Think Tank West

As I have argued elsewhere, Bernanke’s record as both a Fed governor and Chair suggest we be better off with a new Fed Chair come January 2010, when Bernanke’s term as Chair expires. Outside of those who believe the bailouts have saved capitalism, two very reasonable arguments are put forth for keeping Bernanke at the helm:  1) [...]

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There seems to be near universal agreement that the excessive use of debt among both corporations, particularly banks, and households contributed to the severity of the financial crisis.  However, other than the occasional refrain that banks should hold more capital, there has been little discussion over why corporations choose to be so highly leveraged in [...]

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The judiciary committee’s vote to endorse Sonia Sotomayor is not surprising. None of the Democrats are from red states and so have little to fear from voters, while the quixotic Lindsey Graham—in what can only be described as a triumph of hope over experience—was the only Republican to have set aside legitimate qualms and voted [...]

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It was good of Ari Schwartz to respond last week to my recent post querying whether the Center for Democracy and Technology outright opposes a national ID or simply “does not support” one. Ari says CDT does oppose a national ID, and I believe that he honestly believes that. But it’s worth taking a look [...]

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As Adam Schaeffer mentions below, a new poll commissioned by the Friedman Foundation and others reports that the vast majority of DC residents are in favor of the DC opportunity scholarships voucher program and are critical of the decision of congressional Democrats, president Obama, and ed. sec. Arne Duncan to phase out the program. Many on the city council [...]

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Any City Council members who aren’t vocally supporting the DC voucher program need to take a good long look at these numbers: Nearly 75 percent of District residents support the city’s federally funded school voucher program, according to a rigorous, independent poll released today. Widespread support for the program crosses party lines—with 74 percent of [...]

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As covered in both today’s Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, the Obama administration has called 25 of the largest mortgage servicing companies to Washington to try to figure out why the Obama efforts to stem foreclosures has been a failure. The reason such efforts, as well as those of the Bush Administration and the [...]

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Inside Higher Ed features a terrific essay today by economist Michael Rizzo. Rizzo takes issue with President Obama’s goals to have all Americans complete at least one post-secondary year of education or job training, and for the nation to have the world’s highest percentage of college graduates by 2020. I’ve opined about this before, but Rizzo does [...]

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In his Washington Post column today, Jay Mathews suggests that poverty isn’t what keeps poor, especially urban kids out of college. The problem according to Mathews, is that too few schools prepare these kids to enter and succeed in college in the first place. True, so far as it goes. But, no doubt due to his long-standing [...]

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Roberto Michelleti, the interim president of Honduras, has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal that should be read by members of the international community that continue to push for the immediate restoration of Manuel Zelaya to the presidency. Michelletti states that “The Honduran people must have confidence that their Congress is a co-equal branch [...]

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