather, should be someone with granular experience in the national security space, someone capable of charting a course between the wild pendulum swings of public opinion....Here’s a suggestion I haven’t seen yet in the press that the White House ought to consider very seriously: David Kris." Benjamin Wittes in The New Republic.

DIONNE: Eric Holder and RFK's legacy. "Rereading Kennedy is to understand why Holder spoke as he did. That the young man Kennedy described is still so present and recognizable tells us that complacency remains a subtle but corrosive sin. One of Holder’s finest hours as attorney general was his visit to Ferguson, Mo., after the killing of Michael Brown. Many young black men still fear they will be shot, a sign that the 'open prejudice and subtle hostilities of a white world' have not gone away. We have moved forward, yet we still must overcome." E.J. Dionne Jr. in The Washington Post.

Top opinion

KRUGMAN: Our invisible rich. "I don’t think the poor are invisible today, even though you sometimes hear assertions that they aren’t really living in poverty — hey, some of them have Xboxes! Instead, these days it’s the rich who are invisible. But wait — isn’t half our TV programming devoted to breathless portrayal of the real or imagined lifestyles of the rich and fatuous? Yes, but that’s celebrity culture, and it doesn’t mean that the public has a good sense either of who the rich are or of how much money they make. In fact, most Americans have no idea just how unequal our society has become." Paul Krugman in The New York Times.

DELISLE AND RICHWINE: The case for fair-value accounting. "If Congress were to mandate fair-value accounting across the board, it would take a big step toward a more honest and transparent budget process. When crafting legislation and examining existing programs, Congress would face squarely the risks it assumes and the subsidies it provides through credit programs. Legislators may ultimately decide that these risks and subsidies are in the public's interest, but under the current budgeting rules they do not see the potential consequences of their policies in the official analyses, to the detriment of honest self-government. This should change, and adopting fair-value accounting would be a big step in the right direction." Jason Delisle and Jason Richwine in National Affairs.

SALAM: The great suburbia debate. "And so we come to have come full-circle. Low-rise suburban living was well-suited to the needs of the postwar decades, when the share of married-parent families was far higher, the foreign-born share of the population was far lower, violent crime in the cities was rising, and the cultural gap between low- and high-income families was modest. But the United States has changed, and in some respects we’ve come to more closely resemble the more diverse and unequal society we were in the first decades of the last century. It stands to reason that our built environment will evolve as well. This isn’t about 'class prejudice,' as Kotkin would have us believe. There will always be a place for low-rise suburban living. Yet as the share of households that are best-suited for low-rise suburban living shrinks, denser living arrangements are going to have to play a larger role." Reihan Salam in National Review.

SAMUELSON: The logic in exporting U.S. oil. "Explaining this persuasively in public is difficult, maybe impossible. It’s complicated. It requires showing why the long-run consequences of an export ban (less oil and higher prices) might be different from the short-run consequences (an artificial glut in the United States and lower U.S. prices), which would be temporary. It’s far easier to denounce oil producers as greedy and to argue that selling U.S. oil to foreigners is an unpatriotic act that will hurt the poor and middle class. These sound bites resonate; sleep-inducing analyses don’t. One task of political leadership is to bridge this divide." Robert J. Samuelson in The Washington Post.

ROY: Can the GOP repeal Obamacare without disrupting coverage for millions? "Repeal remains the official position of the GOP. But Republicans haven’t put as much thought into how to address the disruption that a careless version of repeal could incur....If the GOP is serious about making the health care system better for all Americans, while also making it fiscally sustainable, it’ll have to come up with a proposal that replaces not just Obamacare, but also reforms Medicare, Medicaid, and the rest. And if Republicans want public support for their reforms, they’ll have to come up with a way to truly minimize the degree to which their plan disrupts Americans’ existing coverage arrangements. That’s no easy task. I root for their success." Avik Roy in Forbes.

COHAN: Why the Fed will always wimp out on Goldman. "The truth is, although both incidents do reveal something about the way the powerful and famous get away with more stuff than the rest of us, there’s no real comparison. The Segarra Tapes actually reveal little or nothing that was not already known, assuming you have a shred of understanding how the Federal Reserve banks actually work. Nor is William Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, about to get pilloried in public like NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Sorry, folks, but this is simply the way the New York Fed was designed to behave." William D. Cohan in Politico Magazine.

MULLAINATHAN: Looking at productivity as a state of mind. "When we look at worker productivity at the macro level, we tend to limit ourselves to issues like skill shortages, new technologies or appropriate incentives. In our own lives, though, we see a personal struggle....In our own lives self-control is a big problem — yet it is largely absent from high-level discussions about worker productivity. And that raises an obvious question: By focusing so heavily on classic big-picture issues, are policy makers overlooking something that may be even more important?" Sendhil Mullainathan in The New York Times.

