Tag Archive for 'Bill Clinton'

Après le Deluge…

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 4 months ago
in Blogging and Foreign Elections
. 6 Comments

So, the netroots thing has its role to play in inspiring enthusiasm and turnout, combating stoopid talking points, etc, etc, but what future for the liberal/left blogosphere in the States in the event of an Obama win?

Michael Bérubé recalls the wonders (ahem) of the Clinton administration, and has some advice for the collective(ist) tubes:

But perhaps the left blogosphere could be of some use in this regard, no? It needn’t be consolidated fully into Obama Enterprises Inc.; it could serve instead as a forum for writers dedicated to things like “hope” and “change” and “arguing that Obama was wrong to cave on FISA and better not do that kind of thing as President.” Of course, it could also serve as a forum for charting and mocking all manner of Ace-of-Confederate-Red-State-Yankeespade wingnuts as they venture into new realms of sheer barking lunacy that even the world’s sheerest barkingest lunatics have hitherto been unable to imagine. That might be fun. And it could do “shorters” and cat blogging and Theory Tuesdays and Friday Random Tens too. It’s a blogosphere. It’s a big place, with many many tubes.

The state of capitalism today

Published
by
Mark
1 year, 5 months ago
in Activism, Consumerism, Culture, Economics, Ethics, International, Markets, Media, Politics, Poverty, Sociology and USA
. 89 Comments

Iceland may be a barometer for what’s changing in the world economy. It was only very recently that the Milton Friedman fan club was hailing Iceland as a “Nordic Tiger”, lauding its flat taxes and praising its “economic freedom”. “Economic miracle” was a common phrase. What’s it looking like after the credit crisis?

Iceland right now is apparently in a state of shock and gives a snapshot of what a depression with the Great in it will look like everywhere – “cafes were half-empty, real estate agents sat idle, and retailers reported few sales” says the AP.

This after the government basically took over its banking sector, with Russian money, which as noted in the linked post, has real geopolitical implications.

Meanwhile, the British government is laying out 500 billion pounds to take equity in its banking sector, but basically proposing business as usual. Co-ordinated interest rate cuts are having very little impact on the stock market, and more worryingly, on the liquidity crisis. Paul Krugman writes:

We’re way past the point at which conventional monetary policy has much traction.

In America, in the eye of the economic storm, the Fed has basically become the financial system, but to little avail:

The time for a recession was 2005. At that time simple macroeconomic policy; simply raising interest rates, would have ended the bubbles in credit and housing at the cost of a standard if somewhat nasty recession. Trillions of dollars of intervention would not have been needed. Just standard macro policy. Even in 2006 it might still have worked. The Fed blew it, and they broke the system, and now with the system broken they may have to either buy it all out (and Paulson may be considering that after all) or just become the system. And even if they do that may not work, because, well, who wants to borrow and invest right now?

Bernanke and Greenspan are certainly in the “worst Fed chairman of all time” stakes in a big, big way.

Continue reading ‘The state of capitalism today’

Bring back Bill Clinton (the last dog isn’t dead yet)

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 5 months ago
in Economics, Foreign Elections, Markets and USA
. 24 Comments

I’m going to go out on a limb here.

Bill Clinton is the only genuine political talent that creaking heap of donkeys, the beloved Democratic Party, has produced in an age. Damn that Twenty-Second Amendment.

Obama plays it safe yet again, basically following the line of least resistance by endorsing the Paulson bailout plan with some meaningless caveats. There were calls in the States for Obama to actually return to the Senate and get involved in the legislative process over the “plan”, which would be a useful contrast with what firedoglake correctly characterises as McCain’s “empty babbling on the economy”. That might be a smart move particularly given his very thin legislative record.

But, nope.

What we get is propaganda about “post-partisan solutions”. The Democratic candidate who won’t even speak the D Word, let alone the L Word. Continue reading ‘Bring back Bill Clinton (the last dog isn’t dead yet)’

The end of financialisation? II

Published
by
Mark
1 year, 6 months ago
in Economics, International, Markets, Media, Sociology and USA
. 62 Comments

As a supplement to earlier posts on the sociology of the global financial crisis from Kim and dk.au, I thought I’d note something very interesting written by Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber. Farrell traces the shift in paradigm in the regulatory architecture of finance, one that has supplemented the first shift away from direct involvement of the state in economic ownership:

The second is more specific and recent – the tendency to replace ‘heavy-handed’ forms of regulation with ‘regulation with a light touch’ and self-regulation. This has been most marked in Anglo-American economies, but other countries (in continental Europe and elsewhere) have faced persistent ideological pressures to move in this direction. This is a large chunk of the so-called ‘reform’ agenda that the Economist magazine, the OECD and other such bodies keep pushing. Both of these shifts are largely ideological – that is, they gained much of their impetus from changes in the ideas which constitute policy-makers’ shared collective wisdom about how to deal with the economy.

The second shift (the reform agenda) is now a busted flush. Its proponents are in disarray (if I’m feeling in a vindictive mood, I may well buy a copy of the next Economist to see how its editorialists try to rationalize all of this).

