Robert Borosage

This week, Barack Obama trips to China as part of an eight-day trip to Asia. The White House paints a full agenda: Afghanistan, human rights, North Korean nukes, climate change, trade relations, and the economy. But it's really just the economy, stupid.

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners...
—Langston Hughes

We've got a new red scare. Forget Glenn Beck; the fear isn't that America is going red, it's that it is in the red. Conservatives in both parties are raising alarms about deficits and government spending. Well, get over it. If we are going to generate growth and shared prosperity out of the mess we are in, expanded public investment must be a centerpiece of the new economy.

In today's Washington, this verges on heresy. The chattering classes are raising a clamor about Obama's deficits. The growing fixation, fanned by conservatives in both parties, may well cripple any short-term recovery. Worse, the wrong-headed debate could well undermine the reforms vital to the new economy we need to build out of the ruins of the old.

Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage praised the House Financial Services Committee for taking steps to protect consumers from predatory financial practices by approving the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, in an official statement.

They are popping the bubbly on Wall Street. Million-dollar bonuses, the Dow at 10,000, the casino is open again. Forget President Obama, who says we can't go back to an economy where finance pockets 40 percent of the profits. We're already headed there.

Even as the health insurance companies draw down on health care reform, another showdown is just beginning in Washington. On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee will begin marking up the first legislation to try to curb Wall Street's casino.

As the House Financial Services Committee begins markup on Wednesday of key financial reform legislation, the stakes are clear.

Don't miss the Bill Moyers show tonight. He's got Simon Johnson, the former IMF economist and Rep.

This week, Barack Obama trips to China as part of an eight-day trip to Asia. The White House paints a full agenda: Afghanistan, human rights, North Korean nukes, climate change, trade relations, and the economy. But it's really just the economy, stupid.

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners...
—Langston Hughes

We've got a new red scare. Forget Glenn Beck; the fear isn't that America is going red, it's that it is in the red. Conservatives in both parties are raising alarms about deficits and government spending. Well, get over it. If we are going to generate growth and shared prosperity out of the mess we are in, expanded public investment must be a centerpiece of the new economy.

In today's Washington, this verges on heresy. The chattering classes are raising a clamor about Obama's deficits. The growing fixation, fanned by conservatives in both parties, may well cripple any short-term recovery. Worse, the wrong-headed debate could well undermine the reforms vital to the new economy we need to build out of the ruins of the old.

Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage praised the House Financial Services Committee for taking steps to protect consumers from predatory financial practices by approving the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, in an official statement.

They are popping the bubbly on Wall Street. Million-dollar bonuses, the Dow at 10,000, the casino is open again. Forget President Obama, who says we can't go back to an economy where finance pockets 40 percent of the profits. We're already headed there.

Even as the health insurance companies draw down on health care reform, another showdown is just beginning in Washington. On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee will begin marking up the first legislation to try to curb Wall Street's casino.

As the House Financial Services Committee begins markup on Wednesday of key financial reform legislation, the stakes are clear.

Don't miss the Bill Moyers show tonight. He's got Simon Johnson, the former IMF economist and Rep.