William Greider

National Affairs Correspondent

William Greider, a prominent political journalist and author, has been a reporter for more than 35 years for newspapers, magazines and television. Over the past two decades, he has persistently challenged mainstream thinking on economics.

For 17 years Greider was the National Affairs Editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where his investigation of the defense establishment began. He is a former assistant managing editor at the Washington Post, where he worked for fifteen years as a national correspondent, editor and columnist. While at the Post, he broke the story of how David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, grew disillusioned with supply-side economics and the budget deficits that policy caused, which still burden the American economy.

He is the author of the national bestsellers One World, Ready or Not, Secrets of the Temple and Who Will Tell The People. In the award-winning Secrets of the Temple, he offered a critique of the Federal Reserve system. Greider has also served as a correspondent for six Frontline documentaries on PBS, including "Return to Beirut," which won an Emmy in 1985.

Greider's most recent book is The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to A Moral Economy. In it, he untangles the systemic mysteries of American capitalism, details its destructive collisions with society and demonstrates how people can achieve decisive influence to reform the system's structure and operating values.

Raised in Wyoming, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, he graduated from Princeton University in 1958. He currently lives in Washington, DC.

Currently

  • Why Not Tax Wall Street?

    November 18, 2009

    In Washington, big ideas for financial reform are suddenly gaining momentum.

  • Charitable Capitalism

    November 18, 2009

    Goldman and the other big dogs of Wall Street are afflicted with the stink of greed, having harvested swollen fortunes from the calamity they caused for the rest of the country.

  • The Money Man's Best Friend

    November 11, 2009

    Blue Dog Democrats are undermining prospects for financial-industry regulation and reform.

  • Deficit Hawk Hysteria

    October 28, 2009

    The time to pay down the deficit will come only after the economy recovers.

  • Nice Work If You Can Get It

    October 15, 2009

    Some public servants collect their reward after leaving government. Gene Sperling, adviser to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, earned his before.

  • Memo to Investigators: Dig Deep

    October 8, 2009

    The first step toward lasting financial reform is to identify the roots of the crisis.

  • The Deification of Gentle Ben

    August 25, 2009

    While the mainstream press portrays newly reappointed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as a mild-mannered hero, the reality is he is responsible for much of the economic pain Americans are feeling.

  • Squandered Opportunity

    August 17, 2009

    After a brilliant beginning, President Obama appears to be abandoning his principles on healthcare by hedging on a public option. What should disappointed Democrats do?

  • A Rancid Deal with Big Pharma

    August 6, 2009

    Did Obama sell out? If House Democrats don't insist on the government's prerogative to bargain for lower prices, reform is impossible.

  • The New Truth-Teller

    July 20, 2009

    In naming Phil Angelides as chair of the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Congress has picked an aggressive, visionary reformer.

  • Dismantling the Temple

    July 15, 2009

    How to fix the Federal Reserve.

  • Obama's False Reform

    June 24, 2009 Subscribe

    Congress should step up its investigations of the roots of the financial crisis and slow down the rush to weak solutions--especially the empowerment of the Federal Reserve.

  • Obama's False Financial Reform

    June 19, 2009

    What's missing in the President's call for reform are concrete rules that address a dysfunctional banking system. Slow down the rush to weak solutions.

  • Healthcare Pushback

    June 17, 2009

    Taxing benefits may raise money for Obama's healthcare reform, but it would betray union members who gave up wage increases in order to get decent coverage.

  • Letters

    June 10, 2009 Subscribe

  • Wall Street's False Armistice

    June 10, 2009

    The biggest names in Wall Street banking are back to business as usual. And if they're wrong in declaring the financial crisis over, the big losers will be President Obama and the American taxpayer.

  • The Trouble With Democrats

    June 5, 2009

    If Democrats don't stand up to the banking lobby, it's unlikely that necessary and real credit reform will take place.

  • Breaking Down the Auto Bailout

    May 8, 2009

    The outlines of the GM deal suggest President Obama is sticking with Rubinomics. Will other Democrats be brave enough to stand in his way?

  • Stress Test: Obama's Rosy Scenario

    May 7, 2009

    Good news! Nobody is insolvent! While Treasury declares banks are strong enough to weather the storm, private-sector stress tests tell very different story.

  • The Future of the American Dream

    May 6, 2009

    The good times, as we have known them, are not coming back. Americans need a new vision that addresses new economic realities.

  • Obama and the Big Dogs

    April 22, 2009

    When great crimes are committed--by the big dogs of Wall Street or those who torture in our name--they will either bully their way out or be called to account. Is Obama tough enough to do what's right?

  • Trust Your Guts

    March 28, 2009

    Wall Street reforms may further consolidate power and ratify a corporate state that combines the worst aspects of socialism and capitalism.

