Archive
The Year's Best Book on Our Great Divide
By every measure that matters, The Spirit Level helps us understand, relatively equal nations far outperform nations where income and wealth concentrate at the top. Many of us have read, over the past 12 months, a variety of books that address America's vast economic...
Bipartisan Blight
Health care reform suffered the torments of partisan obstruction. Now gird yourself for financial reform and the perils of bipartisan blight. In health care, lockstep Republican opposition caused months of delay, and empowered the likes of Connecticut's embittered...
Ten New Years Resolutions for the Obama Administration
Ten New Year’s Resolutions for The Obama Administration In 2010: 1. I will inspire. I am one of the most charismatic orators of our generation, but as president, I’ve moved away from that critical element of my leadership. While my speech to the Muslim world in Cairo...
Excise Tax World: Where Dead-Tree Media Goes Viral Overnight
Conventional wisdom has it that print journalism (and its editorial columns) are dead. Tell it to Bob Herbert. His column lambasting the excise tax went viral today on both the left and right ends of the Internet spectrum, despite having originating in what some have...
China's Currency: Pushing Water Uphill
Paul Krugman says Dean Baker is right, Dean Baker is right: it’s bizarre to report that Chinese officials are (a) worried about inflation and (b) determined not to let their currency appreciate without noting that these are contradictory policies.What Dean Baker wrote...
The President Gets It Wrong On the Excise Tax
The President came close to endorsing the so-called "Cadillac tax" when he was interviewed about health reform on NPR. Here's what the President said when the subject came up: "I'm on record as saying that taxing Cadillac plans that don't make people healthier, but...
Q&A With Responsible Pension Investment Expert Thomas Croft
Leo W. Gerard: Tom, your new book, Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, provides both cautionary tales for those responsible for investing workers’ pension funds and a field guide of practical assistance for institutional investors who want to...
Reclaiming "We"
It's not about adopting their politics, compromising our own, or even tolerating their tactics. It's about reclaiming "We" — The same "We" that Dr. King and civil rights workers sang about in "We Shall Overcome."
An Exchange About the Excise Tax With Ezra Klein of the Washington Post
Ezra Klein has responded thoughtfully to my criticism of him. I felt he should have mentioned the numerous studies which challenge the assumptions behind the excise tax, given his strong support for the tax. I'm glad he's done that. After all, the tax is...
Robbed By the Banks
Was there once a time when people robbed banks, instead of banks robbing people? Okay, maybe not, but it sounds like that's what Chase Bank did to Trina Lee — a nurse in Arizona who was laid-off two years ago, then had medical problems that keep her from working...
