Dear Friends,
President Obama is moving ahead with re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. After removing Cuba from the United States list of terrorist countries in May, yesterday he announced that each country would establish an embassy in the capital of the other country. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders support President Obama's actions. Congress needs to act to lift the economic embargo, and I am proud to say that Senator Klobuchar from Minnesota has co-sponsored a bill to do just that and is a leader on this issue.
On the Republican side, it appears as though all the currently announced candidates for President with the possible exception of Rand Paul strongly oppose President Obama's efforts and will work hard to block funds for a US Embassy in Havana and block the ifting economic sanctions.
Clearly the Democrats are on the right side of this issue and united and that is good.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Monday, June 29, 2015
Greek Debt Crisis - Austerity at its Worst
Dear Friends,
If you are like me, you are having trouble understanding all the details of the Greek debt crisis. Now that things are clearly coming to a dramatic head, I have found two articles that simplify the crisis, both are from The New York Times. I would strongly recommend that you read them. The first one is an article by Liz Alderman entitled "Explaining the Greek Debt Crisis and What It Means for the Eurozone" (here). It is short, very readable and factually balanced. The second is an op-ed piece by Paul Krugman entitled "Greece Over the Brink" (here). He has written frequently about the Greek debt crisis, including two other pieces in the last week, entitled "Europe's Moment of Truth" (here) and "Breaking Greece" (here).
In my view, the entire crisis is the fault of the so-called troika (the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission) on behalf of Greek's creditors. The troika has force incredible austerity on Greece over the past five years. Despite the claims of conservatives, forcing such extreme austerity causes economic depression. As Krugman points out the severe cuts in Greek government spending were by themselves sufficient to erase their deficits, but they caused a severe economic depression which dramatically reduced revenues and made the crisis even worse. This crisis is not caused by Greece's excessive spending pre-2008, it is caused by the austerity measures force on it by the troika and Greece's in ability to offset that austerity by devaluing its currency. Krugman concludes that the only hope for Greece is for it to leave the Eurozone and adopt its own currency again.
While the troika is European, the United States is not without influence because of its participation in the International Monetary Fund. President Obama has not spoken out on behalf of Greece. Hillary Clinton does not appear to have addressed this crisis. Bernie Sanders has called for the Fed to bailout Greece and give their economy a chance to recover.
The domestic lesson for the United States to learn is that austerity does not work to solve a nation's debt problems, not in Greece (which is further hampered because it does not have its own currency) or in the United States. One of the critical jobs of a government is to stimulate the economy through spending in order to stimulate an economy in economic depression. Anybody that refutes that has failed to learn from history.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
If you are like me, you are having trouble understanding all the details of the Greek debt crisis. Now that things are clearly coming to a dramatic head, I have found two articles that simplify the crisis, both are from The New York Times. I would strongly recommend that you read them. The first one is an article by Liz Alderman entitled "Explaining the Greek Debt Crisis and What It Means for the Eurozone" (here). It is short, very readable and factually balanced. The second is an op-ed piece by Paul Krugman entitled "Greece Over the Brink" (here). He has written frequently about the Greek debt crisis, including two other pieces in the last week, entitled "Europe's Moment of Truth" (here) and "Breaking Greece" (here).
In my view, the entire crisis is the fault of the so-called troika (the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission) on behalf of Greek's creditors. The troika has force incredible austerity on Greece over the past five years. Despite the claims of conservatives, forcing such extreme austerity causes economic depression. As Krugman points out the severe cuts in Greek government spending were by themselves sufficient to erase their deficits, but they caused a severe economic depression which dramatically reduced revenues and made the crisis even worse. This crisis is not caused by Greece's excessive spending pre-2008, it is caused by the austerity measures force on it by the troika and Greece's in ability to offset that austerity by devaluing its currency. Krugman concludes that the only hope for Greece is for it to leave the Eurozone and adopt its own currency again.
While the troika is European, the United States is not without influence because of its participation in the International Monetary Fund. President Obama has not spoken out on behalf of Greece. Hillary Clinton does not appear to have addressed this crisis. Bernie Sanders has called for the Fed to bailout Greece and give their economy a chance to recover.
The domestic lesson for the United States to learn is that austerity does not work to solve a nation's debt problems, not in Greece (which is further hampered because it does not have its own currency) or in the United States. One of the critical jobs of a government is to stimulate the economy through spending in order to stimulate an economy in economic depression. Anybody that refutes that has failed to learn from history.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Clinton/Sanders - Fracking, XL Pipeline and Fossil Fuels
Dear Friends,
Hillary Clinton continues to refuse to say what her stand is on the XL Pipeline. Bernie Sanders has been an outspoken critic of the pipeline for years. Hillary Clinton has not spoken recently about fracking but when she was Secretary of State she was promoting fracking technology around the world. Bernie Sanders believes that fracking should be banned.
If you like President Obama's positions on fossil fuels, climate change, fracking, the XL Pipeline and alternative energy promotion, then you will like Hillary Clinton's positions as well. Senator Clinton has an all of the above energy policy.
In my view on these issues, Senator Clinton is far better than all the Republican candidates for President, but Senator Sanders is much closer to my own view on these issues. Senator Clinton will call herself a pragmatist. Once again on these issues, I would say that she is a very slow incrementalist that will wait until she will not get too much criticism or anger her political and foundation donors too much by protecting the environment.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
Hillary Clinton continues to refuse to say what her stand is on the XL Pipeline. Bernie Sanders has been an outspoken critic of the pipeline for years. Hillary Clinton has not spoken recently about fracking but when she was Secretary of State she was promoting fracking technology around the world. Bernie Sanders believes that fracking should be banned.
If you like President Obama's positions on fossil fuels, climate change, fracking, the XL Pipeline and alternative energy promotion, then you will like Hillary Clinton's positions as well. Senator Clinton has an all of the above energy policy.
- She believes that humans are causing climate change and that we must act.
- She has supported President Obama's efforts to limit carbon emissions.
- She continues to support the use of fossil fuels, but has spoken generally about limiting the subsidies fossil fuels receive.
- She supports alternative energy subsidies.
- She rationalizes fracking with a better than coal argument.
- She supported increased drilling off the coasts of the United States.
- Her voting record in the Senate suggests that she opposes drilling in the Arctic, but she has not commented on Arctic drilling as a new Presidential candidate, and specifically she has not commented on the Obama Administration moving ahead to permit Shell to drill in the Arctic.
- She refuses to comment on the XL Pipeline, but supported it as Secretary of State.
- She acknowledges that clean coal is a possibility.
- He believes that humans are causing climate change and that we must act.
- He has supported President Obama's efforts to limit carbon emissions, but has also introduced significant legislation to force reductions.
- He clearly wants to eliminate fossil fuels eventually and has proposed legislation to eliminate all subsidies for them.
- He has a long list of legislation that he has introduced and supported promoting alternative and sustainable energy sources.
- He has proposed a ban on fracking.
- He opposed drilling off the Atlantic Coast.
- He opposes drilling in the Arctic.
- He opposes the XL Pipeline.
- He would end all subsidies for coal.
In my view on these issues, Senator Clinton is far better than all the Republican candidates for President, but Senator Sanders is much closer to my own view on these issues. Senator Clinton will call herself a pragmatist. Once again on these issues, I would say that she is a very slow incrementalist that will wait until she will not get too much criticism or anger her political and foundation donors too much by protecting the environment.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
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