Tim Fernholz

FDIC Chair Sheila Bair continues to advocate for a plan to help prevent foreclosure — see this for more on why this is a good idea. The short version is that it will help improve the assets that are at the bottom of the financial crisis, and prevent a lot of the negative economic externalities […]

The Post reports that we can expect many more lost jobs in the coming months. There are fewer new jobs available and many companies are announcing either lay-offs or hiring freezes, even as unemployment claims reach a seven-year high. Another indicator, underemployment, gives us the full picture of the problem. Check out this EPI graphic […]

Coulda fooled me. Yesterday, Ambinder noted that, though McCain is accusing Obama of pursuing socialist policies, Sarah Palin, as governor of Alaska, really spread the wealth around when she instituted a wind-fall profits tax on oil companies and gave every citizen of the state a check for $1200. Palin, Ambinder muses, actually achieved a socialist […]

Doing some research for a story on presidential transitions, I came across this 2000 Washington Post story by Tom Ricks: The basic problem in filling the top slot at the Pentagon in the new Bush administration is that the president-elect’s defense policy already is fairly well determined, and so are most of the new administration’s […]

There’s a short piece I wrote up on the site about how progressives are using pro-choice messages to gain support in electoral campaigns, and these comments by Sarah Palin drive home the point: James Dobson: “In your private conversations with Senator McCain is it your impression that he also strongly supports those views? I know […]

Today, John McCain is in New Hampshire, saying things like this: Mr. McCain once again homed in on economic issues. He criticized Senator Barack Obama’s plan to raise taxes on Americans with more than $250,000 in taxable income, saying the Democratic nominee’s economic plans would hurt small businesses, weaken the dollar and widen the federal […]

A little process for you today, in the form of an early-release from the Times magazine’s article pen. It’s a story about the McCain campaign’s messaging, more or less, and how confused and incoherent it was — the piece tracks six different narratives since the primary. The McCain campaign hasn’t been able to mount a […]

This week we deal with Iran, China, and the world. Plus, a look at how to expand access to higher education. Not whether, but how. In a Carnegie Endowment policy brief, Karim Sadjadpour explores not whether, but how the next president should negotiate with Iran. He argue the next President should skirt currently unresolvable contentions, […]

Kentucky, today: Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Kentucky voters would make a terrible trade if they replaced him with a Democrat lacking the clout to deliver huge amounts of federal money he took credit for bringing back to the Bluegrass state. McConnell, the Senate’s top-ranking Republican, touted his seniority accumulated over four terms […]