RESURRECT TROLLEYS!



I had the good fortune recently to take a trip to Europe. It was my first time there in more than three decades.

Like everyone who travels abroad for more than a few days --- we were there for two weeks --- you have a major time readjustment to get used to when you return, since European countries are 6 to 7 hours ahead. So it’s taken about a week to adjust to the time schedule here and get a proper sleep.

But more than that, I’m trying to get used to the American environment. And I don’t mean the air and water. While in Europe --- we were in Romania, Italy, France and Spain --- there’s so many things to like. For one, you’re treated to a cultural feast. Everywhere you go there’s wonderful old architecture, great museums, and fine little shops, offering goods that are indigenous to that area or country. For food there’s nice cafes and restaurants everywhere and beautiful open air markets with fresh fruits and vegetables as well as wonderful breads and meat products. In general, there’s a lot of diversity in what you can see and what you can buy. People also seem to be enjoying life more, although I saw some notable exceptions.

I come back here, and the thing that struck me right away, was the mundane and unhappy character of American society. Everywhere you go, there’s a chain store --- Staples, Kohls, Stop and Shop, whatever. Everything to fill your material needs, but nothing to feed your soul. An awful lot of uniformity and not much diversity. There is ethnic diversity in some cities like Bridgeport and New Haven where you can find a variety of different ethnic restaurants and shops, but beyond that, there’s not much.

Americans also seem to be a grim bunch. A couple of trips to go shopping after I got back, and all I saw was serious looks. Not a smile to be seen. Interactions with store clerks are perfunctory, bordering on cold. Maybe this is the economy. But the economy’s not great in Europe, either.

I don’t want to paint a black and white picture here. Europe still has major problems and life is still a struggle for many. You can see the contradictions. The fall of communism in eastern Europe and the rush of capitalist investment in the 1990s clearly brought a spurt of commercial growth to poor countries like Romania. Some people have done well in the process, but others have been left behind. When we drove in from the airport to the city of Bucharest, there was an impressive line of new, fancy car dealerships that have cropped up along the main road. Mercedes, Ferrari, Saab. I thought, wow, some people are doing well.

But then, as we slowed down in traffic, it happened. I saw this man, without legs, wending his way through the cars on a board with wheels, sticking his hand up and begging for money. Whew! A few seconds later another guy appeared, trying to hawk what appeared to be fishing rods. The shock of seeing that kind of poverty was repeated when we walked in to see a majestic cathedral in Barcelona. As we entered, there was a line of beggars, some blind, sitting on the floor, pleading for alms.

So all is not well in Euroland. But there’s so much to like, particularly culturally.

One other positive feature of life over there that’s worth noting: transportation modes seemed more efficient and less polluting. When you say the word ‘trolley’ in America, people either give you a blank look or say, ‘oh yeah those old cars that used to run in the cities on tracks a long time ago?’ Well in Europe, at least where we traveled, trolleys were ubiquitous and looked great.

Trolleys are like buses, except they are powered by overhead electrical lines. They run on wheels like buses, or run on tracks like trains. There are no gas emissions from trolleys, so they’re a lot better for the environment.

In both Romania and Spain, neither of which are wealthy countries, there were nice clean trolleys --- also called trams --- carrying people all over in the cities. There were some gas powered buses, but as many trolleys.

There’s also lots of scooters in Europe and most cars are small. I really had to look to spot an SUV.

I noticed the difference when we returned to New York and all the cars were so much bigger and fatter.

If America wants to get serious about tackling global warming and reducing carbon emissions, this country has to get “smaller and smarter” with the way people get around. Mandating the use of compact cars would be a start.

Another great step would be putting trolley systems back in place. Some cities like Baltimore have moved in that direction. Stamford, CT has begun talking about it.

These are hopeful signs. But substantial federal funding for trolley projects in cities would really get things moving.

Fish or cut bait



It’s looking more and more like it’s time to start over on health care reform.

