financial reform

Fareed Zakaria is an interesting writer who says some sensible things, as when he called the intensity of the war in Afghanistan "disproportionate" to the threat. more »

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When the nation's most prestigious investment banks found themselves on the verge of total annihilation in the fall of 2008, the most radical and effective government response was not the infamous $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. more »

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Heavy-hitting Wall Street political donors are withholding their money from the Democratic Party's campaign coffers, according to a Washington Post report making the rounds on Capitol Hill today. more »

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There's a new conventional wisdom forming in Washington, DC this July 4th, one that transcends party lines and the usual classifications of "left" and "right" as they're understood in that city. It's only being recognized now, because it deals with a number of different economic issues, but the underlying theme is the same: The American dream of financial independence and security is gone. The sooner you accept that and raise the white flag the easier it will be, so stop struggling.

Theyre saying the ideal of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is dead. Deal with it.

Why, there hasn't been this much unanimity among Washington elites since - well, since they "knew" there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Here's what they "know" now: The United States is doomed to a future of staggeringly high unemployment. Social Security is part of our national deficit and, like that notorious village in Vietnam, we need to destroy it in order to save it. And we must face an open-ended future where the public treasury and personal security are held hostage to the whims of a few "too big to fail" banks. more »

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Sen. more »

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President Obama was right to call out John Boehner today for describing our economic catastrophe as an "ant" that didn't deserve a strong response. more »

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I'm a big Dylan Ratigan fan, and I'm glad we have his voice on the airwaves. That's why it was unexpected to find myself presented as the voice of accommodation in contrast to his angrier tone, when The Huffington Post placed his post on the financial reform bill back to back with mine on Friday. My piece was called The Road Behind, The Way Forward, and his was entitled Politicians Lie, Media Applauds, America Suffers.

We agreed on the essentials: Although it does some good things, the bill doesn't fix our systemic problems and the Wall Street casino's still open for business. Our difference was one of emphasis, and can be seen from our first-paragraph framings of the situation. I said "(F)And for those of us who care about this country, it means that we still have work to do. We must be the voices of reason, the ones who praise what's been accomplished but call for even deeper reforms going forward." Dylan said:

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The House and Senate have reached an agreement and we have a financial reform bill. That means we'll see significant improvements over the status quo as it existed yesterday. It also means we still haven't addressed the gravest risks to the economy. And for those of us who care about this country, it means that we still have work to do. more »

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Members of Congress finished ironing out their differences on Wall Street reform last night, and the resulting bill deserves unequivocal support from progressives and conservatives alike. But while the final package is a necessary first step to overhauling the nation's out-of-control financial sector, it will do very little to change the destructive status quo on Wall Street. more »

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This pretty much says it all: General Petraeus is going to Afghanistan at the President's request to lead the war effort there, but his wife Holly's struggle to defend our troops against the predatory lending practices of car dealers has been lost. Holly will become another military spouse who lost a battle with car dealers while a loved one serves overseas. more »

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