Review (Guest): Beyond Mainstream Explanations of the Financial Crisis – Parasitic Finance Capital

Ismael Hossein-azdeh Review of Hossein-zadeh, Ismael. 2014. Beyond Mainstream Explanations of the Financial Crisis: Parasitic Finance Capital., May 16, 2014 By Isaac Christiansen Ismael Hossein-zadeh has done a masterful job in explaining the causes of the 2007-08 financial collapse and in identifying what must be done in response. He sets out in Beyond Mainstream Explanations …

Chuck Spinney: Michael Hudson on The New Cold War’s Ukraine Gambit

Long but well worth reading and thinking about. CS   The New Cold War’s Ukraine Gambit Michael Hudson [1] Posted on michaelhudson.com, 12 May 2014 http://michael-hudson.com/2014/05/the-new-cold-wars-ukraine-gambit/ Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and former Professor of Economics and Director of Economic Research at the Latvia Graduate School of Law. …

Ezra Klein: Dylan Matthew’s Five Reforms Framed for Left & Right — Spotlight on How to Sell Anything to the Two-Party Mob

The depressing psychological theory that explains Washington Dylan Matthews’s “Five conservative reforms millennials should be fighting for” isn’t just an admirably intricate piece of trolling. It’s a perfect illustration of why you can’t take Washington’s policy debates at face value. You can’t understand what’s happened to Congress in recent years if you don’t understand what …

Jean Leivins: SLATE Falls Short in Covering the Sharing Economy

The only thing more tired than the “sharing economy” meme might be this opinion. While there’s truth in what he and many others before him have said, his post throws the baby out with the bath water. It shows a shallow understanding of the economic transformation underway, and this being Slate, with millions of readers, …

Tom Atlee: State Banks, Debt Renunciation, Other Populist Cures

Dear friends, Below is an excellent summary of a very high leverage economic system change opportunity – state banks.  A single example already exists in the U.S:  the little-known but revolutionary state-owned Bank of North Dakota. State banks simultaneously address the problems of unemployment, lack of financial resources for state and local governments (including rising …

Open Power: Democracy Lost & Found Essay, Book Review Blurbs and Links [Updated 3 MAR 2015]

NEW: Kindle Book Open Power ($2.99) OLD: Core Documents for Both Initiatives (Free) OLD: the foundation book The Open Source Everything Manifesto ROBERT STEELE: There are two schools of thought on effecting political (and hence economic and social) reform. One school is the school of love — this school emphasizes trust building and doing no …