The problem of too-big-to-fail “Greed is good,” said Gordon Gekko in the iconic 1987 film Wall Street. Yet while such attitudes may have contributed to economic growth in some sectors, now national and international economies are experiencing a recessionary hangover. The causes of the worst financial crisis since the Depression are many and it is … Read more
Trouble Ahead If Democrats Cannot Deliver to Labor In a speech to the AFL-CIO convention on Sept. 15, President Obama reminded his labor allies that any public insurance option “would just be an option.” Two days later, the AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed single-payer Medicare for all. Clearly a mere option is not the union’s preference when … Read more
The U.S. Supreme Court may be about to render the most important business decision of the decidedly pro-business Roberts era, but one might not know it from the details of the case. The plaintiff is a small conservative advocacy group, not a major corporation; the focal point is a corporate-funded anti-Hillary Clinton documentary that was … Read more
Chaos reigns as states try to budget in the recession The financial crisis affected millions of Americans, drove down property values, crippled the mortgage industry, spiked unemployment rates, and revealed the unwieldiness of the American banking system. In response, the U.S. government attempted to resuscitate the economy with a nearly $800 billion stimulus. Meanwhile, … Read more
The Supreme Court’s decisions last term reveal a trend toward color-blindness Two cases decided by the Supreme Court earlier this year demonstrate an ongoing, if cautious, conservative march towards a new constitutional order with regards to race. In the case of Ricci v. Destefano, a divided Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to throw out … Read more
The future of gerrymandering after the 2010 census When Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) withdrew his nomination for commerce secretary in February, Republicans blamed the debacle on the White House’s alleged attempt to usurp control of the 2010 census, which rests with the Commerce Department. This short-lived controversy reminded us that while the census might be … Read more
Obama’s education plan Speaking at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in March, President Obama called for reforming American education with the goal that we “once more [become] the envy of the world.” The president’s ambition is reflected in his proposed five-year, $2.5 billion Access and Completion Incentive Fund, which aims to create reliable pathways … Read more
Concerns over the role of the poll are misguided The high number of public opinion polls was impossible to miss during the 2008 election, and, though the horserace is on break, professional pollsters are keeping busy. Polling is no longer a part-time business, and a wide variety of opinion polls, covering everything from congressional and … Read more
Should housing really come first? The idea is deceptively simple: how do you solve homelessness? By giving people homes. That is the essence of a recently developed approach to homelessness called Housing First, which inverts the traditional shelter-based approach by first providing the homeless with apartments, and then working on issues like drug addiction and … Read more
Feingold proposes ban on Senate appointments Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) has introduced a constitutional amendment that would require elections to fill vacant seats in the Senate, prohibiting governors from filling the seats by appointment. The proposal has its downsides, but it will quite possibly become our 28th amendment, a fact we have good reason to … Read more