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CONFLUENCE OF THESE FACTORS DRIVING UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGE TO INTEGRATED GLOBAL ECONOMY 2 January 2008 2008 will be a year in which the integrity of election processes, the quality and resilience of cultivated soils, the availability of credit to consumers, the affordability of homes and rentals, and access to affordable vital staples like food and water, as well as the cost of transportation, will affect economies the world over. Some economic analysts have said the combination of these factors, resulting instability or environmental degradation, and migration of affected populations, could mean the world is facing an unprecedented level of economic precariousness. [Full Story] PAULSON BOND PROPOSAL AIMS TO STAVE OFF FORECLOSURES The Secretary of the US Treasury Dept., Henry Paulson, has proposed a plan whereby Congress would approve new legislation allowing state and local governments to issue tax-exempt bonds to homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages who need to refinance in order not to suffer foreclosure. The plan would allow "innovative mortgage programs" to be kept at lower cost, allowing affected borrowers to keep their homes while they pay down potentially crippling loans. [Full Story] HOUSING MARKET CRISIS TIED TO SPECULATION, 'PREDATORY' LENDING As the crisis stemming from high-risk sub-prime mortgage lenders' collapse in the US spreads, the real estate market beyond US borders is being hit by what observers are calling the 'credit crunch', taking for granted this will affect all international financial endeavors, such is the situation. The governor of the Bank of England has now warned that the United Kindom is facing what should be its tightest economic year in a decade, warning that the slowdown could last into 2009. [Full Story] THE COST OF GOING GREEN MAY ACTUALLY BE NEW BOOM ECONOMY Ecological advancement and retro-fitting will be the new boom economy. Let's make sure we do everything possible to fund not only research, but implementation. What will it cost to produce an environmentally-oriented overhaul of the US economy, by way of the private sector, with government incentives, and to the ever-growing benefit of private sector interests? [Full Story] WEAK DOLLAR IS CANARY IN PROVERBIAL ECONOMIC COAL MINE Americans living overseas see the front edge of the dollar collapse. Life in Europe seems to be twice as expensive as just a few years ago, as Euro-driven price-inflation meets the rapid drop in the value of the dollar against major currencies, like the Euro and the British Pound Sterling. Americans at home are facing higher food prices, higher fuel costs, and an overall slowdown in home-buying. [Full Story] ENERGY INDEPENDENCE & CLIMATE PROTECTION: A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE We are currently in the grips of the many problems inherent in a petroleum-centered economy and increasingly, business is seeing the urgent need to transition to a cleaner, more cost-effective, less politically hazardous, and economically and environmentally sustainable future. A video documentary now suggests the time has come when government, business and the public are aware of the need to build a comprehensively "new economy". [Full Story] TEXAS BUILDING WIND FARM INFRASTRUCTURE WITH 7,000 MEGAWATTS' CAPACITY "A typical coal-fired power-plant is 300 megawatts", reminds the ecological researcher and author, Lester Brown. In Texas, in a demonstration of what he calls "quantum-jump thinking of what the future might look like", thy're building a wind-harvesting industry that will produce 7,000 megawatts of electricity. This is a huge advance for the economical commitment to renewable resources. [Full Story] ENERGY POLICY, OR THE UNNECESSARY PROLONGATION OF AN INEFFICIENT STATUS QUO? The US Congress is still working on producing legislation that would bring together federal law and executive regulatory policy in one comprehensive national energy strategy. The special consulting group organized in 2001 by the vice president wanted nuclear plants and "clean coal", but both carry huge costs for preventing or reversing high levels of contamination, and neither is broadly considered the "future" by scientific consensus. [Full Story] DEVELOPERS SUCCESSFULLY LOBBY TO SOFTEN WETLANDS CONSERVATION RULES In June 2006, the Supreme Court issued a ruling requiring that previously unprotected small or unmapped streams and waterways be brought under the 1972 Federal Clean Water Act. Isolated wetlands were to fall under this ruling, and the US government drafted a policy proposal that would regulate the development or filling of such wetlands. Now, new language added to the rules, seem to leave isolated wetlands without federal oversight. [Full Story] BUSH ANNOUNCES PLAN TO REGULATE GASOLINE CONSUMPTION IN VEHICLES In response to a Supreme Court ruling 6 weeks ago that found carbon dioxide to be a pollutant eligible for