The following is an important op-ed by David Brooks, from the NYT of March 19, 2010. He has posited that over the last forty years American society has become an indigestible stew from the economic forces from the right and from the cultural freedom forces from the left that have caused us to be a society with tremendous social problems on historic time scales. I always find Brooks’ mentality a painfully odd juxtaposition of liberal and conservative elements, but nonetheless, he does have penetratingly clear systemic social intuitions that are worth scratching your head over. In the piece that follows he is at his best form in his stock-in-trade. I think he has good grist for the mill for Greens, so I heartily recommend that folks read this and post replies. We are still working out what we mean by our decentralism key value. Here’s hoping Brooks can provide food for thought in this domain.
Continue reading The Broken SocietyEconomy
I thought it important to share this heartening news story from the 3/16/10 issue of Northampton's Hampshire Gazette by staff writer Ben Storrow. It concerns our state government working the way it should – taking its lead from the upwelling of the grassroots sense of how we should be farming and living in the new era we are entering with peak oil-induced growing energy costs and with growing environmental and economic damage from global warming. In very truth we now are experiencing a Daniel Shays rebellion out here in the western part of Massachusetts, but this time a practical, slow, and steady rebellion, a rebellion away from corporate food to real food. With this, corporate politics is sure to give way to real politics – as sure as night gives way to day.
What makes this story so uplifting for me is that in the same story we have Sen. Stan Rosenberg D-Amherst backing a project that is supported by a conventional, conservative farmer in Hadley, who in turn quotes Bill McKibben's 1,400 miles from farm to plate mantra without even knowing it. These ideas are certainly starting to percolate. The next phase is to give these ideas a name, and have that name on everyone's lips: relocalization.
Continue reading Legislators aim to boost local food in schools
Have you heard about the speech given this morning by Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo to the Boston Chamber of Commerce? Sounds like it’s going to be a very good year on Beacon Hill for the business lobbyists. But the news isn’t so good for the rest of us. Here are some highlights of the speech:
1) Remember all that talk about how casino revenues would be devoted to worthy purposes like education? Now DeLeo has a different idea: the priority is doling casino revenues out as gifts to corporations. You know, building infrastructure for businesses. It’s NOT graft – it’s economic stimulus. The recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited money in campaigns seems to be having its effect already. The politicians aren’t even waiting for the money to appear before they sell out.
Continue reading DeLeo’s Speech: A Disturbing Vision for MassachusettsTo add insult to injury to working America, in came the earnings reports from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. At these mega banks, balance sheets are healthy, profits are up and bonuses for top executives are bigger than ever. JPMorgan Chase just reported $11.7 billion in profits and $26.9 billion in compensation and bonuses. Goldman Sachs made a record-high profit of $13.4 billion in 2009 and is slated to hand out $16.2 billion in compensation and bonuses – the equivalent of $500,000 per employee.
These are some of the same institutions whose predatory and unethically risky actions brought our economy to its knees. But, thanks to billions of dollars in government resuscitation, they seem to be recovering nicely from their near-death experiences.
Continue reading The Earnings Report for Main Street– By Prakash Laufer