Aquest lloc utilitza galetes per a oferir els nostres serveis, millorar el desenvolupament, per a anàlisis i (si no has iniciat la sessió) per a publicitat. Utilitzant LibraryThing acceptes que has llegit i entès els nostres Termes de servei i política de privacitat. L'ús que facis del lloc i dels seus serveis està subjecte a aquestes polítiques i termes.
"Many scholars believe that the framers of the Constitution intended Congress to be the preeminent branch of government. Indeed, no other legislature in the world approaches its power. Yet most Americans have only a murky idea of how it works. In The U.S. Congress, Donald A. Ritchie, a congressional historian for more than thirty years, takes readers on a fascinating, behind-the-scenes tour of Capitol Hill--pointing out the key players, explaining their behavior, and translating parliamentary language into plain English. No mere civics lesson, this eye-opening book provides an insider's perspective on Congress, matched with a professional historian's analytical insight. After a swift survey of the creation of Congress by the constitutional convention, he begins to unscrew the nuts and pull out the bolts. What is it like to campaign for congress? To attract large donors? To enter either house with no seniority? He answers these questions and more, explaining committee assignments (and committee work), the role of staffers and lobbyists, floor proceedings, parliamentary rules, and coalition building. Ritchie explores the great effort put into constituent service--as representatives and senators respond to requests from groups and individuals--as well as media relations and news coverage. He also explores how the grand concepts we all know from civics class--checks and balances, advise and consent, congressional oversight--work in practice, in an age of strong presidents and a muscular Senate minority (no matter which party is in that position). In this sparkling addition to Oxford's Very Short Introduction series, Donald Ritchie moves beyond the cynicism and the platitudes to provide a gem of a portrait of how Congress really works"--
"Congress is the most open branch of the federal government, and its members labor to provide constituent services and court the news media, but because they speak with many voices they have long operated at a disadvantage against the singular image of the president. This very short introduction to Congress offers a concise explanation of how the Congress operates and provides historical context for its evolution. As a national forum, congressional debates and compromises have sought not only to enact laws but to forge national consensus behind them. Congress writes all federal laws, appropriates all federal funds, and checks and balances the executive and judicial branches. Its constitutional powers, structures, and procedures have remained remarkably consistent for more than two centuries. Yet Congress has often been criticized for obstructing or not standing up to the presidency, and for neglecting or delaying pressing national needs. This short introduction highlights the rules, precedents, and practices of the Senate and House of Representatives. It offers glimpses into their committees and floor proceedings to reveal the complex processes in which they enact legislation. It considers how members are elected and reelected, and the role of campaigns, lobbying, staff, and the media in legislative business. It also examines the changing demography of Congress, with the election of more women and racial and ethnic minorities, and their impact on the legislative process, in an era when a woman serves as Speaker of the House and African Americans chair key committees"--… (més)
In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0
This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
„Then, when the bust came, after an orgy of risk and idiocy to end all orgies, finally the bankers discovered the answer: too big to fail. Now there is no threat of loss at all. Now they can take any risk they want and if it goes wrong just shriek and scream that the world is going to end until they are given another bailout. Losing money is now something only taxpayers do.
The problem facing everyone, however, is that even the debts national government can incur to bail out these losses is not limitless. At some point, there won't be enough money even to give to the bankers.
And this, I believe, is where we are now. Our economy is being driven by drunken boy racers at 100 mph who have just had a massive blow-out. They are so drunk they refuse all advice to pull over or even to just slow down. They tell us they don't even need to replace the tyre. All we need to do is frantically pump in new air while we are still careering along, swinging wildly all over the road.
To me, in such a situation, there only seem to be two options: either they wreck the car and we all get hurt - a bond market dislocation – or we, the passengers, overcome our fear and fight to seize control of the car. At the moment, I think we are on course to wreck the car and then have a huge fight afterwards. The worst of both worlds.” (pages 86-87)
“The banks will tell whoever is elected that speculation is freedom, leverage is salvation and regulation is the road to perdition. In public, they will attempt to dress themselves in the garb of national saviours. In private, they will piss themselves laughing at us and our pathetic political leaders.