Nationals no-hitter interlude: Steven Souza Jr., inserted late on defense for the Nationals, seals Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on the season's final day with an incredible diving catch. (You can't make this stuff up.)

2. The rough roads ahead for a climate agreement

Road to climate treaty rocky after UN summit. "The summit was viewed as a momentum builder and, in some respects, it accomplished that. High-flying rhetoric abounded. China hinted that, at long last, it was 'ready' to be a real partner at the negotiating table. Despite some notable holdouts, the event drew more than 120 heads of state to discuss an issue that, to many observers, is rising in profile. But the pledges to act were meek. And harsh realities set in soon after. Developing countries could derail the process by insisting on an amount of aid that richer ones are unlikely to donate. Brazil, home of the Amazon rainforest, refused to sign a pledge to stop deforestation by 2030. India's environment minister said his nation's emissions would rise." Zack Colman in Washington Examiner.

Bridging the wealth divide will be paramount. "It will not be easy. There is a lingering divide between developed nations...and countries that are quickly industrializing, growing middle classes, and demanding a quality of life long enjoyed in much of the West. Foremost among them is China, but other countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa are also experiencing quick growth spurts....The majority of future growth in carbon emissions is expected to come from these developing nations, so rich nations often emphasize the role China, India, and others should play....The hope is to transcend this divide." David J. Unger in The Christian Science Monitor.

Obama faces tough sell on climate aid... "Five countries’ leaders announced Sept. 23 that they would contribute to the fund, including a $1 billion pledge from France, bringing its total to $2.3 billion. But Obama made no such pledges. Both supporters and opponents of the fund agree that any significant U.S. contribution is unlikely given that the fund combines two of Republicans’ least favorite government programs: foreign aid and fighting climate change. Obama has not yet asked lawmakers for money, but observers said it’d be difficult for him to contribute to the fund without Congress’ approval." Timothy Cama in The Hill.

...rising greenhouse-gas emissions... "The Obama administration appears to be losing ground in its efforts to cut U.S. emissions....Data released Friday by the Energy Department show American factories and power plants putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during the first six months of 2014 compared with the same period in each of the past two years. The figures confirm a reversal first seen in 2013, when the trend of steadily falling emissions abruptly halted. The higher emissions are primarily a reflection of a rebounding economy....But the shift also underscores the challenge confronting the Obama administration as it seeks to honor a pledge to sharply cut U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by the end of the decade." Joby Warrick in The Washington Post.

...a tough path on carbon price... "A major new declaration calling for a global price on carbon — signed by 74 countries and more than 1,000 businesses and investors — is missing a key signatory: the United States. The declaration...has been signed by China, Shell, Dow Chemical and Coca-Cola....The United States, which is under growing international pressure to price carbon, is missing from the declaration for a key reason: conservative opposition to Mr. Obama’s climate change proposals, specifically a carbon tax. The opposition will only intensify if Republicans win control of the Senate in November and the new majority leader is Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, where coal...is the lifeblood of the state’s economy." Coral Davenport in The New York Times.

...and the potential for some recalcitrant states on EPA climate rules. "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said Friday that she believes most states will ultimately comply with her agency's proposed new rules on carbon emissions....McCarthy also indicated that some states that have publicly objected to the original rules are nonetheless engaging in productive conversations about how to adjust them." Kate Sheppard in The Huffington Post.

Team Obama fights back on economic criticisms of climate policy. "Opponents of climate change action have long relied on two main rhetorical weapons. The first one, which has been in use since the 1980s, is to argue the the science linking human activities to global warming is uncertain or flawed. But with polls showing the American public unpersuaded by this argument, many opponents have focused more on the assumption that tackling climate change will be too costly....Until the past two weeks, that economic argument had gone virtually unchallenged by senior Obama administration officials and other leaders. That is no longer the case." Andrew Freedman in Mashable.

Other environmental/energy reads:

Is Alaska the new Florida? Experts predict where's next for America's "climate refugees." Jennifer A Kingson in The Guardian.

DHS moves to tackle climate-change risks. Lisa Anderson in Reuters.

Dark side of the boom: North Dakota’s oil rush brings cash and promise to reservation, along with drug-fueled crime. Sari Horwitz in The Washington Post.

Russia says oil well drilled with Exxon strikes oil. Ilya Arkhipov, Stephen Bierman and Ryan Chilcote in Bloomberg..

Derek Jeter interlude: Ten unforgettable moments from Captain Clutch.

