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A Different Kind of Democracy

By David Sirota

The never-ending presidential campaign is enough to overload anyone’s senses. The themes and messages are mind-numbingly discombobulated — race, class, flag lapel pins, NAFTA, bowling photo-ops, Iraq and, of course, endless promises of “real change.” It is like the head-pounding noise of bad heavy metal music, but the subliminal message isn’t a satanic code — it’s one telling us that… return to article

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    Corporate honchos don’t need to worry.  The people who will hold the top economics jobs in the Obama administration will change the ground rules and prevent combined shareholder actions.  That is unless everyone with influence on his campaign gets them to see that he needs advisors with a different type of background to know what’s best to revitalize the economy.  See who he’s got now (complete list of the Obama campaign’s economics and domestic policy advisors from an article last week in the Chicago Tribune):

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/chi-obama_m mon_nusep17,0,3844054.story?page=3

    Michael Froman - Citigroup bank exec., pro-free trade & “business-friendly”, former Pres. Clinton advisor

    Austan Goolsbee - professor of business at U. of Chicago

    David Cutler - Pres. Clinton health economist, opposes single-payer

    David Blumenthal - Director, Institute for Health Policy, Harvard Medical School

    Jeffrey Liebman - Economist, Harvard professor and member of Clinton White House Council of Economic Advisers. Research has focused on role of earned income tax credit in moving people from welfare to work

    Dan Tarullo - International trade expert, Georgetown law professor and former Bill Clinton economic adviser i.e. GATT & NAFTA proponent

    Eric Holder - Clinton deputy attorney general

    Cass Sunstein - University of Chicago law professor

    Laurence Tribe - Harvard law professor

    Cassandra Butts - Senior policy adviser to House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt

    Note the total absence of labor economists, economic development experts, experts in “green” economics, environmental advisors, anyone to educate him on the opposition viewpoint to the current trade agreements or a single populist. Thanks to Bush & Co. we’re facing possible economic meltdown (and all the suffering that would accompany it) if the next administration doesn’t implement creative means to grow the U.S. economy, and restore some manufacturing (preferably green) in order to boost the demand side (purchasing power).  It’s what voters are looking for.

    United States Posted by ClearEye on May 25, 2008 at 12:36 PM
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