Unless President Obama suddenly turns into a real leader and offers a health insurance plan with a meaningful public option in his speech Wednesday night, it’s time for progressives to fold their tents this year and go all out for a single-payer plan next year.

When Obama first talked about health care reform in his campaign, he talked about cracking down on health insurance companies with tougher regulations and also setting up a government entity that would provide an alternative for consumers seeking health insurance coverage.

I’ve always been a single-payer advocate, so Obamacare didn’t strike me as the very best way to go, since it would keep the insurance companies --- the main villains --- in the ballgame. Nonetheless, I supported his approach initially, with a view that if a bill with tough regulations and a public option could pass, it might be the stepping stone for single payer later on.

But over the past several months, there’s been a sickening display of backpedaling by the president on this issue. Instead of showing leadership and pushing hard for a bill with a public option, he’s wavered in the face of attacks by Republicans about “socialized medicine” and warnings by centrist Democrats in Congress not to be too mean to the insurance companies (the same companies who are rolling in money and just happen to fund their campaigns).

Obama and top officials in his administration have given evasive statements about whether they still support a public option. Some other features about the earlier proposal on health care have also been weakened as well.

So where we stand on this issue is not clear. Hopefully Obama will change course tomorrow and make a firm statement in favor of a public option. But I’m not holding my breath.

One thing that has been heartening in recent days has been that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party along with unions have risen up and told Obama firmly that unless he gets behind a bill with a strong public option, they won’t back it. Also there’s a lot of anger building in the netroots about Obama, and demands that he fight for the kind of change that he promised. Activists at the grassroots helped get this guy elected; now it’s time for him to come through.

If the drive for health care reform dies this year, it may actually be a plus. Next year, progressives and activists won’t have any illusions about help from Obama. They will likely start a massive, broad-based campaign for a Canadian-style health care plan. Support for this will be a litmus test for any Congressional candidates. Vague promises about reform won’t do.

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On a related and disturbing note, the health care debate has brought into sharp focus something that is very significant: the power of right-wing and hate radio.

The right wing has always been out there and conservatives for years have had a powerful influence on media. But it has been shocking how far-right “pundits” in the media, particularly on radio, have been able to whip up hysteria on the health care plans and get people to go to town hall meetings to disrupt and say the most idiotic things. In some cases, people have been armed.

Check out the most recent column by Bill Moyers in Salon.com called “Mr. President, It’s Time to Fight,” in which he mentions an essay by media scholar Henry Giroux.

“He describes the growing domination of hate radio as one of the crucial elements in a ‘culture of cruelty,’ increasingly marked by overt racism, hostility and disdain for others, coupled with a simmering threat of mob violence toward any political figure who believes healthcare reform is the most vital of safety nets….,”
writes Moyers.

Indeed, there’s been a fascist tone to statements on right-wing radio and in the behavior of many at the town hall meetings. The atmosphere resembles that of Germany in the 1920s and 30s, when the Nazis spread disinformation and used intimidation to silence the opposition.

Progressives and principled people of all stripes have to speak out against this trend.

Another Way to Stimulate the Economy and
Truly Invest in Our Future: End War Now

Here's a quote from a soldier returning from the Iraq war with post-traumatic stress disorder, a walking "time-bomb":

"I had no job training," he said. "All I know how to do is kill people."

What an antithesis to life ... a war economy which decides that the military is the source of employment of last resort, instilling in young people a life's mission to take life itself away from others. No wonder young soldiers are coming home traumatized, confused and angry, and then being told to deny this violation upon their soul. No wonder they are turning to substance abuse. No wonder they are committing suicide.

We need to adjust our priorities so that everyone can fulfill their life's potential. Life should be about investing in the dreams we all share -- dreams filled with joy, creativity, love, recreation. Not fear of things that keep us from that which we love most, things we can control -- such as man's ability to harm man -- if we collectively use the wisdom we are blessed with. We need to awaken to our potential and spend every moment investing in the future we dream of.

