In his Wall Stree Journal article, Three Decades of Subsidized Risk, Charles Gasparino discusses the indispensible role our government played in the creation of the tower of unrepayable debt whose unvelling caused the financial collapse of September 2008. Those of us who remember the asset bubbles, and resulting financial disasters, of the 80s and 90s also remember the government bailouts of first the S&Ls and then of a major hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management. Our perception w... Read Full Story

The Daily Kos once published a great post, Why We Need the Liquid Thorium Reactor, which supplies an easily-understood explanation for a complex technology that is becoming extremely important in the nuclear industry. It's recommended reading for those who don't have the patience to wade through the more technical nuclear blogs I link to on my blogroll.For those who want to explore the subject in more depth, Charles Barton at Nuclear Green , and Kirk Sorensen  and Charles Barton together... Read Full Story

In demanding that our rulers provide for all our material needs and rescue us from the consequences of our own folly and the normal risks of existence, we are paving the way for a totalitarian regime that strips us of the last of our rights and enslaves us to the ruling oligarchy. Charles Hugh Smith at Of Two Minds warns of the dangers to our basic civil rights and constitutional freedoms in his latest post, When the Savior State Becomes the Enemy of the People. Smith reminds us that we ... Read Full Story

As was expected, the Chicago Showdown, the massive protest against the efforts of the financial industry to lobby against reform of the financial system, drew many thousands of protesters from across the country to engage in three days of protests against the government support of the greed and larceny of the banking interesting.It was a pretty good protest, as they go, what with the requisite marches and chanting and prayer vigils and some really great costumes, though somehow it failed to e... Read Full Story

The great people at Second City Cop blog have started a movement to reduce the number of Chicago aldermen to 25, one for each police area. A petition has been started, and you can print up copies here and go to work gathering signatures. Remember, in order to be valid, all signatures must be those of City of Chicago residents who are registered voters, and you must, after getting signatures, attest to their validity by getting your own signature, as a petition circulator, notarized.WE NEED 1... Read Full Story

The Nuclear Energy Option (Dr. Bernard L. Cohen, Professor Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh) an online book summarizing current nuclear power technologies and their costs, benefits, and hazards, is a short summary of the history of civilian nuclear power development, current nuclear technologies and their costs, comparisons of costs and benefits of nuclear with other forms of power generation, the management of nuclear waste, and the regulatory framework and politics of nuclear power genera... Read Full Story

President Obama is learning. According to a Reuters report, the president, at a public meeting in New Orleans, said that he would like to see increased production of electrical power in the United States and that he recognizes that nuclear energy could play a key role in reducing greenhouse gases "There's no reason why technologically we can't employ nuclear energy in a safe and effective way. Japan does it and France does it, and it doesn't have greenhouse gas emissions, so it would be stupi... Read Full Story

Some people are asking "Where's the outrage?" at the wholesale plundering of the American population by the banking cartel and the U.S. Treasury, to support the banking cartel.We can show our outrage at the protest this weekend downtown, concurrent with the annual meeting of the American Banker's Association, October 25-27.So far, the financial bailout has cost us over $3 Trillion dollars, and our leaders are concocting new schemes to strip the American public of the last of its wealth, by of... Read Full Story

Since I work at a stock brokerage firm, I get to listen to Kudlow and Cramer crowing about the "recovery" of the housing market, and how housing prices have "bottomed", which surely means that we're on back on track to house price Nirvanah... that is, from a current homeowner's viewpoint. Aspiring buyers might view the situation differently.I have a lot of thoughts when I hear Kudlow & Cramer. Mainly, I think about how many ordinary 'merikuns, mostly male, regard their show as the font of... Read Full Story

Mayor Daley says that the proposed CTA fare hikes and service cuts are "very ugly", but offers no alternative or solution to the the agency's budget problems.Strange- Da Mare had the funds ($86 Million) to buy the Michael Reese hospital property to be redeveloped as the Olympic Village, but can't find the funds for one of the city's most essential services? Daley has always considered the CTA to be something of a "frill", and now that the Olympic Games are off the table, he has no interest in... Read Full Story