Dear George W. Bush---

Cong. Barney Frank said recently that Barack Obama’s declaration that “there is only one president at a time” over-estimated the number. He was referring to the economic crisis. But where are you on the Gaza crisis where the civilian population of Gaza, its civil servants and public facilities are being massacred and destroyed respectively by U.S built F-16s and U.S. built helicopter gunships.


Continue reading "Letter to Bush on Gaza Crisis"

Earlier this year, while speaking in Fargo, North Dakota, Colleen Donley brought her nine year old son, Adam, from Perham, Minnesota, to the gathering to complain about the curriculum materials on the presidential race produced by Scholastic Magazine. Adam wanted to vote for me but their mock paper ballots had only two choices picturing John McCain and Barack Obama. Continue reading "Schooltime for Candidates"

It’s time for that Holiday reading period and here are some deserving but little publicized recommendations: Continue reading "2008 Holiday Reading List"

In ancient China, the character for “crisis” was associated with “opportunity.” This month Congress will be faced with both challenges from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, whose CEOS are begging for a very rapid $34 billion in emergency government loans.

The three auto giants have few cards to play other than the domino effect on the economy, should they collapse into bankruptcy and liquidation. Once Congress signals that, on behalf of its sullen taxpayers, going into this abyss will not happen, our national legislature will hold all the cards. Continue reading "Crisis and Opportunity"

It has never been more clear how much corporations depend on We, the People for their very existence. Corporations are given the right to exist through a public charter. For public corporations, shareholders are bestowed with limited liability, and they benefit from a public system of securities regulation that gives investors confidence to invest. In the best of times, corporations benefit both from public goods (public roads and infrastructure, public investment in R&D) and targeted benefits (tax subsidies, loan guarantees, and much more). In the worst of times, as we now see, the largest corporations can expect massive public support. Bloomberg reports that the United States has already committed an amazing $7.76 trillion -- more than half of U.S. GDP -- in funds for bailouts, guarantees, share purchases, insurance programs, swaps and more. Continue reading "Open The Books Save The Economy"

While the liberal intelligentsia was swooning over Barack Obama during his presidential campaign, I counseled “prepare to be disappointed.” His record as a Illinois state and U.S. Senator, together with the many progressive and long overdue courses of action he opposed during his campaign, rendered such a prediction unfortunate but obvious. Continue reading "The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same"

Barack Obama is receiving lots of advice from many people these days about the collapse of Wall Street, the sinking economy and the quagmire wars he will inherit from the Bush regime. However, there is one important matter that he alone can address with his legal training and the sworn oath he will take on January 20 to uphold the Constitution. That phenomenon is the systemic, chronic lawlessness and criminality of the Bush/Cheney regime which he must unravel and stop. Continue reading "Restoring the Constitution"

November 10, 2008

To: James K. Glassman

From: Ralph Nader

Subject: The Dow

During the past few weeks, several people have asked me a question that you must be getting from your friends: “What does Jim Glassman say NOW, given the collapse of Wall Street and the securities market?”

They and many others remember your 1999 book, with Kevin A. Hassett, euphorically but seriously titled DOW 36,000! It was a Business Week bestseller. It was praised on its front and back cover by Knight A. Kiplinger (“rock-solid investment advice”), and the venerable Burton G. Malkiel (“a well-written treatise that cannot be dismissed”) and Jim Jubak (“Dow 36,000: Everything you know about stocks is wrong.”)

Don’t you think you owe your many readers an elaborative explanation? I suggest that you write a new book with the title “THE DOW—TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND POINTS TO GO IF YOU KEEP THE FAITH.”

Let’s hear from the usually voluble Jim Glassman. You’ve been entirely too withdrawn of late.

Dear Senator Obama:

In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo. Continue reading "Between Hope and Reality"

I wish to declare the principle of political equivalence as grounds for the moral authority to govern through shared benefits and sacrifices between these in Washington, D.C. who rule and the citizens who are ruled. Continue reading "Political Equivalence"

The three so-called presidential debates—really parallel interviews by reporters chosen by the Obama and McCain campaigns—are over and they are remarkable for two characteristics—convergence and avoidance.

A remarkable similarity between McCain and Obama on foreign and military policy kept enlarging as Obama seemed to enter into a clinch with McCain each time McCain questioned his inexperience or softness or using military force. Continue reading "Debatable Debates"

“Real change comes from the bottom up, not the top down. The genius of the American system has been to let that change flow upward, from neighborhoods to cities to states and then to the federal government.” George W. Bush February 26, 2001. Continue reading "Closing the Courthouse Door"

The derivatives markets of today have become a high stakes casino of unimaginable magnitude. Wall Street's bets have gone bad, and now the whole financial system is in peril. In a best-case scenario, it appears, the taxpayers will be required to rescue the system from itself. This is why Warren Buffett labeled derivatives "weapons of financial mass destruction." Continue reading "Rolling the Dice on Derivatives"

The current finger pointing by the deregulation crowd in Congress and their ideological soul mates in the media reminds me of the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz. It is as though these spin masters want us to pay no attention to the government officials behind the deregulation curtain. Continue reading "Behind The Deregulatory Curtain"