| New Social Democrats |
About Us
Citizen Activists
Workers-Professionals
Public Scholars Elected Officials Contact Us Books Blogs Subscribe-Donate Home |
Logon
Members Research | |
|
| |||
|
Just Economy Web Research
Business and Labor Now Must Both Support Industrial Policy 7/5/2009 (190) Article: Conservative hostility to the very idea of 'industrial policy' has helped lead to the present economic crisis. Time for a new look... Inequality Starves the States 7/5/2009 (185) Sam Pizzigati - Article : At mid-century the states built infrastructure for the middle class, then the rich began investing in politics to finance anti-tax movements. Equality in Norway 5/19/2009 (369) Sam Pizzigati - Article: A discussion of a report by Ådne Cappelen and Lars Mjøset, Can Norway Be a Role Model for Natural Resource Abundant Countries? How Capitalist Orthodoxy Failed Then and Now 5/8/2009 (281) Robert Kuttner - Article : Four books on the economic crisis are reviewed, by Richard Posner, George A Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, Liaquat Ahamend and Dean Baker. The Erosion of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance 5/5/2009 (260) Article : A review of the current status of employer health care plans and the number of workers not covered. Peak Oil and Peak Capitalism 4/2/2009 (276) Rick Wolff - Article: If corporations are run by the decisions of boards of directors, then current economic problems are the result of those decisions. Here is an option. Capitalism Hits the Fan 3/20/2009 (304) Article: A DVD explaining how the American dream turned into a nightmare featuring Richard Wolff. Stop the Bailout, Fix the Fed 3/14/2009 (249) William Greider - Article: With aid of the work of Jane D'Arista, Greider shows how the Federal Reserve should be restructured to get things moving again. Real Solutions: A Tax Credit for Paid Time Off, A Financial Transactions Tax 3/4/2009 (304) Dean Baker - Article: Tom Delay on Hardball blamed the market crash on those govt programs, Fannie and Freddie. Dean Baker knows what did it, and offers real solutions. Take Over the Big Banks, Fire Existing Management, and Break Them Up 2/27/2009 (314) Nick Baumann - Article: James K. Galbraith proposes several bolder actions to fix the economy than the Obama administration has contemplated. The Central Role of Power and Violence in the Creation of Wealth 2/25/2009 (249) Marcellus Andrews - Article: Climate change will force us to abandon the practice of creating disposable classes of persons as buffers who absorb the risks of life at the cost of their bodies and souls. The American Institutionalist School of Economic Theory 2/24/2009 (365) Goncalo L. Fonseca - Article: A brief introduction to this school of economic theory including Thorstein Veblen. Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom 2/24/2009 (294) Barbara Briggs - Article: As the U.S. auto industry collapses, more people should know Toyota's history. Unpaid overtime, union-busting, sweatshop suppliers. You might not feel so proud of your Prius after reading this. The Stimulus and the Threat to Stability 2/20/2009 (282) Carl Bloice - Article: In January, 2009, the black jobless rate hit 12.9 percent (9.2 last January). Republican politics threatens economic stability. Social Security Now Threatened by Entitlement Reformers 2/15/2009 (327) William Greider - Article: Behind closed doors, advocates of entitlement reform are pushing Obama to tap the Social Security surplus to pay for bank bailouts. It could be a defining test for new politics in the Obama era. The American Way: A Short History of Business Handouts 2/14/2009 (294) Stephen Lendman - Article: Howard Zinn is discussed here, along with Charles Beard's article: The Myth of Rugged American Individualism. The Audacity of Hope Tackles the Enormity of Inequality 2/9/2009 (299) Sam Pizzigati - Article: The new White House faces an uphill battle on executive compensation, quoting new IRS reports. Plunder and Blunder: How the 'Financial Experts' Keep Screwing You 2/7/2009 (372) Dean Baker - Article: An excerpt from Dean Baker's new book on the rise and fall of the bubble economy. Nationalized Banks are the Only Answer 2/6/2009 (287) Joseph E. Stiglitz - Article: In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz talks about nationalizing banks, the outlook for developing countries. Taking from the Poor and Giving to the Rich 1/19/2009 (420) Dean Baker - Article: The banks are bankrupt. Ordinary folks have trouble believing that the economic system is as corrupt as it is, along with political leaders. A Social Democratic Economist for Our Times: John Kenneth Galbraith 1/19/2009 (247) J. Bradford DeLong - Article: A biography of Galbraith by Richard Parker is reviewed by J. Bradford DeLong. Democratic leaders lost their nerve to do what Galbraith thought best. A New Global Economic