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Contents * Featured Articles Calendars of Events Communication With Our Members Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Valerie Tarico: Talking to Your Children about Religion Dick Burkhart: We Need Different Economic Leaders Dick Burkhart: Using Money Strategically Donald A. Smith: Don’t Destroy Government Craig Salins: Norm Dicks’ and Patty Murray’s Donors Rich Austin: Media Blackout on Single Payer Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef No American Woman President Yet Will Youth Change Red State Voting?* State and Local Links
to the Beef Our Budget Mess: What a Shame! * Rosa Franklin: Use Opportunity to Reform Tax System Featured Advocacy Group: Sightline* Nation and World Links to the Beef Federal Deficits and Debt for Dummies* Eliminate Privacy for Corporations Thomas Friedman Describes Our Bubble Economy* Is Our New Frugality Only Temporary?* Our Liberal Spirit Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week Just
go shopping. George W. Bush
Calendar of Events
Saturday, March 28 at 10 AM to 7 PM and Sunday, March 29 at 11 AM to 6 PM
at Washington State Convention & Trade Center 800 Convention Place,
Seattle) – Seattle Green
Festival. See schedule.
Friday, April 3 at 7 PM at Kane Hall, Room 120 (University of Washington,
Seattle) – 4th Annual Physicians for a National Health
Program – Western Washington Public Meeting, including addresses by
Oliver Fein, Representative Jim McDermott and Robby Stern.
Tuesday, April 21 at 6 PM at
Contemporary Theatre (
Friday, April 24 (3-9 PM); Saturday, April 25 (9 AM-6 PM); and Sunday,
April 26 (9 AM – 3:30 PM) at Seattle – Camp
Wellstone training for citizen activists, campaign workers and
candidates. $50 - $200. To
register.
Communication
with Our Members
Due to uncertainty, I have various
hypotheses which I have not expressed:
·
I believe there
are 3 reasons which should motivate us to stay in
·
I believe that it
is necessary to thoroughly investigate and find out the constitutional abuses
of our Bush administration. I would
prefer that this be done by congress instead of our Justice Department. I am
uncertain how much we should seek to punish transgressions, if it distracts us
from dealing with our present economic struggles.
Opportunities
and Petitions
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Obtain Progressive
States Networks resources for improving many state government services.
Income and
income tax statistics
Petitions
Tell
President Obama to make credit card reform legislation a top priority.
Tell
your congress members to vote for the Omnibus Public Land Management Act.
Tell
your congress members to support President Obama’s green jobs proposals in the
2010 budget.
Tell
your congress members to pass a strong climate bill.
Tell your
congress members that now is the time for health care reform.
Tell
the EPA to allow states to regulate automobiles to reduce global warming.
Tell
the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration that networks must be neutral.
A
similar petition to Governor Gregoire and your state legislators.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Valerie Tarico:
Talking to Your Children About Religion
Losing Your
Religion? How to Talk to Your Kids
Sometimes I get letters from former
Evangelical/fundamentalist Christians who are also parents. "What do I say
to my kids?" they ask. "I raised them to believe that without the
blood of Jesus they are evil sinners. What a horrible thing for them to think!
I feel guilty." "All of their friends are members of our old church,
so we keep going. I don’t want to tear them apart, but it’s getting harder and
harder for me to pretend." "When I try to talk to them they just cry.
They think I’m going to hell."
No matter what age the kids are, telling them your beliefs have changed or even
that you no longer believe can be tricky. Here are three suggestions.
1. Help
them understand your changes as spiritual growth, not spiritual abandonment.
The bottom line is that spiritual evolution is very much in keeping with the
history of human religion, including Christianity. Every past generation
answered our deepest questions as best they could. What is real? What is good?
How can we live in moral community with each other? But every generation was
like the blind men and the elephant. They were limited by their cultural and
technological context – their point in history. Besides which, they,
like us, were imperfect. By outgrowing the answers that were handed down to us,
we honor their quest and continue their journey.
Here
is how I explained my own loss of faith to my extended family. Even if you emphasize growth, both your own
and that of our ancestors, your kids will ask about your current beliefs. After
all, you’ve probably taught them to think that it’s the answers that matter,
not the process. Do you believe in God? Are you a Christian? Do you believe in
Jesus? Are you going to Hell? Try to anticipate their questions and think ahead
about some simple responses that are both honest and reassuring. But let them
know that you are still learning and that you expect to keep learning for the
rest of your life. The nice thing about this framework is that it allows your
conversations to continue evolving.
