For once, the deficit hawks are right. The tax cuts for the wealthy in the Republican budget could cause the third economic meltdown this century. Unlike the Financial Crisis and the pandemic, we couldn’t spend our way out.
financial crisis
Posted inPolitics
How Francis Fukuyama and “The Big Lebowski” Explain Trump’s Victory
Looking at constituencies or issues misses the big point. On Tuesday, nihilism was on display, even a death wish, in a society wrought by cynicism.
Posted inPolitical Animal
What a President Pence Could Learn from FDR
A President Pence would take over an imperiled country and could learn from FDR’s experience.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Wall Street Reform: An Issue of Size or Risk?
Preventing big risks is more important than breaking up big banks.
Posted inGovernment, Magazine, March/April/May 2016
Mend, Don’t End, Fannie and Freddie
Conservatives blame the mortgage giants (wrongly) for the financial crisis, and both parties want them dead. But to finish the job of financial reform without destroying the housing market and costing taxpayers billions, we need to let them live.
Posted inBooks, Economy, Government, Magazine, November/December 2015, Politics
Federal Reserved
With a still-weak economy seven years after the 2008 crisis, it’s worth thinking about whether we might be stuck with a twentieth-century central bank in a twenty-first-century world.
Posted inBooks, Government, Magazine, March/April/May 2015
The Reckless Reign of W.
We are still living with the forty-third president’s legacy.
Posted inEconomy, Magazine, March/April/May 2015
What Piketty Missed: The Banks
The explosion of finance, and its weak regulation, has exacerbated inequality. Stronger regulation could lead to higher middle-class wages.
Posted inEconomy, Magazine, November/December 2014
Frenzied Financialization
Shrinking the financial sector will make us all richer.
Posted inEconomy, Law and Justice, Magazine, November/December 2014
Can We Please Put Some Bankers in Jail Now?
With Eric Holder leaving the Justice Department, Washington has a chance to get serious about prosecuting financial crimes. But what exactly has been the holdup?
