The Latest from Robert Kuttner

Deficit or Depression?

Dec 28, 2008 | 01:58 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Here is a fine example of why a despairing President Truman once said, "Bring me a one-armed economist." Our quote of the day comes from Martin N. Baily, an economist at the Brookings Institution, who was once on President Bill Clinton Council of Economic Advisers. The quote, incidentally, was the centerpiece of Peter Goodman's lead article in the Sunday New York Times News of the Week Section, "Printing Money-and its Price"--expressing alarm that President-Elect Obama's stimulus program will over-spend and over-borrow.

Will Barack Obama Commit Industrial Policy?

Dec 21, 2008 | 01:57 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Barack Obama may soon find that he is committing a big sin against one of the major premises of the reigning ideology. As part of his plan to restructure the auto industry, rebuild infrastructure, and create new green industries and jobs, he will be committing industrial policy. And this will create a head-on collision with one of the cherished dogmas of market fundamentalism -- "free trade."

This clash is long overdue. For several decades, American elites of both parties have been preaching the same gospel of free trade. Supposedly, if we just leave markets alone, different countries will produce and export what they naturally do best, and import products at which their partners excel. In the tidy and oversimplified textbook world, there is no room for questions about pollution, labor standards, product safety, financial engineering, or industrial policy.

A Tame Regulator for the SEC

Dec 18, 2008 | 01:36 PM

A version of this article appeared in the American Prospect and on the Huffington Post.

President-elect Obama's appointment of Mary Schapiro to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission does not augur well for Obama's commitment to get at the roots of the financial crisis. Schapiro, who heads one of our broken financial system's main institutions of self-regulation, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is known as a technically competent and politically moderate regulator who does not make waves. She served on the SEC beginning in 1988, having first been appointed by President Reagan.

The Post, Post-Partisan President

Dec 15, 2008 | 02:53 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Barack Obama has made it very clear that he intends to govern as a bridge-builder. Ideology is a bad word in Obamaland. He will lead as a pragmatist, and also reach across the aisle to Republicans.

Team of Rubins

Nov 23, 2008 | 12:46 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

As progressives, we can view President-Elect Obama's emerging economic team in one of two ways. Either he has disappointed us by picking a group of Clinton retreads--the very people who brought us the deregulation that produced the financial collapse; the fiscal conservatives who in the 1990s put budget balance ahead of rebuilding public institutions. Or we can conclude that he has very shrewdly named a team of technically competent centrists so that he can govern as a progressive in pragmatist's clothing--as he moves the political center to the left.

Pelosi's Price

Sep 30, 2008 | 04:08 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

A very dubious Wall Street rescue package went down to defeat Monday because the Republican leadership double-crossed the Democrats. Neither party was thrilled with this bill--it might not work; it was too tilted to Wall Street; constituents were outraged. So the deal was that both parties had to share responsibility.

Notes for Next Time

Sep 27, 2008 | 05:47 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

I had the near-death experience of watching the first presidential debate with a small group of hard core liberal intellectuals. The consensus in the room was that McCain won, and that Obama was surprisingly weak. McCain stuck to his message that Obama was naïve, that he "didn't get it." McCain was surprisingly lucid and forceful. He reminded us of Reagan. His manner was folksy and reassuring, but tough. He knew his subject. He spoke fluidly, and didn't come across as reckless or over-the-hill.

Fishing in Troubled Waters

Sep 26, 2008 | 05:51 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

As the events of the past 24 hours have shown, the Republicans lack both the leadership and the unity to bring home any variant on Paulson's proposed bailout deal. This has been a special fiasco for John McCain, and a richly deserved one.

Slow Down and Get This Right

Sep 24, 2008 | 05:58 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Physicists, historians, and economists talk about "path dependence." Something that is far from ideal persists, only because we are stuck with a particular path. A favorite example is the QWERTY typewriter -- it is far less efficient than other arrangements of letters, but we all learned on it and are too lazy to change. Another is employer-provided health insurance. No reasonable person would design such a system for today's economy, but we're stuck with a whole infrastructure that resists reform.

A Fine Mess

Sep 23, 2008 | 06:01 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Support for the Paulson plan continued to unravel late Monday and Tuesday morning, as the Treasury Secretary prepared to face two days of scorching hearings on Capitol Hill. In many ways Paulson is the worst possible ambassador for a plan that would give him carte blanche to bail out Wall Street, as a senior representative of the very Wall Street club that created the mess.

Calling Paulson's Bluff

Sep 21, 2008 | 02:10 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson spent the past two weeks playing a game of chicken with firms like Lehman Brothers and A.I.G. Now he is playing even higher-stakes chicken with Congress and the economy.

Game Changer

Sep 18, 2008 | 11:35 AM

Read it on the Huffington Post

This week, historians will record, was a game-changer in two key respects.

First, the free-market chickens finally came home to roost.

