Editor's Cut

Investigating the Mortgage Crisis

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

In a press release last week, Chairman Edolphus Towns of the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform announced a major investigation "into whether mortgage companies employed deceptive and predatory lending practices, or improper tactics to thwart regulation, and the impact of those activities on the current crisis."

This investigation is much needed, and frankly, overdue, as the foreclosure crisis has now hit record levels.

The Committee has requested--and will subpoena if necessary--records from Wells Fargo, Bank of America (including Countrywide), JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Residential Capital (GMAC), and US Bank Home Mortgage.  It is also issuing a subpoena for records on Countrywide Financial's VIP program.

While the media seems focused on the Countrywide VIP program and questions of whether Towns himself benefited from it (he has denied doing so but will forward the documents to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct), I think the far more significant development here is the breadth of information the Committee is demanding from Big Banking.

The records in question cover 2000 to 2008, and include: the number and types of mortgages issued (whether fixed rate, adjustable, subprime, etc.); number of foreclosures and on which types of mortgages for every month during that time period; any marketing strategies and target audiences for residential mortgages, home equity loans, or similar products; special benefits provided to officials with a regulatory relationship with the banks; any draft legislation pertaining to mortgage lending that was offered to legislators; and any coordinated campaigns with other banks to fight mortgage regulation.

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October 28, 2009

Around The Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

When former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's autobiography, Going Rogue: An American Life, comes out on November 17th, it won't go unanswered. Two of The Nation's top editors, Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, are co-editors of Going Rouge: An American Nightmare, published by OR Books for release the same day.

The cover may be tongue in cheek, but the anthology is no parody. Featuring essays from some of The Nation's standout writers (Katha Pollitt, Max Blumenthal, John Nichols, Chris Hayes, Naomi Klein, Pat Williams, Gary Younge and JoAnn Wypijewski) and from some of the leading thinkers on the left (Matt Taibbi, Jessica Valenti, Eve Ensler, Michelle Goldberg, Dahlia Lithwick, Frank Rich and others), Going Rouge is a serious look at former Governor Palin's record, her politics and her rise to power. (Disclosure: I have a piece in the book as well.) Going Rogue also includes commentary from Alaskan journalists and bloggers who have covered Palin first-hand.

In Going Rogue, Palin is expected to launch a broadside on progressive policy and values. In a year where a Facebook post by the former Governor parroting discredited myths about healthcare is treated by the mainstream media as something to be debated, not completely called out as a lie, we felt it was important to give readers a choice. Governor Palin will have her moment and present her case, but Going Rouge offers a smart, lively counterpoint, and a look at how "Palinism" is impacting the current political debate.

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October 25, 2009

NoEscalation.org

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

President Obama will soon make what could be the defining decision of his presidency. The course he chooses in Afghanistan will tell us a lot about the kind of country we will become during his administration.

We have already been fighting in Afghanistan for twice as long as we fought in World War II. In fact, the United States and its NATO partners have had more than 40,000 troops in Afghanistan since 2006 and have spent more than $300 billion on military and civilian operations. At this perilous moment, as we attempt to recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the last thing we need is a "surge" of 40,000 more troops to fight on behalf of a corrupt and unpopular Afghan government.

Security in the United States and the region depend not on this misguided surge, but on commonsense counterterrorist and homeland security measures: extensive intelligence cooperation, expert police work, border control, and the surgical use of special forces to disrupt imminent attack when needed.

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October 23, 2009

Public Pensions and Saving Souls

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

In recent years, I have written many times of the tremendous public investment deficit facing this country. Our infrastructure is old, and it isn't being replaced or maintained--we need a real commitment in order to grow a sustainable and green economy in the twenty-first century.

But resources are now harder than ever to come by, especially with the deficit hawks shrieking every time the Obama administration attempts to invest in an economic recovery.

It should come as no surprise then that poised to cash-in on our national crisis are the same private equity folks whose casino culture brought us our current economic collapse. In our public assets--our bridges, highways, airports, etc.--they see an opportunity to leverage debt all over again, throw in gobs of money, raise user fees, and gain exorbitant short-term returns at the expense of the rest of us.

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October 20, 2009

Around The Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

A few quick hits from The Nation's orbit this week:

For a 144-year old magazine, we've tried hard to get up to speed on Twitter, Facebook and social networking. We were interested to see that our most read piece of the month so far is "Deadline Poet" Calvin Trillin's poem. The source of the traffic is as new as it gets: Tens of thousands of tweets, retweets and Facebook posts, with an assist from some great blogs like Jezebel and Feministing. Calvin is a treasure and we're lucky to have him each week; we're glad our twitter and facebook fans think so too.

The Nation is also trying its hand at slideshows, aiming to provide a more intimate view of critical issues. This week our latest slideshow looks at the advances made by the gay rights movement so far this year.

