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eDIGEST February 2009
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Archives | Upcoming Events | Quick Reference List | Alumni & Student Newsmakers | Faculty in the
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1. Affordable Housing Policy Forum – marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of BRIDGE Housing
“New or Rehab? Striking a New
Balance under
Presentation: Larry Rosenthal (MPP 1983/PhD 2000), Executive Director,
Respondent: Don Falk (MPP 1981), Executive Director, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
“The Intersection of Affordable Housing and Solutions to Homelessness”
Moderator: Carol Wilkins (MPP 1983), Director, Intergovernmental Policy, Corporation For Supportive Housing
2. 3rd Annual Business of Health Care Conference
“Health Care Reform in the Obama Administration: Implications for access, quality, and cost” More info
Panelists:
• Wendy Jameson (MPP/MPH 1989), Director, California Health Care Safety Net Institute
• Marian Mulkey (MPP/MPH 1989), Senior Program Officer,
3. “Citizenship and Social Conflict: Tradition,
Culture, and Critique in
February 10 |
Hanan Alexander, Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Haifa; Richard and Rhoda Goldman Visiting Professor of Education and Israel Studies
Event contact: 510-642-7747
4. “The Bali-Poznan-Copenhagen Roadmap: Empowering Local Governments in a Post-2012 Framework on Climate Change”
Michelle Wyman,
Executive Director, ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability -
Lunch will be served. RSVP by Feb. 10. cepp@berkeley.edu
Presented
by The Center for Environmental Public Policy at the
5.
Overview and reunion of all of its top leaders, including Percy Tannenbaum, Director 1979-1992, through current director Henry Brady, 1999-2009.
Feb. 12, at
6. “How Policy Change Can Help Increase Student
Success in
Nancy Borow Shulock
(MPP 1978) –
Policy Analysis for
Basement
Conference Room,
7. “
Film: Osama
Speakers: Daniel
Cooney (MPP cand. 2010) (Rotary Peace Fellow and
former Associated Press Correspondent in
Rotary Peace Fellows at Berkeley & International House Film Series. More info
8. 2009
UC Berkeley Campus, Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, Pauley Ballroom West (wheelchair accessible).
Event details and online registration
9.
2009 ANNUAL AARON WILDAVSKY FORUM
"“Changing Inequality: What Produces and Changes Levels of
Inequality?"”
Dean Rebecca Blank, Ford
Sibley Auditorium,
10.
AARON WILDAVSKY PANEL DISCUSSION
Discussants: Rebecca M. Blank, Interim Dean Steven Raphael, Robert Reich.
11.
““The Challenge of Change: What to Expect from the Obama
White House””
Faculty speakers: Henry Brady and Severin
Borenstein
March 17, Pacific Athletic Club,
$20 per person.
$25 at the door. To register or learn more, visit: http://discovercal.berkeley.edu/lectures/index.cfm?lid=55
12.
"“
Film:
La Sierra
Speakers: Michelle
Arevalo-Carpenter (MPP cand.
2010), Domingo Blanco, Veronica Guzman (MPP
cand. 2009), Alejandra Rueda (All speakers are current Rotary Peace Fellows and
are from
Rotary Peace Fellows at Berkeley & International House Film Series. More info
13.
““The Challenge of Change: What to Expect from the Obama
White House””
Faculty speakers: Henry Brady and Severin
Borenstein
April 29, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,
$20 per person.
$25 at the door. To register or learn more visit: http://discovercal.berkeley.edu/lectures/index.cfm?lid=55
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWSMAKERS
1. “GDP slides 3.8%, worst since 1982; An
inventory buildup promises another poor showing this quarter. Biden leads task force to aid the middle class” (Los
Angeles Times,
2. “Loans Offered for Energy-Saving Projects” (Santa Fe New
Mexican,
3. “Schwarzenegger, other state officials want to dump prison
health czar” (Sacramento Bee,
4. “Funding guaranteed for Bay Area road projects” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
5. “Environmentalists sue over
6. “Bill Aims to Subsidize Health Care for Laid-Off” (All Things Considered, National Public Radio (NPR), January 28, 2009); features interview with KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
7. “Learn How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint,” (NBC11 TV,
8. “Shift Juvenile, Drug Offenders to Counties?” (Capitol
Notes, KQED public radio,
9. “CCAP's Helme reacts
to Obama emissions move, previews House and Senate
action on climate” (OnPoint Vol. 10 No. 9,
Environment and Energy Daily, January 27, 2009); program features interview
with NED HELME (MPP 1971).
10. “Mixed-use project proposed at Masterson's site”
(Courier-Journal (
11. “You Load 16 Tons And What Do You Get?” (The Hotline,
12. “U.S. Lawmakers Mull Internet, Wireless Tax Credits” (Techweb,
13. “Green car rules give auto industry a new challenge”
(Associated Press,
14. “
15. “World poverty, conflict deadly for new mothers” (Thai
Press Reports,
16. “A Fat Prize for Widening the Web?” (Business
Week,
17. “
18. “UNICEF Heals Child Victims of War” (Inside
19. “Bank of
20. “Economy puts green pioneers in holding pattern” (Miami
Herald,
21. “Department of Finance gets money to pay for contract
work” (Sacramento Bee,
22. “Broadband Advocates Praise Some Stimulus Provisions,
Worry about Others” (CongressNow,
23. “The New America Foundation’s (NAF) Wireless Future
Program holds a discussion on ‘Broadband Stimulus: Diverging Views on How to
Spur Broadband Investment.’” (The Washington Daybook,
24. “Understanding the Sources of Rising Carbon Dioxide”
(Space Daily,
25. “My Word: Linda
Sheehan - Communities beginning to recognize importance of environment”
(Oakland Tribune,
26. “Regents vote to limit new freshman enrollment this fall”
(San Francisco Chronicle,
27. “We’ll Pull Through. Corzine
focuses on gains” (The Record (
28. “Affecting Insured as Well as Uninsured”
(American Health Line,
29. “DC bureau cutbacks bring shift in comms”
(PR Week (US),
30. “48 mpg is nice, but hybrids don’t add up right now” (
31. “Many awaiting movement on Green Line extension” (Boston
Globe,
32. “Does the Web click here? - As Internet thrives, local
access is hard to quantify” (Journal Gazette (
33. “Economist predicts
34. “Will Obama blow
up negative stereotypes of black men?” (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau,
35. Federal draft report: Delta system imperils fish”
(Sacramento Bee,
36. “Budget office forecasts long, deep recession - Pegs ’09
deficit at $1.2 trillion” (Washington Times,
37. “North Jersey Politicians promote organ donation”
(Record, The (
38. “Bush Leaves Fuel Economy Targets for Obama to Set” (Washington Post, January 8, 2009); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010703787.html
39. “UN: One-third of
40. “Rally stalls on expected Wall St slide; STI ends another
33 points down after rising over 40 points in the morning in tandem with HK”
(The Business Times Singapore, January 8, 2009); story citing MICKEY LEVY (MPP 1974).
41. “Balancing the stimulus and deficit” (Marketplace [NPR],
42. “Agreement reached to restore trees to
43. “
44. “Beyond the rhetoric, questions persist” (The Globe and
Mail (
45.“Democrats whip out credit card”
(Oregonian,
46. “It’s the law:
47. “Signs encourage hope for homeowners facing foreclosure”
(Standard-Speaker (
48. “Schwarzenegger plan would save nearly $1 billion in
prisoner and parolee costs” (Sacramento Bee,
49. “Schwarzenegger’s new budget plan has some ifs and buts”
(Sacramento Bee,
50. “Tech firms’ outlook grim; Silicon Valley braces for more job cuts as global spending on computers and software slides” (Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2008); newswire citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975).
51. “Attorney General, Community College of Rhode Island to Co-Host Open Government Seminar for Newly-Elected Officials on Jan. 14” (US States News, December 19, 2008); event featuring ROSS CHEIT (MPP 1980/JD 1981/PhD 1987).
52. “Firefighters’ union sues to halt cuts” (Philadelphia
Daily News,
53. “Wyden:
54. “Ease the pain, keep the safety net” (Oregonian,
55. “Engaging
56. “City to hand out fewer pink slips than expected today” (Philadelphia Daily News, December 5, 2008); story citing STEVE AGOSTINI (MPP 1986).
57. “Legislators’ failures fueled Prop.
11 win” (San Francisco Chronicle,
58. “School district faces fiscal abyss” (Willits News,
59. “Senator Dutton Announces New Leg Director” (States News
Service,
60. “Influential Diplomats, Lawmakers and SandT
Leaders Explore Promise and Challenge of Science Diplomacy” (States News
Service,
61. “
62. “
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
1. “IGS Panel Examines Financial Crisis” (Public Affairs Report, Winter 2009/Vol. 50, No.1); story citing JOHN QUIGLEY.
2. “Obama’s Reagan
Moment Is Now. The crisis-induced demand for action may suspend the normal laws
of political gravity” (National Journal,
3. “Things are bad all over, Chamber members
told” (Las Vegas Review-Journal,
4. “The end of white
5. “Recruiting the docs we need. Make primary
care competitive with specialties in terms of pay” (Modern Healthcare [requires
subscription],
6. “The union way up.
7. “COUNTDOWN with Keith Olbermann”
(MSNBC,
8. “Obama swiftly lays
Bush era to rest” (San Francisco Chronicle,
9. “Sincerely out of their depth” (Weekend
Australian,
10. “Robert Reich at the Commonwealth Club” (KQED public radio, January 23, 24, 25, 2009); program featuring ROBERT REICH; http://www.kqed.org/radio/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=RD16#R901232000
11. “Corruption, American Style” (Forbes.com,
12. “Smaller stimulus for a unified Congress” –
Commentary by ROBERT REICH
(Marketplace [NPR],
13. “The nation has a bad case of mad Treasury
disease: Brown and Darling’s bid to seduce the banks is daft - they should turn
to Keynes and focus on stimulating demand” (The Guardian (
14. “MSNBC Inauguration Special” (MSNBC,
15. “Facing credit crisis, Obama
team revives Bad Bank strategy” (The Globe and Mail (
16. “Obama presidency
one oath away - His 77-day transition time hints at how he might govern” (The
Bulletin (
17. “Nova: The Big Energy Gamble” (PBS TV,
premiered
18. “Why Banks Still Won’t Lend”
(Business Week,
19. “Solar incentive opens energy window” (Marketplace, Jan. 19, 2009); story citing program initiated by FRANCISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000) and features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to the story
20. “Getting over the Rev. Rick” (San Francisco
Chronicle,
21. “Obama and the New
Deal - what might work now?” (San Francisco Chronicle,
22. “Many jobless find they’re not eligible for
benefits” (Seattle Times,
23. “The Bush Years: Alan Greenspan” (The
Guardian (
24. “A low-carbon national energy agenda”
(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
25. “Obama’s $825B
stimulus plan includes spending, tax cuts” (USA Today,
26. “Robert
Reich says hard times won’t go away soon” (San Francisco Chronicle,
27. “Media Notes: Obama
Charms Even a Night’s Grand Ol’ Party” (The
Washington Post,
28. “Are Ethics Back In Business?” (Business and Finance,
29. “Don’t bank on a caring, sharing recession”
(The Times (
30. “Timely look at the role of democracy in an
era of big business” (The Irish Times,
31. “Exciting times, for an economist” (The
Boston Globe,
32. “A new take on giving: Howard Davies wonders
whether corporate philanthropy can really tackle serious social need” (The
Guardian (
33. “Deficit projection ‘stuns’ Congress”
(Christian Science Monitor,
34. “New jobless claims drop again, but more
continue to seek aid” (USA Today,
35. “The Rachel Maddow
Show” (MSNBC,
36. “Without stimulus US will lose 3 mln jobs –Reich”
(Reuters,
37. “Democrats: Stimulus by mid-February. Top
infrastructure experts meet with House Democratic leadership to determine
course for jobs and economic recovery package” (CNNMoney.com,
38. “American Families Need Economic Recovery and
Jobs Package” (Congressional Documents and Publications,
39. “Toward a Low-Carbon Economy: Municipal Financing for Energy Efficiency and Solar Power” (Environment Magazine, January-February 2009); article coauthored by DAN KAMMEN citing program initiated by FRANCISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.environmentmagazine.org/January-February%202009/FullerPortisKammen-full.html
40. “Obama starts
country’s economic fix. President-Elect Obama met with economic leaders to talk about a stimulus
plan” (KGO-TV,
41. “Gimme My Money
Back” (CNN,
42. “Obama’s Foreign
Policy Challenges” (Forum, KQED Public Radio,
43. “
44. “Spring ’09 Colloquia Series” (Targeted News
Service,
45. “Slump in economy doesn’t worsen crime”
(Washington Times,
46. “Deadly thirst lies
ahead, UN climate summit told” (The Age (
1. “GDP slides 3.8%, worst since 1982; An inventory buildup promises another poor showing
this quarter. Biden leads task force to aid the
middle class” (Los Angeles Times,
By Maura Reynolds and Peter Nicholas
The government reported that gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the economy—declined at a precipitous 3.8% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of last year.
That was the steepest drop since a 6.4% decline in 1982, easily surpassing the downturns seen during the 1990-91 and 2001 recessions….
Before Friday’s announcement, many economists had predicted that fourth-quarter GDP would be down by 5% or more. It wasn’t, but only because of unexpected growth in inventories. That means companies are likely to cut back even further in the months to come to clear those stockpiles….
Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America in
“All of this points towards real GDP declining faster in the first quarter than the fourth quarter,” Levy said.
Another bad portent was
a sharp decline in exports.
According to the
International Monetary Fund, the decline in the
“Through the third quarter, exports had been the strongest sector of the economy,” Levy said. “Now what was the strongest sector has become one of the weakest.” …
2. “Loans Offered for
Energy-Saving Projects” (Santa Fe New Mexican,
By Staci Matlock
Low- and middle-income
people who want to increase their homes’ energy efficiency and save on utility
bills can tap into low-interest loans offered by Homewise
and the city of
Homewise will make loans from a $550,000 pool of money on a first-come, first-served basis for energy-saving projects to qualified applicants who make less than $99,000 a year.
The money can be used to install better-insulated roofs and stuccoed walls, buy energy-efficient appliances and install photovoltaic system among other projects. The contractors must be local.
The city provided $250,000, which Homewise leveraged for another $300,000 in federal funds.
Mike Lofton, executive director of Homewise, said the loans will help people pay the upfront costs of making their homes energy efficient….
Lofton and Nick Schiavo, the city’s energy specialist, said the loan program has been discussed for some time. They both credit city councilor Chris Calvert and Mayor David Coss with working to make the program a reality….
3. “Schwarzenegger,
other state officials want to dump prison health czar” (Sacramento Bee,
By Denny Walsh
The state brought a new dimension Wednesday to the legal struggle over prison health care reform with a motion to get rid of the court-appointed receiver and his proposed $8 billion construction plan.
At a Capitol news conference, Attorney General Jerry Brown, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate and Department of Finance Director Michael Genest said the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, has done a lot of good things but is no longer needed….
[Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger] said he has asked Kelso “over and over to be part of the team and to work together with the legislative leaders, to work together with the attorney general, to work together with our office and with everyone. And he refused to do that. So therefore, I think he is really an obstacle to getting things done and providing health care for the inmates.” …
Genest said, “When the state’s highest priorities are being cut and it’s facing a $41.6 billion deficit, that’s not the time to be asking for $8 billion” to build seven new facilities with 10,000 new beds for acute and long-term patients.
The steep climb of the receiver’s operating budget – from $750 million in fiscal 2005-06 to the current $2.25 billion – is “unacceptable,” Genest said….
4. “Funding guaranteed
for Bay Area road projects” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Bay Area transportation officials plan to lend the state as much as $200 million to keep nine state-funded highway projects moving, under a strategy approved Wednesday.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission authorized executives from the Bay Area Toll Authority, which it operates, to enter into a deal where the authority would buy general obligation bonds from the state treasurer over the next three years.
In exchange, the state would use that money to keep paying contractors working on five carpool lane projects and one traffic monitoring project already under construction, and to award contracts on three other lane projects for which bids have already been received. The state would pay the toll authority a yet-to-be-negotiated interest rate on the bonds.
“This would keep these projects moving, prevent the potential layoff of contractors, workers and their staffs, and support the regional economy and jobs,” said Bijan Sartipi, Caltrans’ Bay Area district director.
It would also save the state tens of millions of dollars. If the state runs out of money and Caltrans halts construction on projects under way, it will incur costs for shutting down and securing construction sites, for delays and getting workers and equipment back on the job when it resumes.
Failing to award contracts for projects that have already received bids could also be costly, said Alix Bockelman, the commission’s programming and allocations director. Because of the sluggish economy, bids on major construction projects are coming in well under estimates.
“They have all seen significant bid savings,” she said of the three Bay Area projects that have received bids but not awarded contracts….
5. “Environmentalists
sue over
--Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
(01-28)
In a suit filed Monday
in Contra Costa County Superior Court, opponents argued that
By relying on the developer
and an Indian tribe that would operate the casino to pay for the cleanup, the
city has effectively approved the project without first completing an
environmental impact report, the suit said. It was filed by Citizens for
But a city official and
the developer both denied Wednesday that the September agreement amounted to
approval of the project and said the environmental study will be issued next
month before
The cleanup plan, and an agreement with the Navy in July to transfer the rest of its Point Molate property to the city, “do not approve any proposed land use or development,” said Janet Schneider, administrative chief in City Manager Bill Lindsay’s office. “None of the environmental review steps will be skipped or overlooked.”
The two agreements actually mean the Navy would provide funding, if the project goes ahead, “so that the city can accomplish a more comprehensive and speedier cleanup of waste that the Navy left behind,” said James Levine, president of Upstream….
6. “Bill Aims to Subsidize Health Care for Laid-Off” (All Things Considered, National Public Radio (NPR), January 28, 2009); features interview with KAREN POLLITZ (MPP 1982).
ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Much of the economic stimulus bill that’sworking its way through Congress involves cutting taxes or adding money for existing programs. But when it comes to health care, the bill includes at least one brand new concept - providing government subsidies for people to keep their health insurance when they lose their jobs. NPR’s Julie Rovner reports.
JULIE ROVNER: Way back in 1985 during consideration of a huge budget bill, lawmakers decided to add a tiny provision aimed at helping people who lose their jobs keep the health insurance that came with that job for 18 months, as long as they paid the entire premium themselves.
Over the years, that one
provision has come to be known by the name of the entire bill COBRA. COBRA can
literally be a life saver, says Karen Pollitz, an insurance expert at
Ms. KAREN POLLITZ (Project
Director, Health Policy Institute,
ROVNER: But there is a big problem with COBRA, says Pollitz. Having to pay the full premium is simply more than most people can handle.
Ms. POLLITZ: The combination of losing that employer subsidy and losing your job usually means the sticker price for COBRA is too much….
7. “Learn How to Reduce
Your Carbon Footprint,” (NBC11 TV,
Scott Murtishaw, of the Berkeley Energy
Commission, publicized the free workshop, “Learn How to Reduce Your Carbon
Footprint,”
8. “Shift Juvenile, Drug
Offenders to Counties?” (Capitol Notes, KQED public radio,
By John Myers,
Sacramento Bureau Chief for KQED’s “The
There are some in government circles who think that times of great crisis actually provide the most opportunity for change.
That’s a familiar narrative in the nation’s capital these days, and one that the Legislature’s corps of budget analysts is now embracing with the following suggestion: shift the responsibility for all juvenile and drug possession offenders to counties... and increase the car tax to pay for it.
Today’s report [lead authored by Anthony Simbol, director, Criminal Justice, at LAO] from the Legislative Analyst’s Office lays out a bold proposal that its authors say would not only consolidate programs now split between local and state control, but also ultumately free up $1.4 billion in badly needed state revenues….
The LAO suggests
This proposal says the Legislature should give local officials full control—and responsibility—for managing these cases, partly because there’s a greater likelihood that local solutions, and not ‘one size fits all’ solutions from the state, ultimately have the greatest chance for success.
Of course, the budgetary savings is hard to ignore. $359 million of the realignment price tag would come from Governor Schwarzenegger’s own budget suggestion to transfer existing [Vehicle License Fee] revenues ($359 million) from the state to the counties for increased public safety responsibilities….
[Anthony Simbol was interviewed about the
LAO “Criminal Justice Realignment” proposal on KQED radio,
9. “CCAP's Helme reacts to Obama
emissions move, previews House and Senate action on climate” (OnPoint Vol. 10 No. 9, Environment and Energy Daily, January
27, 2009); program features interview with NED
HELME (MPP 1971).
Just one week after
taking office, President Barack Obama
has taken steps to improve fuel economy requirements and allow states to
regulate vehicle emissions. How will these actions affect the broader goal of
passing cap-and-trade legislation? During today's OnPoint,
Ned Helme,
president of the Center for Clean Air Policy, previews this year's House
and Senate action on climate legislation and discusses expectations for Obama's first address before a joint session of Congress.
He also comments on the U.S. Climate Action Partnership's emissions reduction plan.
Today's OnPoint will air at
10. “Mixed-use project
proposed at Masterson's site” (Courier-Journal (
Bu Sheldon
A developer wants to
build a mixed-use project that would include commercial space and housing, some
of it targeted for
Larry Owsley, U of L vice president for business affairs, said he had talked with the developer but that, at this point, the company was not "actively negotiating" with U of L for an affiliation for it to provide staff, security and programs for any student residents.
U of L has about 3,300 on-campus beds for students and has said it wants to have at least 4,800 in the next few years.
Edwards Communities of Columbus, Ohio, plans to open units with 859 beds just west of the c ampus this fall, Owsley said.
And Phenix Investment Associates of Georgia plans to have ready this fall several hundred additional apartments for students, also just west of campus.
A third company,
Icon-Cards Development LLC, has put on hold plans for new student housing just
northwest of
Owsley said that, if more than 1,500 new units for students become available, some of the existing older units on campus could be phased out. Some of them date to the early 1960s….
11. “You Load 16 Tons and
What Do You Get?” (The Hotline,
Qorvis Comm. managing dir.Stan Collender writes in Roll Call, Obama “has an opportunity to have such a positive impact” on the fed. budget “that he could end up being considered one of the most fiscally responsible” POTUSes of all time. “How could this happen? It begins with what is now incontrovertible: Obama has ‘permission’ to preside over an increase in the ... deficit to levels never previously imagined.” The “proposed higher deficit is considered to be the right medicine by so many that it will be very hard to successfully characterize” the WH “as being fiscally reckless almost regardless of what it proposes, supports and approves during its first year or two.”
Then, “as soon as the economy allows it, there will be a strong, and probably bipartisan, consensus that deficit reduction has to happen,” a cause Obama can champion (1/27).
12. “U.S. Lawmakers Mull
Internet, Wireless Tax Credits” (Techweb,
The proposal would provide a 10 percent tax credit to companies that build out high-speed Internet in rural and underserved areas, and 20 percent for those willing to exceed current speeds….
Telecommunications companies have been pushing for tax credits, rather than grant money, the route the House of Representatives has taken thus far….
“Our concern about tax credits is that they may fund projects that would have been built anyway,” said Derek Turner, research director at the public interest group Free Press.
The 10 percent credit seems to fall into that category, even in a flailing economy, said Turner, who noted that he has not yet seen the full proposal yet.
The 20 percent tax credit for “next-generation” speeds is more likely to spur investment not already planned, because only Verizon and perhaps some cable operators offer the proposed speeds, he added.
Wireless broadband will be eligible for this credit if deployed in unserved areas, defined as a location with no current Internet provider.
13. “Green car rules
give auto industry a new challenge” (Associated Press,
By Ken Thomas and Dan Strumpf, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama wants automakers to make greener cars at a time when General Motors and Chrysler are hanging by the thread of a massive government loan and auto sales have plummeted to their lowest levels in more than two decades.
Obama’s plans could bring smaller cars, more hybrids and advanced fuel-saving technologies to showrooms, but car shoppers will probably pay more upfront because the new rules are expected to cost the hamstrung industry billions of dollars….
Obama
on Monday directed the Environmental Protection Agency to review whether
The new president also said his administration would issue new fuel-efficiency requirements to cover 2011 model year vehicles. The rules would be the first step toward a 2007 energy law that requires the auto industry to boost efficiency by 40 percent to at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020….
Environmental organizations said Obama’s approach would help the companies in the long term, forcing them to produce fuel-efficient cars coveted by more consumers. Roland Hwang, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, estimated that a more efficient car would save its driver $1,000 to $2,000 in fuel costs over its lifetime, offsetting some of the upfront cost.
Even with the decline in gas prices from last summer’s $4 per gallon, Hwang said, the regulatory programs would “push them in a direction that’s going to make them more competitive, not less.”
“Without
14. “
By Andrew McIntosh
For the second time in five years, the state Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is set to go broke – big time broke.
The fund that pays
benefits of up to $450 a week to the jobless sank into the red for the first
time in its 60-year history in 2004.
With surging
unemployment in
This week – possibly even by today – the fund will run out of money, and then will have to rely on a $1.84 billion federal government loan to pay benefits through March.
Proposals to fix
unemployment insurance – a benefit whose history dates to the Great Depression
of the 1930s – have so far gained little traction. Yet experts argue that
without a serious overhaul,
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill and the California Budget
Project, a
“Any economic disruption and corresponding spike in unemployment could plunge the program into insolvency,” Hill warned in a report….
15. “World poverty,
conflict deadly for new mothers” (Thai Press Reports,
The U.N. Children’s Fund
says in its latest annual report that half a million women die in childbirth
and more than four million newborns are also lost each year, and that most of
those deaths are preventable. But UNICEF also used the occasion to report that
about one third of the people killed in
UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman
says that more than 320 children have been killed, and more than 1,500 wounded,
since the onset of the latest violence in
“The situation in
“The health systems are having difficulty functioning, getting access to them,” she said. “The lack of power and electricity and water, is making delivery of the health care very difficult. The hospitals are full of injured, and if a mother comes ready to deliver, the likelihood is she may not get the care she needs, or could be turned away.” …
The comments were made at the launch of UNICEF’s annual State of the World’s Children report, which this year focuses on the link between maternal and newborn health.
The study shows that a woman in a least developed country is 300 times more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth than a woman in the developed world. And a child born in a least developed country is nearly 14 times more likely to die within 28 days, than a child born in an industrialized country.
Veneman says the impact is
greatest in
“The burden is
disproportionately heavy in
16. “A Fat Prize for
Widening the Web?” (Business Week,
By Arik
Hesseldahl, with Pete Engardio
and Peter Elstrom in
The Obama Administration has pledged support for universal broadband, or making speedy Internet service available to all Americans. But the ideas under consideration by the President-elect’s transition team are likely to fall short of the radical changes some activists have sought.
At the core of the $20 billion to $30 billion effort under discussion by Obama’s advisers are tax breaks for companies that extend the availability of broadband or, in regions where it already exists, boost the speed of service, several people involved in the discussions tell BusinessWeek . Companies that build broadband networks in areas with no service could receive as much as 60% of their investment back in tax credits. Companies that increase the speed of existing networks could get tax credits of as much as 40%. The tax incentives also could be structured to promote high broadband speeds….
As currently conceived, the incentives would be available to any company. However, those most likely to benefit would be existing broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Comcast, because they have the capital to make investments, and it costs less to extend their networks than it does to build new ones. The new Administration appears unlikely to push forcefully for more competition in broadband, an idea that activist groups such as Free Press and Public Knowledge say is essential if the U.S. wants to catch up to broadband leaders such as Korea….
The broadband push is an
important part of the Obama Administration’s broader
stimulus plan because it addresses several goals. Besides creating immediate
jobs in construction and allowing more people to use the Internet, the effort
could raise the country’s broadband standing internationally. Once ranked
fourth in the world by the Organization for Economic Cooperation &
Development, the
But Turner at Free Press is skeptical that a broadband program relying heavily on tax credits is the best approach. The risk, he says, is that the country will fail to encourage competition, and the money spent will go largely to the telecom and cable companies that already dominate the business. “There’s no point to doing all this if all we’re doing is writing the incumbent [players] a blank check,” he says.
17. “
There is acute concern that the longstanding political deadlock is exacerbating the country’s economic meltdown. In a rare visit, the head of the U.N. children’s agency said the 2,200 deaths from cholera were just a small example of the humanitarian crisis.
“The cholera outbreak is the tip of the iceberg,” said UNICEF head Ann Veneman. “Over half the population is receiving food aid, health centers have closed and when the school term starts there is no guarantee that there will be enough teachers.” …
Veneman met Mugabe
on Friday to discuss the growing humanitarian crisis. She told reporters in
Veneman was the first head of a U.N. agency to visit the country in three years. Mugabe recently denied visas to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan and Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela.
“It is significant that they agreed to let me into the country when many others haven’t been allowed,” she said.
She also said Mugabe “is acknowledging there is a problem. He recognizes cholera is a problem and there is a problem with the water and sewage system.”
She said the United Nations would donate $5US million to help pay the salaries of health workers, who are trying to cope with the cholera epidemic. There are fears that even the official death toll might be a big underestimation because the deaths of many babies and young children might not be recorded.
Veneman voiced fears that there may be a big upsurge in malaria cases as the rainy season continues because authorities have not had any insecticide to spray against mosquitoes….
18. “UNICEF Heals Child
Victims of War” (Inside
… Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. The United Nations Children’s Fund says women in the least developed countries are 300 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than women in developed countries. The findings are published in UNICEF’s latest report on the state of the world’s children. It also says a child born in a developing country is almost 14 times more likely to die in the first month of life.
CNN’s Robyn Curnow sat down with UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman to discuss the implications for African countries, and some possible solutions….
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The statistics are absolutely shocking. For women in these countries, having a baby is a bit like playing Russian roulette.
ANN VENEMAN, UNICEF: If you are a woman in
One of the other things that I think is so significant is that there are over 500,000 women dying of maternal causes every year. For every one that dies, there is another 20 who have severe complications that could significantly impact their health for a lifetime.
