Alternatives to Austerity by Joseph Stiglitz

The ongoing economic crisis brings an opportunity to focus our priorities and assess the values we hold as a nation. According to Joseph Stiglitz, draconian austerity measures are not necessary and there are many alternatives.

NEW YORK--In the aftermath of the Great Recession, countries have been left with unprecedented peacetime deficits and increasing anxieties about their growing national debts. In many countries, this is leading to a new round of austerity – policies that will almost surely lead to weaker national and global economies and a marked slowdown in the pace of recovery. Those hoping for large deficit reductions will be sorely disappointed, as the economic slowdown will push down tax revenues and increase demands for unemployment insurance and other social benefits.

The attempt to restrain the growth of debt does serve to concentrate the mind – it forces countries to focus on priorities and assess values. The United States is unlikely in the short term to embrace massive budget cuts, à la the United Kingdom. But the long-term prognosis – made especially dire by health-care reform’s inability to make much of a dent in rising medical costs – is sufficiently bleak that there is increasing bipartisan momentum to do something. President Barack Obama has appointed a bipartisan deficit-reduction commission, whose chairmen recently provided a glimpse of what their report might look like.

Technically, reducing a deficit is a straightforward matter: one must either cut expenditures or raise taxes. It is already clear, however, that the deficit-reduction agenda, at least in the US, goes further: it is an attempt to weaken social protections, reduce the progressivity of the tax system, and shrink the role and size of government – all while leaving established interests, like the military-industrial complex, as little affected as possible.

In the US (and some other advanced industrial countries), any deficit-reduction agenda has to be set in the context of what happened over the last decade:

·a massive increase in defense expenditures, fueled by two fruitless wars, but going well beyond that;

·growth in inequality, with the top 1% garnering more than 20% of the country’s income, accompanied by a weakening of the middle class – median US household income has fallen by more than 5% over the past decade, and was in decline even before the recession;

·underinvestment in the public sector, including in infrastructure, evidenced so dramatically by the collapse of New Orleans’ levies; and

·growth in corporate welfare, from bank bailouts to ethanol subsidies to a continuation of agricultural subsidies, even when those subsidies have been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.

As a result, it is relatively easy to formulate a deficit-reduction package that boosts efficiency, bolsters growth, and reduces inequality. Five core ingredients are required. First, spending on high-return public investments should be increased. Even if this widens the deficit in the short run, it will reduce the national debt in the long run. What business wouldn’t jump at investment opportunities yielding returns in excess of 10% if it could borrow capital – as the US government can – for less than 3% interest? . . . (read more)

--Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University and a Nobel laureate in Economics. His latest book, Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy, is now available in French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

The Critique of American Culture Through the Art Of Protest

This documentary describes, arguably, the most provocative American band of the last 20 years. Rage Against The Machine have since their explosive debut, been the group most associated with the American protest movement. This film dissects the work and career of RATM and looks at their place in this always fascinating lineage of artists and performers who have spoken out on behalf of, and drawn attention to, the world's marginalised, downtrodden and oppressed. Picking up the flame from a linear musical tradition going back to the War Of Independence, with the best known protagonists coming up during the 1950s and 60s civil rights movement via artists such as Pete Segar and the young Bob Dylan, the anger remained as brutal as ever during the final decade of the 20th Century in Rage and contemporaries like Public Enemy.

FEATURING: interviews with: renowned Rage producer and engineer, Garth Richardson; RATM Biographer, Colin Devenish; the band's live sound engineer, Dave 'Rat' Levine and the man who signed them Michael Goldstone. With further contributions from folk-protest singer and author Jerry Silverman, ex-'Rolling Stone' editor Joe Levy, and Professor of American Studies and English at Washington State University, T.V. Reed.

Presidential Press Conference on a Historic Congressional Session

President Obama hails the bipartisan cooperation that resulted in the most productive post-election Congressional session in decades and saw the passage of important legislation on tax cuts, the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, medical assistance for 9/11 responders, and the ratification of a new START treaty. It is important to acknowledge, however, that the historic productivity is the result of the front line political soldiers in the Congress over the last two years--many who have fallen in the changing political climate. E.J. Dionne, Jr. covers this point nicely in his December 22 article.

