While headlines focus on the fate of Saturday mail delivery, the better question is: Why not harness the Postal Service of the 21st century to catalyze America's economic development, much as the Postal Service did after it was originally created in the 18th century?

Debates may rage over the preferred...

The defining legacy of President Obama's second term may well lie in finding a solution to our anti-immigrant status quo. To get there, he should appoint former President George Bush to head up a blue ribbon commission to propose comprehensive immigration reform.

A shell-shocked Republican party is showing...

I wanted a single-payer system -- but he only insured 50 million people who formerly had no health coverage, achieving something that eluded presidents for generations.

I wanted both wars stopped immediately -- but he only ended the war in Iraq and began winding down the one in Afghanistan.

I...

In no time, Congressmen and candidates who like to talk tough on defense will let the Aurora slaughter slide into the background, and turn back to pushing Americans to pump up military spending.

While a gunman was preparing to turn an assault weapon on moviegoers here at home, candidate...

It is hard to erase from your memory the mean things you did to a classmate as a teenager, even 40 years later. So, thanks to Mitt Romney, I am facing up and finally apologizing to DH for inexcusable behavior back in middle school.

But somehow it...

There's a growing consensus among economists, investors, academics, and consumer advocates that more "principal reduction" -- writing off a portion of a mortgage that exceeds a home's value in exchange for a higher likelihood of repayment -- can help avoid another wave of costly and economy-crushing foreclosures. That's good for...

When Congress was on the brink of pushing through legislation that Internet advocates opposed, over four million online signatures were gathered quickly. Congress relented.

Today, millions of American households are poised to benefit directly from the opportunity to reduce mortgage payments, avoid foreclosure, build up some savings, or...

So, a corporation is a person? This from Republican candidates who claim to believe in adhering strictly to the original meaning of the Constitution? It must be that conservatives found some alternate version of the Preamble to the Constitution, long-lost amidst the papers of the Founding Fathers, that...

Many now consider the race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts to be up for grabs. With the Senate perilously close to slipping from Democratic to Republican control, the stakes will be high and of national importance.

Consider, then, Bob Massie -- not the name most people outside the state have...

When the Titanic was sinking, first class passengers got the lifeboats and the rest were left to fend for themselves. Listening to the economic plans of leading Republicans, the Titanic approach still appears to reign over conservative rhetoric a century later.

Of course, some might argue...

What is the single biggest monthly budget item for most families? A payment for housing, often a rent check.

Rents are starting to rise dramatically and in every major metropolitan area are expected to rise from 3 percent to 10 percent in 2011 and beyond. That means a family paying...

Is anyone surprised? A mortgage finance industry built on sloppy paperwork, which reaped record profits processing consumers as if they were so many sheep to be fleeced, is caught churning out foreclosures built on sloppy paperwork, so homeowners can be dispossessed on the cheap.

It is tempting to wish upon...

Shirley Sherrod should have been a household name long before this week's media frenzy -- but for reasons most of the country knows little about.

For decades, Ms. Sherrod has been fighting for economic justice and access to property for those who have been left out of the system....

Without a hint of awareness of any contradiction, the Tea Party Express and headliner Sarah Palin recently gathered on the Boston Common, one of the oldest government-maintained spaces in America -- to denounce government.

They vented anger about a government doing too much. A strange complaint from self-styled patriots,...

The bonuses will be paid, the amounts will strike many as obscene, and the anger will grow.

If you are mad as hell and ready to do something about it -- talk taxes.

We , the taxpayers, faced with a near collapse of the country's financial system,...

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...