How to Get Out of This Mess | Wall Street's $100 Trillion House of Cards

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace Newsletter October 23rd, 2008 More from Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace »

Van Jones: How We Can Lead Our Country Out of Crisis By Tara Lohan, Joshua Holland, AlterNet Van Jones talks about a new vision for America in which progressives go from protest to governance. Read more »   An interesting statement by Barack Obama, courtesy of Joe Klein writing in Time Magazine ... "The engine of economic growth for the past 20 years is not going to be there for the next 20. That was consumer spending. Basically, we turbocharged this economy based on cheap credit." But the days of easy credit are over, Obama said, "because there is too much deleveraging taking place, too much debt." A new economic turbocharger is going to have to be found, and "there is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy ... That's going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office." This emphasis on a new "green energy" economy is, in my opinion, the best argument the Democratic Party has made for governing in recent memory. But the reality is that the relentless push for ever-more "growth" - the idea that we simply need to find a new economic "supercharger" - misses the larger challenges facing the global economy. At some point, we need to envision - and articulate - an economic model based first and foremost on sustainability and meeting human needs, rather than growth for growth's sake. We live in a world with an expanding population, finite resources and a relatively fragile ecology - at some point, we're going to have to face up to those realities. On the campaign trail, of course, even suggesting that the lifestyle to which Americans have grown accustomed over the past half-century is negotiable is a sure-fire way to lose an election. But I think it's important that those of us who aren't running for president keep an eye on the bigger picture. -Joshua Holland Editor, Corporate Accountability and Workplace     Why Is the Government Keeping Key Documents About the Bailout Under Wraps? By Ben Protess, ProPublica The Treasury Dept. is keeping key details of the contract it awarded to keep the books for the government's bailout from the public. Read more »   Wall Street Hustlers Built a $100 Trillion House of Cards and Stuck You with the Fallout By Joshua Holland, AlterNet Deregulation brought us hugely "leveraged" investments, and they brought us panicked markets and pain. Read more »   Why Trust Paulson With Our Money? By Robert L. Borosage, Campaign for America's Future With $700 billion in taxpayers' money at stake, surely it would be wise to have an independent board that can hold Paulson accountable. Read more »   How Big Oil's Lobbyists Contributed to Big Finance's Crash By Antonia Juhasz, AlterNet Working Americans are reeling from the "unintended consequences" of their relentless war against regulation. Read more »   Union Card or Master Card -- How a Nation of Workers Became a Nation of Debtors By Frank Joyce, AlterNet Debt it is an important shaper of political and economic consciousness. The more you are in debt, the less likely you are to rock the boat Read more »   How the Banksters Made a Complete Killing off the Bailout By Pam Martens, CounterPunch It's going to take about 20 years to repair the damage from the huge rip off created under the guise of "free market" capitalism. Read more »   How the Economic Crisis Will Affect the Environment By Michael T. Klare, Huffington Post Will the crisis be good or bad for the environment, especially with respect to global warming? Read more »   Help Wanted: A Secretary of Labor Who Cares About Workers By Kim Bobo, Sojourners We need a Labor Secretary in the mold of Francis Perkins, whose top priority was to help the working man. Read more »   Arson, Suicide, and Murder Mark the Economic Crisis, and We're Not Hearing About it By Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com Violent reactions are bubbling up across the country to new economic realities. Read more »   Joe Six-Pack, Joe the Plumber, Joe Jobless By Jennifer Wheary, AlterNet What should our trade schools, community colleges and universities be doing to help fill essential jobs? Read more »   Iceland's Economic Meltdown Is a Big Flashing Warning Sign By Toby Sanger, AlterNet Iceland followed the prescriptions of a right-wing ideologue, and its economy paid a severe price. Read more »   How Wall Street's Scam Artists Turned Home Mortgages Into Economic WMDs By Joshua Holland, AlterNet The titans of high finance are trying desperately to shift blame for the crisis onto others, but this dead cat lies squarely on their doorstep. Read more »   Let's Make Wall Street Execs Pay for Cleaning Up the Mess They Made By Sam Pizzigati, Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality The "polluter pays" principle works in the environmental realm -- we can apply it to the financial meltdown too. Read more »   Why the Bailout Won't Do Anything for the Root of the Problem By John Miller, Dollars and Sense Nothing in the plan will stabilize plummeting home values. Read more »   PEEK and Video: The hottest buzz and videos on the web     McCain is Calling for 'Neo-Hooverism' and He's Wrong By Staff, The Progress Report Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman explained, "Right now, increased government spending is just what the doctor ordered ..." Read more »   In Financial Crisis, America's Plutocrats Are Hurting Too By Steve M., No More Mister Nice Blog Won't somebody think of the CEOs? Read more »

Support AlterNet  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy  |  Unsub from Corp. Accountability & the Workplace Unsubscribe from all future AlterNet communications. You are subscribed as fpac.rangola@blogger.com © 2007 Independent Media Institute All Rights Reserved 77 Federal St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110