Recent cstch items

China Since the Global Crisis: Ascent Uninterrupted?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

David Lampton presents a wide-ranging analysis of the macro-economic strengths and potential weaknesses of China since 2008. He argues that China’s has a strong foundation for economic growth in the near and medium-term and suggests multiple reasons for this conclusion. He notes that this growth is likely to be secular but with occasional falls from unexpected shocks. He also considers several large problems that China faces on the macro-economic level especially in the areas of the environment, social organization and political adjustment.

Victor Shih argues that the economic stimulus promoted by the Chinese central government from 2008 onward has been a great success on the surface. It is argued that the success of this Keynesian operation did not result in a huge growth of central government debt as a percentage of GDP. However, he goes on to show that while the central government was calling for stimulus, it was local governments who were tasked with putting the stimulus...

What Counts in US Politics: Voters or Interest Groups?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Alan Abramowitz trains his lens on the disappearing center in US politics. He surmises that the polarization in politics has long historical roots and has only increased under both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations. The divergence between parties is at historic highs according to Congressional vote tallies. It is largely due to ideological shifts to the right especially within the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is substantially the same but has lost the Southern wing of its support. The polarization is consistent among politicians, party activists, funders and the media. It reflects economic change, rising educational status, workforce composition and changes in the nature of families. He ends his talk by noting that the 2012 elections can be won by either party and this will have huge implications for public policy.

William Domhoff considers the historic background of the two-party system in national politics. He maintains that it is important...

Understanding the Great Recession

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Palley argues that the causes of the “Great Recession” are not primarily to be found in the asset bubble that was allowed to inflate in the housing market and in the financial sector. The bubbles actually reflect the longer-term basis for stagnation that originate in the macro-economic structure of the US. He presents two major dimensions of these structural problems. The first problem is the entrenchment of a “neoliberal” growth model that is hegemonic in the minds of politicians and the economics establishment that became orthodoxy in the 1980s. He then considers the second obstacle to creating a virtuous circle of demand and full employment. Secondly, Palley finds that the US model of economic engagement with the world’s other economies is flawed. He ends his presentation with an alternative policy recommendation that inverts the power of corporations in favor of workers.

Crisis is an inherent, inevitable, feature of capitalism in the findings of Anwar Shaikh....

Future of Public Higher Education in California

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Marc Bousquet argues that public education has become less and less democratic. Primary and secondary public educational institutions are now run as if they were corporations. The metrics used to determine performance and productivity are vapid and intended on supporting administrations at the expense of students and faculty. Teachers and faculty are working harder to meet business-inspired goals, for example “testing to the test”, rather than producing graduates who have powerful analytical/critical skills. He demonstrates that so far the Obama Administration has consistently backed this ongoing process especially given the appointment of Arne Duncan as the Secretary of Education. Moreover, he focuses on why these changes are undermining students’ freedom of expression and democratic rights. He concludes with some suggestions on how faculty, students and the public might respond to these challenges. Christopher Newfield notes that part of the loss of US competitiveness...

A Multilateral Moment: A New US Foreign Policy?

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Schroeder presents a historical argument for the declining possibility of wars between the world’s great powers. In large part this new era of peace is generally a success story rooted in practical experience, historical knowledge and institution building since the Concert of Europe. He also contends that the history of US foreign policy has largely been successful though not as commonly asserted. The US was largely a “rent-receiving state”, in the international system, before taking on a role as a “rent-paying state” following World War II. Schroeder concludes that the US must continue to play a vital role in global affairs and not turn inward especially based on a false and myth-based history. General Wesley Clark maintains that the Obama administration has effectively deployed itself in the realm of domestic politics to begin to rebuild US social capital in the international arena. Obama’s appointment of Republican-leaning men to critical foreign policy and defense...

Climate Change and Public Policy After Copenhagen

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Somerville argues that one of the most important factors left out of debates on policies to address climate change is population growth. He asserts that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report of 2007 probably understates the rapid rise of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere and rising temperatures as measured and observed from a wide variety of sources: CO2 levels, melting of ice sheets, sea level rising, changing ocean temperatures et cetera. Moreover, it is clear that these phenomenon result from human activities. If anthropogenic climate change is not mitigated a whole host of threats will manifest themselves that demand policy-makers address these challenges quickly and frankly. He hopes that scientists will have a central role in crafting and negotiating new policies as well as raising the public’s scientific knowledge of the problem.

