Prisoners of War

On September 29, Congress revolted against the $700 billion price tag of the proposed bailout of Wall Street. The day before, that same Congress passed without murmur—unanimously in the Senate—a $700 billion budget for the Pentagon in 2009. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has shattered the conservative illusions about deregulation and market […]

After the Revolt

The fix was in. The leadership of both parties in Congress, both major presidential candidates, media poobahs, financial statesmen from Warren Buffett to Bob Rubin, all weighing in to support giving Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a $700 billion revolving fund to bail out Wall Street. And then Americans said, “stuff it.” The bill was incredibly […]

The Deal That Blew Up

The following is the text of the “agreement on principles” that blew up yesterday at the White House, as House Republican leader John Boehner blindsided negotiators by saying Republicans wouldn’t support the deal. Sen. John McCain who had arranged the photo op refused to state where he stood. The text —like Treasury Secretary Paulson’s original […]

Gut Check Time: Will Congress Stand Up To Wall Street?

It’s gut check time. The attempt by Treasury Secretary Paulson to put a gun to the head of Congress and terrify them into forking over a $700 billion blank check to the Bush administration in 48 hours has failed. Now what? Most Americans would just as soon the Masters of the Universe were allowed to […]

Behind The Financial Debacle: Conservative Misrule

How did it come to this? The banksters issue a threat: Hand over $700 billion in taxpayers’ money–on top of the $600 billion already forked over–or we’ll take down the global economy. There will be a lot of obfuscation—fingers pointing every which way—but the story is very clear. The immediate cause is the inflating and […]

Shock Doctrine: Will We Get Fleeced In This Crisis?

Call it extortion. Every American is told to ante up $2,000—an estimated $700 billion in all—to bail out the banks from their bad bets, or they’ll bring down the entire economy. In a speculative frenzy that allowed the Masters of the Universe to pocket millions personally, the banks filled their coffers with toxic paper that […]

How Do We Seize The Obama Moment?

When Sen. Barack Obama receives the Democratic presidential nomination before 75,000 people in Denver’s Mile High Stadium on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, new possibilities will be born. Obama may not be a “movement” progressive in the way that Reagan was a “movement” conservative, and he may […]