Bill Shein

Somewhat remarkable: Paul Krugman's recent NYT column on China (and its currency practices) makes not a single mention of the human rights situation, ignoring all of what's happening in Tibet and elsewhere in China. (http://tinyurl.com/yzt7x2v) It's a very troubling omission, given the continuing disappearances, executions, and suppression of political dissent. In my view, it's a sign of how much we've put money and commerce ahead of, well, pretty much everything else (at home and abroad).

For reference, here's our very own State Department's latest report on human rights abuses in China (http://tinyurl.com/autnyv). It's grim reading, and there's lots of it.

And here's a column I wrote in 2006 about how U.S. business interests in China trump everything else. Little has changed. (http://tinyurl.com/yk66hc6)

Check it: "My Day as David Brooks," a thoroughly sourced, entirely accurate, minute-by-minute, 100 percent factual reconstruction of what it must be like to spend a day as the New York Times neoconservative op-ed columnist, David Brooks. Seriously.

My Day as David Brooks
http://tinyurl.com/ydx3er6

Hi all,

So, the president gave a much ballyhooed speech on Monday to a roomful of eerily silent Wall Street executives, touting his administration's languishing proposals to "reform" Wall Street. The crowd applauded only once -- ironically, when the president mentioned his plan for a new agency to protect consumers from the worst practices of financial firms, which is, at this very moment, the focus of millions of dollars of ferocious anti-reform lobbying by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others. Maybe they didn't hear what he said? They thought he said "free kittens and puppies for everyone!" instead of "the old ways that led to this crisis cannot stand"? Does the ringing of that bell at the New York Stock Exchange damage eardrums?

Will anything change on Wall Street? Will any meaningful reform come out of Congress this year or next? If I was a betting man, I'd put my meager assets on "nope." Unfortunately, the status quo in modern consumer capitalism is to let big business and powerful multinational corporations have their way, at the expense of fairness, justice, and the planet. In essence, the "too big to fail" megafirms hold us all hostage. They use their economic power to influence and control the legislative process and limit the range of what's possible. (And, unfortunately, the Supreme Court will soon, very likely, overturn most restrictions on corporate spending directly in candidate elections -- a column on that subject soon.)

So, on that cheery note (!), here's the column about Obama's Wall Street speech. Share your thougths in the comments here or on my site at http://www.reasongonemad.com

Obama's Wall Street Speech, Cont'd
Link: http://tinyurl.com/n2epjs

Cheers,
Bill