And this was the week when Barack Obama recovered that voice that gave so many of us so much hope.

Populist McCain, Polite Obama

Sep 17, 2008 | 11:29 AM

Read it on the Huffington Post

The progressive Section 527 groups, such as America Votes, have been gathering all this week, determined to save the Obama campaign from its own gentle post-partisanship. They began aggressively recruiting large donors, to finance the tough TV spots that the Obama campaign has mostly avoided to date. I attended one of these meetings on an off-the-record basis. "We need to do a far better job defining John McCain," said one national 527 leader.

Wall Street Delivers

Sep 15, 2008 | 12:51 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Sometimes, the fates deliver.

This past weekend, they delivered a worsening of America's financial crisis, which is the direct result of rightwing economic policies of deregulating Wall Street. Some Democrats colluded in these policies, but their essence was Republican ideology. Under George W. Bush, misguided theories of deregulation were entangled with corruption and incompetence in enforcing the scant regulation that remained. The result was subprime and its spawn.

An American Puzzle

Sep 12, 2008 | 03:27 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

Note: I found this one page on the sidewalk outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington. I can't vouch for its authenticity-RK:

TRANSLATION: MANDARIN TO ENGLISH
From: Geng Huichang, Ministry of State Security
To: Zhou Wenzhong, Chinese Ambassador to the United States
Re: Request for evaluation of PALIN, SARAH

Security Classification: Eyes Only

Shaggy Fox Story

Sep 11, 2008 | 05:24 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

You do all kinds of dubious things when you're promoting a book. But when my publisher suggested that I accept an invitation to appear on Fox's "Hannity and Colmes," I was a bit skeptical. I've been on O'Reilly a few times over the years, and have stopped doing it, because these people play with such a stacked deck. They control the format, the timing, they flat-out lie, and they're rude as hell. Even if you win the debate, you're lending credibility to a propaganda act.

Hannity & Colmes

Sep 11, 2008 | 04:41 PM

Here is the video of an interview I did on Fox's Hannity & Colmes last night. Commentary to follow...

The Passion Gap

Sep 10, 2008 | 01:40 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

So who is the grinch who stole Obama's passion? Maybe Obama himself.

Obama fans should be reassured that he has been in this funk before, and has managed to get his mojo back. However, the anxious class has good reason to be anxious.

Obama's particular brand of post-partisanship seems to be having a rendezvous with the condition that has afflicted the Democrats in the past two elections, best known as "Gorekerry Disease." Each element of the malady is worth unpacking.

Too Clever by Half?

Sep 09, 2008 | 05:12 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

So what is the connection between Barack Obama's core beliefs, his campaign advisers, and his rather lackluster performance since Denver?

Little Orphan Fannie

Sep 08, 2008 | 11:24 AM

Read it on Huffington Post and AlterNet

In the past several days, before the U.S. Treasury Department acted to seize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, several people asked me if I thought it was a good idea for the government to "nationalize" the two mortgage giants. In virtually none of the coverage of the Bush administration's latest emergency action, did anyone bother to tell the back story. Fannie Mae, nee the Federal National Mortgage Association, (FNMA) began life as a government invention. It was born "nationalized"--and it worked beautifully until it was privatized.

The Uniter-Divider and His Bare Cupboard

Sep 05, 2008 | 02:11 PM

Read it on the Huffington Post

On Thursday, John McCain pledged to end partisan rancor. On Wednesday, his running mate, Sarah Palin, and the rest of his crew did everything possible to stir it up. This will evidently be the nice-cop/bad cop act through the campaign.

Anything But the Economy, Stupid

Sep 04, 2008 | 10:53 AM

Read it on AlterNet

So now we understand what John McCain's handlers were up to: intensify the culture wars, and once again use cultural symbols as substitutes for policies. In particular, use Hockey Mom Sarah Palin to change the subject from why regular Americans are hurting in the pocketbook to why Palin is a more regular American than Barack Obama. Will the Democrats change it back? Whether they do will decide the election.

Last night, we learned once again how Republicans keep managing to turn seemingly weak candidates and weaker economic circumstances into instruments of political victory: they are superb at creating master narratives that make Democrats, liberals, and "the media" into the cultural enemies of ordinary people.

McCain-Palin = Nail McPanic

Sep 02, 2008 | 10:03 AM

As more details come out, it's increasingly clear that John McCain's campaign acted in haste and panic. Sarah Palin blows away the talk of Barack Obama being insufficiently qualified to be commander in chief. The right looks increasingly ridiculous in trying to equate Obama and Palin.

But there are still two wild cards that have yet to be fully revealed: Palin's effect on the socially conservative working class vote beyond the Republican hard core; and her effect on women voters.

Obama's Challenge, Part I: The Rhetoric

Aug 28, 2008 | 04:27 PM

Cross-posted on the Huffington Post

Obama is said to be in a rhetorical pickle. If he talks a language of hope and inspiration, it's too general and ethereal. On the other hand, if he get too specific, he sounds like a policy wonk. And if he goes for McCain's throat, the pundits have been warning that he will evoke the dreaded specter of the Angry Black Man.