2. If your
children are still at home, don’t forget that they may need a new community.
As you continue to grow and change, you may find community online or with your
spouse or you might simply prefer solitude and good books in this next phase of
the quest. But if you have raised your children with religion in the center of
their lives, they will have their own need for explicit conversations about
religion, spirituality and morality. What should replace Sunday school or
Pioneer Girls or Bible study?
On top of this are their social needs. Did your church reach out to kids with
fun and music? Your kids may have their friends, their weekend activities, and
their summer camps all integrated with religion. It’s not fair to cut them off
abruptly just because you’ve hit your own tipping point.
Think about seeking out a moral/spiritual community that allows room for doubt
or even atheism. A Unitarian church might be a fit, or a Quaker
meeting or Ethical Culture Society. If you were in Christian
fundamentalism, you may not know that within Christianity there are traditions
that would allow your children access to familiar rituals and stories without
feeding the belief that the Bible is perfect and their parents are doomed.
Traditions I might look at include United Church of Christ, United
Methodist,
and Episcopal.
All of these recognize the human handprints on the Bible and traditional
dogmas—and they allow a humble, inquiring approach to the meaning of Christian
faith. However, this very much depends on the individual minister. Openness to
interfaith or "interSpiritual" work can be one indicator that a group
doesn’t make exclusive claims about truth and salvation. Pay particular attention
to whether your children would be offered explanations of the world that seem
real and right to you, and whether they would have a group of peers.
3. Trust
yourself to be your children’s spiritual guide.
You may feel less wise or less confident than before, but that is because you
have moved forward. Don’t be afraid to talk with them about spiritual matters,
just because you no longer have a clear set of pat answers. What you do have
still is deeply held values and principles that guide your life. What are they?
Have you ever put them into words? At the Wisdom Commons or the Virtues Project International or similar sites you can find quotes,
stories, and curriculum materials to help you talk with your kids about your
moral core.
As complicated and awkward as it may feel to find the right words for all of
this, it’s worth it. You have the chance to model for your kids what it means
to be a lifetime learner -- someone who cultivates the curiosity and humility
that can make it actually feel good to realize you were ignorant. Along the
way, if you keep asking questions, you will be making some wonderful
discoveries, and part of the delight can be sharing them. If you once gave your
kids a fish, now you can invite them on a fishing expedition. Who knows what
you might catch together! Valerie Tarico
Dick Burkhart: Different
Economic Leaders Are Needed
Mystified by the latest Geithner rescue plan?
Well, you should be. It’s just another bailout is disguise, as Paul Krugman explains.
Tell Obama and your congressional reps that we need
to let Wall Street fail, so that we can rebuild a financial system that serves
First priority: Fire Geithner and Summers and hire
experts like Krugman and Stiglitz who’ll rescue
Dick Burkhart: Using Money Strategically
· When you have money to give, make systemic change,
not charity, your fundamental goal. When you don’t have money, be
not too proud to receive assistance when you need it. Whatever your
situation, plan to simplify until you’re debt free and have time for life.
· When you have money to invest, be clear about true
investment versus gambling, and don’t gamble.
· If you invest, do not aim for windfall profits, and
share real profits with society by taxes and donations.
· As a national citizen, support strong social norms,
standards, regulations, and taxes that discourage speculation,
exploitation, consumerism, and waste and that encourage fairness,
thrift, and sustainable practices.
·
As a global
citizen, support a fair and stable global financial system, with money
anchored to real, long term value.
Timothy (6:10) says, “The love of money is the root of
all kinds of evil.” But I say “The wise use of money can yield of all kinds of
good”. Just keep your eyes on prize, the prize of a sustainable Earth
Community.
Donald A. Smith: Don't Destroy Government
Published by
The Bellevue
Reporter's editorials, cartoons, and columns consistently present a
conservative slant on issues. Specifically, they revel in denouncing taxation
and supposed government waste. Fact is:
government provides all sorts of essential services (e.g., banking, food and
environmental regulations, the police, public health departments, public roads
and transportation, libraries, parks, education, licensing, courts, land
management, and disaster services). Moreover, government is often far more
efficient than the private sector (compare health care in the
Fact is, any
further cuts to the state budget will be cutting into bone. Fact is:
Oddly enough,
it's often well-to-do people (like Bill Gates Sr.) that support progressive
income taxes while poorer people buy into conservative propaganda about
"tax relief" and "elitist government." A senior Microsoft
executive told me that almost everyone there is politically progressive.
