archives

Al Gore on Meet the Press with host Tom Brokaw:

MR. BROKAW: This is how The Boston Globe described your audacious plan to change the way that we get electricity in this country: "Gore challenged Americans to switch all of the nation's electricity production to wind, solar, and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels."

The reaction was pretty quick and not all of it was favorable, even from those who are aligned with you in thinking that we have to do something about climate change. [...] What you have outlined, in fact, is a goal that may not be achievable.

VICE PRES. GORE: I think it is achievable, and I think it's important that we achieve it, Tom. There were also many other reactions from people who said this is the right goal because we need to reset the bar and change the debate. Our current course is completely unsustainable. We are being told by scientists around the world, particularly the international group that is charged with studying this and reporting to world leaders, that we may have less than 10 years in order to make dramatic changes lest we lose the chance to, to avoid catastrophic results from the climate crisis. We're building up CO₂ so rapidly

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San Francisco Business Times:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain cashes his monthly Social Security checks despite calling the federal program "a disgrace," the Associated Press reports.

"I'm receiving benefits," McCain told campaign reporters, but added, "the system is broken."

In 2007, he received benefits of $23,157 from Social Security, approximately $1,930 a month. The maximum monthly benefit under Social Security is $2,185. [...]

In 2006, McCain's wife Cindy earned $6 million, and has a net worth of approximately $100 million.

That's a direct quote from John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Group mutual funds. (Note: Mr Bogle does not approve of the current state of affairs which has allowed unbridled speculation to threaten our homes and our economic welfare.) The other statement we've been hearing a lot, and that we should ponder, is that the "free-market economy" we've been living in privatizes profit but socializes risk. The same financial institutions who have been demanding lax or no restrictions on their dealing, while happily pocketing the profits on increasingly risky behavior, have suddenly discovered a use for Government as they turn to John & Jane Taxpayer to bail them out from the natural consequences of their risky deals.

Gretchen Morgenson is running a readable, sobering picture of our current Debt Trap in the NYTimes.