Regulators Resist Volcker Wandering Warning of Too-Big-to-Fail

Dean Baker, Director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses the economic crisis and recovery.

Resurrecting Glass-Steagall would reduce the need for the taxpayer bailouts that added between 9 percent and 49 percent to the profits of the 18 biggest U.S. banks in 2009, according to Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research in Washington.

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Protect our Servicewomen, End Sexual Violence Against Women in the Military

Kim Gandy, former president of the National Organization for Women, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses the growing problem of sexual assault in the military.

“Where is the outrage when a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire?” asks Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif). Harman was responding to a 2008 Veterans Administration study finding that one in seven female veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan seeking medical care from the VA (Office of Veterans Affairs) had suffered sexual trauma.

As if these numbers weren’t shocking enough, a recent Department of Defense (DoD) report on sexual assault in the military documented over 2,900 reported cases in 2008 alone — an increase of eight percent over 2007 reports. For troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, reported cases increased 26 percent over the previous year. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the minuscule number of documented assaults referred for trials and courts martial.

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Revealing the Real U.S.-Africa Policy

Gerald LeMelle, executive director of Africa Action, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses the militarization of US policy in Africa.

A policy is militarized when military might is deemed the only effective way to accomplish its agenda. In a June statement on U.S. policy in Africa, U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnny Carson said the agenda of the Obama administration is as follows: promoting and strengthening democracy and the rule of law, preventing and mitigating conflicts, encouraging sustained economic development and long-term growth, and working with African countries to face both old and new global challenges. The agenda makes no reference to the recent FY2010 budget that doubles the size of AFRICOM’s funds. Nor does it mention the doubling of financial support for counterterrorism projects throughout the continent — including increasing funds for weapons, military training, and education at a time when U.S. foreign aid money is stagnating.

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Time for change in US policy towards Zimbabwe

Gerald LeMelle, Executive Directore of African Action, and contributing author to Mandate for Change, was quoted by the African Press Organization in anticipation of Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s first official visit to Washington, DC.

“The U.S. must adopt a new approach in Zimbabwe that advances the transition towards democratic governance, economic security, truth, justice and reconciliation,” said LeMelle. “The U.S. policy towards Zimbabwe today is limited to sanctions while assisting with humanitarian assistance.”

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Welcome to Mandate for Change

Three decades ago, conservative ideologues at The Heritage Foundation produced a primer on the Reagan Revolution entitled Mandate for Leadership, which offered an overarching philosophy against the role of government and in favor of markets.

This volume, produced by the Institute for Policy Studies, which since 1963 has been the nation’s leading progressive policy organization, offers a set of specific policy proposals for the incoming national administration on every major domestic and international topic, written specifically for the book by a leading thinker and activist in the field.

These chapters set forth a fundamental, badly needed “mandate for change” to reinvigorate government and rethink the role of markets and civil society. Each one includes an essay supporting the proposed policies and a resource list of relevant organizations, websites, and readings.