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RedditLast April, I wrote about A New Way Forward, a new and growing movement organized via the web and founded by young people who want to take back the power of the ordinary citizen to affect our economic structure. The organization's coming-out party took place last April 11 with more than sixty coordinated events coast to coast all making the case for alternative bailout plans based on the public's interest.
This new video, which neatly breaks down the causes and effects of the economic crisis, is the basis for the next day of action staged by A New Way Forward.
Next week on June 10, at small and large events nationwide, there'll be numerous screenings of the video along with panels, workshops, teach-ins, protests and rallies. As the banking industry continues its secret lobbying in DC, A New Way Forward advocates using antitrust laws and competition to limit the influence of big banks and shed light on the shadow banking sector. These events are part of a continuing effort to forge a serious grassroots discussion of the economy ad how to leverage antitrust law toward a more populist bailout. Find an event near you. If there's nothing near you, click here for tips on how to host your own event.
Organizers are planning many different events, from small group house parties to large group public gatherings. In Washington DC, Former Chief Economist of the IMF Simon Johnson will be keynoting what's expected to be a large event in the Gold Room of the Rayburn House Building. The organizers hope to attract citizens with a disparate range of views who will hold one idea in common: our current economic trends must be reversed. Join ANWF's Facebook group for updates, and learn more about the plan for structural change and what we can achieve.
PS: If you have extra time on your hands and want to follow me on Twitter -- a micro-blog -- click here. You'll find (slightly) more personal posts, breaking news and lots of links.
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Peter Rothberg
Your guide to expressing informed dissent to war, racism, sexism, environmental degradation and market-based solutions to social problems.
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Well, PETER...good luck as always.
Though I expect similar results as from about 95% of your other protests and "events".....sorry.
Posted by Mask at 06/04/2009 @ 3:02pm
It is hard to fight the power of money. Especially in our current political paradigm. I don't have a good solution but I think for anything like ANWF to work we need some major reforms in campaign finance first.
Posted by Extraneous at 06/04/2009 @ 3:49pm
If you really believe this way, wouldn't it be easier to just get people to switch to local banks and credit unions?
Posted by antisocialist at 06/04/2009 @ 4:50pm
Considering the fact that the banking industry pretty much controls our government, and wallstreet is intertwined in there as well, we'll never see the day where "we the people" gain control of this country any time soon if "we the people" ever had any say in the first place.
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 06/04/2009 @ 4:56pm
Peter, I've got an even better suggestion!
It's Time to Break Up Big Gov't! Look to the bellwether example of California which has let its state Gov't grow at better than twice the rate of combined population & inflation rate for this century.....that's what's in store for the country as Magic emulates the Governator, only even more so!
Posted by Happy at 06/04/2009 @ 5:48pm
We should use local banks and credit unions, but that in itself won't bust the trust. Breaking up (banks) is hard to do. It isn't as if Larry Summers walked into Citigroup headquarters one day and said "I am shocked, shocked, to find gambling going on here."
And make no mistake about it, gambling is what the financial industry did and will continue to do with everyone's assets. Many financial derivatives are simply bets. Investment banks are the bookies. It's an underground economy. The Secret Service should stage a lot of raids and shut it down.
I'm not very hopeful that much of this will change, but at least the administration has put a plan for regulating derivatives and their issuers on the table.
Posted by gdutton at 06/04/2009 @ 7:36pm
You write an article on breaking up the banks without a single mention of the Federal Reserve???!!!! How very sad.
Peter, your heart is in the right place. But you have no idea what the Fed is, do you?
If you did, you'd realize the waste of time June 10th will represent.
Posted by freiheit1 at 06/04/2009 @ 9:38pm
You write an article on breaking up the banks without a single mention of the Federal Reserve???!!!! How very sad.
Peter,.....
Posted by freiheit1 at 06/04/2009 @ 9:38pm
Let me step in and help Peter out!
An article by David Wessel, Page A2, in today's WSJ is just the ticket: "Inflation Fears Are Overstated - Except in These Cases"
The article talks about the Fed Reserve....as recently as in mid-March, it was worried about deflation and now, it's worried about inflation.
I won't go into details since this was a pretty clever piece and difficult to summarize....just consider the article's title carefully.
Bsically, the Fed is between a rock and hard place....perhaps the tightest it has ever been given the unprecedented need to be a magician to Magic.