Matthew Kahn agrees with the general conclusions presented by Richard Somerville and turns to some economic...

Trading Places: China and the US in the International System

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Baum does not foresee China and the US “trading places” in the near future but does not rule out this scenario in twenty to thirty years. He evaluates China’s role in the international system. China’s strong economic growth continues, though probably slowing, and it has become powerful regional actor. Yet, China also faces problems with the United States and other sovereign nations in Asia as well as its membership in WTO, World Bank and IMF. Baum considers these and other tensions for China on the international front. He includes in his discussion the different positions of various China scholars take on these developments.

Barry Naughton argues that China has become the world’s Number Two superpower following three decades of record economic growth. It is unlikely that China wants to challenge US primacy in the near term but rather seeks to improve and build upon its regional standing. The Communist Party is in the process of recalibrating its relations with...

The Obama Presidency After One Year

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Joyce Appleby outlines the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency noting a number of his successes on the domestic front as well as some notably failures and reverses of course. She focuses on some of the future struggles that his administration faces from the electorates’ “buyer’s remorse”, to passing health care and regulatory reform, to various international problems. Unfortunately for President Obama, he must navigate these shoals within the context of economic crisis, partisan rancor, and high public discontent with government. Professor Appleby concludes by noting that it is important that a larger Democratic majority in both houses of Congress and how the president might achieve those ends.

Michael Lind places Barack Obama in the camp of New Democrats whose political platform is akin to Rockefeller Republicans and supported by the media and the finance sectors. New Democrats differ from Roosevelt Democrats in their opposition to most forms of direct government...

What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America The Origins of the Present Crisis

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Brenner outlines the long-term causes of the present economic crisis. Rather than understanding the current downturn as merely a function of financial incompetence and miscalculation, he demonstrates that the US economy and that of the G7 has been slower growth in most of the major indices with each passing business cycle since the 1970s. In the last two cycles, asset bubbles inclined US consumers to take on more debt in order to spend and achieve limited GDP growth. Brenner outlines in detail how and why the financial sector played a key role in the creation and inflation of debt bubbles with new financial instruments. The implications for the US and the global economy are also outlined including the US current account deficit, trade imbalances, the rise of China and the East Asian economies as well as declining investment in the real economy and overcapacity in manufacturing worldwide.

Peak Oil and Future of Energy

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

David Goodstein outlines the approaching peak of oil drilling that is commonly referred to as Hubbert’s Peak. He notes that most of the energy used by humans, animals and plants is from the sun. This energy is stored in various forms including oil and coal. The exact amount of these forms of energy has not been established reliably. However, the number of discoveries of new oil fields has declined significantly since 1980. Once oil production has peaked it is likely to lead to a host of problems. Goodstein asserts that oil is too important for other aspects of human activity to be wasted so much on transportation. Other energy forms must be developed especially clean forms as climate change is also a growing threat to the planet. He then considers some of the alternatives and concludes that we must address these problems immediately.

Vaclav Smil contests the point that we have reached peak oil but notes that there is a finite amount in the planet. Smil also concedes that...

American Empire?

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Chalmers Johnson argues that US military spending is far beyond its ability to pay placing the burden on future generations. Part of the budget deficit is from too low taxes on the highest incomes but more importantly because of “military Keynesianism”. This policy has reduced invest in society including education, health care, and efficient use of the environment. He goes to note that it is impossible to know the real size of the military budget. Congress is the biggest supporter of defense spending because of pork barrel politics. He outlines some of the budget figures for 2008 [conservatively $1.1 trillion]. This incredible sum adds to the current account balance that is unsustainable and has increased by 45% under G. W. Bush pushed up by military spending. Yet, President Bush is not totally to blame. Large military expenditure has been on a permanent footing. It dates back to first years of the Cold War based, in part, on fears of another depression. It became the “military...

Law and the Courts

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Erwin Chemerinsky maintains that President George W. Bush took a historic opportunity to fill Supreme Court justice vacancies with ideologically right-of-center nominees. He explains that these justices will force the court to write opinions that break new ground in judicial activism. The areas that will be open to new adjudication include abortion rights, access to the courts, affirmative action, and presidential war powers. He describes the critical cases in each of these fields and the key points of contention. Professor Chemerinsky concludes that the incoming president may be able to offset the appointments of Justices Alito and Roberts with more centrist or center-left appointments if seats become open.

