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Nomi Prins, a senior fellow at Demos, tells the Economic Policy Institute that in the year since the climax of the Wall Street economic meltdown the country's economy is even more vulnerable to "too big to fail" banks and their high-risk behavior. The fact that the banking sector is moving so quickly back to profitability, and to talk of big executive bonuses, while the Main Street economy remains so crippled is a reflection of how far behind the curve we've fallen in implementing a reform agenda.

Prins, whose new book, "It Takes a Pillage," has just been released, makes the case for breaking up "too-big-to-fail" banks and instituting a new Glass-Steagall act, which would reinstitute the wall between retail banking and investment businesses that was torn down by conservatives during the 1980s, leading to the creation of today's financial behemoths.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the panel created by Congress to investigate the causes of last year's financial market meltdown, held its inaugural meeting September 17 as the nation observed the one-year anniversary of the nadir of the Wall Street economic collapse. Commission Chairman Phil Angelides said that the commission will craft and execute an ambitious schedule to get the facts behind the economic crisis, and would strive for consensus among the members of the committee, which include strong progressives and conservatives. The panel's members set out their expectations for that the panel would accomplish during its 15-month charter.

Amanda Terkel, a blogger at Think Progress, has heard the arguments that it is wrong for progressives to pay attention to Fox News talk-show host Glenn Beck. In this interview, Terkel, who has been monitoring Beck since before he became a cable news television star, explains in this interview why that is a wrong-headed idea.

Terkel explains why it is important for progressives to confront the lies and the fake populism espoused by Beck.

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Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what a public option for healthcare coverage really means for working people.

Diane Archer, health care policy expert at the Institute for America's Future, says that President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress Sept. 9 made a compelling case that the federal government can play a uniquely constrictive role in addressing the nation's health care problems. Archer points out that Obama forcefully defended a public health insurance option while addressing cost concerns raised by conservatives.

I led a panel discussion at Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh Aug. 13 on how progressives can gain the offensive in talking about such issues as health care reform and federal spending. The panel—Campaign for America's Future bloggers Digby, Monica Sanchez and Dave Johnson—stressed that careful language and issue-framing is especially important now to counter increasingly vehement right-wing narratives.

Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, explains how Chinese steel manufacturers gain an unfair trade advantage over their U.S. counterparts, even though U.S. plants are demonstrably more efficient and technologically advanced. He spoke to a group of bloggers at the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh Aug. 13, 2009, after they toured the Mon Valley Works steel plant outside the city.