regulation, Pres. Bush has announced he will order the EPA to regulated gasoline consumption for vehicles by the end of 2008. Bush said in the White House rose garden that the American people "expect action" on greenhouse gas emissions. Critics say the long delay in enacting the new regulations is designed to forestall the implementation of new standards in some states. [Full Story] US SUPREME COURT RULES EPA MUST REGULATE CARBON EMISSIONS In a lawsuit brought by 12 states, several cities and a dozen pro-environment organizations against the federal government, the US Supreme Court has handed down a narrow 5 to 4 ruling reversing Bush administration policy that avoids regulating carbon dioxide emissions. The Court says the Clean Air Act specifically authorizes the EPA to enforce such regulation in order to protect the public and effect clean air standards. [Full Story] WHY WIND IS SMARTER Wind energy offers something no carbon-based fuel can offer: zero emissions, zero cleanup, local control and reasonable local supply everywhere on Earth, and it is 100% non-climate disruptive and essentially infinitely renewable. In fact, the overall global wind resource far exceeds our capacity even to harness or to use it. As of 2003, Pentagon-commissioned research had found that just 3 wind-rich midwestern states possess sufficient wind resources to power the entire US economy with existing wind-turbine technology. [Full Story] DOWN TO THE LAST DROP: THE COMING RIPPLE EFFECT OF THE PROJECTED OIL PEAK Petroleum is a finite resource, an energy-rich "fossil" substance, and we can only burn what we find, until it is gone. "Peak Oil" is the moment when extant reserves of crude oil are no longer enough to sustain the global economy's annual production levels, and production will no longer be able to match increases in demand... A permanent disruption in the supply of cheap oil means a worrying and widespread threat to the world's food-production and distribution systems. [Full Story] FAMILY UNFRIENDLY: US LAGS WORLD IN FAMILY BENEFITS A new study, produced by the Project on Global Working Families, compares guaranteed family-related labor benefits in the US to over 100 industrial and developing countries. The study found that a lack of government mandates has left the US behind not only industrial democracies, but even poorer developing countries like Botswana and El Salvador, in terms of protections for workers responsible for children and sick relatives. The US requires no paid sick leave; at least 66 million American workers receive no pay for any time taken for illness. By comparison, 139 other countries require or provide paid leave for short- or long-term illness. 116 cover at least 10 days per year. The study specifies that a majority of middle class families suffer the burden of this benefit-policy lag. [Full Story] BANK OF AMERICA COMMITS TO RESPONSIBLE CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY Bank of America has committed itself to an effort to maintain healthy ecosystems and to promote environmental standards for business practice. Noting that the health of local economies is tied to the health of regional ecosystems, the bank's CEO, Ken Lewis, went on to say: "In meeting this responsibility, we are committing to a higher standard of environmental awareness in our business and financing practices and will encourage others in corporate America to do the same." The announcement specifies a timetable for environmental efficiency goals, specifically in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, across Bank of America's investment spectrum. The starting target for reduction is 7 percent by 2008, derived from recommendations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [For more: GreenBiz.com] JOBS GROWTH SLOWING, POLICY IN QUESTION New figures indicate that modest gains in employment largely disappeared in December. ABC news reports job growth in October stood at 100,000 new jobs, slipping to 43,000 new jobs in November, shrinking further to only 1,000 new jobs in December. Treasury Secretary John Snow told ABC's This Week that "high productivity" is responsible for ongoing job vacuum. ABC's George Will reminded Sec. Snow that "we're 25 months into the recovery from a recession that lasted only 8 months" and suggested that "all we know about economics" is not enough. This Week moderator George Stephanopoulos raised the IMF's recent admonition that projected massive US budget deficits are a danger to the health of the global economy and need to be corrected. Sec. Snow added that the gains in growth projected to result from current tax policy will only partially finance the tax cuts of recent years. HYDROGEN HITS NEW MEXICO Toyota has introduced its first full-sized hydrogen fuel-cell powered SUV to New Mexico. Governor Bill Richardson, who organized the visit, says he wants his state to become the hydrogen fuel-cell research capital of the nation. The vehicle runs entirely on hydrogen and emits only water