For example, what's the difference between $1 billion spent to safeguard Middle East fossil fuel supplies and $1 billion invested in sustainable, renewable energy jobs?

- Dead soldiers incapable of contributing to the well being of society
- Spouses or lovers who can only imagine what their lives together could've held
- Mothers and fathers left with only memories of their sons or daughters
- Sons and daughters left without a future full of love and nurturing from lost parents
- Maimed soldiers in mind, body or soul

Let's face it, you can train someone to kill, or you can train him to contribute to a peaceful world that is self-sustaining and that does not take a human toll, but rather allows the human spirit of ingenuity to thrive as the universal life force intended.

Multiply the hours and lives spent in the war model and you can see how -- in today's world of scientific and technological advances -- that such an outmoded paradigm is indeed a society's, a human species' suicide on a grand scale.

Read: "Endless War: The Suicide of the United States"

"When Will the Recovery Begin? Never."

Robert Reich, President Clinton's former labor secretary, asked that question in one of his recent blogs.

He writes:

This economy can't get back on track because the track we were on for years -- featuring flat or declining median wages, mounting consumer debt, and widening insecurity, not to mention increasing carbon in the atmosphere -- simply cannot be sustained.

The X marks a brand new track -- a new economy. What will it look like? Nobody knows. All we know is the current economy can't "recover" because it can't go back to where it was before the crash. So instead of asking when the recovery will start, we should be asking when and how the new economy will begin.

When and how with the new economy begin? Oh, we might as well face it. We need a major overhaul. The times call for a bit of serious soul-searching...how about starting with our values -- especially those which got us to today's brink of depression. Let's try greed, especially, the love of money, which societal norms would have us believe, leads to wealth.

But as David Korten, author of "Agenda for a New Economy" writes:

"Contrary to what we are conditioned to believe, money isn't wealth. It is simply an accounting chit created from nothing when a bank makes a loan."

Hmmm. Could it be that money is a way for the rich and powerful to control the masses? Plain and simple, isn't money the means by which the exchange of goods or services are facilitated between two entities? These types of exchanges are what makes an economy healthy.

But think of what happens when too many people hoard money and keep it from circulating or support a system that allows that type of hoarding to occur. For example, what's the difference between $1 billion to create a nuclear warhead vs. the difference between $1 billion invested in solar panels? The former creates jobs at the outset, but the end product sits unused gathering dust, contributing nothing back to society at large, except for fear, until the day it is used to blow thousands of people to smithereens and exponentially result in destructive physical and emotional consequences that reverberate around the globe and for decades.

The later renewable energy source avoids the prospects of war and unnecessary loss of lives, and as long as greed or exploitative practices are followed allows for healthy, thriving, self-sustainable communities.

How about another example... what about a someone with $1 billion of his "wealth" tied up in the bank, stock, bonds, jewelry, real estate or a yacht or two? Unless that billionaire is employing thousands of people to run his household, every overinflated asset, as far as I'm concerned, more money kept out of circulation from the economy, preventing the creation of real wealth of feeding and sheltering families and helping them to raise the next generation in healthy ways.

What about $1 billion to help homeless people get food and shelter? That $1 billion to house homeless people, would be money circulating many, many times over in the community, as they do daily exchanges with local businesses. By helping such those with less, it actually helps society thrive in the longer run and generate "real wealth" where we have a world with less fear of crime, violence, war.

Why then do we even need "money" at all? Why rely on that paper bill?

If any new economy is possible, a new economy would be founded on a change in values. It would be based on the kind of altruism and compassion we see when disaster strikes -- such altruistic character would have to be the cultural norm. When there's a disaster, people find their selflessness and turn to helping in whatever way they can, without any rewards. If the entire system crashes, it may just be the time to realize we don't need belief systems based on exploitation of scarce resources, greed or fear of not having enough.

