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The libertarian wing of the Republican Party is getting stronger with each passing year, and as a result, the end of America's disastrous 40-year "war on drugs" may finally be in sight. 

Last week, Professor Charles M. Jones, a noted economist at Columbia, published an opinion piece in Politico claiming to enlighten readers on the realities of high-frequency trading (or “HFT”), computer driven trading at millisecond speeds driven by complex algorithms based on complex trading strategies.

The Senate voted Friday to get rid of subsidies that “too big to fail” banks receive from what is, essentially, an unofficial insurance policy from the government. The unanimous vote, 99-0, is unfortunately nonbinding. It was an addendum to the Democrats’ 2014 budget proposal, which is not expected to live long.

One of the biggest problems with financial reform is having to discuss issues that most people find painfully boring. For instance, “derivatives.”

Fittingly, perhaps, Cuomo’s single biggest misstep in office can be tied to the power of moneyed interests. After fighting long and hard, the governor was forced to abandon a scheme to build a $4 billion convention center in Queens, as part of a joint venture with the Genting Group, a Malaysian corporation.

In the debate over our energy future, I keep coming back to the question of whether or not fracking can be done safely.

In taking on the cost of college, President Obama is going up against one the best organized special interests in Washington: Higher education.

This morning the New York City Council will hold a hearing on legislation to guarantee paid sick days  to all working New Yorkers. The measure has been pending for several years with repeated compromises  to address the concerns of employers.

As everyone knows, the "fiscal cliff" deal raised taxes on households making over $400,000, restoring the Clinton-era top income tax rate to 39.5 percent.

One fact that gets less attention, though, is that progressivity in the tax code ends right there: There is no difference in the tax rate paid by a two-income professional couple bringing in $400,000 and a CEO who brings in the average pay for such executives, which was $14 million in 2011.

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan cadre of House lawmakers will move on legislation to deregulate Wall Street derivatives Wednesday, less than a week after Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) released adevastating report on the multibillion-dollar derivatives debacle at JPMorgan Chase.

For most young Americans, obtaining a secure place in society depends upon going to college. Three out of every four college students depends upon public colleges and universities. Yet the dream of achieving a rung on the college-educated ladder is slipping away as states reduce their commitments to higher education.

It’s not getting better. That’s the key finding of a new survey of low-wage workers out yesterday from the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago. Eighty-one percent of low-wage employees surveyed said their family’s financial situation was the same or worse than it had been four years ago, while 64 percent reported that their wages have been stagnant or declined over the past five years.

Whatever happened to President Obama's call, in his State of the Union address, for all children to have access to pre-kindergarten education? It seems to have vanished without a trace.

Governor signs HB1339, changes law that required some counties to dilute the votes of county residents who did not live adjacent to a prison

When Vernardo and Claire Simmons-Valenzuela married, they imagined all the trappings of a middle-class life. Soon enough, they had kids. Claire finished a master's degree. They held jobs as an Army medic and a physician's assistant. They dreamed of next steps: owning a home, taking their first vacation in years. Vernardo would return to school for a bachelor’s in nursing. But when payments for the couple's $187,000 in combined student loan debt came due, most of it accrued during Claire’s graduate education, they put those dreams on hold.

Imagine you’re a finance lobbyist and want to move deregulation and other industry-friendly policies through Congress. While you might think the House Financial Services Committee would be the logical place to do it — since it has jurisdiction over financial issues, naturally — what if there were a sneaky way to maneuver it through a far less scrutinized committee, so most people would have no idea what you were doing?

This is the story of how the world’s largest banks came to love the House Agriculture Committee.

Momentum for a carbon tax is not just building on the federal level, states are looking at the idea, too.

With over twenty million Americans still unable to find full-time work, Washington can't take its eye off job creation for a minute. That's certainly the feeling of voters, who overwhelmingly told exit pollsters on Election Day last November that fixing the economy should be Congress's number one priority -- far more than said reducing the deficit.

Paul Ryan is known for his devotion to cutting spending, but even compared to his previous attempts, his latest plan, with its promise to balance the budget by 2023, is remarkable for its severity. It's also notable for how blantantly it renegs on the core principle of the Simpson-Bowles Commission agreements which promised that deficit reduction should not come at the expense of the poor or increase economic inequality.