That's why we need to wake up to what is happening” (pages 220-221)
“The pain they have stored up for us will not go away. This means, in my opinion, there are only two futures remaining for us. One is where the pain comes quickly in which we do everything to make sure it is the financial class, and not us, who suffer the most. But there is another future, the one they have planned for us, where it happens slowly, the pain getting greater and greater with time, but where it is made to fall on us rather than the immensely rich people and institutions that caused the crisis.” (page 239) David Malone, Author of "The Debt Generation"
"Meanwhile the bankers whine to their friends in the Press and threatening any government which even thinks of introducing a regulation or two, and yet the truth is that there is already NO effective regulation or oversight of banks. What there is, are gnat-like inconveniences which buzz around the places where the huge, shrouded machinery protrudes into the world of people and their governments for the purposes of being physically housed somewhere and for getting their hands on deposits and bail outs.
Those protrusions of the banking world are like the brass buttons on a policeman's uniform. They are just the tips of a massive machine which exists elsewhere and whose bidding the policeman does. The truth is most of the money in the world is not under any national jurisdiction at all. It is not physically in any country. It is not subject to any nation's laws nor those of any international body. Democracy has virtually no control over it at all. The banks print and control their own debt backed currency (that is what securities and derivatives amount to). And when, as has happend, the value of the bank's currency implodes, they use our politicians to loot our currency to replace theirs. And then bill us the interest on the money we have loaned or given them.
"Recently a campaign has been started in Greece and now in Ireland as well for what is called a Debt Commission and Audit. The idea is simple and has legal precedent. The nation which decides to restructure its debt forms a Debt Commission. Such a Commission is generally made up of experts in debt, bond and Swaps contracts, forensic accountants, prominent civil servants, members of various civil society groups (Charities etc), interested NGOs and representatives of Labour Unions as well as employers organizations. Such Commissions have to be nationally based with wide and varied roots in the broader civil society. A wide representation is essential to prevent it becoming the tool of any one group.
The purpose of the Commission is first to simply find out who is owed and by whom. What debt was private, what public and in each instance what was the debt for? Would you like to know what debt has been bought by the Bank of England, or the Fed or the central Bank of Ireland? I would. Or what debts we are insuring? I would, considering I am personally expected to pay for it out of my taxes.
The Commission's next job is to establish if any of that debt was Odious, Illegitimate, Illegal or Unsustainable. Each of these has legal standing and precedent and each is enough to send a cold shudder through board rooms of banks and their lawyers. For we already know, from a small tidal wave of cases pending in the US alone, that fraud there was. Lots of it. Many cases have already been 'settled' out of court. Time to close the option of settling on the court house steps and haul the malfactors into the public dock. Banker bashing? Those involved in fraud are criminals. Criminal bashing - You bet!
Odious debt is debt that was taken on by a former government that was in no way in the interests of the people or nation and which the people under a new government should not be asked to pay. The USA was considering using the idea of Odious Debt to clear Iraq of Sadam's debts. In the end, when they realized this could open a can of worms for 'people' who were still their friends, they reconsidered.
Illegitimate debts are when debts were taken on that are palpably contrary to the well being and interest of the people. For instance, bailing out Anglo Irish Bank, in which the Irish people had no deposits nor interest, would likely be found to be Illegitmate.
Illegal debts are those where fraud was involved in the selling and buying of the debt. This could be fraudulent mis-selling, by not making clear the risks or liabilities etc. Many such cases are pending against the big banks right now in both Europe and the US.
And the most contentious, Unsustainable debt, is when debt was legally taken on, by a legitimate government but where repaying the debt would cause great harm to the lives of people in the nation who were never involved in the taking on of the debt. An example would be bailing out banks with public money who had made bad loans to some of the people but not all. Such debts cripple the lives of people who were never part of the debt and property bubble but whose taxes and savings are being plundered to bail out those who were, and the banks who encouraged them.
