Brookings Today, 2/27/15

A roundup of some of the content published today at Brookings.

• Counties are important. Bruce Katz reflects on a recent event with four county leaders, noting that “Counties are hugely important, they are home to some of the most innovative work we are seeing in local governments across the nation, and they need a new compact with state and federal government to reach their full potential.”

• Negotiate over DHS shutdown? Elaine Kamarck calls House Republicans’ inability to pass Department of Homeland Security funding because of their dispute with President Obama’s immigration policies “unbelievable.” She says the negotiations between Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are relevant here.

• Keep banks open for world’s poor. Peer Stein and John Villasenor argue that “Preserving access to the global financial system for the poorest and most vulnerable is a critical imperative, both economically and ethically.”

• Me? I’m not rich! Richard Reeves explores the phenomenon of people in the top 1 percent not actually feeling like they are rich compared to others in the top group. “So long as people who are rich by any reasonable definition are able to convince themselves that the label applies only to those even higher up the ladder, “he says, “and who appear to be rising even higher, the prospects for greater equity in the tax system will remain bleak.”

• Russia in the Arctic. Pavel Baev looks at Russia’s intensified interest in Arctic affairs.

• Slowing antibiotic resistance. Gregory Daniel discusses approaches to slowing resistance to antibiotics.