Feature
Story
Click here to add text.
Politics News Art
Magazine
Arts and Letters
ELECTION 2008 PHOTOGRAPHIC TRIBUTE
Bailout Woes
A Better Bank Fix: Cut Every Mortgage's Principal
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has unveiled a new plan to combat the financial crisis: persuading private financial institutions to buy up toxic assets with the government's backing. While this is a step up from former Secretary Henry Paulson's original bailout plan — in which the government itself would buy up the bad securities — it is still not the right approach. More
Homeowners Ask: Hey, Washington, a Little Help?
It was on a sunny day in the White House Rose Garden that President George W. Bush announced his plan to enable as many as 700,000 American families to avoid foreclosure amid a growing mortgage crisis. "I've made this a top priority to help our homeowners navigate these financial challenges," he said, "so that as many families as possible can stay in their homes." That was in the summer of 2007. More
For US Banks, The Glass Is 1% Full
The raging debate about the largest American banks is whether their stock market values should be zero. Economist Nouriel Roubini, the most highly paid pessimist in the world, recently said that U.S. banks are "insolvent" and credit crisis write-downs will total $3.6 trillion. That is a great deal more than has been taken as losses by financial firms to date. ...More
18 Tough Questions (and Answers) About the Bailout
I got an e-mail from a reader late last week with a bunch of very good questions about the bailout bill. I hadn't quite finished answering them when it was voted down in the House Monday. But since some version of the plan is likely to be resurrected later this week, I figured I should go ahead and finish. More
Feature
Story
Wall Street’s Best Investment: Ten Deregulatory Steps to Financial Meltdown
Robert Weissman and James Donahue | Multinational Monitor
Wall Street has no one but itself to blame for the current financial crisis. Investment banks, hedge funds and commercial banks made reckless bets using borrowed money. ...more
One Teacher’s Cry: Why I Hate No Child Left Behind
Susan J. Hobart | The Progressive
"I'm a teacher. I’ve taught elementary school for eleven years. I’ve always told people, “I have the best job in the world.” I crafted curriculum that made students think, and they had fun while learning. At the end of the day, I felt energized. Today, more often than not, I feel demoralized. ...more
New Media and The Man
--Lee Thornton | AJR
It's been widely reported that President-elect Barack Obama's campaign organized a database of more than 10 million names, including at least three million cash donors and who knows how many foot soldiers who took his agenda door to door. ...more
Mixed Assessment on Racial Impact of Obama’s Historic Election
--Bennett Roth | CQPolitics
During his campaign President-elect Barack Obama suggested he would try to usher in a new political era in which race would no longer be such a sharp wedge dividing Americans. ...more
Nothing to Fear: Adam Cohen on "FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America"
--Adam Cohen/Amy Goodwin | Democracy Now
The current economic crisis has often been cited as the worst the country has seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. ...more
What Liberal Media?
--Robert A. Kezelis | Capitol Hill Blue
Rush, Sean, the Billous One, and other bloviators like Ann Coulter have long complained about media bias. A LIBERAL bias. Imagine my shock when after searching long and hard for such a welcome viewpoint, that no such bias exists. ...more
Jaffa: from eminence to ethnic cleansing
Sami Abu Shehadeh & Fadi Shbaytah | The Electronic Intifada
Jaffa was the largest city in historic Palestine during the years of the British mandate, with a population of more than 80,000 Palestinians in addition to the 40,000 persons living in the towns and villages in its immediate vicinity. ...more
Patriot Pirates
The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution
--Robert H. Patton | American Heritage
The devil himself has not more cunning than these people.
