hbziler

Ellen Seidman on why the historically effective CRA shouldn’t take the blame for the financial crisis it didn’t cause: How did we get into this? There are a plethora of potential culprits. But in the face of all these factors, some have fixed their attention instead on a formerly obscure 32-year-old statute, the Community Reinvestment […]

Adam Serwer on how civil liberties and human rights groups are fighting a two-front battle over how America tries terrorism detainees: Civil-liberties and human-rights groups want to see suspected terrorists tried in federal court on criminal charges. They don’t want to see them tried by military commission or in any venue where the evidence against […]

Matthew Yglesias on why a gasoline embargo against Iran simply won’t work: The great Iran policy debate landed this week back on the longstanding notion that the international community might ban gasoline exports to Iran. Legislation along these lines is being pushed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on the Hill, and David […]

Janneke Ratcliffe takes a look at stops on the road from predatory lending to good financial services for Americans: For most Americans, the banking system is a tool to manage our money and build security. Through an array of competitively priced financial products, we can cheaply and easily convert income into assets, make payments, store […]

Tim Fernholz on why, despite an ambitious program from the administration, millions of Americans are still facing foreclosure: The recession began in the housing markets and it will have to end there. Many Americans who took out sub-prime mortgages during the boom years are facing foreclosure, which hurts both the social fabric of neighborhoods and […]

Paul Waldman on why health care reform won’t change the public’s attitudes about government: For many years, it was hard to know whether the oft-told story of the elderly woman who walks up to her congressman, wags a finger in his face, and says, “Tell Washington to keep its hands off my Medicare!” was actually […]

Kai Wright tells the story of the millions of black Americans targeted by the sub-prime lending industry: When my mom describes it all now–10 months after she walked away from her house of 14 years–she sounds sort of crazy to me. I make her explain again and again, because the depth of her denial about […]

Adam Serwer on the philandering D.C. mayor’s crusade against gay marriage: In early may, after the District of Columbia Council announced it would recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, former Mayor and current Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry addressed a small crowd of protesters in Freedom Plaza. “I am a politician who is moral,” […]

Courtney Martin makes the case for a more empathetic and personal model of journalism: Journalism, as we’ve known it, has been mourned deeply over the last few years. The Internet has changed everything. “Citizen journalism,” a phrase that still inspires dirty looks at most journalism conferences, has blurred the lines between objectivity and subjectivity, paid […]

Robert Kuttner on why the financial system needs to work for consumers at all income levels: America’s financial crisis and the related recession are not hitting everyone equally. While many well-to-do investors have lost wealth in the plunging stock market, lower-income Americans were the first victims of the calamity, taken in by rapacious sub-prime mortgages […]