Order 1/5/2009 (247) Joseph E. Stiglitz - Article: Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz says markets can't govern themselves. He proposes specific institutions for global economic governance. The Financial Bailouts Reward Incompetence and Greed 11/1/2008 (229) Howard Zinn - Article: Let's face a historical truth: we have never had a free market. The financial bailout rewards incompetence and greed. Republicans Blame Blacks for Financial Crisis 10/17/2008 (272) Ed Knudson - Comment : Conservatives are looking for a scapegoat upon which to blame the failure of Wall Street; it's the fault of black people. Fox News is the biggest culprit. A Hedge Fund Manager Says Goodbye: 'I Hate It' 10/17/2008 (670) Andrew Lahde - Article: A professional tells what it's like to work inside the financial system that has now crashed, the people he took money from, and what government should do. Casino Capitalism: On Presidential Blindness and Economic Catastrophe 10/16/2008 (308) Mike Davis - Article: Seeing into the chasm of the current crisis and policy alternatives, talks about Obama. The Era of the Faith-Based Economy 10/14/2008 (245) Arjun Appadurai - Article: The economy as understood by George W. Bush is faith-based in a way not so good for Main Street. The Utopian Idea of the Free Market 9/23/2008 (354) Fred Block - Article : Karl Polanyi in 'The Great Transformation' identifies the origins of market concepts. Bank Bailout: Rational Choice Theory? No, a Nation of Gamblers 9/23/2008 (268) Otto Spengler - Article: In the Asia Times Spengler goes after Hank Paulson for the blank check to the banks in the bailout. Why so little protest? The Heart of the Economic Mess 8/4/2008 (215) Robert B. Reich - Article: What the wealthy refuse to realize: Ordinary people don't have enough money to make the economy healthy. A Living Wage for All 2/28/2007 (168) Ed Knudson - Article: Why I am supporting the election of Barack Obama. Congress Fails to Raise Minimum Wage 3/15/2005 (134) Byron Williams - Article: 61 percent of the seven million minimum wage workers are women, many with children. Why isn't this a family values issue? Equality of Property is the Life of a Republican Government 3/14/2005 (130) Lew Daly - Article: Jeffersonian democracy is 'social democracy' as shown in this article which documents early economic thinking in this country. 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2/22/2005 (130) Comment: Business Ethics magazine presents top corporate citizens for 2004. Equality: Does It Matter Anymore? 1/31/2005 (116) Bill Moyers - Comment: Bill Moyers at InEquality.org conference. A Real Ownership Society 1/20/2005 (207) Robert B. Reich - Article: Robert B. Reich spells out what he thinks would be a real ownership society. Which Party Creates Jobs? 1/10/2005 (141) Comment: Democratic presidents create jobs as this chart reveals. Republicans Against Worker Organizing 1/3/2005 (178) Ed Knudson - Article: Little by little Republicans on the National Labor Relations Board are making it hard for unions to organize workers. The Loss of Livelihood: One Family's Experience 12/30/2004 (210) Peter G. Gosselin - Article: About a family losing economic security and what it meant for faith and life. Historical Highlights of the Religion-Labor Movement 12/22/2004 (273) Article: From the Interfaith Worker Justice website, this article provides background on specific people and events. Poverty as a Moral Values Issue 12/22/2004 (283) Don Lattin - Article: An article in the San Francisco Chronicle talks about those trying to make poverty an issue in the moral values debate. Boycott Trouble for American Corporations 11/22/2004 (227) Article: The election of George Bush can mean lots of trouble for American business around the world says Arundhati Roy. The Jobless President 9/10/2004 (224) Byron Williams - Article : Columnist Byron Williams writes on jobs and politics. Corporate Donations to Republican Convention to Reach $160 Million 9/4/2004 (205) Bill Mesler - Article : Bill Mesler of CorpWatch gives the money background on the nominating conventions. Business Leader Supports Democratic Candidate 7/29/2004 (252) Article : Lee Iacocca sees a need for a new direction for the country. The Dollar is Falling 1/5/2004 (408) Article : Glen Ford and Peter Gamble write in The Black Commentator on what a falling dollar means for the Black community. The American Corporate Oligarchy 11/17/2002 (534) Michael Lind - Reprint : Average Americans have not only been taxed instead of the rich; they have been taxed to repay the rich. In Harper's, June, 1995. The Prophet Has Spoken: Greenspan on Ethics and the Economy 7/16/2002 (267) Comment : Federal Reserve Chairman talks about corporate greed. Big Welfare Farmers Keep the Poor from Feeding Themselves 7/11/2002 (399) Ed Knudson - Article : Janet Kauffman tells it like it is on the farm these days. Enron Just Tip of Iceberg 6/22/2002 (559) Comment : Hedrick Smith reports on Frontline About Joseph Stiglitz and Globalization 6/4/2002 (389) Ed Knudson - Comment : Stiglitz is one of the economists who the Obama administration should listen to as it faces a global economic meltdown. |
