The Vice-President for Governmental Affairs has just finished his report to the corporate board of directors. “Thanks, Ted,” says the Chairman. “You and your Washington staff have done a great job. Getting that little amendment inserted in the budget bill…
NAFTA, Twenty Years After: A Disaster
by jeff.faux •
New Year’s Day, 2014, marks the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Agreement created a common market for goods, services and investment capital with Canada and Mexico. And it opened the door through which American…
The Stem, the Flower, and Corporate Greed
by jeff.faux •
In his New York Times column this morning, David Brooks uses a garden metaphor to instruct us on the different functions of the public and private sector. He writes that the government is like the “stem,” providing us with the…
Giving Thanks for Small Things: A Little Light in the Dark Corridors of Power
by jeff.faux •
The deeper you are in the inner sanctums of power, the slower you are to get disturbing news from the rest of the world. So, I suppose it should be no surprise that it has taken so long for a…
American Futures (review of books by Al Gore and David Stockman)
by jeff.faux •
Americans’ perception of the future bounces between two contradictory visions. One is that the country is drifting toward decline. Polls report widespread belief that the younger generation of Americans will be worse off than their parents, that U.S. influence in…
Socialized Medicine; The Horror Movie
by jeff.faux •
The core argument of the hysterical Republican diatribe against Obamacare is that it will push Americans down a slippery slope into the nightmare of, gasp, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE! The phrase regularly trips from the lips of GOP reactionaries. Here’s Texas Senator…
Larry Summers and the Economists’ “Greed Exception”
by jeff.faux •
It is said that the late economist Milton Friedman was once asked how much money it would take for him to change his position that humans are primarily motivated by greed, which was at the core of Friedman’s free-market fundamentalism.…
Best for Obama: Lose Syria Vote
by jeff.faux •
On the merits, Barack Obama has already lost the Congress on his proposal to intervene in the Syrian Civil War. What’s left is an argument on the politics. The White House’s message to Democrats is that rejection will doom the…
Americans Are War-Weary, But Washington Is Not
by jeff.faux •
Barack Obama’s arguments for pushing the United States into the Syrian Civil war make little sense to most Americans. It seems clear that poison gas was used in Syria on August 21. Not so clear is who used it, and…
Fifty Years Later: How Far Have We Marched?
by jeff.faux •
The March on Washington 50 years ago was the first of many I would make — for civil rights: against one war, then another; against poverty and low wages; for women’s rights; for gun control; for the environment; and now…