What Ails the American Economy?
By Kevin Phillips, Barry Gewen | 28 Feb 2009 | Comments (0)
Even if his pessimism doesn’t seem wholly warranted, a sense of foreboding surely is, which is why his warnings have to be taken seriously. Mr. Phillips writes that the inventors and marketers of the new financial instruments didn’t entirely understand them. An executive of Fidelity International says a panicky feeling has set in on Wall Street because no one knows where the risks really are. The finance minister of France observes that investments may have reached such a level of complexity that no one can assess them. And Charles R. Morris, in his own gloomy book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown,” reports that even Citigroup’s chief financial officer “did not know how to value his holdings.
Garry Wills’ Head and Heart: American
By Frank Cocozzelli | 28 Feb 2009 | Comments (0)
Wills tackles Religious Right historical revisionists head on, particularly necon Catholic Michael Novak. For example, when discussing Founders such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison—Wills cuts through the Religious Right’s mythological casting of them as “crypto-Evangelicals, crypto-Jews, or crypto-Catholics. ” Instead, he accurately describes them as Deists mostly Unitarian (as opposed to Trinitarian) in their religiosity. Wills even addresses their prejudices, citing examples of both anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism in their writings. But in assessing their impact , Wills looks at the bigger picture, concluding: “Whatever their faults, the Deists delivered us from the horrors of pre-Enlightenment religion, title enough to honor. They also founded this country”
The Dalai Lama - Capitalism, Socialism, and Income Inequality
By The Dalai Lama, Robert B. Reich | 22 Feb 2009 | Comments (0)
Visit China today and you find the most dynamic capitalist nation in the world. In 2005, it had the distinction of being the world’s fastest-growing major economy. China is the manufacturing hub of the globe. It’s is also moving quickly into the highest of high technologies. It already graduates more computer engineers every year than the United States. Its cities are booming.
- What Ails the American Economy?
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By Kevin Phillips, Barry Gewen
28 Feb 2009
Even if his pessimism doesn’t seem wholly warranted, a sense of foreboding surely is, which is why his warnings have to be taken seriously. Mr. Phillips writes that the inventors and marketers of the new financial instruments didn’t entirely understand them. An executive of Fidelity International says a panicky feeling has set in on Wall Street because no one knows where the risks really are. The finance minister of France observes that investments may have reached such a level of complexity that no one can assess them. And Charles R. Morris, in his own gloomy book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown,” reports that even Citigroup’s chief financial officer “did not know how to value his holdings.