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Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with "The End of Nature" in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. The group he founded, 350.org, has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. The Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was "probably the country’s most important environmentalist."
Alexis Tsipras, a member of the Hellenic parliament, president of the Synaspismos political party since 2008, head of the SYRIZA parliamentary group since 2009, and leader of the Opposition since June 2012. SYRIZA currently leads in Greek opinion polls. Listen to the audio here.
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"Rand Paul: Making a Point," by Reginald Johnson, March 8, 2013
"The Bipartisan Gift: Budget Cuts," by Reginald Johnson, March 2, 2013
"Fighting for Gun Control," by Reginald Johnson, Feb. 18, 2013
"Tyranny of the Minority," by Reginald Johnson, Jan. 28, 2013
"Is President Obama About to Betray Those Who Re-elected Him Less than 2 Months Ago?" by Scott Harris, Dec. 21, 2012
"Will the Slaughter of the Innocents in Newtown Lead to Gun Law Reform in U.S.?" by Scott Harris and Anna Manzo, Dec. 16, 2012
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Posted June 20, 2012
Interview with William K. Black, associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Mo., conducted by Scott Harris
While the Occupy Wall Street movement’s emergence in New York City and around the country last fall focused attention and debate on the nation’s growing income inequality over recent decades, a new report by the Federal Reserve reveals stark evidence of the economic damage caused by the economic meltdown. The Federal Reserve report found that from 2007 to 2010, the median net worth of American families dropped by 39 percent, bringing the levels of household wealth down to levels last seen in 1992. The dramatic decline in family wealth wiped out almost 20 years of accumulated savings and investments. As calculated by the Fed, an American family’s median wealth decreased from $126,000 in 2007 to just $77,300 in 2010.
The Federal Reserve found that middle-class families had suffered the largest losses in accumulated wealth and income during the three-year period ending in 2010. But the report also revealed that poor families were also extremely hard hit, with a widening wealth gap between whites and blacks and Hispanics. The Fed attributed three-quarters of the loss in wealth to the crash of the nation’s housing market, triggering a steep decline in the value of homes across most of the nation.
The report’s findings explains why many families across America are hesitant to spend their decreasing pool of money on small and large purchases, contributing to the sluggish economic recovery. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with William K. Black, associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri, who served as the deputy staff director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement, which investigated the cause of the savings and loan bank failures of the 1980s and '90s. Here, Black examines the causes of the dramatic decline in American family wealth during the nation’s Great Recession.
William K. Black is author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.” For Black's articles and scholarly papers, visit www.alternet.org/authors/11268/ and http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=658251.
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