Yes, government
can be wasteful (witness the unprecedented corruption, bloat, and waste that
occurred when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House from 2000
until 2006.) But the answer isn't to destroy government.
Weak government
regulation was a major cause of the sub prime crash and corporate scandals. Low
taxation has resulted in crushing debt and grossly unequal concentration of
wealth. Donald A. Smith
Craig Salins: Norm
Dicks’ and Patty Murray’s Donors
Friends, the Seattle Times printed this story about FBI investigating campaign contributions,
lobbyists, and Norm Dicks, Patty Murray.
A good opening for letters, saying we need public financing - and the
Fair Elections Now Act - to fix the underlying problem. Craig
Salins, Executive Director, Washington Public Campaigns
Rich Austin: Media
Blackout on Single Payer
Published by FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
“Major newspaper, broadcast and cable stories
mentioning healthcare reform in the week leading up to President Barack Obama's
March 5 healthcare summit rarely mentioned the idea of a single-payer national
health insurance program, according to a new FAIR study. And advocates of such
a system--two of whom participated in yesterday's summit--were almost entirely
shut out, FAIR found.
Single-payer--a model in which healthcare delivery
would remain largely private, but would be paid for by a single federal health
insurance fund (much like Medicare provides for seniors, and comparable to
Canada's current system)--polls well with the public, who preferred it 59-to-32
over a privatized system in a recent survey (New York Times/CBS, 1/11-15/09). But a media consumer in the week leading up to the
summit was more likely to read about single-payer from the hostile perspective
of conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer than see an op-ed by a
single-payer advocate in a major
What more needs to be said? Freedom of the press has been morphed into
“the press is free to tell us only what they choose to tell us. Truth and honesty are rarely considered”. Rich
Austin
Liberals
and Democrats
Obama Watch – Week 9
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
During previous weeks, President Obama’s
agenda dominated our news.
Obama
made executive decisions, signed several bills into law, promoted and signed
our stimulus-investment package, presented his proposed 2010 budget which
reached 10 years into the future, held various gatherings concerning health
care, large businesses, small businesses and community banks. In addition, special envoys were appointed
and trips made to explore diplomatic possibilities in the Mid-East.
Week 9 Was Very Different.
The
news was dominated by ‘retention bonuses’ given to AIG present and past
employees.
Reducing our Dependence upon Carbon
Energies
President
Obama has followed up his fiscal responsibility and health summits with a press
conference featuring private and public attempts to replace our coal, oil and
natural gas consumption with non-carbon based electricity. And to lower our energy consumption. For more about Obama’s strategy
for a green economy. I guess that he
will soon hold a summit or other gathering concerning education reform. A compromise
may be reached concerning concerns of teachers and education reformers.
Creating Volunteer Jobs
President
Obama called for a new era of volunteer service in both his radio address and
in a commentary
in Time Magazine. He is promoting
the Serve America and GIVE acts which congress is considering. They will provide volunteer employment for
250,000 Americans a year, as well as assisting social entreneurship and
volunteer programs. They will likely
pass congress and be signed into law soon.
Dialoguing with our Public
When
I watch President Obama or Press Secretary Robert Gibbs with members of the
press, they seem like giants among pygmies.
At press conferences, many reporters ask questions which are designed to
elicit information that affects our people.
Some reporters (especially those from CNN) simply ask ‘gotcha’ questions
(of the “Have you stopped beating your wife?” variety) designed to embarrass
the president. Instead of focusing on
what the president is saying about our economic mess and steps to recover, our
electronic media focus upon President Obama’s discomfort, or supposed gaffes.
President
Obama is continuing to find new ways to dialogue with the public. He held several town meetings in
Obama’s
public popularity remains high, in spite of criticisms from pundits and
politicians across our ideological spectrum.
People appreciate the gusto with which President Obama is acting, with
less understanding and concern about his specific decisions and actions. For
more. President
Obama avoids labeling his actions as Liberal or Progressive. But they are Liberal and as they succeed,
Liberals can claim victory for their political values, proposals and
strategies.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Gets a
‘A’ for Effort
Treasury
Secretary Tim Geithner has now presented his 4th or 5th
proposal for restoring credit. He
intends to provide public assistance and guarantees to private investors who
participate in auctions of toxic securities.
The intent is to establish a market and prices for these toxic
assets. This will enable better
understanding of the worth of large financial companies and their ability to
provide credit.
