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 »

The Arizona initiative (S.B. 1070) continued to provoke a fierce response throughout May from both supporters and opponents. Memorial Day weekend saw rallies in Phoenix – several marching against the bill, and a similar number attending a stadium rally in support. Copy -cat legislation began to emerge in at least 18 states, including here in […] read more »

The U.S. unemployment rate edged up to 9.9 percent in April, then fell back to 9.7 in May. Long term unemployment also worsened. In April, an extra 169,000 workers had been unemployed for more than 6 months: to bring the total to 6.7 million. The under-employment rate – people in part-time work who wanted full […] read more »

Throughout May 2010 the problems of Greek debt – and the danger of a Greek default – threw a dark shadow back over the US debate on the size of our public deficit. Republican lawmakers fighting their internal primary battles found themselves under attack if they had voted for TARP (Senator Robert Bennett lost his […] read more »

The Tea Party folk are making a lot of running right now, and as they do so, we are learning more and more about them. What we are learning is partly surprising and partly disturbing; but either way it is fully important. read more »

It was a long time in coming, but in late May the US Senate finally agreed a financial reform package which now goes into a reconciliation process with the House bill passed in December. The May 19 vote on the approximately 1400 page bill was 59 to 39, with four Republicans (Collins, Snowe, Brown & […] read more »