Robert Kuttner

The Washington Post has a well-meaning but wrongheaded piece by Yale law professor Ian Ayers on how to break the logjam that Republicans have created around the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Forty-four Senate Republicans have written a letter to President Obama vowing to block any nominee unless the agency’s powers are substantially watered […]

Jeb Bush and the formidable array of Bush family political retainers decided to take a pass on 2012, on the premise that Obama was unbeatable. Better to wait for 2016. But it’s hard to imagine an invincible Obama with unemployment stuck near double digits and both the Democratic base and independents dispirited, especially in the […]

Anthony Weiner’s resignation has been the first piece of good news since the scandal broke. It was never plausible to believe that because Weiner may not have broken any law and still enjoyed the trust of some constituents, he should keep his seat. Those who made Talmudic distinctions between public and private behavior missed the […]

How is it that Republicans get to stymie government based on their control of just one-half of one branch of government, the House of Representatives? They threaten to block nominations of all but the most conservative presidential appointees. In cases where they don’t like the agency in question, they refuse to confirm anyone. This includes […]

If you want to understand why the Obama administration’s heart is in the right place but it suffers from a chronic lack of political nerve, you need look no further than former chief economic advisor Larry Summers. On Sunday, Summers published a piece in the Financial Times warning that the recovery was at risk of […]