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Where is John Maynard Keynes when you need him? While mainstream economists have long agreed that government spending is crucial for stimulating demand amid economic downturns, many elected leaders have pushed for the exact opposite approach—trying to slash government spending just when we need it most.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officially opened for business in July 2011.

Laws to restrict or curtail voting spread like wild fire across the country in 2011 with 19 new state laws now in effect.

Are caucuses paragons of participatory democracy, unrepresentative playgrounds for zealots, both, or somewhere in between?

The Associated Press is reporting that President Obama will appoint Richard Cordray today as the director of the Consumer Finance Protection Agency, all but ensuring a pageantry of exploding heads on the right.

This week, Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute -- the largest oil and gas industry trade group -- claimed that not approving the Keystone XL pipeline would be against the wishes of the “vast majority” of Americans.

When the Montana Supreme Court upheld its restrictions on direct corporate political spending, it showed a real-world understanding of politics and people which had somehow eluded the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010’s disastrous Citizens United.

The new IRS report on the "tax gap" is a good news, bad news story -- although mostly bad news.

David Brooks writes today in the Times about how few Americans identify as "liberal" -- noting that twice as many Americans now identify as conservatives -- and concludes that over the last forty years, "liberalism has been astonishingly incapable at expanding its market share."

Yesterday, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver posted an open letter in protest of growing opposition to the Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway pipelines.

The unemployment numbers for November and December were good enough to encourage predictions of a stagnant or even slowly growing economy for 2012. It's nice to get good news, even if the bar is set at eluding economic disaster.

Class conflict is now the biggest source of social tension in America, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center -- bigger than racial conflict or tensions around immigration. Two-thirds of Americans now believe there are strong or very strong conflicts between poor people and rich people, a 19-point jump from two years ago.

A new study from Indiana University predicts that, while unemployment might be at its lowest rate since February 2009, the ranks of the poor will continue to grow in this decade. At the heart of the problem are the 97 million Americans who, while not poor, make less than 200 percent of the poverty line, approximately $45,000 for a family of four.

Regardless of whether you think taxes should be increased or decreased, there is one point in which most people agree: Our current tax system is too complex and in desperate need of reform.

Regardless of whether you think taxes should be increased or decreased, there is one point in which most people agree: Our current tax system is too complex and in desperate need of reform.

If you have listened to conservatives talking about taxes -- oh, for the past 30 years -- you might think the number one complaint Americans have about taxes is that they pay too much.

Wrong. In fact, past polls have often shown that Americans are more irked by the sense that the tax system is unfair.

The Office of the Taxpayer Advocate was established in the 1996 by Republicans in Congress who wanted a watchdog within the IRS that would look out for ordinary taxpayers.

So it is interesting to hear what the current Taxpayer Advocate, a woman named Nina Olson, has to say about how today's Congress is treating taxpayers.