"Words that make actions speak louder."
Where are the prosecutions of bank officers for defrauding investors or the government? This isn’t an academic question or an eruption of pitchfork populism. Personal accountability is vital in board rooms. We know regulation doesn’t work very well. Regulators get captured. Bank lobbyists dominate the backroom games. Government agencies have too few investigators to police […]
On the 45th anniversary of the passage of Medicare, the blog corrente offers this charming story about LBJ talking with his press secretary, Bill Moyers, about why he’s for Social Security and Medicare. A good lesson at a time when politicians are talking about the need to cut Social Security to balance the budget. As […]
Washington is enmeshed in the economic version of the phony war. The two sides have declared war on one another, but neither has faced up to the fierce battles yet to come. Too few seem aware of the staggering challenges that face this country. Here is a summary of the carnage wrought by the Great […]
Washington is enmeshed in a partisan debate about gestures — with Republicans now boasting that Americans will reward them for saying no to just about everything. No to forestalling the layoff of teachers. No to jobs in the cities. No to infrastructure projects. No. Democrats respond by offering up smaller and smaller, bite-sized pieces of […]
In the deficit hysteria now sweeping Washington, Social Security has emerged in the bull’s-eye as a target for cuts. Perpetually tanned Republican House Minority leader John Boehner, called for hiking the retirement age to 70. The Democratic House Majority Leader, wrong-way Steny Hoyer, argued for hiking it to 69. Various proposals float to change the […]
The right-wing smear machine that cost an exemplary Agriculture Department official her job should be denounced for what it is: a high-tech, low-rent McCarthyism that launches search-and-destroy missions with no purpose but poisonous partisanship. That the Obama administration keeps retreating whenever this hit squad starts strafing someone — firing Van Jones; disassociating itself from ACORN […]
The following was originally published by Politico With more than 20 million people unemployed or underemployed, deflation looming, trade deficits rising and the economy staggering, American elites are hyperventilating about balancing the books. While most economists talk about the need for short-term stimulus, this looks increasingly difficult. Republicans filibuster unemployment insurance, demanding spending cuts to […]
They forget to dance with those that brung them Consider the current tempest about the “poisonous relations” between Obama and business. Former Clintonista Roger Altman, a Democratic investment banker, offers advice on how to mend the fences to both sides of the simmering divide. Altman sensibly suggests that Obama has been more business champion than […]
They’d rather switch than fight. Consider. Elizabeth Warren, brilliant Harvard Law Professor, stalwart defender of America’s beleagued middle class, championed the Consumer Financial Protection Agency as essential to protecting consumers from financial fraud and abuse. Against the odds, she managed to get the White House to make the reform a signature of its financial reform […]
Conservatives have reverted back to calling for corporate tax cuts to stimulate the economy and put people to work. Consider this mindless reflex rather than policy. Corporations are sitting on $1.7 trillion in cash, yet not hiring people. A furious argument is waged about why they don’t hire. The Chamber of Commerce, reduced under head […]