Archive for March, 2009
The Quiet Coup (Simon Johnson)
This article, which hypothesizes that an “American financial oligarchy” has (re)emerged and is turning the United States into a Banana Republic, is getting a lot of attention. (See our Jan/Feb 2009 cover story for a related argument, though the meat of this one is the financial elite part.) Krugman mentioned it in his March 29th ...Read more.
State-Owned Bank in ND Doing Just Fine
From Mother Jones. The comment section is worth reading; some debate about whether this is the only state-owned bank in the United States. (Doesn’t the FDIC own many banks at any given time?) I weighed in, even though I am not so big on commenting on articles, just to contradict some guy who claimed that ...Read more.
Companies Suspending 401(k) Contributions
From the Financial Times, March 11 (hat-tip to The Automatic Earth). The article notes that the median size of a 401(k) account at the end of 2007 was $19,000–probably a lot lower now! A wave of US companies are suspending payments to their staff 401(k) retirement plans in a bid to cut costs amid the ...Read more.
Foreclosure Crisis Far from Over
Hat-tip to The Automatic Earth blog for this tidbit, from a recent investment fund memo. Although a majority of subprime mortgages have already seen their rates reset, there are a slew of other adjustable rate mortgages that are not technically subprime but that are likely to produce a huge new wave of foreclosures when their ...Read more.
Sen. Webb's Prison Commission
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/28/webb/ plus other stuff.
WE20–The People's G20
A press release; hat-tip to Abby S. WE20 – THE PEOPLE’S G20 we20, the people’s answer to the G20 group of nations, today announcesthe launch of its website at we20.org, enabling individual people andgroups anywhere in the world to host their own G20 summits and formulateplans for economic recovery. In the run-up to the London ...Read more.
Latin America's Reaction to the Crisis
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) has put out a nice summary of the various responses by Latin American governments to the global economic meltdown. As the G-20 meeting is about to begin in London, the outlook for Latin American growth in 2009 is grim, as the tempo of foreign direct investment (FDI) and loans ...Read more.
Two Items on Guadeloupe General Strike
Two items on the recent massive general strike in Guadeloupe. First, from Friday’s Democracy Now!: Labor Victory in Guadeloupe After Six-Week Strike Reverberates Across French Caribbean and France The financial crisis has had reverberations beyond the United States and Europe, with people taking to the streets in cities across the globe to protest rising wealth ...Read more.
Mike Davis on Socialism on Bill Moyers
From the folks at SolidarityEconomy.net. Video is probably available somewhere, too. Bill Moyers Talks with Mike Davis on the Economic Crisis March 20, 2009 BILL MOYERS: For all the talk on the cable channels and in the blogosphere, you would think Washington has been invaded and conquered. Remember that scary movie from the 1950′s, INVASION ...Read more.
The G20 Summit and Unions
From a blog I think I hadn’t seen before (hat-tip to LF), Labor Is Not a Commodity. I will add it to our blogroll. The G20 Summit and Unions Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum Next week, representatives of G-20 governments will be meeting in London to discuss strategies for addressing the global ...Read more.
