“Words That Work” “Frankly, the single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout.” Republican Pollster Frank Luntz —January 2010 Frank Luntz is a political consultant who made his bones on the Contract With America, by which Newt Gingrich’s resurgent Republicans wrested control of the House from the […]

Read more

Fire Sale—Seventy-two million, seven hundred fifty-three thousand, six hundred forty-seven? That’s the dollar amount the “FIRE” sector (finance, insurance, and real estate) has contributed to the 24 members of the Senate Banking Committee since 1989. The 14 Democrats on the committee took in $50,294,559. Committee Chair Chris Dodd received $13,985,872, but was surpassed by New […]

Read more

IF YOU OWN A reasonably balanced asset portfolio, there’s good news. Stock prices continue to climb in a post-New Year rally. Your recession is over. If you’re a working stiff, the news is not so good. There are 50 percent fewer job opportunities today than there were at the recent job-market peak in 2007. Your […]

Read more

Make Wall St. Pay to Play—President Obama’s proposed tax on big Wall Street banks, to recover $117 billion taxpayers lost on the bank bailout, is actually a fee. It’s revenue neutral, sets out to recover a specific amount of money lost in the bailout, and ends in ten years. In contrast, two hundred economists have […]

Read more

Do the Numbers—While New York Times polling had 65 percent of the American public supporting a public option—a public health insurance company that would compete with private insurers—two amendments that would have provided a public option were rejected by the Senate Finance Committee. The defeat of Sen. John J. Rockefeller IV’s (D-WV) amendment (15-8) at a September […]

Read more