  • Obama's New Monopoly Set

    March 24, 2009

    President Obama has invented a new board game that nobody can lose. But only Wall Street money men can play.

  • Fixing the Fed

    March 11, 2009

    To restore the nation's broken financial system, Washington must reform the Federal Reserve.

  • The Future of Social Security

    February 25, 2009 Subscribe

  • Labor's Man Joins Treasury Team

    February 16, 2009

    Ron Bloom, a former I-banker with the head and heart of a labor activist, has been tapped to advise the Obama administration on the auto bailout. Let's hope they listen to him.

  • William Greider Responds

    February 13, 2009

    William Greider defends his analysis of how Social Security is threatened by entitlement reformists.

  • Tiny Tim Sings Off-Key

    February 11, 2009

    Geithner was condescending, vague and infuriating as he lectured us on the troubled financial system, feeding a suspicion that he's still working for the other side.

  • Looting Social Security

    February 11, 2009

    Behind closed doors, advocates of entitlement reform are pushing Obama to tap the Social Security surplus to pay for bank bailouts. It could be a defining test for new politics in the Obama era.

  • The Crisis Is Global

    January 15, 2009

    Six months from now, if the Obama recovery does not materialize, the president may discover he has to reinvent himself.

2008

  • Stop Senator No

    December 10, 2008

    Will Democrats have the courage to disable the filibuster rule?

  • Bonfire of the Vanities

    November 25, 2008 Subscribe

    Timothy Geithner is responsible for much of the generous deal-making now underway with Wall Street. If Obama's not careful, he will be blamed.

  • Past and Future

    November 24, 2008

    Obama's too smart to allow the ideas of the past to define his presidency. Yet Timothy Geithner is an architect and enabler of the unfolding crisis.

  • Time for a Bank Holiday

    November 19, 2008

    No more free money from Washington. No more masters of the universe. No more business as usual.

  • This Proud Moment

    November 4, 2008

    Against all odds, Obama persuaded a majority of Americans to believe in their own better natures. By electing him, the people helped make it true.

  • The Marathon Man

    October 29, 2008 Subscribe

    Ralph Nader is a man of political substance trapped in an era of easy lies.

  • Establishment Disorder

    October 29, 2008

    Obama must decide between small-bore reforms and a far more ambitious agenda to remake the economy.

  • Paulson's Swindle Revealed

    October 29, 2008

    United Steelworkers Union prez Leo Gerard cracks open the sweetheart deal that bailed out nine banks--and likely lined the Treasury Secretary's own pockets--with billions of taxpayer dollars. Does anybody care?

  • Nader's Stubborn Idealism

    October 25, 2008

    Ralph Nader is a man of political substance, trapped in an era of easy lies.

  • Dr. Paulson's Magic Potion

    October 16, 2008

    As Bush and Paulson throw money at the problem, Obama is moving rapidly to adapt to the crisis that awaits the next president.

  • Born-Again Democracy

    October 1, 2008

    Congress must take control of the failed financial system until a new president can legislate a more permanent and equitable solution.

  • Bailout's Political Turmoil

    September 29, 2008

    The bailout crisis represents the Democrats' hesitant first step toward rediscovering their nerve and abandoned convictions. They are not there yet.

  • Acts of Contrition

    September 26, 2008

    The road to recovery requires more than a bailout. Americans deserve apologies from Washington and Wall Street--and a new president capable of telling the truth and leading us forward.

  • Show Us the Money

    September 24, 2008

    Something needs to be done--something fair for the American taxpayer--to salvage Wall Street. We want the same deal Warren Buffet got.

  • Goldman Sachs Socialism

    September 24, 2008 Subscribe

    Rescuing America from irresponsible Wall Street is worth at least what it costs to save the bloodied bankers.

  • Goldman Sachs Socialism

    September 23, 2008

    Instead of handing Bernanke $700 billion with no strings attached, government should take over the banking and finance sector, clean it up and start funneling money into the real economy.

  • Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle

    September 19, 2008

    Paulson's rescue plan represents a historic swindle--all sugar for the villains, lasting pain for the rest of us. Don't let Wall Street get away with this without enacting significant reform.

  • The Smell of Fear

    September 17, 2008

    The house of global finance is on fire--and the lightning bailout of AIG raises serious question about government's capacity to extinguish the flames.

  • Creative Destruction on Wall Street

    September 15, 2008

    An epic deflation of wealth sweeps away arrogant financiers and their fraudulent gimmicks, setting the stage for reform.

  • Economic Free Fall

    July 30, 2008

    We are flirting with catastrophe, and our foreign creditors are part of the story.

2007

2006

  • Friedman's Cruel Legacy

    November 22, 2006 Subscribe

    Milton Friedman's free-market faith produced a bastardized system of interest-group politics that favors sectors of citizens at the expense of many others.