—John R. Livingston, New York merchant, on dealing with Rhode Island businessmen in 1776. ...more
US: Vets Health System in Need of Triage
--Aaron Glantz | IPS
Eighteen U.S. veterans kill themselves every day. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas. One in every three homeless men in the United States has put on a uniform and served his country. On any given night, the U.S. government estimates 200,000 veterans sleep on the street. ...more
Guitar Heroes
The Sustainable Guitar Movement Is Out to Save Trees
--Drew Pogge | E-Magazine
In musical terms, “sustain” is the duration of a sound before it becomes inaudible. Guitars have a lot of sustain, which is one reason for their rich, versatile sound. But the kinds of guitars that traditionally have the most sound—high-end, handmade instruments crafted from rare and exotic woods—are among the least sustainable, environmentally speaking. ...more
The Future of the American Frontier
--John Tirman | The American Scholar
The presidential campaign of 2008 will be recalled for many firsts: the first African-American presidential nominee, the near-miss campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, the record spending and record turnout. ...more
‘We are all Gazans now’
--Tim Black | Spiked
The anti-war protests against Israel have been based less on the brotherhood of man than on the victimhood of man. ...more
Alternative Media
This too shall Passacantando
Outgoing Greenpeace leader talks about activism, economics, and his next steps
--Kate Sheppard | Grist
Greenpeace has earned a reputation as the environmental movement's radical faction, and John Passacantando, executive director of the organization's U.S. arm, has been right in the midst of the action. ...more
Presidential Crimes
Moving on is not an option
--Elaine Scarry | Boston Review
We have at the present time two government leaders, a president and a vice president, who, according to all available evidence, have carried out grave crimes. ...more
How kangaroo burgers could save the planet
--Bijal Trivedi | New Scientist
COWS, sheep and goats may seem like innocent victims of humanity's appetite for meat, but when it comes to climate change they have a dark secret. ...more
The System Implodes: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008
--Robert Weissman | Multinational Monitor
2008 marks the 20th anniversary of Multinational Monitor’s annual list of the 10 Worst Corporations of the year.. ...more
To Protect or to Project? Iraqi Kurds and Their Future
Erstwhile kings of the mountains, Iraq’s Kurdish parties have become kingmakers in Baghdad. No federal government can be established without them—and they know it. ...more
The Crying Indian
--Ginger Strand | Orion Magazine
IF YOU WATCHED television at any point in the seventies, you saw him: America’s most famous Indian. Star of perhaps the best-known public service announcement ever, he was a black-braided, buckskinned, cigar-store native come to life, complete with single feather and stoic frown. ...more
Antarctica and Climate Change
--Andrew Monaghan | WorldWatch Institute
Visiting Antarctica is an incredible, almost unearthly, experience. Icebergs bigger than cities. Glaciers with cracks large enough to swallow a football stadium. A floating ice shelf the size of France. ...more
An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President
--Randall Robinson | New Politics
RANDALL ROBINSON HAS WRITTEN a searing, unforgiving expose of the forcible abduction, in February, 2004, of the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the consequent deepening wretchedness of its citizens. But he does more than that. ...more
Lessons from the mighty Maya
--John Rember | High Country News
One theory about the collapse of the Maya civilization in Mexico some 1100 years ago is based on evidence that they had perfected a bureaucracy of corn. ...more
Un-Hating America
--Jeff Stevens | Eat the Slate
"Why do you hate America so much?"
Among the many absurd linguistic artifacts of the now-delightfully-receding era of George W. Bush, the preceding question surely deserves the cocaine Christian cowboy duncecap as much as "Mission Accomplished" or "Freedom Fries." ...more
The Transformation of Mike Bloomberg
--Wayne Barrett | Village Voice
Mike Bloomberg is the best mayor—in fact, the best state or city chief executive—I've covered in 31 years at the Voice. He's also the worst....more
Getting Out: Learning from Past Exit Strategies
Editors | Dissent
"Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run," the gambler says in a popular song. ...more
Life Reclaimed
--Jarid Manos and Madeline Ostrander | Yes!
Jarid Manos dreamed about buffalo, prairie dogs, and the Great Plains, even while he dealt drugs on the New York City streets. ...more
Levittown: The Archetype for Suburban Development
--Joshua Ruff | American History
Say the name “Levittown,” and you’ve just opened the cover to an American postwar picture album. ...more
The Life and Lonely Death of Noah Pierce
--Ashley Gilbertson | Virginia Quarterly Review
Noah Pierce’s headstone gives his date of death as July 26, 2007, though his family feels certain he died the night before, when, at age twenty-three, he took a handgun and shot himself in the head. No one is sure what pushed him to it. He said in his suicide note it was impotence—a common side effect of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was “the snowflake that toppled the iceberg,” he wrote. ...more
Thanks A Lot, Mr. Meese
How Alberto Gonzalez Learned to Get You to Pay for His Legal Bills
--Chistopher Brauchli | Counterpunch
No one has ever accused them of being quick learners but when it comes to reaching into the taxpayers’ pockets you’d have thought they’d have tumbled to it more quickly than they did. ...more
Presidential Crimes
Moving on is not an option
--Elaine Scarry | Boston Review
We have at the present time two government leaders, a president and a vice president, who, according to all available evidence, have carried out grave crimes. Will these two men leave office and live out their lives without being subjected to legal proceedings? ...more
The Wholesale Sedation of America’s Youth
--Andrew M. Weiss | Skeptical Inquirer
In the winter of 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a study indicating that 200,000 two- to four-year-olds had been prescribed Ritalin for an “attention disorder” from 1991 to 1995. ...more
Pat Boone, Pundit
--Rem Rieder | AJR
Pat Boone came to prominence in the 1950s, a dark, primitive time before Facebook, text messaging and Anne Hathaway. But there was one bright spot: the birth of rock 'n' roll, a joyous, vibrant sound that made you awfully glad to be alive.