Any reasonable assessment of the actions of the Fed and the US Treasury would suggest that they’re driven by confusion and are very much ad-hoc measures. Neither Bernanke nor Paulson seems to have much of a big picture grip, and politicians reciting “the fundamentals are sound” is clearly not going to cut the mustard now, even, as with John McCain, precipitating something of a backlash.

John Quiggin has speculated on how all this will play out. The confusion has led to some quite bizarre moments, such as pundits on Lateline Business declaiming “capitalism is in crisis” and “the financial markets may not be viable”. What we’re seeing – among other things – is a decomposition of that abstraction “the markets” and a reduction of these so-called impersonal forces to the panicked reactions of individuals. If Robert Skidelsky is right, and a tipping point has been reached, it begs a very big question, which Farrell answers in terms of process (because no one can know the outcome of such a fluid conjuncture). Continue reading ‘The end of financialisation? II’

So how about that Obama?

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 6 months ago
in Foreign Elections and USA
. 39 Comments

As a bit of a follow up to Mark’s post on the latest travails of the Democratic campaign, here’s a link to a very interesting article which includes interviews with both Obama and McCain’s campaign managers. My take? Obama (and Axelrod) are running a very successful strategy to defeat Hillary Clinton by a whisker in the primaries. Oopsy! Hang on! General election time? Oh dear.

Incidentally, the 50 state strategy isn’t looking so good.

Continue reading ‘So how about that Obama?’

Forget political narratives, here’s a media narrative

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 6 months ago
in Education, Media and Politics
. 43 Comments

Kevin Rudd’s address to the National Press Club yesterday (you can read it here) was notable as much for what he didn’t say as for what he did. I’d be very surprised indeed if the expectation that he would spell out a “narrative” wasn’t created by Labor types themselves. It’s not the sort of thing that journos just make up. But with his tick a box recital of what the government had done on education, he’s signalling that he’s not going to play that particular game – pragmatism rather than oratory is his weapon of choice. But like a lot of what Rudd has announced as PM, there’s very little detail to back up his various initiatives in the latest “chapter” of the “education revolution”. That’s ok, though, apparently for a usually sceptical media, because he’s representing himself as taking on the teachers’ unions.

As Bismarck commented on this thread, it’s an old trick. As old as Bill Clinton actually – who first trialled it in Arkansas when he wanted to demonstrate that he wasn’t a “traditional” Democrat. And, as we all know, Arkansas now has a school system that’s the envy of the world (ahem)…

Continue reading ‘Forget political narratives, here’s a media narrative’

Breaking news: Obama to select Biden as running mate

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 6 months ago
in Foreign Elections and USA
. 43 Comments

Looks like Senator Joe Biden of Delaware will be Obama’s pick for Vice-President.

The selection of the long serving Senator – who’s been a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the past himself – will be seen as bringing foreign policy gravitas to the ticket. Biden is Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At 65, it’s unlikely that he would be seen as a future President, which may have been an issue had Hillary Clinton been picked.

The Obama campaign hasn’t gone for geographical balance – which was the basis for the speculation about possible Veeps such as Governor Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas, Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia and Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana. There’s not much recent evidence that helps much anyway.

Two questions will be asked about this selection – does it represent an acknowledgement of weakness from Obama in terms of experience and foreign policy and defence cred, and what will Hillary do, or more importantly the more undisciplined Bill Clinton do, at the Convention?

Elsewhere: This post probably indicates some of the reasons why there’s a downside to this selection! Melissa McEwen in the Graudian is not excited about Biden. Ann at Feministing thinks “it could have been worse” and links to other reaction while Publius at Obsidian Wings likes the choice, and so does Michael Tomasky.

Obama ♥ Jesus

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 7 months ago
in Culture, Economics, Foreign Elections, Industrial Relations, Poverty, Religion, Sociology, USA and War
. 39 Comments

Joan Walsh at Salon asks whether America is “now officially a Christian nation”. She’s thinking of this – Obama’s appearance along with John McCain at Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church:

One of the candidates for president strolled onto the stage at a massive megachurch in suburban Orange County Saturday night and started joking easily with the Rev. Rick Warren, maybe the most popular evangelical leader in America — but just plain “Pastor Rick” to the candidate. He talked about his certainty that “Jesus Christ died for my sins, and I am redeemed through him,” said Americans should be soldiers in the fight against evil and defined marriage as between a man and a woman — “and God is in the mix.” This particular Christian candidate was so on his game that after a segment on domestic policy ended, Warren told him — his mic still live as the TV feed cut to commercial — “Home run.”

Oh, and John McCain was there, too.

Rick Warren’s been one of the most prominent megachurch Pastors arguing that Evangelicals can vote for Democrats.

Partly Obama’s appearance is electoral calculation – the Democrats have been talking about how to walk the faith talk since some (misleading) exit polls in November 2004. But I have no doubt he’s sincere. So much for separation of Church and State. Continue reading ‘Obama ♥ Jesus’