Commentary

No negotiating with those who take constitutional authority hostage
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Civil rights, Federalism, Housing
Opposition to lawful federal authority has had a long and ugly history, from South Carolina’s secession 150 years ago this week, to massive resistance to integration in modern day America (in both the South and the North). It's not just a thing of the past. In Westchester County — one of the official poster children for limousine liberalism — it turns out that there is open, deliberate, and organized violation of a lawful desegregation order right now. And the Obama Administration is not lifting a finger. More
Obama's Pearl Harbor Day press conference: naive, incapable, or disingenuous?
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Taxes
Either I give in or “folks” get hurt, says the President at his Pearl Harbor Day press conference. There was no other way the President could get any stimulus, say those desperately trying to find a silver lining to a plan that would give 25% of all tax cut benefits in 2011 to the highest earning 1 percent of taxpayers. These “realists” apparently believe that the GOP has developed magical or superhuman immunity to public pressure. Panicking, they substitute ominous warnings about “protracted political combat” leading us over a cliff for a sober assessment of either what a late-day offensive would entail or what the landscape would look like over the cliff (or beyond the horizon). More
More limits than we wish to know
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Environment
The same people who brought us all-knowing, fail-safe markets insist that the real problems in developed countries are a birth rate that is too low and populations that are getting too old. So, they say, keep on producing new earners and consumers. It won’t work on any level. More
Don't call tax cuts for wealthy 'compromise'
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Income inequality, Politics, Taxes
If one side gives up when it has maximum leverage, and the opposition says only that it will keep fighting for its original position, it's more apt to use the term 'surrender' or 'fecklessness.' More
And then they’ll say we ratified their scheme
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | NYC, Politics
In 2008, New York City's Mayor and City Council collaborated to overturn the term limits law that had been put in place by voters. This year, a Charter Revision Commission appointed by the Mayor offers a term limits modification, but denies voters the chance to return immediately to the pre-2008 term limits law. Whatever voters decide, City officials will spin the result as ratifying their power grab. More
Who needs to reassure whom?
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Markets
Markets are seeking "reassurance" all the time. The author wonders when markets are going to offer him some reassurance. More
NYC student testing scandal: roots and reverberations
Commentary | By Craig Gurian | Education
Why didn't warning signs about the flaws in the testing regime reverberate more with the public and the press in the years leading up to Mayor Bloomberg's 2009 re-election, and is there now any chance for productive debate that gets well beyond "testing is good" versus "testing is bad" or "subject matter knowledge is good" versus "teaching skill is good." More

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