As part of the Roosevelt Institute's 10-part series on the Jobs Crisis, running on the New Deal 2.0 blog from Nov. 12-27, I was asked to reflect on what can be done to get Americans working again. Here's my take.

What has now become the standard government response to...

When I look at a downtown devastated by empty storefronts and For Sale signs, I see lost jobs, reduced property and sales taxes, and deteriorating infrastructure.

But when erstwhile presidential contender Steve Forbes looks at the same downtown, he sees the churning forces of the Free Market at work.

Will the Senate vote another term for Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve? Should it?

Two months ago, Bernanke looked like a lock. But now unemployment is over 10% and rising, while Wall Street bankers are stocking up on vintage champagne, ready to celebrate the highest bonuses...

I always get nervous when three or more people who don't study the economy or financial markets say exactly the same thing. This past weekend, it was a teacher, a lawyer and a doctor, all of whom proclaimed: "we're definitely headed for a double-dip recession!"

Joe Biden's father had it right: "It's socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor." How did we get here?

More than thirty years ago we embarked on a grand deregulatory experiment. The financial sector was unleashed from New Deal-era controls. We were told this would lead to great...

Jail, anyone? Perhaps that's too harsh, and at any rate premature, but is anyone ever going to be held accountable for the behind-the-scenes sweetheart deals that passed tens of billions of taxpayer dollars through the AIG shell game to the very banks that caused the financial meltdown? Or for the...

Some may wonder why I cheered when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel announced that the president plans to cut the deficit, because he "does not want to keep on adding to the debt."

It's no secret that conservative economists believe that the way to cut the...

Business owners and entrepreneurs are very proactive people, which is one of the critical keys for a high level of success. Conversely, I believe that career politicians are tragically reactive, and that kind of behavior has left us in a mess. There was a time when their calling cards said...

I give great credit to NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini. Unless you reside on another planet, you know that he correctly predicted the mortgage-related crash.

Recently, "Dr. Doom" warned about a coming market correction. He believes "markets have gone up too much, too soon, too fast."

Should investors rely...

"Good selfishness is where I benefit but you benefit more. Raising your children, and working your passion, are good examples of good selfishness. Bad selfishness on the other hand is where I benefit but everyone else pays a price for it. Drug dealing and predatory subprime lending are good examples...

When the administration rolls out the red carpet to welcome Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington next week, the real action won't be around the elegantly set tables at the Obama's first state dinner. It will be over at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That's right: The same folks...

As a Midwest-based venture capitalist, I focus on rapid growth sectors for the Midwest (particularly in Michigan), and one sector I have recently fallen in love with is wind energy. Okay, maybe not love, but certainly lust.

It is lust not solely for the wind industry's rapid rate of...

This post originally appeared at Credit Writedowns.

In this post:

Where we are headed

In a recent...

Pulitzer Prize-winner Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times wrote a must read article ("Revisiting a Fed Waltz with AIG," November 21, 2009) on Sunday in which she recaps salient points from the November 17, 2009 report of the Office of the Special Inspector General (Neil Barofsky)...

As part of the Roosevelt Institute's 10-part series on the Jobs Crisis, running on the New Deal 2.0 blog from Nov. 12-25, I was asked to reflect on what can be done to get Americans working again. Here's my take.

As the economy continues its long...

Look closely at the following photo:

If you noticed the buttock of the girl in the background, you are probably thinking:

Female: Rick, you pervert! Has this blog reached a new low (and was that even possible)?

Male: he he...BUTT...he he...email friends...he...

Sunday was a big day for record-making and -breaking in NASCAR. Jimmie Johnson placed fifth in the Homestead/Miami race, but he's Number One --- again --- in America's favorite motorsport.

Johnson has won his fourth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title --- the first driver ever in NASCAR's 61-year history to...

I have strongly supported proposals to increase mortgage lending standards, on the theory that higher standards are necessary to restore borrower and investor confidence, and will contribute to long term stability in the mortgage market (see my post here). But buried in the enormously complex administration, Frank and Dodd...