It did bring up the late 1970s "Great Inflation".......it ends with:
"The question now is whether central bankers and the rest of us will remeber the lessons of the late `70s and do whatever it takes to avoid inflation. Or whether each generation has to learn the lesson anew."
As I am definitely in the geezer generation that HAS learned the lessons of the late `70s.......I am compelled to read up on everything I can....both sides of the arguments including Krugman's (lame, IMO) argument of no inflation to come.
Too many people think inflation can only be too much money chasing too few goods......and key off of capacity utilization, which is low now and expected to remain lower than previous full-employment levels.
Posted by Happy at 06/04/2009 @ 11:06pm
One Fed insiders complained: "There is no exit strategy."....regarding plans to raise interest rates to head inflation off.
But guess what? Bernanke's term ends in Jan., 2010....I have a healthy suspicion that he just may NOT seek another term....you heard it first here!
Loving those twin trajectories of oil and gold prices!
Posted by Happy at 06/04/2009 @ 11:11pm
I'm not very hopeful that much of this will change, but at least the administration has put a plan for regulating derivatives and their issuers on the table. Posted by gdutton at 06/04/2009 @ 7:36pm
If this plan has teeth, it will be interesting to see how far it gets. My guess is that enough Congresspersons will receive enough bank $$$ to extract those teeth. And the Obama admin will twist no arms to ensure enforcement.
Posted by sloper at 06/05/2009 @ 02:58am
It's a vicious circle.
A functioning economic system needs banks to transfer the money between the partners. Unfortunately, banks aren't obviously not any longer a partner in these business processings and are playing opaque gambles with our deposits they didn't even have the knowledge about.
If they win they pay themself unlimited bonuses and if they loose taxpayers have to pay the bailouts - but unlimited ?
I suppose we'll have no chance to condemn banks out of our economic system but they have to be supervised by governmental authorities like in Europe. Hartmut Rast, London
Posted by Hartmut_Rast at 06/05/2009 @ 05:37am
YES, revive Glass-Steagel.
Posted by sloper at 06/05/2009 @ 09:16am
A less clever (compared to David Wessel's WSJ piece yesterday) but unabashedly clear opinion, from a better-known pundit/economist:
June 04, 2009
It's the Printing Presses, Stupid
By Larry Kudlow
Testifying before the House Budget Committee this week, Ben Bernanke said that when the time comes, the Fed will raise interest rates in order to stop inflation from building in the next recovery. He also asked for "fiscal balance" to sustain financial stability. On the surface -- in terms of keeping prices stable and restoring value to the softening U.S. dollar -- this is positive. Surely Mr. Bernanke wants to do right for America, and he's giving it his best shot.
But when you talk to traders and economists, the whisper story is that Bernanke and the Fed are no longer truly independent of the Obama White House and Treasury. As a result, Bernanke will not be able to slow down the printing presses and gradually lift the near-zero target rate in a timely and effective manner. Already the Fed has created more than $1 trillion in new cash, and the M2 money supply is growing at its fastest pace in 25 years.
This monetary explosion explains what's really driving the dollar down and Treasury rates up (alongside rising gold and oil prices). It's not huge budget deficits, but the growing fear that a less-than-independent Fed will keep pushing new money into the financial system in order to fund Obama's liberal spending policies....
Posted by Happy at 06/05/2009 @ 1:45pm
The only way we're going to reduce the influence and power of ALL the special interests, not just banking and wallstreet, but also healthcare and pharmaceuticals, "defense" contractors and others who buy and sell Senators and Congresspeople, is public financing of our entire political system. Campaigning has become so expensive that our representatives are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time raising money if they want to keep their jobs. They spend more effort raising money than they do passing legislation. And when they do pass legislation, it's more and more often written to appease the same special interests that keep them employed. There are crooks on both sides of the aisle, but even the honest ones are forced to pimp for dollars to run the machine. All of this would be eliminated if we had public financing.
Posted by playwrtr at 06/05/2009 @ 6:29pm
Yea Happy, California's problems have had nothing to do with Prop. 13 and the rule requiring a 2/3 vote to raise taxes.
Posted by brunowe at 06/05/2009 @ 10:19pm
Yea Happy, California's problems have had nothing to do with Prop. 13 and the rule requiring a 2/3 vote to raise taxes.
Posted by brunowe at 06/05/2009 @ 10:19pm
I sincerely hope you, especially if you live in CA, continue to believe that.....and keep on increase spending at twice your natural pop. growth + inflation. Please, business as usual.....alright, pretty please! LMAO!
