Tim Fernholz

President Obama with Russian Premier Dimitri Medvedev. There was plenty of attention paid to — and condemnation of — Republican office-seeker Mitt Romney’s op-ed on the New START Treaty, an arms-control agreement designed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in Russia and the United States, lending credibility to the U.S. non-proliferation message, especially efforts […]

New data on mortgage defaults reveals that wealthy homeowners are more likely than the rest of the population to walk away from a mortgage loan that is worth more than the property or that they simply can’t afford to pay — it’s not just Chamillionaire anymore! The term of art for this move is “strategic […]

My friend Mike Konczal has an interesting post on the Treasury Department’s role in the financial-reform bill, but I think his analysis is wrong on a number of issues. The idea that the administration consistently undermined the bill is a common perception on the left — and one so deep-seated that I doubt I’ll change […]

No, not Lyndon Johnson. Lebron James! Tonight, King James will announce which basketball team he will reign over for the next portion of his career in a media-savvy ESPN special, which includes a provision that the advertising proceeds will go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The Times even compares him to the […]

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is echoing President Obama’s false assertion that “governments don’t create jobs.” I can’t imagine how surprised he is to receive his own paycheck every month, and I have to say, it makes me wonder exactly what he’s thinking when he advocates for fiscal aid for cash-pressed states in order to … […]

Answer: It’s critically important if you don’t want to fund unemployment benefits or other short-term, jobs-creating stimulus. On the other hand, If you want to shift the U.S. energy sector into the 21st century, the deficit doesn’t matter that much. Viz: Senate backers of a long-shot bid to pass legislation with greenhouse gas caps got […]

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius waxes mysterious today, speculating about what kind of cool, secret stuff Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski might be doing if they were installed in the White House instead of President Obama‘s current team of boring national-security advisers. Ignatius lauds some of the big, secret accomplishments of the two men but […]

Republicans (and Sen. Max Baucus) are in a tizzy because President Obama is using a recess appointment to put Donald Berwick, his choice to administer the Medicare and Medicaid systems as they implement the new health-care law. Here’s the thing: As Jamelle points out, this is a broken system, and a newly broken one at […]

Rumors are flying that Florida Democrats might line up behind an independent Senate candidate this fall, but appearances may be deceiving. In the race — in which Republican Speaker of the state House Marco Rubio is firmly established as his party’s conservative standard-bearer and former Republican, now Independent Gov. Charlie Crist is mounting a third-party […]

Normally, when people propose stricter limits on bank-executive pay, a principal objection is that it would cause a talent flight to other financial centers around the globe. Aside from the fact that these arguments overstate both the value of this “talent” and the ability of people to pick up and leave, now we really don’t […]