Comments on: Predicting the crash: Did the media fail in its scrutiny?

By: Graham

Graham — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 09:32:37 +0000

Ann – in case you or your readers are interested you can find the video from the Frontline Club

event here:

You can embed it into your blog if you’re interested.

Bob Porter — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:20:24 +0000

and spellcheck I hope.

Bob Porter — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:17:04 +0000

Ann, yes, universal health system for the U.S. not so much just for the health benefits but for the acceptance of the concept or a

socialist universal good not the product of the free market. The problem for the USA is that their rhetoric has shifted so far to the right that

they will not recognise nor embrace a solution from the left. Many of the 35 % without health care are forced to join local support groups which

come unfortunately with a heavy dose of religion. So Universal Health Care will give a more secular balance. A decade ago Bill Clinton was raving

that ‘this is as good as it gets’ when the economy was chugging along yet 40% or so were without health care. The crux now is not to restore the

old system but to fundamentally alter it. Pre-crisis capitalism was not delivering equity within nations nor between nations and was destroying the

planet
I have one question. With all the government dollars going in to prop up banks etc. How is this being managed so that the

taxpayer/provider has equity in the resucitated institutions. i.e what will be my dividend when they recover. Its almost as if some are still

declaring profits and dividends to nominal shareholders but receiving the benefit of the general taxpayers money
My prediction is that recovery

programs will not have time to bight before further climate change and peak oil detonations occur.

john fletcher — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:09:57 +0000

Thought this might interest you, Ann:

Franklin Delano Obama?

By Paul Krugman

Suddenly, everything old is New Deal

again. Reagan is out; F.D.R. is in. Still, how much guidance does the Roosevelt era really offer for today’s world?

The answer is, a lot.

But Barack Obama should learn from F.D.R.’s failures as well as from his achievements: the truth is that the New Deal wasn’t as successful in the

short run as it was in the long run. And the reason for F.D.R.’s limited short-run success, which almost undid his whole program, was the fact that

his economic policies were too cautious.

About the New Deal’s long-run achievements: the institutions F.D.R. built have proved both durable

and essential. Indeed, those institutions remain the bedrock of our nation’s economic stability. Imagine how much worse the financial crisis would

be if the New Deal hadn’t insured most bank deposits. Imagine how insecure older Americans would feel right now if Republicans had managed to

dismantle Social Security.

Can Mr. Obama achieve something comparable? Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s new chief of staff, has declared that “you

don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste.” Progressives hope that the Obama administration, like the New Deal, will respond to the current economic

and financial crisis by creating institutions, especially a universal health care system, that will change the shape of American society for

generations to come.