Tim Engartner (Duisburg-Essen): Less Government is Good Government? Deregulation as an Undermining Principle of Financial Markets. Eric J. Pan (Yeshiva): Understanding Financial Regulation. Renee B. Adams (Queensland): Who Directs the Fed? Ruth Mason (Conn): Federalism and the Taxing Power. Taxes should probably rise for everyone, but they should rise the most for the rich. Why is it so hard to raise taxes on the rich? As budget solutions go, almost nothing polls better than asking the wealthiest to pay more. Yes, 47% of households owe no taxes — but look closer. Stop this race to the bottom on corporate tax: Globalization compels governments to compete for dwindling corporate tax dollars. What actually happens if the US hits the federal debt ceiling? Treasury would surely step in — but colossal problems would still be sure to follow. The Great Global Freakout of 2011: Imagining the worst-case scenario if the United States even comes close to defaulting on its debt. Budget Battle: 20 big thinkers suggest ideas to fix the broken US government. Ezra Klein on the House Progressive Budget. An interview with Eliot Spitzer, author of Government’s Place in the Market. A book salon on Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite by Bruce Levine. From Mother Jones, what Wisconsin is really about: How screwing unions screws the entire middle class; an article on Michael Dell and the making of an American oligarch: How a homegrown geek outsourced, downsized, and tax-breaked his way to the top; and America's captains of industry, poverty baron edition: How to get very rich off the backs of the working poor. Didn’t they notice? David Runciman reviews Winner-Take-All Politics by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson.
