James Boyce’s recent post on the gulf oil-spill, “Truth Spill: Gulf Disaster Brings Home the Real Costs of Fossil Fuels,” generated the following video interview on the Real News Network. The video builds on recent posts on the subject of the gulf oil-spill by Triple Crisis bloggers Lyuba Zarksy, Alejandro Nadal, and Frank Ackerman.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster has the familiar ingredients of deregulation, deception, and destruction that characterize the relations between governments and multinational corporations. It was a man-made disaster, like Chernobyl. And like the global financial crisis, it all started with the explosion of a bubble, this time of methane gas.
The Wages of Deregulation
In 2008 the Bush-Cheney duo lifted the executive order banning offshore drilling, and the House of Representatives agreed to let a 26-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling expire. Deregulation was moving full speed ahead.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster has the familiar ingredients of deregulation, deception, and destruction that characterize the relations between governments and multinational corporations. It was a man-made disaster, like Chernobyl. And like the global financial crisis, it all started with the explosion of a bubble, this time of methane gas.
The Wages of Deregulation
In 2008 the Bush-Cheney duo lifted the executive order banning offshore drilling, and the House of Representatives agreed to let a 26-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling expire. Deregulation was moving full speed ahead.
Triple Crisis blogger Lyuba Zarsky was interviewed on Press TV May 14 on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Robert Wade, guest blogger
What should we make of the financial reform laid out in the Congress’ bill? The approach is based on the assumption that the financial system is basically sound but needs “more government” in the form of more regulation — as distinct from structural change (for example, to downsize very large banks or to separate deposit-taking banks from investment banks). The Democrat who shepherded the legislation through the Senate, Christopher Dodd, said that improving regulation made more sense than restraining an industry that was critical to the American economy and that faced fierce competition from foreign banks which would not be placed under similar restrictions.
The economic crisis in Greece, which has roiled all of Europe, has been presented by the mainstream media as arising from the mismanagement of economic resources. In fact, the real roots of the crisis and others like it are in the malfunctioning of political institutions.
Politics, according to the famous formulation of Harold Lasswell, is about who gets what, when and how. Although all political institutions produce an answer to these questions, well-functioning ones must produce answers that are, at a minimum, not manifestly irrational (for instance, in the sense that they are worse for nearly everyone than those which some alternative would have brought about) nor manifestly unjust (for instance, in the sense that they systematically favor the already advantaged over the already disadvantaged). However, many political institutions fail to satisfy one or both of these criteria.
Many Triple Crisis bloggers have been examining the effects of the global financial crisis on decision makers at the IMF, particularly as concerns the policy space of developing countries. In these two interviews, Triple Crisis blogger Ilene Grabel considers the effect of the crisis on the economics profession and, in particular, on the policy advice proffered to developing countries by the IMF during the current financial crisis. Ilene focuses on whether the crisis has created more space for developing countries to implement capital controls, and she also discusses the draft proposals for taxing the financial sector that the IMF has presented to the G20 for consideration at its June meeting in Toronto.
Many Triple Crisis bloggers have been examining the effects of the global financial crisis on decision makers at the IMF, particularly as concerns the policy space of developing countries. In these two interviews, Triple Crisis blogger Ilene Grabel considers the effect of the crisis on the economics profession and, in particular, on the policy advice proffered to developing countries by the IMF during the current financial crisis. Ilene focuses on whether the crisis has created more space for developing countries to implement capital controls, and she also discusses the draft proposals for taxing the financial sector that the IMF has presented to the G20 for consideration at its June meeting in Toronto.
In many places, including Germany, the idea of a Green New Deal continues to be criticized from the well-known conservative angle and, more recently, from a progressive perspective as well. For instance, in a recently published book, “Green Capitalism: Crisis, Climate Change and Unchecked Growth,” the authors — Stephan Kaufmann and Tadzio Müller — equate the Green New Deal with the idea of “Green Capitalism.” Coming from a progressive perspective, they claim that these concepts only provide an ecological basis for perpetuating the existing and highly problematic economic system.
This new critique of the Green New Deal is not valid because it fails to understand that the Green New Deal does not entail a simple “greenwashing” of the existing system. In fact, the project would profoundly transform our economy and society.
The global Green New Deal is an imperative. Why?
“An upside-down faucet, just open and running out.” That’s how an oil-spill expert at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute describes the massive release of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico that began April 20th at British Petroleum’s Deep Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana. [See live video feed of the spill here.]
The disaster has opened an information faucet, too: every day, more truth about the real costs of fossil fuels is emptying into public view. Desperate efforts to control both spills are underway.
After its 450-ton blowout preventer failed, BP tried burning the oil slick, creating the macabre spectacle of the ocean on fire.