CURNOW: Why is
sub-Saharan
VENEMAN: Again, much of it is because there aren’t good, functioning health systems. When you look at the numbers of women who die every year in childbirth, 500,000 women estimated per year die in childbirth.
CURNOW: That’s about 1,500 a day.
VENEMAN: Yes. And 21 percent of that 500,000, 21 percent are in
three countries—the Democratic Republic of Congo,
CURNOW: Why is this such a problem? What can be done about protecting the most vulnerable women when they’re pregnant and when they’re giving birth?
VENEMAN: It’s getting access to services. Prenatal services, attended births. It really helps if women have skilled birth attendants when they have a child. And you can measure against those areas where women have skilled birth attendants, and see significant increases.
Where the mother gets in trouble is when there is a complicated birth. So if there is no access to services where she can potentially have a cesarean section, have a skilled birth attendant to deal with a breach birth or something else that may cause significant complications.
CURNOW: Let’s talk about
VENEMAN: The health systems are really breaking down very quickly. UNICEF is now providing 70 percent of the medicines that are going into that country. 70 percent of the medicines are provided by UNICEF. And this is a country that used to have a functioning health system. So that’s of great concern. Water and sewer systems are breaking down. This week was the week that children were supposed to start school, and school has been delayed. It’s—we’re not sure when it is going to start. So that’s another concern with regards to children….
19. “Bank of
The Greater
Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual economic luncheon at
Mickey Levy, the chief economist for Bank of America Corp., will be the guest speaker….
20. “Economy puts green
pioneers in holding pattern” (Miami Herald,
By John Dorschner
Delays in dealing with
global warming are making it increasingly hard for entrepreneurs in the
"If we knew what carbon was going to be worth—$20 or $80—we'd be a lot farther along," said Mark Trexler of EcoSecurities, a global consulting service.
Trexler was speaking at the
second annual conference of Carbon Markets North America, which started
Thursday in
The problem is that
regulators have not made long-term plans. The
21. “Department of
Finance gets money to pay for contract work” (Sacramento Bee,
By Andrew McIntosh
After hearing desperate pleas from state contractors facing mounting piles of unpaid bills, California’s top financial leaders voted Friday to free up $650 million and let the Department of Finance pay bills for contract work already done, including $102.9 million owed for work on CalTrans highway and infrastructure projects.
Members of the California Pooled Money Investment Board, including Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Department of Finance Director Michael Genest, voted to open the financial tap after several contractors told a packed meeting about unpaid bill woes and damage that might happen to projects that are stopped and left open to the elements….
The investment board took no action after discussing a list of 276 projects that were exempted from the initial infrastructure stop work order that the state issued last month to save cash.
Lockyer and Genest said that if the state has no budget by Feb. 1, those exempted projects—worth a total of $3.6 billion—will have to be stopped, too….
22. “Broadband Advocates
Praise Some Stimulus Provisions, Worry about Others” (CongressNow,
By Josh Loewenstein, CongressNow Staff
Advocates of universal broadband service today praised draft stimulus legislation that sets aside $6 billion for expanding broadband access, but they also criticized some of the House proposal’s particulars.
“Investing in broadband
expansion is good for our economy and key to our future competitiveness,”
Internet innovation Alliance Co-Chairman Bruce Mehlman
said in a statement. “Investment in
However, Robert Atkinson, president and founder of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank, emphasized that because the legislation is about stimulating the economy, the goal should be to generate investment rather than full-scale broadband reform. Because of this, Atkinson is opposed to several specific requirements, particularly minimum broadband speeds outlined by the bill….
But Benjamin Lennett, a senior program associate for the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Program, said the bill needs even higher speed requirements in rural areas, where projects will have slower minimum standards for download speed than in other areas….
Siding with Lennett was S. Derek Turner, a research director for Free Press, a national, nonpartisan organization working on media reform.
“If we accept the definition that we should be making investments that the private market wouldn’t make otherwise, I think making the speed definitions very high is important.”
Turner further emphasized that speed requirements are of particularly importance in this legislation, given its primary purpose as a stimulus bill.
“Speed directly correlates to jobs,” Turner said. “It takes a lot of people to dig up a trench and to lay new fiber optics.” …
23. “The New America
Foundation’s (NAF) Wireless Future Program holds a discussion on ‘Broadband
Stimulus: Diverging Views on How to Spur Broadband Investment.’” (The Washington Daybook,
PARTICIPANTS: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President and Founder Robert Atkinson; Wally Bowen, founder and executive director of the Mountain Area Information Network; Debbie Goldman, research economist at Communication Workers of America; S. Derek Turner, research director at Free Press; Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America; Benjamin Lennett, senior program associate at the Wireless Future Program at NAF; and Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at NAF
24. “Understanding the
Sources of Rising Carbon Dioxide” (Space Daily,
While we are able to accurately measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, much about the processes that govern its atmospheric concentration remains a mystery. Scientists still do not know precisely where all the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere comes from and where it goes. They want to learn more about the magnitudes and distributions of carbon dioxide’s sources and the places it is absorbed (sinks)….
Scientists soon expect to get some answers to these and other compelling carbon questions, thanks to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a new Earth-orbiting NASA satellite set to launch in early 2009. The new mission will allow scientists to record, for the first time, detailed daily measurements of carbon dioxide, making more than 100,000 measurements around the world each day. The new data will provide valuable new insights into where this important greenhouse gas is coming from and where it is being stored….
“The Orbiting Carbon
Observatory data differ from that of other missions like the Atmospheric
Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite by having a relatively
small measurement ‘footprint,’” said Kevin
Gurney, associate director of the
“Rather than getting an average amount of carbon dioxide over a large physical area like a state or country, the mission will capture measurements over scales as small as a medium-sized city. This allows it to more accurately distinguish movements of carbon dioxide from natural sources versus from fossil fuel-based activities.” …
Gurney believes the Orbiting Carbon Observatory will also complement a NASA/U.S. Department of Energy jointly-funded project he is currently leading called Vulcan.
“Vulcan estimates the movement of carbon dioxide through the combustion of fossil fuels at very small scales. Vulcan and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory together will act like partners in closing the carbon budget, with Vulcan estimating movements in the atmosphere from the bottom-up and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory estimating sources from the top-down,” he said.
“By tackling the problem from both perspectives, we’ll stand to achieve an independent, mutually-compatible view of the carbon cycle. And the insight gained by combining these top-down and bottom-up approaches might take on special significance in the near future as our policymakers consider options for regulating carbon dioxide across the entire globe.”
25. “My Word: Linda Sheehan - Communities beginning
to recognize importance of environment” (Oakland Tribune,
Linda Sheehan is an attorney and the executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, representing 12 Waterkeeper organizations coast-wide….
TWO JAN. 11 articles, “Climate change may be stoking stronger winds, altered oceans,” and “Food crisis due to warming world trumps all other worries, say scientists,” discuss how science is demonstrating that we are altering, perhaps irrevocably, the Earth’s systems.
Ongoing resistance to this science occurs in part because it humbles us to our actual place on the planet — as one piece of a larger whole, rather than the dominant entity.
It is reminiscent of reactions to the then-radical proposal that the Earth revolves around the sun, rather than the other way around; or that humans developed over countless millennia through evolution, rather than springing to Earth fully formed.
Though it is before our eyes every day, we continue to resist the knowledge that we cannot keep consuming the Earth and expect that it will not respond in ways that we simply can’t control.
If we accept the science that we coexist as one piece of a larger system, we can take action to improve our own lives and prevent the dire predictions scientists are making for our future family members.
One of the first steps is to rework our legal system to reflect our actual place in the world.
Our laws currently allow — indeed, encourage — the accelerating devastation that scientists predict will arrive. Similar to a legal system premised on the sun revolving around the Earth, our laws are based on myth, not science — in this case, the myth that we can control the planet….
Our legal system focuses on the rights and needs of people, but ignores the same rights and needs of the other members of the ecological community. The laws encourage us to take from the environment, only regulating how much — but barely doing even that….
Let’s make that evolution a reality.
26. “Regents vote to
limit new freshman enrollment this fall” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer
The University of California Board of Regents did something Wednesday that it found unsavory but inevitable.
Regents voted to limit enrollment next fall to help cope with an ongoing budget crisis plaguing both UC and the state….
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent budget proposal offers no money for growth in enrollment. UC already has about 11,000 students for whom it gets no state funding—creating a $122 million shortfall….
Although [UC President Mark] Yudof said curtailed enrollment meant that about 150 black students might not get in, he noted that community college transfers next fall would increase by 500 systemwide—to a total of 13,223—producing a better racial, ethnic and class mix….
“The goal is that one-third of students would be community college students,” said Nina Robinson, UC director of policy and external affairs in the division of student affairs at the university….
[Nina Robinson was also cited in The
San Jose Mercury News (
27. “We’ll Pull Through.
Corzine focuses on gains” (The Record (
By John Reitmeyer and Elise Young -
Governor Corzine offered words of hope today and a call for action in a State of the State address that comes during a recession and mid-year budget mess….
Corzine, a former Wall Street executive, acknowledges the depth of the state’s troubles in his speech to lawmakers.
“It’s impossible to ignore the deep challenges we face today,” the governor said. “We have been in the grips of a national recession since the fall of 2007.” …
But Corzine also challenged legislators to work with him on policies designed to jumpstart recovery.
“Today,
Fellow Democrats praised Corzine’s message….
“I was pleased he made economic recovery the preeminent state priority,” said state Sen. Robert Gordon, D-Fair Lawn….
28. “Affecting Insured
as Well as Uninsured” (American Health Line,
--compiled by Stephanie Woodrow
Increasing numbers of
people in the
According to the
Commonwealth Fund, 72 million
29. “DC bureau cutbacks bring
shift in comms” (PR Week (US),
By Frank Washkuch
The closings of
That diminution of the DC media ecosystem hastened last month when Cox, publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Austin American-Statesman, announced it plans to close its bureau in April. The Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and Baltimore Sun, also began to consolidate DC coverage among its outlets last year, while also reducing staff. Numerous other media organizations preceded them.
A result is that media
organizations are increasingly covering the federal government from afar -
literally and figuratively, says Stan Collender, MD at Qorvis Communications.
Collender
adds that the decreasing number of
“There will be more
coverage of the first 100 days (of President-elect Barack
Obama’s incoming administration) from 50,000 feet,
but the days when there was a beat reporter to cover each agency and department
are gone - you’re not going to get that depth of coverage,” he says. “They’ll
cover (the appointment of CIA director-designate
30. “48 mpg is nice, but
hybrids don’t add up right now” (
By Dan Strumpf – The Associated Press
John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co.,
Inc., introduces the production version of the all-new 2010 Honda Insight, a
dedicated gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, during its world debut at the North
American International Auto show. (AP Photo/Joe Wilssens, courtesy of Honda via Wieck)
Just a few months later, pump prices have collapsed, and so too have sales of gas-electric vehicles, which have lost ground along the way to cheaper but still fuel-efficient conventional vehicles….
According to figures from Ward’s AutoInfoBank and Autodata Corp., sales of non-hybrids with government-rated efficiency above 30 mpg — cars like the Chevrolet Cobalt, the Honda Fit and the Hyundai Accent — actually rose about 2 percent in 2008 from 2007, while U.S. auto sales fell 18 percent overall….
Bringing down the hybrid premium could make the cars more financially attractive, analysts said….
Luke Tonachel, transportation analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said tighter fuel-economy standards would help make hybrids more appealing and promote technological investment. “Consumers know that low gas prices are not here to stay for the long term,” he said. “The demand is going to continue to be strong for more efficient vehicles.”
31. “Many awaiting movement
on Green Line extension” (Boston Globe,
By Noah Bierman
Shocking. A state transportation project is missing a deadline, prompting concerns about delays. Round up the usual suspects.
OK, so maybe it’s not
too surprising. But the Massachusetts Bay Turnpike Authority’s Green Line
extension to
Commuters, residents,
and environmentalists are all awaiting key decisions, including how far into
State planners missed a December deadline to turn in an environmental review and then canceled a key meeting this month with an outside advisory committee. Members of the committee had been told that the meeting was a precursor to completing those environmental documents….
Some have speculated that the delays are related to the wait for James A. Aloisi Jr. to take office this week as state transportation secretary.
State transportation officials say that’s not the case, and have promised they can make up the time through “streamlining opportunities” and still complete the expansion by the end of 2014. Wendy Stern, transportation undersecretary, said in a statement e-mailed by a spokesman that there will be no delay and that she expects to hold the advisory meeting next month….
32. “Does the Web click
here? - As Internet thrives, local access is hard to quantify” (Journal Gazette
(
By Angela Mapes Turner The Journal Gazette
Imagine that northeast
How many people would be connected? How many would be left in the dark?
In other words, how many
people in northeast
It’s a simple question, but one with no clear answer….
The 2007 census estimated that 42.3 percent of Hoosier households are connected to broadband, or high-speed, Internet.
But those figures don’t speak to the issue of where broadband is available, said S. Derek Turner , research director of Free Press, a national non-partisan media reform organization based in Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts.
What’s more, the figures don’t tell who’s using other types of connections such as dial-up. Reliable public information on overall Internet usage is difficult, if not impossible, to get on a local level, Turner said….
Last month, representatives of technology and telecommunications companies, labor unions and public-interest groups announced a coalition to work on a broadband deployment plan.
The plan could include tax breaks, low-interest loans, subsidies and public-private partnerships.
One of those public-interest groups, Free Press, points to the “digital divide” as the main reason broadband should be a priority even in a recession.
Using 2007 census figures, the organization found that barely a third of homes earning less than $50,000 a year have a high-speed Internet connection, while more than three-fourths of households earning more than that are connected.
And the divide has racial implications: Only 40 percent of racial and ethnic minority households have access to broadband, while 55 percent of non-Hispanic white households do, Free Press said.
It’s easy for a nation so caught up in the Internet to forget that there are people who aren’t hooked up at home….
Free Press found that Americans have the eighth-highest cost for
broadband service among leading developed nations. People in
33. “Economist predicts
--Richard Read, The Oregonian Staff
Anyeley
Hallova took copious notes Friday as
As a planner and
designer in her early 30s, Hallova personifies the
so-called young creatives who attracted national
attention by moving to
Hallova
heard economist Tom Potiowsky refer to massive
national job losses reported Friday and tell the sellout crowd of 275 that
Oregon’s green industry would help rescue the state from the deepening
recession. With degrees from
“All these people moved
to
Oregon economist Joe Cortright, who
emphasized the role of young creatives in
“If she behaved
according to the model that economists have, she’d leave,” Cortright said. “But talented
young people seem to be choosing ‘place.’ It’s probably nicer to be unemployed
in
Cortright estimates that the number of college graduates between 25 and 34 years old ballooned to 100,000 by 2000 and has continued to increase in the area, although not as fast. They often choose “place” because their generation relies on networking, he said.
In the long term,
“they’re a huge asset,” Cortright
said, partly because the young creatives tend to be
entrepreneurial.
“
34. “Will Obama blow up negative stereotypes
of black men?” (Knight Ridder Washington
Bureau,
By Tony Pugh, McClatchy Newspapers
One of the early program volunteers was a tall, lanky community organizer named Barack Obama.
