Making decisions on electoral work

Here is a task I have engaged in.  Watch the Mitt Romney speech to NALEO on Thursday.  Read the Washington Post piece today on Bain Capital.  Then, watch Barack Obama’s speech to NALEO.  (NALEO- National Association of Latino Elected Officials).

Then, having done your homework, see if you can support the current general position on the left. – We should sit out this election.

BTW.  I have strong criticism of Obama’s policies on the economy.  My criticisms are based upon these readings.

The Economic Crisis

Gar Alperovitz, America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.  (2005) John Wiley and Sons

 Baker, Dean.   Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy, (2009)

Bivens, Josh,  Failure by Design, The Story Behind America’s Broken Economy. 2011.

Engler, Mark. How to Rule the World: The coming battle over the Global Economy. (2008)

Frank, Thomas,  Pity the Billionaire: The Hard Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right.  Metropolitan Books. 2012.

 Fox, Justin.  The Myth of the Rational Market: a History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street. (2009)

Faux, Jeff.  The Global Class War: How America’s Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future- and What It Will Take to Win It Back. ( 2006)

Johnson, Simon and James Kwak,   13 Bankers : The Wall Street Takeover and the next Financial Meltdown. 2010.

Harvey, David. The Enigma of Capital and the Crisis of Capitalism.  (2010)

 Krugman, Paul. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.  (2009)

Krugman, Paul. End this Depression Now ! 2012.

Kuttner, Robert.  A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama’s Promise, Wall Street’s Power, and the struggle to contrl our economic future. 2010.

Lewis, Michael,  The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. 2010.

National Commission on the Causes of the Financial Crisis.  The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report. 2011.

 Prins,Nomi.  It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses and Backroom Deals from Washington to  Wall Street. (2009)

Stiglitz. Joseph.  Free Fall, America, Free markets, and the Shrinking World Economy.  (2010)

Taibbi, Matt. Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America, Spiegel & Grau , 2010.

Some on line resources on the economy,

Chicago Political Economy Group.  www.cpegonline.org

Economic Policy Institute.  www.epi.org

United for a Fair Economy.  www.faireconomy.org

Center for Economic and Policy Research.  www.cepr.net

New Deal.  www.newdeal20.org

Duane Campbell