Blog: Policy Shop

A guest at the St. John’s Lutheran Church Freeze Shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. Flickr/Greg Williams In a speech at the University of Kansas in February of the tumultuous year 1968, Robert F. Kennedy spoke of the plight of the poorest Americans, those struggling in devastated rural areas, and on Indian reservations and in the tenements […]

Sixty-three cheers for champion long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, who turns 63 today. Nyad was in the news this week for attempting to swim from Cuba to Key West, a distance of 103 miles. Had Nyad done it, she would have broken her own world record for longest uninterrupted swim, (102.5 miles, from the Bahamas to […]

Quick question: What happens when you step down a slope? Well, if it’s a steep slope you’ll start sliding, but not so fast that you can’t catch yourself, avoiding serious harm. And that’s exactly the situation Washington will face early next year, if it doesn’t reach a deal on expiring tax cuts and new spending […]

By now, regular readers know how we feel about the reliance on GDP as the main economic indicator and its inability to measure our economic and social well-being. Alternative indicators that can provide more of a complete picture include the Genuine Progress Indicator, the Inclusive Wealth Index, and now maybe your trash. Brad Plummer at […]

The CBO has updated its figures for 2013, showing that if we don’t engage in reckless austerity, the economy will continue to recover next year. But if not, well, we would enter a deep, double-dip recession. The report compares the baseline scenario, in which the Bush tax cuts expire and sequestration spending cuts take effect, […]

This morning, The Washington Post reported on a new study — commissioned by the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) — that finds federal regulations that impact the manufacturing sector on a perilous rise. Naturally, conservatives have been passing it around as further proof that, one, this President is the worst President ever and, […]

Earlier this summer, after Peregrine Financial collapsed — and its customers found themselves out $215 million — it was revealed that the firm’s auditor was a one-person shop run out of a home in suburban Chicago. Even as Peregrine’s CEO forged key records and ripped off customers, the auditor vouched for the company’s soundness year […]

Last week, TransCanada began construction on the southern section of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Despite serious concerns about the environmental impact of the pipeline, the Obama Administration backed building the southern portion earlier this year. It’s not hard to see how this is just the first step to building the entire pipeline. And, as […]

Cottage Grove, Minn., — Employees with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District use mechanical dredging to clear the Mississippi River 9-foot navigation channel near Cottage Grove, Minn., June 8. The Corps uses both mechanical and hydraulic dredging to maintain the channel. Despite some rain showers, over 60 percent of the country is […]

News has been trickling out today that the process of hydraulic fracturing of natural gas will be allowed in parts of upstate New York. Right off the bat, this is clearly bad news for New York’s environment. Upstate communities are directly exposed to toxins by the controversial practice and millions of downstate New Yorkers rely […]