Rethinking the Economy

Stumbling towards a new model for creating growth, opportunity, and justice

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Entries from January 2010

Beyond the Underpants Gnomes: Ready, Fire, Aim!

January 25th, 2010 · Comments Off

[Part 7 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Once you figured out where you are going to play, you need to figure out how you are going to play — your strategy for winning.
I asked a few of my organizer buddies the top tips more [...]

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Tags: Green Economy · Movement Perspective

Tuesday’s Missing Lesson: Back to the States!

January 21st, 2010 · Comments Off

After Tuesday’s Massachusetts debacle, everyone’s been talking about what we do next in DC. But nobody’s talking about the other glaringly obvious next play — switch more of our action to the state/local board. Progressive States Network explains:
the filibuster allows as few as 3% of the total U.S. population to potentially elect representatives able to [...]

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Tags: Movement Perspective

Beyond the Underpants Gnomes: CityFight 2020: Seoul Kicks San Francisco’s Ass!

January 18th, 2010 · Comments Off

[Part 6 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Taking on corporations around the globe may sound insanely ambitious, but boring it’s not. But using local/state government? It’s more Kumbaya than Mortal Kombat. Sure, there’s evil here — just ask the environmental justice groups who fight [...]

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Tags: Choosing Together · Global Economy · Green Economy · Movement Perspective · Smart Growth

How Seoul Plans to Cut Its CO2 by 40%

January 13th, 2010 · Comments Off

While researching the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes post on the state/local board, I ran across a fascinating document — Seoul, Korea’s announcement of their master plan for tackling global warming. Seoul has committed itselt to the ambitious goal of creducing CO2 emissions 40% by 2030 — and creating 1 million new green jobs [...]

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Tags: Global Economy · Good Jobs · Green Economy

Beyond The Underpants Gnomes: Current Moves on the Local Board

January 12th, 2010 · Comments Off

[Part 5 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Playing on the local board sounds interesting. But can we win big enough here to make our efforts worthwhile?
To get a sense of what’s possible on this board, let’s take a quick tour of what US cities and [...]

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Tags: Green Economy · Movement Perspective · Transportation

Beyond The Underpants Gnomes: Playing on the State/Local Board

January 11th, 2010 · Comments Off

[Part 4 of the Beyond the Underpants Gnomes series, a response to Bill McKibben]
Maybe banging heads with corporations around the globe is more than you’re up for. No problem. There’s still a much better board to play on than DC or Copenhagen — the state/local board. I don’t know a lot [...]

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Tags: Green Economy · Movement Perspective

What the Health Insurance Companies Lost

January 4th, 2010 · Comments Off

A lot of progressives are really pissed off at the crappy compromises that went into the healthcare bill. So am I. But after having a little time to let go of the fury I felt at just how much we’d lost, and after learning more about the details, I now think some of our [...]

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Tags: Health care

The Underpants Gnome Broadcasting System is Currently Experiencing Disuptions…

January 4th, 2010 · Comments Off

I need a brief break — this time for wrestling with my Inner Theory Allegators, not because of my hands. I’ll return to the Underpants Gnomes series next week.

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Tags: Green Economy · Movement Perspective