BARACK OBAMA SHOULD PUSH HIS INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN
We're in the middle of a painfully halting recovery that may well turn into another recession. The president and Congress concocted an amateurish scheme of across-the-board cuts they thought no one...
View ArticleTHE STATES STAY BUSY WHILE WASHINGTON SEIZES UP
When the big, expensive restaurant on the corner is closed for repairs, smaller, leaner, mom-and-pop takeouts spring up around the neighborhood.That's what's happening with innovation in government....
View ArticleAntics of the hard right are plain wrong
Are there lunatics among us?The word traces back to the Latin word luna, for moon, from the old superstition that the moon could make people crazy.There is increasing evidence that an important part of...
View ArticleDavid Stockman's essay is a wake-up call
We've been hearing a lot about David Stockman's recent essay on the American economy and the imminent demise he predicts for it. Stockman, you may recall, was budget director under President Ronald...
View ArticleNorth Korea ushers us into the rogue-nuclear state era
North Korea says it is going to attack the United States. A country that has nuclear weapons, even if only a handful, has no trouble getting a lot of attention when it says something like that. Most...
View ArticlePublic employees now, too, feel the retirement squeeze
From one end of this country to the other, people are wondering what they're going to live on when they retire. The recessiondecimated many 401(k) plans, and many families didn't save at all over the...
View ArticleGrowing Pessimism, Both Here and Abroad
A recent survey indicates that the American middle class has become more pessimistic about the economy and is deeply worried about their own future. In the poll, conducted in April by Heartland Monitor...
View ArticleUnemployment and climate change both addressed by one plan
Devastating storms like Sandy last fall are increasing in number, and unemployment remains dangerously high. Hurricanes and unemployment are parts of two different, dangerous trends. But there's a...
View ArticleCorporate tax loopholes meet their match
Propose a tax increase and you lose -- that's been the axiom of American politics for a decade or more. But as the nation wallows in the economic doldrums, the old idea that all tax increases are bad...
View ArticleThe World Should Prepare for a Chinese Economic Slump
China announced a series of steps last week to attempt to stabilize its economy. China's economy is in trouble, and the recent moves are part of Act I in what threatens to be a long drama. And for...
View ArticleIn face of NSA, we need a public defender of the Bill of Rights
On Friday, President Barack Obama finally addressed growing skepticism about the government's vast surveillance programs. We've all been reading about how our government has been tracking our phone...
View ArticleCandidates mustn't stay silent on NYC pension woes
One of the toughest problems staring at the next mayor of New York City is what to do about city pensions.New York City today is nowhere near the kind of trouble Detroit is in. That city is bankrupt...
View ArticleObama shouldn't attack just to save face
yria is a cruel puzzle. It is hard to see any promising roads forward -- either for the children and families who remain in danger of being slaughtered there, or for the United States.It is cursed with...
View ArticleGet set for more pointless federal drama
Who's in charge here? We have lived through a summer of vacillation and hesitation by the American government. Even the normally imperturbable Federal Reserve seemed to catch the bug this past week...
View ArticleLarge-scale investment to stimulate economy, reduce carbon emissions (ORANGE...
More weather extremes, plus reduced agricultural yield, plus droughts, plus dwindling marine life as a result of growing ocean acidification, are what the overwhelming majority of climate scientists...
View ArticleWhat New York's near-default can teach the federal government
Peering over the edge of default, Congress has kicked the can down the road, and managed for now to avoid blowing up the American economy.Hardly what you could call a breakthrough moment.I once had to...
View ArticleThink it, and a computer will make it happen
We've learned that most of what the brain does consists of receiving, sending and processing electrical signals.And we've seen what modern technology can do in terms of capturing and interpreting...
View ArticleDon't gamble with NY State's future
It's now more than five years since the economic crash of 2008. Nationally, four times as many people as before the crash are long-term unemployed (longer than six months). The recovery, if we call it...
View ArticleNelson Mandela focused on the horizon
A generous and principled giant has died. Nelson Mandela stood for half a century as a unique example of a selfless leader capable of driving through tough but fair and pragmatic change. He oppressed...
View ArticleThe Inexperienced Chief Executive
We have a president with little management experience. And it'sshowing.The health care reform mess has been spectacular. The troubles with the program's website and enrollment are only the beginning....
View ArticleA little resolution may go a long way
The new year is a few days away. This is a time to think about our resolutions, about hopeful things -- perhaps about a hopeful undertaking called The Resolution Project. The initiative...
View ArticlePort Authority Shouldn't be a Patronage Pit
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey has been on the griddle after it became known a senior staff member directed the Port Authority to engineer a traffic jam in Fort Lee, seemingly as an act of political...
View ArticlePort Authority Shouldn't be a Patronage Pit
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey has been on the griddle after it became known a senior staff member directed the Port Authority to engineer a traffic jam in Fort Lee, seemingly as an act of political...
View ArticleMake Port Authority an economic engine again
There are two distinct changes New York and New Jersey state officials must implement to improve the efficiency -- and fulfill the promise -- of the Port Authority.- Stop political abuse by either...
View ArticleWe need new cooperation to move America again
I keep asking myself why America is stuck. We can't seem to get anything serious done. We have a big budget deficit, crippling national debt and a jobless rate that is still too high. And even though...
View ArticleOp-Ed: Governors can re-energize the Port Authority, with Richard C. Leone
Months of raw partisan politics, comical mismanagement, conflicts of interest and resignations at the Port Authority have left the public outraged and confused.But despite a naive attempt by New Jersey...
View ArticleHow the world can respond to Putin
The Russian military buildup along the Ukrainian border and Vladimir Putin's seizure of Crimea have become pivotal moments for Western powers and NATO. During the Cold War, the Kremlin had little doubt...
View ArticleBeing firm against Putin is not that easy
In Ukraine, there's chaos. In Russia, Vladimir Putin, a shrewd master of strategy, appears to be riding a wave of popularity as he aims to expand Russian territory and influence. And in Western Europe,...
View ArticleThe amazing rise of the supercomputers
In the second half of the 20th century, we saw computers as powerful machines for doing calculations. They were faster and more accurate than humans, and could handle more variables and solve more...
View ArticleEurope endures the stresses of democracy
Europe is America's principal partner in the world -- politically, economically, and in terms of democratic values. And the results of the European parliamentary elections last month suggest that our...
View ArticleConquer food waste to feed the world
We don't hear much about it today, but growing enough food to feed the planet will be a significant problem before long unless we make some changes soon. A leading cause of the projected food squeeze...
View ArticleDon't Wait for 2016 for New Ideas
We've started a serious but thus far not very lively debate about inequality because of an unusual confluence of circumstances in American history.First, we are in a period of stunted economic growth...
View ArticleEurope's disturbing re-emergence of anti-Semitism
Rioters destroyed stores owned by Jews and chanted anti-Semitic slogans in demonstrations in France that stretched over three weekends last month.A synagogue in western Germany was attacked, and...
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APPOINT A WORLD CZAR TO CONQUER EBOLA
A health worker in protective suit carries equipment on October 1, 2014 at MSF's (Doctors Without Borders) Ebola treatment center in Monrovia. Liberia has been hit the hardest by the worst-ever...
View ArticleThe other 9/11 (2014 Hong Kong reminiscent of 1989 Berlin)
In the past few days, I suspect we've see a lot of photos and videos of the Berlin Wall coming down -- 25 years ago last Sunday.But we probably will not see many pictures of Mikhail Gorbachev, the man...
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