The bigger the financial sector gets, the more power it has to hold the entire economy ransom for huge bailouts when their speculative bubbles collapse. Firms that are allowed to grow as large as AIG, CitiBank and Bank of America create "systemic" risk that threatens the world financial system. The bottom line is that if a financial institution is too big to fail, it's just too big, period. The new regulatory proposals now pending before Congress are critical first steps in reining in the power of the financial sector. The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency is especially important. It would end the anything-goes "Dodge City" mentality that allows consumers to have their pockets picked by financial "products" like teaser-rate mortgages with prepayment penalties that guarantee the consumer pays more than meets the eye. It will require tight regulation of credit card interest rates and fees.

PRAISE FOR THE PLAN B SERIES
"A great blueprint for combatting climate change." —Brian Walsh, Time
“[Brown’s] ability to make a complicated subject accessible to the general reader is remarkable…” —Katherine Salant, Washington Post

A call to unite and confront the converging global crises of our times, replace the trade and investment pacts and related juggernauts of the corporate-driven global economy, and start building a sustainable economic future together.

"We need all our stories.. The suburban idea we inherited in the 1950s is not reality.."

"Research on the origin of instabilities, over-investments and subsequent slumps has been considered as an exotic side track from the academic research agenda.."

Pilgrims, psycho-Christians with guns, were asked to leave England.
Critical thinking and culture shock, like Jesus' parables and zen koans, have the power to turnt he world upside down where power and money define the law and normalize war, militarism, selfishness, herd conduct and conformity.

From the Iraq war to the imprisoned Cuban 5, Americans need courage to form a new mindset.

Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes portraying migrants as "stealing our jobs" and "scrounging off the taxpayer" abound in all sections of the media and public opinion. For others, the word "migrant" may evoke images of people at their most vulnerable.