Trickle Down Has Finally Trickled Up

So, for those of us old enough to remember thinking that Ronald Reagan's "trickle down" economics seemed like a polite way to tell the middle class we were about to be pissed on in a big way, the current economic crisis comes as no surprise. What once trickled down has finally trickled back up, and now it seems working Americans will pay for the folly with our life savings, our homes and our hopes of leaving this a better nation than we found it.

The Wall Street Mega Bailout: Bad News for the World's Hungry

Rising food prices are proving deadly for the world's poor. Reeling under a combination of speculation, high oil prices, agrofuels and a weak dollar, one in every six people on earth are going hungry this year. Fully half the world is now at risk of hunger and malnutrition. The current financial crisis that threatens to spread globally can only mean disaster for the world's poor. The crisis is not limited to the developing world. In the United States food stamp enrollment is at an all time high.

From Coast to Coast: Health Care Not Wealth Care?

CHICAGO - Last week, I heard a lot about healthcare reform as I traveled from Washington, DC, to Boston and on to San Francisco. In just five days, I spoke to literally hundreds of people who believe as I do that if we have the money to provide wealth-care for the nation then we surely have the money to provide health care too. The problem is, those who want the wealth-care through bail-outs are also those who would deny us health care - especially now.

Bailing on Poverty and Ordinary Americans

At a moment when the media is focused on the drama surrounding the failed bailout legislation, too little attention is being paid to the real struggles of ordinary people and the human costs of our inequitable economy. The bailout's fate shouldn't stand in the way of the broader economic stimulus package that is desperately needed. Though there was an effort by Democrats to make sure that at least a few of the biggest challenges people are facing are addressed before Congress recesses this week, an obstructionist GOP makes that now seem out of reach and sight. highly.

Fueling the Fire of Real Change

Turn your back on Wall Street. Walk a few blocks up from the gleaming and soulless towers of disintegrating capitalism to the shabby, brick Catholic Worker house at 55 E. Third St. Sit, as I did recently, in one of the chairs in the basement dining room with its cracked linoleum and steel utility tables. 

Main Street Before Wall Street

Events of the past few weeks have exposed the danger of a financial system devoted to reckless speculation that produces nothing of real value and, as we are now being told, presents a risk to the whole global economy. The Bush administration proposes handing $700 billion to Treasury Secretary Paulson to disburse-without oversight or review-to those who created the current mess.

The Wicked Witch Is Dead. Why Aren't We Dancing in the Streets?

Okay, capitalism isn't dead yet. And the house is falling on us too.

But let's allow ourselves one little moment of glee at the expense of the system that's been choking the world to death for 500 years.

I know: we - that is, those of us making five figures or less, or nothing at all, or getting a social security check - we are terrified
that the demise of capitalism will be ours as well. But wasn't flourishing, healthy, arrogant, thumb-your-nose-at-the-world capitalism already killing us?

Global Priorities: Feeding Markets, Starving the Hungry

The world's private-sector giants have stepped on a financial minefield. In the past six months, three of America's top five investment banks have disappeared. The remaining two - Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs - are gasping for breath. While Morgan Stanley is considering merger options, the stocks of Goldman have slumped.

Strong tremors were felt all over the world.