To the cynical observer, the history of government policymaking might also be called a chronicle of unintended consequences.
Michael Gene Sullivan | Posted 05.16.2009 | Politics
History shows that capitalists, like wars, earthquakes, and floods, will always wreck our country -- the only difference being natural disasters don't also rob us in the process.
Michael Gene Sullivan | Posted 05.16.2009 | Politics
Capitalism is self-sustaining like a cancer - it sustains itself as it kills it's host.
William Volk | Posted 05.16.2009 | Media
On the web games pop up based on current events in days. It would be a shame if that wasn't possible on the iPhone.
Sheldon Filger | Posted 05.15.2009 | Business
To set the record straight, Goldman Sachs should come clean on any funds it received from U.S. taxpayers, passed through AIG, in the first quarter of 2009, and provide a precise accounting on how those payments affected their Q1 bottom line.
Newsweek | Michael Hirsh | Posted 05.11.2009 | Business
Not long ago, a group of skeptical Democratic senators met at the White House with President Obama, his chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, and Tre...
Sheila Tendy | Posted 05.09.2009 | Business
We've heard the bellows of those you know best, "Sell 'em! Get 'em off the books of the banks! Break the credit freeze!" But where does a toxic asset live once it has been sold?
Brian Ross | Posted 05.08.2009 | Media
Even if Average Joe is not a wonk, surely we can tell the story in a way that presents the facts more completely, instead of the smoke-and-mirrors scandals of this airplane or that deal.
Jeffrey Sachs | Posted 05.07.2009 | Business
Geithner and Summers tell us that their plan is the only option, but without a word of further explanation as to why. Let them explain to America why the other proposals are not being pursued.
Dean Baker | Posted 05.07.2009 | Business
Given how much money Tim Geithner wants to spend -- putting it in the hands of the folks that brought on this economic crisis -- it would seem appropriate to first examine all the alternatives.
Robert Reich | Posted 05.07.2009 | Business
Geithner's new tough line is mostly designed to reassure a public that's lost all faith in the wisdom of bailing out Wall Street.
Mary Lou Song | Posted 05.04.2009 | Business
You did the right thing about asking Wagoner to step down, but that it is not enough. We need more action, Obama. We need more fairness and non-partisanship in your office and in congress.
Randall Amster | Posted 05.04.2009 | Business
Wouldn't it be fun to be lounging on crushed velvet seats in a little red Corvette -- um, I mean Prius -- instead of always being in the SUV breakdown lane spewing fumes during rush hour?
Don McNay | Posted 05.02.2009 | Business
I used to schedule an out of town trip then meetings the next day. Now I can't. I am not sure if I will get back or if I will get home exhausted and stressed.
Henry Blodget | Posted 04.30.2009 | Business
Why is Geithner bailing out the people who lent trillions of dollars to our now-insolvent banks? Who are these people?
Philip Slater | Posted 04.25.2009 | Business
Why should the corporate miscreants who did untold harm to millions upon millions of their fellow citizens, remain largely anonymous, shielded from public scorn?
Ann Pettifor | Posted 04.24.2009 | Business
President Obama is in danger of making the same mistake Nelson Mandela made. Obama is abrogating power to shape the recovery of the US economy, and handing over the leadership to Wall Street and lesser mortals.
businessinsider.com | Joe Weisenthal | Posted 04.23.2009 | Business
No big surprise: Most of the bankers, politicians and regulators who got us into this mess went to a handful of elite universities and business school...
Rolling Stone | Posted 04.22.2009 | Business
It's over -- we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few week...
Don McNay | Posted 04.22.2009 | Business
If AIG loses millions, or billions, in the future due to its "overly aggressive pricing" we are going to be picking up the tab.
Arianna Huffington | Posted 04.21.2009 | Politics
Barack Obama's Special Olympics line on Leno got all the headlines, but the night's real money quote was his saying that his administration plans to "set up a securitized market for student loans and auto loans outside of the banking system" in order to "get credit flowing again." Excuse me, but isn't that what the $700 billion bank bailout was supposed to do? So what happened? Instead of lending the billions we gave them, Obama explained to Leno, the bailed out banks "are keeping it in the bank because their balance sheets had gotten so bad." Imagine that: zombie banks using taxpayer money to stay afloat. If the White House really didn't see that one coming, it's no wonder the ferocity of the public's reaction to the AIG bonuses caught them so off-guard.
Don McNay | Posted 04.20.2009 | Business
There has been talk about appointing a new "Systemic Risk Regulator." This "Super Czar" would oversee all of the financial services industry. We had a "Super Czar" last year. His name was Henry Paulson.
AP | Posted 04.19.2009 | Chicago
Several hundred workers have protested outside Chicago-area financial institutions, calling for an end to corporate bailouts. The Service Employees I...
Robert Weissman | Posted 04.19.2009 | Business
What is vital now is that the public's righteous anger is not expressed only as "no." There are a lot of things to which We The People do need to say "no." But we need a lot of "yes's," too.
Diane Francis | Posted 04.19.2009 | Business
What is scandalous is not only the US$165 million in AIG bonuses. It's the US$180 billion which has been shoveled into AIG by taxpayers to date, funds...
Michael J. Panzner | Posted 05.17.2009 | Business