Author: Eric Lotke

I had the privilege Tuesday morning of attending a hearing by Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on the issue of America’s decaying infrastructure. It was an important hearing and everyone said the right things. If that sounds encouraging, keep the good mood for a moment. Soon you’ll…

A brand new Gallup poll reports: “Americans prioritize protecting the environment over economic growth by 49% to 42% — but this seven-point margin is near the low of the past couple of decades.” This simple, perhaps disappointing poll, hides as much as it reveals. First, the good news. Even in this time of economic stress,…

Today\’s New York Times worries \”That the Good Times Were Mostly a Mirage.\” The chair of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, gave our (former) prosperity and stability a name. He called it “the great moderation.” But radical conservatives mounted a multi-decade campaign against that moderation. They removed regulations, shrunk the divide between government and business,…

Purely by chance, I was in the middle of reading Katharine Graham’s autobiography when President Bush commuted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s sentence. I had just reached the part where Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post during the Watergate era, was despairing as the trail grew cold. The Post had published a connection between the…