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Here's the second in Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's series as they describe Hillary Clinton's years in Little Rock and her narrow escape from federal charges that would have destroyed her political career for ever. PLUS KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY on how Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are failing Black America even as they hunt for votes in So uth Carolina's "Black Primary." Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now
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Today's Stories August 24, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts August 23, 2007 Kathy
Kelly P.
Sainath Ron
Jacobs Christopher
Brauchli D.K.
Wilson Joshua
Frank Dan
Bacher Brenda
Norrell John
Wright David
Vest Website
of the Day
August 22, 2007 Norman
Finkelstein Marc
Levy Lawrence
R. Velvel Ray
McGovern Norman
Solomon John
Walsh Michael
Dickinson William
S. Lind Bill
Hatch Kenneth
E. Foster and John Joe Amador David
Vest Website
of the Day
Saul
Landau Alan
Farago John
Stauber Phillip
Rizk Debbie
Nathan Binoy
Kampmark Martha
Rosenberg Sunsara
Taylor Website
of the Day
August 20, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Uri
Avnery Rannie
Amiri John
Ross Harvey
Wasserman Robert
Billyard Dave
Lindorff James
Rothenberg David
"DC" Larson Website
of the Day August 18 / 19, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Saul
Landau Ralph
Nader Patrick
Cockburn Robert
Fantina Robert
S. Eshelman P.
Sainath Dave
Lindorff Anthony
DiMaggio Fred
Gardner Ron
Jacobs Tom
Turnipseed Paul
Krassner Ben
Tripp Andrew
Wimmer Nancy
Oden N.D.
Jayaprakash Rick
Smith Missy
Beattie Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
Joanne
Mariner Paul
Craig Roberts Shepherd
Bliss Dave
Lindorff John
Muthyala Patrick
Cockburn Sherwood
Ross Phil
Doe David
Michael Green Website
of the Day
Jonathan
Cook Christopher
Brauchli Norman
Solomon Lee
Sustar / George
Bisharat Binoy
Kampmark Evelyn
Pringle Hugo
Blanco Website
of the Day
August 15, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Michael
Neumann Jordan
Flaherty Sonja
Karkar Felice
Pace Joshua
Frank Dave
Lindorff Carla
Blank David
Vest Harvey
Wasserman Peter
Rost, M.D. Russell
Mokhiber Website
of the Day
August 14, 2007 Paul
de Rooij Winslow
T. Wheeler David
Rosen Gary
Leupp Clifton
Ross Muhammad
Idress Ahmad Jacquelyn
Godin Uri
Avnery Ramzy
Baroud James
McEnteer Website
of the Day
August 13, 2007 Jeremy
Scahill F.
William Engdahl Alexander
Cockburn Kathy
Kelly Chris
Floyd Paul
Craig Roberts William
Blum Kenneth
Couesbouc Rannie
Amiri Brenda
Norrell Fran
Shor Ron
Jacobs Website
of the Day
August 11 / 12, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Stan
Goff Ralph
Nader Vijay
Prashad Greg
Moses Alan
Farago Patrick
Cockburn Ben
Tripp Robert
Fantina John
Ross Seth
Sandronsky Paul
Krassner Website
of the Weekend
August 10, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Stan
Goff Marjorie
Cohn Saul
Landau Chris
Floyd Daniel
Ellsberg Anthony
Papa Farzana
Versey Sgt.
Kevin Benderman Nuri
Nuri Website
of the Day
August 9, 2007 Stan
Goff Paul
Craig Roberts Alan
Farago William
S. Lind Doug
Giebel Harvey
Wasserman Jacob
Hill Raul
Zibechi Dave
Zirin Website
of the Day
August 8, 2007 Andy
Worthington Jeff
Halper Greg
Moses Nurit
Peled-Elhanan Sukant
Chandan Robert
Fisk George
H. Strauss D.K.
Wilson Bill
Day Tim
Campbell Website
of the Day
August 7, 2007 Patrick
Cockburn Andy
Worthington Kathy
Kelly Stan
Cox Sonja
Karkar Sen.
Russ Feingold Alan
Farago Norman
Solomon Binoy
Kampmark Dave
Lindorff John
Stauber Website
of the Day August 6, 2007 Bill
Quigley Kathy
Rentenbach Uri
Avnery Col.
Dan Smith Ralph
Nader James
Neshewat D.K.
Wilson Greg
Moses Fidel
Castro Mike
Whitney
August 4 / 5, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Peter
Linebaugh Saul
Landau Alan
Farago Dave
Zirin Barucha
Calamity Peller Anthony
DiMaggio Dave
Lindorff Fred
Gardner Nicola
Nasser Benjamin
Dangl Rannie
Amiri Daniel
Gross Sherwood
Ross Manuel
Garcia, Jr Missy
Beattie Ron
Jacobs Website
of the Weekend
August 3, 2007 Gabriel
Matthew Schivone Jonathan
Cook Patrick
Cockburn Little
Steven Van Zandt Christopher
Brauchli D.