There also was one problem: ...more
Student Debt and The Spirit of Indenture
--Jeffrey J. Williams | Dissent
When we think of the founding of the early colonies, we usually think of the journey to freedom, in particular of the Puritans fleeing religious persecution to settle the Massachusetts Bay Colony. ...more
The Grapes of Wrath . . . Lewd, Foul, and Obscene?
--Rick Wartzman | American Heritage
It was an uneasy time in America, late summer 1939. The Roosevelt Recession—in which industrial production had tumbled by 40 percent, unemployment had jumped by four million, and stock prices had plunged by nearly 50 percent—was barely more than a year past. ...more
Is a $1 Salary Paid in Installments?
Plus, wouldn't that be less than minimum wage?
--Nina Shen Rastogi | Slate
The CEOs of the Big Three automakers promised last week to limit themselves to $1 personal salaries in return for federal bailout money for their cash-strapped companies. ...more
An Admirable Folly
--Denis MacShane | Wilson Quarterly
Every four years, when the British and other Europeans watch with shock, awe, and incomprehension the presidential contest that convulses the United States, I’m reminded of President Julius Nyerere’s joking retort decades ago to American visitors who criticized his one-party state in Tanzania. ...more
Wendell Willkie in Baghdad: Roads Not Taken in the Middle East
--Michael Dennis | Peace Magazine
Our view is so clouded by recent events that we exaggerate the novelty of today's situations. I want to recall some issues of the 1940s when, in contrast to the present, the United States won global pre-eminence and influenced the world order. ...more
Was Thomas Paine One of the Greatest American Thinkers?
--Alexander Burns | American Heritage
In 1791 Thomas Paine published a slim volume dedicated to George Washington: “a small Treatise in defence of those Principles of Freedom which your exemplary Virtue hath so eminently contributed to establish.” ...more
Big Houses
Indigestible Leftovers of the Housing Bubble
--Sam Cox | Synthesis/Regeneration
In Los Gatos, California, controversy has raged over the city planning commission's approval of a proposed hillside home that will occupy a whopping 3600 square feet - and that's just the basement. Atop that walkout basement will be 5500 more square feet worth of house. ...more
Academic Freedom?
The right-wing campaign against women's studies turns a treasured ideal on its head
--Martha McCaughey | Ms. Magazine
Within a month of the horrifying mass murder at Virginia Tech last spring, Phyllis Schlafly was busy on her Eagle Forum blog, blaming left-wing professors. ...more
Could Milk have changed the Prop 8 vote?
--Dennis Lim | Slate
Harvey Milk was gunned down on Nov. 27, 1978, three weeks after his biggest political victory. ...more
Will pummeled GOP be able to get up off the canvas?
