Michael Hirsh

The civil suit brought against Goldman Sachs by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday involved just a single transaction and a single executive, and in a conference call with reporters, SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami refused to say how widespread his investigation is.

After months of awkward bipartisan feelers over financial reform, it's bench-clearing time at last. That's pretty much what's happened over the last few days, especially since Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell launched the GOP's strategic assault on Democratic reform bills by calling them bailouts of Wall Street—eagerly parroting the line put out by GOP pollster Frank Luntz—and Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd responded by saying his patience is at an end.

When responsibility is assigned for the financial crisis, Wall Street and Washington are the usual culprits. But that leaves out the biggest perpetrator of all.

With the president AWOL, a too-quick return to normalcy could scuttle financial reform.

The real reason why President Obama was so angry at Israel after Joe Biden's visit.

Seven years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, the occupation's first administrator deserves a second look.

Why is Barack Obama leaving his No. 1 job, Wall Street reform, to a single, soon-to-retire senator?

Sixteen years after the Gingrich revolution, Rep. Kevin McCarthy is concocting his own multipoint plan to win over America and take back the House.

Come November, the president and his party may find themselves succeeding most by failing the least.

How the U.S. is gaining cooperation in Islamabad, making the country more stable while hitting the Taliban hard.

Lobbyists are quietly working to ensure the secret derivatives deals behind the euro crisis stay secret.

Getting the world to kick its greenback addiction will be good for everybody—even Americans. So why aren't we talking about it?

Set aside the size of the deficit for the moment. (Not that the Republicans will, but after what Obama called their "decade of profligacy" they don't have much credibility on this issue.) Yes, the budget deficit is unsustainable, but there's really not much to be done about it in this year of deep recession.

When populist rage leads to smart policy.

Barack Obama really needs to decide who he wants to be when he grows up. He came into office with Franklin D. Roosevelt as a role model, seeking to save the American economy and the world from another Depression.

After ignoring Big Paul for a year, Obama finally listened. The result is the end of Wall Street as we know it.Surrounded by economic heavyweights called into the White House, President Obama announced today before the TV cameras that he wasn't announcing anything new.

A bridge too far. Bought his own press. Choose your own metaphor: Obama overreached.

Wall Street and Washington escape whipping again as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission gets underway.

The Jewish state is good at many things, like war and technology, but inept at promoting itself. It needs to get better, soon.

All the sins of Washington and Wall Street are being laid at the Fed chairman's door.

Spurning Obama, McCain and Cantwell propose resurrecting Glass-Steagall to break up Wall Street.

The president's patience with Iran has worn thin. That's where Stuart Levey—rhymes with 'heavy'—comes in.

The powerful Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee is doing his best to rein in Wall Street. You got a problem with that?

Obama's foreign policy is stuck. As Hillary Clinton might say, time for a reset.

Why the U.S.-China relationship is not only the fulcrum of the world economy, but a good thing after all.

Only hours before President Obama took off for Asia on Thursday, his national-security adviser landed in Pakistan on an unannounced trip to meet with senior Pakistani officials, a White House official said.

The fall of the Berlin Wall may seem like ancient history. But the economic debate has never moved beyond it.

After Iran agreed to nuclear concessions on Oct. 1, President Obama said it was a "constructive beginning." But now, U.S. officials and Western diplomats say, Tehran is backtracking.

George Soros launches a $50 million effort to purge economics of its free-market zeal.

Paul Volcker saw Barack Obama as an "agent for needed change" when the former Federal Reserve chairman endorsed him for president in January 2008. But lately Volcker has been feeling a bit ignored by the White House, and thinks that Obama isn't changing Wall Street enough to avert another subprime disaster.