America’s economic Crash of 2008 was directed almost universally at Wall Street. In his September release, entitled, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, Robert B. Reich argues differently. Pedia He believes the real problem is structural: There’s an increasing concentration of wealth at the top, while middle class Americans struggle to maintain a decent standard of living. Reich served in three national administrations, most recently as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. He’s written numerous books, and is a university professor of public policy. Three stages of modern American capitalism substantiate Reich’s message. The first stage (1870-1929) was one of increasing concentration of income and wealth. Stage two (1947-1975), featured more broadly shared prosperity; and stage three (1980-2010) is one of increasing wealth concentration. Met search
Reich says it’s vital for our future to begin a fourth stage where broad-based prosperity reins Reich profiles Mariner Ecclesia, a business tycoon during the Great Depression. Largely forgotten today, Reich believes Eccle’s analysis of the underlying economic stresses of the Great Depression are relevant to the Crash of 2008. His assumption of a quick national recovery proved wrong, as we know today. President Roosevelt summoned him to Washington DC to share his financial acumen which was based on logic and experience. Government
Eccle’s chaired the Federal Reserve Board from 1934 to 1948 (the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue in Washington DC is his memoriam). History repeats itself today, as there’s a vast accumulation of income among the nation’s wealthiest people. Art and Politics examines how the combination can be detrimental to the integrity of the artist and to the quality of art produced by a culture as a whole. Art and politics in my view are like mixing oil and water. Granted that many old master paintings would depict political or religious themes. Homepage
Their sponsors were either church or state. That was not the painter’s primary objective though, as evidenced by the quality of their works. If their objective was only to produce propaganda on behalf of their benefactors, we would not have the exquisite paintings hanging in the world’s museums today that convey transcendence over subject matter, suggesting the sublime universal answers to human existence. Dailyday
To produce propaganda the artist must subordinate his personality and artistic theories to that purpose. The old masters were painting for the purpose of their own understanding of the world and of art. My first college level art class was taught by a young professor who distributed to the class, although not as required reading and distributed innocuously, the writings of Chairman Mao on Art. Was it a subtle form of indoctrination? Probably and I am glad to have dumped them in a waste basket where they belonged. Vilnapresa
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