I cited James Galbraith last night while arguing that the financial mess should not deter us from making substantial investments in our future. (By the by, you should read Galbraith's new book, The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.)
Today, Galbraith has a kick-ass op-ed in the Washington Post asking the question everyone else in D.C. is too scared to ask -- "Is this bailout still necessary?" -- and mapping out a road to recovery.
Galbraith isn't advocating we do nothing -- there's a dense thicket of recommendations in the short space -- but naturally I want to pick out the part that supports my point:
Next, let's think about what the next upswing should try to achieve and how it should be powered. If the 1960s were about raising baby boomers and the '90s about technology, what should the '10s and '20s be about? It's obvious: energy and climate change. That's where the present great unmet needs are.
So, let's use the next few years to plan, mapping out a program of energy conservation, reconstruction and renewable power. Let's get the public sector and the universities working on it. And let's prepare the private sector so that when the credit crunch finally ends, we'll have the firms, the labs, the standards and the talent in place, ready to go.
These are changes we have to make, goals we have to pursue. Very Serious people in Washington will try to say we can't afford it. But look at what we can afford when the power brokers are hungry for foreign adventures, or when they feel the bite of fear. Of course we can afford it.
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stevenearlsalmony Posted 5:34 am
25 Sep 2008
Our children's future is being mortgaged and put at risk by leaders in my not-so-great generation of elders. Is there no end to arrogance and adamant avarice of the greedy kings of wealth concentration, their bought-and-paid-for politicians, their many minions in the mass media?
Somehow the children have got to find effective ways of communicating about threats to human wellbeing that are being perpetrated before our eyes by self-proclaimed "Masters of the Universe" among us.
Good and able young people are not saying loudly, clearly and often enough what they know to be true........not speaking truth to power.
Many too many politicians are posing for the public and pandering to those with great wealth; too many investment brokers are devising economic bubbles and pyramid schemes, skimming millions for themselves........"breaking" the financial system and threatening the real economy; and the mass media has been turning a blind eye to the entire mess.
Such woefully inadequate leadership needs to be named, shamed and replaced.
Perhaps young people will stand up, remain standing, and speak out loudly, clearly and often about what they see and know to be happening.
Our children could soon be confronted with an economic and/or ecological wreckage of an unimaginable kind; but, because so many people are not reasonably, sensibly and responsibly communicating with one another now, the chances for taking the measure of certain ominously looming economic and ecological challenges and finding adequate solutions to them appear to be diminishing day by day.
Perhaps there are at least three questions worthy of consideration by young people and their elders today.
Is it possible that the wondrous planetary home we inhabit was given unto the stewardship of humankind simply for the purpose of allowing the greediest people on the planet to fulfill their unending wishes and insatiable desires, come what may for a good enough future for their own children, coming generations, billions of less fortunate people in the family of humanity, global biodiversity, Earth's body and environment? Are the greedy kings of wealth concentration and power politics, who consume, possess and hoard a lion's share of the world's wealth, the only people who matter? Are the selfish among us, the ones who are being "bailed out" this week despite their unbridled avarice and obscene behavior, supposed to be source of our primary concern?
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001,
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php
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Tom Philpott Posted 5:52 am
25 Sep 2008
Yes, by all means, the government could recapitalize ailing banks by injecting capital in exchange for preferred shares, like Warren Buffet did for Goldman. Why not?
This bit is priceless:
The second great crisis is in state and local government. Just Tuesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced $1.5 billion in public spending cuts. The scenario is playing out everywhere: Schools, fire departments, police stations, parks, libraries and water projects are getting the ax, while essential maintenance gets deferred and important capital projects don't get built. This is pernicious when unemployment is rising and when we have all the real resources we need to preserve services and expand public investment. It's also unnecessary.
What to do? Reenact Richard Nixon's great idea: federal revenue sharing. States and localities should get the funds to plug their revenue gaps and maintain real public spending, per capita, for the next three to five years. Also, enact the National Infrastructure Bank, making bond revenue available in a revolving fund for capital improvements. There is work to do. There are people to do it. Bring them together. What could be easier or more sensible?
Note that Galbraith is one of my beloved post-autistic economists.
Victual Reality
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