via Historiann: several Correntians have already written about the disproportionate impact the current economic apocalypse is having on women's jobs as compared to men's and how the economic stimulus proposals do little to address that. At the Center for Research for Women and Social Justice, a group of feminist historians who study the New Deal has issued an open letter to Obama asking that a New "New Deal" address those inequities:

FEMINIST HISTORIANS FOR A NEW NEW DEAL

Open Letter to President-elect Obama

December 18, 2008

Dear President-elect Obama, Read more…

I want to elevate this to a blog post.

People are feeling frustrated and ineffectual. Me too. That's a moxie trap. (My extension of the concept of a gumption trap.)

You've got the moxie. You've just got to use it.

One-on-one talk is very effective. The effect can be exponential. Do it! Talk up single payer every time an opening presents itself.

Good resources:

Here is a good flyer from Physicians For a National Health Plan NY [pdf, link fixed]: and see also SickoCure.org.
—

From Mark Thoma, writing about Robert Reich's piece Are We Courting A Populist Backlash?: [my emphasis]

There are lots of reasons, but if we had better social insurance, good enough so that the health and welfare of workers and their families was not threatened by the failure of the automakers, it would be a lot easier to avoid a bailout.

image from Progressive Majority Wisconsin

ScienceBlogger Mike the Mad Biologist is all over the story of how Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC, has been dissed and mistreated by the folks in charge: Sheila Bair, Geithner, and the acceptance of male hysteria.
 Read more…

If you're up and not otherwise occupied Monday morning (I'll be teaching, alas) you can watch Paul Krugman give his Nobel Prize lecture live here.

3:00 - 3:50 Stockholm time translates into 9:00 - 9:50 AM ET according to this.

The title of the talk is "Increasing Returns". Should be interesting. Read more…

hat tip: calculated risk

Harvard: Not So Smart After All:

Savings on fund management staff: $50 million

Losses on endowment fund: $ 8 billion and counting

Finding out the supposedly smartest college in the nation is run by idiots: Priceless.

On deficit spending and the need for boldness in addressing our economic woes:

Jamie Galbraith responds to the question posed by the National Journal, "Is the deficit a threat to future recovery?"

James K. Galbraith, National Journal: No. The question is grossly misconceived. Right now and for the immediate future, the budget deficit is the only source of demand that can fuel a recovery. Our present problem is not that it is too big, but that it is too small. Far too small.  Read more…

In the Washington Post, Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac put forth this suggestion: Read more…

I just love pickled beets. It must be the 25% Skandinavian part of me! But the store-bought ones always strike me as too sugary and too salty. Beets (properly prepared) are sweet all on their own selves. And what could be more relaxing than spending an evening in the kitchen preparing these? Plus, you don't waste as much packaging.

Syltede rødbeder

Danish pickled beets

4 beets cooked (about 2 and 1/2- 3 cups sliced)

1 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp pickling spice
cinnamon stick Read more…

Joe Stiglitz in the NY Times:

A $1 Trillion Answer
By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ
Published: November 29, 2008

WHAT President-elect Barack Obama will need to do is horribly complicated but also very clear.

First, he must stop the economy from going deeper into recession. Then he needs to bring about a robust recovery, preferably in ways that support the long-term needs of the United States: by repairing our neglected public works, invigorating our technological leadership, making our society greener, fixing our health care problems, healing our social and economic divide, and restoring our social compact. Read more…

International Talk Like a Banker Day.

The proposed date is the 15th of December. Start practicing now!

Who knows, maybe you could sound convincing enough to get your own stake in the bailout!

Posted on the run: no time to summarize. But Go! Read!

Radical Solutions for a Crazy Crisis by Nouriel Roubini [Forbes].

Yes, he used the R-word. In Forbes!

The NT Times asks: Was the federal goverment out to get Eliot Spitzer?

No evidence has surfaced to support such an assertion, and the prosecutor in the case has said that politics played no role in the pursuit of Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat. But that has not put to rest suspicions, expressed on left wing blogs, that Mr. Spitzer, a zealous pursuer of Wall Street wrongdoing who some thought could one day be president, had been singled out.

Now, a congressional committee is pursuing what would be the first public examination of the events that prompted the initial inquiry into his bank transactions, which showed he was sending money to a front company for Emperor’s Club V.I.P. Read more…

(Following up on this post and this one in the series)

The second of my chosen areas of emphasis is getting Single Payer Health Care more into the public awareness and mainstream thinking, and, of course, ultimately to get HR 676 or something very like it passed into law in this country.

