Posts Tagged ‘financial crisis’

December 9, 2016

Reflections on the Obama Presidency: (2) The politics of gridlock

(The second of a series of four reflections observing the Obama presidency in real time; for the first, see ‘The gap between promise and performance’i) It was never going to be easy to govern America in a progressive fashion, given the scale of the economic crisis left in place by the Bush Administration and […] read more »

Posted in home, Observing Obama in Real Time, The Progressive Case Stalled, US Blog | Comment Now »

December 30, 2013

New Year Reflections: The Character of the Task before Us

The start of a new year is always a good moment for reflection on the nature of our present condition. It is an even better moment for the adoption of resolutions designed to improve that condition. So perhaps we should try both. read more »

Posted in US Blog | Comment Now »

December 5, 2012

Obama at Half-Time: The Big Question

Public conversation in and around Washington D.C. is currently preoccupied with the question of the fiscal cliff. And rightly so, for very big things are at stake. Not least whether or not a political crisis will tip the economy back into recession, and whether an election result that mandated a tax increase on the […] read more »

Posted in US Blog | Comment Now »

November 2, 2012

Behind the Republican Rhetoric: The Misleading Appeal of Free-Market Capitalism

Basic belief systems, if regularly reinforced by carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns, are enormously difficult things to shift. Paradigms of thought, once established in dominance, are hard to get rid of. We have just lived through 30 years of an orchestrated consensus on the wonders of free-market capitalism. No matter that the business deregulation it […] read more »

Posted in US Blog | 2 Comments »

June 12, 2012

The Unfinished Business of the Obama Administration: Bank Reform

As the big five American banks await the downgrading of their credit ratings by Moody’s Investors Service – a downgrading that is apparently due any day now[1] – it is worth asking: after more than three years of the Obama Administration, where exactly are we on the substance of bank reform? Has it happened? […] read more »

Posted in US Blog | Comment Now »