deregulation

Jim Rice 4-03-2013

(esbobeldijk / Shutterstock)

EARLIER THIS YEAR, 14 solar panels were installed on my roof. Each day since—in fact, multiple times a day—I've eagerly checked our online meters, as the sun replaces coal and nuclear plants as the provider of my home's electrical needs.

I've waited a long time for this. I attended my first energy conference in the late 1970s, when I joined several other students from the hunger action group at our Jesuit college, Seattle U., for the 20-hour van ride to Denver—even then, the connection between poverty and energy issues was clear.

That conference was one of several conducted by the U.S. Catholic bishops to gather input for what became a major and still-relevant document published in 1981 under the unassuming name "Reflections on the Energy Crisis." The statement noted that "solar power can help open the way to permanent energy security, pointing beyond the end of fossil fuels."

So last summer I was thrilled to sign a contract with a company called SolarCity, which installed the solar panels on my rooftop under a lease arrangement—they own the panels, and I buy solar power from them whenever the sun shines. And there's sure a lot of sunshine to tap: Every hour of daylight on earth, the sun releases the amount of energy consumed by the entire population of the planet in one year.

Lisa Sharon Harper 11-02-2011

american dream poster

Nearly 50 million Americans are currently living below the poverty line (that is $22,000 for a household of four) and half of them are working full time jobs.

In our current economic system, the "happiness" of the super-elite is secured while the lives, liberty, and access to basic needs of the rest suffer. This isn't the American Dream and it isn't God's dream either.

Jim Rice 2-03-2011
This Sunday would be Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, and the predictable tributes have come from across the political spectrum.
Ben Lowe 5-18-2010
In a frank admission a year ago, Senator Dick Durbin put it bluntly: "Frankly, the banks run this place." Perhaps they deserve to. After all, they pay enough for the privilege.
Edith Rasell 5-04-2010
As someone who lives in Cleveland -- which in some years is identified as the poorest city in the U.S.
Ernesto Tinajero 4-30-2010
The defenses that Goldman Sachs execs gave to this week's Senate hearings for their actions were full of emotion and denial. They claimed shock that anyone could question their actions.
What is the Tea Party position on war?

Liza Field 3-31-2010
After a hard winter in the Eastern United States, spring offers a resurrection. Particularly here in the Appalachian Bible Belt, we're looking toward Easter.

Hayley Hathaway 6-04-2009
Earlier last month, President Obama requested $108 billion in new money for the International Monetary Fund to show the world that we stood up for our commitments to fighting the global recession.
Elizabeth Palmberg 12-11-2008

So here's the cold, hard, unvarnished economic truth about financial deregulation, and the big gaps between rich and  poor it fosters: They're really, really lousy for the economy, as Robert S. McElvaine points out in "It's the Equality, Stupid" in this month's Sojourners magazine.