Tag Archive
Cap’n'Trade, Obama’s Shade of Green
by RGE Monitor, July 1 009
Today we look at U.S. and global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and slow global warming. Last Friday, June 26 2009, The U.S. House of Representatives approved the landmark America Clean Energy and Security Act by a narrow seven vote margin, including 44 no votes from Democrats. The legislation, also [...]
An Ecokeynesian Dream for America
The Future of the American Dream
by William Greider, The Nation, May 6, 2009
As Franklin Roosevelt understood, Americans will postpone immediate gratification and endure hard sacrifices–if they must–so long as they are convinced the future can be better than the past. But we face a far more difficult problem at our moment in history. What do [...]
Obama Skates on Thin Ice
THIN ICE FROM HERE TO THE HORIZON
By Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch
On any rational assessment the popular new president is skating on thin ice. Pollyanna bulletins about the economy puff up from the White House and Federal Reserve, like auguries of a new Pope through the Vatican chimney. “Habemus spem.” We have hope. We’ve just heard it [...]
The G20 Feigned Optimism: Is it Justified?
We don’t think so. Most of the pledges are verbal, and the extra $500bn given to the IMF, in addition of reviving a hated institution worldwide, are peanuts compared with the trillions needed to keep the world economy afloat. As Keith Hart says, this is a crisis where both capitalists and governments are losing big. [...]
Obama pulls a Roosevelt before Congress
Saw BHO’s first address to congress. Man, the guy can really spin good speeches… Most of it was about the Great Recession. He sampled truelife stories to explain the basics of his economic philosophy: the banker who shared his million-dollar bonus with employees (unlike Wall Street croesuses), the Kansan community that rebuilt an ecotown after [...]
Lame Obama, Lame Geithner
Obama’s stimulus package was voted by the Senate in a different form from the House’s version yday. So the House and the Senate will have to spend days bargaining over a common plan. It’s $800bn and it’s finally fiscal, not monetary like all the good money wasted ’til now. But it’s hard to get one’s [...]
NEXT LEFT: european politics and movements in the Great Recession
Do a bit of historical rewind and think you are back in 2000 again. Boy, was Europe optimistic back then. The new economy hadn’t crashed yet, and Dubya did not seem to stand a chance against Gore. Sure, noglobal protesters had emerged as spoilers of the party of monetarism and neoliberalism, and the cinders of [...]