When our society values helping all develop their full potential instead of valuing how much money an individual can get, then we'll have a real, new, 21st economy that will be self-sustainable. We have the technology now to do what previous generations could never do, and our collective consciousness is growing exponentially with the ability to communicate instantly, anywhere and get resources sent around the world.

What an amazing world this would be if people would all one day just wake up to this.

Let's just hope it won't be a an eye-opening disaster.

Saturn Brand to Be Sold to Smart Car Distributor:
What Else for Recovery?

Major media has been covering only the tip of what should be the restructuring, not just of General Motors, but what was once the country's largest economic sector: manufacturing, and the source of unprecedented economic growth in U.S. wealth. During the mid-20th century, the manufacturing sector made up a quarter of the nation's GDP, and the middle class' income grew. What can be done today with respect to the renewable energy sector?

Certainly, coalitions of leaders inmunicipal government, utilities, citizens, dealerships, and finance could be coalescing to create new jobs and opportunities. Let's take the Saturn scenario and explore what would happen with just that as a starting point in the short and long-range.

General Motors has agreed to sell its Saturn brand to Roger Penske, a major auto dealer which is also the sole distributor of Daimler AIG's Smart cars. A deal is expected to be announced today.

Penske will eventually buy cars from other carmakers like Renault, through its Samsung Motors Unit in Korea.

I hope he is planning to buy up electric plug-in cars like those being sold by BG Automotive Group or Wheego Electric Vehicles or Think City.

Mike McQuarry, Wheego CEO, envisions a new trend where there "will be a combination of traditional car dealers as well as a new type of dealer who exclusively sells electric vehicles and combines several manufacturers such ZENN, ZAP, and MILES in one dealership.”

BG is planning a high-speed version in 2010, and a lineup of minivans, trucks, buses, maintenance utility vehicles and touring vans.

The two-seat Wheego Whip RTEV was designed at China's Shuanghuan Automobile Company based on their existing gas-powered Noble. With electric adaptations, the Wheego Whip will undergo final assembly in the United States.

Think City is a Norwegian carmaker with plans to build in the U.S. (Note: Interesting concept: Plug-in cars that help the energy grid during peak demand!)

Nonprofit groups like Project Get Ready are helping form a coalition of community leaders -- including utilities, municipal government, citizen activists, auto dealers, transportation authorities and local employers --to support an electric car infrastructure. Portland, Ore., Indianapolis, and Raleigh, N.C. are just a few examples.

Such a coalition would serve Detroit well in today's economy. In the 1990s, the United Auto Workers wanted a deal to split off Saturn from GM, but were unable to. Today, laid-off workers could work to create these new jobs with the help of a coalition to build an electric car infrastructure. Maybe the autoworkers will even get a new car out of the deal, just like assembly line workers in Ford's early days. Certainly, other supporting businesses in local communities would be born.

It's too bad GM is still beholden to the collective mindset of an aging fossil fuel economy reliant on military might and war politics to keep our nation running on cheap gas and oil. If we are focused on self-sustainability and renewable energy, we can stop invading or controlling other countries for their energy resources. We need innovators, not war-mongers tearing others down. We need to help lead others to develop their own self-sufficiency.

Otherwise, without a strong vision and manufacturing sector to fulfill it, all we have left for our next generation's employment prospects is the military industrial complex -- where billions of dollars are stockpiled in weapons of mass destruction instead of dollars put to good use circulating in the economy over and over again -- or the prison industrial complex, where masses of unemployed resort to crime as an act of survival. It's just common sense: even the most hardened criminals, Taliban or al Qaeda just want a better life for themselves and their loved ones -- "Desperate people do desperate things." The U.S. could lead by positive example, showing others how to live sustainably and to support themselves, rather than simply relying on military tactics.

In today's intertwined global economy, we need the values and vision -- and new friends around the world for our products.

