Dec 2, 08
Obama Embraces Green-Collar Stimulus
by Alan Durning $100 billion for green jobs. Billion! The Associated Press reports plans for a massive new green-collar federal stimulus package: Obama has also embraced calls for a "green jobs" program that invests as much as $100 billion in projects to slash harmful emissions. This could include projects such as retrofitting buildings to make them more energy-efficient, upgrading the electrical grid and improving mass transit. "It turns out that putting money into green technologies...
Michael Heller and the Gridlock Economy
Professor Michael Heller of Columbia University got a nice endorsement for his book the other day. Former President Bill Clinton recommended his book, The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives, as a key to understanding the current fiscal crisis. Speaking at the Berkman Center, Heller begins by asserting “When too many people own pieces of one thing, nobody can use it.” Too much ownership in a society causes gridlock - the...
A Low-Carbon Stimulus and Recovery Plan
Imagine a future where government spending went to creating a low-carbon economy, powered by green collar workers and publicly-purposed investments. Instead of government spending that bails out auto industry CEOs and investment bankers on Wall Street, imagine spending that would truly boost the economy while creating real, long-term jobs. It doesn't need to be a pipe dream. A new report from the Center for American Progress proposes a way for the U.S. government to do just that. In...
What I've Learned From My Schizophrenic 401k
Three lessons from turbulent times. The stock market sank yet again yesterday, as a late-day sell-off pulled share prices down another 5 percent. It's just the latest in a series of occasionally-manic-but-mostly-depressive market convulsions. After getting so much good press for the last decade, the "wisdom of crowds" -- i.e., the combined knowledge of millions of investors -- seems pretty threadbare these days. The markets simply can't decide if it's finally time to buy, or time to keep...
Spreading the Green Around
Investment in clean energy could boost the economy and create millions of new jobs. by Anna Fahey In October, the Center for American Progress released a report by economists at the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute called, “Green Recovery.” The report (definitely worth a close study) showed that a $100 billion green economic investment could create 2 million US jobs in two years -- not to mention the wonders it would do for breaking our dangerous fossil...
Green-collar Stimulus 4: Two Bigger Plans
by Alan Durning On October 1, the national Apollo Alliance announced a plan for clean energy and green jobs that would cost $50 billion a year. When the alliance was framing its proposal, I’m guessing it was shooting for the moon, setting an unreasonably high target in order to raise the sights of Congress and the next administration. On October 3, the US Congress approved a $700 billion economic stabilization plan. In recent days, it’s discussing a new economic stimulus package that...
The Oil Bubble Pops?
Is there a conservation lesson in the oil price collapse? This trend may not be fully reflected at the gas pump yet, but the cost of oil is plummeting right along with the stock market. Starting in mid-summer oil prices slumped a bit, then slumped some more...and then regained a bit of ground. But just about when the economic news started looking especially dismal, the price of oil cratered -- falling from over $120 to under $70 in less than a month. (The chart is courtesy...
The Entire Debt of Africa Is Only $350 Billion
$700 billion still goes a long way. by Eric de Place I just can't help wondering what else we could do with $700 billion. According to the United Nations, the entire debt for the entire continent of Africa was about $320 billion in 2003. Adjusting for inflation and further accumulated debt, let's call it an even $350 billion. You could install solar panels on 20 million American homes for $300 billion. (I'm ballparking a rather conservative $15k for full installation of enough solar...
Cap and Train: Climate Policy and Green-collar Jobs
How to actually deliver green-collar jobs to those who need them. by Alan Durning Converting the Pacific Northwest over the next few decades to a place of compact, walkable communities that run on superefficient, renewable energy system—a climate-safe economy—will be a lot of work: paid work. But for all the exciting announcements of solar jobs and green-tech investment that pepper the newspapers, the skill sets of today’s workers are not yet aligned with the needs of this future....
The End of Cheap Oil as an Opportunity
By Claude Lewenz Housing prices are collapsing. The price of gasoline at the pump is skyrocketing. Soon the price of everything based on oil will skyrocket. The value of the US dollar is plummeting. Jobless rate hits a 22 year high. Meanwhile the son of the US Senator who sponsored the landmark, $10 billion Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (sponsored by Senator Al Gore Sr.) tells us that we face environmental catastrophe if we don’t curb greenhouse gasses caused in part by building and...
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