There’s a Bubble That Still Threatens the Entire American Economy…and Few Are Talking About It
Outrageously large rewards for executives give executives an incentive to behave outrageously — and engage in behaviors that put the rest of us at risk.
Structural Inequality: News Not Fit to Print?
President Obama’s address to the NAACP acknowledged that racial inequality is not an African-American problem, but rather a problem of our entire nation. So why didn’t the New York Times?
Keynes: A Man for this Season?
Economist John Maynard Keynes is hot. But, as columnist Walden Bello explains, he’s not enough.
Apologists for the Rich Are Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel
In a down economy, apologists for the awesomely affluent are having to dig deep for inspiration. In the process, they’re looking dopey.
Playing the Hawk With North Korea
The Obama administration needs to recognize an aggressive policy toward North Korea is as ineffective now as it was during Clinton and Bush.
People Power Pushed the New Deal
Roosevelt didn’t come up with all those progressive programs on his own.
Roundtable Discussion: The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Africa
The Institute for Policy Studies and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Present a roundtable discussion, moderated by Foreign Policy In Focus co-director Emira Woods, that will attempt to answer some of the following questions:
What is the impact on women, workers, and small-holder farmers? What are the challenges but also the opportunities that the crisis presents for the continent? What is Africa’s economic outlook? Is the continent in a better position to weather this crisis than it was in the ’80s and ’90s? Could the crisis bring an end to the Washington Consensus? What are the opportunities for structural change that meets the needs of people and the planet?
List of speakers:
Jose Gijon, Chief Africa economist and Head of the Africa Desk, OECD Development Centre Regina Amadi, Former Head of Africa, International Labor Organization Tony Avignan, Economic Policy Institute Briggs Bomba, Associate Director, Africa Action Leonce Ndkumana, Director of Development Research, African Development Bank
This event is co-sponsored by Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Africa Action, Transafrica Forum John Hopkins School of Advanced Studies, Association of Concerned Africa Scholars, American University’s Africa Council, and the Foreign Policy In Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies.
The IMF is Back? Think Again
Accounts that herald the IMF’s “revival” are premature and superficial.
Panel Discussion: ‘Meltdown: Economic Collapse, a Peoples Plan for Recovery’
National and local political leaders will join a panel of esteemed economists and journalists for a town hall discussion of the economic collapse and how Detroit — and the country — can recover. Putting the needs of workers and citizens (not bankers and stock market speculators) at the center of the conversation, the panel will examine local solutions as well as the role of Detroit in the national economy.
The event marks the publication of Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover (Nation Books, 2009) by Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and other editors at the magazine.
Moderated by The Nation Magazine’s John Nichols, this discussion will feature:
Documentarian and activist Michael Moore (invited)
Representative John Conyers (D-MI)
Bestselling author Barbara Ehrenreich
Detroit City Council Woman and Radio Host Jo Ann Watson
Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Elena Herrada, co-chair and founding member of the Committee for the Political Resurrection of Detroit
This event will also preview national and local organizing efforts leading up to the 2010 United States Social Forum (USSF), to be held in Detroit. The USSF is a convening of hundreds of thousands of social and economic justice advocates from around the country chartering a course for a reversal of inequality at home and abroad.
Will China Save the World from Depression?
China’s stimulus package is not likely to bail out either the Chinese peasants or the global economy.
A Bold Agenda for Change: Voices from the Front Lines of the Economic Crisis
Representatives from poverty-fighting networks from across the United States will testify at an ad-hoc hearing hosted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The people who will testify come from all over the United States: from Los Angeles to New York; from New Orleans to Boston. They include people most severely affected by the economic crisis, including day laborers, domestic workers, and people fighting the eviction of people from their homes. This event is part of an effort to forge a bold agenda that creates good jobs and advances economic and environmental justice here and abroad.
Members of the Inter-Alliance Dialogue — an emerging coalition of networks representing domestic workers, janitors, day laborers, housing activists, worker rights advocates, and others from the front lines of the economic crisis — will speak, including:
Jobs with Justice: Sarita Gupta and Elce Redmond
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance: Jihan Gearon and Tammy Bang Luu
National Day Laborers Organizing Network: Jacinta Gonzales
Right to the City: Roxan McKinnon, Wanda Salaman, and Melonie Griffiths
National Domestic Workers Alliance: Jocelyn Gill-Campbell
This event is FREE and open to the public.
Thinking Big in Crisis Time
Japan has entered a season of grand strategising. Government commissions, business associations, leading foundations, and academic working groups are all developing blueprints for a new, 21st-century Japanese role in the world.
We’re in the Midst of an Epic Battle over the Direction of this Nation
Obama has opened the door to change. Whether we can blow on through depends on us and our ability to organize.
Common Security Clubs: Working Together to Face Hard times
Across the U.S., a mini-movement of people coming together to build security in economic bad times.
Obama Is Right to Take on the Very Rich
They’re paying far less of their incomes in taxes than average Americans.