“He was very dedicated, easy to work with, a good organizer and a team player,” Kunjufu recalled of the idealistic future president.
For two years, Obama helped counsel, tutor and change the way at-risk boys saw themselves and the world around them.
When President-elect Obama takes the oath of office Jan. 20, many are hoping that his historic term likewise will change the way that many Americans view black men—and the way that some black men view themselves.
For years, rap lyrics, music videos and even news coverage have portrayed young black males as urban predators who wear a propensity for crime, violence and other negative behavior like a badge of honor.
That gangsta persona, along with low academic achievement and high incarceration rates, has sown a negative image that, for some, taints the majority of black men for the actions of a few.
Over the next four
years, as
Is it realistic, however?
Robert Entman, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, has studied negative media images of black men. He said that before Obama could break down racial stereotypes, he must lead an economic recovery and deal with race directly—something he’s done only under duress thus far.
“It would be a shame if he missed the opportunity to talk about it explicitly,” Entman said. “We need more racial dialogue, and he’s in a great position to lead it. And I think it’s going to take that. I just don’t think him being himself will make a big difference in racial attitudes” toward blacks.
That’s because many people—white and black—will view Obama as an exception to the stereotype while continuing to believe that the stereotype is accurate….
35. “Federal draft
report: Delta system imperils fish” (Sacramento Bee,
By Matt Weiser
Killer whale (Center for Whale Research)
Salmon, steelhead and sturgeon in the
The National Marine
Fisheries Service has not yet released the report, but it was discussed at a
meeting of scientists in
The impacts are so
significant that the agency is also studying whether killer whales in the ocean
could be imperiled by declining
The fall-run [of
Chinook] remains the largest salmon population on the West Coast, vital as
ocean-going adults to the commercial fishing industry. It’s also a primary food
for the southern resident population of killer whale, or orca, an endangered
species that ranges from
Maria Rea, Sacramento supervisor for the Fisheries Service, said
her team has not finished evaluating whether
36. “Budget office
forecasts long, deep recession - Pegs ’09 deficit at $1.2 trillion” (Washington
Times,
By David M. Dickson, The
Even by
The Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday that the budget deficit for the current fiscal year would total $1.2 trillion. CBO’s forecast does not include President-elect Barack Obama’s two-year economic-stimulus bill, which is expected to cost $800 billion or more.
The CBO report also
predicted “a marked contraction in the
“CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II,” the report said. “It could also be the deepest recession during the postwar period.” …
CBO’s economic forecast reflects “the magnitude of the depths of our economic situation,” said Stan Collender, a longtime budget analyst who is managing director at Qorvis Communications. “CBO’s budget forecast clearly demonstrates that there is a worst-case scenario. It can’t get much worse. The budget outlook is a lot bleaker than anybody dared imagine before now.” …
37. “North Jersey
Politicians promote organ donation” (Record, The (
By Lindy Washburn, Staff Writer
Top row, r-l: Robert Gordon, Gordon Johnson and Thomas Giblin. Bottom row, r-l: Elease
Evans, Rich Goldberg and Jerry G. (Courtesy of
James A. Quirk)
Coming soon to a
television station near you: public service announcements on behalf of the New
Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network starring several
They talk about how important it is to make your wishes known about organ donation.
In a recent high-profile
case, the family of the victim of a shooting in a
Those speaking on behalf
of organ donation include state Sens. Gerald Cardinale and Robert Gordon of Bergen County,
Assemblymen Gordon Johnson of
Nationally, more than 100,000 people are waiting for transplants and 650 die while waiting each year.
38. “Bush Leaves Fuel Economy Targets for Obama to Set” (Washington Post, January 8, 2009); story citing LUKE TONACHEL (MPP 2004); http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010703787.html
By Steven
Citing “recent financial difficulties of the automobile industry,” the Bush administration said it would not issue interim targets for higher vehicle fuel efficiency, leaving it up to the incoming Obama administration to steer auto companies toward better mileage standards….
The guidelines must be issued no later than April 1 so auto companies have time to engineer 2011 models. “Now more than ever automakers need certainty, and this decision only further delays their ability to finalize future product plans,” said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers….
“Once again the Bush administration has blown it on the environment,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign.
But Luke Tonachel, vehicles analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said this “gives the Obama administration an opportunity to move quickly under the nation’s clean air and energy laws to raise fuel economy and cut heat trapping pollution from new cars and trucks.” …
39. “UN: One-third of
By John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS --
Children are dying at a heavy rate in the Israeli-Hamas
fighting: about one of every three persons killed, according to
As of Thursday, 257
children were among the 758 reported dead. There were 1,080 children among
3,100 injured, according to statistics from
Holmes and John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, both expressed deep anger and regret at their decision Thursday to temporarily suspend aid shipments in the Gaza Strip because it was too risky for their aid workers….
Ann Veneman, executive director of the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, warned the suspension of aid would put children even more in harm’s way.
“This can only deepen an already critical humanitarian situation and put children at even greater risk of death or permanent damage. The distribution of food, water, fuel and medicine should not be impeded,” she said.
For the second day in a
row,
Short of ending the fighting, Veneman said all sides must create “safe spaces and unimpeded humanitarian access” to avoid physically and psychologically harming children.
“Children are being killed and injured on a daily basis as a result of the current military operation,” she said.
“This is unacceptable, and every effort must be made by all concerned to ensure that children receive the protection that is their right and our collective duty.”
40. “Rally stalls on expected Wall St slide; STI ends another 33 points down after rising over 40 points in the morning in tandem with HK” (The Business Times Singapore, January 8, 2009); story citing MICKEY LEVY (MPP 1974).
By R Sivanithy, Senior Correspondent
… In a Jan 5 US Economic and Financial Perspectives report, Bank of America’s chief economist Mickey Levy said the present recession is deep, consumer indebtedness is high, and a large inventory of unsold homes in the US is exerting downward pressure on real estate prices.
‘Several other characteristics of this recession make economic rebound a challenge,’ Mr Levy said. ‘Critically important is the uncertainty about how much further home prices will decline. Consumer finances pose another challenge. Typically, a pick-up in consumption leads economic recoveries. Under current circumstances, it is hard to see how such a pattern will unfold, though fiscal stimulus may change that outlook.’
41. “Balancing the
stimulus and deficit” (Marketplace [NPR],
Bob Moon: A balancing act now confronts the incoming chief executive. Experts say his stimulus package needs to be big enough to be effective. His own advisers have said it could cost between $600 billion to $800 billion over two years. But some economists have recommended spending more than a trillion dollars….
… At the Cato Institute, tax-policy director Chris Edwards wishes Obama well in reining in [entitlement] costs, but also argues he shouldn’t be spending $800 billion the country doesn’t have….
Edwards concedes, though, it’s tough being a deficit hawk in the current economic climate. And former congressional adviser and budget analyst Stan Collender says the overriding political reality is the deficit will be getting even bigger.
STAN COLLENDER: Voting against this would be voting against the
equivalent of the declaration of war after
Collender says the real question
is where the limit might be on how much more money
COLLENDER: The truth is, we don’t know where that is, because it’s a balancing act, and we’ve never quite been in this position before….
42. “Agreement reached
to restore trees to
By Matthew Artz - The Argus
But in its haste to knock down the trees before the start of migratory bird nesting season last January, city officials neglected to do two important things: alert the residents of picturesque Becado Place that much of their grove was about to be eradicated, and find out if they needed a permit for tree removal from the state Department of Fish and Game.
The residents were
furious to find a crew with chain saws cutting trees in the grove across from
their homes. One neighbor, environmental
attorney Linda Sheehan, took her complaints to Fish and Game, which
determined that the trees were close enough to Sabercat
Creek to require that
Suddenly, the city found itself with a block full of angry residents to answer to as well as regulatory requirements to satisfy….
Some bitterness lingers, but the neighborhood and city effectively ended their dispute this week, agreeing to a plan to replant the ravine.
During the next several weeks, the city will plant about 11,000 native grass plugs, 93 native shrubs and 77 native trees, including oak, buckeye and cottonwood at the half-acre Becado Place site. It also will remove another 110 diseased elm saplings and eradicate other invasive plants before Feb. 1 — the start of the migratory bird nesting season….
The monitoring
requirements mean the project will cost a little bit more than expected, but it
should result in a healthier watershed, said Jim Pierson,
Sheehan still wishes the city had never cut down the trees. She said several healthy trees were knocked down along with diseased ones and that none of the trees posed safety issues anyway.
“It will be a decade before it even looks like what it did before,” she said of the area and the downed elm trees, which are not native to the area. “It may have been invasive, but it was really quite nice.”
43. “
By William Hageman, Tribune Reporter
Following in the old man's footsteps is a time-honored career path, whether you're George W. Bush or just a guy taking over the family plumbing business.
The script is also now
playing out nightly on TV sets across
"”t's sort of a running joke on the street,” says WLS-Ch. 7's
Dan Ponce, whose dad (Phil) and brother (Anthony) are also in the news business
in
This being
“I think it's unusual,
though I don't think it's that unusual for kids to take their parent's
profession,” said Donna Leff, a professor
at
In the end, Leff says, the family connections aren't a factor.
“As long as they're talented, it makes no difference,” she says. “In a way it's good for journalism, a ray of optimism in a profession that doesn't have many.” …
44. “Beyond the
rhetoric, questions persist” (The Globe and Mail (
By
More troubling than the
timing of the stimulus is the obvious fiscal implication. With the stimulus
package, the
In 2008, the Treasury’s
outstanding debt totalled 38 per cent of GDP, which
isn’t bad by international standards.
The
The longer-term consequences
may be even harder to swallow. As Mr. Levy puts it: “The
Boston-based economist
Rebecca Wilder argued that spending billions of dollars on construction
projects will do little to enhance productivity. The money would be better
spent investing in manufacturing and exports, she said.
“If long-term growth is
the name of the game, why focus on inefficient domestic construction efforts?”
Ms. Wilder asked.
Bank of America’s Mr. Levy similarly worried that a chunk of the
stimulus money will either come too late or go to wasteful and inefficient pork
projects. “Historically, most fiscal stimulus packages have been late, costly
and loaded with unnecessary government spending,” he said.
45. “Democrats whip out
credit card” (Oregonian,
By Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian
Though tough times are forcing many Oregonians to put away their credit cards, Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Democratic leaders plan to go on a borrowing binge once the Legislature convenes next week to jump-start projects that they hope will create thousands of jobs.
They argue that pouring
hundreds of millions of dollars into projects that range from sprucing up
public office buildings to laying new pavement for roads is the best way to
attack
The borrowing strategy is similar to what President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats plan to do to try to revive the national economy….
Some question whether these projects end up providing long-term value. But supporters point to projects built during the Great Depression—such as the Bonneville Dam and Timberline Lodge—as still producing economic benefits decades later.
“They should be
investments you want to make anyhow,” says
For example, he says, weatherization projects have a good rate of return given that energy is likely to become more expensive. And he says these projects can employ people who were in residential construction, which has been particularly hard hit.
In contrast, Cortright says, some road expansion projects might not make sense if Americans continue to curtail their driving and shift to other forms of transportation….
46. “It’s the law:
By Bobby Caina Calvan
Millions of Californians with limited English proficiency now have the right to an interpreter from their commercial health and dental plans – made possible by a first-in-the-nation law aimed at dismantling the language barriers that get in the way of good medicine.
The new regulation – implemented New Year’s Day after five years of hearings, delays and wrangling among insurance companies, regulators and consumer advocates – is widely hailed as a milestone in reducing mistakes because of miscommunication.
“This is really huge,
especially in
As many as 7 million Californians – about half of them enrolled in health maintenance organizations, or HMOs – lack English fluency and could benefit from the new language service….
47. “Signs encourage
hope for homeowners facing foreclosure” (Standard-Speaker (
By Maria Herne, Staff Writer
… For those who don’t
speak Spanish, the bright green signs along
Those who call the
toll-free number on the bottom of the sign are connected to the Homeowner’s
Hope Hotline, a national hotline offering free personalized assistance to
homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosure by the Homeownership Preservation
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency based in
The English translation says “If you’re behind on your mortgage payments, it affects your whole family.”
The three signs placed
locally are among the thousands that have been posted across the country in
both English and Spanish, according to Stan
Collender, a public relations spokesperson for HPF
who said the signs were posted in Spanish because demographics from surrounding
counties may have indicated there was a larger Hispanic population in
The hotline service, however, is available to everyone, not just Hispanic homeowners, Collender said.
“We’re there 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year to help those homeowners who wake up at
48. “Schwarzenegger plan
would save nearly $1 billion in prisoner and parolee costs” (Sacramento Bee,
By Andy Furillo
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest budget proposal would reduce by tens of thousands the number of criminals behind bars and under community supervision.
Parole would be
eliminated for all nonserious, nonviolent and non-sex
offenders. The proposal would cut the parole population by about 65,000 by
At the same time, the
corrections plan calls for increasing good-time credits for inmates who obey
the rules and complete rehabilitation programs. Combined with the new parole
policies that would result in fewer violators forced back into custody, the
proposal would reduce the prison population by 15,000 by
Department of Finance Director Mike Genest said the state’s worsening budget scenario again forced the administration to look at prison and parole population cuts as front-burner proposals to save money.
“I don’t think there are very many proposals in this whole budget that are easy for us, or for anybody,” Genest said in an interview. “They’re all difficult. That one’s difficult, but we think we’ve structured it in such a way as to protect public safety.”
Genest said that
“We’re just paring back
the whole parole program here,” Genest said. “Other states do this with no noticeable
impacts on public safety, and I think it’s time
49. “Schwarzenegger’s
new budget plan has some ifs and buts” (Sacramento Bee,
By Kevin Yamamura and Steve Wiegand
Mike Genest, left, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s finance director, and other Schwarzenegger aides hold a news
conference Wednesday in the Capitol to unveil the new budget proposal. (BRIAN BAER/bbaer@sacbee.com)
… In a rare New Year’s Eve budget release that lacked pomp, circumstance and the governor himself, Schwarzenegger finance aides unveiled a 2009-10 spending package that adds ideas to the budget-balancing moves already on the negotiating table.
The problem looms so large that Schwarzenegger is proposing to let children attend school five fewer days each year. He wants to permanently reduce tax credits such that taxpayers receive $210 less per child or elder dependent. And he plans to borrow $4.7 billion on the hope the state can pay it back by June 2011, after his tenure as governor has ended.
“We are facing a major crisis, probably the most challenging budget situation the state has ever faced,” said Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger’s finance director. “The governor believes in acting immediately.”…
Schwarzenegger was vacationing
Wednesday at his family residence in
The governor’s December plan called for a temporary increase in the state sales tax, expanding the sales tax to cover some services, a nickel-a-drink alcohol tax, a new tax on oil production and a $12 hike on vehicle registration fees. It also called for $15.4 billion in spending cuts, including requiring state employees to give up two paid holidays each year.
The new elements include reducing the dependent care exemption on state income tax returns from the current $309 per dependent to $99; carrying over some of the deficit into the 2010-11 fiscal year; borrowing funds from voter-created programs that serve the mentally ill and from pre-kindergarten children’s health services; changing the operating rules for the state lottery in an effort to make it more profitable; and borrowing $4.7 billion from the private sector.
