It is rare that this magazine has occasion to cite approvingly the words of a reactionary Republican like Jim Bunning of Kentucky. But when faced with the audacious attempt by the Bush administration to bail out its Wall Street allies with $700 billion in the citizens' money, Senator Bunning was succinct and correct: "The free market for all intents and purposes is dead in America." To which we would only add: this realization couldn't come soon enough.
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Noted.
Kristina Rizga on harnessing young voters' energy, Stephen Duncombe on a spoof edition of the New York Times
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Noted.
Third-party gains, good times for Wal-Mart, the Minnesota recount and what's next for Howard Dean.
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The First 100 Days
If Democrats can succeed in improving people's lives, the electorate won't care whether the Obama administration governs from left, right or center.
The unlikely and unpredictable cross-ideological alliances that have formed in response to the bailout show that the central philosophical debate is shifting: it is no longer about the size of government, for there will be more government in the years to come. The question is, What kind of government intervention will we have, and, most important, Whom will it benefit? Will the final contours of this bailout bring us "Goldman Sachs socialism," as William Greider calls it on page 5, or more democratic financial governance? With so many facets to the crisis and the debate on Capitol Hill in flux as we go to press, a comprehensive view is impossible. Instead we asked a range of observers for their views about what this crisis means and how we ought to confront it. As journalists, writers and thinkers, we welcome this new debate. As political actors and citizens, we embrace this new battle. --The Editors
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FORUM
Doug
Henwood
William
Greider
Nomi Prins
Ralph Nader
Thea M. Lee
Robert
Pollin
Thomas
Ferguson and Robert Johnson
James K.
Galbraith and William K. Black
The Rev. Jesse
Jackson
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