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A Conservative Confidence Game

Leave it to Fannie and Freddie to do for American politics what reasoned argument failed to do--strip the clothes off the Emperor of Markets. The fuss over whether government should rescue naughty shareholders was merely a distraction. What this latest financial crisis revealed is that "the government" and "the market" are not two distinct and separate parts of the country. They work together and need each other.
Posted in Corporatism, Economy/Trade, Politics

IEA Says Oil Demand Slowing As US Changes Lifestyle

A man cycles past barrels filled with fuel in Jakarta. Oil demand in North America \"shrank for the seventh month in a row, by 2.9 percent year-on year in July,\" the IEA said on the basis of preliminary data. (AFP image)

PARIS - The IEA cut its estimate for global oil demand this year and next on Wednesday, saying consumers mainly in the United States are changing their lifestyles in response to high prices.

Oil demand in North America "shrank for the seventh month in a row, by 2.9 percent year-on year in July," the IEA said on the basis of preliminary data.

Sharp revisions to June data meant that North American demand in June fell by 5.3 percent on a 12-month comparison.

The oil price rise and economic slowdown had been "devastating" for US consumers.

Posted in Economy/Trade, Energy

She’s Clueless, He’s Worse

Ignorance is bliss, which perhaps explains Gov. Sarah Palin being so confidently wrong about the root cause of the federalization of most of the nation's mortgage market. But what is Sen. John McCain's excuse? Both act as if the financial meltdown of the U.S. economy has nothing to do with the policies of the political party they represent -- but she at least may not know any better.

Posted in Economy/Trade, Politics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2008
2:22 PM

CONTACT: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Serena Ingre, 202/289-2378 or 703/296-0702 (cell)

New Report: Green Investment Will Yield Two Million New Jobs in Two Years

Report Outlines Rapid Recovery Economic Program That Moves America Toward a Clean Energy Future

WASHINGTON - September 9 - As America confronts the current energy crisis, a new report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and partner labor and environmental groups shows that the U.S. can create two million jobs by investing in clean energy technologies that will strengthen the economy and fight global warming. The report finds that investing in clean energy would create four times as many jobs as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry. 

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Posted in Economy/Trade, Environment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2008
2:00 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020;
or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Causes of Fannie's Collapse -- and How to Stop the Speculators

WASHINGTON - September 9 -  

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Posted in Economy/Trade

The Whiner's Recession

Senator McCain and his friends no doubt still believe that the economy's fundamentals are strong, but Friday's jobs numbers clearly show how bad things have gotten. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate reported for August is almost as high as the worst levels from the last recession. A broader measure of labor market weakness, that includes people who can only find part-time work or who have given up looking for jobs, is higher than at any point in the last recession.

Posted in Economy/Trade, Inequality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2008
6:00 PM

CONTACT: ACORN

ACORN Calls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Modify Loans

NEW ORLEANS - September 8 - ACORN National President Maude Hurd released the following statement today:

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Posted in Economy/Trade

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2008
3:44 PM

CONTACT: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115

Statement on the Conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

WASHINGTON - September 8 - Secretary Paulson's decision to put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under a conservatorship was the right move at the right time. As the market reaction shows, it removed an important source of uncertainty in the housing market and in financial markets more generally. The big question now is what these institutions will look like going forward. There is a strong argument for keeping these institutions public.

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The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. CEPR's Advisory Board of Economists includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University
Posted in Corporatism, Economy/Trade

Bush Bails Out US Mortgage Giants

US President George W. Bush holds a press conference on the US mortgage crisis in mid July in Washington, DC. The US government has taken over ailing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, placing them in a \"conservatorship\" in a bid to avert a financial system meltdown. (AFP/File/Tim Sloan)

The Bush administration ripped up years of laissez-faire economic policies last night and launched a government takeover of two of the most powerful mortgage companies in the US. The move is designed to forestall a collapse in house prices that could plunge America into a new Great Depression and trigger chaos on the world's financial markets.

Posted in Economy/Trade

Let's Use Wind to Power Cars

Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is half right. We do need to harness this country's wind resources for a homegrown source of electricity, as he has been urging this summer in expensive television ads. And we do need to reduce the $700 billion we may soon be paying annually for imported oil.

But part two of Pickens's plan -- to move natural gas out of electricity production and use it to fuel cars instead -- just doesn't make sense.

Posted in Economy/Trade, Energy, Environment
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