“There is a long tradition of Americans contentiously debating the design of monetary institutions. In the nineteenth century, they clashed over fractional reserve banking, central banking, and the gold standard….[Christopher] Shaw sees Occupy Wall Street and the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign as evidence of a possible revival in banking politics.” — from book review […]
Real Democracy
Letter-to-editorSubmitted to The Chicago Sun-Times in response to Op-ed “Why Chicago should start public bank” (Dec. 7, 2020) Thanks to Daniel LaSpata, Matt Martin, Robert Peters, and Ameya Pawar for a very readable, understandable, and practical description of what a public bank could do for the City of Chicago, and why public banking is a missing […]
This is my second update on the quasi-public meltdown of Food First, a 45-year old food & farm organization based in Oakland, CA. For reasons only history will tell, Food First is now the latest poster child for chronic disfunctions in the U.S. food & farm non-profit world. As I stated in my first Update on Food […]
This is an unofficial update on Food First, a U.S. food & farm non-profit going through some organizational stress, publicly and, as is common in these situations, uncomfortably. The context of my update is how the events at Food First relate to and symbolize problems of the larger U.S. food & farm movement and the […]
This is my latest update on the 2020 U.S. elections for three food & farm listservs — COMFOOD (Tufts U.), Food Policy Networks (Johns Hopkins U.), Regeneration Midwest (a 12-state coalition). These networks are committed to food justice, farm justice, democracy through food policy councils, urban-rural coalitions, thriving local economies, good health for all, as […]
CHOOSING A NEW CITY MANAGER FOR A U.S. CITY IN 2020 I’d like to frame the search for a new City Manager in the crises of the moment. We are living in a time of growing and interlocking crises—the COVID pandemic, climate destruction, and all the inequalities caused by human cruelty, human stupidity, and human […]
This week, Haymarket Books has been advertising a discussion about Eddie Glaude, Jr.’s new book, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for our Own. The conversation was between Glaude and Cornel West and by every Twitter account, it was a terrific one. I’m sure I’ll listen and watch it very soon. First, […]
In September 2019, the City Manager of Evanston left his position (after 10 years) for another position. Voters and officials knew well in advance of his leaving that we would need to find a new City Manager. Many public discussions were had, both before September and after, with voters making it clear at every opportunity […]