Tim Fernholz

Leaks from a National Intelligence Estimate set to be released after the election point to a rather dismal conclusion: we’re not winning, in part because of leadership failures here in the U.S. and in part because of the corruption and poor management of the Hamid Karzai government. U.S. officials are reviewing how best to adjust […]

The reasons for my confusion have been made clear by Politico: “McCain changes homeowner plan.“ Overnight, they went from requiring lenders to take a loss to offering to pay them. A similar thing happened during the day yesterday. In the morning, we heard Holtz-Eakin suggest: “The taxpayers’ contribution would be, in some cases, the difference […]

This morning I made a lengthy defense of McCain’s new housing proposal. Brad DeLong has a post making the opposite argument, and since he’s an actual economist, I’ve got to modify things a little, in part because McCain spokesperson Doug Holtz-Eakin made slightly different points than McCain made the night before on the conference call […]

McCain‘s new housing policy, introduced last night during the debate, is now called the “American Homeownership Resurgence Plan” — apparently McCain wants everything to be a surge. But in this case, contra Dana, it’s actually good policy. (Here’s what I had to say last night). I just got off a conference call with Doug Holtz-Eakin, […]

They do a great job of explaining the candidate’s roles in the debate, actually. McCain‘s is confusing, has the requisite “how extreme” formulation, probably takes Obama out of context — I’m pretty sure he’s never responded to accusations of being liberal by saying people are lying — and at the end of the day doesn’t […]

Obama’s commitment to making the case for tax cuts as wasteful spending, and that the wealthiest in our country shouldn’t disproportionately benefit from tax policy, is admirable both as good policy and strong principles. Liberals often try to pretend that their tax policy is a dirty little secret, but Obama’s willingness to fight for his […]

Just a fact-check. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn’t cause the crisis; they were victims of it. Read this post, or this post, or this. And as to who took more money from who, keep in mind that Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, had been a registered lobbyist on behalf of Fannie Mae whose job […]

Obama had a good first lick, and hit the middle-class meme hard, but give the first question of the debate to McCain for addressing the foundation of the financial crisis: the decline in home values. McCain’s proposal to renegotiate mortgages that are threatening to foreclose on homeowners is needed, and, as he noted, expensive. The […]

Today the Fed announced it would start buying commercial paper, the short-term business loans that keep most companies running smoothly. The Fed’s decision indicates its worry that the credit crunch is so severe that there would be no market at all for most businesses to find short-term credit. I spoke with two economists today, EPI‘s […]

Here’s the latest thinking — from those who think professionally! — on military spending, the nuclear deal with India, and the interplay between public opinion and foreign policy. Military-Industrial complex alert. A new report from the Institute of Policy Studies calls attention to the lopsided spending ratio between funding for military forces and funding for […]