Rethinking the Economy

In bad times and increasingly even in good times, layoffs have become a way of life in the US, and until the Wall Street meltdown, Europe’s been under increasing pressure to follow our lead. But according to a Newsweek article by Stanford professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton,
there is a growing body of [...]

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Now that the Supremes have said the corporations can run wild with political spending, what’s our next move? Back in November, the Brennan Center’s Ciara Torres-Spelliscy made an interesting suggestion in Business Week — do what the Brits do and put more power into shareholders’ hands:
A law passed in 2000 requires British companies [...]

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Cash for Caulkers — giving homeowners a tax break or some other means to decrease the cost of energy retrofits — has been getting a bunch of publicity. It’s a great way of creating jobs, and estimates show that $2 billion in loan guarantees could leverage $20-$40 billion in financing. But David Dayen at firedoglake [...]

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Can we create rules to stop Wall Street from ripping us off? No, says Wall Street. You aren’t smart enough to understand what we do. Your rules and regulators will just get stomped by traders. All your pathetic attempt to keep up with us will do is stifle innovation. So shut up and let [...]

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Speaking of thieves, it’s not everyday that a former CEO lays out how stacked the deck has become against working families. Atlantic blogger Mike Konczal on a recent Frontline special on the credit card industry:
[It] traces a narrative of the changing nature of credit and debit cards, where services and goods became [...]

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If we don’t want let Wall Street to walk all over us, we’ll need regulators who are ready to rock ‘n roll. Epicurious Dealmaker spells out who he thinks we need (and no, it’s not Cary Grant):
Many observers of the smoking wreckage which now passes for our banking system have opined that, [...]

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When the Obama administration decided we’d roll over during the Wall Street bailout — that we wouldn’t follow the ancient rule “when in Rome do as the Romans do” and negotiate a deal as tough as Wall Street players would — we set ourselves up for a world of pain. And not just [...]

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Normally I’m too cynical to get pissed off when I read the news. But reading about how Wall Street’s looting local taxpayers made me so furious I’ve been stewing over how we let ourselves get so screwed. What would’ve happened if Obama had cut a tougher deal right at the start?
Take the bailout of [...]

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It’s the holiday season, so if you’re on Wall Street you’re probably asking yourself, is there any way I can repay taxpayers for saving my ass and helping me earn big fat, record-breaking bonuses this year? Turns out there is — finding new ways to hose taxpayers.
I don’t mean Wall Street finding new ways to [...]

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The Urban land Institute’s got a smart idea about how to get more bang out of federal transportation bucks: ‘Channeling Funding Through “the Three Bs”’ of Base, Bonus, and Bank.
1) Use Base Formula Funds to Maintain the System
Base formula funds should be the primary funding source for system maintenance and preservation. [...]

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