Coffee Talk

Upper East Siders don't want the proles lingering around the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

"I don't think it's appropriate," Community Board 8 member Peggy Price said. "This is a neighborhood, not a place to hang out."

Shift back to renting isn't working out so well for the very poor:

"What we've seen is a decline in the homeownership rate since 2008, and we've seen rent being pushed up," pushing market-rate housing out of reach for an increasing number of people, said NLIHC chief executive Sheila Crowley in an interview. The gap between supply of affordable rental housing and demand from extremely-low income borrowers exists in all 50 states, but the problem is worst in Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Michigan. "Where you have the biggest problems is where you have the biggest difference between rich and poor," Ms. Crowley said.

Pharma shoots self, the rest of us, in the foot:

But what you didn't hear from Sen. Kagan today is what happened behind the scenes. It turns out that big pharma helped to kill an earlier version of the TREAT Act, which would have created an entirely new "progressive and exceptional approval" pathway for innovative new drugs: something that could have turbocharged drug development in several fields.

GM posts record profit on strong North American sales and Chinese growth.  But still slashing pensions for salaried workers:

GM's pension shortfall increased to $24.5 billion globally, from $21.4 billion a year ago, mostly because the company has reduced its projections on future returns. The company on Wednesday said it would end pension payments to 19,000 salaried workers to help reduce future pension risk.