Elizabeth Warren Throws Down Gauntlet, Calls for Genuine Financial Reform
Elizabeth Warren makes a bold call for wide-ranging, serious financial reform.
Read more...Category Archives: Politics
Greece: Default or Grexit?
A Greek default does not mean an inevitable Grexit. But even in the event of a default in the Eurozone, the costs to Greece of staying in the Eurozone are set to rise.
Read more...Gaius Publius: Hillary Clinton, Progressives & the Uphill Climb
Aversion to Hillary Clinton among bona fide progressives is far more acute than Democratic party loyalists recognize.
Read more...Quick Note on Slavery, Finance, Minsky, and the Panic of 1837
Looking at slavery from the financial perspective, 1837 looks a lot like the Crash of 2007 – 2008.
Read more...Marco Rubio Throws His Personal Biography into the Ring
Last night I started to write — let me just confess, here — a short hit piece on Marco Rubio’s declaration. And when I first read the speech (transcript), it reminded me of a high school Junior’s overly practiced surefire winner for a regional Speech and Debate tournament.
Read more...Richard Wolff: Scapegoat Economics 2015
A new politics organized around scapegoat economics appeals to voters by promising to “protect” them from austerity policies.
Read more...Satyajit Das: Book Reviews – Politics and Political Posers
These books merely confirm our worst fears. Today, acquisition and preservation of power is all. The self-interest of politicians and their associated apparatchiks dominates.
Read more...Michael Pettis: Will China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Eventually Matter?
The financial media has attributed considerable importance to the fact that many of America’s close allies, including the UK, Australia, and Israel, have joined China’s new infrastructure bank against the clearly-stated desires of the US. While these moves seem to signal America’s declining influence, it does not necessarily follow that the infrastructure bank is destined to become a major international institution any time soon.
Michael Pettis deflates some of the hype surrounding this initiative, arguing that it is less significant from a geopolitical and practical perspective than virtually all commentators assume. China is simply not about to become the issuer of the reserve currency any time soon, and that limits how much financial clout it will have.
Read more...“Getting Started”: Questions for Hillary Clinton as She Begins Her Campaign in Iowa
Hillary Clinton’s “Getting Started” video, and some questions to ask her on her listening tour in Iowa.
Read more...Celebrating the Defeat of the Slave Power at Appomattox
The Slave Power, or Confederacy, was defeated, but the ideas of its thought leaders persist to this day.
Read more...RJ Eskow: The 5 Worst Things About the Techno-Libertarians Solidifying Their Grasp on Our Economy and Culture
Some of the Valley’s billionaires are using their publicly-assisted wealth to back far-right politics under a “libertarian” label.
Read more...California Urban Water Use Restricted While Regulators Give Oil Industry Two More Years To Operate Injection Wells In Protected Groundwater Aquifers
The Department of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources has improperly permitted as many as 2,500 injection wells in groundwater aquifers.
Read more...Chicago Mayoral Race Results: “Rahm, They Tell Me You Are Crooked, and I Answer: Yes, It Is True. Period.”
Chicago’s black misleadership class won the race for Rahm, ensuring another for years of neoliberalism and giveaways to the already rich.
Read more...Joe Firestone: When Will the Senate Budget Committee Majority Ever Learn About Sector Financial Balances?
The best budget policy: Let the government deficit float and spend on programs to produce full employmen and solve our many other problems.
Read more...J.D. Alt: A Push-Pull Model for Cooperative Markets Financed by Sovereign Spending
This model of allocating new fiat dollars to specific collective purposes could be applicable to many sovereign spending situations.
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