It
relies upon a market in which private investors establish a price, instead of
the large companies trying to establish a high price and the government perhaps
trying to establish to low a price.
While it puts our government at some risk, our risk is less than if our
government bought the toxic securities without private participation. I don’t understand how the bidders can
establish prices for the disparate combinations of mystery securities. But I hope it works to establish prices, with
minimal ultimate cost to taxpayers. For
Dean Baker’s criticism of Tim Geithner’s latest bailout proposal. Paul
Krugman’s criticism. Joe Stiglitz presents some
principles for reviving financial markets. For
more. For
more.
Tim
Geithner is also seeking authority to regulate hedge funds and other
financial companies that aren’t now regulated.
Are Proposed Federal Expenditures and
Deficits too Large?
Various
Conservative congress members and commentators are criticizing the size of the
deficits involved in President Obama’s 2010 budget proposal. What they fail to note is that the choice is not between large budget
deficits and smaller deficits. The
choice is between large budget deficits resulting from investments to create
jobs and even larger budget deficits which will result if jobs are not
created. Obama’s budget deficits are
really preventive measures to counteract President Bush’s larger potential
budget deficits.
Our
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has predicted larger budget deficits than
those predicted by Obama’s 2010 budget.
The difference is the assumptions concerning amount of economic recovery
and amount of production, earnings and revenues which will result. Although we can’t be certain about the rate
and amount of economic recovery, I believe that Obama’s assumptions are as
likely to be as true as the assumptions of the CBO.
Primary Opposition to Republicans, Not
Democrats
When
Republicans vote with Democrats, they are threatened by opposition from
consistently Conservative Republicans in primary elections. But when Democrats vote with Republicans
against Democratic legislation, primary opponents are typically not threatened. Why not?
And why is it taking so long for Change
for America to continue the support for Obama’s policies that its members
provided for Barack Obama’s election.
It’s time for Liberals to support President Obama’s Liberal 2010 budget
and punish Democrats who threaten to obstruct its health care reform and cap
and trade proposals. For
more. For more (video). Democrats should also be pushed to support
our Workers Free Choice Act. For
more. For
more.
I
notice frequent references to Dems as an abbreviation of Democrats. I don’t notice Rees, Reps, or Repubs as abbreviations
for Republicans. I prefer that we use
Democrats instead of Dems. I also
deplore the use of Democrat as an adjective.
For example, Democrat senators instead of Democratic senators, or
Democrat party instead of Democratic party.
Is There Light at the End of
the Tunnel?
It
is easy for various important statistics to go unnoticed. During the last few weeks, we have
experienced a more stable stock market.
Housing prices are continuing to decline, but housing sales are
beginning to increase. Oil prices have
recently been increasing. The value of
our dollar is again declining, which can help our exports. This is too short a time period to announce a
trend. But taken together, they bolster
the thought that the economy is beginning to revive. The key will be what happens to employment. For
more.
I
believe that besides the actions of our government to stimulate the creation of
jobs, there are many private parties who are seeking to create jobs. Managers and employees want to expand and
create jobs, when they find an opportunity to do so profitably. People who have been laid off are seeking
ways to create jobs for themselves.
These efforts counteract the lack of market demand which is pushing
companies to pare their workforces.
Given a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, many firms and
entrepreneurs may quickly act to retain employees, recall them and create
additional jobs. Dean
Baker presents a more pessimistic view, arguing that more stimulus is needed.
Quieter Progress
I
suspect a lot of quiet progress is being made as cabinet secretaries reorder
the priorities, resources and structure of their departments. See
what’s happening at USDA, EPA and FDA concerning food safety and nutrition. No
more raids against medical marijuana. EPA halts hundreds of
mountaintop mining permits. Five
federal departments illustrate the opportunities for reform.
Work
is continuing on the details of our 2010 federal budget, which may be presented
in May with some significant changes from the preliminary overview. Stimulus-investment tax cuts and funds are
becoming available to their recipients.
President
Obama appointed a Sudan envoy, Scott Gration. For
more. More
about Obama’s diplomatic overtures. Obama administration
considers sending development funds to other Afghan officials than corrupt
President Karzai.
Little things Mean a
Michelle
Obama had green dye put in a White House fountain for St. Patrick’s Day. Now she has organized
some school children to plant an organic garden on the White House
grounds. For
more. Like motherhood and apple pie,
Michelle
Obama has also toured federal agencies, addressed tens of thousands of their
employees, thanking them for their service and discussing how our economic
stimulus-investment package will improve their work. She has as much imagination and energy as her
husband. What an outstanding first wife,
first mom and one of two first professionals.