DCBlogger and hipparchia have done an excellent job keeping us up-to-date on the issue, so I won't even attempt to duplicate their efforts here: just follow the relevant tags.

I will report on the Healthcare-Now! Rally for HR 676 which took place last Thursday in Times Square. and some of my thoughts coming out of that rally. And, of course, photos! (Not very many this time because my batteries ran out.) Read more…

Rev. Jesse Jackson:

"Dr. King fervently supported Kennedy over Nixon. We still had to march for a public accommodations bill. He supported President Johnson over Goldwater. We still had to march for the right to vote. Now when Mr. Barack Obama gets to Washington, there'll be competition for his attention. And so the Civil Rights Movement must make its presence felt. And the labor movement. And the women's movement."

Amen.

Full disclosure: Anyone to the left of me would probably be a clown. And I've long felt the presence of jokers to the right. I bet you have too! So here I am: Stuck in the "middle" with you! Let's let them know just where the middle really is, my friends, eh?

As I wrote in response to Sarah's question "Where do we go from here?", (and have mentioned before), I am concentrating my political energy in three areas: single-payer health care, economic justice, and fighting misogyny and sexism.

I'll start the discussion with the latter.

Splashy9 said it well: one of the lessons we learned in this electoral season is that

Misogyny is alive and works to kill the dreams of females

So the males that understand that it is a problem that needs to be fixed really need to work harder to educate other males about it. Read more…

Vote tomorrow, please. Vote your heart, vote your conscience. But vote.

Whatever happens tomorrow, we'll need to be here for each other in the year and years to come. You know it won't come easy.

We need to make sure that the poor and defenseless are taken care of.

We need to make sure that the lonely are not left alone.

We need to make sure that no one forgets the people who (in the words of Bill Clinton) worked hard and followed the rules.

Above all, we need to stand by each other - we who've argued and struggled and spoken together.

I'm quoting this poem by Auden in its entirety. Read nothing but my economic anxieties into its title. Many of its lines ring so true to me today.

See you all later. Show an affirming flame. Read more…

Nouriel Roubini has some advice:

U.S. should enact $400 billion stimulus [Bloomberg].

The U.S. government should enact an economic stimulus package of between $400 billion and $500 billion before the end of the Bush administration in January, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said.

But what a stimulus!

“The only way to increase aggregate demand is going to be through” government spending on roads, bridges and other infrastructure, Roubini said at a Bloomberg conference in New York. “We need a huge plan, $300 billion is not going to be enough. I think we’re going to need a plan of $400 billion to $500 billion.” Read more…

The Brecht Forum in NYC has set up a new website, Economy Watch, for coverage of the economic crisis from a decidedly left, not to say Marxist, viewpoint (as you might expect given it's the Brecht Forum).

Not saying I'm totally on board with their POV, but it provides an outlet for viewpoints you may not see represented anywhere else.

This video "An Offer We Can't Refuse? Progressives respond to the Wall Street crisis" is a very interesting discussion with William Greider, Arun Gupta, Doug Henwood, Naomi Klein & Frances Fox Piven. (from the 6th of October at the Brecht Forum)

to the junior Senator from New York Who is now in her prime!

He's never wrong! Alas. (But I wonder if he's got any thoughts on the World Series?)

Bloomberg (October 23, 2008): Roubini Says `Panic' May Force Market Shutdown. Friday Morning Update: Markets are becoming dysfunctional and S&P and DJIA futures trading already suspended today [RGE monitor] Read more…

That was the front-page header given to this AP article in today's Metro (freebie newspaperlet).

The ailing economy is leading many Americans to skip doctor visits, skimp on their medicine, and put off mammograms, Pap smears and other tests. And physicians worry the result will be sicker patients who need more expensive treatment later.

This WaPost version is much more fleshed-out, and chilling.

Say it with me! We can't afford NOT to have single-payer.

Still seeking to answer the question "Who's going after Charlie Rangel," I found this Washington Post article whose coverage agrees well with most of my carefully-assembled timeline. Glad to see someone's on the story, even if I think they stop before asking the most important question.

From the article (and to fill in those who haven't been following the story):

Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), 78, addressing two visitors in his office near the House chamber, says he won't cave in to Republicans and other critics who demand that he step aside as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee until the ethics cloud surrounding him clears. Read more…