Good luck to all the forward-thinking entrepreneurs. Let's support their efforts in the new renewable growth industry, let's produce products and services on a mass scale similar to what happened with the U.S. auto industry in the 1950s. Nearly a quarter of the U.S. GDP came from manufacturing then -- real goods and services produced, not from the finance industry, as it is today, with "money being made from money" in asset bubbles, Ponzi schemes, commissions/fees and predatory lending.

The Saturn sell-off to a Smart car distributor is just one scenario to get us thinking of coalitions to support the electric infrastructure and create new jobs.

Let's do more visualizing "outside the box" to get people back to work, being self-sufficient, preserving our environment, and creating a safer world with less need for war and violence.

"Money" Is Not Wealth: It's Time to Reinvest in True Wealth

From conservative Tax Day "tea party" protests nationally against bailouts for Wall Street fat cats who profited from risky loans to those who purchased homes they couldn't afford, to the murders of families by their breadwinners on the brink of ruin, there's been plenty of anger and angst directed at the U.S. financial sector, the epicenter of the global economic crisis.

But far less has been said about the heart of the crisis: a societal over-emphasis on money, material wealth and consumption to the detriment of socio-economic and environmental sustainability.

It seems only fitting that since the excesses of American capitalism have brought the system to the brink of depression, requiring massive government bailouts to stabilize the economy, the opportunity has arisen to rethink our values.

Just how should America and the rest of the world rebuild?

Maybe it's time to recall that the financial sector, which includes banks, insurance companies, real estate companies and other related businesses — does not directly provide a good or service; its primary activity is one of mediating the buying and selling of items, says Dean Baker, author of "Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy."

David C. Korten, author of "Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth" says that Wall Street capitalistic focus is on making money and enriching the already wealthy, rather than sustaining livelihoods and communities through the actual production of goods and services. He believes that Wall Street can't be fixed and rebuilding sustainable local economies is the answer.

Korten describes "illusory" or phantom wealth as:

"... money created by accounting entries or the inflation of asset bubbles unrelated to the creation of anything of real value or utility. The high-tech stock and housing bubbles are examples.

"Also included are financial assets created by debt pyramids in which financial institutions engage in complex trading and lending schemes based on fictitious or overvalued assets in order to generate phantom profits and justify outsized management fees. Debt pyramids may be used to feed financial bubbles. Those engaged in creating phantom wealth collect handsome 'performance' fees at each step and walk away with gains. When borrowers begin to default on debts they cannot pay, the bubble bursts and the debt pyramid collapses.

"Those who had no part in creating or profiting from the scam are then left to absorb the losses and to sort out the phantom-wealth claims still held by the perpetrators against the marketable wealth of the larger society. It is all legal, which makes it the perfect crime."

Korten points out that in recent decades, the Federal Reserve allied with the U.S. Treasury Department and Wall Street banks to give the creation of "illusory" wealth priority over the production of "real" wealth created by the sale of goods and services. The Fed pursued cheap money policies to encourage borrowing by speculators to support inflation. Meanwhile, publicly-traded corporations sought to increase share prices by outsourcing production to low-wage economies without labor unions – in essence, decimating the U.S. industrial sector.

It appears this society is valuing "phantom wealth" while simultaneously destroying the "real wealth" created from products and services – in other words, devaluing the jobs of millions of workers, as well as their savings and pensions.

While top financial executives like Bernie Madoff and Sir Allen Stanford bilked their investors out of $73 billion, they were only two of the most brazen billionaires who benefited from the deregulation of the financial sector since Ronald Reagan took office in 1980. Finance academicians, business interests and their lobbyists and media such as CNBC, as well as policymakers dependent on campaign contributions were complicit in creating the climate for finance officers to fuel an economic meltdown as they collected vast sums of money by questionable means, while driving their companies and unsuspecting investors into bankruptcy.