It has been suggested that she and
other spouses should receive part of the pay going to their employed spouse,
perhaps $100,000 for her and $300,000 to Barack. We don’t hear much about the valuable
contribution of our first grandmother and mother-in-law to our first family and
country.
No American Woman President Yet
Some
women have complained that although women have increased their presence in
Congress, none has yet be elected president.
To provide some perspective: Of the men who ran as Republicans for
president, the success rate was 0%. Of
the men and woman who ran as Democrats for president, the success rate for the
woman was 0% and for the men was 14%.
Disregarding party affiliation, the success rate for women was 0% and
for men was 7%. So for both women and
men, the odds of winning were low. Women
will have a better chance to become president when more of them run for the
office.
Will
Insular
rural and small town voters provide the Conservative base for Republican
congress members. This base may be
deteriorating due to rural and small town youth who are less insular than their
parents. They are influenced by their
peers from everywhere, not just by the residents of their communities. Youth in
all areas are increasingly part of a national (and international) global
internet youth culture which is strongly cosmopolitan and Liberal. We even hear stories of youths persuading
their parents to greater tolerance and compassion for people different than
those found in their immediate communities.
One
implication for Democrats in districts with primarily rural, small town and
exurban residents (such as
Here’s the Beef
Our
health system reform must include a public insurance option.
Conservatives seldom
criticized President Bush. Liberals
frequently criticize President Obama.
State
and Local
Our Budget Mess: What a Shame!
During her first term, Governor Gregoire brilliantly
confronted and resolved a variety of long unresolved issues. What a shame that she and our Democratically
controlled legislature are now presiding over the destruction of many of our
state services.
I receive many emails from various Liberal advocacy
groups, asking me to tell our legislators to protect educational, library or
social support services. None of them
inform me what other services should be cut to enable the maintenance of the
services they support. Nor do they
indicate how additional revenue should be obtained. By avoiding the basic issues of raising
revenue or reducing some services on behalf of supporting others, these
requests lack integrity.
Knowing that support for some of these services
requires reducing others, all of which I support, I have refrained from making
demands of our legislators. One approach
which I am considering is to prepare a budget which maintains all of our
services for our most disadvantaged, including people who are disabled and or
poor, while reducing support for education.
General Assistance for the Unemployable (GAU) (which is used by 16,000
people who are disabled, unable to work and not qualified for social security)
and Basic Health that provides health care coverage to low income people would
be fully funded.
Less early childhood education might be offered,
classroom sizes might increase, and fewer students would be allowed into our
colleges. Social programs which
typically have the least powerful advocates would be supported. It is hoped that the strong children’s and
educational advocates (and perhaps our court which may decide that our
constitution requires more support for education) would then confront the need
for additional revenue. Our legislature
is unlikely to adopt such a strategy which confronts our powerful children’s
and educational advocates. So our most
vulnerable are likely to suffer the most from our budget crisis.
Conservatives are surely enjoying our budget
crisis. By starving government of
revenue, they are succeeding in reducing government investment and
compassion. Dino Rossi and Grover
Norquist must be smiling. All of the
careful effort to create large Democratic majorities may have been wasted.
Finally a blog which comments on our need to increase
taxes to provide more revenue for state government: http://www.washblog.com/story/2009/3/22/113429/800
And the King County Legislative Action Committee is
weighing in: http://www.majorityrules.org/blog/2009/03/is-governor-gregoire-providing.html
Our
Bellevue Reporter published a letter by Evergreen Healthcare CEO Steve
Brown and SEIU Healthcare 1199NW member Adam Dibba which included, “Please call
your legislators at 1-800-562-6000 and tell them to use federal stimulus money
for healthcare and to draft a budget that includes new revenues and not just
cuts to healthcare programs that people depend on.
Senator Rosa Franklin: Use this
Thank you for your interest in SB 5104 – Fiscal
Reform. I have been introducing the bill
along with a constitutional amendment since 2003. As for sponsorship, many times there are
bills with only one name. That does not indicate a lack of support.
Bills are filed with one sponsor for various reasons.
Income tax in our state has become code words for fear
and wedge issues on the campaign trail. I saw and withstood the same in
1993 when our state passed health care reform when Mike Lowry was
Governor. We have eventually seen the erosion of that legislation and
more people without health care insurance.
In reviewing your e-mail conversation regarding the
issue of the WA State Tax Structure, some of your ideas parallel my own.
