Taking Note

End of a Year, End of a Decade: Looking Ahead

With unemployment above 10%, there are not many silver linings to the economic clouds.  The best that can be said, perhaps, is that the year is ending with more reason for optimism than it began with. 

Some grim facts:

•  Eight million extra workers are unemployed
• Hundreds of thousands of families who believed public incentives and an American myth, put almost all their wealth into the basket labeled “my own house,” and now owe more than they own.
• The financial manipulators, who hogged the majority of increases in income this decade, continue to think they are entitled to it, in spite of the fact that only a massive government bailout saved them from drowning in the crap they packaged and sold in bright new wrapping.
• The mature decisions that are required to put the regulatory system and the fiscal house in order appear to be quite beyond our legislature.   
• In short, the old dogs of American politics and American capitalism seem to have learned no new tricks; they just continue their frenzied barking at the tires of history.

But there is reason for hope:

The Best and Worst of 2009: the World

Another year, another set of hard choices:  What developments of the past year hold the most promise of long-term positive impact, and which will be proved the biggest reverses? 

Two Cents on Barack Obama

Vernon Jordan has seen it all in American politics since he graduated from Howard University Law School fifty years ago next June. He led the Urban League in the great days of civil rights turmoil, broke racial barriers as a director of major American corporations, reached the pinnacle of law and banking in Washington and New York, and for decades has a been a powerbroker among Democrats. "How's Obama doing?" I asked Jordan recently. He paused, smiled, and replied, "I am still in the moment."

Jordan was and is very close to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Although he hosted Obama's first fundraiser in Washington when the young state legislator decided to run for the Senate, Jordan supported Mrs. Clinton in the primaries and, privately, advised Obama that his run for the presidency in 2008 was, in Jordan's view, premature.

But the election of Obama was a transcendent experience for Vernon Jordan. In the United States at the start of the twenty-first century, an African-American, navigating myriad obstacles of class and identity (with a middle name, incredibly, the same as a national enemy), had amassed the money and votes need to win the presidency. That was Jordan's "moment" to be savored. After a year, it is still possible to marvel that America has Barack Hussein Obama as its leader. Whatever your views on how well he has done, reflect again this New Year's week at the improbability of it all: an inspiring symbol of the cultural transformation of the United States in the past half century.

THE YEAR IN CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE RULE OF LAW

To many progressives, one of the most galvanizing aspects of Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency was his pledge to roll back the executive excesses of the Bush-Cheney era and restore a sensible balance between national security and civil liberties in American political life. “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” the newly elected president declared in his inaugural address.  And after eight years of secrecy and skullduggery in the name of national security, Obama’s stated determination to get the country back on track engendered an upswell of devotion that helped sweep him into office, and an almost impossibly high set of expectations.

The Best and Worst Governmental Responses to the Recession

At the outset of 2009, President-elect Obama awaited his inauguration with the U.S. economy in a near free fall -- more than a half a million jobs were disappearing monthly, consumption and investment levels were plummeting, home foreclosures were soaring, credit was frozen, and no remote sign of a turnaround was in sight. Obama and his administration would end up pursuing a wide assortment of ambitious actions to stop the bleeding that, at least for the time being, appear to have accomplished that goal.

In the absence of those steps -- particularly the stimulus legislation and the bailout of the financial sector -- we would be in the midst of a still severe economic downturn and perhaps even a depression. Instead, economic growth has resumed and the rate monthly job losses has at least tapered off.  The economy is far from out of the woods, however, and it’s entirely possible that unemployment will remain high for an extended period unless another round of ambitious governmental initiatives are pursued. Sorting out which policies have worked best and worst during the crisis, to the extent they can be judged in the middle of a story that’s still unfolding, can help to point the way toward next steps that will improve the odds of a happy ending.

Health Care: The 10 Most Constructive Insights, Suggestions and Questions of 2009

Best and Worst on Health Care Reform – 2009

By Naomi Freundlich and Maggie Mahar

This year the rhetoric around health care reform reached historic levels. Barely a week went by without pundits dissecting some new fact, policy detail or wording change implicit in the various reform plans emerging from Congress. The result was a barrage of media reports, often conflicting, that heralded the demise or success of reform on a regular basis. Twisted facts, reactionary politics and just plain scare tactics have been pervasive.

Below, “The 10 Most Destructive Lies about Health Care Reform in 2009”  and “ The Ten Most Constructive Insights, Suggestions and Questions.”

Best and Worst from Iran

The  turmoil in Iran this year – the most significant since the 1979 Islamic Revolution – was a major setback for the regime, but good news for some Iranians inside and outside the country. The disputed June 12 presidential election, which was presumed to be rigged, was the moment many Iranians had awaited; it was the spark that inspired millions to go out to the streets to protest a theocratic system that now resembles a military dictatorship.

Good news for some in Iran was bad news for others:

What was a curse for the system was a blessing for an opposition movement in waiting. For Iranian dissidents, it was a good year.

The Senate Has a Bill

A Close Look at the Details

You have to hand it to them: on a Saturday, at the 11th hour, in the midst of a blizzard that shut down the nation’s Capitol, Senate Democrats finally nailed that 60th vote needed to bring health care reform home in time for the Holidays.

In the end, Nebraska Democrat Senator Ben Nelson decided that he didn’t want to play Scrooge. Though his heart  melted only after he  had won: 1) tighter restrictions on insurance coverage for abortions (health insurance plans will be allowed to cover abortions, but states can prohibit the coverage of abortions by plans that are offered in their exchanges); 2)  a special holiday present for his state (the amendment includes, solely for Nebraska, an extension of increased federal contributions to the cost of an expansion of Medicaid);  and 3) a pledge that no major changes will be made to the Senate bill in conference.

The Best and Worst in Education of 2009

Looking back on 2009 in the education world, I’ve gained a new appreciation of the virtues of our largely decentralized education system.  In the past year, the bad news is that federal policies have been mostly underwhelming, with a focus on charter schools and merit pay for teachers, which some are calling a “Bush III” agenda.  By contrast, good news comes from a few local districts that have taken important steps on their own to address what research suggests matters most in education – reducing the separation of rich and poor children. 

Public Says Go Green With or Without a Climate Agreement

Debate has been vigorous at the Copenhagen climate summit. We shall see if this debate leads to a meaningful global agreement on combating climate change. But it’s worth stressing that the American public wishes to see steps against climate change by our country regardless of Copenhagen’s result. In a multicountry survey conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org for the World Bank, U.S. respondents said, by 73-24, that our country has a responsibility to take action against climate change even if the other countries at the conference can’t come to an agreement. Moreover, most Americans (62 percent) say they would be willing to pay some costs as part of taking action against climate change—either $39 a month (48 percent) or $19.50 a month (14 percent).