vapor as exhaust. The Los Alamos laboratories are conducting some of the vital research required to produce safe, efficient, reliable fuel-cell vehicles. Skeptics say the technology will take decades to perfect, but Toyota appears to have demonstrated that it has the will to follow through and is achieving big goals. One Los Alamos researcher, Piotr Zelenay, said "It runs just like a regular car, with one difference: It's quiet." [For more: AP] SUNDAY MORNING GUIDANCE & SPRAWL Senator Clinton told ABC's This Week that Bush has "no economic policy, as near as I can tell" and has placed all hope in blunt tax cuts. Gingrich says there is a new and growing danger of deflation in the US economy. He forecast a "20 to 30 year cycle" in which the globalization of trade, together with the "rise of India and China" conspire to undermine economic growth in the US. While American taxpayers are asked to pay for much needed Iraqi policing, even as cities and states across the country face financial crisis and new federal security mandates, funding for the COPS program has been abandoned... [Full Story] BIPARTISAN CONCORD COALITION CRITICIZES BIG SPENDING The budget-reform grassroots organization, the Concord Coalition, has issued its review of new spending measures passed through the Republican-controlled Congress. In its report, "Over the Fiscal Brink", Concord criticizes the new Medicare bill as big spending aimed at political gain, without providing any of the structural reforms needed for facing the "age wave", during which the ratio of seniors to non-senior taxpayers will shrink to 2 to 1, the lowest in history. The report calls debate over the bill a "surprising spectacle" in which Republicans push "biggest expansion of government in a generation", while Democrats threaten to filibuster. [For more: Concord Coalition] BUFFETT BUFFETS DIVIDEND CUT Today the Washington Post published an editorial written by Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway CEO, who criticized the plan for cutting or eliminating taxes on stock dividends, saying it relies on the same flawed accounting that brought down Enron and its accountants, and that it takes no serious action to stimulate economic growth. The legendary financial sage cited the possibility that his own tax burden might drop to just 3% of his overall income, while his receptionist would pay 30% of hers. So, the wealthiest Americans might have only one-tenth the tax burden of the less prosperous majority. Mr. Buffett is not the first business leader to criticize the plan, but is certainly the most prominent to date, and the general gloom about his critique helped underscore his disapproval of a plan which he calls "dividend voodoo". His critique relies primarily on the premise that it is the majority of taxpayers who will pay for this tax-cut, and yet it would be their spending that would stimulate the economy. WHAT IS A "FREE" MARKET? It is often said that the cornerstone of globalization is the "opening-up" of "free markets", but the public has had little direct access to the instruments of this revolution in international trade. The term "free" market would seem to espouse the fundamental belief in a pragmatic, liberal-democratic capitalism, favoring the rights of individuals, and serving the interests of nations by keeping prices low and prosperity high. But is the current regime of free trade producing the desired (or professed) results? Like so many questions of its kind, this quickly becomes a question of media-transparency. [Keep Reading] DOLLAR FALLS FURTHER AGAINST EURO The Euro has been gaining ground against the US dollar, and now looks poised to reach an all-time high, near $1.19. This poses a threat to opportunities for European exporters, and has many waiting to see whether the US will favor a strong or weak dollar. SUPPLY & DEMAND STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL PRE-EMINENCE Current debate regarding tax policy and its capacity to stimulate growth has revolved primarily around the president's tax plan. Though proponents of the plan have artfully avoided the term "supply-side economics", the plan is considered by many to be one of the most directly supply-side proposals in memory. A variety of economists have asserted that current economic troubles stem from a glut of supply. This would indicate a need to stimulate demand... [Full Story] UNEMPLOYMENT RISING Today it was announced that unemployment has hit 6%. More than half a million jobs have been lost in the last three months. This is reportedly the largest job loss ever not officially occurring within a recession. This has stirred fears that the economy is not in recovery, as well as widespread skepticism about the government's attempts to stimulate growth. Many are beginning to question the methods chosen by elected officials to manage the economy, and others are questioning the will of Congress to act to curb further losses. [Full Story] |
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