My goal since 2003 has been to begin the dialogue at the legislative level and
let public discussion drive the issue across the state in local
communities. To accomplish this, I sponsored a bill to create a citizen
driven Commission (SB 5049). Had we acted upon all of the measures I that
I filed based on the “03 Gates Commission Report, I feel that we would be in a
better position to ride out this recession. All of the bills are lingering
in the Senate Ways & Means Committee.
Should we stumble again and not take the opportunity
to engage the public to help reform tax structure during this downturn, the
opportunity will have been lost for another 50 or more years.
Admittedly, it’s a difficult issue because opponents
do not allow it in the public square for honest discussion. I will press
on. Leadership requires boldness and risk taking for the public good. Senator
Rosa Franklin
Featured Advocacy Group ---------
Sightline ---------------------------------------
Founded 15 years ago as
Northwest Environmental Watch, Sightline
has provided research and education concerning the sustainable well-being of
our Cascadia similar to what World Watch has done concerning our world. Well-being includes the Liberal values
of opportunity, fairness, community and responsibility.
Sightline has produced a
series of reports and distributed them to political leaders throughout our
region, including:
·
This
Place on Earth (Home and the Practice of Permanence)
·
Misplaced
Blame (The Real Roots of Population Growth)
·
Stuff (The
Secret Lives of Everyday Things)
·
The Car and the
City
·
Over Our
Heads (A Local Look at Global Climate)
·
Seven
Wonders for a Cool Planet (Everyday Things to Help Solve Global Warming)
·
Cap
and Trade 101 (A Climate Policy Primer)
·
Green-Collar
Jobs (Working in the New Northwest
·
Hazard Handouts (Taxpayer
Subsidies to Environmental Degradation)
·
And others
The Cascadia Scorecard is an annual
(since 2004) report card concerning our
I have long
supported Sightline and encourage you to learn from its services and
support it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s the Beef
Washington’s
demographic changes
Wind
farms are increasing employment in Klickitat County.
Noemie Maxwell
comments on Fuse’s YouBudget. I
agree with Noemie.
Bloggers
raised money for Darcy Burner, but didn’t reach mainstream voters.
More states are adopting a National
Popular Vote bill. For more.
NM
joins NJ as only states to ban executions.
14 other states do not impose capital punishment.
Nation
and World
AIG Bailout for Dummies
Large
financial companies made highly leveraged purchases of mystery securities
composed of bundled mortgages. They then
purchased insurance from American International Group (AIG) to protect them
from the failure of these securities.
Without regulation and assuming that (since housing values would
continue to increase) the securities could not fail, AIG sold insurance without
reserves which insurance companies need to assure payment of claims.
Failure
of the mystery securities held by large financial companies triggered their
insurance claims against AIG, well beyond what AIG can pay. To keep the large financial companies (which
are customers of AIG) from failing, our government is providing billions to AIG
so that it can pay the claims. These
funds are not so much saving AIG, as they are passing through to save large
financial companies, both American and foreign.
An
alternative would be to let AIG default on their claims, and then directly bail
out the large financial companies which are affected, at least those which are
needed to provide credit. Also important
to note is that many companies purchased AIG insurance as a gamble instead of
as protection from any loss. Just as if
you bought insurance on a neighbor, not because the neighbor’s death would
cause you any loss, but because you thought you would make money if your
neighbor died earlier than the insurance company expected. When we bail out AIG, we are also bailing out
gamblers. For more. For
more.
This
actually seems fairly easy to understand.
So why are we bailing out AIG instead of only the financial companies
which might be needed to buy credit? How
can we justify bailing out speculators who serve no public purpose?
Unfortunately
both the Bush and Obama people who are dealing with our credit crisis have a
Wall Street mindset, fueled by their past experiences in working for or with
large financial companies and/or by lobbyists for these firms. Most of our congress members (especially
those on relevant committees) have also been bought and paid for by these
lobbyists. I wish that less biased
experts such as Dean Baker, Robert Kuttner, Paul Volker, Joe Stiglitz, James
Galbraith, Paul Krugman and George Soros were playing a larger role in our
attempts to restore appropriate levels of credit. To prevent future credit collapses, we
need to ensure that no corporation becomes too big to fail. And that larger ones are prevented from
taking risks which could harm our economy.
Senator Bernie
Sanders says bailed out firms shouldn’t charge usurious credit card rates.
