The Money Launderers: A picnic for Wall Street

(Published at Counterpunch.com)  A week ago, on the day President Bush disavowed government intervention in financial markets, the Federal Reserve announced the fruit of its weekend labor: essentially guaranteeing hundreds of billions in toxic financial derivatives owned by banks. Money laundering has become the de facto standard of Federal Reserve policy.

Back to Florida, where Bushtime began

(Published at Counterpunch.com)  Jake Gittes is in every scene in the 1974 movie, “Chinatown”, leading audiences back to where he started. So it seems with Florida and the national elections.

The politics of the Growth Machine: eating South Florida

(Published at Counterpunch.com) It is no surprise that appointments to Florida’s state agencies charged with protecting the environment are the truest indicator of the governor’s mind set. With two new appointees announced to the governing board of the water management district, Governor Charlie Crist continues to put greater distance between his politics and those of his predecessor, Jeb Bush.

Down goes the peloton: American politics and the faltering economy

(Published at Counterpunch.com)  A small percentage of Americans ever heard of the peloton; the tight-knit pack of riders leading a bicycle race. But Americans generally are clueless about so much of what the rest of our trading partners understand: the United States has dropped to the back of the world economic peloton.