In response to a report released last week by the federal Justice Department, the Missouri Supreme Court has assigned a state judge to take charge of all municipal cases in Ferguson. The municipal judge there, Ronald J. Brockmeyer, has resigned.

The report described the court -- and Brockmeyer in particular -- as being remarkably ingenious in finding ways to extract money from residents of St. Louis County through traffic fines and court fees, often violating the law themselves in doing so.

Some readers might have felt that there was nothing unusual about these practices. After all, don't cops everywhere do what they can to issue traffic tickets? That was Bret Stephens's question in his column in The Wall Street Journal. "Using ticket revenue and other fines to raise revenues is one of the oldest municipal tricks in the book," he writes. "That turns out to be as true in Milwaukee, Nashville and Washington, D.C., as it is in Ferguson. So are we talking about institutional racism or just the usual government bloodsucking?"

Since there might be some lingering confusion on this point, it's worth noting again that yes, indeed, we are talking about institutional racism. The report described a "focus on revenue" that "was almost wholly a focus on black people as revenue," as Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in The Atlantic. "Black people in Ferguson were twice as likely to be searched during a stop, twice as likely to receive a citation when stopped, and twice as likely to be arrested during the stop, and yet were 26 percent less likely to be found with contraband. Black people were more likely to see a single incident turn into multiple citations."

As noted previously in this newsletter, Ferguson collects an average of $100 per person in fines and fees annually -- and that's just how much they collected. The court issued more than enough arrest warrants to serve one to every man, woman and child in the city in an attempt to force people to pay fines they can't afford, as Wonkblog reported in November. More than 14 percent of the city's budget is paid for this way, and the situation was even worse in other cities in St. Louis County:

In three jurisdictions -- Calverton Park, Bella Villa and Vinita Terrace -- more than 50 percent of municipal revenue is collected through the courts, according to the data from Better Together. Their populations are 1,293, 729, and 277 respectively.

The larger town of Webster Groves has sounder finances. The population of 22,995 is 89.9 percent white, and fines and fees account for only 7 percent of municipal revenue. For the city of St. Louis proper, which is not in the county of the same name, the figure is about 2 percent.

To take Stephens's example of Washington, D.C., the city's current budget states that officials expect to collect about $226 million in fines this year, accounting for 3 percent of the city's general-fund revenue of $7.5 billion.

Stephens concludes that "there is no truth in statistics." But putting them in context can be revealing.

What's in Wonkbook: 1) Walker's right-to-work law 2) Opinions, including Waldman on Republicans and Iran 3) O'Malley as the anti-Hillary, and more

Chart of the day:  How much will the Affordable Care Act cost? Several times since the law was passed, revised projections have given smaller and smaller numbers in answer to that question. The Washington Post.

Wisconsin is now a right-to-work state. "Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, considered a likely Republican presidential contender, signed a bill into law on Monday allowing private-sector employees to avoid joining unions or paying them dues even when covered by union-negotiated contracts. ... The measures have been cast by supporters as designed to retain and attract businesses and jobs, while opponents brand them as thinly disguised assaults on organized labor that will drive down wages and leave workers vulnerable." Brendan O'Brien for Reuters.

It's Walker's second serious blow to unions there. "The anti-union law passed here four years ago, which made Gov. Scott Walker a national Republican star and a possible presidential candidate, has turned out to be even more transformative than many had predicted. Walker had vowed that union power would shrink, workers would be judged on their merits, and local governments would save money. Unions had warned that workers would lose benefits and be forced to take on second jobs or find new careers. Many of those changes came to pass, but the once-thriving ­public-sector unions were not just shrunken — they were crippled. ... The 2011 law stripped most public-sector unions of their collective-bargaining rights is difficult when workers consider the challenges of the present. 'I don’t see the point of being in a union anymore,' said Dan Anliker, a 34-year-old technology teacher." Robert Samuels in The Washington Post. 2/22/15.

The next battleground for Republicans and labor? New Mexico. "Late last month, the state's House of Representatives passed a right-to-work bill, setting up a face-off with the Senate, which could raise the profile of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, positioning her as a Walker-esque rising star for the GOP who is unafraid of challenging big labor." Eric Garcia in National Journal.

Even President Obama is getting involved. "Obama inserted himself into the Republican presidential race Monday night with a statement blasting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for signing 'right-to-work' legislation earlier in the day. The unusual statement – the White House has not often spoken out about state laws – comes as Walker's star continues to rise in a crowded GOP field." Dan Berman in National Journal.

WALDMAN: Republicans' letter to Iran is unprecedented. "It’s one thing to criticize the administration’s actions, or try to impede them through the legislative process. But to directly communicate with a foreign power in order to undermine ongoing negotiations? That is appalling. ... Republicans seem to have concluded that there is one set of rules and norms that apply in ordinary times, and an entirely different set that applies when Barack Obama is the president. You no longer need to show the president even a modicum of respect. You can tell states to ignore the law. You can sabotage delicate negotiations with a hostile foreign power by communicating directly with that power." The Washington Post.