Federal Deficits and Debt for Dummies
Conservatives
are continually complaining about the federal deficits resulting from the
bailouts, stimulus-investment package and President Obama’s proposed 2010
budget. Even though most never
complained about the deficits during the Reagan-Bush-Bush years.
President Bush left much larger deficits
than are apparent from looking at
deficits during his presidency. He left
the economy is such bad shape, that if nothing was spent to stimulate our
economy, the deficits would have been enormous for many years to come. Production and tax revenues would be down and
social support expenditures would be up.
Future generations would face large federal budget deficits and also
large infrastructure deficits and a tattered social safety net. Thank goodness that John McCain wasn’t
elected.
President Obama’s stimulus-investment
package and proposed 2010 budget will actually produce a lower debt than result
if the do-nothing alternative were pursued. Fixing a leaky roof costs
money, but more would be spent later if the roof wasn’t fixed. The major imperative is that the money spent
on bailouts to increase investment credit, stimulating jobs, maintaining and
enhancing physical and social infrastructure, and providing financial security (through
health, work, retirement and other reforms) be cost-beneficial to reduce the
costs of unemployment and reduced entrepreneurship.
Instead
of increasing our long run federal deficits and debt, President Obama is
decreasing them. Incidentally, President
Clinton’s budgets would have all been balanced, if the interest paid on the
Reagan-Bush dept were excluded.
Eliminate Privacy for Corporations
Early
in our national history, corporations were viewed with suspicion, due to their
ability to allow individuals to act irresponsibly. Corporations were strictly limited in many
ways. They were not allowed
privacy. Their books were open to state
legislatures.
Following
our Civil War, corporations were allowed the legal status of people, which gave
them the civil rights that people enjoy, especially the right to privacy. Corporations could now claim that much
information about their activities is proprietary. This privacy greatly increases the difficulty
of regulating them. We see this as we
bail out companies which don’t inform us what they are doing with the funds
they receive.
If
we can obtain the information, it would be useful to create an understanding of
the web of obligations among financial companies. For example, AIG consists of at least two
parts, one of which provides standard insurance, and another which provides
insurance which is primarily used for speculation. Disregarding the latter, we should identify
the holders of the standard insurance.
These financial companies and funds also often have standard and
speculative obligations. Again we would
focus upon tracing the standard obligations.
Imagine
doing this for our major financial companies and funds, such that we identify
the tree (or with feedback, network) of standard obligations. And interconnected to it, a tree of
speculative obligations. We could use
this chart to identify which financial companies and funds (the ultimate
holders of standard insurance and other obligations) should be bailed out. We might bail out municipal, university and
charitable endowment funds, pension funds, banks which primarily provide
credit, and others which serve needed purposes, while doing little
speculating. By rescuing these, we could
afford to let fail those firms and funds which were primarily speculating.
I
realize that this is much oversimplified.
Even with excellent information, we might find that the speculative and
valid obligations are incredibly intermixed.
Even municipal, endowment and pension funds speculated to the extent
that they pursued the highest returns through buying risky securities. Even though the Gates Foundation lost much
money during the last year, it gained even more during the bubble years, such
that they may be about where they would have been with a less speculative approach.
It
is often valuable to have a theoretical understanding of a problem, even if it
is difficult to use this understanding to take corrective measures. This example highlights the harm that we are
suffering from making it so easy for corporations to hide their operations from
us. One condition for bailing out
companies should be complete access to their internal information. Better yet would be elimination of
considering corporations to be human with rights which people have, including
the right of privacy.
Thomas Friedman Describes Our Bubble Economy
“We have created a system for growth that depended on
our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and
more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more
and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and
more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and
more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more
Chinese ...” For more.
President
Obama is frequently saying that we must not return to our bubble and collapse
economy. At his press conference, he
said we must quit our speculation and our borrowing and spending. Instead we must save and invest. I welcome these statements which are close to
my own belief that we must change from our Borrow,
Consume and Speculate mindset and economy to an Earn, Conserve and Invest mindset and economy. For
more.
Is Our New Frugality Only Temporary?
Various
factors are motivating people to become more frugal:
·
The declining
value of our homes, stocks and pension funds
·
The financial
risks we face of losing a job or of becoming ill with insufficient health
insurance
·
The predatory
imposition of fees and higher interest rates by credit card lenders
·
Recent high
gasoline prices
Will
this frugality continue? What if:
·
Gasoline prices
stay low
·
Housing and stock
prices stabilize
·
Unemployment
risks decline
·
Everyone obtains
adequate health insurance
·
Safe pension
plans become available
·
Regulations limit
abuses of credit card users
Some
people may have come to enjoy a more frugal lifestyle. But commercial advertisements will continue
to pull people into shopping as entertainment, instead of just to obtain
necessities. Regulations and tax shifts
will be necessary to protect our environment from over-consumption and to promote
frugality.