Perhaps the greatest blow to the banking industry was the finance, insurance and real estate industries' lobbying effort that succeeded in repealing the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. The Glass-Steagall Act, enacted in 1933, had protected depositors by mandating the separation of speculative investment firms from commercial banks with depositor funds.

In 1997, John Edmunds, a respected finance professor, wrote in a Foreign Policy article:

"Financial securities have grown to the point that they are now worth more than a year's worldwide output of goods and services and soon will be worth more than two years' output. While politicians concentrate on trade balances and intellectual property rights, these financial instruments are the leading component of wealth today, as well as its fastest growing generator. … An economic policy that aims to achieve growth by wealth creation does not need to increase the production of goods and services except as a secondary objective."

Edmunds has been telling government policymakers that they should no longer concern themselves with producing "real wealth" by increasing the national output of goods and services, according to Korten.

Business media and other writers tended to echo this "get-rich quick" mantra, including Washington Post columnist James Glassman who authored "Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market," David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors and author of "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit from It," as well as CNBC analysts, perhaps most notably "Mad Money's" Jim Kramer (in The Daily Show piece with Jon Stewart): who advised, "We know these are overvalued, but buy, buy, buy. That's how you make lots of money."

This philosophy has led to Wall Street's "phantom" wealth, created by exotic financial instruments resembling Ponzi schemes; asset bubbles; speculative trading; predatory lending and securitization of mortgage loans, Korten writes. Steve Croft's 60 Minutes' reports dating from 1995, also affirm Korten's criticism, describing how securitized loans were cut up into derivatives and supposedly covered by unregulated credit default swaps (a quasi-insurance to cover bad loans) that passed along "risk" to other buyers far removed from the original lending transaction.

Ironically, much of the bailout funds were to cover the unregulated credit defaults swaps, are estimated at $56 trillion, equal to the world's gross domestic product, according to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

Korten notes:

"In 2005, Forbes magazine counted 691 billionaires in the world. In 2008, only three years later, it counted 1,250 and estimated their combined wealth at $4.4 trillion. According to a United Nations University study, the richest 2 percent of the world's people now own 51 percent of all the world's assets. The poorest 50 percent own only 1 percent."

Wall Street's hybrid economy has become "too big to fail." But what of Main Street?

Hardworking people, even those who did all the right things to produce the real wealth in this economy, are now facing the loss of jobs, home, and their pensions, all because they entrusted the fruit of years of their labor to a financial sector that values the empty riches of a sophisticated casino over people's daily contributions in creating their own healthy local economies.

If we were able to maintain the same rate of productivity growth of goods and services as we had between 1943 and 1975, we would be able to reduce our average workweek to 21 hours, or take an additional 24 weeks of vacation and still have the same income available in 2030 as we have today, writes Baker.

Ultimately, local communities – its people – are the bedrock of any nation. As Korten writes, "Money is not wealth. Money is merely an accounting chit with no intrinsic value – it is useless until we exchange it for something of real value."

For communities, all over the world, how money exchanges hands and for what purpose should be the true deal maker – or breaker. Surely, all of us can agree these things are priceless: healthy, thriving families and communities, fulfilling our highest potential by exchanging our goods and services for the purpose of creating a life free of violence from crime, war or terrorism or fear of homelessness, and dying with dignity in the care of loving relatives around us.

It's time to get our priorities straight.

OBAMA: UNION BUSTER?



OK, OK, I’ve had enough.

Enough of hoping that Barack Obama would turn into the true agent for change that he promised he would be.

There have been a number of disappointments for me --- which began when Obama started making questionable appointments to his transition team prior to inauguration, and have continued on in the first few months of his presidency. These include backtracking on promises to uphold civil liberties, relying on the advice of Wall Street insiders to solve the banking crisis and refusing to nationalize banks, and opposing a single-payer plan to replace our nation’s awful health care system.

But the final straw for me has came just in the last few weeks, in statements made by Obama on two key issues ---- the reshaping of the auto industry and the need to review and most likely cut spending on entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare.

