One in seven. That is the astounding proportion of American families in default on their home mortgages. And if we don't take bolder steps soon to get ahead of this ongoing foreclosure epidemic, it could easily evolve into a self-perpetuating malaise destroying decades of home ownership progress.

Despite some stimulus-induced...

Why not extend the $8,000 first-time home buyers' tax credit when it expires in November? Everyone loves a tax break, especially one where you can get a quick check from the government. But the Obama administration could do better by targeting the credit to people and places that need it.

More and more, locally grown is becoming the new health food. Farmers' markets are proliferating in formerly fresh-produceless markets. Fruit and vegetable bins in mass market stores -- not just at a Whole Foods -- boast of supplying local produce. Dining halls on most college campuses now offer farm fresh...

The continued crack downs on protesters in Iran is sparking rallies in support today at 3pm across the US and in major cities around the world.

As I said a few days ago, Americans need not wait for any government leader to give us...

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have courageously taken to their streets to stand up for democracy. Why not millions of us here in the home of free expression?

Opposition leader Mousavi has called for Friday to be a day of mourning for those who have died in the government-led violence...

A few weeks before Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the Supreme Court, a Princeton alumnus of the Class of 1945 complained in a letter to the Princeton Alumni Weekly: "But the feminization of Princeton seems to be pervasive, invading all activities so that Princeton now seems almost to be...

My mother never particularly liked Mother's Day. The sentiment always struck her as unctuous, akin to the scriptural passages frequently read at women's funerals: "A woman of valor who can find? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, and he...

At the White House last night, someone held up the bread of poverty and said, "Let all who are hungry come and eat."

A ceremony with religious overtones at the White House is nothing remarkable. There have been Christmas tree lightings and Hanukah menorah gatherings many times. President Bush...

Congress needs to finally enact a bankruptcy reform bill that includes one of the few real tools for breaking the grip of the devastating downward foreclosure spiral. There are many sound economic and policy reasons for Congress to provide a judicially approved "cram down" possibility for homeowners. Yet...

It's getting a little tiresome constantly hearing the voices of conservative America insulting hard working Americans. Cut it out - the rich are willing to work just as hard as anyone.

To listen to Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and their fellow travelers, we should believe that high earning...

Just the other day President Obama denounced $18 billion in Wall Street bonuses as "shameful" and "the height of irresponsibility." Wednesday Treasury proposed a $500,000 pay cap for a select few executives of bailout-enriched companies. But these are essentially symbolic responses. Why not instead follow through on a theme heard...

In 1902, faced with an outbreak of smallpox, the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, adopted a mandatory vaccination law. Challenged by a Mr. Henning Jacobson as an unconstitutional infringement upon his liberties, this intrusion on individual rights was nonetheless upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Even more intrusive quarantines have been...

The swift economic contraction of 2008 has quickly thrown millions into the ranks of the unemployed. But even before the downturn started, roughly 5 million young Americans aged 16 -24 already were enduring a life out of school, out of work - and largely out of luck.

With the economy...

During the presidential campaign, the housing debate sometimes had more to do with how many homes a candidate owned than about solutions to the nation's housing crisis. At other times, specious claims were made that the current foreclosure crisis was caused by Fannie Mae, or by policies started in the...

If Joe the Plumber can't save the leaking McCain-Palin campaign from sinking, he may also take to the bottom the appeal of trickle down politics.

Senator McCain and Governor Palin are out on the campaign trail holding up a caricature--Joe the Slogan--as a great American. Instead, they should be...

Civil discourse over fundamental issues is hard to find in our increasingly polarized politics. So it is with a bit of a leap of faith that this week a Cato Institute free market, flat tax booster and I attempt to have a sensible dialogue about the housing market, economic turmoil,...

As schoolchildren know, the Liberty Bell is inscribed with the words "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

Liberty in America is often equated with economic freedom. Constrain one's freedom to make a deal -- even a bad deal -- some argue, and liberty is...

Breathe easy, Bear Stearns, Countrywide, shoddy rating agencies, easy-money Fed, high-pressure loan originators, and other titans of the financial world who aided and abetted selling tens of millions of anti-consumer subprime loans since 2001. The far right pundits have finally revealed who really is to blame for the near-ruin of...

By David M. Abromowitz and Andrew Jakabovics

Unless U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's first stab at a $700 billion rescue of the global financial system is revised to incorporate restructuring troubled mortgages, it will be neither fair nor effective. Paulson's draft legislation attempts to rescue the balance sheets of...

There must be a Republican playbook circulating widely with a chapter entitled, "What to say if asked who's to blame for the foreclosure mess." Because an awful lot of Republican candidates are all suddenly yelling "Fannie Mae, Fannie Mae, Fannie Mae" whenever plunging home prices and the housing crisis comes...