Much
depends upon our youth culture. While our
youth may not be oriented to more expensive houses and cars, they seem to
motivated to spend lots on fashionable clothes and electronics (cell phones,
I-Pods, electronic games, and more).
Security
Clubs offer mutual support and social action.
Here’s the Beef
To
conserve resources, don’t have children.
Some
sex education programs are reducing teenage pregnancy.
Same sex marriage
bills gaining in New England.
Arianna
Huffington’s website is enormously popular, competing with commercial media.
Many
small banks, including new ones, are doing well.
Read a
history of rating agencies which led many into participating in the credit
bubble.
3,000
shopping centers and 73,000 retail stores may close this year.
Some
stores are orienting to our new frugal consumers.
Micro-loans
are coming to America.
People are training for
green jobs.
A
third of new teachers are switching from other professions.
People
are realizing that their jobs are more important assets than their homes or
stocks.
How
can our health reform include a politically viable public insurance option?
Global
economic collapse is reaching less developed countries, putting millions of
lives at risk.
Our
International Monetary Fund (IMF) still needs lots of reforms.
Private
investment is increasing in Africa.
Young
Muslim activists are promoting a modernized Muslim religion.
Tikkun notes
the immorality of Israeli Defense Forces.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Investment vs.
Consumption
Like plants and other animals, we humans gather
resources, alter and consume them.
Sometimes we gather more resources than we need when we gather them, to
save them for future production and consumption. Or we may do some production of the resources
and then save the resulting products for future consumption. Or we may spend time experimenting and
producing technologies for improving our productivity (the efficiency of our
production).
We are social.
Much of our harvesting, producing, saving and consumption is done in
cooperation, competition or coercion involving other people. But if we were alone, we would still have to
decide how much time and effort to spend consuming and how much saving and investing to enable future consumption. There are risks both in not saving and
investing and in saving and investing more than the future will allow us to
consume.
Some of us are avid consumers. Others are frugal. Mostly we are mix both, being frugal
concerning some consumption while being extravagant concerning other
consumption. During periods of scarcity,
we become more frugal. During periods of
plenty, we become more consumption oriented.
Following our great depression and World War II, people were more frugal
even as our strong economy allowed more consumption. But as time went on, spurred by commercialism
and increasing credit, we became the least frugal people on earth. Now with environmental limits and a
collapsing economy, we are becoming more frugal again.
Guided by Conservative doctrine, we have greatly
reduced our public investments, such that our physical and social
infrastructure has greatly deteriorated.
Our Obama administration is greatly increasing our public
investment. We still will not achieve
the quality of infrastructure which will best serve us unless it continues and
perhaps increases,.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Alan Wolfe, 2009, The Future of Liberalism
Paul
Starr, 2007, Freedom’s Power, The True
Force of Liberalism
Alan Wolfe distinguishes 3
main political ideologies: Socialism, Liberalism and Conservatism. Socialism distrusts abuse by powerful private
parties more than by governments.
Conservatism distrusts abuse by governments more than by powerful
private parties. Liberalism understands
that both private parties and governments produce benefits and both can be
abusive. It seeks to structure society
so that both can provide their benefits, while both are prevented from becoming
abusive.
Wolfe also refers to
Nationalism, Romanticism and Populism which revere nationality, heroism and
popular wisdom respectively. These are
not comprehensive political ideologies.
Nationalism and Romanticism may most easily combine with Conservatism
and Populism may most easily combine with Liberalism.
Paul Starr’s book describes
such Liberal structuring that separates different power centers from
controlling each other, while allowing competition between and within
them. Thus our judiciary, executive
branch, legislative branch, federal and local governments, press and electronic
media, religion, science, and education are each autonomous and checked by the
others, while competition occurs within them.
Unlike Socialism and Conservatism, Liberalism approves this competitive
openness and flexibility.
Wolfe also distinguishes
procedural, temperamental and substantive aspects of any political
ideology. Procedurally, Liberalism
presupposes a clash of ideas. Its
temperamental openness welcomes dissents to its own thinking. Substantively, its ideals are intended to be
partisan and open to debate. Liberalism
is thus less rigid and more experimental that Conservatism which more often
believes it has sure answers.
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