Progressive Opinion

washingtonindependent.com — Amid the clamor over the crisis on Wall Street, the U.S. Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Rescue Program, or “TARP,” bill and the evolving collapse of the global banking system, little attention has been paid to the extraordinary credit extensions at the Federal Reserve. But these are now without parallel in Fed history, including during the Great Depression.

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nytimes.com — Manufacturing is plunging everywhere. Banks aren’t lending; businesses and consumers aren’t spending. Let’s not mince words: This looks an awful lot like the beginning of a second Great Depression.

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nytimes.com — We like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean, or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians like Frank Langella. So here, too, George W. Bush has let us down. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He’s the reckless Yalie Tom Buchanan, not Gatsby. He is smaller than life.

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thenation.com — We don't need a stimulus, we need a recovery. And that means investing $1 trillion over the next two years.

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tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Aside from ideological public policy concerns, the fight over whether to spend more of the stimulus on highways versus mass transit may also come down to the interests of those making asphalt versus steel.

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washingtonpost.com — Two things we learned about our politics and our economy in 2008: Lesson One: If it's big and you don't regulate it, you end up nationalizing it. Lesson Two: In matters economic, the Civil War isn't really over.

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newsweek.com — A 'made in the U.S.A.' financial crisis highlights the need for more global — and more robust — oversight.

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latimes.com — Some states — including Michigan — already see renewable energy as their future: It's the only sector that appears to be making room for more employees despite the recession.

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csmonitor.com — We are at a defining moment in American history. How we as a nation respond will determine whether it's the "fall of the Roman Empire" or the emergence of the New America. Yet, absent from the fever-pitched national discussion is the one subject that will determine our nation's fate: the educational progress of low-income children.

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alternet.org — We need a healthcare bubble, an infrastructure bubble and a green bubble right now -- or else the whole thing will pop.

Thanks to Global Warming deniers in both government and industry, we are at least 25-years behind the curve on addressing human contributions to global climate change. And there's simply no way normal market forces are going to spend what it will take to catch up. In fact many industries, like coal and oil, have taken a page right out of the old Big Tobacco playbook, pumping out junk science and junkier scientists to counter such efforts.

The only way to catch up is to ignite the same animal passion that fuels every bubble - greed. "Make some green by investing green," needs to become one of America's investment mantras. "A healthy American is a consuming American" is another good one.

There are some early signs that just that kind of thing may be beginning to happen. With Democrats back in power, and the billions of fresh dollars rolling off the presses in DC, investors smell new opportunities in new places - the kind of places Democrats and the incoming Obama administration say they favor - healthcare, infrastructure and all things green.

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