Media

Inside of New York’s Javits Convention Center this morning, Walmart US President and CEO Bill Simon took the stage before a crowd of industry leaders to talk about how retail can play a central role in revitalizing the American economy. 

This is not a good idea. The New York Times is shutting down its environment desk. The justification for closing the desk is that the environmental beat is no longer siloed.

The United States isn't the only country that has a problem with giant banks that take too many risks, are not transparent, and are effectively above democratic oversight. The U.K. has the same problem, and in fact, that country's economy is even more financialized than the U.S.'s -- with all the attendant problems: banks helped inflate the U.K.'s huge real estate bubble in the early 2000s, inequality has risen amid outsized pay for bankers and traders, and the U.K.'s economy has become less stable as it has leaned more heavily on a sector addicted to risk-taking. 

This wasn’t a good week for Walmart. The business model of the nation’s largest private employer is built on a lack of accountability.

In his State of the State yesterday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid out his plan to make the state a clean tech leader. Cuomo proposed extending a program to increase solar panel installations for homes and businesses and investing in an electric car network with statewide charging stations and incentives to build charging infrastructure.

A New York Times article yesterday reported that Fix the Debt, the deficit hawk group which positions itself as a neutral body of wisemen, includes a number of corporate lobbyists and board members.

US labor markets ended 2012 with a whimper, as Friday’s release of the December unemployment numbers showed all major indicators essentially unchanged. 

Now is not the time to cut government spending, with the economy still limping along. This fact may not be obvious to Washington, but it's obvious to the American public, which has consistently said that fixing the economy and creating jobs should be a higher priority than cutting the deficit.

For example, exit polls in November found that 59 percent of voters named the economy as the most important issue facing the country. Just 15 percent said the deficit. 

The new film, Promised Land, focuses on an energy company’s attempt to secure leases for fracking operations in a small rural community. The gas industry reacted stronglyto the film distributing counter fact-sheets and considering leafleting movie viewings or setting up “truth squads” on Twitter.