Just Economy Section
(See also the Labor History, and Historical Figures Sections.) Politics in the United States has been pretty much defined for a hundred years or more, since the rise of technological industrialism, as a contest between those who believe the government should regulate the economy and those who believe that the economy can best regulate itself through the free market without governmental interference. The big idea at this website, New Social Democrats, is that it is the society that should be free, the people should be free to live as they decide, the market must be managed for the benefit of that freedom. This is not a rejection of capitalism in favor of socialism; it is a concept of what can be called "well-managed capitalism." Exactly what that means will be the subject of much discussion here. Watch for many articles on the left menu in the future, as well as in other sections of the website. Articles will include interpretations of economic history and debates over the meanings of the terms "capitalism" and "socialism." These debates in the last years, since Reagan announced in 1980 that "government is the problem," have been terribly confused. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 the political meanings of these terms has shifted. It used to be that Communism was socialist. Now the right wing radio zealots define any government program as socialistic, even fixing roads and regulating the quality of food and meat. All social welfare is socialist to these so-called conservatives. They are doing a huge disservice to the vast millions of Americans whose lives have been enhanced through what has been managed capitalism since the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, who began in the 1930s what we define here as social democracy for the United States. The economy over which the conservatives (the free market and the importance of personal property are originally "liberal" ideas, now called "neoliberal" by thinkers in other parts of the world) have ruled now for four decades (including Democratic presidents) is now seriously crashing. It has not been a "free market." It has been a poorly managed market by Alan Greenspan and other libertarians. If you don't believe in government you are not going to do a good job governing, as the George W. Bush years demonstrate again and again, including the Katrina disaster. The market has been managed all right, but it has been managed for the interests of wealthy corporate few and against the real needs of common people living in real communities. That's why there are so many social problems today, that's why so many people need to take so many drugs to make themselves feel a little better, that's why families of all types have such trouble prospering and staying together. The free market has become a kind of religious belief used to justify an economic system that has become illegitimate. It is an important but limited concept and need not be thrown away entirely. There are real economic limits and conditions to take into account. Government cannot manage everything down to every detail. That is ridiculous. Totally centralized planning is impossible and not necessary. But a well-managed capitalism is possible. It is done all over the world, in the Nordic countries, in Europe, in the growing economies in Asia. The United States is the only country left in the world with government-hating capitalists who want to control the global economy and who want to avoid any rules by which to conduct their business. Nobody likes rules, but without wise law created by careful government, the economy will not be beneficial to all in a free society.  Interfaith Worker Justice. Organizes groups around the country and has lots of material on justice for working people. They have put together a document on Lutheran Resources for Worker Justice.Living Wage Campaign. What you will find here is a brief history of the national living wage movement, background materials such as ordinance summaries and comparisons, drafting tips, research summaries, talking points, and links to other living wage-related sites. Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood For All. Social Statement on economic life of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. A thirty-year-old international coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors including denominations, religious communities, pension funds, healthcare corporations, foundations and dioceses. Working Life. Interesting site with a blog by Jonathan Tasini. |