Occupy Boston Student March
A photo essay.
On the Newsstand:Financial Regulation
Orszag, Progressivism, and Public Sector Pay
Sam makes some fair points, but I don’t think Wilkinson was saying that anyone in general can get rich on Wall Street now that Washington is so powerful. What he actually said is a little different: [I]t really isn’t the Citizens United decision that’s about to make Peter Orszag a minor Midas. It’s the vast power of a handful of Washington players, ... Read More
Peter Orszag, Co-Optation, and Progressivism
Check out Will Wilkinson’s post on Peter Orszag’s disappointing decision to cash in at Citigroup. First Wilkinson suggests that this sort of co-optation of government officials by market forces is a fatal flaw in progressivism. “[M]arket institutions find ways to use the government’s regulatory and insurer-of-last-resort functions as countervailing forces against their competitors and, in the end, against the very ... Read More
Elizabeth Warren and Moral Hazard
HuffPo is reporting that Tim Geithner has expressed opposition to Elizabeth Warren’s nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — a department that she helped create. The article isn’t sourced well — it comes from an unnamed “source with knowledge of Geithner’s views” — and in response to the report Michael Barr, Assistant Treasury Secretary and one of the ... Read More
New Online Only Article!
As we wait for financial regulation reform to make its way through its final legislative hurdles, it’s a good time to step back and consider questions like how we got here and where we’re going. For this, consider checking out John He’s indispensable primer on the ideological backgrounds of Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, the two men most responsible for ... Read More
Reform Ideology
The intellectual underpinnings of President Obama’s financial regulation reform. With audacity and flourish, Time magazine on February 15th, 1999 dubbed the trio of Robert Rubin, Alan Greenspan, and Lawrence Summers, “The Committee to Save the World.” Today, that cover reads like a joke – instead of saving the world, this trio, more than any other, helped to create the conditions ... Read More
Will We Ever Be Ready for President Mark Warner?
That’s right. That’s Mark Warner, junior Democratic Senator from Virginia, who won an astonishing 65% of the vote in 2008 (besting Obama by 12 percent), after a highly acclaimed term of Governor from 2002-2006. That’s the same Mark Warner who was rumored to be considering a Presidential run in 2008, a favorite among the establishment elite for his mixture of ... Read More
Jobs Bill, Cloture, Kabuki
So the Senate passed a jobs bill today by a vote of 70-28. In policy terms, this isn’t big news. The CBO estimates the bill will cost some $15 billion, a fortune to you and I, but a pittance in Washington terms. In any case, the moneys allocated pale in comparison to the $500-600 billion worth of stimulus which has ... Read More
Martha Coakley and the Politics of Despair
Here’s the deal: if Martha Coakley loses tonight then it’s good news for Lloyd Blankfein, who’s worried about financial regulation reform, for the super rich, whose taxes will remain low, and for everyone generally interested in preventing Obama from governing this country. On the other hand, her loss is bad news for those of us who care about adequate health ... Read More
Letter from the Editor
On Jan. 17, 1925 President Calvin Coolidge remarked that the “business of the American people is business.” Pundits and politicians invoke this often-cited dictum to confirm that we live in a land of capitalism and free markets, and to remind us that while America is an ideal place to do many things, it is first and foremost a place of ... Read More
The Problem with Bankers’ Pay
Exorbitant compensation threatens the stability of the banking system
Has Health Reform Failed?
The question is not intended substantively. The bill that is being debated by the Senate is an ugly mess from the perspective of any reasonable observer, left, right, or center. However, as inefficient and messy as it is, it will still do a much better job than the status quo of providing healthcare to the people in the country who ... Read More