The first two of these would require legislative approval. The third and fourth would also require voter approval. The fifth, Genest said, would require the financial market to get much healthier than it is now, and the state to have both a balanced budget in place and a “plausible” plan to pay the money back….
“It’s a massive shortfall,” Genest said. “It’s the kind of shortfall that cannot be addressed by waiting until July 1 to enact a budget. We have to act immediately.” …
Genest acknowledged that the sorry state of the U.S. financial markets, coupled with the inability of lawmakers and the governor to make a deal on closing the deficit gap, meant it was impossible for the state to borrow any money from private investors now that could be repaid in future years. But he also said the budget gap is too huge to close through spending cuts or tax hikes alone over the next 18 months.
“It’s just so monumental,” he said. “As you go through our solutions, you’ll see these were really difficult choices. These are substantial tax increases, these are major program reductions.”
50. “Tech firms’ outlook grim; Silicon Valley braces for more job cuts as global spending on computers and software slides” (Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2008); newswire citing DOUG HENTON (MPP 1975).
By Bloomberg news
Spending on computers
and software will slide 8% next year in the
With a 7% unemployment
rate,
Technology companies
with headquarters in
Although there isn’t
much optimism in
51. “Attorney General, Community College of Rhode Island to Co-Host Open Government Seminar for Newly-Elected Officials on Jan. 14” (US States News, December 19, 2008); event featuring ROSS CHEIT (MPP 1980/JD 1981/PhD 1987).
From
52. “Firefighters’ union
sues to halt cuts” (Philadelphia Daily News,
By Chris Brennan,
THE CITY’S firefighters union sued Mayor Nutter yesterday, asking both a local court and the state Supreme Court to halt budget cuts that will eliminate seven fire companies Jan. 5.
Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters told Common Pleas Judge Gary DiVito that the elimination of five fire engines and two ladder trucks will endanger lives….
City Solicitor Shelley Smith yesterday rejected claims that the budget cuts create a danger….
No fire stations are closing and no firefighters are being laid off.
The equipment being eliminated is staffed by firefighters on overtime, who will be reassigned. That will save the city $10.4 million per year. The city’s five-year financial plan has a deficit that has grown beyond $1 billion….
Steve Agostini, the city’s budget director, testified that putting off fire company closings will cost about $5.2 million for six months. If that happens, the city will have to consider closing recreation centers, more library branches or laying off more workers, he added, since the annual budget by law must be balanced….
The equipment being cut will remain in reserve and could be reactivated once finances improve, [Deputy Fire Commissioner John] Devlin said. *
53. “Wyden:
By Ryan Kost, Associated Press Writer
At the 7th annual Oregon Leadership Summit, a number of Oregon’s top politicians including Gov. Ted Kulongoski and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden told hundreds of business and political leaders that the proposed federal stimulus package would likely play to Oregon’s key strengths, chief among them renewable energy….
State economist Tom Potiowsky said he expected overall job losses both this year and next, and a slight net gain come 2010. Beyond that, both he and economist Joe Cortright of Impresa, a consulting firm, said it was too soon to say when the state might recover.
“We’re literally, in economic terms, in uncharted territory,” Cortright said….
Both economists said the state should appeal to the federal government for money to help fully support social services, including unemployment benefits. The federal government would need to play a key role, Cortright said, because “the state is hamstrung. It’s limited by the requirement it balance its budget.” …
54. “Ease the pain, keep
the safety net” (Oregonian,
SUMMARY: An economist’s
prescription hits home as
You can see how recessions reinforce themselves. The headlines speak of layoffs and bailouts, so naturally people become cautious. They delay major purchases, meaning that the housing market stalls and car sales fall off a cliff.
Meanwhile, as unemployment rises and people seek food stamps and other assistance, state government takes in less tax revenue, running short of money exactly when it needs to spend more on health and human services….
This is why
It’s widely expected,
for example, that the federal government will increase its payments to states
through the Medicaid program, which may mean that states like
Cortright’s suggestion:
government-backed weatherization and maintenance projects. They don’t have to
be huge, and they shouldn’t take as long to launch as, say, a new bridge. But
they can employ significant numbers of people, and they can occur in every town
in
This was a seriously good idea last week, and it became a better one this week when the November employment statistics came out….
In fact, the residential
construction market is where the slowdown in
55. “Engaging
By Peter Brown, Special
to The
The incoming Obama administration has some tough choices to make with
respect to how it will engage
Although President-elect
Barack Obama stresses the
need to keep
He opposes stationing
weapons in space and the development of anti-satellite weapons, and he believes
the
Discussions with
“The larger political and security relationship, not to mention a change in legislation impacting on U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations [ITAR] controls and sensitive export laws would need to be in place before actual cooperation can occur,” says Mr. Hagt….
56. “City to hand out fewer pink slips than expected today” (Philadelphia Daily News, December 5, 2008); story citing STEVE AGOSTINI (MPP 1986).
By Catherine Lucey
Pink slips go out today to city workers canned under Mayor Nutter’s budget cuts. But the toll will be far less than the administration first predicted.
When Nutter first announced his budget cuts on Nov. 6, he said that he expected that 220 full-time jobs would be cut - along with 600 unfilled positions and 2,000 seasonal or part-time jobs.
But only about 145 workers will be getting layoff notices today, said mayoral spokesman Doug Oliver. And about half of those employees will be offered vacant jobs in other departments.
So, at the end of the day, the damage could be well under 100 workers.
“It’s good, because we are able to preserve jobs for people and still hit our financial targets,” said Budget Director Steve Agostini, who stressed that the city would still achieve the same financial savings. “The number of layoffs where people are actually losing their jobs has shrunk.” …
Agostini said that the layoff total dropped for several reasons. A number of workers resigned or retired, some departments were able to make other cuts to preserve jobs and some workers were moved into open jobs within their departments.
Because the city has not hired in several months, there were more vacant positions available.
“When we had collectively a moment to step back, it allowed us time to find some additional options,” Agostini said.
About 73 of those laid
off today will be able to get jobs in other city departments, Oliver said. Many
of those available jobs are in the prison system and the new
Agostini said that the city has been working with District Council 33, the blue-collar union that represents most of the workers affected in the layoffs….
57. “Legislators’
failures fueled Prop. 11 win” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
Editor - Two great ideas for state initiatives next time: One, end the two-thirds legislative requirement to approve budgets. It prevents competent budgeting and ensures minority rule.
Two, set the governor’s
salary as the maximum for all
STEVE KOPPMAN,
58. “School district
faces fiscal abyss” (Willits News,
By Mike A’Dair/TWN Staff Writer
Times have been tough
financially for the
Schwarzenegger has said he is considering eliminating the 0.68 percent cost-of-living allowance increase included in the tardily approved 2008-09 state budget, which would reduce district revenues by some $70,000, according to district Financial Officer Kati Aguilar. In addition, the governor said he is considering reducing the revenue limit to districts statewide between four and five percent a loss of between $439,000 and $558,000 for the district. Taken together, the two cost-saving measures could mean a $628,000 hit to district coffers….
District Superintendent
Debra Kubin said the district’s budget is already
stretched tight, repeating the comments of Jannelle Kubinec, a financial consultant with School
Services of
“It was kind of a fish-bowl exercise put on for the other districts in the county,” Kubin said, “where Kubinec would go through our books to make certain that we were taking advantage of every loophole and option, in order to stretch our dollars more. She worked with us for about two hours. Usually she finds some way to move funds around here and there, in order to free up some additional funds. But she was not able to do that in our case.
“She told me we are the most fiscally constrained district she has seen in her working experience,” Kubin said….
59. “Senator Dutton
Announces New Leg Director” (States News Service,
SACRAMENTO, CA -- Sen. Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) announced today that he has hired Anissa Nachman as Legislative Director for his Capitol Office.
Nachman joins Senator Dutton and his capitol staff after serving the last two years as a Fiscal Consultant on Health Issues for the Senate Republican Caucus. As the Legislative Director, Nachman will be in charge of crafting the senator’s bill package and will staff the senator on Budget committee, where he serves as Vice-Chair. She began her new job on Dec. 1.
“Anissa brings a wealth of fiscal and policy experience to this job,” Senator Dutton said. “I’ve had the chance to work with her over the last two years with the Republican fiscal staff and was impressed by her ability not only to analyze some very complicated issues but to make them understandable to myself and my colleagues.”
A native of
“I’m very excited about
this new opportunity,” Nachman
said. “Now, more than ever, the California Legislature needs to find more ways
to improve California’s economy, and I look forward to working on Senator
Dutton’s legislative package which will focus on improving
60. “Influential
Diplomats, Lawmakers and SandT Leaders Explore
Promise and Challenge of Science Diplomacy” (States News Service,
WASHINGTON, DC -- At a time of world financial crisis and geopolitical tension, and with the United States deeply unpopular in many parts of the world, some of the nation’s top science leaders, diplomats, legislators, and educators met at [the American Association for the Advancement of Science] AAAS to explore the benefits and challenges of expanded U.S. science diplomacy efforts…..
The conference,
organized by the
Among those attending the meeting were Nina Fedoroff, science adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State; Jeff Miotke, deputy assistant secretary for science, space and health of the U.S. Department of State; Bill Colglazier, executive officer at the U.S. National Academies; Glenn Schweitzer, the director of Eurasian Programs at the U.S. National Academies; Larry Webber, director of the office of international science and engineering at the National Science Foundation; and Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of the journal Science….
61. “
By Anne Dudley Ellis, The
Preschool advocates
announced ambitious plans Thursday to boost the education of
Backers of the Fresno County Office of Education’s master plan for voluntary preschool acknowledged that the state’s dismal economic outlook and lack of adequate funding for preschool were roadblocks.
But they said the 80-page document can—over the next seven years—guide the gradual expansion of preschool and provide a blueprint for a more comprehensive network of preschools….
That means about 40% of the 4-year-olds whose parents might want to enroll them in a high-quality program don’t have access….
Researchers have found that children who attend preschool perform better in school and are less likely to be held back, drop out or need special education services, said panel member Deborah Kong of Preschool California, a nonprofit preschool advocacy organization….
62. “
By Steve Chawkins, Times staff writer.
In
They also chose not to require that all power in the city be generated from renewable resources, probably by a city-owned utility. Opponents, including the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., cast the measure as giving a blank check to politicians.
“People around the country like to think of San Francisco as a leftist paradise where any progressive or liberal measure gets approved without thought,” said Jaime Rossi, vice president of a San Francisco public affairs consulting firm. “But at the end of the day, voters here use their brains.” …
1. “IGS Panel Examines Financial Crisis” (Public Affairs Report, Winter 2009/Vol. 50, No.1); story citing JOHN QUIGLEY.
IGS shed some light on the global financial crisis this fall when the Institute’s Center on Institutions and Governance organized a panel discussion of the turmoil.
“Fixing this
program is now urgent,” economics and political science professor Barry Eichengreen said at the panel, which was cosponsored in
early October with the
Eichengreen was just one of several
Quigley said the crisis cannot be left alone to “work itself out.” “It requires prompt government action,” he said.
[For a webcast of this event, go to: igov.berkeley.edu]
2. “Obama’s Reagan Moment Is Now. The crisis-induced demand for
action may suspend the normal laws of political gravity” (National Journal,
By Ronald Brownstein
In 1981, President Reagan took office against a backdrop of economic distress and public apprehension. In that crucible, he forged congressional majorities for a massive reduction in federal income-tax rates. That “supply-side” economic agenda, which only months earlier attracted little support beyond a vanguard of conservative legislators and theorists, reshaped federal priorities for decades.
Now President Obama has taken office against a backdrop of economic distress and public apprehension. In this crucible, he is advancing a massive increase in federal spending on programs from education to infrastructure. That “public investment” economic agenda, which has struggled for years to win support beyond a vanguard of liberal legislators and theorists, could reshape federal priorities for years....
“No
president in my lifetime has had this opportunity to fund public investments,”
says Robert Reich, a
...”Finally, we can implement the vision,” Reich says, “and ultimately test whether it was correct.” With the economy flat-lining, the economic and political stakes in this experiment could not be higher.
3. “Things
are bad all over, Chamber members told” (Las Vegas Review-Journal,
By Hubble
Smith,
There was no escaping the harsh realities of the nation’s deepest recession since the 1980s at Preview 2009, the annual economic outlook presented Thursday by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.
The
unemployment rate has climbed to 9.1 percent as some 20,000 jobs have been lost
in
“In the
past,
Pessimistic
economists have said the
“I don’t
think that’s likely to happen. The government in
Reich came down on Wall Street for using “easy money” to invest in fancy derivatives, creating a speculative bubble and leverage that was beyond control.
“Wall Street was like a big Ponzi scheme. It was Bernie Madoff tripled,” he said. “They handed out bonuses over $18 billion for bank executives in 2008. Does that strike you as realistic?”
Reich said another issue not getting enough publicity is the consumer demand side of the equation, which goes back to the 1970s and ‘80s when wages started to stagnate.
Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the national economy, he said.
“The problem is we’re in a vicious circle because as people lose jobs, they don’t have money to buy anything, which means less demand for goods and services, which leads to more layoffs,” he said….
4. “The end
of white
--Ruben Navarrette Jr., San Diego Union-Tribune
What is it with white males? You would think that a group that occupies so many powerful positions and controls so much wealth would be secure enough not to be rattled by a few silly comments. But in the aftermath of the inauguration of the first African American president, skins are thin. It’s a new day - one in which, as some people see it, white males are both convenient villains and our society’s newest victims….
Talk-show host Michael Savage recently warned his listeners that for the next four years, the Obama administration and those who support it would be constantly plotting to victimize white males.
What set Savage off were comments by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich who, in testifying before Congress on President Obama’s plan to create more than a million new jobs as part of the economic recovery, said:
“I am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high-skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers. I have nothing against white male construction workers; I’m just saying that there are other people who have needs as well.”
Certainly, Reich, who is today a UC Berkeley professor, could have chosen his words
better. But the former
5. “Recruiting
the docs we need. Make primary care competitive with specialties in terms of
pay” (Modern Healthcare [requires subscription],
By Richard Scheffler
Richard Scheffler
is a professor of health economics and public policy at the University of
California at Berkeley,
and director of the
We are told
that the
As we ask ourselves the crucial question of what the “right” number of doctors should be for this country, perhaps we should ask another question first. How, despite health expenditures that are far and away the largest in the world, did we wind up with a healthcare marketplace that often fails to deliver the right number of doctors, of the right specialty, in the right locations?
What this country needs is the kind of comprehensive reform of health policy that will spur development of an efficient, cost-effective and high-quality healthcare system—and making primary care an attractive career choice for young doctors would be a good place to start....
6. “The
union way up.
By Robert B. Reich
Why is this
recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it?
Hint: Go back about 50 years, when
At the center of this virtuous circle were unions. In 1955, more than a third
of working Americans belonged to one. Unions gave them the bargaining leverage
they needed to get the paychecks that kept the economy going....
Fast forward to a new century. Now, fewer than 8% of
private-sector workers are unionized....
