economy

So it’s Day 3 of my fake campaign for Congress, and we’ve run into our first obstacle more »

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Here's a clip of our appearance on the Russia Today network to discuss the economies of Egypt and the United States.  It felt very important, while pointing out the possibly surprising similarities, to also point out their greater hardships and dangers - especially now, while they're showing so much courage.

The Egypt discussion allowed us to point out the risks of "austerity economics" and the problems that can arise when economic policy places a premature emphasis on deficits at times when growth and jobs investment are needed; and to point out the parallels between Egyptian and US decisions to offer tax cuts for high-earning individuals and corporations while more stimulus is still needed.

The other panelist was Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy.  The entire discussion lasted fifteen minutes.  For those who only want to see our participation, we were the lead-off commentator and reappeared at 7 minutes and 45 seconds (where, you may notice, I didn't answer a question for which I felt unqualified).  Here it is:

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Yesterday I wrote that the President may have sacrificed his long-term vision on trade and economic/industrial policy to day-to-day concerns and politics. The tax-cut deal is another indicator that a big-picture vision has been sacrificed. more »

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Mike Stark has posted a provocative on-the-street interview with Barney Frank about the recently released Fed data. Frank offers what is now a standard defense of the Fed's bailout operations: Without them, the economy would have collapsed, so critics should just quit whining. more »

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Kevin Drum gives a pretty thorough analysis of President Obama’s open assault on the mainstream Democratic Party at yesterday’s press conference, and declares that “programmatic liberalism is dead.” I think that’s more than a little exaggerated, but regardless, it’s not a fair description o more »

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While the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill did too little to address the problem of “too big to fail” banks, one of the big wins for reformers was the bill’s strong derivatives chapter which drags risky “over the counter” derivatives trades out of the shadows and into the light of day.

Reformers won strong provisions for clearing, margin and transparency, which will force the big banks to put real money behind their bets. Reformers also succeeded in securing mandatory position limits for key commodities that will protect consumers from price spikes caused by excessive speculation.

But now that the Wall Street reform bill is in the agency rulemaking process, bank lobbyists are back in droves, descending on regulators in an attempt to force giant loopholes into the law – loopholes worth billions of dollars for the big banks. more »

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Nearly 2 million U.S. workers are facing premature elimination of federally-funded unemployment benefits if Congress doesn't act by November 30. Yet the talk dominating Washington, D.C. these days is about extending George Bush's tax giveaway to the rich. Really?

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Washington is inundated with deficit commissions. The country has piled up a huge debt because we cut taxes for the wealthy and borrowed to make up the difference. more »

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Watch out, they’re coming. more »

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The Tea Party likes to wrap itself in "grassroots" contempt for wealthy elites, but the 12 leading Tea Party Senate candidates have accepted over $4.6 million in campaign contributions from Wall Street for the upcoming election. more »

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