--Thomas F. Schaller | Baltimore Sun
Just four years ago, a flood of books and essays hit newsstands and shelves, all diagnosing what went wrong with the Democratic Party and how to fix it. A cottage industry emerged, of which my own book was a small part. ...more
In Praise of Political Rock Stars
--Anne Applebaum | Slate
Rather faster than I would have expected—sometime around close of play last Wednesday—I began to get a familiar creepy feeling. ...more
Putting Politics Before Principle
--Steve Chapman | Reason
When Republican Helen Chenoweth ran for Congress in Idaho in 1994, she not only endorsed term limits on members but pledged she would leave Washington after three terms no matter what. But something strange happened in 2000, when it was time for Chenoweth to step down: She did it. ...more
A greedy giant out of control
--Jonathan Ford | Prospect
The enormous growth of the financial sector is one of the wonders of our age. In the 1960s the business of banking, broking and insuring accounted for just 10 per cent of total corporate profits in most developed economies. ...more
The Republican Party (1854-2008)
--TransAtlantic | In The Fray Magazine
"The party in the Northeast is all but extinct; the party on the West Coast is all but extinct; the party has lost the mid-South states — Virginia, North Carolina — and the party is in deep trouble in the Rocky Mountain West, and there has to be a message and a vision that is compelling to people in order for them to come back and to give consideration to the Republican Party again." ...more
Jukebox on Wheels
--Raymond Loewy | The Atlantic
In every phase of the automotive industry certain factors have been more important than all others in relation to the way the automobile has looked. ...more
Sundown for California
--Joel Kotkin | The American
Twenty-five years ago, along with another young journalist, I coauthored a book called California, Inc. about our adopted home state. The book described “California’s rise to economic, political, and cultural ascendancy.” ...more
AGRICULTURE: Wealthy ‘Farmers’ Snag Federal Dollars
--Joe Eaton | The Center for Public Integrity
Forget stimulus checks; wealthy farmers raked in more than $49 million in federal funds between 2003 and 2006 that they may have been ineligible for, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. ...more
Remember Pearl Harbor!
--by: John Lamperti | Truthout
The name Pearl Harbor resonates in American history; it is synonymous with the U.S. entry into World War II. It stands for tragedy - and for treachery. On December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked United States naval and air forces in the Hawaiian Islands, and scored a major victory. ...more
A Green Deal for Transportation
--Michael Renner | Worldwatch Institute
In early 1942, the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt directed the entire U.S. auto industry to make a sudden and wholesale switch from producing cars to churning out tanks, armored cars, tank engines, and aircraft propellers. ...more
The United States in the Middle East: The Evolution of Its Israeli Policy
--Immanuel Wallerstein | New Politics
In 2007, the United States has no foreign policy involvement greater and more significant than its military presence in Iraq. And in 2007, the United States has no closer ally and co-actor on the world scene than Israel. The relationship is arguably closer than the vaunted U.S.- British link. ...more
Plastic Unfantastic
--Zoe Cormier | This
Far out of sight, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean— roughly between Hawaii and San Francisco—lies the North Pacific Gyre, popularly known as “the Pacific trash vortex” or “great Pacific garbage patch.” ...more
Asia & the US in the 21st Century
--Walden Bello | One World Net
Despite the glitter that surrounded the Olympics in Beijing, the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, the messages coming to Asia from these events were very different. ...more
The Ghost of Ronald Reagan
--Alec Dubro | ColorLines
AS PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN visibly aged in office, skin wrinkling and memory fading, his abundant hair remained deep black and glossy—a perennial topic of wonder to gossip columnists and shallow journalists. But late-night TV host Johnny Carson offered a novel explanation: “Reagan doesn’t dye his hair—he bleaches his face.”. ...more
Mountain Music
Saving a Kentucky community and its culture, one kid at a time
--Danny Duncan Collum | Sojourners
Ten years ago old-time music was dying in the Kentucky mountains where it was born. “Fiddlers were hard to find around here,” says Knott County banjo player Randy Wilson. “I could count the ones I knew of on one hand.” ...more
No Human Being is Illegal
--Dr. Cintli Rodriguez | Yes!
Sen. Barack Obama's resounding victory is a generational victory. As one friend told me, it is 400 years in the making. ...more
No Time for Lame Ducks
--John Buell | The Progressive Populist
I seldom offer economic or political predictions, but it isn’t too much of a risk to suggest that the next president will come to office in the midst of a far deeper recession than we are now experiencing.