Can such a Commission actually work? One already did in Ecuador. The Ecuadorians had a free and fair election. The winner won on a platform of debt restructuring. He formed the Commission. The Commission found a lot of the debt was Illegal and Immoral and the Ecuadorian government therefore said flatly it would NOT be paying. The price of its bonds collapsed. Once its debt was trading for a few cents on the dollar the government then bought it all back. Meaning it paid those who were holding its debt only a few cents on the dollar.
What happend then? Surely the sky fell in, and Ecuador was never allowed to borrow ever again? Well actually nothing of the sort. You see the there isn't any evidence that nations get locked or priced out of the bond market after default. There is a short term spike and then a fairly rapid return to a rate that is in line with the FUTURE prospects of the country. Sure, the country defaulted and some of the bond market players lost money. but not all. And those who didn't lose are likely to simply say, 'glad it was them and not me, but now let's talk business, shall we?'. The fact is, once a country has got rid of its debt overhang and, as a consequence, is much better placed to do well in the future, it becomes a much better prospect for lending to. The market isn't monolithic and has no loyalty to its own. Think of the Bond Market as a tank of exceptionally greedy gold fish. They are 'short' memory and 'long' greed. They swim up and down looking only forward and forget what happened five minutes ago. Goldfish Sachs." David Malone http://golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2011/03/ireland-greece-and-portugal-should.ht...
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Taking its name from the Latin for "coming together," Congress is the place where elected officials from all parts of the United States converge to govern. (Preface)
Appropriately, Congress began with a compromise.
Citacions
Darreres paraules
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Individually concerned with reelection and the interests of their districts and states, collectively they must fuse those local concerns into national legislation, finding common ground for the common good, and fulfilling the motto E Pluribus Unum.
"Many scholars believe that the framers of the Constitution intended Congress to be the preeminent branch of government. Indeed, no other legislature in the world approaches its power. Yet most Americans have only a murky idea of how it works. In The U.S. Congress, Donald A. Ritchie, a congressional historian for more than thirty years, takes readers on a fascinating, behind-the-scenes tour of Capitol Hill--pointing out the key players, explaining their behavior, and translating parliamentary language into plain English. No mere civics lesson, this eye-opening book provides an insider's perspective on Congress, matched with a professional historian's analytical insight. After a swift survey of the creation of Congress by the constitutional convention, he begins to unscrew the nuts and pull out the bolts. What is it like to campaign for congress? To attract large donors? To enter either house with no seniority? He answers these questions and more, explaining committee assignments (and committee work), the role of staffers and lobbyists, floor proceedings, parliamentary rules, and coalition building. Ritchie explores the great effort put into constituent service--as representatives and senators respond to requests from groups and individuals--as well as media relations and news coverage. He also explores how the grand concepts we all know from civics class--checks and balances, advise and consent, congressional oversight--work in practice, in an age of strong presidents and a muscular Senate minority (no matter which party is in that position). In this sparkling addition to Oxford's Very Short Introduction series, Donald Ritchie moves beyond the cynicism and the platitudes to provide a gem of a portrait of how Congress really works"--
"Congress is the most open branch of the federal government, and its members labor to provide constituent services and court the news media, but because they speak with many voices they have long operated at a disadvantage against the singular image of the president. This very short introduction to Congress offers a concise explanation of how the Congress operates and provides historical context for its evolution. As a national forum, congressional debates and compromises have sought not only to enact laws but to forge national consensus behind them. Congress writes all federal laws, appropriates all federal funds, and checks and balances the executive and judicial branches. Its constitutional powers, structures, and procedures have remained remarkably consistent for more than two centuries. Yet Congress has often been criticized for obstructing or not standing up to the presidency, and for neglecting or delaying pressing national needs. This short introduction highlights the rules, precedents, and practices of the Senate and House of Representatives. It offers glimpses into their committees and floor proceedings to reveal the complex processes in which they enact legislation. It considers how members are elected and reelected, and the role of campaigns, lobbying, staff, and the media in legislative business. It also examines the changing demography of Congress, with the election of more women and racial and ethnic minorities, and their impact on the legislative process, in an era when a woman serves as Speaker of the House and African Americans chair key committees"--
MarcMarcMarc | Mar 16, 2011 | 
Google Books — S'està carregant…
(3.75)
1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT6CXwqzucY
AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 1: The Orange and the Pea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZZ5zGAWKE
AIPAC: The Voice of America — Part 2 The Treasonous Dollar Drain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQE1Fe9nQeQ
US Needs a Declaration of Independence - from Israel
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/04
In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0
A Watson Institute video on the global trend toward Austerity budgets featuring Mark Blyth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmsjGys-VqA
This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
„Then, when the bust came, after an orgy of risk and idiocy to end all orgies, finally the bankers discovered the answer: too big to fail. Now there is no threat of loss at all. Now they can take any risk they want and if it goes wrong just shriek and scream that the world is going to end until they are given another bailout. Losing money is now something only taxpayers do.
