Joseph Stiglitz and Jeff Madrick @ #occupywallstreet

The protesters are not allowed to use mega-phones? Damn – would’ve been fun to see annoyed bankers!

Watch the video here

I was at Occupy Philadelphia for all of Sunday night – and I plan to go back again. I really hope this turns into a strong coherent movement, and an inspiration for progressive forces everywhere to beat back the creeping Fascism one can see in all major countries in the world.

And hopefully media coverage will be better than this nonsense at NYT. Now what what what does knowing the stock price of Apple have to do with anything about this protest?!

Change

“Imagine an industry that runs out of raw materials. Companies go bust, workers are laid off, families suffer, and associated organizations are thrown into turmoil. Eventually, governments are forced to take drastic action. Welcome to global banking, brought to its knees by the interruption of its lifeblood – the flow of cash.

In this case we seem to have been fortunate. In the nick of time, governments released cash that should with luck get cash circulating again. But what if they hadn’t been there? There are no reserves of fish, tropical hardwoods, fresh water or metals such as iridium, so what are they going to do when supplies of these vital materials dry up? We live on a planet with finite resources – that’s no surprise to anyone – so why do we have an economic system in which all that matters is growth? More growth means using more resources.

When the human population was counted in millions and resources were sparse, people could simply move to pastures new. But with 9 billion people expected by 2050, moving on is not an option. As politicians reconstruct the global economy, they should take heed. If we are to leave any kind of planet for our children we need an economic system that lets us live within our means.”

–Editorial in New Scientist magazine.

New Left primer

I’ve been reading a fair bit of neo-Leftist literature of late. Before I go deeper into it, a bunch of links for those who aren’t familiar with the concept.
We aren’t rabid Commies, we don’t seek violent revolution, we don’t believe in collective farms and workers who are models of efficiency – willing to die rather than hamper production. No workers’ Paradise or dictatorship of the proletariat – no dictatorship, in fact.
I’ll elaborate later. Look these up, in the meantime.

• 50 Years is Enough Network (www.50years.org)
• Action Aid (www.actionaid.org)
• Attac (www.attac.org)
• Bank Information Centre (www.bicusa.org)
• Bretton Woods Project (Awood@gn.apc.org; www.coc.org)
• Centre for Economic and Policy Research (www.cepr.net)
• Development GAP (www.developmentgap.org)
• GAP Minder (www.gapminder.org)
• Essential Action (www.essentialaction.org)
• Focus on the Global South (www.focusweb.org)
• Food First (www.foodfirst.org)
• Friends of the Earth International (www.foei.org)
• Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org)
• Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (www.iatp.org
• Institute for Policy Studies – Washington DC (www.ips-dc.org)
• International Development Exchange (www.idex.org
• International Forum on Globalisation (www.ifg.org)
• New Economics Foundation (www.neweconomics.org)
• Oxfam (www.oxfaminternational.org)
• Third World Network (www.twnside.org.sg)
• World Social Forum (www.forumsocialmundial.org.br)