CHANGE: As regulators set rules for equity-based crowdfunding, investors prepare for its impact.

Here, by the way, is a paper on the subject by my colleague Joan Heminway.

ED DRISCOLL: Green Supremacism: The Morgenthau Plan Reborn. “While the Morgenthau Plan is now merely a footnote in history, ever since the late ’60s and early 1970s, the desire for punitive reprimitivization on a global scale has become all the rage amongst the wackier elements of the environmental left, including the fellow recently spotlighted by John Aziz at the Zero Hedge econo-blog, whom Aziz dubs, ‘The Face of Genocidal Eco-Fascism.'”

BLUE INEQUALITY: More Earners at Extremes in New York Than in U.S. “The wealthiest 1 percent of New York City residents took in nearly one-third of the personal income in the city in 2009 — almost double the comparable proportion nationwide, a new study shows. In a report scheduled to be released Monday, the city comptroller’s office found that large percentages of New Yorkers earned high incomes and low incomes, leaving a smaller middle class than in the nation as a whole.”

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in mystery, thriller & suspense.

Also, today only: AccuSharp Knife, Garden Tool & Scissor Sharpener Multipack, $19.99.

MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATS STAND BY ELIZABETH WARREN. “The Democratic Party is really stuck. . . . They essentially cleared the path for her as a candidate, and they can’t get rid of her now.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Can We Still Win Wars? “Given that the United States fields the costliest, most sophisticated, and most lethal military in the history of civilization, that should be a silly question. We have enough conventional and nuclear power to crush any of our enemies many times over. Why then did we seem to bog down in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan? The question is important since recently we do not seem able to translate tactical victories into long-term strategic resolutions. Why is that? What follows are some possible answers.”

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Christie Bashes Obama For ‘Posing And Preening.’

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Kentucky Republicans on Saturday that President Barack Obama was “posing and preening” instead of working to resolve pressing issues facing the country.

“He is the most ill-prepared person to assume the presidency in my lifetime,” Christie told some 600 Kentucky Republicans at a Lexington hotel. “This is a guy who literally is walking around in a dark room trying to find the light switch of leadership.”

Ouch.

Related: WaPo: Obama Team Messes Up On Bain, Again.

First, the original Bain attack ad was weak, easily rebutted because Romney was not at the steel company at the time of the layoffs depicted in the ad. To make matters worse, the day the ad was released Obama was fundraising among his group of investment bankers, resulting in widespread ridicule in the media. And don’t forget Obama’s former car czar also blasted the ad.

Then along comes Booker and his forced recantation. That only highlighted his searing indictment on “MTP.” Because it wasn’t, in the Obama team’s view, sufficiently convincing, it necessitated the edit. This clown show resembles more a Communist propaganda operation (shall Booker next be airbrushed out of all photos with Obama?) than a supposedly formidable presidential campaign.

The Bain attack now is largely in tatters, savaged by Democrats who don’t want to be the Occupy political party, by the media (which has begun to denigrate the Obama team’s prowess) and of course, by Romney, who has turned the tables comparing his real experience in the private sector with Obama’s crony capitalism.

This is one more “shiny object” gambit (e.g. “war on women,” gay marriage) gone wrong. Not only has Obama utterly failed to stain Romney or distract the public from the economy, but he also seems to have convinced even the previously sympathetic media that his campaign is both desperate and inept.

Well, it is. Say, remember in 2008 when Obama touted his campaign as evidence of his leadership skills?

UPDATE: Numbers: Big Money Dries Up For Obama Campaign. That’s okay, they’ll make it up with unverified credit-card transactions.

CHANGE: Romney Fund-Raising Closing In On Obama’s.

BRIAN DARLING: CONGRESS NOT STANDING GROUND ON SECOND AMENDMENT: “Are gun voters being taken for granted? Republicans control the House and self-styled pro-gun Democrats abound in the Senate. So why has neither chamber addressed any of the major gun rights issues awaiting resolution?”

YOU NEED FOREIGN EXCHANGE. IT MOSTLY COMES FROM TOURISM. SO YOU RIOT AND ATTACK FOREIGNERS. RESULT: Germans Just Say No To Greek Tourism, As Holiday Bookings Plunge By 30%. This is similar to the problem in Egypt.

Come to America, Germans. We even have good beer now.

THE HILL: House GOP, Romney take aim at Obama’s stance on coal industry.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Law School Transparency Calls for Resignation of Rutgers Dean and ABA Investigation of Improper Recruiting of Law Students.

TIGERHAWK: The Lobbying Ban And Concentration Of Power. “When government at one level or another accounts for 30% of GDP, it is a huge source of business and regulation that any executive ignores at his or her peril. The extent of lobbying, therefore, is in direct relationship to government’s intrusion in to the economy, and since this government has intruded more than any predecessor going back at least to the first half of the Carter Administration, lobbying has no doubt grown notwithstanding Barack Obama’s stated ambition.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: G-8 Leaders Agree: More Rosy Platitudes, Empty Statements Needed. Well, they’ve got the supply. . . .