...more
Torture and Democracy
--Darius Rejali | Dissent
America, under George W. Bush, became a torturing country. Everyone knows it. ...more
Taser Nation: Pain Compliance 101
--Dr. Andrew Bosworth | Toward Freedom
A decade ago, ordinary Americans would not have tolerated such widespread use of the Taser, a stun gun delivering a 50,000-volt shock. ...more
The Secret Weapon
Religious Abuse in the ’War on Terror’
--Michael Peppard | Commonweal
In Fünf Jahre meines Lebens (“Five Years of My Life”), the most powerful memoir yet published by a former Guantánamo detainee, the German Murat Kurnaz remembers an especially disturbing episode that took place while he was in a cage at Camp X-Ray: “One time there was a long, tortured cry. ...more
A Dome Under Lock and Key
--Tim Starks | CQ Quarterly
In early August 2007, as the House moved rapidly to pass legislation modifying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before its summer recess, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seemed uncertain about the details of the bill they were debating. ...more
National Newspapers
Alternative Print, Websites, and Blogs
Radio
Television
Photographic: Valber Cortez
Top Stories»
Arab & South American Countries Hold Summit
Leaders of the 22-member Arab League and 12 South American countries met last week and agreed to an 11-point declaration on everything from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to economic cooperation. ...more
Pentagon Weighs Cuts and Revisions of Weapons
The Army’s expensive Future Combat Systems is likely to be cut back. So are exotic missile defense programs. But the supersonic F-22 fighter jet might survive. ...more
Government Rolls Out Plan to Fight Loan Scams
The Obama administration today announced a multi-agency effort to combat loan modification scams, which government officials said are preying on distressed homeowners searching for help. ...more
Somali pirates seize more vessels
Somali pirates have seized a British-owned cargo ship and a Taiwanese ship, maritime officials say, after capturing three other vessels over the weekend. ...more
Corruption charges dropped against South African leader
Prosecutors dropped corruption charges Monday against South Africa's ruling party president Jacob Zuma, who is expected to win the presidential race later this month. ...more
Talking to the Taliban
No matter how much leverage you hold over a country, it is rare that you can get it to act against its core self-interest.
....more
Of interest»
North Korea's rocket didn't reach orbit, but Kim's in another world
Reporting from Seoul -- Never mind that much of the world is calling North Korea's weekend space launch a dud -- that the regime's vaunted communications satellite probably now sits somewhere on the Pacific Ocean floor. ...more
US judge clears way for deportation of accused Nazi guard
A US judge on Monday cleared the way for John Demjanjuk, a war-crimes suspect from the Nazi era, to be deported to Germany.
...more
Public Displays of Connection
--Rory O’Connor | MediaChannel
For media makers and consumers alike, the game changing power of online social networks is simply this: they greatly decrease the cost of creating so-called “bridging social capital. ...more
In the Jester's Court: Paul Krassner On The Virtues Of Irreverence, Indecency, And Illegal Drugs
--David Kupfer | Sun Magazine
Paul Krassner has been spreading his witty, sometimes snide, and often political brand of humor since the late 1950s. ...more
With God On Our Side?
--Paul Waldman | American Prospect
President Obama acknowledged nonreligious Americans in his Inaugural Address. Will his administration re-separate church and state? ...more
Virtual Torture
--Bennett Gordon | Utne Reader
In the 1960s Dr. Stanley Milgram set off a firestorm of controversy with his scientifically illuminating but ethically questionable experiments on obedience.
...more
The Chicago Rules: Obama’s Illinois past is not gone. It’s not even past.
The turd tossed by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich into Barack Obama’s punch bowl had been floating there for 48 hours when the president-elect stepped to the podium at his press conference last Thursday morning. Obama’s initial response to the astonishing—and comical, and nauseating, and DSM-worthy-crazy—corruption case had seemed wan, perfunctory. ...more
Cruel Britannia
--Robert S. Wistrich | Azure
On January 13, 2005, the London Sun published a photograph of Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, dressed in Nazi regalia at a birthday party. Expressions of dismay came from many quarters, including Michael Howard, then leader of the Conservative Party, and the heads of many British Jewish communal organizations, who widely expected a full-throated public apology. ...more
This Alien Legacy
The Origins of "Sodomy" Laws in British Colonialism
--Alok Gupta | Human Rights Watch
In 2008, a case stood unresolved before India's High Court, calling for reading down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. That provision, almost 150 years old, punishes "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" with imprisonment up to life. ...more
Catching Hell: The Joe Holt Integration Story
--Heather Killelea McEntarfer | Terrain
Joe Holt’s troubles didn’t begin the summer of 1957. But when he thinks back, that’s where he lingers. ...more
Muhammad: The Warrior Prophet
--Richard A. Gabriel | Quarterly Journal of Military History
