Tick, tick, tick. The countdown to another rail accident is already on. A 90-car derailment recently in Alabama is only the latest in a series of train wrecks unfolding across North America.The next one, as promised by a dangerous combination of lax regulations and booming traffic, is just around the bend.Fracking may be paving the way towards energy independence for North … [Read more...]
Kick Wall Street to the curb, get $15 trillion
It was only a matter of time after we started eating local food and Buying Local from main street stores that we'd start hearing about local money. It started with local currencies in such places as inflation-wracked Argentina and the wealthy Berkshires of western Massachusetts. These experiments in modern complementary currency spawned dozens of scrips around the world from … [Read more...]
Chinese billionaire crushes perfectly good Mercedes to protest driving
To prepare for peak oil, I've argued that nations need to rely less on imports and bring their manufacturing back home. But here's an import from China that I'd like to see come to the West. In advance of China's National Car-Free Day in September, Chen Guangbiao, a flamboyant but green-friendly billionaire, staged a publicity stunt where he had a Mercedes-Benz sedan … [Read more...]
Wall Street lawyer risks career to join protesters
"Do you work on Wall Street?" asks the interviewer with MoveOn.org. "I do," answers a man in a suit, his face blurred out by the camera. It turns out that he's a lawyer. Q. Are you afraid of being seen at the march? A. I wouldn't really like my colleagues to see me here. Q. What do you think they would think about it? A. Umm...it would range from weird to … [Read more...]
A “Gospel of Wealth” for the 21st century
Andrew Carnegie once wrote that there is nothing more debasing than the worship of money: “The amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry.” Later in life, Carnegie developed this notion more fully in Gospel of Wealth. Published in 1901, this essay became a touchstone of the great American philanthropic tradition. Carnegie’s position on the “duty of the man of … [Read more...]