Plus, decoding the spin:

For the New York Times, the desire to make President Obama look good and the journalistic need to whomp up some drama led to a story line about “pressure” being put on Germany’s Angela Merkel to shift to a more accommodative, ‘pro-growth’ path. No doubt she is under pressure, but did peer pressure or anything else at the G-8 change her mind? The Times story tries hard to make it look as if something was going on, but close reading of the story shows no movement in Merkel’s position from her first meeting with Hollande and the final communique simply repeats the usual bilge. Judging from the quotes in the piece, the best headline would have been “Merkel Rejects Obama Plea for Change in German Policy”, but the misleading and vacuous “World Leaders Urge Growth, Not Austerity” struck the Times as a happier way to go. (The biggest piece of drama in the story, President Putin’s decision to stay home, sending only his number two prime minister Medvedev, was largely passed over.)

So typical.

THE HILL: Wyden: White House-backed cybersecurity bill sacrifices privacy.

SLOWDOWN, YOU BET: China slashes raw-material purchases.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Sixty Minutes asks: Is College Worth The Cost?

If only there were a place to go for more information.

SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR THE First Annual Walter Duranty Prize For Journalistic Mendacity. It shouldn’t be hard to find candidates . . . .

SALENA ZITO: Biden’s Words Fall On Deaf Ears in Ohio.

Many Youngstown attendees at Biden’s event do not support him or the president.

Bob McClain and his wife, Myra, came to M7 Technologies to support their friends’ family business. Neither supports the Obama-Biden ticket.

“We are friends of the owners — that is why we came, to show support for the Garvey family,” said Bob. At 71, he’s retired but volunteers full-time as a counselor for Mahoning Valley small-business owners.

“Our vote is going for who is best to lead on the economy. That is Romney, for us,” said Myra as her husband nodded.

Richard Furillo stood with his son Matthew at his son’s workplace; a lifelong Democrat, he voted for Obama in 2008 but won’t again. “I don’t know why I did it but I cannot stand any more ‘change,'” he said, referring to the president’s old campaign slogan.

Father and son both said they attended the event to support the company.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a sitting vice president,” added Matthew, also a Democrat. He, too, said he will vote for Romney.

Standing beside them, Jeff Cunningham echoed their sentiments: “The biggest challenge in this country is creating jobs that last, jobs that sustain families.” The 36-year-old Mahoning Valley native said he will vote for Romney.

Montgomery “Monty” Deruyter sat several rows from where Biden stood to address the crowd. The 43-year-old father of two started working at M7 as a machinist two months ago; uncertainty drives him to favor Romney.

“I hold both parties at arm’s length but trust Romney’s business skills to lead on the economy,” he said.

I suspect this is showing up in internal polls, and accounts for why the Obama campaign seems so worried.

TAR. FEATHERS. Under Asset Forfeiture Law, Wisconsin Cops Confiscate Families’ Bail Money.

When the Brown County, Wis., Drug Task Force arrested her son Joel last February, Beverly Greer started piecing together his bail.

She used part of her disability payment and her tax return. Joel Greer’s wife also chipped in, as did his brother and two sisters. On Feb. 29, a judge set Greer’s bail at $7,500, and his mother called the Brown County jail to see where and how she could get him out. “The police specifically told us to bring cash,” Greer says. “Not a cashier’s check or a credit card. They said cash.”

So Greer and her family visited a series of ATMs, and on March 1, she brought the money to the jail, thinking she’d be taking Joel Greer home. But she left without her money, or her son.

Instead jail officials called in the same Drug Task Force that arrested Greer. A drug-sniffing dog inspected the Greers’ cash, and about a half-hour later, Beverly Greer said, a police officer told her the dog had alerted to the presence of narcotics on the bills — and that the police department would be confiscating the bail money.

“I told them the money had just come from the bank,” Beverly Greer says. “We had just taken it out. If the money had drugs on it, then they should go seize all the money at the bank, too. I just don’t understand how they could do that.”

Tar. Feathers.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): “Work ‘Til You Drop:” Number of Americans Working Past 65 at All-Time High.

SHOCKER: NYT’s Tom Friedman Bombs on ‘Jeopardy!’ Don’t think this will stop him from making Sarah Palin jokes.

UPDATE: Reader Corey Hall emails: “So I guess ‘Your Chinese Masters’ wasn’t a category?” Heh.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: 11 Public Universities With The Worst Graduation Rates.

UPDATE: Reader Clay Nielsen writes:

The collection of 11 worst public university graduation rates is a little misleading – at least as far as the Kent State University branch campuses are concerned. A majority of the students leaving these campuses early are simply using them as a low-cost way to get college prerequisites out of the way close to home. They spend a year of two there, to get a lot of the early classes out of the way, then transfer to their more expensive school of choice for specialty classes and eventual graduation.

It is a very common tactic here – I did it in the late 1970s and my son is pursuing the same strategy now. My daughter, who will graduate next year, plans a four-year private college course (ouch!).

Ouch, indeed.