Robert de Neufville
Contributor, Big Think
I lecture and write about politics and philosophy. I hold degrees in politics from Harvard and Berkeley, and have studied complex systems at the Santa Fe Institute. Other interests include theoretical physics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and the game of Go. You can find me on Twitter at @rdeneufville.
So Is America a Christian Nation?
The U.S. is historically a Christian country. It’s not just that 3 out of 4 Americans identify themselves as Christian. It’s that the colonists who fought in the American revolution […]
Americans Are Living on the Edge
Earlier this week, Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism flagged a disturbing finding from a September survey of U.S. households. The survey, which was conducted by a consortium of financial planning […]
How the Supreme Court Can Avoid Ruling on Obamacare
Earlier this week I wrote that the Supreme Court was likely to take up a case challenging the Affordable Care Act in the next term. The Obama administration decided Monday […]
Obamacare on Trial
The Affordable Care Act will get its final day in court soon. The Obama administration chose on Monday not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a […]
The Least Popular Congress Ever
Congress is not very popular. With its reputation for petty partisan bickering, Congress rarely is particularly popular. But the current Congress’ popularity has reached incredible new lows. According to a […]
America’s Jobless Future
Since its peak in 2007, the U.S. economy has lost almost 7 million jobs. Although the economy has begun to recover, jobs have been slow to return. Recent job growth […]
The Lost Decade for American Workers
Just about everyone realizes how bad the economy has been over the last few years. What most people don’t realize is that for most Americans the economy began to stagnate […]
Do Presidential Speeches Matter?
On Thursday, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress, proposing a new $450 billion bill designed to create jobs. With unemployment still over 9%, Obama’s reelection chances may hinge […]
Where Did America’s Growth Go?
Where did America’s growth go? Economists can with reasonable accuracy break down a country’s economic growth into its various components. When you look at the data compiled by the St. […]
The U.S. Turns Down Free Money
The U.S. government can borrow money right now at essentially no cost. But for political and ideological reasons the government is leaving what is essentially free money on the table. […]
Is the Fed Biased?
“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said of Federal Reserve […]
Republicans Want to Increase Taxes on the Poor
For the last two years the Republican Party has largely taken the position that taxes should never go up. They should only be lowered. For all the party’s talk of […]
Where Does the Tea Party Come From?
Political scientists David Campbell and Robert Putnam published an op-ed in The New York Times this week arguing that the common idea about where the Tea Party comes from and […]
Obama’s Fundraising Machine
President Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised $86 million through the first half of this year. With unemployment high and disposable income stagnant, Obama faces a tough road to […]
Would Republicans Raise Taxes Under Any Circumstances?
Big Think’s Peter Lawler thought Michele Bachmann won the Republican debate last night in advance of the Iowa straw poll. Other conservative commentators thought Texas Governor Rick Perry, who will […]
Can Obama Win If the Economy Doesn’t Improve?
Last week’s job report was better than expected, but it wasn’t good. With growth over the last year just 1.6% and unemployment still over 9%, it’s increasingly clear that the […]
What Rating Should Standard & Poor’s Ratings Get?
Friday, for the first time, Standard & Poor’s lowered its evaluation of the U.S. government’s credit rating, downgrading it from AAA to AA+. According to S&P’s rating system, that means […]
Do Independent Voters Matter?
The term “independent voter” suggests someone who is open-minded. We imagine that the independent voter goes into each election without preconceived ideas about which party to vote for, but instead […]
Congress’ Bad Debt Ceiling Deal
By passing a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Congress averted a crisis that is entirely of the own making. If Congress had failed to reach an agreement, it would have […]
Summer Reading on National Security
For me, summer is a time to catch up on my reading. As I head out for a few weeks of vacation, I thought I would leave you with a […]
Summer Reading on the U.S. Economy
For me, summer is a time to catch up on my reading. As I head out for a few weeks of vacation, I thought I would leave you with a […]
Funniest Political Tweets of 2011, Part II
Blogging is hard. It’s hard coming up with new ideas from the comfort of your mom’s basement day after day after day. Like most bloggers, I try to steal other […]
Funniest Political Tweets of 2011, Part I
Blogging is hard. It’s hard coming up with new ideas from the comfort of your mom’s basement day after day after day. Like most bloggers, I try to steal other […]
Is the Debt Ceiling Legal?
Treasury Secretary Geithner warns that if Congress doesn’t act to raise the federal debt ceiling, it would be “unthinkably damaging to the economy.” As Ezra Klein reports, the governments options […]
Why Politics Is Rude
Washington was scandalized recently when MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin called President Obama “a dick” on Morning Joe. Halperin quickly apologized and was suspended for the remark, which he admitted was […]
Flirting With Default
As the August 2 deadline approaches, Congress continues to fight over whether and under what conditions to raise the federal debt ceiling. Both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s have warned […]
The Phony Budget Drama
Wednesday evening the bipartisan negotiations on raising the debt ceiling collapsed when House Majority Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced he was pulling out of the talks. Cantor refused to continue the […]
America’s Red Army
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recentlywrote that while members of the U.S. armed forces may as a group be politically conservative, “they live by an astonishingly liberal ethos.” Kristof’s […]
Mitt Romney’s Economic Nonsense
The smart money is on former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination to challenge President Obama in 2012. Romney leads the early polls, and performed well in […]
The Patriot Act’s Secret Authority
On May 26, Congress approved a four-year extension of major surveillance powers in the PATRIOT Act by wide margins in both the House and the Senate. President Obama, who was […]