January 29, 2012
Republican Truth and Real Truth: GSEs and the Housing Bubble
In any wars of words in an election season, truth is often an early casualty. The war of words between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich is no exception. read more »
December 12, 2011
Calling Progressive Economists into the Public Square
“At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1910)[1] Economists are the new public intellectuals of the age. read more »
November 18, 2011
Banker power trumping Democratic Power: the crisis on two continents
We live in troubled and ironic times. The times are certainly troubled. The IMF’s Managing Director has recently spoken with some justification of a looming “lost decade” for the global economy read more »
September 14, 2011
Doing Two Things at Once: Jobs and Housing as Routes Out of Recession?
Maybe it’s because of what I see every morning from my kitchen window– the view over coffee of my former neighbor’s foreclosed and rapidly deteriorating home – that the Obama Administration’s housing policy so depresses me. Or maybe what depresses me is the housing policy itself. read more »
May 26, 2011
Punishment or Pushback: Financial Regulation in the Midst of Recession
Nearly one American in two is currently “financially fragile” – unable, that is, to come up with $2000 dollars in 30 days to deal with an unexpected emergency.[1] That fragility presumably does not stretch out to the fortunate few employed by Goldman Sachs, collectively the recipients of the reportedly $15.4 billion set aside by. . . read more »
February 13, 2011
Obama and Housing – Is Anybody Home?
You may not know it, if you watch only Washington beltway politics, but we are currently in the midst of a housing crisis of monumental proportions. read more »
December 19, 2010
America’s Bleak Mid-Winter
In Christian churches across the length and breadth of this land, millions of Americans will take comfort and inspiration this week from the story of the Nativity. They will glory in the well-known tale of a poor couple, read more »
August 1, 2010
The Foreclosure Crisis That Will Not Go Away
When the financial crisis broke in September 2008, it was widely understood – both in policy-making circles and in popular conversation – that problems in the U.S. housing market were central to the unfolding events. But thereafter, the events themselves took center stage: and the problems of the housing sector, though not forgotten, slipped down. . . read more »
July 24, 2010
The Twenty Reports of Elizabeth Warren
Reports have circulated widely this week about unease in senior administration and Democratic Party circles – unease about the possibility of Elizabeth Warren heading the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. read more »
June 29, 2010
Building Walls or Designing Colanders? Legislative Change in the Wake of the Financial Tsunami
The financial crisis, when it broke in September 2008, arrived with remarkable speed and total lack of fanfare. The legislative response to it, by contrast, has come slowly and with much public deliberation. That legislative process is not yet complete. Indeed the unexpected death of Senator Byrd may still extend it beyond the previously announced. . . read more »
