Greg Marx

Greg Marx worked as a staff reporter for Remapping Debate in 2010-2011. A native of New Jersey, Greg started his journalism career in the Jersey suburbs, working as a reporter and editor for several community newspapers. He later studied political journalism at Columbia University and went on to work as an assistant editor for the Columbia Journalism Review. Send him tips and story suggestions by using the email address above.

gm@remappingdebate.org
First, 'blame the borrowers.' Now, 'blame the lawyers.'
Press Criticism | By Greg Marx, By Craig Gurian | Wall Street Journal
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal blames "the growth of a legal sub-specialty called foreclosure defense" for slowing the rate of foreclosures, thus spawning "confusion and turmoil in the housing market." But that framing not only obscures the central role played by the fraudulent practices of financial firms in creating the current slowdown — it also sweeps aside the possibility that alternatives to speedy foreclosure might lead to a healthier economy in the long run. More
Priced out of the American dream?
Original Reporting | By Greg Marx | Immigration
America’s legal immigration process, long notorious for being slow, inefficient, and inconsistent, has been making gains in recent years. But those improvements have come at a real cost — the fees charged to immigrants and naturalized citizens went up sharply in 2007, and many are rising again this fall. The trend raises the question: to what extent should applicants bear the lion's share of the cost of the legal immigration process? For that matter, should U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that reviews the applications, be fee-funded at all? More
Integrated effort to fight housing, school barriers?
Original Reporting | By Greg Marx | Education, Housing
When the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week announced $100 million in grants to promote sustainable regional planning, it was a big day for the Obama Administration’s flagship effort to build a “geography of opportunity.” A closer look, though, shows outstanding questions about what role racial and economic integration play in the new metropolitan agenda — and about how hard the federal government is prepared to push for those goals when it encounters local resistance. More
Can the anti-inflation reflex be tamed?
Original Reporting | By Greg Marx | Economy, Monetary Policy, Unemployment
With the economy stalled and unemployment stuck near 10 percent, an increasingly broad range of economists, from small-government libertarians to those on the center-left, has argued that higher inflation could be key to creating jobs. Their argument echoes the analysis offered by some top officials at the Federal Reserve — but can the central bank shake off old habits and craft policy built to meet current circumstances? More
47 House Dems: Keep lower rates for rich on dividends, capital gains
Story Repair | By Greg Marx | Taxes
In this feature, we select a story that appeared in a major news outlet and take it in for repairs. The source material this week was a Politico story that reported that nearly a fifth of House Democrats were urging the Speaker to extend reduced capital gains and dividend tax rates for the wealthy beyond the scheduled year-end expiration of those rates. More

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