K. Wilson Linda
Ford and Ira Glunts Kelly
Overton Monica
Benderman Manuel
Garcia, Jr. Website
of the Day
August 2, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Stanley Heller Eric
Ruder Robert
Fantina Alan
Farago Chris
Floyd Franklin
Lamb Sen.
Russ Feingold Anthony
Papa Norman
Solomon Website
of the Day
August 1, 2007 Debbie Nathan Fred
Gardner Gary
Leupp David
Rosen Winston
Warfield Daniel
McBride Glen
Ford Thomas
P. Healy John
V. Whitbeck David
Krieger Website
of the Day
July 31, 2007 Kathy
Kelly Clancy Sigal Paul Krassner Joe
DeRaymond Diane
Christian Chris
Floyd Ramzy
Baroud Alan
Farago Fidel
Castro Dan
Bacher
July 30, 2007 Marjorie Cohn: Independent Counsel Time Patrick Cockburn Peter Quinn Uri Avnery John Ross Ron
Jacobs David
Vest Jeffrey
St. Clair Website
of the Day
July 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Ralph
Nader Robert
Fantina Fred
Gardner
July 27, 2007 John
Ross Arthur
Neslen Dave
Lindorff Julene
Blair Christopher
Brauchli Jesse
Hagopian Charles
Modiano Bill
Day Walter
Brasch M.D.
Mitchell Website
of the Day
July 26, 2007 Kathleen
Christison Andy
Worthington Clancy
Chassay Marjorie
Cohn Susie
Day David
Price Marie
Trigona Norman
Solomon William
S. Lind Natsu
Saito John
Stauber Website
of the Day
July 25, 2007 Andy
Worthington Gary
Leupp Ray
McGovern Dr.
Susan Block Joshua
Frank Tina
Richards Ben
Terrall Farzana
Versey Mohammad
Ali Salih Laura
Carlsen Ron
Jacobs Sunsara
Taylor Website
of the Day
Saul
Landau Kathy
Kelly Russell
Mokhiber M.
Shahid Alam Patrick
Cockburn and Anne Penketh Dave
Lindorff Binoy
Kampmark Richard
Neville Cindy
Sheehan Evelyn
Pringle Norman
Solomon CP
Newswire Website
of the Day
July 23, 2007 Andy
Worthington Uri
Avnery Patrick
Cockburn Sousan
Hammad John
Walsh Harvey
Wasserman Martha
Rosenberg Collin Baber
Reza
Fiyouzat Stephen
Lendman Website
of the Day
July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Werther Ralph
Nader David
Keen Fred
Gardner Gary
Leupp Robert
Fantina Saker Rannie
Amiri Mike
Whitney Dr.
Susan Rosenthal, MD Monica
Benderman Dan
Bacher Michael
Baney Missy
Beattie Ron
Jacobs Adam
Engel Thomas
Naylor Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
July 20, 2007 Eliza
Szabo Pam
Martens Alan
Farago Harvey
Wasserman Marjorie
Cohn Dave
Zirin Anthony
DiMaggio Scott
Liebertz Linn
Washington, Jr. Bill
Piper / Anthony Papa Ramzy
Baroud Website
of the Day
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August 24, 2007 The Pain of Paper MillionairesDissent, the Housing Crash and the Next PresidentBy ALAN FARAGO
A thousand and one bearish pundits have been leaping on the staggering bull of the housing market. Even the presidential candidates are on the sidelines, wondering how to place their bets. The bull rises to shake them off, nostrils flaring. The infusion of hundreds of billions by the world's central banks lubricates its joints. This is what taxpayers must want, for the world central banks to be commanding liquidity and the printing presses forward, faster, harder. It is a great bull that can summon such resources. But is there a plan? Is there
an end in sight? Is there a candidate to be president who can
seize the moment? The news is filled with investment banks and mortgage firms announcing big layoffs. Still it will take months even quarters for the extent of damage to world debt markets to reveal, with so much investment tied up in hedge funds and private equity opaque even to investors. It is a seeming paradox: how federal regulators are fanning across Wall Street like NIH teams sniffing for bird flu, while financial executives egg on the bull: "confidence is returning to credit markets". What else could they say and who would listen, given that fellow citizens never cared much about tomorrow so long as their gas tanks can be filled at a reasonable cost today. That is what the presidential candidates know to be true. But this is what I know to be even more true. For a decade, the state of Florida has been sniffing glue from the paper bag of the multi-billion dollar construction and development industry. This is not hyperbole. From the governor's mansion to the state legislature, straight down to the scurrying and scratching of local city and county commissions, the thrall of the bubble in Florida has most people and media casting a wistful glance backwards in time. Meanwhile, the Everglades and tens of thousands of acres of wetlands and billions of dollars in coastal real estate have turned forever pale. Aquifers are so depleted in sandy parts of the state that the local growth industry is sinkhole insurance. This is how the confused dream of compassionate conservatism-exemplified by former Governor Jeb Bush-played out: that the best way to "protect" the environment is through economic growth and stifling dissent by the way. So it is no surprise that Florida is hip-deep in red algae washed ashore, furious environmentalists, and the dominant concern of the Chamber of Commerce is; can't we just get the machines, and the graders, and the nail guns going again? No, we can't. Not until there is a discussion about what forms of economic growth can sustain and nurture a democracy that is wobbling on its knees. Of course Americans are so conditioned to passivity bred by the triumph of the inconsequential that accountability has more or less disappeared as an anchor for democracy. But nothing hurts like a recession or worse. Now is the time for dissent. Incipient anger is rising in the United States, but the deep stresses underlying the world's largest economy, transformed by the force of globalization, remain poorly observed. Here is the simple version: as jobs and manufacturing poured from the American heartland to low-labor cost nations like the tide ebbing at the Bay of Fundy. (click here, for a visual representation.) The US economy became increasingly reliant on growth generated by housing and construction: a stool built on two legs. This was the genius of the Republican gains in Congress and control of the White House: the growth machine provided political contributions through the funnel of construction and development, primed by historic low interest rates of the Federal Reserve and marginal, ineffective supervision of lending practices and financial derivatives. Critics of this point of view argue that the dispersion of risk, through derivatives, is a net good to society, making global economies safer: that is only true if risk is clearly priced. But there are so many external costs of growth-like carbon emissions-that are not included in pricing risk, that even if financial derivatives were clearly packaged, the underlying models still won't work. Others argue that technology and productivity gains represent important fuel for economic growth: the third leg of the US economic stool. But technology gains serve the American consumer whose purchases are determined, mostly, by preferences in housing and construction. The epitome of these preferences, suburban sprawl, is described by advocates as "what the market wants". Clearly, humans were not created to live in zero lot line subdivisions: suburban sprawl is what the market can easily finance, not what the market wants. Patterns of construction and development in the US act in the same way as chutes for cattle: steering, herding, moving Americans into strip malls, platted cul de sacs, and cities serving the purposes of automobile executives and not ordinary people who haven't been blessed by sales training programs, seminars, and other techniques to market features as benefits and wants as needs. In this sense, the gains to the economy from technology and productivity represent a better-designed chute. That the two-legged stool has been sold as a three-legged stool is no less remarkable than the conversion of an ordinary mortgage by Wall Street bankers and fresh-faced MBA graduates into structured financial derivatives worth ten or a hundred times the original value. Democratic and Republican candidates to be president might be vaguely or even acutely aware that the crisis in the nation's housing markets has something to do with billion dollar bonuses garnered by Wall Street executives goading armies of lawyers, consultants, and engineers; teams that conjured an ocean of debt from the hard labor of American homeowners and workers, not to mention unions largely oblivious, as unions are to any other way of doing business. "An unstoppable force!" is what Jeb's former campaign finance chief, Al Hoffman, called the growth machine to the Washington Post in 2003. And even though the engine of growth in Florida is sputtering as elsewhere, even though Al Hoffman is ensconced in a sinecure ambassadorship in Portugal, even though Hoffman's company, WCI Communities, staggered into an agreement earlier this week with corporate raider, Carl Icahn, even though another sinecure ambassador, from the era of George HW Bush, Charles E Cobb Jr., is vice-chairman at WCI; no one became king, recently, by arguing as prince that something is rotten in the heart of Denmark. And so, let dissent help interpret what is happening in world financial markets. Firstly, understand that attributing the world-wide credit debacle to lowest quality home mortgagees, represented as "subprime", is a red herring. If the credit derivative problems are contained to homeownership-and that's emerging to be a big 'if'-who is really of consequence are America's paper millionaires, numbering according to Marketwatch in 2005, 8.9 million people. Many of these paper millionaires are readers, wondering if they have bitten off in housing expense more than they can chew. Since so much of the American economy is wrapped up in housing and construction, whether these paper millionaires are valuing their holdings as real estate wealth or stocks of companies like Home Depot or Countrywide Financial or Thornburgh Mortgage: the pain of the paper millionaires has yet to be accounted for in the presidential campaign. Secondly, be sure in the knowledge that the reading public is only getting half the story as world-wide financial markets pulse with uncertainty. We know as much about what is going on today in consideration of the risk to the global financial system as the public knew about Jekyll Island in 1910 or Quinn the Eskimo in 1967. The problem of financial derivatives is a lot like taking several origami models made of paper, unfolding them, laying them on a single plane, cutting them into four squares, shuffling them, and asking teams of lawyers to put them back in their original shapes as cranes or butterflies. Wall Street appears to believe that lowering the key interest rate of the Federal Reserve is a better task. It certainly is an easier one. What's wrong is that the federal government allowed financial institutions to spin without friction solid assets into a confection of liabilities so complicated, so vast, so difficult to unwind, that world credit markets are in a "coalition of the willing" whether they want to be, or, not. The world's biggest sumps for excess liquidity-China and oil producing nations-are struggling to keep their own demons in check. That a Fed interest rate cut,
or even a series of cuts, could lure the American consumer from
his or her home into more debt--or help to elect the next president
of the United States--makes very little sense.
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CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy  Click Here to Buy! Click Here for Dates & Venues How the Press Failed The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained!  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn   Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed        Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh                   |