Posted by Happy at 06/05/2009 @ 10:56pm
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold and silver futures fell sharply Friday as a better-than-expected U.S. employment report boosted hopes for an economic recovery and made precious metals a less attractive investment.
Posted by snowball666 at 06/05/2009 @ 7:51pm
Do you believe only in straight-line trajectories? MASK does! If so, stay out of investing, seriously.
Posted by Happy at 06/05/2009 @ 10:59pm
A rise to 9.4 percent unemployment, and now at 7,000,000. unemployed, NO new 2.5 million jobs; The Obamanation that makes desolation and the Demoncrats Hopelessness and change for the worst is right on track!!!!
Posted by BigPasture at 06/05/2009 @ 11:18pm
June 5, 2009 4:00 AM
A Win for the Good Guys And a setback for sharia-compliant finance in America.
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr. and David Yerushalmi
Last week's news....Largely unremarked was another potentially seismic decision, one made in federal court regarding Islamic law, which is called sharia.
Eastern District of Michigan judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff handed down the decision, in a case involving an alleged violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. The issue is whether a government-owned company, AIG, can market sharia-compliant insurance products....In a well-reasoned and cogently argued opinion, Judge Zatkoff refused to dismiss the case prior to factual discovery.
....AIG sponsors, pays for, and aggressively markets sharia-compliant insurance products. The practice of sharia finance has created lucrative advisory positions for often radical imams, who get paid to guarantee the religious "purity" of sharia-compliant products. Such vehicles typically follow the Muslim principle of zakat and donate a slice of their profits to charity. Unfortunately, many of the charities receiving these funds have links to terrorism. Mr. Murray objects to his funds' being used to legitimate and promote sharia law, when that is the same law that calls for jihad. For that matter, sharia allows Saudis, Iranians, Sudanese, Somalis, Afghans, Taliban members, and other adherents to justify the following: the execution of apostates who decide to abandon the faith; the criminalizing of "Islamophobic blasphemy"; the punishment of petty crimes with amputations, floggings and stonings; and the repression of "non-believers" from practicing their respective religions freely and openly....
Posted by Happy at 06/07/2009 @ 1:52pm
continued:
AIG -- read the federal government -- now is in the business of selecting which sharia-adherent "authorities" shall be enlisted to determine whether or not a given product is sharia-compliant. In early maneuvering on Murray v. Geitner, the government moved to dismiss the case...
Judge Zatkoff rejected the first objection...
On the second...the Court noted, "The circumstances of this case are historic, and the pressure upon the government to navigate this financial crisis is unfathomable. Times of crisis, however, do not justify departure from the Constitution."...
Judge Zatkoff then summarized the relevant facts:
...United States government has a majority interest in AIG. AIG utilizes consolidated financing ...including Sharia-compliant financing...the government has injected AIG with tens of billions of dollars, without restricting..At least two of AIG's subsidiary companies practice Sharia-compliant financing...Finally, after the government acquired a majority interest in AIG and contributed substantial funds to AIG for operational purposes, the government co-sponsored a forum entitled "Islamic Finance 101."
The judge concluded that "these facts, taken together, raise a question of whether the government's involvement with AIG has created the effect of promoting religion and sufficiently raise Plaintiff's claim beyond the speculative level, warranting dismissal inappropriate at this stage in the proceedings.
....he plaintiff's case...will be a relatively easy one to prove. The facts are, as Judge Zatkoff observed, damning: The government owns and controls AIG. Taxpayer funds authorized by an explicit legislative grant are being used to legitimate and promote Islamic religious law....
Posted by Happy at 06/07/2009 @ 2:02pm
After all these years of "the government is the problem, not the solution" anti-regulation policies, you would think people would now appreciate why the federal government embarked upon a policy of regulating industries, commerce after 1929. Markets are incapable of self regulation; profit is the only concern, motive.
Posted by mtspence05 at 06/08/2009 @ 6:30pm
You might enjoy the book, "Predictably Irrational" which is about a study into these disconnects in our supposedly rational motives.
Posted by snowball666 at 06/09/2009 @ 10:47am
I know, this myth of the "rational market" is persuasive. Short sighted foci on nothing but profits leaves a lot unaddressed.
Posted by mtspence05 at 06/09/2009 @ 4:59pm