Matthew Zeitlin

The big housing policy fight brewing between the Obama administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is over principal forgiveness: lowering the burden of outstanding mortgage debt on homeowners in order to reduce foreclosures and get homeowners out from their underwater mortgages. Nick Timiraos reports in […]

Those of us who grew up as (and still are) Reform Jews know just how much contemporary American liberalism has become intertwined with our particular branch of the faith. Although I can mostly speak to my own experience, I think most Reform Jews can attest to the accuracy of those who describe it as “the […]

Joe Nocera’s column yesterday took on the campaign against the Chevy Volt, GM’s innovative (and expensive) plug-in hybrid that has seemingly had more articles written about it in the conservative press than in car publications. Nocera writes that, contra Neil Cavuto et al, the Volt has much more to do with GM’s effort to leapfrog […]

When the Affordable Care Act had its day in front of the Supreme Court, the “highlights” consisted of two things: the content of the questions the justices asked during the oral arguments, and the answers the respective litigators gave. And then there was the one anti-highlight: Clarence Thomas remained silent during in this case, matching […]

The Washington Free Beacon, the conservative news website helmed by former Weekly Standard scribe Matthew Continetti has run two pieces on Dani Gilbert, the former Debbie Wasserman Schultz staffer who is now working on Jewish outreach for the Democratic National Committee. What Adam Kredo of the WFB uncovered was that, in college, Gilbert, who herself […]

Ezra Klein tells us that Hill staffers are starting to call January 1st, 2013 “Taxmageddon” because of the legislated expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the introduction of higher Medicare taxes as part of the Affordable Care Act, and the expiration of the newly-extend payroll tax cut. One interesting wrinkle to Taxmageddon is that it […]

Alec MacGillis has a long piece in the Washington Post defending the politicization of public policy; or at least the idea that it’s appropriate to consider the electoral and political consequences of policy decisions. And while I think he’s right, one point that’s often lost when we talk about this stuff is figuring out which […]

A paper written by four economists released this past Friday,”Housing, Monetary Policy, and the Economy,” has been garnering a fair amount of attention. The entire thing is interesting and makes a strong case that “more than half the underperformance in this recovery” can be attributed to brutal decline in housing and related sectors. One part […]

Before Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum addressed an Americans for Prosperity forum on Saturday, the DNC put together a web ad that weaves together oil industry subsidies, the Koch brothers efforts to defeat Obama, and Mitt Romney’s connection to them. Also, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina sent out a mass email criticizing Romney for speaking […]

It’s the early evening here in Evanston, and if you’re sticking around tonight, here’s some of the best stuff on the web. * BuzzFeed asks if did Mitt Romney steal the idea for his $10,000 bet from Richie Rich? * Mitt Romney goes after Santorum for flip-flopping and supporting pro-life politicians. Yes, I didn’t get […]