Bank Failures and Bailouts
By Arthur MacEwan | May 13th
Dear Dr. Dollar: Who cares if Bear Stearns fails? Or the Carlyle Group? Or Merrill Lynch? Or one of the other big financial companies? They've made their profits. So what's the problem? Read more...
Go Ahead and Lift the Cap
By John Miller | April 14th
Back in January, the Clinton campaign sent a flyer accusing Obama of planning to impose "a trillion dollar tax increase on America's hard-working families" by lifting the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes. The truth was something different. Read more...
A New WPA?
By Ryan A. Dodd | March 31st
National governments, by serving as "employers of last resort," could guarantee full employment by providing a job for anyone ready, willing, and able to work. Read more...
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
By Robert Pollin | March 12th
What do Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain have to say about our current reality of financial crisis and recession, and the generation-long stagnation in average living standards that has preceded the crisis of the moment? Read more...
From NAFTA to the SPP
By Katherine Sciacchitano | February 6th
While left activists in Canada and Mexico have been spreading the word about the Security and Prosperity Partnership for several years, so far in the United States the SPP has mainly caught the attention of the right.
Read more...
Special to the Web:
Bear Stearns: Not Your Average Bailout
Third in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic
By Larry Peterson | May 13th
The Fed-led rescue of Bear gave investors an unmistakable signal that the central bank would not allow what had long ceased to be perceived as a "mere" liquidity (involving availability of funds to carry out current business) crunch to finally, however belatedly, tip over into a full-blown solvency (involving conditions pertaining to whether or not business could be carried on or not at all) crisis. The unique thing about this shift was that any prior distinction between systemic solvency and the solvency of one particular institution was reduced to precious little. Read more...
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: It's a Recession
By John Miller | March 15th
No ifs ands or buts about it, the U.S. economy is in a recession. In February the economy lost 63,000 jobs, after losing 22,000 jobs the month before. A recession has never failed to follow two consecutive months of jobs loss. And not just construction jobs were lost—manufacturing and retail jobs disappeared as well. Read more...
Finding Spare Change for the Invisible Hand
Second in a Series on the Subprime/Securitization Panic
By Larry Peterson | March 3rd
Since our first piece on the subprime/securitization crisis came out, we've seen official proposals to confine the damage come and go, with price tags going up each time, while the contagion itself continues to infect regions of the financial world most people never even knew existed. Read more...
The Subprime/Securitization Market Panic
A Guide for the Perplexed
By Larry Peterson | December 14th
What does the swindling of financially benighted, sometimes greedy, and even gullible American homeowners have to do with collateral used by mysterious funds which promise outsized returns to the incredibly wealthy? And how on earth can developments in these markets cause a bank run (Northern Rock) in England, which hadn't seen anything similar since the 1860s? Moreover, who are those even more shadowy characters lurking on the horizon—Sovereign Wealth Funds and private equity investors to name two—who stand to capitalize on the mess? Read more...
