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The phenomenal financial crash of the past few weeks has hammered home what should be common sense: A free market needs reasonable rules that safeguard the public interest. So why would we accept the conservative argument that we should use that recipe for disaster to reform an already failing health-care system? ... more »

So much for the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Stocks are tanking across the world. Clearly, once the bailout passed, investors took a good look at the real economy and dove for the mattresses. We’re headed into a great reckoning. And at the heart of that, as argued in our new op-ad in the New York Times, is this country’s unsustainable global economic strategy. more »

Conservatives are twisting the facts beyond the breaking point to support their revisionist history about a law that encourages lending in low-income communities. But don’t be fooled: the financial crisis was caused by conservative financial follies and bankers run amok and nothing more. Here's how you can fire back at 11 basic myths about the Community Reinvestment Act and the role of government regulation in this Wall Street mess.... more »

Note: Apologies for this post's length, but I felt that in order to make this really comprehensive, I had to have it go longer than most posts. It tries to summarize and boil down the negotiations over the complex issues involved in the credit market problem. more »

The markets were already indicating the plan from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was inadequate. Rather than making further compromises with the conservatives who simply don’t get it, Democrats should put forth a plan that is far bolder and that deals with the real problems.... more »

The text of the "agreement on principles" that blew up yesterday is — like Treasury Secretary Paulson's original proposal — is breathtaking in its brevity. They are talking, after all, about authorization to spend $700 billion — or more, since it is a revolving fund. Meanwhile, the financial crisis grows worse.... more »

We cannot word it too strongly now. Free-market economics is one of history's great failures—like monarchy and slavery and torture were failures. Countries that embrace it have invariably degraded themselves, and forfeited their own hopes for peace, democracy, and prosperity.... more »

It's gut check time. The attempt by Treasury Secretary Paulson to put a gun to the head of Congress and terrify them into forking over a $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration in 48 hours has failed. Now what? Most Americans would just as soon the Masters of the Universe were allowed to sink in their own folly. They had the party; let them clean up the mess. But, looking at sinking housing values and shaken retirement accounts, most Americans know something has to get done.... more »