3. Why the fight against Ebola may be tougher than you think

In fight against Ebola, U.S. troops up against math. "The American military effort against history's deadliest Ebola outbreak is taking shape in West Africa, but concerns are mounting that the pace isn't fast enough to check a virus that is spreading at a terrifying clip....They will level swampy grassland, unload supplies and build tents, then train thousands of nurses from Sierra Leone and Liberia to treat Ebola. The epidemic in Liberia and Sierra Leone will likely worsen until 70% of Ebola patients can find room in a treatment center or other setting where they can't transmit the disease to others, the CDC said. Currently, just 18% do so, it said." Drew Hinshaw and Betsy McKay in The Wall Street Journal.

Explainer: Fighting Ebola with data, satellites and drones. Patrick Tucker in Defense One.

Interview: Meet Nancy Powell, America's new top Ebola fighter. Abby Haglage in The Daily Beast.

What's behind that magic 70 percent number? "Seventy percent is a number full of hope and dread....Right now, only about 18 percent of Ebola patients in Liberia are being isolated. Each day the epidemic persists makes 70 percent more difficult to reach....For every 30-day delay, the peak number of new daily cases triples, according to a model of the disease created by the CDC....Despite its reputation as a killer, Ebola isn’t very good at reproducing itself. The virus is spread through body fluids, not air, and it often kills patients before they have a chance to spread the disease widely. When 70 percent of patients are isolated, the disease no longer spreads fast enough to replace dying or recovering patients. It burns itself out." Tom Randall in Bloomberg.

Related: Ebola's deadly math. Peter Coy in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Another barrier: Denial. "When stories circulate about a seemingly irrational response to disease, it's easy to dismiss the reaction as a bizarre denial of reality. But is it so hard to understand? In fact, attributing Ebola deaths to a curse is not as unreasonable as it might first seem....And we all are susceptible....Here in the United States, some parents opt against vaccinating their children....Some of the reaction in Ebola-affected areas is immediately understandable when put in context. Avoiding health facilities is reasonable if those facilities are associated with isolation and death, not cures....It's also important to consider the region's political history. In the past decade or so, both Liberia and Sierra Leone have emerged from debilitating civil wars." Hannah Bloch in NPR.

Interview: Researcher says one group of experts missing from this whole debate — anthropologists. NPR.

U.S. gives Liberians another extension of deportation protections. "President Barack Obama signed a memo extending a legal protection called 'deferred enforced departure' that continues a protection from deportation that has been in place for more than a decade. The government first granted Liberians temporary protective status during that country's bloody civil war....That original protection expired in October 2007. President George W. Bush then approved deferred enforced departure for the community. Obama later approved the same protection and Friday renewed it again for two more years." Alicia A. Caldwell in the Associated Press.

WHO sees small-scale use of Ebola vaccine in January. "The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it expected to begin small-scale use of two experimental Ebola vaccines in West Africa early next year and in the meantime transfusions of survivors' blood may offer the best hope of treatment. WHO is working with pharmaceutical companies and regulators to accelerate the use of a range of potential treatments to fight the disease, a senior WHO official said." Stephanie Nebehay in Reuters.

Other health care reads:

Dire warnings from Big Tobacco on e-cigs. Matt Richtel in The New York Times.

A Medicare program loses more health providers. Melinda Beck in The Wall Street Journal.

Animals interlude: 31 times cats were good people.

4. The economy is getting strong and also staying strong

The economy's emergence from winter hibernation was even stronger than we thought. "The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in 2-1/2 years in the second quarter with all sectors contributing to the jump in output in a bullish signal for the remainder of the year....The United States is bucking a spate of weaker overseas growth with the euro zone and Japan slumping, and growth in China slowing as well. With the U.S. economy firing on nearly all cylinders, traders are bracing for an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve next year....A faster pace of business spending and sturdier export growth than previously estimated were the two main factors behind the upward revision to U.S. GDP." Lucia Mutikani in Reuters.

The slow and steady recovery is slowly speeding up. "The jobs numbers show an economy that's having one of its best years since 2010, but the GDP numbers show it's having one of its worst. How do we reconcile this? Well, we don't. That's because nearly any time there's a data discrepancy like this, it eventually gets revised and smoothed away, which is exactly what we're seeing now....The economy, in other words, wasn't as bad as we thought a few months ago; nor is it as good as we think now. It's still just chugging along, like it has been the whole recovery. But the slow and steady recovery might, just might, be slowly speeding up. This, of course, is extremely provisional." Matt O'Brien in The Washington Post.

@JustinWolfers: Yet another data point suggesting that health care price growth is slowing. It's running at or below inflation. pic.twitter.com/JqRJMQ1vcr

Good sign the economy is staying strong: Payroll taxes. "Every day the U.S. Treasury reports the amount of revenue received from withholdings. This creates a handy, real-time gauge of the economy because the tax payment is typically collected from each paycheck. When people get raises, payroll-tax revenue rises the moment an increase goes into effect....That method shows payroll taxes are bringing in about 5% more revenue than a year ago. Over time this data has often done a decent job of tracking nominal GDP, especially when not distorted by changes in the tax code. In the recession, withholdings fell faster than GDP, but they subsequently bounced upward more quickly." Josh Zumbrun in The Wall Street Journal.