CHAIT: The White Hosue has given up on negotiating with Republicans. "The original premise of Obama’s first presidential campaign was that he could reason with Republicans—or else, by staking out obviously reasonable stances, force them to moderate or be exposed as extreme and unyielding. It took years for the White House to conclude that this was false... Ever since Republicans took control of the House four years ago, attempts to court Republicans have mostly failed while simultaneously dividing Democratic voters. Obama’s most politically successful maneuvers, by contrast, have all been unilateral and liberal." New York.

The Federal Reserve needs humans, write Erick Beinhocker and David Hendry of the University of Oxford.  "The Fed's monetary policy has long been set by the Federal Open Market Committee, which consists of the governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the president of the New York Fed and four regional Fed presidents on a rotating basis. Now, some legislators led by Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, want to replace this group of people with a fixed mechanical rule. Known as the Taylor rule -- after its inventor, Stanford University economist John Taylor -- the rule crunches numbers such as inflation, output and potential growth, then spits out an interest rate that in theory should set the economy on the right course. Studies have shown that the rule is not a bad approximation of what many central banks do, particularly during normal times. The past eight years, though, have not been normal times -- demonstrating just how dangerous it would be to apply an academic simplification such as the Taylor rule to the real world." Bloomberg View.

WOLFERS: Investors believe the Fed is more likely to undershoot than to overshoot its target for inflation. "While traders view inflation of roughly 2 percent as the most likely outcome, the market is also telling us the probability of other levels of inflation — or deflation. And it is saying that the risks of missing the 2 percent target are extremely unbalanced: It is twice as likely that inflation will come in below the Fed’s target as above it. ... A common concern voiced by the Fed’s hard-money critics is that the central bank has already increased the money supply so much that it will lose control of inflation as the economy recovers. The market does not give much stock to these concerns, however, suggesting that there’s only a 1 percent chance that inflation will average 5 percent or more over the next five years." The New York Times.

IP: Overseas, central banks have realized that in fact, yes, you can charge people to loan you money. "It has long been said that interest rates cannot go below zero because people will simply hold physical currency rather than incur a charge for leaving money in the bank. But the 'zero bound' was never really zero for the simple fact that money is a pain to store and to use. ... Big investors, corporations, banks and governments hold hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions, as cash. Even when these people aren’t spending cash, they’re using it to settle huge sums with each over night to facilitate trillions of dollars in payments. Keeping this money in the form of deposits or bonds makes transacting these sums relatively easy thanks to a complex, well-developed payments and settlement infrastructure. An alternative system based on physical currency would require setting up storage houses of currency and shuttling large mounds of it between them." The Wall Street Journal.

Europe must give up either national sovereignty -- or the euro, writes the Hoover Institution's Timothy Garton Ash. "Let Berlin parlay explicit debt forgiveness into continued meaningful reform by the new Greek government. Or agree on fiscal transfers from richer states to poorer ones as in a proper federal union such as the United States, where nobody expects Alabama to perform like Silicon Valley any time soon. But in creating a monetary union without a fiscal or political one, Europeans put the cart before the horse. National democracy therefore stands in a growing tension with European integration." The Los Angeles Times.

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Books interlude: Robert Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone," is back with a new book available Tuesday called "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis." Emily Badger writes that the book is about inequality: "Not between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, but between two groups that have also fallen further apart: children born to educated parents who are more likely to read to them as babies, to drive them to dance class, to nudge them into college themselves — and children whose parents live at the edge of economic survival." Here's a chart. The Washington Post.

BROOKS: The cost of moral relativism falls on the poor. "We now have multiple generations of people caught in recurring feedback loops of economic stress and family breakdown, often leading to something approaching an anarchy of the intimate life. But it’s increasingly clear that sympathy is not enough. It’s not only money and better policy that are missing in these circles; it’s norms. The health of society is primarily determined by the habits and virtues of its citizens. In many parts of America there are no minimally agreed upon standards for what it means to be a father. There are no basic codes and rules woven into daily life, which people can absorb unconsciously and follow automatically." The New York Times.

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Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley prepares to run as the anti-Hillary. "O’Malley, who told reporters in Concord that he’d make a presidential decision 'by spring,' is getting ready to run as the sober, credible anti-Hillary. That message is designed for both varieties of New Hampshire Democrats that are not already on board for a Clinton restoration. The first group consists of progressive dreamers who, for now, are trying to draft Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren into the race. The second: Granite State pols who think their state is owed a real primary." David Weigel for Bloomberg.

A state judge will take over the municipal court in Ferguson, Mo. "The Missouri Supreme Court announced Monday that it will take the 'extraordinary action' of reassigning all Ferguson municipal court cases to the circuit court, starting next week. ... Ferguson municipal Judge resigned his position Monday afternoon. ... Brockmeyer was criticized in the Justice Department report for acting as a revenue generator for the court and the city, helping to bring in millions through 'creative' use of fines and fees, while dismissing tickets for himself and friends. The report also rapped him for instilling fear in traffic defendants, even jailing one for 10 days because the man refused to answer questions in court." Jennifer Mann in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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