John Yoo argues that presidents have historically resisted Supreme Court decisions especially strong presidents such as Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Reagan changed this calculus by politicizing the courts further through the appointment...

US Foreign Policy: Continuity or Rupture?

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

James Mann refutes the idea that George W. Bush’s foreign policy was a rupture from previous administrations. He does find that it took previous policies much further but these trends had already been in place. He points to a number of military interventions to bolster his case including Haiti, Somalia, Panama, Iraq and Yugoslavia. He notes that previous administrations in foreign policy have acted unilaterally though not to the degree of the Bush administration, have promoted democracy, have used military force without Congressional approval, and have reserved the right to preemption. However, the Bush administration used preemption, unlike previous administrations, to intimidate a region. Mann argues that this administration was also different from its predecessors because its military strategy in Iraq was a “complete failure”. He ends by raising the counterfactual of what Gore would have done if he had been elected in 2000.

John Mueller weighs three themes to determine...

The Future of the Mass Media

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Massing argues that the news media is being adversely affected by the internet because of declining advertising revenue. As a result newspapers and television networks are cutting staff, especially foreign correspondents. The top-tier of newspapers has been adversely affected but second-tier newspapers like the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun have been devastated. As a result there is a greater reliance on fewer reporters and fewer areas of coverage. In order to increase revenues newspapers have begun to cater to affluent audiences. Thus, they have larger business section and fewer reports on poverty and labor/working class issues. Massing outlines some of the structural forces at work with reporting including the general gravitation pull to the political right as a result of constant attacks on the “liberal media” by pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, the influence of public opinion on what gets investigate and how it is reported, and the over-reliance...

Bush's America - Rhetoric and Realities

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Christopher Caldwell argues that President George W. Bush inherited many problems from the Clinton years. President Bush was similar to his predecessor as a baby-boomer, his amiability, and his solipicism. However, the Bush administration did make policy choices from a significantly different ideological base. Caldwell considers how and why policy determinations were made in economic matters and tax cuts, the re-invasion of Iraq, civil liberties and international relations. He summarizes with a first draft on the Bush legacy.

Michael Lind maintains that President George W. Bush’s tenure in office marked the end of the conservative movement in US politics. He outlines the history of the conservative movement from Goldwater’s presidential run in 1964 to 2008. The administration’s failure to privatize Social Security, rolling back the New Deal, marked conservatism’s limits for the US electorate. Moreover, the president’s foreign policy was too much of a departure from liberal...

Immigration Policy: Who Benefits?

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Joel Fetzer undertakes a description of the political basis of the immigration policies under the George W. Bush presidency. He finds that there was not a major difference between the Clinton and Bush administrations on immigration. One exception to this position was the scale of immigration raids and the draconian detentions of migrants. He finds supporters of immigration tend to be in the managerial classes and opponents in the working class. There is also a rising tide of support for immigration reform especially as many Congressional districts have a changing ethnic composition. Fetzer summarizes his talk by noting whom most benefits from “illegal” immigration and who suffers.

Roger Waldinger considers the political quandary that immigration legislation faced in the run-up to comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. He describes the various forms of immigrant entry into the US and the national composition of the immigrant population. He proceeds to note cleavages...

Climate Change: Causes, Consequences, and How to Respond

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Diana Liverman explores the theoretical positions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions including “earth-system management”, cap and trade policies, individual and community behavioral change, political economy of carbon governance (“carbon capitalism”), and government regulation and incentives. She supports a blending of the last three to produce “political ecology”. Liverman is critical of the Kyoto Accords but argues in favor of the Clean Development Mechanism [CDM] with some significant adjustments and much clearer analysis of how much carbon offsets truly reduce greenhouse gases. She limns out the limitations of CDM as well as implications for relations between the Global North and South.

Glen MacDonald weighs the various arguments and models for climate change noting their strengths and weaknesses. He finds arguments that human activity has heightened CO2 levels in the atmosphere more compelling than those of skeptics. However, science still has not become capable...

