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Robert J. Samuelson
Articles by Robert J. Samuelson
News
Robert Samuelson: Why We’re in the Budgetary Soup
Championing smaller government without coming to grips with Social Security and Medicare is like playing basketball without a ball.
4 min read
U.S.
Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Fourth
The overlooked reality in the debate about American “exceptionalism” is that most Americans don’t think it’s debatable.
4 min read
Business
Can Global Economic Policy Be Freed From Its Paralysis?
The Bank for International Settlements has just published its annual report, and it is a dour document.
4 min read
Business
The Great Jobs Mismatch
One puzzle of this somber economy is the existence of unfilled jobs in the midst of mass unemployment.
4 min read
Business
Hunkered-down America
It’s a cliche—but true—that an obstacle to a stronger economic recovery is the lack of confidence in a strong recovery.
4 min read
Business
We Must End Medicare ‘As We Know It’
It’s time that we alter the incentives to reward better care, not more care.
4 min read
Business
Greece’s crisis could torpedo Europe’s recovery.
Greece’s Crisis Could Torpedo Europe’s Recovery
4 min read
Business
Robert Samuelson: Stuck in a post-crisis gloom
It may be time to move beyond pessimism. Ever since the financial crisis, Americans have wallowed in fear and anxiety. Understandably. Although a recovery — as defined by academic economists — started about two years ago, it hasn’t felt like one.
4 min read
Business
Samuelson: The Elderly are Better Off Than Advertised
When House Speaker John Boehner calls for trillions of dollars of spending cuts, the message is clear. Any deal to raise the federal debt ceiling must include significant savings in Social Security and Medicare benefits. Subsidizing the elderly is the biggest piece of federal spending (more than two-fifths of the total), but trimming benefits for well-off seniors isn’t just budget arithmetic. It’s also the right thing to do.
4 min read
Business
For the Young, There’s a Silver Lining in the Housing Bust
Almost everyone considers the housing collapse a disaster, and it is. Since 2007, roughly 8 million homes have gone into foreclosure. If you’re a homeowner, the steep fall in prices is calamitous. But if you’re a future buyer, it’s a godsend. What we’re seeing is a massive wealth transfer from today’s older homeowners to tomorrow’s younger homeowners.
4 min read
Business
Can the Fed Reduce Unemployment Without Stoking Inflation?
How much can the Fed reduce unemployment without stoking inflation?
4 min read
Business
Obama Abdicates on the Budget
If you’ve wondered why it’s so hard to subdue budget deficits, you should consult a new study from the Congressional Budget Office called “Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options” (free at www.cbo.gov).
4 min read
U.S.
The Politics of Wishful Thinking
In the Great Budget Debate, Democrats and Republicans are closer than you might think. Neither is proposing a balanced budget any time soon; both peddle soothing myths to convince supporters that they’re upholding either “liberal” or “conservative” values.
4 min read
Business
The Real GE Scandal
It’s not that the company won’t pay any 2010 U.S. income taxes. It’s that we don’t know how to tax global business.
4 min read
Business
Why TARP Has Been a Success Story
Almost everyone loves to hate TARP. It’s a favorite political sport of liberals, conservatives, Republicans, Democrats—and the public. A Bloomberg poll last October asked how TARP had affected the economy.
4 min read
World
Another European Crisis Looming?
As a nation reels from an earthquake’s destruction, an entire continent faces an economic crisis of its own.
4 min read
U.S.
Social Security Is Middle-Class Welfare
It’s not a savings plan and many seniors don’t need it. Let’s admit it so we can avert a disaster.
4 min read
Business
Is Organized Labor Obsolete?
What we are witnessing in Wisconsin and elsewhere is the death knell of Big Labor. Once upon a time, most Americans could identify the head of the AFL-CIO.
4 min read
U.S.
Who Rules America? Retired People.
In the deficit crisis, we’re held hostage by the senior lobby.
4 min read
U.S.
High-Speed Rail Is a Fast Track to Government Waste
Vice President Biden, an avowed friend of good government, is giving it a bad name. With great fanfare, he went to Philadelphia last week to announce that the Obama administration proposes spending $53 billion over six years to construct a “national high-speed rail system.”
4 min read
World
Egypt’s Unrest and America’s Oil Dependence
Never underestimate Americans’ capacity for denial. The upheaval in Egypt reminds us of lessons that, despite decades of warnings, we have consistently sidestepped: the United States and the rest of the world will depend on oil for the indefinite future, global oil markets remain hostage to political crises that cannot be predicted or controlled, and we have not taken the prudent steps that would reduce—though not eliminate—our vulnerability to catastrophic oil interruptions.
4 min read
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