recession
The stock market opens after the 700 billion tax-payer-money Wall Street
bail-out dropping a further
200 points with markets all over the world losing value also. Furthermore, US
Bank Failures expected to rise despite the Wall Street bail-out. The (non) effects of wasting 700 billion + losing 100 billion of tax revenue are already beginnig to be seen. Meanwhile, Congress is in recess and addresing the fundamentals of the system has remained unaddressed. Representative David Price feels secure in his vote for Wall Street as demonstated by his having voted twice in favor of this give-away even though his
rival has been outspoken against the bail-out.
A
workshop on the current
US financial crisis/crisis in democratic
governance, with the noted economist Robert G. Williams, John K.
Voehringer Jr. Professor of Economics, and Chair, Department of
Economics, Guilford College, and author of the Money Changers: A Guided
Tour through Global Currency Markets (Zed Books, 2006).
Sponsored by: Department of Anthropology, UNC Chapel Hill
Date:
Monday, September 29, 2008 - 11:30am to 1:00pm
Location:
Gardner 105, UNC Chapel Hill
The country has been getting ransacked over the last couple of weeks. On August 4th 2008 both houses of congress (Rep. David Price included) sanctioned H.R. 3221 and the conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie essentially saddeling the U.S. government with 5.4 trillion in debt that it is now responsible for!!!
Had we had a debate and expressed the outrage over this back then, gone into the streets banging our pots and pans .... the latest outrage, the proposed bail-out bill, would now be something that our Congressman David Price might think twice about before voting ... we should have broken down his door back in August!
The very wise, prophetic, yet ignored, Catherine Austin Fitts has summed this bill up:
The question is simple to state but probably very complex to answer.
What are the possible ramifications to the County and the Towns from the current financial crisis including but not at all exclusively budgets, taxes, development plans, services, credit, bonds, etc....?
A secondary question is are there any actions our local governments should be taking now to reduce negative risks?
Certainly the personal suffering of residents is likely, including potential loss of jobs, shrinking investments, sinking home values (maybe). If this gets worse the consequences will be felt by local governments.
Maybe there are skills on this blog that can provide some insights.
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of seeing Van Jones speak. He co-founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and is founder and president of Green For All. He spoke convincingly of a future of increased equality and how one of the roads to this future is green jobs. Green-collar jobs are employment in the environmental or agricultural sectors of the economy. [Source: Wikipedia] But they also include any work that will help transform our society into a more environmentally sustainable one.
One way our local government leaders could participate in this national movement is to sign the Green Jobs Pledge. Its goal is to "rebuild American competitiveness and environmental leadership by growing a green economy that fights global warming, pollution and poverty at the same time." Here are the five steps this pledge asks our leaders to agree to:
- Commit to Action
- Create a Green-collar Jobs Taskforce
- Identify Goals and Assess Opportunities
- Create a Local Action Plan
- Evaluate, Leverage and Grow
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