Tag Archives: economics

Political Rants

By another name.

Cleveland’s police department has been issued a lengthy set of restrictions by the Justice Department in response to a pattern of systemic abuses and unconstitutional practices, according to the 110-page DOJ report. We know about some of the most egregious recent racially charged cases, such as the massive police chase after and killing of a black couple whose car backfired (which recently ended in acquittal of one officer), the killing of Tanisha Anderson, as well as the Tamir Rice case – one of the most heinous examples of police brutality in recent memory. Cleveland’s mayor has signed on to sweeping changes for the department, which may be a step in the right direction.

We're ALL on the hook for this outrage.This is, however, an issue that isn’t going to be solved through police reform. Yes, dialing back police tactics is a necessary component, but it is just one element in a far more complex picture. Black Americans have been treated like shit since emancipation (prior to that as well, of course). Black life has been criminalized nine ways from Friday, starting with the virtual enslavement of African Americans in the post-reconstruction era (as chronicled by Douglas Blackmon in Slavery By Another Name) through their continuing persecution in the modern era (see Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow). Couple that with the kinds of exclusionary practices in housing policy and employment that Richard Rothstein at the Economic Policy Institute writes about, and you will get a sense of how we’ve gotten to this place.

We need to face the fact that we have a deeply racist history as a nation – one that far outlasted slavery. It is a central theme of the American story, pervading every aspect of Black life, from the homes they live in to the jobs they are able to get to their ability to stay on the right side of the law. After decades and decades of regressive policies that restricted black families to some of the poorest areas in the country, kept them from prosperity, and subjected them to aggressive policing, we need to do more than tinker around the edges.

This is the civil rights challenge of our time. Confining reform to police departments is like blaming teachers for disadvantaged young people’s inability to succeed in school. We need to make bolder moves, and we need to start now.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Austerity rules.

Just a few things I want to comment on this week, not at any great length. Bear with me, please.

Human Rights. In what appeared to be an effort to elicit Vietnam’s cooperation in the looming Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) “free trade agreement” – really an investors’ rights agreement – Secretary of State John Kerry recently paid a visit to Hanoi to discuss new maritime security cooperation measures, against the backdrop of China’s recent declaration of a kind of demilitarized zone in the South China Sea. None of this is surprising, but what kind of made my jaw hang open was the reporting around the visit. The main hook was that Kerry had been part of America’s expeditionary force in South Vietnam during the war, and he toured some of his old haunts in the south. NPR (not to single them out – everyone else did this, too), practically in a single breath, made reference to this trip down memory lane, then referred to problems with Vietnam’s human rights record, which Washington complains about.

Kerry greets a survivor.Really? Just a little bit of context might be nice. What was Kerry doing there in the 1960s again? Vacationing? No. Oh, that’s right – he was part of a massive invasion force that was grinding Vietnam – particularly southern Vietnam – to a bloody pulp, leaving probably 2 million dead and three countries destroyed; a massive crime that we have never been held accountable for. I think it’s a little premature to lecture Hanoi on human rights, frankly.

Work release. The Fed will be dialing back their “quantitative easing” policy in the coming year. I have mixed feelings about this, frankly. The central bank has been the only organ of American power – public or private – seemingly willing to invest in this economy. Much of that investment has been in vain, as the banks the Fed lends to have been extremely reluctant to lend that money out. Corporations are sitting on their money, not hiring at any great clip. And of course, at every level of government, it’s cut, cut, cut; thousands of public sector jobs eliminated. Austerity rules, once again.

I have this nagging feeling that American capital is unwilling to invest in American workers – that they feel it’s a bad risk, and so they seek richer pastures elsewhere, where workers rights are even less protected the meager safeguards we enjoy here. What we need is some public investment entity to pick up the slack. We need to commit ourselves to full employment – if someone is willing and able to work, and the private sector has nothing to offer them, let the government provide them with work. They, in turn, will spend that money in their local economy, supporting private sector jobs and growth. At the same time we need to stop incentivizing corporate off-shoring of jobs (see the TPP, above).

Austerity isn’t inevitable. It’s a choice, a bad one, and we have to reject it if we want a better life.

luv u,

jp