By E.J. Dionne, Jr--At the beginning of 2009, the choice before Democrats who controlled the 111th Congress was whether they would enact historic legislation, even at the risk of their majority, or whether they would play it safe.

They gave the safe option a pass, with two results: This will go down as the most productive Congress since the 89th, which was even more Democratic because of Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide. And 52 Democratic House incumbents, most elected in 2006 or 2008, lost their seats. The departing Democrats are, as one in their ranks put it, “Obama’s Orphans.” So many of them cast vote after vote for the president’s program. They were then left at the side of the road while history moved by.

During the recent campaign, these loyalists were accused of being “out of touch,” and they certainly were out of sync with the prevailing mood of those who chose to vote this year. But this accusation begs an important question: To whom did these members owe their real loyalty?

Instead of yielding to the feelings of the moment, they kept faith with those who supported them precisely because of their promises to change the direction of the country. And change the country they did. Say what you will about the new health care law. It was a response to (how easily we forget) a widely held sentiment that our health system was broken, that too many of us lacked coverage or feared we might lose it. The final product was a start in addressing these anxieties.

It is a tribute to the 111th Congress that its achievements will largely set the agenda for the 112th. The new Republican House majority is devoted less to a bold agenda of its own than to repealing, scaling back or derailing the accomplishments of the outgoing majority.

The fact that wiping out what they call “Obamacare” is a unifying priority for the conservative newcomers is a backhanded compliment to those who enacted it: Yes, it was a big deal after all, and in the forthcoming debate, reform’s supporters will get a second chance to make the case for what they did.

Republicans also hope to undercut financial reform, giving the law’s supporters the opportunity to explain more clearly why a financial system with loose rules becomes little more than a casino operated by people in much nicer suits than those worn by the average croupier.

And some of the 111th’s achievements will stand without challenge because they so plainly reflected the country’s will. Congressional leaders never gave up on ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” knowing they were building on a three-decade long revolution in the attitudes of average Americans toward gays and lesbians. That really is a change we can believe in. That so many other reforms have been virtually unheralded is another monument to the efforts of Obama’s Orphans. Bills that in another Congress would have loomed large were passed with hardly a ripple in the media. Consider: the new food safety rules, the big repair in the student loan program, stronger regulations on the credit card industry, the creation of a financial consumer protection agency, an improved children’s health care program and a broad expansion of national service opportunities.

The startling achievements of this lame-duck session owed to the decision of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to shun the counsel of those who said they should just pack it in after a bad election. If a certain amount of boldness had cost some of their colleagues at the polls in November, the same audacity would at least permit those on their way out to add to their record. They would use their majorities right to the end.

Our media and political systems are obsessed with presidents. We are also very tough on those who lose, in elections no less than in sports. As a result, end-of-year commentary will concentrate on how much stronger President Obama looks today than even a month ago, and on all he got done. The vanquished of 2010 will get barely a nod on their way to the rest of their lives.

But the president’s accomplishments were possible only because a group of younger, largely unsung politicians—the infantry of political change—refused to think only about polls, politics and their personal ambitions. Obama’s Orphans deserve to take a bow.

The War You Don't See by John Pilger

A powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war, tracing the history of 'embedded' and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq. As weapons and propaganda become even more sophisticated, the nature of war is developing into an 'electronic battlefield' in which journalists play a key role, and civilians are the victims. But who is the real enemy?

John Pilger says in the film: "We journalists... have to be brave enough to defy those who seek our collusion in selling their latest bloody adventure in someone else's country... That means always challenging the official story, however patriotic that story may appear, however seductive and insidious it is. For propaganda relies on us in the media to aim its deceptions not at a far away country but at you at home... In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us... Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power."

Our Century's Greatest Injustice by Sheryl WuDun

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting team, husband and wife Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, take us on a journey through Africa and Asia to meet an extraordinary array of exceptional women struggling against terrible circumstances. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they are girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century combined. More girls are killed in this routine 'gendercide' in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century.

