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In the better-late-than-never category, there's now a more subtle debate among economists about whether it's debt that tamps down economic growth or whether it's the slow growth that pushes up the debt. That's an important question, but it actually hides what may be an even more crucial one. Is growth in GDP really the best way to judge how the economy is doing? What does GDP actually tell us, and what does it leave out?

Last week, 72 New York State Assemblymen sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver urging him to support a public financing program for primary, general and special election campaigns for statewide offices. Such a program would match modest contributions with public funds, which allows small contributors to have a larger impact and brings more donors into the political process.

About half of all public companies are incorporated in Delaware, and that state has long been synonomous with a race to the bottom when it comes to corporate responsibility. So many companies incorporate in Delaware because it has famously lax standards for corporate behavior. And tiny Delaware has no incentive to raise those standards because incorporating companies is a key part of the state's economy. 

In every society, the marketplace—the physical marketplace—brings people together not only to exchange goods and services, but to meet one another, socialize, and exchange ideas.  Markets are the places from which communities arise, and where people of different strata and clans converge.      

ALBANY, NY – Connecticut’s public campaign finance program is making the state legislature more responsive to voter priorities, helping lawmakers spend more time with constituents, and reducing the power of moneyed special interests, according to a compelling report released today that underscores the potential impact of similar reform in New York State.

A group of activists and politicians from Connecticut came to Albany Monday to promote their brand of public financing, which has been in place since 2008. According to supporters, including Sec. of State Denise Merrill, public financing for the legislature and statewide offices has led to a number of (mostly progressive) policy breakthroughs including an unclaimed bottle bill (sound familiar?) higher minimum wage and most importantly, a deeper, more diverse pool of candidates, with a 41 percent increase in the number of contested seats.

The drumbeat for public financing pounded loudly on Monday when good government groups and Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill visited the Capitol to make the case for campaign finance reform.

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of the Deep Horizon explosion that spilled 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill fouled 1,110 miles of beaches and marsh along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Three years later, the cleanup continues and crews continue to find oil buried and tar balls washing ashore.

The furor over President Obama's proposed cuts to Social Security benefits has obscured a key fact about his latest 10-year budget plan: Which is that, despite those cuts and even bigger cuts to Medicare, the plan only modestly slows spending on seniors even as it proposes significant cuts to nearly every other government function over the next decade.