The American middle class isn’t looking for a bailout or a handout. Most people
just want a chance to share in the success of the companies they help to
prosper. Making it easier for all Americans to form unions would give the
middle class the bargaining power it needs for better wages and benefits. And a
strong and prosperous middle class is necessary if our economy is to succeed.
Robert B. Reich, former
7. “COUNTDOWN
with Keith Olbermann” (MSNBC,
Keith Olbermann: … but first time for COUNTDOWN’s number two story, tonight’s worst persons in the world.
The bronze
shared by Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity
and comedian Rush Limbaugh. Finally one of their victims has struck back. Obama campaign economic adviser Robert Reich posting an open letter to them on his blog, reading in part,
“at a time like this, when tempers are riding high and many Americans are close to panic about their jobs and finances, you have a special responsibility to consider the accuracy of what you say, and the consequences of inflammatory and erroneous statements. In the last few days, manifestly distorting my words and pulling them out of context, you have accused me of wanting to exclude white males from jobs generated by the stimulus package. Anyone who takes a moment to examine what I actually said and wrote knows this to be an absurd misrepresentation of my position. The hate mail I have received since your broadcast suggests that the mischievous consequences of your demagoguery are potentially dangerous, in addition to being destructive of rational and constructive political discourse. I urge you to take responsibility for your words. Words and ideas have real world consequences and you have demonstrated a cavalier disregard for both.”
Secretary Reich, bravo. But Hannity, Limbaugh, Malkin, they don’t know how to read….
8. “Obama swiftly lays Bush era to rest” (San Francisco
Chronicle,
--Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
President Barack Obama
is applauded as he caps his pen after he signed an executive order closing the
prison at
…[I]n the brief time he’s been in the White House, analysts say, Obama has issued a series of orders, statements and speeches that convey a single message to America and the world: The Bush administration is over….
On the international stage, Obama’s actions were predictably more dramatic than his domestic moves, said foreign policy experts….
The high-profile introductions of former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East and former U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, just two days into Obama’s presidency, marked a stark reversal from the Bush administration, which was broadly seen as favoring military unilateralism over diplomatic multilateralism and was criticized for failing to engage the Middle East diplomatically until its final year in office….
Obama’s domestic actions have received less attention, and were less profound.
That’s not surprising because it’s harder to create the appearance of progress with the stroke of a pen on some of America’s thorniest issues, said Henry Brady, professor of political science at UC Berkeley.
“When you get to domestic policy, what do you do that’s the equivalent in health care?” he said. “You can’t say, ‘We’re going to have an envoy to cancer.’ “ …
9. “Sincerely
out of their depth” (Weekend Australian,
By Michael Sexton [Michael Sexton SC is the NSW Solicitor-General.]
Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Other Economic Leaders. Edited by Michael Kinsley (Simon & Schuster, 315 pp, $29.95)
… The truth is, of course, that many corporations have always sacrificed some profits to notions of corporate social responsibility and have donated money to charitable causes. But it seems doubtful these kinds of discretionary exercises could be expanded to provide a solution to world poverty.
Starbucks can, for example, offer fair-trade coffee to customers prepared to pay more. But if creative capitalism is intended to go beyond these kinds of activities, its elements never emerge from the exchanges between the participants.
There are
occasional hints of scepticism in the discussion,
chiefly from Richard Posner, a
“The term ‘corporate social responsibility’ is as meaningful as cotton candy,’’ Reich says. “The more you try to bite into it, the faster it dissolves. Absent a democratic process for articulating and enforcing public values, ‘social responsibility’ has no inherent definition.’’ …
10. “Robert Reich at the Commonwealth Club” (KQED public radio, January 23, 24, 25, 2009); program featuring ROBERT REICH; http://www.kqed.org/radio/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=RD16#R901232000
As the economy nose-dives into a crisis of unknown depths, renowned economist and former secretary of labor Robert Reich lays out his thoughts on what lurks around the financial corner in 2009. Drawing on his years of experience both in and out of the political sphere, and sifting through the mountain of financial data, fiscal indicators and government spin, Reich will cut through the hysteria and hyperbole to reveal where we’re headed this year.
11. “Corruption,
American Style” (Forbes.com,
--Michael Maiello, editor of Intelligent Investing for Forbes
Con men, swindlers and cheaters pay bribes. Sophisticates hire lobbyists because lobbyists get better, more lasting results while only rarely landing in the slammer. We know intuitively that bribery and lobbying are related, and there are reams of academic papers that try to draw the line between legitimate issue advocacy and corruption. President Barack Obama isn’t buying it. As he swore in his new staff, he banned them from future employment lobbying the White House, “for as long as I’m president.” …
The lobbyist’s goal is to make the government official depend on them for financing and support in elections. A bribe works once. Cajoling or inducing a congressional representative to help get a law changed is the gift that keeps on giving….
Former
Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, now
a professor at the
In the
recently published Creative Capitalism,
a discussion of corporate philanthropy and social responsibility, Reich argues that the only thing
corporations can do to make life better for the people around them is to “refrain
from flooding
12. “Smaller
stimulus for a unified Congress” – Commentary by ROBERT REICH (Marketplace [NPR],
ROBERT REICH: Almost every economist
will tell you the stimulus has to be massive to have any real impact. Even
Marty Feldstein, who headed Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors, told
Congress it had to be $800 billion. But a price tag like that scares
Republicans and so-called “Blue-Dog” Democrats who worry about government debt.
So here’s Obama’s strategic choice. He can fight for
the biggest stimulus possible, twisting arms and counting noses to get a bare
majority of the House and 60 votes in the Senate....
Or, Obama can go after the backing of a much larger
majority than he needs—including a majority of Blue-Dog Democrats and
Republicans. Of course, to do this he’d have to settle for a smaller stimulus
package—one that may not be enough to immediately jump-start the economy.
Why would he ever choose the second strategy? Because his goal is not just to
squeeze through the biggest stimulus package possible. It’s to get a Congress
that’s mostly united behind whatever stimulus package emerges. This would help
ensure that Republicans and Blue-Dog Democrats take some ownership of the
package, and therefore responsibility for making it work....
… And he lays the foundation for a more united Congress capable of tackling a new health-care system and reform of Social Security and Medicare….
Jagow: Robert Reich
teaches public policy at the
13. “The
nation has a bad case of mad Treasury disease: Brown and Darling’s bid to
seduce the banks is daft - they should turn to Keynes and focus on stimulating
demand” (The Guardian (
By Simon Jenkins
Either Gordon Brown is mad or I am. His obsession with bankers has become that of an infatuated teenager. He loves them and loathes them….
Brown’s
recession policy is now to take unlimited sums from Britons’ current and future
spending and give to bankers, notably the Royal Bank of
Taxpayers’ money is thus withdrawn from the economy and saved - a disaster. The impact of policy is blatantly deflationary. The opposite of Keynesian tax and spend, it is tax and save….
Not a day
passes without
Policy is now suffering acute metaphor fatigue. It is pouring money into buckets with holes, pushing string, throwing kitchen sinks, cleaning pipes. Better is the description of the American former labour secretary, Robert Reich, that it is “socialism for rich bankers and capitalism for everyone else”….
14. “MSNBC
Inauguration Special” (MSNBC,
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Robert [Reich], I don’t want to start a French Revolution or something like it, but I have a sense that what’s wrong with the economy is the people who made a lot of money in the last 20 years are sitting on it…. They’re not really consuming much more than the usual luxuries. And therefore, the economy is suffering. What will get business people to take risks again when they’re fat and happy?
ROBERT REICH: Well, they’re less fat and less happy than they were, Chris. And I think that, really, if you kind of look at what is happening to the economy, you see that unless the vast middle class of Americans have enough purchasing power, enough money in their pockets to turn around and buy all the goods and services the economy is producing, we’re not going to get out of this.
Now, interestingly, if you go back to as recently as 1980, the top one percent of Americans, the richest one percent, had about eight percent of national income. But if you look at last year, at least before this deep recession set in, we find that the richest one percent of Americans were taking home about 21 or 22 percent of national income.
Now, they’re not going to turn around and buy .., with all their income. They don’t buy that much. That’s the definition of being rich. Part of the long term strategy has got to be to build up middle class incomes….
EUGENE ROBINSON, “THE WASHINGTON POST”: Don’t you also, professor, have to put some sort of floor under housing prices, though, since so much consumer spending in recent years has been essentially draw downs of equity that consumers had in their homes and no longer have?
ROBERT REICH: Yes, absolutely. And another big part of the challenge confronting Obama in the next months is going to be to try to take what is now called TARP, the T-A-R-P, which is—actually, I used to think a tarp was something you threw over things to hide them, and that’s what it has been under the Bush administration. But take that money that is going to Wall Street and make sure that it goes instead to home owners who are distressed, who can’t pay their mortgages.
It’s looking like one out of ten Americans right now don’t have enough money even to keep up with their mortgages. We’re seeing one of ten Americans are actually behind in their mortgage payments. So something quite dramatic has got to be done to make sure that people have enough help to keep those mortgage payments going, so that there is not a foreclosure, so that we don’t see millions of people out of their homes, and we don’t see, therefore, neighborhoods completely blighted; we don’t see all of those banks having and holding even more worthless pieces of paper….
15. “Facing
credit crisis, Obama team revives Bad Bank strategy”
(The Globe and Mail (
By
WASHINGTON and TORONTO -- When he takes office today, Barack Obama inherits a deep recession, a stubborn credit crisis, a spiralling national debt and now, the latest phase in a sputtering effort to bail out the U.S. financial system.
In the quest to clean up troubled banks and get them lending again, Mr. Obama’s economic team has settled on a strategy that was ditched early on by the Bush administration: something ominously dubbed Bad Bank….
[Former Treasury secretary Henry] Paulson’s previous strategy of putting capital into the major banks to shore up their balance sheets had a couple of flaws. The banks were under no obligation to put the money to work in the economy, and they were still stuck with problem assets that could cause further losses….
Mr. Obama and the Democratic-held U.S. Congress are warning, however, that they are going to be much stricter about how the rest of the money is spent….
Robert Reich, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, urged the Obama administration to impose strict new conditions. “In order that the Bad Bank not turn into another giant taxpayer-financed boondoggle ... any Bad Bank purchase of their toxic assets ought to carry conditions.”
16. “Obama presidency one oath away - His 77-day transition time
hints at how he might govern” (The Bulletin (
By Peter Baker The Bulletin
Cara Fuller, a shelter worker, asked if he was sweating.
“Nah, I don’t sweat,” he told her. “You ever see me sweat?” …
Obama arrives at the presidency today after a transition that betrayed little if any perspiration and no hint of nervousness. Throughout the 77 days since his election, he has been a font of cool confidence, never too hot, never too cold, seemingly undaunted by the magnitude of troubles awaiting him and unbothered by the few setbacks that have tripped him up.
He remains hard to read or label - centrist in his appointments and bipartisan in his style, yet also pushing the broadest expansion of government in generations. He has reached across old boundaries to methodically build the foundation of an administration that will be charged with hauling the country out of crisis, but for all the outreach he has made it clear he is centralizing policymaking in the White House.
But Obama has been harder to peg than that, and the next few months should flesh out his governing philosophy.
“I don’t
think it maps into traditional right-left, but nor is it Bill Clinton-like
triangulation,” said Robert Reich,
17. “Nova:
The Big Energy Gamble” (PBS TV, premiered
As he takes
office on
To examine the California initiative, NOVA
conducts in-depth interviews with Governor Schwarzenegger, skeptics and
supporters of the plan [including new U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu
and Energy & Resources Professor Dan
Kammen], and ordinary citizens and businesspeople
whose lives will change significantly when the new regulations take effect.
18. “Why
Banks Still Won’t Lend” (Business Week,
By Mara Der Hovanesian and Christopher Palmeri, with Matthew Boyle in
American Apparel executives should have been focused on the sales of their leggings and T-shirts this holiday season. Instead, management spent most of the critical shopping period worrying about $125 million of debt due on Dec. 19. After weeks of intense meetings with major banks, the trendy retailer landed a last-minute extension on a loan. The onerous strings: a $2.3 million fee and limits on capital spending. “The credit markets are still frozen,” says Chief Financial Officer Adrian Kowalewski. “Even companies that are performing well can’t get loans at reasonable terms.”
The financial challenges facing Kowalewski and other corporate executives pose a major quandary for the incoming Obama Administration and Washington policymakers, who are trying to kick-start the economy. Despite all the government’s best efforts in recent months, big banks still aren’t lending money freely….
At the same time, some banks no longer have the appetite to use leverage, borrowing money to amplify returns. Others say they would like to use leverage but can’t easily find willing lenders who offer attractive terms. Leverage has long been a critical factor in profitable lending.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich argues there’s also weak demand for loans. Companies don’t want to borrow for fear they won’t be able to sell goods and services in a frail economy. To stimulate demand, Reich suggests $900 billion in fiscal stimulus over the next two years. Otherwise, job losses could soar--and all bets would be off for a recovery anytime soon.
19. “Solar incentive opens energy window” (Marketplace, Jan. 19, 2009); story citing program initiated by FRANCISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000) and features commentary by DAN KAMMEN; Listen to the story
Workers install solar panels on a house. (Melanie
Conner/Getty Images)
Sam Eaton:
DAN KAMMEN: How many of you in the audience have cell phones? And of course all the hands go up. And then the next question is how many of you would have a cell phone if you had to buy 20 years of minutes up front? And no hands go up.
Kammen says the reason cell phone technology took off so fast was because consumers didn’t have to pay for everything up front.
KAMMEN: Energy is the classic case of something where we don’t do that.
Take
residential solar panels. The technology eventually pays for itself but that
doesn’t make the initial costs any more palatable. Even with the best incentive
programs it can still set back homeowners nearly $20,000. And that’s why cities
like
[Retired widow Jeanne] Pimentel: I was always interested in solar power and I actually got a quote about a year ago just to see if it would be practical but when I heard the price I said no way. I just couldn’t afford it at that time.
The only
reason Pimentel can now is because she’s not paying for it. The city of
Kammen says the bigger these programs get, the easier it is to raise capital through bond sales and private investors. And even the federal government. He says by channeling some of the economic stimulus funds into these programs, Congress and the Obama administration could spawn a wave of clean energy spending that would last for decades.
KAMMEN: Everyone’s biggest investment is in their home. And if you can leverage that investment to get you to a clean energy home, that suddenly takes the federal money that might be on the scale of millions or perhaps billions and suddenly opens up a door to trillions….
20. “Getting
over the Rev. Rick” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--David L. Kirp
There has been much gnashing of teeth, and not only in the gay community, over the selection of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the premier prayer at tomorrow’s Inauguration. Understandably so—after all, the televangelist had famously likened same-sex marriage to incest, polygamy, and “an older guy marrying a child.”
It would be a mistake, though, to read the choice as signaling that the Obama administration will leave gays out in the cold. The decision to ask Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop and the center of a religious firestorm, to deliver the invocation at the opening ceremony is smart politics. What’s more important, the fact that Barack Obama sought out Robinson during the campaign—asking him “what it’s like to be first”; discussing Obama’s commitment to gay civil rights as well as to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals for reducing poverty and disease—speaks volumes about the breadth of the president-elect’s worldview….
