Tim Fernholz

Mock Sen. Jim Demint all you want — seriously — but he’s right that Marco Rubio is THE freshman Republican to watch in the next Congress. Young, charismatic, from an important electoral state and providing much-needed diversity and more ability to appeal to Hispanic voters, Rubio combines the experience of a conventional pol — his […]

My colleagues at the New America Foundation have made a pretty neat website to track countries that have large trade surpluses, exporting more than they import. These economies are deemed to pose a threat to the functioning of the global economy, because they subtract demand out of the world economy at a time of weak […]

Tomorrow, the G-20 Summit begins in Seoul, South Korea, with the leaders of the world’s most important economies gathering to discuss what they’re going to do about various problems facing the global economy; specifically, they’ll be discussing the fact that emerging markets may be growing too fast while advanced economies are barely growing at all. […]

Yesterday, Brian Beutler broke the news that Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who chaired House Democrats’ political arm for the last two election cycles, is now in the hunt to be the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee in the next Congress. This would be a smart move for the Democrats, since their ranking member […]

Senator-elect Rand Paul of Kentucky is a libertarian, a physician, a Tea Party favorite, and an … earmark enthusiast. Yes, you heard right: In a bigger shift from his campaign pledge to end earmarks, he tells me that they are a bad “symbol” of easy spending but that he will fight for Kentucky’s share of […]

Fresh from inauguration in February 2009, President Barack Obama faced an ongoing financial crisis. Something had to be done, and after the debacle that was obtaining the initial TARP funding, he knew there was little stomach for it Congress. Matt Yglesias walks you through where he went from there in this post, and you ought […]

…. so there’s no need for Democrats — or anyone else — to pretend they do. In response to the elections last week, President Barack Obama‘s weekly address concerned extending the Bush tax cuts, which will expire at the end of the year if nothing is done. Obama is sticking to his guns and doubling-down […]

Joe Biden looks like Sam the Eagle. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has a new poll showing that 64 percent of voters oppose the filibuster. While it strikes me as one of those polls that miraculously finds what the client wants it to find, it does seem clear that the beginning of the 112th Congress […]