Kathleen Geier

You know the drill — we have a dysfunctional political system and a gridlocked Congress. The House is firmly in the grip of a band of Republican maniacs and the Senate, though technically Democratic, requires a virtually impossible filibuster-proof majority to get anything passed. So we should just throw up our hands and admit that […]

Today’s New York Times features a very interesting interview with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Interviews with sitting justices are relatively rare, particularly ones in which a justice speaks so openly about specific judicial decisions. In the wake of the court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act last term, it can hardly be an […]

Today in the nation’s capital, thousands have gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. There will be speeches, rallies, and other events. Another series of events is planned for this Wednesday. President Obama will speak at that second march, which will occur exactly 50 years after the original march took […]

I’m working on a longish post commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. While you’re waiting for that, I thought I’d post links to Jean Shepherd’s classic radio essay about taking a bus from New York City to Washington, DC and participating in the march. It’s been many, many years since I heard […]

Various media outlets are reporting that San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has finally agreed to resign effective August 30th. Eighteen women have accused Filner, a Democrat, of sexual harassment. Alas, he did not go gentle into that good night. During yesterday’s resignation speech, the reputed serial groper whined, “I’ve never sexually harassed anyone” — an […]

Via Krugman comes this gem, as reported by Jason Cherkis in the Huffington Post: A middle-aged man in a red golf shirt shuffles up to a small folding table with gold trim, in a booth adorned with a flotilla of helium balloons, where government workers at the Kentucky State Fair are hawking the virtues of […]

Since we want the site to load faster on Monday, when the College Rankings go up, we’re trying to reduce the number of videos on the home page. Therefore, I plan to suspend my usual practice of posting morning music videos. That may please some of you, disappoint others, and most likely will make no […]

Earlier, today, in my Larry Summers post, I wrote this: Given what we know about the relationship between the growth in economic inequality and rents accruing to finance professionals (of which more later), Larry agreeing to investigate the causes of stagnating wages is something akin to O.J.’s vow to “find the real killers.” Consider this […]

This week at Wonkblog, Sarah Kliff reported on a fascinating study that shows that Americans are surprisingly ignorant about health insurance basics. The study, conducted by a Carnegie Mellon University economist, gave subjects a multiple choice quiz that asked them to define four basic health insurance terms: deductible, co-pay, out-of-pocket maximum, and coinsurance. All the […]

Today’s New York Times features a a very disturbing article by Louise Story and Annie Lowrey about the walking conflict of interest that is Larry Summers. Lots of great stuff there, but this is the money quote, as it were: “With Larry, my wife always says that it’s hard to be happy if you want […]