In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth, it was totalitarianism. In the twenty-first, Kristof and WuDunn demonstrate, it will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world. Fierce, moral, pragmatic, full of amazing stories of courage and inspiration, HALF THE SKY is essential reading for every global citizen.

Insight into Western Democracy: Implications of the Secret US Embassy Cables

Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.

The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.

The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.

The cables show the extent of US spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in "client states"; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for US corporations; and the measures US diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.

This document release reveals the contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors – and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington – the country’s first President – could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today’s document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the US Government has been warning governments -- even the most corrupt -- around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.

The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs", the world's previously largest classified information release).

The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions.

More Information:
The Guardian
New York Times

Governance Gaps in the Global Supply Chain by Auret van Heerden

Labor activist Auret van Heerden talks about the next frontier of workers' rights -- globalized industries where no single national body can keep workers safe and protected. How can we keep our global supply chains honest? Van Heerden makes the business case for fair labor. At the head of the Fair Labor Association, Auret van Heerden takes a practical approach to workers' rights, persuading corporations and NGOs to protect labor in global supply chains. 

Why You Should Listen to Him:

Raised in apartheid South Africa, Auret van Heerden became an activist early. As a student, he agitated for workers' rights and co-wrote a book on trade unionism; he was tortured and placed in solitary confinement, then exiled in 1987. (Later, in post-apartheid South Africa, he became labor attaché to the South African mission to the UN.) For the past decade he's been the president and CEO of the Fair Labor Association, or FLA, an initiative that brings together companies, NGOs and universities to develop and keep up international labor standards in global supply chains.

Founded in 1999, the FLA grew out of a task force convened by President Clinton to investigate and end child labor and other sweatshop practices. Difficult enough in the US, protecting labor is even more complex in the global economy, with its multiple sets of laws and layers of contractors and outsourcers. Policing the entire chain is impossible, so the FLA works instead to help all parties agree that protecting workers is the best way to do business, and agree on voluntary initiatives to get there.

Van Heerden and FLA create a safe space in which stakeholders representing different interest groups within a global supply chain can work together to resolve conflicts of rights and interests, filling in the governance gap. Van Heerden's newest initiative: the Institute for Social and Environmental Responsibility, which will conduct research and convene multi-stakeholder forums on corporate responsibility.

"The gold standard, I think, is the Fair Labor Association. It leads the way ... because its Secretariat is encouraged and even mandated to cast a critical eye on performance and to recommend practical innovations."

John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights

Inside Job: A Documentary by Charles Ferguson

A brilliant new (dramatic) documentary from Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson ("No End In Sight"). Inside Job is the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia. Enjoy:)

Crisis of Capitalism by David Harvey

David Harvey, the British-born geographer and Professor of Anthropology, spoke at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in London recently on the Crises of Capitalism. The RSA, in turn, produced this short animated feature.

Dr. Harvey, who is perhaps best known for his critique of neo-liberalism, remains one of the leading exponents of Marxist socio-economic thought. Having said this listen to his brief 11 minute lecture and see if there is anything with which you can disagree. Dr. Harvey is currently on a lecture tour for his Marxist critique of both the global financial crisis and the narratives told about it.

The principal question that he addresses is it time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane?

FRONTLINE: God In America

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

"The American story cannot be fully understood without understanding the country's religious history," says series executive producer Michael Sullivan. "By examining that history, God in America will offer viewers a fresh, revealing and challenging portrait of the country."

As God in America unfolds, it reveals the deep roots of American religious identity in the universal quest for liberty and individualism -- ideas that played out in the unlikely political union between Thomas Jefferson and defiant Baptists to oppose the established church in Virginia and that were later embraced by free-wheeling Methodists and maverick Presbyterians. Catholic and Jewish immigrants battled for religious liberty and expanded its meaning. In their quest for social reform, movements as different as civil rights and the religious right found authority and energy in their religious faith. The fight to define religious liberty fueled struggles between America's secular and religious cultures on issues from evolution to school prayer, and American individualism and the country's experiment in religious liberty were the engine that made America the most religiously diverse nation on earth.