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
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
Exorbitant compensation threatens the stability of the banking system
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
The problem of too-big-to-fail “Greed is good,” said Gordon Gekko in the iconic 1987 film Wall Street. Yet while such attitudes may have contributed to economic growth in some sectors, now national and international economies are experiencing a recessionary hangover. The causes of the worst financial crisis since the Depression are many and it is likely that we will debate ... Read More
Below is a piece on financial regulation from HPR alum Rahul Prabhakar ’09. Rahul is now a Fellow at the Glover Park Group in Washington D.C. ——————————————————————————————————————- Over the past month, the U.S. Congress has held a series of hearings to debate the Obama Administration’s proposal to overhaul the American financial regulatory structure. The fates of the SEC, CFTC, and ... Read More
Concerns over the role of the poll are misguided The high number of public opinion polls was impossible to miss during the 2008 election, and, though the horserace is on break, professional pollsters are keeping busy. Polling is no longer a part-time business, and a wide variety of opinion polls, covering everything from congressional and presidential job approval to health ... Read More
I know that Daniel is only trying to soften his blows, but really, I don’t think my argument can be “innocuous” and “unfortunate” at the same time. Come on, tell me what you really think! I can appreciate how it seems that liberals are always in the business of telling people what rights they do and don’t have. But, in ... Read More
To begin with, the confusion is grotesque, not the inestimable Samuel Barr – I must post if only to stress that. Said grotesquerie is an innocuous, though unfortunate, consequence of progressivism, in the same manner that my ineptitude at mathematics (which could only charitably be called grotesque) is an unfortate consequence of being a social studies major. I think the ... Read More
Chris, I fear, has read too much into my use of the word “reactionary.” I meant only to suggest that Republicans have gone with libertarianism over, say, Huckabee-ism or Olympia Snowe-ism, because they are reacting to Obama’s ambitious economic progressivism. This is exactly what we would expect from a minority party: the majority gets to lay out its agenda first, ... Read More
When former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao spoke at Harvard as a visiting fellow, I hoped she would spark debate on everything from white collar overtime regulations to pension assets. I attended her study groups and can attest to the fact that she did this and more. Ms. Chao was engaging, provocative, and thoughtful, the type of speaker who helps ... Read More
