http://www.bopnews.com/archives/000339.html#000339
"I want the world to buy America." Says Bush. With a growing investment deficit, that is one promise he will keep.
Jay Rosen reminds us that people think in stories, and the press sinks in them:
http://www.bopnews.com/archives/000338.html#000338
Why waiting for the Godot Recovery is laboring under an illusion:
http://www.bopnews.com/archives/000337.html#000337
Matt Stoller on why so many long for McCain in the hearts, even though they know he is right wing.
http://www.bopnews.com/archives/000336.html
To write the addendum to the Bushism piece:
These numbers show that while fixing the financial arrangments is key - we have to do what the Clinton team did in 1993 with restructuring US borrowing - it will not be enough.
We must strike at the looming inflation that is taking hold in the US economy.
The logical and simple plan would be
Follow the Money - upper income and capital gains tax increases, reinstate the estate tax for large holdings, end corporate tax haven loopholes, stricter accounting standards to capture more of the "speculative money" of options and derivatives.
Break the Chains - a rapid drive to get hybrids on the road and the large gas burning SUVs off the road, increased Cafe standards, ending of the "deregulation" of energy which is about shipping power farther and losing more of it.
Internationalism - structure an agreement which would merge the authority of the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO and the G-7. Paradoxically, more authority is better - instead of retaliatory tariffs, have the WTO assess fines that would go to a restructured IMF debt forgiveness program which would find ways of forgiving the interest on developing nation borrowing. By removing the debt burden from nations such as Argentina, they can grow again. Structure a series of agreements on Iraq to get them selling oil - more price pressure on OPEC is essential, even if it means, horrors, that Cheney isn't going to get a big slice of the profits.
End the Trickle Down Tax Restructure education funding so that the federal government pays more, institute a single payer health system.