As Treasury Secretary, would Lew take a harder line with banking abuses?
Robert Kuttner
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Is Jack Lew the Best We Can Do?
President Obama’s nomination of his chief of staff to run the Treasury signals the continuity of austerity politics.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Banks Win Again
Last February, the big banks agreed to a major “settlement” to protect themselves from litigation by state attorneys general stemming from fraudulent documentation of mortgages. Though some, such as New York’s crusading attorney general Eric Schneiderman, believed that the government had leverage to get a lot more, the settlement required the banks to pony up […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Calling McConnell’s Bluff
President Obama should raise the debt ceiling himself and increase the ceiling on incomes subject to payroll taxes.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Austerity Lobby Loses One
Groups like the Pete Peterson foundation and the Fix the Debt campaign are pouring money into tightening other people’s belts. They failed—so far.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Endless Cliff
Going forward, Obama will have to stand his ground on spending cuts and the debt ceiling.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Retrench Warfare
The Democrats won this round of the fiscal-cliff standoff, but now let’s get to the right debate.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Problem’s Guns—Not the Mentally Ill
Tracking everyone who could hypothetically go on a shooting spree would only discourage the mentally ill from seeking treatment.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Debating the Chained CPI
Should Social Security cuts even be in the fiscal-cliff talks? An exchange with Robert Greenstein
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Chairman Summers? Let’s Hope Not
Three reasons why appointing the former Harvard president as Fed chair would be a disaster