Big winner in the U.S. economic pickup: the dollar. "The United States dollar, after one of its most prolonged weak spells ever, has now re-emerged as the preferred currency for global investors....In part, this bullish mood is tied to signals from the Federal Reserve that it will soon stop its bond-buying program — a change that would lift interest rates and buoy the dollar. Yet the recent rally in the dollar — it has gained about 3.2 percent against the euro since Aug. 20, and about 8 percent against the yen since July 1 — underscores expectations that the United States economy will continue to grow at a faster clip than that of Europe, Japan and even large emerging markets, all of which are seeing their economies stagnate." Landon Thomas Jr. in The New York Times.

Charts: Benefits of economic expansion are increasingly going to the richest Americans. Neil Irwin in The New York Times.

New mantra at the Fed: patience. "What is striking is the similarity of the shifts in their arguments. They continue to note their concern about the high numbers of long-term unemployed, the people working part-time but would prefer full-time jobs, the discouraged workers. But the improving labor market means they also have to acknowledge that the recovery is on firmer footing. The government this morning increased its estimate of economic growth during the second quarter. The doves need another leg to stand on, and they seem to have settled on this: Go slowly to get it right." Ylan Q. Mui in The Washington Post.

Other economic reads:

Jobless receiving employment insurance at record low. Rob Garver in The Fiscal Times.

Where house prices shot up, rebound is slowest. Floyd Norris in The New York Times.

Marching band interlude: The Ohio State University marching band has a "Wizard of Oz"-themed halftime performance.

5. The New York Fed's cozy relationship with bankers

Long read: Inside the New York Fed: Carmen Segarra's secret recordings and a culture clash. Jake Bernstein in ProPublica.

A digest of it: A vivid glimpse of the Fed's cozy relationship with Goldman. Karen Weise in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Secret Goldman Sachs tapes show regulators still respect bankers too much. "The problem with Wall Street's cops is that, before the crisis, they didn't actually fall asleep on the job. Regulators knew the big banks were taking big risks, and had the power to do something about it. But they didn't. It's worse than outright neglect, since it's not as obvious how to fix it. And now, thanks to 46 hours of secret audio tapes from inside the New York Federal Reserve, we can hear that they're still having trouble fixing it. The problem isn't that regulators don't have the tools they need. It's that they won't use the tools they have, because they respect the bankers too much. It's not regulatory capture. It's regulatory deference." Matt O'Brien in The Washington Post.

Goldman promptly tightens conflict-of-interest rules. "Goldman Sachs Group Inc has tightened rules on investments its bankers can make in individual stocks and bonds, a company spokesman said on Friday....Goldman's decision, announced internally on Friday, also bars bankers from investing in activist or event-driven hedge funds, Andrew Williams, a Goldman Sachs spokesman, told Reuters. The rule will be effective immediately, he said. Separately on Friday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat on the banking committee, called for hearings into issues raised by secretly taped conversations between Federal Reserve supervisors and Goldman officials." Reuters.

Primary source: The New York Fed's response.

Other financial reads:

Fed questions bank maneuver to reduce hedge funds' dividend taxes. Jenny Strasburg in The Wall Street Journal.

Confused dog interlude: This dog thinks the open glass door is actually closed.

Wonkblog roundup

Secret Goldman Sachs tapes show regulators still respect bankers too much. Matt O'Brien.

When decorative gourd season starts and ends, according to data. Christopher Ingraham.

Banana splits: Chiquita inches closer to ditching its U.S. citizenship. Roberto A. Ferdman.

Should you be able to see any doctor you want? Jason Millman.

How liberals and conservatives raise their kids differently. Christopher Ingraham.

The slow and steady recovery is slowly speeding up. Matt O'Brien.

The new mantra of Fed doves: Patience. Ylan Q. Mui.

Name That Data! Week 10. Christopher Ingraham.

Scholar Zeke Emanuel says he wants to die at 75. Here’s why this author hopes to live. Harold Pollack.

Why do people on Wall Street make so much money? Matt O'Brien.

Et Cetera

Signaling post-Snowden era, iPhone locks out NSA. David E. Sanger and Brian X. Chen in The New York Times.

Rand Paul and Ted Cruz make appeals to social conservatives. Jeremy W. Peters in The New York Times.

Republicans shift away from tax-cutting mania. Brian Faler in Politico.

Military program will benefit few of the undocumented. Alan Gomez in USA Today.

DOD wants lenders to stop gouging troops on interest rates. Danielle Douglas in The Washington Post.

White House plan would require federal agencies to provide details about drones. Craig Whitlock in The Washington Post.

Got tips, additions, or comments? E-mail us.

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