Word: reformer
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Amid such a complicated landscape, some experts question whether there could ever be enough education to adequately prepare Americans for financial life. A better solution, these critics contend, is to reform the system. "What works is creating institutions that make it easy to do the right thing," says David Laibson, a Harvard economics professor who, like Mandell, has decided after years of research that education isn't a silver bullet. One idea being discussed in Washington is the automatic IRA. Employers would have to enroll each worker in a personal retirement-savings account unless that worker decided...
...drop the atom bomb. John F. Kennedy found himself invading Cuba. I wonder when Obama's moment came, as he splashed into office through a sea of red ink, ended his first year with a national-security nightmare and in between set out to pass a health care reform bill that a majority of the public now doesn't want...
...there were still 60 Democrats in the Senate, the health care saga demonstrated the difficulty of keeping them all on board without watering down the legislation, infuriating the party's base and ultimately disgusting the electorate through extended exposure to the sausagemaking process. The only plausible road to financial reform is for it to become so popular that even Republicans are afraid to obstruct...
...what happens next? Last month, the House narrowly passed a financial-reform bill that included many of the Administration's priorities, including a strong consumer agency. It received no Republican votes. Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd has been trying to forge a bipartisan consensus around a similar bill, but Republicans have made it clear that the consumer agency is a deal breaker. And the Hill is swarming with financial lobbyists who are desperate to preserve the status quo. (See judgments of Obama's first year, issue by issue...
...only three sure things in life, Benjamin Franklin should have said, are death, taxes and campaign-finance reform. Trying to keep money out of politics is like trying to keep a basement dry in New Orleans...