More News from Friday, March 6

Hi, all--

Sorry not to post on time again. I had a last-minute opportunity to go out of town this weekend and didn't have enough time to gather information for you-all on Friday before I left. Somewhat belatedly, then, here are some highlights from Friday posts, plus a superb, comprehensive summary related to the core issues besetting the financial segment of the economy (and then some).

I'll start with the overview, for that matter, thanks to a commenter from Daily Kos on Hunter's polemic today. (I surmise it's not stepping on anyone's toes to link to a report that was actually published over a month ago.) It's called "Wall Street's Best Investment: Ten Deregulatory Steps to Financial Meltdown," which appeared in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of an online journal called Multinational Monitor. [Background: If you check out the journal's home page, you'll see some links to background information about the publication, as well as subscription info. It appears to be a conscientious journalistic undertaking, from what I can tell, and the contributors/editors I recognize are reputable. It is devoted to the aim announced in its title: to keep track of, and inform the general public about, the activities of multinational corporations and their impact on the global and local economy; clearly, it does so with a critical eye but it is interested in responsible reportage.] For that matter, on Friday 3/6 the editor published an update, adding two more key steps to his executive summary of the regulatory changes that enabled this catastrophe. The first, "front-page" story is very long and detailed; the blog update is much more condensed.

If you do link to either of these, you'll see that they are based upon a much longer report (called "Sold Out") which is also available online, via Wall Street Watch. org. Tracking back the connections one more step takes us to the two off-line, real-world "parent organizations" which sponsor Wall Street Watch, Multinational Monitor, and Essential Action. (Please follow the link to see the details about the interconnections between these groups, Consumer Education Foundation and Essential Information.)

The latter organization is well worth knowing, and I apologize in advance if indeed you are already aware of it. Essential Information was founded in 1982 by Ralph Nader and has sponsored many important reports and investigations during the past 25 years. Given the Nader connection and the organization's interest in covering multinationals, it seems fair to conclude that the group's positions are pretty far left for a mainstream organization. It also appears to be an effective information clearinghouse specializing in exactly the three topics we have chosen as our main focus, hence probably well worth checking out more thoroughly.

After a few minutes of websurfing, I can't say I'm confident in commenting about the Consumer Education Foundation. I don't have the time to track down details about the group, and haven't located a specific web presence for them. The man most frequently associated with it, Harvey Rosenfield, has appeared among good progressive company in making cogent critiques of the economic melt-down. On the other hand, the folks at "California Majority Report" (a generally Democratic-leaning blog) have directed some pretty harsh commentary at Rosenfield. So, the deep background on this one is yet to be completed.

Paul Krugman is as usual worth reading, but I found Charles Blow's commentary more satisfying this time around. I especially like his soubriquet attached to Jindal, Steele and Limbaugh: "the axis of drivel." Isn't that a great pun?

I may be back later with more tidbits from Friday, but I actually think in terms of volume and background info the first link above is very helpful. I certainly hope we are able to amass the information and resources necessary to decide how to shape our group's actions, taking part in our local and national response to the crisis.

Thanks!