Forgotten Man

Aug 27, 2008 | 01:03 PM

Cross-posted at the HuffingtonPost

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born 100 years ago today. After Franklin Roosevelt, his record as a progressive Democrat was unsurpassed. Thanks to his leadership and passion, Congress enacted Medicare, Medicaid, federal aid to education, Headstart, the Job Corps, legal services for the poor, and countless other pocketbook measures that helped millions out of poverty and reinforced a secure middle class. And Johnson took immense risks to pass the three landmark civil rights laws. It is not an exaggeration to say that without Johnson's leadership, Barack Obama would not be accepting the Democratic nomination for president this week.

A Perfect Opening

Aug 26, 2008 | 06:22 PM

When Ted Kennedy walked to the Denver podium, flanked by his wife Vicki and his niece Caroline, the roars that Kennedy had to finally silence marked a moment of high emotion. When he echoed the most powerful words of past Kennedy moments--"The torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans"--it was in the robust and booming voice that Democrats have come to cherish.

But Kennedy, 76, and gravely ill with brain cancer, almost didn't make this trip. When he arrived in Denver Sunday, he went straight to a hospital for a medical check. And until the moment that he set out for the convention hall, neither he nor his family could be certain whether he'd feel strong enough to speak. The magnificent short film tribute was initially conceived as a stand-in for Kennedy himself. The tears mixed with the cheers marked the fact that, barring divine intervention, this will be Kennedy's last convention.

Will the Clintons Behave?

Aug 25, 2008 | 02:23 PM

DENVER--I attended my first convention in 1964 in Atlantic City, as a college Young Democrat, when my thrill was smuggling gallery passes to Mississippi Freedom Democrats who were challenging the official all-white Mississippi delegation. The nominee, of course, was never in doubt, since Lyndon Johnson was the incumbent president. Johnson had just delivered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the demonstrations were an acute embarrassment to him. In the end, two of the Freedom delegation were offered token non-voting seats, a compromise that satisfied no one. Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper on the plantation of Mississippi Congressman Jamie Whitten, declared, "We didn't come all this way for no two seats, 'cause all of us is tired.'"

Make No Small Plans

Aug 22, 2008 | 01:16 PM

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting page-one piece today on how wages have lagged behind inflation in the US, while keeping up on Europe. This is of course because Europe has a stronger welfare state and stronger unions. Workers get a larger share of the total pie.

The End of Economics?

Aug 21, 2008 | 01:32 PM

Cross-posted at TAPPED

Columnist David Leonhardt has a piece forthcoming in the New York Times Sunday Magazine that nytimes.com posted early. The piece asks the question: where does Obama really stand on economic issues. It's the right question--but along with some useful insights Leonhardt provides some odd answers.

His Own Best Adviser

Aug 20, 2008 | 12:52 PM

This election will depend on whether Barack Obama, in the end, is able to be persuasive with working and middle-class voters who have deep economic anxieties. That means an economy of restored opportunity, decent incomes, and economic security.

Notes from the Publishing Wars

Aug 19, 2008 | 12:21 PM

Cross-posted at the HuffingtonPost

Well, Obama's Challenge (the book) is stimulating a lot of press notice, but not exactly the sort I had in mind. It set off a huge controversy about what's fair play in the publishing industry. What's fair? You decide.

Mortgage Emergency

Aug 18, 2008 | 10:17 AM

The Dodd-Frank bill to brake the collapse in housing values, signed by a reluctant President Bush just three weeks ago, is already far too weak to fix what's broken. The latest statistics are staggering. According to the firm RealtyTrac, there were 271,171 foreclosures recorded just in July. The Congressional Budget Office estimates, not disputed by Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank, that their bill, now law, will save just 400,000 homes from foreclosure over the next three years. Two to three million mortgages are projected to default this year alone.

Origins of a Book

Aug 13, 2008 | 03:15 PM

This book began with the germ of an idea for a magazine article. In the fall of 2007, I had just published a book warning of impending financial collapse (and none too soon) called The Squandering of America. Barack Obama was starting to look like he could be more than just a fresh face.

It dawned on me that by January 2009, there could be a rendezvous of a perilous economic moment with a new leader and an ideological reversal. I began reading more about great American presidents--Lincoln, FDR, the Lyndon Johnson of the civil rights era--leaders whom I thought of as transformational, who grew in office and took America places that seemed politically impossible when they began.

These transformations were the product of a rare crisis with rare leadership. I saw evidence that Obama might have the makings of such a leader. Interestingly, though John Edwards and Hillary Clinton seemed slightly to Obama's left on some issues like health insurance, many Obama supporters were willing to cut him some slack in issue positions because they saw in him a potentially transformative president.