ehm1212

Mark Schmitt considers last night’s State of the Union address and determines that there’s still hope for America: The main argument within the center-left coalition in American politics, for at least 20 years (coinciding with the life of this magazine), has been between Big and Small. It’s not liberal versus moderate, or the people versus […]

Monica Potts on how renters were forgotten during the housing crisis: In the 1990s, federal homeownership policy shifted from making homeownership available to the middle class to subsidizing homeownership for almost everyone. In the process, renters were implicitly denigrated and federal spending allocated to support them fell. The push for homeownership began under President Bill […]

Adam Serwer on the need to develop a strong counter-narrative on terror: In a 2003 memo, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was clear that the fight against terrorist organizations could not be won solely by killing or capturing every terrorist. “Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on […]

Greg Anrig reminds us that Republicans create deficits to foil progressivism: President Ronald Reagan’s budget director David Stockman coined the phrase “strategic deficit” to describe the usefulness of creating long-term budgetary shortfalls to undercut political support for governmental spending. As Stockman privately told Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1981, accruing large deficits “gives you an […]

Tim Fernholz argues Obama‘s endorsement of stiffer bank regulation has been a long time coming: President Barack Obama signaled an abrupt shift in his financial regulatory reform efforts last week, endorsing new rules proposed by former Fed Chair Paul Volcker to restrict both the size and scope of bank activities. The decision prompted breathless commentary: […]

Michelle Goldberg on how the pro-choice movement lost the health-care debate: Over the years, I’ve put myself on lots of right-wing mailing lists, which must have been why the American Center for Law and Justice called this weekend to inform me that the Senate’s health-care reform bill is “an abortionist’s dream come true.” The robocall, […]

Paul Waldman offers a few tips to Democrats hoping to keep their seats come November: The midterm elections for Congress are a little more than nine months away, and they can go one of two ways. Democrats can lose some seats, but not so many that the fundamental balance of power in Congress is changed. […]

Robert Kuttner explains how the trading system America sold the world is killing U.S. industry: Amid a generally poisoned atmosphere of vicious partisan combat, trade policy is unfortunately the last bastion of relentless bipartisanship. I say “unfortunately” because there is a stunning disconnect between America’s trade policy and America’s national interest. Since World War II, […]

Harold Meyerson explains why we must revive American manufacturing: So who’s for reviving American manufacturing? American manufacturers? Well, some of them, under certain conditions. The American people? Most of them, under most conditions. The American government? Well, parts of it. Sometimes. Reviving American manufacturing may be an economic and strategic necessity, without which our trade […]

Ann Friedman reviews Gail Collins‘ new book When Everything Changed: My upbringing was something of an anachronism. My dad went to work every morning at the family business (where his father and grandfather had both worked), and my mom spent her days at home with me and my brother and sister. She made us breakfast, […]