Originally appeared in the New York Times. I’m all in for the plan announced last week by the Treasury to put a woman on a piece of American folding money. But in bumping Alexander Hamilton from the center of the $10 bill, we would be exiling the man most responsible for our nation’s having a […]
Originally appeared in The New York Times. LAST week’s news from Washington: A dysfunctional Congress managed to function just long enough to bludgeon President Obama into ceding his prerogative to enter into an executive agreement with Iran regarding its nuclear program. That’s unfortunate. I wish the president had had the votes to hang tough on […]
Originally appeared in The New York Times. Ever since President Obama unveiled his health care plan in 2009, critics have questioned its lofty promise to bring affordable health insurance to millions of Americans. Now statistics for the second year are largely in hand and the verdict is indisputable: Its disastrous 2013 rollout notwithstanding, the Affordable […]
Originally appeared in Business Insider. I’m flattered that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman – Nobel prize winning economist and darling of crunchies everywhere – has seen fit to attack me not once, but twice, over a recent Times Op-Ed column of mine about the Eurozone mess. The nub of my sin, says Krugman, is […]
Originally appeared in The New York Times. TOO often the debate over how to restart Europe’s economy veers into the conveniently crisp alternatives of stimulus versus austerity. Should the pressure to reduce government deficits be relaxed? Should central bank actions to lower interest rates have come sooner and been more aggressive? That simplistic debate has […]
Originally appeared in the Daily Beast. The Democratic attacks on Obama’s Treasury undersecretary nominee are ill-informed and can only lead to pointless fratricide. My friend and former partner Antonio Weiss has poked his head above the parapet and volunteered for government service, only to be met with a volley of friendly fire from fellow Democrats. […]
Originally appeared in The New York Times. Although developments on the political front were certainly dispiriting, for the first time in years, the economic news was not all gloomy. But with the economy improving, there was less focus on the continuing need to address flagging incomes, rising inequality and unbalanced government spending. Below are 10 […]
Originally appeared in The New York Times. THE Democrats’ drubbing in the midterm elections was unfortunate on many levels, but particularly because the prospect of addressing income inequality grows dimmer, even as the problem worsens. To only modest notice, during the campaign the Federal Reserve put forth more sobering news about income inequality: Inflation-adjusted earnings […]
Originally published in The New York Times. SO this is the thanks that Uncle Sam gets. Six years after a forceful rescue of the financial system (and, derivatively, the economy) by two presidents and the Federal Reserve, a megarich individual and a battalion of investment funds are claiming unfair treatment and trying to extract billions […]
Originally appeared in The Detroit News. At its recent “analyst day,” General Motors laid out an encouraging vision for the future, a presentation that was warmly received by Wall Street. That such a session would be occurring at all was certainly in doubt in 2008 and 2009 when General Motors (and much of the auto […]
