Category Archives: Social policy

Obama Gives Another Greatest Speech Ever, This Time In Selma

Omissions and evasions in Obama’s Selma speech.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Politics, Social policy, Social values on March 8, 2015 by Lambert Strether.

Connections in the Modern World: Network-Based Insights

Lambert here: For people who like to “connect the dots,” there is actually a mathematically grounded discipline that studies such networks (or graphs) formally.

This entry was posted in Economic fundamentals, Guest Post, Science and the scientific method, Social policy, The dismal science on March 8, 2015 by Lambert Strether.

Are Pilots Deserting Washington’s Drone War?

A potential fatal flaw arises in the Pentagon’s plans to create a killing force that didn’t involve messy, unpopular casualties and deaths. Drone operators are quitting faster than new ones can be trained. Killing is apparently not cost free; many drone pilots appear to suffer from a new form of mental disorder.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Social policy, Social values on March 6, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Matt Stoller: The Broader Net Neutrality Narrative

How the net neutrality fight created a new coalition of industrial interests and a new, sophisticated political consciousness.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Politics, Regulations and regulators, Social policy, Social values, Technology and innovation on March 2, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Austerity Kills: Economic Distress Seen as Culprit in Sharp Rise in Suicide Rate Among Middle Aged

I’m surprised, but perhaps I shouldn’t be, that a recent study hasn’t gotten the attention it warrants. It points to a direct connection between the impact of the crisis and a marked increase in suicide rates among the middle aged.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Forced Into Historic Runoff

This Real News Network interview describes why the coming mayoral runoff in Chicago is in many ways a referendum on failed neoliberal policies, such as privatizing schools. The very fact that this race is taking place at all reveals an unexpectedly large degree of popular discontent with misrule by what passes for our elites

This entry was posted in Income disparity, Politics, Privatization, Social policy, Social values, The destruction of the middle class on February 27, 2015 by Yves Smith.

The Alternative in Greece

Let us begin with what should be indisputable: the Eurogroup agreement that the Greek government was dragged into on Friday amounts to a headlong retreat.

The School Closure Playbook – How Billionaires Exploit Poor Children in Chicago

A hard-hitting overview of who is behind the taxpayer looting program known as “corporate school reform” and the mechanics of how it operates.

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Politics, Social policy, Social values, The destruction of the middle class on February 26, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Mathew D. Rose: Greece – Dead Man Walking

Rose focuses on an issue that reader Swedish Lex and other have pointed out: the heavy-handed actions of Germany in the tempestuous negotiations between the Eurozone and Greece have wound up being a major own goal.

But the bigger issue that Rose raises is that last week’s ugly negotiations, in combination with the fiasco in Ukraine, is exposing Germany as a lousy hegemon, which he argues is producing a political crisis in Germany and fracture lines in Europe.

DNC Report Says Blankety-Blank Democrats Need a “National Narrative Project.” No, They Don’t.

tl;dr: The Democrats don’t need a “narrative.” They need to go to war on policy. Then the war will be the narrative.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Politics, Social policy on February 22, 2015 by Lambert Strether.

Sharing Economy Must Come Inside Regulatory Tent

Sharing economy businesses cannot cannot grow as regulatory cowboys. But, vested interests will be happy to strangle them with red tape.

Corporate Welfare Queens – Shocking “Development Program” Failure Rate in North Carolina

Funny how there’s little hue and cry when corporate subsidies like development programs wind up throwing taxpayer money away.

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Politics, Social policy on February 20, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Mathew D. Rose: Greece – It’s a Revolution, Stupid!

As Greece’s struggles to secure relief from impossible-to-pay-debt that served to prop up otherwise insolvent French and German banks, and to be permitted to implement measures to reduce distress and restore growth, more and more observers are recognizing that this is really a struggle over democratic self-control versus rule by an unaccountable technocracy with inflexible rules, using finance as their enforcement weapon. This speech in the European Parliament today by UKIP leader Neil Farage echoes some of the themes of Mathew Rose’s post. Rose also explains how the many Germans justify the counterproductive destruction of a society that they have turned into a vassal state.

This entry was posted in Banking industry, Doomsday scenarios, Economic fundamentals, Europe, Guest Post, Politics, Social policy, Social values on February 18, 2015 by Yves Smith.

Tom Engelhardt: In Whose America? Machine Guns, MRAPs, Surveillance, Drones, Permanent War, and a Permanent Election Campaign

The occasion for such reflections: machine guns in my hometown. To be specific, several weeks ago, New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton announced the formation of a new 350-officer Special Response Group (SRG). Keep in mind that New York City already has a police force of more than 34,000 — bigger, that is, than the active militaries of Austria, Bulgaria, Chad, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kenya, Laos, Switzerland, or Zimbabwe — as well as its own “navy,” including six submersible drones. Just another drop in an ocean of blue, the SRG will nonetheless be a squad for our times, trained in what Bratton referred to as “advanced disorder control and counterterror.” It will also, he announced, be equipped with “extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns — unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances.” And here’s where he created a little controversy in my hometown. The squad would, Bratton added, be “designed for dealing with events like our recent protests or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris.”

This entry was posted in Banana republic, Guest Post, Politics, Social policy, Social values, Surveillance state on February 18, 2015 by Yves Smith.