Globalization and Living Standards

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Freeman contemplates the effects of world workforce doubling with the fall of the Soviet Union, China’s turn to the market and India’s liberalization. What effect has this globalization process had on wages worldwide? Though world wages were probably affected, Freeman emphasizes the fact that education and innovation are countervailing forces to wage repression. While he considers globalization as a “positive” especially in the long run, he suggests that the gains from the process can be reversed in the face of pandemics, climate change, ongoing terrorism, “political insanity” and capital markets failures. He ends with some good and bad scenarios for the future.

Edward Leamer takes up the question of whether tariffs on imports raise wages as a counter-factual to whether open trade markets depress wages. He outlines four economic models to answer the question: Ricardo Model, Ricardo-Viner Model, Heckscher-Ohlin Model and the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem. He concludes...

The World Food Crisis

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Harriet Friedman describes how the world food system has shifted away from cereal production for human consumption. The "meatification of diet" has led farmers and agribusiness to produce grains for animals. This shift is also typified by production for profit more than for feeding people. Significant problems have resulted such as misallocation of food, higher pollution, and lower species diversity. Moreover, it has given multinational corporations much more power including property rights on genetic materials. She ends her presentation with some possible alternatives.

Raj Patel sets out the historical precedent for the current movement for food security and the largest obstacles to achieving this goal. He documents the changes in World Bank policy and how it has affected the food system. He concludes with some of the alternatives including those advanced by Via Campesina, the world’s largest social movement.

The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording...

Climate Change in a World of Slums

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Mike Davis argues that the climate stability of the Halocene Age has reached a tipping point that will lead to radical changes in global weather patterns. He discusses various models for estimating CO2 in the atmosphere and some of the consequences of climate change which will affect the poor and less developed nation much more dramatically than the wealthier and developed nations.The accompanying audio file provides the complete recording of the talk.

Perpetual War?

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Mann documents the increasing substitution of war for diplomacy by US policy elites. In part, the substitution has come about because of ideological change but also because the "Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex" maintains a high level of military spending due to the fact that most congressional districts receive some form of military expenditure from bases to munitions production.

General Wesley Clark considers foreign policy under the Bush administration. He argues that the military has a central role to play in support of US foreign policy goals especially in regards to protecting the world economy. He concludes that the Obama administration for political reasons must form national security policy from the center or he will be attacked from the right of the political spectrum. Thus, any strong change in policy will come about slowly.The accompanying audio files provide the complete recording of the two talks.

Economic Meltdown: Causes and Consequences

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Brenner outlines the long-term causes of the present economic meltdown. Rather than understanding the current downturn as solely a function of financial malpractice and incompetence, he demonstrates that the economy has been growing slower in most of the major indices with each passing business cycle since the 1970s. In the last two cycles, asset bubbles inclined US consumers to take on more debt in order to spend and achieve limited GDP growth. The implications for the US and the global economy are also considered including the US current account deficit, trade imbalances, the rise of China and the East Asian economies as well as declining investment in the real economy and overcapacity in manufacturing worldwide.

Gary Dymski makes the case that banks are much more responsible than borrowers for the subprime crisis that has since led to a financial crisis and economic decline in the rest of the economy. The subprime bubble had its origins in the “strategic reorientation”...

Edgy Cities, Technoblurbs and Simulcrumbs: Depthless Utopias and Dystopias on the Sub-urban Fringe

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Edgy Cities, Technoblurbs and Simulcrumbs: Depthless Utopias and Dystopias on the Sub-urban Fringe

Environmental Planning and Policy in the Los Angeles Region: Openings and Opportunities

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Environmental Planning and Policy in the Los Angeles Region: Openings and Opportunities

Los Angeles 1965-1992: Six Geographies of Urban Restructuring

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles 1965-1992: Six Geographies of Urban Restructuring

Explaining New York City's Aberrant Economy: Post-Industrial vs Classical Perspectives

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Explaining New York City's Aberrant Economy: Post-Industrial vs Classical Perspectives

Is the Japanese Economy in Crisis

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Is the Japanese Economy in Crisis

Is There A Crisis in the World Economy?

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Is There A Crisis in the World Economy?

The Dilemma of Durable Goods

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The Dilemma of Durable Goods

From National Movement to Nation

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

From National Movement to Nation

THe Market and the Origins of American Economic Development, 1750-1850