Global Investors Are Telling Donald Trump His Deficits and National…
Washington is unnerved these days about budget deficits and the national debt. Deficit angst comes along periodically, often as a pretext for cutting social spending. This time, however, there’s genuine cause for alarm. Outsized deficits are par for the course when the economy is in recession or reeling from a shock like the pandemic or the financial collapse; most of… Continue reading
Sensory Overload Produces Sloppy Policy
Washington policymaking is caught in its own version of sensory overload. All at once, there are too many problems that seem — and actually are — urgent, mind-bogglingly complex, and politically ultra-sensitive to handle well. The result now emerging could be waves of ill-considered decisions. Exhibit A is climate change. Taking serious measures to protect the planet’s climate and ecosystems…Continue reading
Choices in Universal Health Care
Beijing, China — As the health care debate in Washington begins in earnest, a quick trip around the world over the last week has given me a fresh perspective. My first stop was Sweden, to deliver a talk on America’s economic prospects, post-financial crisis. But, first, I found I had to see a doctor for a mild, recurrent eye infection,…Continue reading
Getting Serious about Our Financial Mess
The best way to clear your head of the political chatter that passes for policy debate in Washington is to get out of town. I’m writing today from Stockholm, a grand old city on a picturesque harbor and archipelago, where it’s harder to care much about Larry Summers’ squabbles with White House colleagues, the cynical fulminations from Newt Gingrich or…Continue reading
The Downfall of the Waxman-Markey Bill: Politics-as-Usual Meets Climate Change
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s recent approval of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill presents a crucial test for serious advocates of measures to control climate change. It won committee approval with backing from some environmental groups that have promoted cap-and-trade for 15 years, as well as industry groups representing companies that produce most of our greenhouse gases. The disappointing fact…Continue reading
In the Debates over Economic Policy — and the Sotomayor…
President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court hasn’t triggered a conservative firestorm; and like the dog that didn’t bark in the Sherlock Holmes story, that’s part of a larger pattern affecting policy well beyond the Supreme Court. Granted, partisan conservatives find themselves facing an engaging, activist, Democratic president with very broad public support at his back. So…Continue reading
The Courage and Cunning of the Administration’s Health Care Plans…
The administration’s new health care initiative has the distinctive “yes, but†quality of the Obama banking and housing plans: The focus is correct — here, address sharply-rising health care costs before moving on to guarantee universal coverage — even as the details fall and the proposed execution remains up-in-the-air. Let’s start by recognizing the political courage and cunning involved in…Continue reading
Efficient Markets and the Economic Meltdown
I found myself this week addressing the chairman of the SEC and three other commissioners at a forum on short sales, and the discussion illustrated how much the attitudes of some lag behind the realities of our current crisis. After the repeated meltdowns of numerous markets over the past year, the open minds at the forum belonged to the members…Continue reading
Administration Out on a Limb for GM — and for…
As Churchill famously said of democracy, the administration’s new plans for General Motors are a dismal idea, except for all of the alternatives. Under the plan, GM has to come up with a detailed strategy by June 1 that plausibly will allow it to survive and so receive nearly $12 billion more from the taxpayers, or file for bankruptcy. By…Continue reading