President Obama's rebuff on stimulus spending by the G-20 and the latest Republican roadblock on the Senate jobs bill is producing fears of a deeper, double-dip global recession. While Thomas Frank urged the U.S. to avoid the "austerity trap," Paul Krugman warned that the "pain caucus" here and in Europe could produce the "Third Depression." […]

On Tuesday, the New York Times detailed the extraordinary lengths Nevada Republican Sharron Angle will travel to avoid the press. Almost on cue, Angle again showed why she has gone to ground. In a recent radio interview, Angle announced she opposed abortion even in cases of rape or incest because "God has a plan." Of […]

By almost any measure, the $787 billion stimulus program has worked exactly as designed. The overwhelming consensus of economists is that the federal package has been a success, while the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has already added up to 4 points to GDP and 2.8 million jobs. But […]

For the second time in four years, Ghana put an end to American World Cup hopes. Making the loss more painful were the catastrophic defensive lapses and first half midfield woes that were the undoing of a much stronger U.S squad than four years ago. Still, American fans will always have the heroic comeback against […]

Refusing to extend unemployment benefits to 1.2 million Americans by adding to the deficit, Senate Republicans by a 41 to 57 margin on Thursday again filibustered the Democratic $112 billion jobs bill. As it turns out, most of the roughly $35 billion still needed to pay for it could largely come from a single source: […]

The resignation of Washington Post blogger David Weigel is as ironic as it is sad. On Saturday, the Post's ombudsman wrote a piece titled "Blogger loses job; Post loses standing among conservatives" for a paper which regularly features not one but two former Bush speechwriters (Michael Gerson and Marc Thiessen) among its columnists. More ironic […]

The past week has brought a lot of heat if not light to the ongoing battle over health care reform in the United States. On Tuesday, President Obama unveiled a "Patients Bill of Rights" touting new consumer protections. Meanwhile, even as polls show the Affordable Care Act is becoming more popular, House Minority Leader John […]

In one of the most disingenuous claims yet by the Republican born-again deficit virgins, House Minority Leader John Boehner claimed two weeks ago that the Bush tax cuts were not to blame for the massive deficits now plaguing the federal government. On Wednesday, Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse set the record straight. The U.S. […]

For America's ultra-rich, two stories this month have been dominating the news. Thanks to Republican obstructionism, the one-year lapse of the estate tax is producing a windfall for the heirs of the nation's most well-off, including, as we learned two weeks ago, the heirs of Texas billionaire Dan Duncan. That was followed just days later […]

On Friday, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman and former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan penned dueling op-eds on the federal budget deficit. While Greenspan warned that the "urgency to rein in budget deficits" is "none too soon," Krugman countered "many self-described deficit hawks are hypocrites, pure and simple." Which is exactly right. Only now, nine years […]