Whether you think Barack Obama's problem is spinelessness, naiveté, lack of principle, chronic centrism, Rupert Murdoch - or whatever, two things are painfully obvious. One, he will never fight for the progressive changes our country needs. Two, he will be the President for another two years, and most...

The Washington Consensus is a term long used for the harsh austerity imposed by the International Monetary Fund and other lenders on troubled third world economies. Under its dictates, unemployment and lowered incomes, rather than being the problems of insufficient economic growth, are its solutions. After several decades of failure,...

Pressure is building in Washington for a high-profile commission to impose fiscal austerity on the Federal government for the coming decade. Supporters argue that Congress lacks the will to rein in projected budget deficits that will burden future generations. Therefore, we need a group of wise leaders to make the...

Last Saturday night, October 10, several thousand Mexican government agents and police stormed into the headquarters and a hundred substations of the publicly owned electric utility, Luz Y Fuerza. They fired the workers, replacing them on the spot with workers brought in from another utility. On orders from Mexican President...

With conservatism's political fortunes lower than the share price of AIG, David Brooks of the New York Times has taken on the task of rebuilding the foundations of Republican ideology. In a recent column he discoursed on whether the root cause of our financial calamity was Greed or Stupidity. Worried...

Now that its taxpayers are rescuing Wall Street's privileged from the consequences of their folly, the US government's Fat Cats First program is going global. The Federal Reserve Board announced this week that it was providing Brazil, Korea and Mexico with a line of credit of 30 billion US dollars...

With the disastrous market reaction to his last bailout plan, Hank Paulson is now preparing to ratchet up the rescue by pouring capital into frightened financial institutions in return for equity shares. The intent is to sell back the shares as soon as the firms get back on their feet....

America needs an impeachment trial - not so much to punish George Bush's "high crimes and misdemeanors" but to absorb the lesson that we forgot so quickly after the Vietnam War: how easy it is for presidents to sweep us up in fear and jingoist excitement as they march our...