In this article, I am going to discuss Obama’s plans for the car industry, and in a follow-up post, I’ll write about entitlements.

As everyone knows, the Detroit automakers have been floundering badly in recent years, and in the case of GM and Chrysler, have needed billions of dollars in government bailouts to stay afloat. They’ve gotten those aid packages, but along with it, a lot of tough talk from the President and members of his auto task force, headed by Wall Street billionaire Steve Rattner and other investment types. The auto companies were told earlier this year, after $17 billion in aid was extended, that they had to revamp and restructure their firms --- make them lean and mean --- or the government would no longer help.

When recent plans for restructuring submitted by GM and Chrysler were rejected as inadequate, Obama said Chrysler would have to merge with a partner, namely Fiat, to get more aid, or the government would let the company collapse and be liquidated. GM was given one last chance to submit a better plan, or the government would push it into bankruptcy. The GM Chairman, Rick Wagoner, was forced to resign.

Recent press reports indicate that it’s highly likely that GM --- which employs hundreds of thousands of workers and pays health benefits and pensions to hundreds of thousands more retirees --- will be forced into bankruptcy. What Obama and his task force want to do is wipe out as much as possible GM’s debts and liabilities and make a new, slimmer company more competitive and attractive for investors.

Unless some new and different procedures are adopted for the bankruptcy process, this situation spells big trouble for the United Auto Workers.

Bankruptcy proceedings are usually not friendly venues for unions. Unions take a back seat in bankruptcy court, while other creditors get priority treatment. All too often, corporations have gotten bankruptcy judges to erase union contracts, cut pay, slash benefits and eliminate pensions. Just ask unions in the steel and airline industries, where court approved restructuring plans caused deep pain for thousands of workers.

Unless the government makes an arrangement whereby the UAW is given more say in a bankruptcy proceeding than unions normally get, the UAW can expect to see contracts for active workers and retirees eviscerated.

The impact of this would be devastating for the nearly 500,000- member UAW --- one of the strongest unions in the United States --- and damaging for the economy as a whole, particularly the Midwest.

The labor movement would take a body blow similar to the devastating hit Ronald Reagan gave unions when he fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

In an article entitled “Wall Street Sharks Circle UAW”, posted on Common Dreams, Harper’s Magazine publisher John MacArthur says that whether Obama eases GM into Chapter 11 bankruptcy or whether he forces the UAW to fork over massive givebacks outside of court, the union would essentially be emasculated.

As MacArthur said, “we’re headed for the end of the line for middle-class unionism.”

The double-standard that is going on here --- with the way Obama is treating the auto industry and its workers versus how he’s treating the Wall Street banks --- is appalling.

While the President and his advisers balked at providing another $24 billion for GM and Chrysler (which the firms asked for in March) and ordered workers to make deep concessions, some $3 trillion in taxpayer dollars has been made available to shore up banks and investment firms, to help them dig out of their problem with “toxic assets,”--- essentially those investments in derivatives and hedge funds which went bad.

Almost no one at the top the banking firms has been held to account for their terrible management the way Wagoner was at GM.


Maybe it’s not surprising that Obama is treating the auto industry and its workers so differently than the Wall Street banks. According to the research group Open Secrets, the finance, insurance and real estate sector gave Obama just over $38 million in his presidential campaign, while labor gave “only” $466,324.


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So what’s a better way for Obama dealing with the car companies and their workers?

How about taking some of the billions being funneled to banks and instead use the money to reopen closed car plants and convert them into factories that make energy efficient cars and equipment for the light rail system that Obama just proposed? A government entity or quasi-government entity could run these plants, at least on a temporary basis. This would save jobs, do wonders for the economy, help the environment and be an investment so much more valuable than throwing more dollars at insolvent banks.

As with so many issues, it's going to take a mass movement to force Barack Obama to take progessive action for dealing with the crisis in the auto industry. It's become painfully clear he won't do it on his own.