The idea of Muhammad as a military man will be new to many. Yet he was a truly great general. In the space of a single decade he fought eight major battles, led eighteen raids, and planned another thirty-eight military operations where others were in command but operating under his orders and strategic direction. ...more
Pray the Devil Back to Hell: Liberian Women Bring Peace to their War-Torn Country
--Jessica Mosb | The WIP
The recent history of Liberia is bloody. Valuable natural resources, corrupt leaders, ethnic conflicts, and thousands of displaced people led to 8 years of conflict during Liberia’s two civil wars (1989-1993 and 1999-2003). ...more
Rattle and Hum
Hello, Baghdad! A Kurdish singer rocks Iraq
--Emily Paddon & Taylor Owen | The Walrus
It is the eighth day of our sponsored junket of “The Other Iraq” (a.k.a. Kurdistan), during which we have ridden the roller coasters at a new mountaintop theme park, been paraded through tony shopping malls, and met with the region’s political, media, and academic leaders. ...more
Rescuing GM As It Tries To Rescue Itself
--Jonathan Rauch |
The ranks of line executives and engineers at General Motors are hungry to change the beleaguered company. The decades of denial are over. ...more
Advocating for Urbanism
--Dana Goldstein |
There is a certain vogue gathering around urban issues. No -- not inner-city poverty, crime, or joblessness -- but, rather, those issues that might broadly be described as ones of "human geography." ...more
Commentary
Alternative Media
After his closed door meeting with Barack Obama regarding the release of the remaining TARP funds, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson was quoted as saying, "I think in this era of freshness and transparency, that the new administration would want to come forth with detail instead of this mumbo jumbo that is going on," Meanwhile,... More
The Dying Auto Mall
--by: William Fulton | Governing
Over the past two decades, the funding of local government has become increasingly intertwined with the sale of cars. ...more
Bail Out the Safety Net
--Randy Albelda | Dollars and Sense
Even before the financial crisis and the recession, a substantial proportion of working families were not making it in America. ...more
When No News Is Bad News
--James Warren | The Atlantic
The former managing editor of The Chicago Tribune probes the collapse of the newspaper industry and tries, mostly in vain, to find hope for the future of journalism. ...more
When Childbirth Was Natural, and Deadly
--Druin Burch | Livescience
Have you ever had that stubborn feeling that the natural world reflects your mood and your mind? ...more
Controversy Over New 'Conscience' Rule
Bush Broadens Rule on Refusal of Health Services for Moral Reasons
An 11th-hour ruling from the Bush administration gives health care workers, hospitals, and insurers more leeway to refuse health services for moral or religious reasons.. ...more
OPEC and the Prisoner's Dilemma
-- Kurt Zenz House | Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
Imagine that you and your accomplice have been arrested for a crime that you did commit. ...more
We Come From the Sun
Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright
--Dee C. Lubell | Countrpunch
Two master writers, two African Americans taking different paths through life's experiences and insights. Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright show us the variety of life in the African American epic. Different – yet similar and linked as Hurston writes of living that epic and Wright writes of surviving in it. ...more
Taking the Bull by the Horns
--James H. Carr | Shelterforce
As the U.S. credit markets continue to struggle and the economy further erodes, one of the most intriguing questions to ask is why is it costing trillions of dollars to address a problem that can be measured in the billions? ..more
In praise of Intelligent Optimists
--Jurriaan Kamp | Ode
Ode asked celebrated activists, artists, business people, politicians and thought leaders to pick their favorite Intelligent Optimists, individuals who aren't famous yet but should be because of the work they're doing to bring positive change to their communities, their countries and the world. That's how we got 25 reasons to be optimistic in these challenging times. ...more
The Death of News?
--Benjamin Adair | Weekend America
Newspapers have been under siege for a long time. There were the challenges brought by the pamphlet and broadside industries back in the 1700s. ...more
Nelson Rockefeller's
Deepest, Darkest Secret
--Sam Pizzigati | Too Much
In our staggeringly unequal times, the source of Rocky's distress can offer the rest of us some welcome public policy inspiration. ...more
Blagojevich Nation: Should We Really Be So Shocked?
--Steve Kornack | New York Observer
Presented with the opportunity to make an appointment coveted by numerous influential and well-connected politicians, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had, according to federal prosecutors, the following reaction: “I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden, and I’m not giving it up for fucking nothing.”
Which is the exact same thought process – minus the profanity, at least in some instances – that goes through the mind of every politician in the United States who has a valuable appointment to hand out. ...more
Was Keynes a Liberal?
--Ralph Raico | Independent Review
If genuine liberalism relies on free markets and civil society to solve economic and social problems, then the “Keynesian Revolution” signaled its abandonment. Why, then, do many historians consider John Maynard Keynes—a neomercantilist and welfare statist—to have been a great liberal in the tradition of Locke, Smith, and Jefferson? ...more
Photographic: SXC
