BY SUSAN ESTRICH The president deserves the high marks he is getting from the public for his first month in office. Most presidents get to spend their first month putting up the draperies. This one had to spend his picking up the pieces of a collapsing economy. When the Republicans decided to just say no, […]

BY FROMA HARROP Let bankruptcy courts modify the terms of home mortgages, says President Obama and legislation now before Congress. Banks don’t like the idea, but it’s a good one, possibly even for them. We are talking about Chapter 13 bankruptcies, in which troubled borrowers reorganize their debt, not walk away from it [that’s a […]

BY JOE CONASON With President Obama’s signature affixed to the economic stimulus bill, his landmark victory can be put in proper political context. Regardless of that bill’s manifest imperfections and the messy legislative process, the new administration achieved a difficult objective on the tightest possible schedule. His Republican opponents congratulate themselves for remaining unified in […]

BY FROMA HARROP Open most any urban newspaper to the foreclosure notices, and you’ll find the list heavy with Hispanic names. Times are tough for Americans of every demographic, but for Latinos they are grimmer still. Is this the end of the Latino-American Dream? The answer, in Spanish, is “no.” President Obama has just unveiled […]

BY JIM HIGHTOWER I don’t mind losing when we lose, but I hate losing when we win. One big reason that Barack Obama now occupies the big chair in the Oval Office is that he embraced the public’s rising indignation at the blatant greed of Wall Street bankers, striking the proper populist tone in last […]