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Baker: Geithner at Treasury: Can He Learn?
Znet Article, November, 25 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
President Obama's pick of Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary showed the sort of caution that Obama has displayed in both his campaign and the other top appointments announced to date. Geithner, as President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank...
Baker: Stopping Foreclosures With the Right to Rent: One More Time
Znet Article, November, 17 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Politicians often prefer complex solutions to simple problems. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the long list of complicated and convoluted proposals to address the country's foreclosure crisis.
Baker: The Obama Economic Team: Clinton Retreads?
Znet Article, November, 12 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Those following the meeting of President Obama's economic advisory committee could not have been very reassured by the presence of Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, both former Treasury secretaries in the Clinton administration. Along with former Fe...
Baker: President Obama's Path to Greatness: Health Care As Stimulus
Znet Article, November, 05 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
President Obama will have a historic opportunity to establish himself as a truly great president in his first days in office. He can take advantage of the current economic crisis to announce plans to jump start national health care insurance. Exte...
Baker: Greenspan Says "Who Could Have Known?"
Znet Article, October, 29 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
That's right, the former Maestro told Congress last week when asked about the meltdown of the housing bubble and the resulting financial crisis: "we're not smart enough as people. We just cannot see events that far in advance."
Baker: Peter Peterson's Bad Economics
Znet Article, October, 22 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Advocates of cutting social security and Medicare in the US are using the financial crisis as a pretext to further their agenda.
Baker: The Return of Great Depression Economics
Znet Article, October, 14 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
To help sell his bailout package last month, President Bush raised the specter of the Great Depression. This was sleazy politics...
Baker: The Fannie/Freddie Flat Earth Theory
Znet Article, October, 13 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
For the last month, most of the world has been watching the Wall Street gang drowning in their own greed as they threaten to pull the rest of us down with them. However, while we have been distracted, the Flat Earth Society has developed its narra...
Baker: Statement on the Need for Coordinated Stimulus
Znet Article, October, 10 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The current economic crisis is the result of an extraordinary period of extreme economic mismanagement. The world's central banks, most importantly the Federal Reserve Board in the United States, made the decision to ignore, if not actively cultiv...
Baker: Step One: Deflate the Housing Bubble
Znet Article, October, 07 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The Wall Street bailout doesn't address the core problem facing the US economy: house prices that are continuing to fall…
Baker: Wall Street Follows the Path of the Steel Industry in Pittsburgh
Znet Article, October, 06 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The financial industry in the United States is hugely bloated and hopelessly uncompetitive in international markets...
Baker: Statement on Congressional Approval of Bailout
Znet Article, October, 03 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
This is the first time in the history of the United States that the president has sought to provoke a financial panic to get legislation through Congress. While this has proven to be a successful political strategy, it marks yet another low point ...
Baker: Wall Street Held a Gun to Our Heads
Znet Article, September, 30 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The $700bn bail-out bill is a victory for wealthy bankers who exploited fears of a financial crisis for their own gain.
Baker: No Bailout: Stop Rewarding Incompetence
Znet Article, September, 25 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
A friend recently sent a note reminding me that back in 2003, when some of us were warning about the dangers of the housing bubble, Alan Greenspan, the person most responsible for the housing bubble, was being knighted by the Queen of England. If ...
Baker: No Blank Cheque for Wall Street
Znet Article, September, 23 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Congress should not approve the Bush administration's $700bn Wall Street bailout without attaching some strings...
Baker: Progressive Conditions for a Bailout
Znet Article, September, 22 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The events of the last week showed the urgency of dealing with the financial crisis. There is a real risk that the banking system will freeze up, preventing ordinary business transactions, like meeting payrolls. This would quickly lead to an econo...
Baker: The Financial Meltdown Continues
Znet Article, September, 19 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Virtually the only certainty in the current financial situation is that there will be more problems ahead. Those who controlled the levers of economic and financial policy neglected their greatest responsibility, which was to ensure an orderly fin...
Baker: Slinging Mud to Hide the Real Dirt
Znet Article, September, 18 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The McCain-Palin ticket has developed an interesting campaign strategy. They don't want the public to see their plans to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, and the system of employer-provided health care. To distract people from these policies t...
Baker: The Whiners' Recession
Znet Article, September, 08 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Senator McCain and his friends no doubt still believe that the economy's fundamentals are strong, but Friday's jobs numbers clearly show how bad things have gotten. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate reported for August is almost as high as the wor...
Baker: Jobless Rate Soars to 6.1 Percent, 84,000 Jobs Lost
Znet Article, September, 07 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent in August, the highest level since September of 2003. The establishment survey showed the economy losing another 84,000 jobs in August. With downward revisions to data for the prior two months, the econo...
Baker: The Housing Bubble Villains Deny Responsibility
Znet Article, August, 28 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The central bankers of the world gathered last weekend for their annual meeting at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This was an opportunity to talk about the major issues confronting the world economy, as well as an opportunity to spend some time in a very ...
Baker: Let's Get Down To Gas Tax Cracking Down On Oil Speculation Could Prove Tricky
Znet Article, August, 18 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Many members of Congress and other political leaders have been bellowing against speculators who they blame for the high price of oil and petrol. According to their story, speculation is the main factor behind the run-up that pushed the price of o...
Baker: Pay-As-You-Drive Insurance Comes to Brookings
Znet Article, August, 11 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Many of the ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will require major changes in behavior and/or impose serious costs. However, there is one mechanism that could lead to substantial reductions in emission with no cost: pay-as-you-drive auto insur...
Baker: The Compromise "Drill Anywhere" Plan
Znet Article, August, 05 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Senator McCain and the Republicans in Congress are calling Senator Obama and the Democrats environmental wimps for refusing to allow the oil industry to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, environmentally sensitive offshore areas and any...
Baker: After the Housing Bill: Time to Address Foreclosures
Znet Article, July, 28 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Last week Congress finally passed its long-debated housing bill. In addition to securing the multimillion-dollar salaries of the top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and protecting their shareholders from facing the full consequences of t...
Baker: Vicious Ideologue Renews Attack on Social Security
Znet Article, July, 27 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Billionaire investment banker Peter Peterson is back on the warpath. He just established a new foundation with a $1 billion endowment, the main purpose of which is to cut back spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Baker: Drilling Without Oil, Tax Cuts Without Growth
Znet Article, July, 16 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
McCain proposed offshore drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, attempting to show he cares about lowering gas prices for everyday Americans. Despite the inability of this drilling to lower gas prices anytime soon, the media picked up on his...
Baker: Housing Market Meltdown Causes Massive Losses
Znet Article, July, 13 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Plummeting house prices will leave millions of homeowners dependent almost exclusively on Social Security in their retirement.
Baker: Free Trade, Why "Free" Matters
Znet Article, July, 08 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Senator McCain was in Colombia last week touting his support for the trade agreement that the Bush administration had negotiated with the country. He also touted his support for NAFTA, contrasting both positions with Senator Obama's opposition to ...
Baker: Barack Care Versus John Care: Health Care Under the Next President
Znet Article, June, 30 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
By far the most important domestic policy issue facing the next president will be fixing the health care system. The United States stands out among wealthy countries in not guaranteeing health insurance to its citizens.


