AltWeeklies Wire
Stop the Bleeding: A Plan to Bail Out Scared Homeowners
Governments are bailout banks in exchange for equity stakes in their ownership. Why not offer the same deal to troubled homeowners -- let them stay in their homes in exchange for a piece of their deeds?
The Road Not Taken by Congress During the Economic Crisisnew
The so-called stock-injection plan would have given taxpayers ownership of preferred stock in the banks themselves. Not only would the banks have gotten an infusion of cash, but the taxpayers would've received something in exchange other than these "toxic" mortgage assets we've been hearing about.
San Diego CityBeat |
Editorial |
10-08-2008 |
Economy
Guess Who the Economic Crisis is Hurting Most? (Hint: It Isn't the Fat Cats)new
The people feeling it hardest are ordinary workers -- Joe and Joann Doe on Main Street. Meanwhile, the fat cats from bellied-up and bailed-out businesses on Wall Street are walking away with tens of millions of dollars for doing such a good job blowing the economy to high heaven.
If Wall Street Gets a Bailout, Will Infrastructure Get a Boost?new
There has never been a more stark contrast between two radically different prescriptions for economic recovery than the one that is playing out here in New York, in the state that is the home of the finance, insurance, and real estate economy -- which just blew up.
Chumps & Champs in the Financial Meltdownnew
No matter who is in the White House next year, the script has already been written. Bailout or fallout -- any outcome will cost us big. The money has to come from somewhere.
Investment Adviser: Bailout Plan Won't Helpnew
Vancouver-based Ian Gordon, a proponent of early 20th-century Russian economist Nikolai Kondratieff's wave theory of the cycles of capitalist systems, doesn't have much confidence that a bailout would make things much better.
The Georgia Straight |
Carlito Pablo |
10-03-2008 |
Economy
Thanks a Lot, Milton Friedmannew
The worst thing that can happen to an economist is for the politicians to come over to his side and actually implement his grand idea. This week, the men who did the task for Friedman in the United States, or at least some of them, had to sift through the rubble in a very public and self-conscious way and explain why it all turned out so badly.
Arkansas Times |
Ernest Dumas |
10-03-2008 |
Economy
Wall Street for Dummiesnew

The stock market sets the confidence level for the rest of the country. It rallies, we rally. It panics, we eat Ramen noodles. Now we discover our trusted financiers are just overly aggressive and obnoxious sales weasels.
Boston Phoenix |
Kara Baskin |
10-02-2008 |
Economy
Video: Nader Blasts Obama at San Francisco Statenew

In full campaign mode, Nader was harsh on his political rivals and held little back including some choice name calling. He attacked Barack Obama and other Democrats as a "sniveling cowards," who are so afraid that they suffer from a fearful condition best described as "anal flutter."
Another American Institution Fails, and We Lose Faith in Ourselvesnew
Now that Wall Street has failed -- a victim of its own greed -- you can add it to the list of institutions in which we have lost our collective trust.
San Diego CityBeat |
Editorial |
10-01-2008 |
Commentary
Workers Will be Forced to Pay for Wall Street's Failuresnew
The Masters of the Universe have been revealed as naive speculators who believed that property values could only go up. The journalists who preached the blessings of unregulated free markets have been unveiled as blind ideologues at best, and at worst paid propagandists. The response of American politicians at all levels has been pathetic.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
09-30-2008 |
Economy
Why Are We Bailing Out Bad Banks with Our Money?new
Here's the truth: Our economy is teetering on the point of collapse. Nobody is telling you the full truth about that -- not the media, not the candidates for president.
Metro Times |
Jack Lessenberry |
09-30-2008 |
Economy
How Washington Could Shape the Future Coming Out of the Meltdownnew
Let's talk about reform, and your money, and what government should do now that there is a genuine, world-class financial crisis.
Thomas Frank on McCain, the Wall Street Mess, and Voter Fraudnew
"These Republicans have acted for years as though markets work fine unregulated," Frank says. "But what you get is incredible rip-offs."
Shepherd Express |
Roger Bybee |
09-26-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Reaganomics Meets the GOP-Bolshevik Statenew
The cratering economy has not only consigned free market voodoo economic theory to the dustbin of history, as Leon Trotsky would say, but has also transformed the GOP into the modern incarnation of the Bolsheviks.
L.A. Weekly |
Marc Cooper |
09-26-2008 |
Commentary