I was getting ready to attend next week’s America’s Future Now conference, whose theme is that progressives must lead, and thinking about the relationship problems progressives are having with Barack […]

President Obama’s Department of Justice announced last week that there would be no indictments in the collapse of AIG, an event which led to a worldwide economic collapse and cost […]

Here’s an audio clip of an appearance yesterday with Hannah-Beth Jackson on Santa Barbara progressive radio to discuss the current state of financial reform and what activists can do to […]

There’s a lot to admire about the President’s consensus-seeking style, however frustrating it can be to activists. But his press conference yesterday, and the management problems that led up to […]

The Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), CREDO, and MoveOn have launched a petition campaign to ensure that the House/Senate deliberations on financial reform be “fully transparent.” The good news? The […]

If you have a yellow “Support Our Troops” sticker on your car – or even if you don’t – you should know the name of the Senators who just traded […]

Momentum is building for putting a historic conference between the House and Senate online and on live television, as they debate the future of financial reform. This is the time […]

Here are the words they used for health care reform (or the buzzwords their consultants told them to use): “Secret”! “Backroom”! “Behind closed doors”! “Dealing”! Or, as one especially unsubtle […]

Turning conflicts of interest into “win/win” situations can be a form of brilliance. Pretending those conflicts don’t exist can be a form of indifference. That’s why it was troubling to […]

Things have been moving pretty quickly lately in the interlocking worlds of politics and financial reform. While there is a lot we don’t know, here are three statements we can […]

Anyone who’s ever seen a Terminator movie knows that civilization ended when a computer system called “Skynet” came alive and tried to terminate the human race by starting a nuclear […]

“Budgetball is an innovative sport that combines fiscal strategy and physical play.“ – Budgetball Rulebook, “Pass the Ball – Not The Buck” Billionaire Pete Peterson is funding an elaborate campaign […]

The trade association for payday lenders objected to what they called my “name calling” in their blog yesterday … then called me a “pig.”Why? Because I quoted Aristotle and told […]

There are basically two dimensions to the financial crisis. One is the way finance has evolved into a gambling operation that’s fundamentally risky and fails to contribute to the real […]

The country needs meaningful financial reform a lot more than it needs more political analysis. Yesterday, however, the two became even more intertwined than usual. By compromising on good policy […]

Harry Reid got it right when he said that the GOP is “making love to Wall Street” – and when politicians and bankers “make love” it’s the public that gets […]

An anonymous email’s been making the rounds on Wall Street from some loser who thinks he’s a shark. It’s a nasty piece of work that reveals the mentality of the […]

We thought we’d write a little radio ad for the SAFE Banking proposal being put forward in the House and Senate. But this ad’s not just promoting a policy – […]

What we’ve been witnessing in Washington isn’t just political positioning by one party looking to deny the other a victory, although it’s certainly that. We’re also seeing the death struggle […]

This may be the single biggest lie in modern American history: “Most Republicans want a bill,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, “but they want a substantive bill.” We’ve criticized the Democrats […]

The Senate Budget Committee nearly voted to break up Wall Street’s biggest banks. But four Democrats helped pro-Wall Street Republicans kill an amendment from Bernie Sanders that would “require the […]

If you’ve ever wondered what the phrase “the sound of silence” means, you should’ve been listening when the President invited “the titans of industry” to join him in promoting financial […]

Tomorrow President Obama will return to Cooper Union in New York, where he gave a speech on financial reform as a candidate two years ago. We’re told that his advisors […]

It’s looking like the SEC/Goldman Sachs lawsuit could open up a whole new can of worms, one that Tim Geithner and some bank executives aren’t likely to be very happy […]

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon knew what he was talking about when he said that “”large corporate America is in very, very, very, very good shape.” It’s a crude and […]

When it comes to the economy, the color of wisdom is orange. Some students at Syracuse University are protesting the selection of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as their commencement […]

To call Robert Rubin an overpaid riverboat gambler would be to do a disservice to riverboat gamblers. To be sure, Rubin’s salesmanship, arrogance, and cold lack of remorse fit the […]

(we’re liveblogging the Financial Reform hearings. Come view the live feed here) 9:20 am Here in the Rayburn building Robert Rubin, the onetime King of American financial policy, is lecturing […]

Alan Greenspan’s testimony before the Angelides Commission certainly provided a target-rich environment, as they say in the Pentagon. Unfortunately the Commission missed all its targets, leaving the American public as […]

Alan Greenspan testifies before the Angelides Commission on Wednesday. Without wishing him any personal ill will, let’s hope he gets a grilling. We come not to bury Greenspan, but to […]

Do homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages deserve to lose their homes? That’s what finance commentator Barry Ritholtz says, in a post called “More Foreclosures, Please.” Ritholtz must have […]

What secrets are hidden in the Federal Reserve’s trillion-dollar shadow? Economic recovery depends on confidence, and confidence requires knowledge. But Senators like Chris Dodd and Judd Gregg don’t want us […]

Just when you thought you’d had enough of Goldman Sachs running things — and running them into the ground — along comes Meg Whitman. Most Californians know she’s using her […]

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner delivered a populist stemwinder of a speech the other day, bringing his rhetorical A-game with comments like these: “Listen less to those whose judgments brought us […]

Sen. Jim DeMint famously predicted that health reform would be Obama’s “Waterloo(1),” saying: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this … it will break him.” It looks like Jim […]

Recently we wrote that Sen. Chris Dodd’s draft financial reform bill would create a “cumbersome bureaucracy.” That wasn’t an endorsement of a conservative talking point: The operative word was “cumbersome.” […]

Rep. Alan Grayson has written a letter calling for the release of all documents and materials contained on AIG’s internal servers. His idea deserves support. US taxpayers rescued AIG and […]

The CBO now says health reform will cut the Federal deficit by $138 billion That’s a win for the bill’s backers, and should make it tougher for self-described ‘fiscal conservatives’ […]