Poland recently announced that it was nationalizing the country’s private retirement accounts, their equivallent of 401(k)s. While residents will continue to have access to the funds just as they normally would, the move places private assets on the country’s public balance sheet. While this maneuver was in the works for sometime, of course, the devil […]
Author Archives: S.J. Kerrigan
How Do You Deal With a Dying Culture?
Superheroes are the modern versions of classical mythology. They offer answers to philosophical questions about morality, what it means to be human, our responsibilities to each other, and more. Most importantly, they reveal our culture’s inner values. Put simply, they are a legitimate part of our cultural heritage, but in recent years superhero movies and other […]
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, Jerry Mander (Book, 1978)
Humanist and environmental activist Jerry Mander is nearing 80-years-old, but you wouldn’t know it to hear him. In recent years he has spoken on the dangerous, unsustainable and “obsolete” system of global capitalism, but his earliest and probably most influential public work is his manifesto warning about the many dangers of television. Here in his […]
Corporations Seek the Ultimate Power in the Universe: The Power to Print Money
Geopolitics since World War II has increasingly been defined by global trade and by extension, multinational corporations. As they have escaped national boundaries, governments have become acquiescent to their desires with “Free” trade agreements, favorable regulations and protective laws. More recently, the arrogance of these institutions has been to take on the role of government […]
The Earth-Shattering Whistleblower You Haven’t Heard About
While many in the nation are concerned with Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) leaker who helped to spread the word about the agency’s spying and data collection within the US, the extent of that spying still remains clouded. Are our calls actually being recorded? Can that information be recalled at a later date? […]
A Tale of Two Cities & Its Lessons (Novel, 1859)
I recently finished reading the Charles Dickens’s classic, A Tale of Two Cities, a story of sacrifice and revenge before and during revolutionary France. Dickens was partially inspired to write the novel to to develop some of the themes he had addressed in previous novels, namely poverty. He insisted that if things did not change, […]
The Collapse of American Optimism and the Rise of Apocalyptica
Ask any American older than 30 what the country was like when they were growing up and with few exceptions, the answer will be uniformly positive, and certainly more positive than its perceived to be today. Indeed, even young adults in their 20s recognize that the tone of the nation has changed in recent years. […]
Five Months After Hurricane Sandy
It’s been almost 5 months since Hurricane Sandy devastated several towns and knocked out power to more than 8 million people across the east coast. The storm resulted in 72 deaths and thousands of destroyed homes and businesses. At $75 billion, it was the 2nd costliest hurricane in US history. The lives of those directly […]
US, UK, and Canada Have Plan To Allow Banks to Seize Depositor Accounts
In our last story, we noted how government backed loans in the housing market encourages rising home and rent prices throughout the nation, a transfer of wealth from almost every single American to various establishment organizations. Now we have another example of banks transferring risk to the taxpayer. The term “Too Big To Fail” should […]
Government Pushes For a New Housing Bubble; Backs Subprime Loans With Taxpayer Dollars
The divide between what the majority of people want verses what the establishment wants is never greater than it is when discussing property values. Those who have assets want them to rise in price, while the poor and those just starting out want lower prices they can afford. Of course, they have no political power. […]