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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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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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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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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In a Grist Magazine interview, Braddock, PA Mayor John Fetterman — the guy you’ve probably seen in the Environmental Defense Fund’s Carbon Caps = Hard Hats ads — explains how to talk about the environment with folks living in small, blue-collar towns like Braddock:
The people that are already in your corner are obviously the [...]

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It’s not surprising most cities’ green plans are giving poor communities of color the short end of the stick. Many cities have basically written off these communities. But there are also unique issues that make a truly just green plan hard to pull off.
For starters, it’s hard to help folks in low income communities [...]

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According to Green Cities, a report by Living Cities, a collaborative of large foundations and financial institutions, cities are trying hard to go green.
four out of five cities report that sustainability is among their top five priorities as articulated by the mayor. Over 75 percent of cities have, or will soon have, detailed plans on [...]

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