A New Year's joke:
First person: "Happy 2015!"
Second person: "Don't you mean Happy 2014?"
First person: "Well, my resolution is to stop putting things off. So, Happy 2015!"
(Can you tell I made that up?)
I have been super-negligent about keeping up with the blog in the past couple of weeks, what with holiday travel, blizzards, etc. Here are some links that have been hanging around my browser tabs:
Tim Wise on the 20th Anniversary of NAFTA: How Beer Explains 20 Years of NAFTA's Devastating Effects on Mexico, from our sister blog Triple Crisis (TCB). Jaisal Noor of the Real News Network also interviewed Wise (who is a former D&S co-editor, don't ya know), here. And frequent TCB blogger Kevin Gallagher co-authored (with Enrique Dussel Peters) a report on NAFTA 20 years on, NAFTA's Uninvited Guest: China and the Disintegration of North American Trade (Spanish version here; shorter version at the Guardian).
National Push for $15 Minimum Wage: Jon Queally of Common Dreams, The Fight for $15: Campaign for Living Wage Readies National Push. There's a new website for the 15Now Campaign, 15now.org, which is asking people to donate $15/month and otherwise get involved. It features an interview with Kshama Sawant, the socialist economics professor recently elected to the Seattle city council (regular readers of this blog heard about her a while before the election), from Democracy Now!. And the Washington Post says people are ready: Majority of Americans want minimum wage to be increased, poll finds.
Chris Hedges, Overthrow the Speculators, at Truthdig: Nice fiery piece in support of public banking. Hedges covers some of the ground Abby Scher did in her piece for us, Banking on the Public. He also focuses on the work of public banking advocate Ellen Brown, whose latest book we're reviewing in our upcoming issue. found the comments section on Hedges piece a bit depressing, though--a bit of conspiracy theorizing about the Fed. Maybe that is par for the course at Truthdig?
Ok, that's all I have at the moment. More soon, before 2015 I promise!
--Chris Sturr