Within the next few years, China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy. Anticipating the impact of this milestone on our national psyche, the US policy class has been assuring Americans that there is nothing to worry…
Brazilian Protests; Could They Happen Here?
by jeff.faux •
“Bread and Circuses” were the means by which ancient Rome’s elite diverted the attention of ordinary citizens from the corruption and folly that eventually destroyed the Republic. Throughout history, self-proclaimed democratic leaders have pursued variations on this theme to placate,…
Where’s the Change?
by jeff.faux •
The Democratic Party’s long-term prospects have dramatically improved since the November election. They will control the White House for another four years. The Republicans, who lost the total vote for the House of Representatives, remain captive of an unpopular reactionary…
The Fiscal Cliff: A Box Office Hit for the Governing Class.
by jeff.faux •
The latest episode of the political melodrama “Fiscal Crisis” has ended, and the next one – the vote on the debt ceiling in two months — is already being promoted. It promises to follow the familiar story line. Fiercely ideological…
Election Over: Time for Progressive Dems to Face the Truth
by jeff.faux •
Terrorized by the prospect of a complete takeover of the U.S. government by right-wing reactionaries — progressive Democrats swallowed their unhappiness with Barack Obama throughout the campaign. They gamely defended his policies on the economy, health care, budget priorities and…
Apple’s Low-Wage Path to America’s Future
by jeff.faux •
With the introduction of iPhone 5, Apple Inc. is now the world’s richest company, valued at over $625 billion. Given its momentum, the firm in another year or so could be worth a trillion dollars. It is more than just…
Education Profiteering; Wall Street’s Next Big Thing?
by jeff.faux •
The end of the Chicago teachers’ strike was but a temporary regional truce in the civil war that plagues the nation’s public schools. There is no end in sight, in part because — as often happens in wartime — the…
Barry Commoner and the Dream of a Liberal Third Party
by jeff.faux •
Barry Commoner died on September 30 at the age of 95. The New York Times called him “a founder of modern ecology and one of its most provocative thinkers and mobilizers in making environmentalism a people’s cause.” Among many accomplishments,…
Big Dollar, Little Democracy (review of Republic Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and a Plan to Stop it, by Lawrence Lessig))
by jeff.faux •
Money talks.. It is also a conversation stopper. Almost any discussion among progressives of what is really needed to solve the nation’s multiple crises typically ends in despair when someone says, “But they will not accept that,” they being…
In The Twilight of Empire
by jeff.faux •
Historians who look back to our time will surely conclude that our problem was not that we didn’t know where we were headed, it was that we didn’t act on what we knew. Before the financial crash of 2008-2009 and…