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October 19, 2009

Why Arianna Doesn't Get It

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

I admire Arianna Huffington. She is a strong, bold voice in our media firmament. But in the last few days, she has advanced an idea which, in my view, is wrong. She is urging Vice President Biden to resign if the Obama administration ignores his proposal to concentrate on counter-terrorist operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Arianna argues that by doing so, Biden would be following in the hallowed tradition of US officials, like Elliot Richardson and Cyrus Vance, who resigned for reasons of principle. Richardson resigned after refusing to fire Archibald Cox; he did so to uphold the rule of law and to prevent the presidential abuse of power. Cyrus Vance resigned to protest the attempted military rescue of American hostages in Iran, which he believed jeopardized diplomatic and peaceful efforts to win their release.

But the flaw in Arianna's reasoning is to equate Biden's advocacy of counterterrorism with principled stances on law and diplomacy. While Biden has been an important voice against escalation inside the administration, his proposal itself is questionable; it advances the doctrine of preventive military action that would violate the sovereignty of an American ally and that in the past has resulted in the death of innocent citizens. By any reasonable standard, Biden's position is a violation of international law because the United States is not under threat of an imminent attack from extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and because the past eight years have made clear there are reasonable legal alternatives to protecting American lives in the form of intelligence and police actions that do not put innocent civilian life at risk.

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October 16, 2009

The House is on Fire

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

It is now clear: our economy is shrinking, unemployment and underemployment are on the rise at nearly 20 percent, and a tsunami of foreclosures continues unabated--what we have on our hands is nothing less than a national emergency.

That's why it's so critical that good thinkers and progressive activists are on top of this, paying attention to the human costs of this Great Recession.

"I consider President Obama to be in the situation of having inherited a burning apartment building," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), testifying before Congress. "He proceeded to gather all the available fire trucks and douse the fires in half the floors."

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October 13, 2009

The Burden & The Nobel

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

The choice has always been, as a former chair of the Nobel Peace Prize judging committee explained in 2001, " a political act." This year it was also an ingenious leap of faith-- the endorsement of the hope and the promise represented by America's new President. Of course, it was also a pointed rebuke to the unilateral recklessness of the Bush administration, with its aversion to international organizations and diplomacy. (As were the awards given to former President Jimmy Carter and Vice-President Al Gore.)

Perhaps the Committee, in welcoming Obama's re-embrace of the global community, should have also honored the millions of Americans who voted for Obama --and who, in so doing, helped redeem America's image.

I think those who argue that the Prize is cheapened are just plain silly. The Prize doesn't go to only those who have succeeded in their efforts, nor is it a lifetime achievement award. Instead, it is often and wisely given to endorse and encourage those who are working to bring about a better and more peaceful world. As Thorbjorn Jagland, the Committee's new Chair, said: "It's important for the committee to recognize people who are struggling and idealistic, but we cannot do that every year. We must from time go into the real of realpolitik. It is always a mix of idealism and realpolitik that can change the world."

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October 11, 2009

Around The Nation

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Last Spring, Sebastian Jones was fact-checking in The Nation's modest Capitol Hill office as our DC intern, keeping track of the excitement (and corruption) in Congress. Like a seasoned pro, Jones paid attention, following up on some whispers and a few good leads. The result? A stunning and widely discussed investigation about former House Majority Leader--and one-time populist--Richard Gephardt. Frank Rich, Matt Yglesias and others referenced the piece as emblematic of the revolving door system of corruption in DC, and "Dick Gephardt's Spectacular Sellout" was our most read article of the week.

Jones shows the veracity of our shoestring Internship program, while Investigative Reporter A.C. Thompson reminds us how important the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute can be. This week the New York Times reported in depth (for the first time) on Thompson's 18-month investigation into vigilante shootings and police misconduct in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The killings, reported the Times, "[were] not investigated by the authorities until an article about it appeared in The Nation magazine in December 2008." Both incidents are now under "multiple investigations," and justice could be at hand.

To support efforts like our internship program and the I-Fund, click here.

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October 11, 2009

It's About the People

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

When it comes to the media, we hear a lot of talk about a conservative-liberal divide, or the thoroughly discredited idea of a liberal bias. But the divide worth paying attention to is between those who are represented (and listened to) in media coverage, and those who aren't--namely the powerful, and then everyone else.

A revealing new study on media coverage of the economic crisis--released Monday by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ)--shows that little attention has been paid to how the worst collapse since the Great Depression impacted ordinary Americans. PEJ examined 9,950 stories that ran between February 1 and August 31 on television, radio, cable, newspapers and online. It found that a whopping 38 percent were focused on three topics--the banking industry and its bailout (15 percent), the stimulus package (14 percent), and the US auto industry (9 percent). In contrast, housing, including the subprime crisis, mustered only 6 percent of the news coverage, as did unemployment. (The PEJ study points out that "The percentage of Americans who were looking for but unable to find work actually outpaced the attention the subject received in the press.") Reporting on "retail sales, food prices, the impact of the crisis on Social Security and Medicare, its effect on education and the implications for health care combined accounted for just over 2 percent of all the economic coverage."

There was also a significant geographical bias to the coverage. Seventy-six percent of the stories were focused on either New York (44 percent) or DC (32 percent). Even coverage of the auto industry--only one-sixth of those stories came from Detroit, two-thirds from New York or DC! And stories on labor issues and worker layoffs--the people most severely affected--accounted for less than 1 percent of stories on the auto industry.

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October 6, 2009