"Words that make actions speak louder."
It can be hard to grasp all the details of Section 716, the Senate provision that would force big banks to spin off their swap desks, but the principle isn’t that complicated: Banks that get access to discounted money from the Federal Reserve, or federally-guaranteed deposit insurance, shouldn’t be able to gamble with them. And […]
As oil mucked the Gulf of Mexico and families mourned 11 dead rig workers, BP officials proclaimed that the corporation’s priority always was safety. This tracked the tack taken by Massey Energy, whose officials also declared safety was paramount after an explosion in the corporation’s Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 workers. CEOs commonly make […]
It’s 2010, census year. The headcount was in April and the results will be released in December. Next spring the action begins: redistricting. If you thought the November elections mattered for control of Congress, the forward momentum of the progressive movement or the new energy economy, add another item to your list. November’s winners will […]
Today the country is looking for ways to cut spending and borrowing. Yet military spending, the biggest spending item in the budget, is barely part of the discussion — obviously because of the amount of campaign and lobbying dollars it generates. The corrupting influence of lobbying money is clear: the fact that the Soviet Union […]
An emergency 1 percent ‘wealth tax’ on the nation’s richest 1 percent could raise enough revenue to keep all our teachers on the job and libraries open. But our dysfunctional political system can’t even raise that possibility. Last year may have been the worst year, economically, that most Americans alive today have ever experienced. By […]
Feel free to read Dana Milbank if that sort of thing appeals to you, but don’t imagine for a minute that you’re learning anything. That would be like studying the French Revolution by reading Marie Antoinette’s cake recipes. The Milbank school of journalism – which at this point is American journalism -doesn’t just fail to […]
After all this time China is still manipulating its currency, the Obama administration is still not able to get them to change, their exports are still rising relative to the rest of the world, global imbalances are still bubbling out of control, jobs are still being lost, and the Senate is getting ready to force […]
If you thought one of the biggest oil spills in history would automatically propel strong legislation to cap carbon emissions and avert a climate crisis, think again. Democratic Senate leaders beat back a conservative attempt to kneecap the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, but not without six Dems defecting. Only 53 Senators backed […]
The Campaign for America’s Future’s America’s Future Now! conference just finished. It revealed a remarkable unity of vision, and a careful balance in troubled times. Progressives came together and credited President Obama and the Congressional Democrats for accomplishments so far: Comprehensive health care reform. A Recovery Act that kept us from falling off the cliff. […]
The United Steelworkers (USW) and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) today announced a a joint ‘Framework Agreement’ to create a ‘Partnership for Progress’ to accelerate the development and deployment of wind energy manufacturing in the U.S. Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association and Leo Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers were joined […]