The problem facing everyone, however, is that even the debts national government can incur to bail out these losses is not limitless. At some point, there won't be enough money even to give to the bankers.
And this, I believe, is where we are now. Our economy is being driven by drunken boy racers at 100 mph who have just had a massive blow-out. They are so drunk they refuse all advice to pull over or even to just slow down. They tell us they don't even need to replace the tyre. All we need to do is frantically pump in new air while we are still careering along, swinging wildly all over the road.
To me, in such a situation, there only seem to be two options: either they wreck the car and we all get hurt - a bond market dislocation – or we, the passengers, overcome our fear and fight to seize control of the car. At the moment, I think we are on course to wreck the car and then have a huge fight afterwards. The worst of both worlds.” (pages 86-87)
“The banks will tell whoever is elected that speculation is freedom, leverage is salvation and regulation is the road to perdition. In public, they will attempt to dress themselves in the garb of national saviours. In private, they will piss themselves laughing at us and our pathetic political leaders.
That's why we need to wake up to what is happening” (pages 220-221)
“The pain they have stored up for us will not go away. This means, in my opinion, there are only two futures remaining for us. One is where the pain comes quickly in which we do everything to make sure it is the financial class, and not us, who suffer the most. But there is another future, the one they have planned for us, where it happens slowly, the pain getting greater and greater with time, but where it is made to fall on us rather than the immensely rich people and institutions that caused the crisis.” (page 239) David Malone, Author of "The Debt Generation"
"Meanwhile the bankers whine to their friends in the Press and threatening any government which even thinks of introducing a regulation or two, and yet the truth is that there is already NO effective regulation or oversight of banks. What there is, are gnat-like inconveniences which buzz around the places where the huge, shrouded machinery protrudes into the world of people and their governments for the purposes of being physically housed somewhere and for getting their hands on deposits and bail outs.
Those protrusions of the banking world are like the brass buttons on a policeman's uniform. They are just the tips of a massive machine which exists elsewhere and whose bidding the policeman does. The truth is most of the money in the world is not under any national jurisdiction at all. It is not physically in any country. It is not subject to any nation's laws nor those of any international body. Democracy has virtually no control over it at all. The banks print and control their own debt backed currency (that is what securities and derivatives amount to). And when, as has happend, the value of the bank's currency implodes, they use our politicians to loot our currency to replace theirs. And then bill us the interest on the money we have loaned or given them.
There are no regulations which oversee money or the banks once money is on the move. And keeping money on the move is what modern banking is about. It is an unregulated, extra territorial, global power for and by a global elite." David Malone
http://golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2011/03/regulatory-arbitrage-what-bankers-don...
The Egyptian Tinderbox: How Banks and Investors Are Starving the Third World:
http://www.truth-out.org/the-egyptian-tinderbox-how-banks-and-investors-are-star...
Commentary: ‘Shock Doctrine,’ Reaganomics trigger explosive class war
By Paul B. Farrell
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-civil-war-erupts-led-by-super-rich-gop-2011...
Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers
By Eliot Spitzer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783....
"Recently a campaign has been started in Greece and now in Ireland as well for what is called a Debt Commission and Audit. The idea is simple and has legal precedent. The nation which decides to restructure its debt forms a Debt Commission. Such a Commission is generally made up of experts in debt, bond and Swaps contracts, forensic accountants, prominent civil servants, members of various civil society groups (Charities etc), interested NGOs and representatives of Labour Unions as well as employers organizations. Such Commissions have to be nationally based with wide and varied roots in the broader civil society. A wide representation is essential to prevent it becoming the tool of any one group.
The purpose of the Commission is first to simply find out who is owed and by whom. What debt was private, what public and in each instance what was the debt for? Would you like to know what debt has been bought by the Bank of England, or the Fed or the central Bank of Ireland? I would. Or what debts we are insuring? I would, considering I am personally expected to pay for it out of my taxes.
The Commission's next job is to establish if any of that debt was Odious, Illegitimate, Illegal or Unsustainable. Each of these has legal standing and precedent and each is enough to send a cold shudder through board rooms of banks and their lawyers. For we already know, from a small tidal wave of cases pending in the US alone, that fraud there was. Lots of it. Many cases have already been 'settled' out of court. Time to close the option of settling on the court house steps and haul the malfactors into the public dock. Banker bashing? Those involved in fraud are criminals. Criminal bashing - You bet!
Odious debt is debt that was taken on by a former government that was in no way in the interests of the people or nation and which the people under a new government should not be asked to pay. The USA was considering using the idea of Odious Debt to clear Iraq of Sadam's debts. In the end, when they realized this could open a can of worms for 'people' who were still their friends, they reconsidered.
Illegitimate debts are when debts were taken on that are palpably contrary to the well being and interest of the people. For instance, bailing out Anglo Irish Bank, in which the Irish people had no deposits nor interest, would likely be found to be Illegitmate.
Illegal debts are those where fraud was involved in the selling and buying of the debt. This could be fraudulent mis-selling, by not making clear the risks or liabilities etc. Many such cases are pending against the big banks right now in both Europe and the US.
And the most contentious, Unsustainable debt, is when debt was legally taken on, by a legitimate government but where repaying the debt would cause great harm to the lives of people in the nation who were never involved in the taking on of the debt. An example would be bailing out banks with public money who had made bad loans to some of the people but not all. Such debts cripple the lives of people who were never part of the debt and property bubble but whose taxes and savings are being plundered to bail out those who were, and the banks who encouraged them.
Can such a Commission actually work? One already did in Ecuador. The Ecuadorians had a free and fair election. The winner won on a platform of debt restructuring. He formed the Commission. The Commission found a lot of the debt was Illegal and Immoral and the Ecuadorian government therefore said flatly it would NOT be paying. The price of its bonds collapsed. Once its debt was trading for a few cents on the dollar the government then bought it all back. Meaning it paid those who were holding its debt only a few cents on the dollar.
What happend then? Surely the sky fell in, and Ecuador was never allowed to borrow ever again? Well actually nothing of the sort. You see the there isn't any evidence that nations get locked or priced out of the bond market after default. There is a short term spike and then a fairly rapid return to a rate that is in line with the FUTURE prospects of the country. Sure, the country defaulted and some of the bond market players lost money. but not all. And those who didn't lose are likely to simply say, 'glad it was them and not me, but now let's talk business, shall we?'. The fact is, once a country has got rid of its debt overhang and, as a consequence, is much better placed to do well in the future, it becomes a much better prospect for lending to. The market isn't monolithic and has no loyalty to its own. Think of the Bond Market as a tank of exceptionally greedy gold fish. They are 'short' memory and 'long' greed. They swim up and down looking only forward and forget what happened five minutes ago. Goldfish Sachs." David Malone
http://golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2011/03/ireland-greece-and-portugal-should.ht...
"Extend and Pretend": The Severe Ramifications of Wall Street's Game
By Jim Quinn
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/extend-and-pretent-recovery-...