Auction 2012 is a weeklong series in collaboration with "The Dylan Ratigan Show" and United Republic.

The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement soured the American public on trade deals that were supposed to boost the economy -- remember the giant sucking...

Auction 2012 is a weeklong series in collaboration with "The Dylan Ratigan Show" and United Republic.

When George W. Bush overruled scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency in 2008 and set a new smog standard that was considerably weaker than they had...

Auction 2012 is a weeklong series in collaboration with "The Dylan Ratigan Show" and United Republic.

When Washington puts policy on the auction block, bankers are consistently the highest bidders.

The industry's most striking victory has been the watering down of post-financial crisis reforms, to the...

Policies that boost economic growth don't necessarily accelerate income inequality -- they can actually reduce it, a group of economists from developed nations suggested on Monday.

A new report from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recommends that cash-strapped governments choose "win-win" tax and spending reforms...

This is the final part of a five-part series by The Huffington Post about Stephen Colbert's ongoing exploration of the nation's campaign finance laws. Read about his PAC launch in part one, his super PAC launch in part two, his storming of the FEC in

WASHINGTON -- It used to be against the law for executives to spend funds from their massive corporate treasuries to directly influence elections. But two years ago this week, the Supreme Court declared such restrictions unconstitutional -- and short of a constitutional amendment, it's hard to...

This is part four of a five-part series by The Huffington Post about Stephen Colbert's ongoing exploration of the nation's campaign finance laws. Read about his PAC launch in part one, his super PAC launch in part two, his storming of the FEC in

This is part three of a five-part series by The Huffington Post about Stephen Colbert's ongoing exploration of the nation's campaign finance laws. Read about his PAC launch in part one, his super PAC launch in part two, his quest for secret money in

WASHINGTON -- What do you do when people are growing increasingly angry about the influence of money on the political system -- but that very same political system is too co-opted to care?

Common Cause on Tuesday announced an attempt to put a measure on the ballot in all...

This is part two of a five-part series by The Huffington Post about Stephen Colbert's ongoing exploration of the nation's campaign finance laws. Read about his PAC launch in part one, his storming of the FEC in part three, his quest for secret money in

This is the first part of a five-part series by The Huffington Post about Stephen Colbert's ongoing explanation of the nation's campaign finance laws. Read about his super PAC launch in part two, his storming of the FEC in part three, his quest for secret money...

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney has taken to accusing President Barack Obama of trying to turn the United States into a European-style social welfare state.

The hyperbole about Obama's actions aside, the United States already is a social welfare state -- almost right up there with...

WASHINGTON -- In the latest GOP effort to accord corporations the same rights as people, the Republican National Committee wants to strike down the century-old ban against direct corporate contributions to candidates and party committees.

The ban, part of a 1907 anti-corruption law that helped curb the influence...

The New York Times editorial board has been on a tear lately about the deluge of money overwhelming the 2012 election campaign.

In the last several weeks alone, the newspaper has published multiple editorials on the current state of campaign finance. The Times editorial writers called for a

WASHINGTON -- Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who has suddenly become Mitt Romney's top challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, raised a provocative question about Romney's Mormon faith in a 2007 newspaper column:

Would the potential attraction to Mormonism by simply having a Mormon in the White...

Reports about the end of the war in Iraq routinely describe the toll on the U.S. military the way the Pentagon does: 4,487 dead, and 32,226 wounded.

The death count is accurate. But the wounded figure wildly understates the number of American servicemembers who have come back...

Yesterday, I sent an email to Politifact editor Bill Adair, expressing my horror over his group's decision to designate "Republicans voted to kill Medicare" as the "lie of the year." (See, for an exegesis of that misbegotten choice, Steve Benen, Paul Krugman, Jamison Foser,...

WASHINGTON -- Advocates of a tiny but lucrative tax on financial transactions are increasingly hopeful that President Barack Obama's need to more firmly establish himself as the Main Street candidate in 2012 will lead him to back the measure.

The tax -- though nearly inconsequential on a per-trade basis...

Occupy protesters are putting their bodies on the line day and night -- leaving their homes, living in tents, braving the elements, and being treated as criminals by the police.

But the super-rich whose influence they are protesting have others to do their fighting for them.

"Oligarchs can...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Monday charged two of his senior advisers with pursuing policies to strengthen the American manufacturing sector, a move progressives have long argued was overdue.

But his two picks to run a White House Office of Manufacturing Policy -- Commerce Secretary John...