  • Watershed

    November 16, 2006

    It's time for Democrats to break out of their risk-averse habits and blaze a new trail--if they can only remember how.

  • Letters

    November 1, 2006 Subscribe

  • Pelosi's Moment

    October 16, 2006

    If Democrats take control of the House, they could revitalize national politics by convincing reluctant senators and presidential candidates to embrace a more progressive agenda.

  • A Conversation With Robert Rubin

    July 14, 2006

    The former Treasury Secretary speaks candidly on the inherent inequities of globalization and the political, social and economic challenges that lie ahead.

  • Born-Again Rubinomics

    July 13, 2006

    Is Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's new "conceptual framework" of economic reform an acknowledgment of neoliberalism's failures or simply a repackaged version of Clintonomics?

  • Cheney and HAL

    June 22, 2006

    As CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney was not much different from other corporate titans ensnared by accusations of incompetence and fraud.

  • The Future Is Now

    June 8, 2006

    American politics is on the brink of momentous change. A deep shift in priorities and a surge of new ideas can lead to a new governing order grounded in a determination to give people back their future.

  • The President Is Not Smiling

    March 28, 2006

    Card is out, Bolten in. The Senate is stuck on immigration. And every day brings more bad news. Take care of this, will you, Josh?

  • Learning to Love the Bomb

    March 20, 2006

    Could the world learn to live with a nuclear Iran? A new power equation of nuclear proliferation is emerging to challenge the Bush Administration's bluster on the subject.

  • A Peculiar Politician

    March 14, 2006

    Senator Russell Feingold should be praised for calling on the Senate to censure the President for breaking the law and lying about his domestic spying program. Instead, he's mocked by the media and abandoned by many of his own party.

  • Will Greenspan Tell the Truth?

    March 8, 2006

    A Greenspan memoir will do fine in the marketplace. It is the kind of Important Book daughters buy for father's birthday. In the unlikely event Greenspan tells the truth, it would be a sensational bestseller.

  • Olympic Swagger

    February 28, 2006

    Swagger was America's chosen posture at the Winter Olympics. Once again, sport imitated life: boasting got us nowhere at the Turin games or in the world.

  • The Boy Who Cried Wolf

    February 23, 2006

    The Dubai Ports flap is bogus, but it's fun to see Democrats and Republicans frothing in unison. Hysteria has defined the Bush presidency; now the fearmonger-in-chief is getting a taste of his own tactics.

  • A Warning Bell

    February 2, 2006 Subscribe

    Democrats can capitalize on the current economic stall and gain control of Congress with a return to bedrock principles: creating jobs, restoring incomes and rescuing families from debt.

2005

  • Rebels

    December 20, 2005 Subscribe

    With persistence and strong convictions, insurgents can change a political party. Galvanized by the war and disgusted with weak-spined party leaders, rank-and-file Democrats may at last be ready to bite back.

  • Apollo Now

    December 14, 2005 Subscribe

    Industrial society is on a collision course with nature. The devastation of New Orleans is a metaphor for what can happen next to us all. Will America decide to reshape the future in positive terms, or sit back and wait for the inevitable destruction to occur?

  • All the King's Media

    November 2, 2005

    The scandals suffocating the Bush Administration seem less like Nixon and Watergate and more like Louis XV and pre-Revolutionary France. They are harbingers of a potent cultural event that may jolt the public out of complacency.

  • Squeezing the Have-Nots

    October 13, 2005

    Fitful efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast unfold against a backdrop of looming economic disaster: rising unemployment and interest rates, misplaced priorities and a recession that will hurt the weakest most.

  • A 'New' New Deal

    September 15, 2005

    The reconstruction of New Orleans could set the stage for a comprehensive legislative initiative akin to the New Deal.

  • The One-Eyed Chairman

    September 1, 2005

    When the adulation fades, Alan Greenspan will be recognized as a right-wing ideologue and the most politicized Fed chairman in history.

  • Profiles in Cowardice

    June 29, 2005

    Senate Democrats are preparing to take a dive on the issue they have righteously hammered for four years--the estate tax.

  • Sins & the Citi

    June 16, 2005 Subscribe

    Where is the public's outrage over corruption in US finance and banking?

  • Riding Into the Sunset

    June 9, 2005

    It is time for a serious solution to the problem of retirement security.

  • Lies, Guts & Deep Throat

    June 2, 2005

    Why "Deep Throat" and the Watergate story are still important today.

  • Pro-Death Politics

    April 2, 2005

    The country has witnessed an interlude of religious hysteria, encouraged and exploited by political quackery.

  • Elite Protectionists

    March 24, 2005

  • Galbraith: An Appreciation

    February 24, 2005 Subscribe

  • The New Colossus

    February 10, 2005

    Why public pension funds might be the real progressive power.

  • Letters

    January 5, 2005 Subscribe

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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