Campaign for America’s Future is circulating a petition against austerity measures: About 350 economists and experts have signed a statement calling for “presidential leadership — and congressional action — to spur jobs and growth, not dangerous austerity.” The statement warns Washington leaders to heed the lessons of European countries that have tried to cut their…
Category: Austerity
The Austerity Bomb
The “fiscal cliff” is definitely the worst term for a constructed policy impasse, but I’m not sure how I feel about “austerity bomb.” Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo used the term in an article earlier this week: Automatic, across-the-board reductions to domestic and defense spending, combined with the looming expiration of the Bush tax…
What I’m doing this month
November is a month of heavy focused writing for me, which is all about public accountability so I thought I’d post it on here: Six key rules: • Decide on a goal that’s word, time or task based (and stretches you) • Publicly declare said goal (this gives you a push from the start) •…
Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law: Good for banks, not so good for people
Michigan’s Emergency Manager law is a big part of my dissertation, so I haven’t written about it much here. But after wading through the overwhelming media support for Proposition 1, which will affirm the Emergency Manager law passed by Republicans in 2011, a rare piece on the underlying issues caught my eye: Those who like…
Disasters and governments: all politics is local
Mitchell L. Moss writes for CNN.com about the relationship between urban policy and disasters. Much has been made of how the disaster will affect the national election, but as Moss points out it’s Mayor Bloomberg, Governors Cuomo and Christie, and other mayors who will deal with the fallout from Sandy. And he also points out…