Letters to the Editor
mmckinl
Published Letters: 170 Editor's Choice: 16
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Reregulate and Increase Efffective Tax Rates
[Read the article: Barney Frank quotes Karl Marx]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The problem of a tightly coupled and leveraged system is to uncouple and deleverage it .
Glass Steagall did this . The myth that we need an ever more integrated financial system is just that , a myth . Leverage can be regulated as well with laws on debt ratings designed to punish extreme leverage .
To a large extent Hedge Funds and LBO Firms only extract wealth from the system . John Bogle has talked on this subject and says that the financial system has become the means rather than an end to the means , which is wealth production . In other words the financial system is syphoning off wealth to no productive end .
Sad to say that much of our financial GDP is actually just transfer payments and represents no productive ends , except of course to those at the top .
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Exactly grubert ... Speculators and Pirates
[Read the article: Barney Frank quotes Karl Marx]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why should the markets be held hostage to speculators and pirates ?
There is no good reason for all these 'products' other than to enable the speculators and pirates ...
If people want to speculate , why not let them set up a betting parlour . If a leveraged buyout is a good thing then it should stand on its' own merits , not on excessive leverage.
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It's Time for Tarrifs
[Read the article: GE to Ohio: Turn off your light-bulb factories]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What can we buy that's made in the USA ?
Not ... clothes , TVs , light bulbs , sheets , nails , screws , bolts , ipods , microwaves ...
Even many of our 'American Made' vehicles are loaded with parts from overseas.
We need to rebuild our manufacturing base for at least some of the items ....
A tarrif would allow new jobs in these areas and reduce our trade deficit .
It is now a fact that we import more Food than we Export !
We had better start to fill in this holllowed out place called America .
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"I argue we are still better off than we were 50 years ago." ... oliverk
[Read the article: GE to Ohio: Turn off your light-bulb factories]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not for long my friend .
Trade deficits are running at 6% per year . This is unsustainable . Combine that with a 4% budget deficit with huge expenditures looming for Medicare and Medicaid and you have a 10% per annum imbalance in our financial system each and every year . This adds up to disaster either with a crash or hyperinflation ...
Buckle your seat belts , it's gonna be a bumpy ride .
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We Know the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing
[Read the article: The man who put a price on nature]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"But sometimes the right answer is readily apparent, even without the brilliant logic."
That's great if you have an environmental President , otherwise you need Laws or there will be more ecological destruction . Once it's gone ... it's gone !
We see how the developed countries have exported this destruction overseas through resource extraction and waste dumping . Out of sight , out of mind .
Now we see exportation of environmental destruction and pollution to China . There will be , in the undeveloped countries, always a taker for this exploitation . It is called "Disaster Capitalism ".
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Excellent Piece ... and the side piece on bankruptcy as well
[Read the article: Life shouldn't have to take Visa]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What we need are strong consumer protections against selling this info . How many people end up with ruined credit because someone stold it .
It is estimated that 20% of consumers are being hit by scams each year , no fault of their own! This is an outrageous figure .
So when these people have their credit stolen they then have to pay more interest because of a lower credit score !
What a racket , the banks loose the info to thieves , and the consumer pays more !
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The Permanent Revolution is afoot !
[Read the article: The ecological sins of Leon Trotsky]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But it is Not Trotskys' Revolution .
It is the Conservative Revolution. Most of the countries of the world are moving towards Capitalism not away from it. Just look at the last 20 years . China then Russia moving inexorably toward Capitalism.
This is why wealth disparity is growing worldwide. The revolution is in the financial markets. Ever more exotic financial vehicles , ever more 'Free Trade Agreements' and ever more globalization.
Costa Rica just OKed their CAFTA agreement Sunday. Most of South America is rebelling against this revolution , whether they succeed is another story.
Capitalism has its place , as a tool , to benefit society , as Adam Smith promotes , but this new neoliberal capitalism makes a mockery of that concept.
As for the environment , pollution is the next new gold mine. China is already paying European companies to clean their polluted water.
We are in the Revolution for Corporatocracy !
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It is Peak Oil AND Rising Demand ...
[Read the article: How global warming will save us from peak oil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Recent figures on 2008 demand were 88million bpd . Only 85 million bpd is projected supply.
The difference between depletion and new supply is Not scalable with current technology and the available oil reserves.
With economies slowing with ever increasing costs for everything , but especially food and fuel , the debt pyramid that we now call our economy will collapse.
have a nice day ...
.
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Peak Oil ... for your reading pleasure
[Read the article: How global warming will save us from peak oil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Crude Awakening ... Michael T. Klare
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20041108/klare
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"There are no short-term substitutes for gas and oil. When demand exceeds available supply, as we learned during the two oil crises of the 1970s, prices spike - with devastating effects on the rest of the economy. That crisis was contrived by the oil cartel. The coming oil crisis will be real."
Robert Kuttner Oct 2001
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Another Wolf at the Door
Kenneth S. Deffeyes | October 21, 2001
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=another_wolf_at_the_door
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Business Week
'Peak oil refers to the point at which world oil production plateaus before beginning to decline as depletion of the world's remaining reserves offsets ever-increased drilling. Some experts argue that we're already there, and that we won't exceed by much the daily production high of 84.5 million barrels first reached in 2005. If so, global production will bump along near these levels for years before beginning an inexorable decline.'
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_26/b4040074.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn
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Peak Oil Overview - June 2007
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2693#more
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Peak Oil , Peak Grain , Peak Fish , Peak Water ...
[Read the article: A diet for a small planet that includes some (but not much) meat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We Are In A Bad Fix
By Mathew Maavak
http://www.countercurrents.org/maavak091007.htm