Michael Lind: All Publications, Events and Press

Shadow Elite

Kirsten Gilbert — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:45:00 -0500

A New America Event
12/01/2009 - 12:15pm

Please join New America in a conversation between Janine Wedel and Michael Lind about her new book Shadow Elite. Governments and administrations come and go, but not so a new breed of power brokers, who always seem to pop up just where the action is. Wearing different hats, they press their agendas in venue after venue. According to award-winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine Wedel, these are the "shadow elite," the prime movers in a vexing new system of power and influence.

The Next Stage

Kirsten Gilbert — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
11/13/2009 - 8:30am

The current state of the "shadow banking system," rising unemployment rates, the sinking value of the dollar, and the lasting mortgage crisis demonstrate the need for long-view reform. The Next Stage will consider the larger implications of the new administration's economic policy on the economy and the international financial and monetary system. Featured speakers include James K. Galbraith, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Jan Kregel, Robert Johnson, and others.

Three Anniversaries

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:32:00 -0500

Three calendar dates. Three anniversaries. Three eras in the history of the United States and the world.

Why Dilbert Is Doomed

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:51:00 -0500

Where are tomorrow's jobs going to come from? The question is more urgent than ever, with official unemployment hovering around 10 percent and with nearly one in five Americans unemployed, if you count part-time workers who want full-time jobs and people so desperate that they have given up looking for work entirely.

The Tax Breaks That Ate America

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:55:00 -0400

Here's the latest bold new idea for reconciling the costs of national defense with the need to avoid adding to federal deficits or raising taxes. A bipartisan coalition of "New Democrats" and moderate Republicans has proposed buying weapons for the U.S. military through the IRS rather than the Pentagon. Here's how it would work. Instead of being paid to deliver planes, missiles and tanks, defense contractors would receive "weapon supply tax credits" (WSTC). The defense contractors would be

That Sound You Hear is the Social Fabric About to Snap

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:49:00 -0400

According to official statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States is now 9.8 percent. But those statistics understate the severity of the jobs crisis. The official statistics do not include the 875,000 Americans who have given up looking for work, even though they want jobs. When these "marginally attached" workers and part-time workers are added to the officially unemployed, the result, according to another, broader governement measure of unemployment known as "U-6," is shocking. The United States has an unemployment rate of 17 percent.

The Jobs Deficit: The Challenge of Putting America Back to Work

Kirsten Gilbert — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/20/2009 - 9:00am

More than one in six working Americans is now unemployed or underemployed, with more job losses yet to come. At this Oct. 20 event, some of America's leading policymakers and economic thinkers gathered to discuss how public policy should respond to this unprecedented unemployment crisis.

Risky Business

Kirsten Gilbert — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/15/2009 - 8:00am

On October 15, 2009, Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota discussed the requirements for financial sector reform at a conference co-hosted with the Washington Monthly. In a 1994 Washington Monthly cover story,

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Live with the Bomb

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:23:00 -0400

President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize has been justified by some because it draws attention to the goal he endorses of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. I share that goal, but not because nuclear weapons are uniquely horrible -- if you're a victim, it makes little difference whether you're killed or maimed by nuclear weapons or conventional weapons, which sometimes can create lingering illnesses and poison the landscape, too. I support the abolition of nuclear weapons because, if it were successful, it would lock in the advantages of the small number

Fixing Finance

Kirsten Gilbert — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/13/2009 - 8:30am

On October 13, 2009, Adrian Blundell-Wignall discussed the origins of the financial crisis and requirements for reform at the New America Foundation, as part of the OECD Breakfast Series. Blundell-Wignall, Deputy Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs at the OECD and author of a recent paper in the Journal of Asian Economics, delivered technical yet impassioned remarks from an international perspective, linking the explosion of complex derivatives to lax regulation, international tax arbitrage, and the persistent "equity culture" on

Salon Interviews the Late Adam Smith

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:15:00 -0400

Our guest today is Adam Smith, a major figure of the Enlightenment who is widely considered to be the father of modern economic theory. He is a former professor at the University of Glasgow and the author of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759) and "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776), his best-known book. Professor Smith joins us from Scotland.

The End of the Pax Americana?

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:26:00 -0400

While the economic crisis continues to overshadow other topics, world politics is undergoing rapid and dramatic changes. In areas from national security policy to trade, the Obama administration has repudiated Bush-era precedents significantly, if not rapidly enough for some critics on the left. The pressures on the administration to continue in the path followed by U.S. administrations since the fall of the Berlin Wall are intense, particularly in light of the victory of the hard-liners in Iran and new revelations about Iran's nuclear program. Even so,

The Right Stuff | Boston Globe

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:12:00 -0400

Echoing scholar Michael Lind, Tanenhaus assails the party of Lincoln as tragically metamorphosing into a “Republiconfederacy,'' with only the Deep South and ...

Healthcare Can Get America Working

Erin Drankoski — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:03:00 -0400

With official unemployment in the US hovering around 10 per cent, and actual levels much higher when the underemployed and discouraged are counted, the most urgent priority is job creation. But efforts to get America working again must be informed by the striking fact that most employment growth in the past decade has been concentrated in three sectors: healthcare, education and government, mostly state and local public services.

Intellectual Conservatism, RIP

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0400

On Sept. 18, Irving Kristol died. On Feb. 27, 2008, William F. Buckley Jr. passed away. Kristol was known as "the godfather of neoconservatism," while Buckley was the founder of the "movement conservatism" of Goldwater and Reagan. The intellectual conservatism that they, in different ways, sought to foster had passed from the scene before they did.

Saving Capitalism

Kirsten Gilbert — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:45:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/21/2009 - 12:15pm

On September 21, 2009, author and economist Pat Choate discussed his new book, Saving Capitalism: Keeping America Strong, at the New America Foundation. In a conversation with Michael Lind, Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at New America, Choate offered his perspective on the ongoing economic crisis and outlined his book's comprehensive policy prescription for recovery and sustainable growth.

Obama Pressed By Foreign, Domestic Issues | Washington Times

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:29:00 -0400

... but also of the public," said Michael Lind, director of the economic-growth program at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. ... and more »

Uninsured Like Me

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:04:00 -0400

Now and then a moment occurs that clarifies the nature of American politics like a flash of lightning over a prairie landscape. Such a moment occurred on Sept. 9 during President Obama's televised address to a joint session of Congress about healthcare. As the president explained that illegal immigrants would not be eligible for benefits under the plan he supported, Joe Wilson, a conservative Republican member of Congress from South Carolina, shocked the chamber and the television audience by shouting, "You lie!"

Dealing with America's Debt Overhang

Stephanie Gunter — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/15/2009 - 8:30am

Second Bernard L. Schwartz Economic Symposium

The bursting of the housing and credit bubbles has left the United States with a huge debt overhang. As a result of the buildup of private sector debt and the economic crisis, households and firms are finding it difficult to service debt and lay a foundation for a sustainable recovery.

New America Foundation's Economic Growth Program hosted leading economists and public intellectuals to discuss the following questions:

Dealing With America’s Debt | WTOP

Erin Drankoski — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:54:00 -0400