August 18, 2010
The Looming Battle over Social Security
“Social Security is not the trouble; it’s just the target.”[1] It would appear that there will be a new battle awaiting us on the other side of the mid-term elections – as though we did not already have battles enough – one about Social Security and its future. [2] read more »
August 9, 2010
The Poverty That Blights Us All
We face a political season in the fall that will be full of Republican calls to continue the Bush tax cuts and conservative demands to scale back government spending. Those calls are already in full cry, read more »
August 1, 2010
The Foreclosure Crisis That Will Not Go Away
When the financial crisis broke in September 2008, it was widely understood – both in policy-making circles and in popular conversation – that problems in the U.S. housing market were central to the unfolding events. But thereafter, the events themselves took center stage: and the problems of the housing sector, though not forgotten, slipped down […] read more »
July 24, 2010
The Twenty Reports of Elizabeth Warren
Reports have circulated widely this week about unease in senior administration and Democratic Party circles – unease about the possibility of Elizabeth Warren heading the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. read more »
July 18, 2010
The Inmates and the Asylum: The Madness of Cutting Deficits in the Depth of a Recession
(co-authored with Donald Frey) You might think, might you not, that policy-makers and those advising them are intelligent and caring human beings? Well, we are beginning to wonder whether in fact they are. We are beginning to wonder whether the intelligent ones really care, or if those who care are really intelligent. read more »
July 2, 2010
Moderate Republicans, Going South
Most things that were true in 2006 are still true in 2010. They are in life in general, and they are in the area of immigration reform. On the latter, if we take 2010 and compare it to 2006, what do we find? read more »
June 18, 2010
Demonizing the Victims: Conservative Immigration Policy in a Time of Recession
These are not good times for advocates of comprehensive immigration reform, either here or abroad. Cutting the flow of immigrants is a hot button issue in Holland right now. It is in the UK, even in Spain[1]; and it certainly is here in the United States. With unemployment high and public debt widely seen as […] read more »
June 1, 2010
Pressing the Panic Button: Conservative Paranoia on the Question of Socialism
The Radical Right is at it again, stoking the flames of anger and fear. This time, not just Tea Party folk but major Republican figures and commentators as well. There are books to sell and votes to win by telling America that the end of the world looms – looms, that is, unless stopped by […] read more »
May 8, 2010
The Big Obama Lesson Now Unfolding in London
Parties of the Left that choose to govern in the Center invariably pave the way for the return of government by the Right. There is an understandable fascination this weekend with all things politically British. From the editorial pages of the liberal press to the comedy program of Stephen Colbert, there seems to be a […] read more »
April 25, 2010
Stumbling Over a Mess of Your Own Making – Arizona and Immigration Reform
When Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law last week, she presented her signature as a legitimate response to a failure of policy at the federal level. No fan of racial profiling, she described what is now set to become the nation’s toughest immigration enforcement law as simply “another tool for […] read more »
