Archive for January, 2010
'New Haiti'; Same Corporate Interests
Terrific article by Isabel MacDonald, at the Nation. By Isabel MacDonald | January 29, 2010 In the wake of the earthquake that has killed more than 100,000 people in Haiti, the foreign ministers of several countries calling themselves the “Friends of Haiti” met on Monday in Montreal to discuss plans for “building a new Haiti.” ...Read more.
4Q GDP Up 5.7%, Wages/Benes At Record Low
Brad DeLong thinks that the GDP reading suggests that next week’s productivity numbers will be around 7%, adding yet another astonishing number to that series. This is not good news for employment; it suggests that workers can continue to be squeezed, notwithstanding all the sweat and tears of the last year. On the GDP numbers, ...Read more.
Root Canals, Rhetoric, or Real Reform?
This is from Bankster; hat-tip to comrade Steve S. of United for a Fair Economy. We are glad someone else noticed BHO’s root-canal metaphor; it reminded us of the guiding metaphor Arthur MacEwan used in this Ask Dr. Dollar column from our Nov/Dec 2008 issue. Steve pointed us to Simon Johnson’s metaphor of Bernanke as ...Read more.
Labor Needs a New Survival Plan (Steve Early)
From today’s Boston Globe, by frequent D&S contributor Steve Early: REPUBLICAN SCOTT Brown’s Senate victory last week deprived President Obama and the Democrats of their filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate and made Obama’s health care plan a high-profile casualty. There was also collateral damage for already-frustrated union backers of the president. The White House staffers ...Read more.
Tony Blair To Face Iraq Inquiry Tomorrow
Former British PM Tony Blair is set to face a House of Commons inquiry tomorrow concerning the legality of the war in Iraq. The Chilcot committee has already heard from the likes of Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general at the time, who famously “changed his mind” on the war’s legality in a manner that would ...Read more.
Scurrilous Videos Besmirch Davos Forum
From the hilarious Yes Men. Coincidence: the last time I saw Howard Zinn was at a screening of their film The Yes Men Change the World. He was a fan. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 28, 2010Scurrilous Videos Besmirch, Enrage Forum, Leaders, WorldVideos threaten very existence of WEF * Close examination of fake website reveals outrageous, ...Read more.
Howard Zinn
It is a sad day. As you have probably heard, left historian Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, died yesterday of a heart attack. He will be sorely missed. We just celebrated our 35th anniversary year. Back in 2004, in our 30th anniversary issue, we asked prominent leftists to “describe ...Read more.
AIG and the Hindered Haircut
Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke, and Henry Paulson (remember him?) are being grilled today on Capitol Hill as part of investigations of the AIG bailout by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, headed by Edolphus Towns. (I thought we’d done a post a while back that included a good quote from Towns–something about bankers ...Read more.
Our Wars Are Killing Us (Tom Engelhardt)
The latest from TomDispatch is about military spending–quite timely given the spending freeze–except “security-related” spending–that B.O. will announce tonight. Here is Tom’s intro to the piece: From TomDispatch this afternoon, a piece that couldn’t be more timely given today’s news that the president will announce a freeze on domestic, but not national security, spending; an ...Read more.
Obama's Freeze: Barack Herbert Hoover Obama? (Brad DeLong)
As reported on the front page of today’s Times, Obama is now proposing a freeze on government spending, except “security-related” budgets (aka the military, homeland security, etc.). It’s not quite clear to me what exactly the freeze amounts to. On his blog, Brad DeLong posted these updates to his post (which I’ll quote from shortly) ...Read more.
