When I was writing my book on the history of American political debate and change - The Progressive Revolution: How The Best In America Came To Be - in 2008, I was doing some research on the sequence of events in the 1960s, I was struck by the fact...

Demonstrators today are using their bodies to send a message to Eric Holder that it is time to stop shielding the big Wall Street banks from prosecution. Hundreds of homeowners who have been playing by the rules while the big banks have cheated them are risking arrest at the Department...

In my 33-year-and-counting career in politics, I have done my share of both candidate campaigning and issue campaigning. In the last 15 years or so, frankly, I have been more inclined to spend most of my time on the latter, because just fighting the candidate battles doesn't necessarily move the...

There was a moving and powerful event this morning at Union Station in D.C. where low-wage workers for federal contractors, leaders of the faith community, and members of Congress all did a little preaching to President Obama. Their message could not have been clearer: It is time to finally to...

In a speech recently, the influential economist Jeffrey Sachs made the following statement, one that was both remarkable and yet predictable about the culture of Wall Street:

I'm going to put if very bluntly. I regard the moral environment as pathological...these people are out to make billions of dollars and...

The ghosts of the Enron Corporation are haunting us still, and they are a lot scarier than any horror movie ghosts because, unlike the Hollywood variety, these ghosts still have enough substance to cause an economic nightmare.

I have a lot of familiarity with the Enron scandal because in 2001...

The inside-the-beltway world of Washington, D.C. rarely deals with truly foundational economic issues. When they do, it is only because they are being forced to by crisis or a political movement forcing something onto center stage. The big fundamental issues make the powers that be uncomfortable simply because they may...

When I think of Elizabeth Warren, I think of her as a fiery warrior on behalf of consumers and the 99 percent, fearlessly taking on the biggest and baddest of all the special interests, Wall Street. But she is also the senior senator from the great state Massachusetts, and her...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was...

In the first three years of the Clinton White House, there were two memorable budget wars, in 1993 and 1995. The open fights with the Republicans were brutal, highest-of-high stakes white-knuckle showdowns where Clinton's entire presidency was on the line. Behind the scenes, though, our internal fights inside the White...

There is a new report out this morning once again reminding us of the greatest disappointment progressives have in the Obama administration: the lack of toughness in regards to Wall Street. The report, issued by the Campaign for a Fair Settlement (full disclosure: this is a coalition I...

I am thankful each and every day that Barack Obama won the 2012 election, and that he is our president instead of Mitt Romney. The current version of the Republican Party is the most extreme, cynical, and utterly heartless group of people I have ever witnessed in American politics- and...

Thank you, Attorney General Holder, for finally being so blunt and definitive about DOJ's unwillingness to prosecute the biggest banks:

But I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are...

Right wing forces in this country are obsessed with the size of government, but the fundamental debate we should be having is not the size of government but what the goal of government should be: What should government's central mission be?

There are four major views on this question in...

For the three decades plus that I have been in politics, I have been a passionate advocate of the clean money agenda, especially public financing of campaigns and the overturning of one of the worst decisions in Supreme Court history, Citizens United. Multiple times over the years I have been...

No surprise that a populist progressive Democrat like me would like President Obama's State of the Union address that talked so much about lifting up the middle class. But there's a background story on getting to the president's message last night that is little known but worth telling.

January of...

I am really excited that the long overdue battle over immigration reform and a path to citizenship has finally begun in earnest. While I am heartsick at the reason, it is good news that common-sense gun safety laws are once again being discussed in this country almost two decades after...

Wow, what a week. Anyone who wants to try and give a clear, uncomplicated picture of President Obama and his party this week has to end it a little befuddled. The picture is murkier than ever in terms of the course Obama is trying to chart, his boldness and that...

Barack Obama's second inaugural address was steeped in the progressive traditions of our nation's history. His speech built on the legacy of our country's past giants, and added to that legacy.

Like Martin Luther King in his "I Have a Dream" speech, and Abraham Lincoln in the...

It is a well-known fact that President Obama wants a "grand bargain" with the Republicans, a deal that would reduce future deficits both by raising tax revenues and cutting spending, including on the so-called "entitlement programs." He has offered this idea up repeatedly to Speaker Boehner and other Republican leaders...