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July
3, 2003
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
to Attack US Troops
David
Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
Col. Dan
Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire
Tim
Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White
Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall
Chris
Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Kentucky Woman
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
It to Risk One's Life?
John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
Ray McGovern
Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
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Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America
Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
Quebec Radical
Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
Marathon: the Finale
Hot Stories
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
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Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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July
2, 2003
There Was a Reason
They Called It...
The Casino
Economy
By THOMAS W. CROFT
The late economist/urban planner Bennett Harrison
and others came up with a name that's a perfect fit to describe
the economy of the last decade: "The Casino Economy".
There was a reason they called it the Casino Economy. There's
lots of losers.
Ben, of course, was an author and co-author
of many books that broadcast the impacts of global and corporate
restructuring. The
De-Industrialization of America and The
Great U-Turn tracked, starting in the 1970s/80s, capital
flight, the destruction of our basic industries and industrial
communities, the corporate downsizing era and the decline of
the middle class. But there was always a "new, improved
economy" on the horizon that would make it all better.
That was supposed to be the 1990s. We've all heard that the
'90s and the "New Economy" ushered in a new era of
the "citizen investor". However, tens of millions
of working family "investors", whether through pension
funds or the blossoming variety of mutual funds, etc., never
signed up for Russian Roulette.
Because There's Always
Losers
In the last three years, a "perfect
storm" of rising energy costs, record consumer and corporate
debt and massive trade and current account deficits joined with
unsustainable investment practices, and resulted in an economic
collapse. The first recession since 1929 to be primarily caused
by over-investment, these "collateral damage" investing
schemes-in overseas boondoggles and sweatshops, extreme mergers,
absurd dot-coms and derivative scams-all came home to roost.
Enron used all of these investment tricks and more. The corruption
scandals of 2001-2 completed the melt-down. Now, the world
is probably in a double-dip recession, thanks partly to the scandal
and continuing international disruptions.
The problem with casino bets and Russian
Roulette is that somebody always loses. Working families lost
big, as over $7 trillion evaporated from public equity markets.
This past summer and fall, working people and seniors were
helpless as their savings suffered the effects of one of the
worst bear markets ever. The Dow market peak of 11,722 in January
2000 was shaved nearly in half, to the mid-7000s by the third
quarter of 2002. The unemployment rate slowly climbed to 6%,
through the first of a possible double-dip recession.
2002 brought the worst pension fund performance
ever, as assets underperformed liabilities by 30.9%, according
to Ryan Labs (Pension and Investments Online). Companies
in the S&P 500 suffered an aggregate deficit of $126 billion
from a combined pension surplus of $252 billion in 1999. And,
during this "new economy" transition toward DC plans,
stock options, and self-directed pensions, a new AARP survey
of older workers found that--of those who lost money in the market
had altered their standard of living, work plans or expectations
about retirement. Many watched their kids' college plans suffer.
All of this has added to a growing retirement and health care
crisis.
Collateral Damage
Investment Schemes
And the really bad news is the crooks
often used workers' own savings, assets and insurance funds.
Workers' pension funds and savings and other institutional assets
linked to workers' capital were prime sources of investment dollars
for the corporate corruption ponzi schemes, many of them criminal
on a magnitude unseen since the robber barons.
A new study by the Center for Economic
and Policy Research (CEPR), commissioned by the Steelworkers
Union, revealed that the persistent failure of pension fund asset
managers to recognize stock market fraud "so large that
it should have been apparent to any careful observer" resulted
in the misallocation of tens of billions of dollars in investment
capital, as much as $15 billion of it "directly attributable
to pension fund investment."
"As a result of bubble induced distortions,"
wrote the study's author and CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker, "between
$70 billion and $90 billion were wasted on investment in the
tech sector that will produce little or no return in the foreseeable
future and contributed to a dollar bubble that has cost the country
more than 2 million manufacturing jobs.
"Between $12 and$15 billion of these
wasted investments can be seen as directly attributable to pension
fund investment," Baker's study concluded. Given the failure
of pension fund managers to closely monitor the financial records
of firms in which they held large amounts of stock, major firms
like Enron and WorldCom were able to overstate their profits
by billions of dollars.
"In other words, the fund managers'
failures have literally destroyed billions in wage increases
that those workers had deferred in order to invest in a measure
of retirement security."
Baker's findings estimate that poor investment
practices by Wall Street firms may have resulted in the loss
of over $1 trillion.