A week
before Christmas, at the United Nations, Bush and Co. slapped down the gay
community one final time. The
David L. Kirp is professor of public policy at UC Berkeley.
21. “Obama and the New Deal - what might work now?” (San
Francisco Chronicle,
--Heidi Benson, Chronicle Staff Writer
President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act on
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama’s team reportedly read Jonathan Alter’s 2006 book, “The Defining Moment: Franklin Roosevelt and the First Hundred Days.” Since then, allusions to FDR and the New Deal are daily fare, with the president-elect proposing public works projects designed to help the neediest and stimulate the economy. We asked historians and policy experts to weigh in.
Which New Deal programs would Obama be wise to emulate? …
“Obama would be unwise to imitate any particular New Deal program because none of them got the economy out of the Great Depression. Only World War II, and the huge war mobilization it entailed, saved the economy. To the extent there’s a lesson here, it’s that we need a stimulus sufficiently big and bold to make the most of the nation’s productive capacity.” - Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and author, most recently, of “Supercapitalism” (2008).
What did the New Deal accomplish? What could a new New Deal do? …
“The biggest contribution of the New Deal was to lessen the pain of the Depression for millions of Americans. Its legacy in so doing - especially unemployment insurance and Social Security - has continued to reduce the burdens of economic downturns for millions.” - Robert Reich
Which New Deal programs should Obama avoid?
“The National Recovery Administration proved to be a huge mistake, largely because it encouraged companies to get together to fix prices under the false assumption they were setting ‘codes of fair competition.’ Not surprisingly, that proved disastrous for consumers.” - Robert Reich
22. “Many
jobless find they’re not eligible for benefits” (Seattle Times,
By Jane M.
Von Bergen: The
At least they will be able to get unemployment insurance. Most jobless workers can’t.
Across the
They often miss out because they didn’t earn enough while working, or their work history was not continuous enough to make them eligible under state unemployment laws — usually written in the pre-computer era, when tracking payrolls was much slower….
Those who
fall through the cracks tend to be low-wage, part-time, seasonal or new
workers, not like the autoworkers laid off in
“Although low-wage workers were almost 2-1/2 times as likely to be out of work as higher-wage workers, they were about half as likely to receive benefits,” said a U.S. Government Accountability Office report in 2007.
Unemployment insurance began in 1935, primarily as a safety net for people who had lost full-time jobs but expected to return to them.
These days, most people who are laid off don’t get called back. People change jobs, cobble together part-time jobs or work as independent contractors.
“Today, the work force is very different, and this is the heart of the matter,” said Robert Reich, labor secretary under President Clinton….
23. “The
Bush Years: Alan Greenspan” (The Guardian (
By Robert Reich
In 1987,
Ronald Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan to chair the Federal Reserve Board,
The smart thing was to keep interest rates low in the 1990s when standard economic models at that time instructed otherwise….
Bill Clinton is usually credited with the 1990s boom, but it was really a product of Greenspan’s willingness to reject the old economic models in favour of new realities, and let the economy roar….
Greenspan will also be remembered for two very dumb moves. The first was to support George W Bush’s mammoth tax cut in 2001, whose benefits went largely to the very rich. The 1990s boom had created a budget surplus that otherwise could have been used to expand affordable health insurance and improve the nation’s schools, but Greenspan preferred a tax cut, and his support was crucial to Bush. Within months of the cut, the surplus was gone.
Greenspan’s worst move was to contribute to the giant housing bubble and the worst worldwide crash since the Great Depression. In 2004 he lowered interest rates to 1%, enabling banks to borrow money for free, adjusted for inflation. Naturally, the banks wanted to borrow as much as they possibly could, then lend it out, earning nice profits. The situation screamed for government oversight of lending institutions, lest the banks lend to unfit borrowers. He refused, trusting the market to weed out bad credit risks. It did not….
There’s no single culprit for the mess we’re in, but Alan Greenspan comes closest.
Robert
Reich was the secretary of labour in the
24. “A
low-carbon national energy agenda” (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
By Daniel M. Kammen
The
The recent
economic downturn makes it even more politically challenging to launch
significant new programs. Yet, a
Daniel M. Kammen
Kammen holds appointments at the University of California’s Energy and Resources Group, its Goldman School of Public Policy, and its Department of Nuclear Engineering. He codirects the Berkeley Institute of the Environment and is founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. His expertise is in the science and policy of energy systems, dissemination of renewable energy systems, and energy forecasting and risk analysis. A member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he has testified before both Congress and the Senate on energy and environmental issues.
25. “Obama’s $825B stimulus plan includes spending, tax cuts”
(USA Today,
By Richard
Wolf,
An additional $102 billion would help victims of the recession with unemployment insurance, health care, food stamps and job training. Jobless aid, available for up to 59 weeks, would be increased by about $25 a week….
Bolstering
unemployment insurance helps the economy, says Robert Reich, a former Labor secretary who teaches at the
[Professor Reich was also quoted in a <a href=“http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2009/01/15/the-case-for-nationalizing-citigroup-and-bank-of-america-and-getting-robert-reich-a-fact-checker/“>Time Magazine</a> blog]
26. “Robert Reich says hard times won’t go
away soon” (San Francisco Chronicle,
--Andrew S. Ross
Robert Reich, adviser to the president-elect, sees “an opportunity (to fix things) that we’ve not had in decades.”
Robert Reich’s good news rests on Obama’s moves
No, it’s not all gloom and doom, Obama adviser Robert Reich told a packed
Commonwealth Club audience at
So, how much longer will this
blasted recession last? Two to three years minimum, said the former labor
secretary and current professor at the
How’s the president-elect doing so far? While much of Obama’s stimulus proposals - infrastructure, green energy, electrical grids, broadband, and so forth - are sorely needed, his currently projected $800 billion package may be “too small.” …
So, we should be smiling because ...? What goes down must come up, Reich proclaimed, more than once, and besides, “Now is an opportunity (to fix things) that we’ve not had in decades.” ...
Quick fixes: Reich did have some concrete ideas to jump-start the economy:
-- Extend unemployment insurance and food stamps, which some conservative economists have similarly favored;
-- Undo the
-- Push through an immediate and huge infusion of cash for financially strapped states and localities….
27. “Media Notes: Obama
Charms Even a Night’s Grand Ol’ Party” (The
Washington Post,
By Howard Kurtz;
At one point during the party, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow asked Barack Obama why he had hired several of the liberal guests who appeared on his program but left him Robert Reich.
“So someone will stick up for me on your show,” the president-elect replied….
28. “Are Ethics Back In Business?” (Business and Finance,
… Senior Anglo Irish bank directors fooling shareholders; Bernard Madoff and Breifne O’Brien operating glorified pyramid schemes; Jim Flavin’s questionable dealings in Fyffes’ shares; and a generation of brokers happy to gamble with other people’s money. Is there an ethics deficit in the business world? Do business people need to be taught the difference between right and wrong? …
Marching under the banner of “ethics” was predictable enough. After the Enron scandal in 2001, there was a lot of soul searching in American businesses about business behaviour, and the debate turned instantly to what universities were teaching their MBA students. “There was a reevaluation of the importance of teaching ethics in American colleges,” explains Dr Eleanor O’Higgins, who teaches such a module in UCD….
“We’re realising the limits to markets and you can see this in the number of people queuing up outside government offices with their begging bowls,” says Quinn. “And when you go beyond the monetarist idea, you start to realise that a bank isn’t just an industry, it’s also an institution. And this is where the ideology had an impact. The idea of competition in markets as applied to institutions can have downsides. Institutions need to be trusted. If you start treating law practices and medical services purely as a fee market, there will be prices to be paid because so much that underpins those things have nothing to do with price.” …
…”Indeed, most business people act honourably most of the time,” says Quinn. “It’s not fair to
demonise them. We also need to look at consumer behaviour. Robert
Reich,
“If you want the cause of the problem, we need to look in the mirror. Just as businesses have chosen to be industries rather than institutions, people have foregone their role as citizens in favour of their role as investors and consumers. As consumers, we’re the ones putting pressure on the system for cheaper and cheaper stuff and as investors, even if it’s just through our pension funds, we’re demanding higher and higher returns, that aren’t necessarily feasible in the long term. Often people simultaneously ask for ethical behaviour and cheaper goods from a company, without realising these things might not be compatible.” …
29. “Don’t bank on a caring, sharing recession”
(The Times (
By Chris Dillow
One way that people try to cheer themselves up as the economic climate worsens is by hoping that recession will make us a less materialistic, more sharing nation. It won’t. If anything, it will make us nastier and meaner.
Start with the basics. A recession is not the zeitgeist or the new black. It is merely a fall in national income.
And a small fall. The consensus among economic forecasters is for real GDP to drop by 1.5 per cent this year. Even if they are wrong - it has been known - and GDP falls by more than 2 per cent, this would be only equivalent, on average, to us all taking a week’s unpaid holiday this year….
How, then, can recession be such a bad thing? Because the pain is not so evenly spread. It falls upon the small proportion of folk who lose their jobs or businesses, or who find it harder to get into work; recession causes job creation to slow as well as job destruction to rise….
For most, then, the main effect of recession is not to cause poverty, but insecurity. And when people are insecure and anxious, they care less for others….
They also make us meaner in another way - some of us turn to crime….
Unemployment, then, increases the incentives to
commit crime. This does not, of course, mean all the unemployed become
criminals. We are talking about what happens at the margin. But this margin can
be quite extensive. The best research here comes from the US, where economists
can look at variations in unemployment by state and so control for nationwide
factors such as demography (younger people commit more crime than older ones)
or culture. One paper by Rudolf-Winter Ebmer, of the
There is worse. Recessions can also increase racism. The last one hit black workers harder than whites.
Between 1990 and 1992, the unemployment rate among white workers rose by 2.6 percentage points, from 6.8 to 9.4 per cent. But the jobless rate among black people rose by 9.4 points, from 12.5 to 21.9 per cent….
30. “Timely look at the role of democracy in an
era of big business” (The Irish Times,
By Paschal Donohoe
Book Review: Supercapitalism, by Robert Reich; Icon Books; £12.99 (EUR 15)
Momentous events such as bank nationalisation, the recklessness of banks and the return of Keynesian economics are winning many new and unlikely converts to a more sceptical view of the market economy. However, these swelled ranks should not distract from listening to those who have a longer track record of commenting on the social effects of big business.
Robert Reich is such a commentator. Prior to becoming a high-profile academic, he served as Bill Clinton’s secretary for labour. The Wall Street Journal recently named him as one of the top 10 business-thought leaders in the world. Supercapitalism, his new book, is his latest contribution on the role large businesses play in our society and economy.
The title of the book hints at a reverential approach to the market economy. The subtitle of the book, The Battle for Democracy in an Age of Big Business, gives a clearer idea of where Reich is coming from. He argues that the creed of corporate social responsibility, and its adoption by multinational companies, is a bad development….
Supercapitalism is the ability of the market economy to create vast wealth for shareholders, consumers and some employees.
This capacity has been “turbocharged” by the internet, global supply chains, economic deregulation and high-volume production chains that can easily meet niche consumer needs.
However, the corporate environment is relentlessly volatile and restless. The status of corporate giants is continually under siege from an investment community relentlessly critical of share-price performance. These companies find their sales performance continually challenged by new and aggressive market entries. Such forces create a ruthless focus on meeting short-term targets.
Reich argues that these effects are undermining democracy. He states that “capitalism has become more responsive to what we want as individual purchasers of goods, but democracy has grown less responsive to what we want together as citizens”.
The book points to the inability of democracies to take decisive action to deal with collective problems such as climate change or improving welfare systems.
Corporate social responsibility is an example of how challenges are sidestepped by companies and politicians. Reich argues that there should not be demands for more social responsibility. This is because it allows companies to portray serious issues, such as healthcare provision and environmental protection, as issues specific to them. This portrayal reduces the public demand to change the “rules of the game” for everybody.
The right response would be for politicians to change the conditions for all companies and not allow businesses to sidestep important issues by declarations of individual action. Reich relates the increase in interest in corporate social responsibility to a decrease in faith in politics….
31. “Exciting times, for an economist” (The
Boston Globe,
By Susan Chaityn Lebovits
Lisa Lynch is dean of the
Economist Lisa Lynch had her first lesson in the
effects of economic downturn when she was a teenager and witnessed the decline
of the brass industry in
Her father was a metallurgist and worked as a manager at a number of mills over the years, and she watched as one plant after another shut down.
“I saw all of the displacement and unemployment
that occurred from that,” said the
The experience, and how her father dealt with his challenges, ultimately helped shape her career path, she said.
“Although he lost his own job, his concern was the production workers who were calling him at home and asking him to look for opportunities for them,” said Lynch, 52.
“I have this vivid memory of my father spending hours on the phone talking with one worker after another trying to help them strategize where they might find new opportunities.”
On a wall of her Brandeis office hangs the record
of the Senate roll call vote on 1996 legislation raising the minimum wage - a
reminder of her time in
32. “A new take on giving: Howard Davies wonders
whether corporate philanthropy can really tackle serious social need” (The
Guardian (
Philanthrocapitalism by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green 292pp, A&C Black, £16.99. Creative Capitalism edited by Michael Kinsley 315pp, Simon & Schuster, £16.99
By Howard Davies
“The time has come for
But what motivates these huge givers, and what impact will their enormous donations have on the world? Those are the big questions that Michael Kinsley and others seek to address in Creative Capitalism, which began life as a series of bloggish exchanges provoked by [Bill] Gates’s speech at Davos last year, in which he coined the phrase in the title.
... Insofar as it is possible to make sense of Gates’s big idea (and many of the contributors think it is content-free), the notion seems to be that we should try to harness the creativity of major corporations to find solutions to the problems of poverty and disease. At the moment, that isn’t happening, as the problems of the poorest people are not of much concern to Microsoft and the like. “The challenge,” Kinsley says, “is to design a system where market incentives, including profits and recognition, drive the change.”
The contributors bat this shuttlecock to and fro through 300 thought-provoking pages. Some think Gates has had a Big Idea, and that philanthrocapitalism is the way of the future. All are in awe of his own personal contribution to disease eradication and poverty reduction, the sincerity of which is not in doubt. But the critics make some powerful points.
None more so than Robert Reich, labour secretary under Bill
Clinton. He thinks the interest in corporate social responsibility is
related to decreasing confidence in our democracy’s responsiveness to the
common good. And one reason for that, in the
It is a good question…. And Larry Summers, Barack Obama’s economics adviser,
argues in a provocative piece that the most salient example of Gates’s ideas in action, whereby the
33. “Deficit projection ‘stuns’ Congress”
(Christian Science Monitor,
By Gail Russell Chaddock, Staff writer
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (l.) says it’s important “to calibrate between creating jobs ... and not getting weighed down with too much burdensome debt.” (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Stunned at the prospect of a $1.2 trillion deficit this fiscal year, lawmakers in Congress are taking a harder look at how big a stimulus plan America can afford.
Until Wednesday’s release of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate, the main topic on Capitol Hill was how big the recovery package needs to be to reverse the economy’s slide.
