SWITCH: Mobile | ePaper | Subscribe

Homes Rentals Jobs Autos Contests

Caroline Baum

My name Is Uncle Sam, and I’m a debt-a-holic

Last updated Friday, November 16, 2012 - 1:42pm

NEW YORK — Fix the debt. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. Earlier this year, a group of longtime deficit hawks came together to try to accomplish what has eluded their predecessors for so long. Unveiled at the National Press Club in Washington on July 17, the group had a new name (the Campaign to Fix the Debt), some old faces (Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson, Pete Peterson, Alice Rivlin), and all of the familiar platitudes associated with previous efforts to put the federal budget on a sustainable path: a "non-partisan coalition" working to replace "temporary patches" with a "comprehensive solution" that will "grow the economy" and "protect the most vulnerable."

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments

Five things Republicans won’t tell you

Caroline Baum Bloomberg News

Last updated Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 2:00pm

NEW YORK - Mitt Romney passed the likeability test at the first presidential debate on both an absolute and a relative basis. It wasn’t even a contest between the Republican nominee and the Barack Obama impersonator who showed up to play the president in Denver on Oct. 3.

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments

Five things Democrats won’t tell you

Caroline Baum Bloomberg News

Last updated Friday, October 12, 2012 - 2:03pm

NEW YORK - Election campaigns are about promises: the more grandiose, the better. Who can forget President Barack Obama’s June 2008 speech, telling a rapt audience that future generations would look back at his victory in the Democratic primaries as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal"? If only he had substituted "deficit" for "oceans."

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments

Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, talks to supporters at the departure rally held after the Republican National Convention at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012, in Lakeland, Fla. (AP Photo/Scott Iskowitz)

If Romney’s Harvard pals love him, why can’t you?

Caroline Baum Bloomberg News

Last updated Thursday, September 6, 2012 - 11:02am

NEW YORK - I keep hearing and reading that Mitt Romney has a likeability problem. The Republican presidential candidate trails President Barack Obama by 23 points, according to an Aug. 20-22 USA Today/Gallup poll. The early post- convention polling suggests a slight bounce in Romney’s likeability, but not enough, apparently, to ensure entry to the White House.

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments

Making rich poorer doesn’t enrich middle class

Caroline Baum Bloomberg News

Last updated Friday, July 27, 2012 - 12:46pm

NEW YORK — Here’s a question for you: Would you rather have more money, or keep your current income and see the rich become less wealthy?

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments

What’s so special sbout the Euro currency area?

Caroline Baum Bloomberg News

Last updated Thursday, June 21, 2012 - 1:47pm

NEW YORK — Now that the Greek election failed to solve anything, Europe is back to the same problems it faced before.

Not the ones predating Sunday’s election, which resulted in the formation of a coalition government of Greece’s pro-Europe parties. But the difficulties that existed before 11 sovereign nations scrapped their currencies and adopted the euro on Jan. 1, 1999, with the goal of bringing peace and prosperity to the continent. The idea of one monetary policy for all was unworkable then, and it’s unworkable now, primarily because the countries never had a mechanism for dealing with a crisis

Opinion, Column, National Commentary Read more Comments