Archive for September, 2009
Bank of America's Awesome Pecans
An amusing item from New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog (though their spin on it is needlessly crude): When House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chair Edolphus Towns subpoenaed Bank of America for any and all correspondence “created between September 1, 2008 and January 16, 2009″ relating to “the financial losses at Merrill Lynch ...Read more.
Notre Dame to Dissolve Heterodox Econ. Dept.?
Here is a pretty shocking story—the University of Notre Dame is planning to dissolve its department of Economics and Policy Studies, which houses the heterodox economists at the university. Below is part of an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education; there is also an online petition for ND students and alums who oppose the ...Read more.
The Populist Moment
This is the first in a series of blog posts by former D&S collective member Thad Williamson, who is teaching a course on social movements at the University of Richmond, where he teaches at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. His first post, on Laurence Goodwyn’s classic The Populist Moment, which is well worth reading ...Read more.
Obama vs. the Lobbyists (TomDispatch)
From Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch; a link to Andy Kroll’s article follows: Congressman Joe (“You lie!”) Wilson is undoubtedly not completely ignorant about how our health care system actually works. After all, in the course of his career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, he’s received $244,196 in contributions from the health-care profession — ...Read more.
How Tort Reform Can Raise Health Care Costs
Texas has been a magnet for doctors since they enacted tort reform a few years ago. (See Doctor’s Flock to Texas After Tort Reform from the Wall St Journal). The result? Insurance premiums have nearly doubled. From the Austin American Statesman: Insurance premiums rose 91.6 percent in Texas By Mary Ann Roser | Tuesday, September ...Read more.
The Truth about the Public Option (Robert Reich)
From The Real News Network: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what a public option for healthcare coverage really means for working people. We thank Jacob Kornbluth for directing and producing the Robert Reich interview portion of this piece. Pass it on to everyone you know. We can’t let the insurance companies decide who gets ...Read more.
T.D.C.o.t.E: The Mendacity of Hope
The Dull Compulsion of the Economic (xvii) A series of blog postings by D&S collective member Larry Peterson The Mendacity of Hope: Obama’s Healthcare Speech President Obama’s speech to Congress on healthcare has been generally well received since it was delivered Wednesday evening. Commentators have focused on the President’s charisma, of course, as well as ...Read more.
Baucus's Public Option
Yes, here it is (thanks to Emptywheel for bringing it to our attention): Health Insurance Exchange. The Baucus plan would establish the Health Insurance Exchange through which individuals and small businesses in the market for insurance could obtain affordable health care coverage. … The Exchange would also include a new public plan option, similar to ...Read more.
Whole Foods and Health Care
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods (or as we call it here in Boston, Whole Paycheck), wrote a hide-bound and ideological op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last month (find it here). The first tip-off that it’s going to be silly is that it calls health-care reform “Obamacare” (nothing like a little derision right ...Read more.
Anti-Union Campaigns from the Right
We received this from former D&S editor Abby Scher. Abby is currently editor of The Public Eye, a publication of Political Research Associates. Scroll down for the press release about the Making Contact program Abby produced on right-wing anit-union campaigns. I’ve been tracking anti-union campaigns from the Right and did a short radio documentary for ...Read more.
