Blog: Policy Shop

What’s wrong credit card companies? Here is an industry that has been repeatedly chastised and penalized for all sorts of bad behavior — an industry that abused its customers so badly for so long, with hidden fees and usurious interest rates, that one of the first things Democrats did when they took control of the […]

On the eve of National Voter Registration Day, California has taken a huge leap forward in reducing the barriers to voting. Governor Brown signed into law a Same Day Registration program, making California the 12th (and largest) state to allow voters to register to vote and cast their vote on the same day. This is […]

As a practical matter, government largely functions through bureaucratic regulations. But controversy is growing around the seemingly benign requirement that regulators consider costs and benefits when adopting new rules. Despite the rationality implied by the words “costs and benefits,” those who champion greater attention to these factors are, in fact, mounting an insidiously dangerous attack […]

Far too many bureaucratic barriers still block the ability of eligible people to register to vote.

When the Supreme Court in Citizens United allowed corporations to spend money in elections they thought that shareholders would be able to monitor the use of corporate funds “through procedures of corporate democracy.” But John Bogle, the former CEO of Vanguard, reminds us in a recent Financial Times column that “US financial institutions – mutual […]

Mitt Romney’s release of his 2011 tax rates — which showed that he paid a 14 percent tax rate — has again spotlighted the preferential ways that the tax code treats invested wealth. While a multimillion dollar income earned by an employee — say, a baseball player or a news anchor — would be taxed […]

An income gap exists between Congress and the general population, and the gap is getting bigger. The Center For Responsive Politics documents the increase of congressional wealth over the past few years. In effect, Americans are now being represented not by their peers; but by the 1 percent. Yet as members of Congress have gotten […]

Timothy Geithner has said that he’ll step down as Treasury Secretary at the end of Obama’s first term. Assuming that Mitt Romney keeps self-destructing and Obama wins a second term, who should succeed him? Just as Obama’s choice in 2008 of an economic team led by Larry Summers and Tim Geithner told you a lot […]

Since 2005, the gambling industry has spent at least $9.5 million on lobbying and $1.5 million in campaign contributions per election cycle in New York. Compare this to the banking and financial service sector, which spent $16 million on lobbying each election cycle, and the energy sector, which spent $1.4 million in campaign contributions in […]

Election integrity is impaired when eligible Americans are prevented from exercising their fundamental right to vote and having their voices heard on the issues that affect their lives. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania just said the same thing when considering a new voter ID requirement, writing “if the Law is enforced in a manner that […]