Leo Gerard, President of the Steelworkers,
found especially galling the study's finding that, since 1998,
the pension fund industry has drained off between $200 and $400
billion fees for "managing" the funds. "These
findings," Gerard said, "argue forcefully for reforms
which ensure that pension funds are invested in the long-term
interest of their beneficiaries, instead of workers having their
savings hijacked for investments in liberalized global and market
policies that pose clear and present dangers to them and their
families, not to mention the nation's economic fabric."
And, if you've noticed major premium
increases in health care, auto and home insurance and other services,
it is important to note that mainstream media have been reporting
that losses in the market have eaten into reserves. Now, these
large institutions-again capitalized with the "trust"
funds of working people-will now have to force the beneficiaries
and businesses served by the funds to make up for the losses.
Meanwhile, global investors are uncertain due to the potential
for energy disruptions and further international shocks. The
biggest toss of the dice seems to be war(s) without boundaries,
and, seemingly, without end. The economy will not re-bound until
investment in commercial and industrial investment is rejuvenated.
And that's if deflation doesn't take the whole global economy
down with it, a la Japan, or, more frightening, the Great Depression.
Ammunition to Reverse
the Current Crisis?
Beyond the current crisis and quagmire,
however, the power of "gray capital", as Robin Blackburn
calls the broader social retirement provision, provides hope
for the future. In a new book called Banking
on Death (Verso Books, 2002), Blackburn asserts, "This
new economic landscape obliges progressives to advance their
aims in new ways. Banking on Death argues that tax concessions
should be confined to those funds which adhere to socially committed
and sustainable investment programmes"
Blackburn's premise is echoed in Hawley
and Williams's The
Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism (Penn Press, 2000). Citing
both the $50 billion annual tax breaks provided by government
to pension funds, and the congruence, or lack thereof, among
the public and universal owners on major economic policy issues,
the authors here argue for a new paradigm: the involvement of
the universal owners of the economy in the principle decisions
that guide the economy. Quoting investor advocates Robert Monks
and Nell Minnows: "Striking, therefore, is this historically
new basis for a significant, although far from full, convergence
between stakeholder (perhaps increasingly defined as 'citizen')
and shareholder.(as) fiduciary, public, union, non-profit, corporate
and mutual fund institutional investors come to dominate much
of the ownership landscapeThe holdings of universal ownershave
the characteristic of representing the entire economy."
You've heard of the budding "blue-green"
alliances of labor and the environmental and human rights movements
that showed at the Seattle and Quebec City, right? It's time
to add gray to the "blue-green" palette. There are
major new labor-environmental and community alliances, with a
presence in both the U.S. and Canada, encouraging new working
capital strategies to reinvest in long-term, high-road, sustainable
economy strategies.
While banks and traditional venture capital
firms have been sitting on the wayside, union and public pension
funds are making aggressive moves to create new worker-friendly
private capital and real estate investment vehicles. These
investment funds, with several billion new dollars, represent
some of the most important new risk capital in the markets, which
have suffered worsening capital gaps since the recession.
In Canada, the Labour-Sponsored Investment
Funds have become an international model for workers controlling
their capital, amassing $7-8 billion (canadian). Tens of thousands
of good paying jobs are being created and retained in nearly
all of the country's provinces through many years of development
of this innovative model. Over a dozen union pension funds are
now financing similar investment funds in the U.S. And, the
U.S. and Canada's rapidly growing socially-responsible investment
community is making a difference today in their investment strategy
and results. Labor/SRI coalitions have been winning shareholder
campaigns against U.S. based firms utilizing slave labor in Burma,
for instance.
Finally, CALPERs, the giant California
pension system, has shocked the market by demanding that overseas
investments in emerging markets adhere to international labor
standards. They have pulled workers' assets out of countries
that resisted, and that refused to adopt basic governance and
transparency requirements and protections.
Yep, there was a reason they called it
the Casino Economy. And there's many reasons to put an end to
it. Wall Street should stop making bad bets with worker's capital.
In conclusion, maybe it's repeating myself
to say thisbut I'll say it again. The current downturn has
surpassed every recession since the Depression in terms of length
of job loss. And, people have lost more money on an adjusted
basis than did Americans in the 1929 crash. So, we can thank
Wall Street and a system that disenfranchises its own clients
and beneficiaries. It's time for the blue-green and gray.
Thomas Croft is Director of the Heartland
Network. Visit for further information. He can be
reached at: t.w.croft@worldnet.att.net
Copyright T.W. Croft , 2003
Weekend Edition
Features
M.
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Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
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Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
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