Now, there’s a second theme: Is there a tipping point between the stimulus needed to revive the economy and a level of borrowing and debt that’s too much for future generations to bear? …
But lawmakers - and economists advising them on Capitol Hill this week - also note that the economy is in uncharted territory and that “calibrating” will be tough.
“We’ve never been here before,” said Robert Reich, labor secretary in the
“We are going to have to approach this in the spirit of experimentation. We have to keep an eye on what works and get rid of what doesn’t work as fast as possible,” he added….
34. “New jobless claims drop again, but more
continue to seek aid” (USA Today,
From staff and wire reports
The government on Friday will release official data on the job market in December based on surveys of businesses and households. That report could show the unemployment rate jumped to 7% or higher, up from 6.7% in November. The jobless rate has not topped 7% in more than 15 years….
Concern about rising unemployment is spurring Congress to move quickly on President-elect Barack Obama’s proposal for $775 billion in new spending and tax cuts over the next two years.
Robert
Reich, former Labor secretary in the
35. “The Rachel Maddow
Show” (MSNBC,
MS. MADDOW: Joining us now is a man who knows
from these things, having been through his own Senate confirmation hearings,
former
How important is it that Barack Obama get all of his nominees confirmed? How much does it hurt him politically or policy- wise if one or more of his choices gets turned back on Capitol Hill?
ROBERT REICH: Well, it’s very important. I mean, this is a very strong team. He wants them confirmed. I think the Republicans are going to basically say, “Fine.” You’re right; Eric Holder might get a little roughing up. But, after all, the Republicans are aware that Barack Obama won by a very strong margin, stronger than anybody, any candidate won the presidency in some 36 years. And also the country is in very bad shape, and people don’t like partisan politics. And so the Republicans, although they may huff and puff a little bit, are going to accept these nominees.
MS. MADDOW: I know that you wrote about your own confirmation process in your book, “Locked in the Cabinet.” When you were confirmed, how much did you know in advance about what your hearings would be like? Do you have any advice for Eric Holder about how to prepare, how to anticipate what might be coming his way?
MR. REICH: Well, I wouldn’t presume to give him any advice. But I can tell you, as a nominee, I was coached. I had my own coaching team. We had kind of a mock hearing. They brought out every possible thing I’d ever said or written. And by then I’d written a lot of controversial things. And they … played Republican senators, and they gave me a very, very cruel grueling at the time. So I was ready for almost anything.
The most important thing that my coaches told me, which I will tell any nominee right now who wants to know, is these are not about policy, these nomination hearings. They’re about deference. They’re about respect. What you need to communicate this time to Republicans is that you respect them. You will work with them. You honor them. And, you know, basically you will not ignore them….
MS. MADDOW: On the substance of what … President- elect Obama today said in his economic speech, … I hear an ideological signal, a “Government can work, government must work” message from the president-elect that seems to me like a real break with what we have heard out of Washington, Democrat and Republican, over the last—really the last generation. Do you hear that same signal? Do you think that he’s signaling a different ideological direction?
MR. REICH: Well, to some extent, Rachel. But I don’t think the era of big government is back. I mean, I think that almost everybody agrees—and this is conservative economists as well—that government has got to stimulate the economy. There’s going to be a big stimulus package, mainly because consumers are not buying. Businesses are not investing because consumers are not buying. And we can’t rely on exports. And so there’s a big gap in demand.
And so, regardless of your ideology, you’re going to say yes, at least for the next two years, government is going to have to spend a lot of money so that we don’t have massive unemployment and the kind of vicious cycle. But beyond that, I think that we might see an administration that, once the stimulus package is over and hopefully has had some effect, then the order of the day is deficit reduction….
36. “Without stimulus US will lose 3 mln jobs –Reich”
(Reuters,
Reuters (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Leslie Adler)
“Unemployment will rise to 10 percent of the workforce by the end of this year, and under-employment—including people working part-time who would rather be working full time, and those too discouraged even to look for work—will reach 15 percent,” said Reich, who served under former President Bill Clinton and has consulted with President-elect Barack Obama about correcting the current downturn.
“Without federal action, next year could be even worse,” he said while testifying at a U.S. House of Representatives Democrats’ forum on a stimulus bill….
Reich, who is currently a public policy professor at the University of California at Berkeley, called for a stimulus package of at least $900 billion spent over two years—much larger than the proposals currently being discussed.
Along with promoting expanded jobless benefits, Reich said the federal government should help state and local governments, but he warned that there may be pitfalls to boosting infrastructure spending.
“The challenge will be to do it quickly,” he said, and suggested that some public works projects be earmarked for the long-term unemployed, minorities and women.
Reich said the U.S. Congress should not be wary of borrowing to pay for economic stimulus, pointing out that at the end of World War 2 the country’s debt was more than 100 percent of gross domestic product.
Currently, Reich said, the debt ratio is below 50 percent.
37. “Democrats: Stimulus by mid-February. Top
infrastructure experts meet with House Democratic leadership to determine
course for jobs and economic recovery package” (CNNMoney.com,
By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
… At a meeting of The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress must set Presidents Day as a deadline to pass a stimulus and jobs package aimed at saving or creating 3 million jobs.
“Nothing can be clearer than the fact that we need action, and we need action now,” said Pelosi. “Failure to act quickly can only mean more job losses and more pain for Americans.” …
Robert Reich, who served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, agreed that quick action on jobs is needed, saying the government needs to shift its focus from Wall Street to Main Street.
“The core problem we face is not access to capital,” said Reich. “American consumers, whose purchases represent 70% of the economy, do not have the purchasing power to maintain overall demand for American goods and services.”
To avoid another 3 million lost jobs in 2009, Reich recommended the government launch a stimulus program amounting to at least 6.5% of overall gross domestic product, or about $900 billion - more than Obama team estimates of about $800 billion.
“The danger is not that the government will do too much; the danger is that it will do too little, too late,” Reich said. “This must be a rapid - and I want to emphasize rapid - response.” …
Reich, [Mark] Zandi and [Martin] Feldstein also said a focus on housing is needed for stimulus to have the desired effect on the economy.
“It will be very hard for any stimulus to succeed if Americans continue to lose their homes,” said Reich.
He suggested one solution would come from allowing homeowners to write down the value of their homes in bankruptcy…
Speed is of the essence, the economists argued, so housing legislation should probably come from already allocated money, such as the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
“Given how quickly this bill needs to be delivered to the president’s desk, and since there are so many different views on how to deal with the foreclosure issue, perhaps it is best as a ‘TARP 2’ plan and not part of stimulus,” Reich argued.
38. “American Families Need Economic Recovery and
Jobs Package” (Congressional Documents and Publications,
HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI:
The 111th Congress is ready to hit the ground running to help President Obama pass his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to create and save 3 million jobs over two years, and reinvest in our future by rebuilding our infrastructure from bridges to broadband, making our health care system more efficient and cost-effective, modernizing our schools for 21st century learning, and investing in a cleaner and more efficient energy future.
Experts from across the political spectrum agree on the urgent need for a robust package:
Robert
Reich - former Treasury Secretary:
“The economy lost 1.9 million jobs in 2008, and if nothing is done we’ll
probably lose 2 million or more in 2009. The stimulus plan could conceivably
prevent a lot of that from happening... Something needs to be done to stop the
erosion in 2009.” [ABC News,
39. “Toward a Low-Carbon Economy: Municipal Financing for Energy Efficiency and Solar Power” (Environment Magazine, January-February 2009); article coauthored by DAN KAMMEN citing program initiated by FRANCISCO DEVRIES (MPP 2000); http://www.environmentmagazine.org/January-February%202009/FullerPortisKammen-full.html
By Merrian C. Fuller, Stephen Compagni Portis, and Daniel M. Kammen
The economic and environmental need to transition
to a low-carbon economy is now at the forefront of energy science, engineering,
and policy discussions in the
A critical arena for this transformation is in
buildings, which account for more than 70 percent of the electricity use and
almost 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the
Many barriers exist to reducing energy consumption
and increasing the use of renewable energy. One is high first cost (“up-front
cost”), which is both a psychological and financial barrier for many people.
Our research group from the
Clean Energy Municipal Financing
Berkeley FIRST [Financing Initiative for
Renewable and Solar Technology, a
program initiated by the mayor’s then chief of staff, Francisco DeVries] is an example of clean energy municipal
financing in development by the City of Berkeley that will provide the up-front
funds for residential and commercial property owners to install electric and
thermal solar systems and make energy-efficiency improvements to their
buildings.
Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished
Professor of Energy at UC Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy
and Resources Group, the Goldman School
of Public Policy, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. He works on
energy and environmental science, policy, and analysis and has field experience
in
40. “Obama starts
country’s economic fix. President-Elect Obama met with economic leaders to talk about a stimulus
plan” (KGO-TV,
ROBERT REICH: (On infrastructure spending as part of a stimulus plan) … The Federal Reserve has tried everything; the Fed lending rate is now down to zero percent. The federal government is the spender of last resort….
DON SANCHEZ: Robert Reich predicts that the unemployment could go as high as 10% if the federal government doesn’t do something soon….
41. “Gimme My Money
Back” (CNN,
Ali Velshi, CNN Host: Chances are you’ve lost money this year. It’s been a rough year, but you can fight back. You want answers. You want to know how to make up what you’ve lost. Well, this is the hour for you. Everything you need to know about how to manage your money and get back on the road to financial recovery, and fast. It’s time for real information. It’s time for sound advice. It’s time to “Gimme My Money Back.”...
I’m joined by Robert Reich, he is the former
labor secretary under the
Professor Reich, I’ll start with you. This credit crisis really pushed us over the edge but we’ve learned that we were in a recession since December of 2007. Are the two connected? Would we still be in a recession if not for this credit crisis?
ROBERT REICH, Former Secretary of Labor: The credit crisis certainly accentuated the recession, Ali, but actually the recession was on its way and some would argue for many years because consumers obviously have to buy if businesses are going to sell and if people are going to have jobs and consumers were running out of money. They were deep in debt. That housing bubble allowed consumers to borrow against their homes, refinance and home equity loans actually kept the economy going, but the bubble was bound to burst. Houses could not continue to raise and rise in value so fast to provide consumers all that money, and when the bubble burst, consumers discovered they just were at the end of their ropes. No more money, no more purchasing....
42. “Obama’s Foreign
Policy Challenges” (Forum, KQED Public Radio,
Forum looks at some of the foreign policy challenges likely to face the new Obama administration in the coming year.
Guests:
- Michael Nacht, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley
- Kenneth Juster, former under-secretary of commerce under President George W. Bush
- Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of “Ending the Iraq War: A Primer
43. “
By Kelly Rayburn,
Oakland — City officials have put together an $89 million wish list of infrastructure projects they hope might be included in President-elect Barack Obama’s anticipated economic stimulus package — and Oakland’s incoming council member believes the city should push for even more....
Mayor Ron Dellums was appointed last month to participate in a Conference of Mayors work group to craft a recovery plan for urban areas as part of national economic stimulus….
Dellums will join [council member Jane] Brunner (North Oakland), Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda, and Steven Raphael, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, on Jan. 14 to discuss key economic issues facing Oakland and California.
The event, called “A Progressive Perspective on
the Economic Crisis,” will be held from
44. “Spring ’09 Colloquia Series” (Targeted News
Service,
Dr. David
L. Kirp will speak on Monday, Apr. 20 at
He has focused on a wide range of public policy topics, including ethics, community, education and race and gender equality. In addition to contributing regularly to publications such as The Nation and The Atlantic Monthly, Kirp has also authored 15 books, including The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics (Harvard University Press 2007) and Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education (Harvard University Press 2003).
In addition to his scholarly work, Kirp has founded law reform organization the Harvard Center for Law and Education, and has sponsored or served on the boards for numerous policy or advocacy groups.
45. “Slump in economy doesn’t worsen crime”
(Washington Times,
By Gabriella Boston, The
Enter 2009: Economic downturn and criminal upswing.
Not necessarily.
Research shows that crime waves - at least the violent variety - don’t usually follow in the wake of economic bear markets such ours.
In general, violent crime in the 20th and 21st centuries has had much more to do with the microeconomic market surrounding illegal substance use than anything associated with the mainstream, macroeconomic market….
That’s not to say the economy has nothing to do
with violent crime, says Steven Raphael,
an economist and professor of public policy at the
It’s just that as a driver of crime, the economy pales in comparison to other factors, he says.
For example, the increased incidence of incarceration in the past three decades is major factor in the decreasing levels of violent crime, Mr. Raphael says.
In 1970, 110 people in every 100,000 were incarcerated; today, that number is 500 in every 100,000….
There are other factors in the overall downward
trajectory in violent crimes in the past decades: the higher percentage of
foreign-born people residing in the
Any temporary upswing in crime caused by the economy will be dwarfed by the overall downward trajectory, Mr. Raphael says.
“I think we’ll see a modest rise in property crimes,” Mr. Raphael says, “but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think we’ll see much of a change.” …
Along with the possible rise in property crimes, criminologists and economists expect a rise in domestic violence. Mr. Raphael also suggests that crimes committed by a certain subgroup - young men on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder - might go up.
“They are the most sensitive to macroeconomic changes,” Mr. Raphael says.
Other than that, we shouldn’t see any big jumps in overall crime, he says.
46. “Deadly thirst lies
ahead, UN climate summit told” (The Age (
By Adam Morton, Environment Reporter, with Peter Ker, Agencies
The stark warning came as more than 10,000 delegates started two weeks of talks in Poland aimed at thrashing out commitments on financing strategies tackling climate change in the developing world, making clean energy technology accessible across the globe, reversing deforestation in the tropics, and helping poor countries adapt.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri told an opening meeting that many people had still not woken up to the risks of climate change if the world failed to act.
He cited projections that the number of people living in river valleys and facing water stress could quadruple from more than 1.1 billion in 1995 to more than 4.3 billion by 2050, that a third of species could face extinction, that the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets could melt, triggering massive sea-level rises….
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh
Rasmussen, the host of next year’s crucial
In Melbourne, a visiting American academic -
Jan. 2 Robert Reich was featured in “The Seven Deadly Sins: Greed”
documentary on The History Channel. “Greed” premiered Friday, January 2nd at
Jan. 7 Robert Reich testified at a hearing of the House Education and
Labor Committee Steering and Policy Committee on the economic outlook,
Jan. 8 Robert Reich gave a talk at the California State Assembly
Democratic Retreat,
Jan. 8 Robert Reich discusses the Obama era on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, video link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#28567855
Jan 11 – 13 Dan Kammen
briefed the 53 new members of Congress on “Transition to a Low-Carbon Energy
Future” at the CRS Legislative Issues & Procedures Seminar for new members
in
Jan. 14 Robert Reich gave a talk at the Commonwealth Club of California in
which he gives an economic forecast for the
Jan. 17 Dan Kammen was a speaker at the Green
Inaugural Ball in
To view a complete list
of GSPP videos, visit our Events Archive at: http://gspp.berkeley.edu/events/webcasts
Recent events viewable
on UC Webcast: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/archive.php?select2=36
If you would like further information
about any of the above, or hard copies of cited articles, we’’’’’’’’d
be happy to provide them.
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Annette Doornbos
Director of External Relations and Development