Maxwell School News and Faculty Media, Opinion and Analysis

Elizabeth Cohen quoted in Economist piece on race, class, wasted time

Whether it’s about being asked to produce more paperwork for a mortgage or waiting while someone white is bumped to the front of the queue, says Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science and author of "The Political Value of Time," "waiting is part of the experience of racism in the U.S.”

May 6, 2021

Reeher discusses political realignment in The Hill

Professor Grant Reeher says, "Political scientists and pundits have been looking for a fundamental realignment now for 50 years. I don’t know what the Mark Twain phrase would be—rumors of a realignment can be greatly exaggerated?"

May 4, 2021

Faricy cited in NY Times article on state and local tax deduction debate

Christopher Faricy's book "Welfare for the Wealthy: Parties, Social Spending, and Inequality in the United States" (Cambridge University Press, 2015) was cited in the New York Times article, "Why a $10,000 Tax Deduction Could Hold Up Trillions in Stimulus Funds."

May 4, 2021

See related: COVID-19, New York State, State & Local, Taxation

Elizabeth Cohen discusses immigration policy in 2021 in AlterNet piece

"From a failure to rescind the former president's Title 42, causing almost all recent asylum-seekers to be expelled from the U.S., to President Biden's equivocation on the 2021 refugee cap, it's almost impossible to find good news about immigration policy in 2021," writes Elizabeth Cohen, professor of political science.

April 30, 2021

See related: Refugees, U.S. Immigration, United States

Burman piece on Biden's capital gains tax proposal published in Forbes

"This [proposal] is a significant reform that would close loopholes that fuel inefficient tax sheltering and make the income tax more progressive, and help pay for some of Biden’s domestic policy wish list," writes Leonard Burman, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics.

April 30, 2021

See related: Federal, Taxation, United States

Heflin featured in The Well article on material hardship, COVID-19

A recent Urban Institute survey found that compared with adults whose family employment was unaffected by the pandemic, families who lost jobs during the pandemic were twice as likely to report food insecurity, and nearly three times as likely to report problems paying utility bills, and nearly four times as likely to report problems paying rent or mortgage.

April 28, 2021

Banks comments on President Bush's handling of 9/11 attacks in South China Morning Post

"Bush and many others overreacted to 9/11," says Professor Emeritus William Banks. "I blame him and especially (vice-president) Dick Cheney and then (defense secretary) Donald Rumsfeld for the reckless policies," he says. But Bush was "never nativist," and his recent efforts on immigration are not a "whitewashing" of history but appear to be a genuine effort at problem-solving, Banks adds.

April 28, 2021

Jackson quoted in Vox article on police reform

Following the Derek Chauvin verdict, President Joe Biden called for changing policing by "acknowledging and confronting, head-on, systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in policing and in our criminal justice system more broadly." One such idea is to abolish the police. Proponents think communities can work together to regulate themselves without "anti-Black, white supremacist institutions," like the American criminal justice system and policing—which got its start with slave patrols—according to Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science. Read more in the Vox article, "9 ideas to solve the broken institution of policing."

April 27, 2021

Keck talks to PolitiFact about court packing

Thomas Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics, says a court expansion can be justified. "If it’s the case that Sen. McConnell and other Republican leaders engaged in illegitimate court packing of their own from 2016 to 2020, then from the Democrats’ perspective, an additional round of court reform is necessary to correct for those earlier rounds," he says.

April 26, 2021

See related: Congress, Law, Political Parties, SCOTUS, United States

Lopoo, Wolf cited in The Atlantic article on declining fertility rates