"Words that make actions speak louder."
…"[O]ur troop commitment in Afghanistan cannot be open-ended — because the nation that I am most interested in building is our own." —President Obama But Afghanistan comes first? President Obama made the best possible case for dispatching more troops to Afghanistan last night. But his speech left me with a haunting foreboding. Surely this is […]
Will the Senate vote another term for Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve? Should it? Two months ago, Bernanke looked like a lock. But now unemployment is over 10 percent and rising, while Wall Street bankers are stocking up on vintage champagne, ready to celebrate the highest bonuses in history. As head of […]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gets it. No wonder she drives the wingnuts batty. With the Senate befuddled by the antics of Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus on health care and the White House Clintonistas lobbying President Obama to devote his January State of the Union address to deficit reduction, Pelosi ladled up a portion of […]
This week, Barack Obama trips to China as part of an eight-day trip to Asia. The White House paints a full agenda: Afghanistan, human rights, North Korean nukes, climate change, trade relations, and the economy. But it’s really just the economy, stupid. For decades during the Cold War, the U.S. gave security concerns priority over […]
Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor — Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners… —Langston Hughes Barack Obama is a leader […]
We’ve got a new red scare. Forget Glenn Beck; the fear isn’t that America is going red, it’s that it is in the red. Conservatives in both parties are raising alarms about deficits and government spending. Well, get over it. If we are going to generate growth and shared prosperity out of the mess we […]
Campaign for America’s Future co-director Robert Borosage praised the House Financial Services Committee for taking steps to protect consumers from predatory financial practices by approving the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, in an official statement. In praising the legislation, Borosage noted that the bill should be strengthened as it moves through Congress […]
They are popping the bubbly on Wall Street. Million-dollar bonuses, the Dow at 10,000, the casino is open again. Forget President Obama, who says we can’t go back to an economy where finance pockets 40 percent of the profits. We’re already headed there. The current-account deficit is down as Americans have cut back spending. But […]
Even as the health insurance companies draw down on health care reform, another showdown is just beginning in Washington. On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee will begin marking up the first legislation to try to curb Wall Street’s casino. And if you think the health insurance companies are packing heat, wait till you see […]
As the House Financial Services Committee begins markup on Wednesday of key financial reform legislation, the stakes are clear. Without strong regulation of the banks and the shadow banking system, large banks will feel free to gamble with the assumption that taxpayers will cover their losses. This is a recipe for another financial debacle. Yet, […]