Tim Reese

Green New Deal

Published March 30, 2019 | By Tim Reese

The Green New Deal (GND) is not a government spending program or socialism. It is a democratic voter lead proposed economic planning and reinvestment strategy that aims to transition the United State from brown economy to a green economy. From a economic model that denies climate change, is dependent on oil, depletes natural resources, pollutes the environment which makes people sick and natural resources unproductive and where the wealth of the earth and work is concentrated into the hands of the 1% to a economic model that tackles climate change by redirecting investments from oil to renewable, energy conservation, conserving natural resources so the needs of the present are met without compromising future generations needs and sharing the wealth of the earth and work with the 99%. A lot of work for planning a transition from a brown economy to a green economy has already been done. The American proposal for a GND is only part of broader call for a Global Green New Deal (GGND). The GGND is part of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative (GEI). The UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative (2008) is designed to assist governments in “greening” their economies by reshaping and refocusing policies, investments and spending towards a range of sectors, such as clean technologies, renewable energies, water services, green transportation, waste management, green buildings and sustainable agriculture and forests. The GGND was launched in 2009 as a recommended package of public investments and complementary policy and pricing reforms aimed at kick-starting a transition to a green economy that invigorates sustainable economies, creates living wage jobs and address persistent poverty. This is also the goal of the GND: investing to combat climate change while improving the lives of the 99%. Momentum is building for a Greener and a more inclusive economy. 65 or a quarter of the world’s countries are now pursuing green economy related strategies and 48 of them are taking steps to develop national green economy plans. America needs to become one of these countries and the Green New Deal can lead the way.

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Invest in Green Bonds

Published July 15, 2018 | By Tim Reese

The East Bay Regional Park District is the first regional park district in the nation to issue “Certified Green Bonds” which are dedicated to projects that reduce greenhouse gases, mitigate for climate change, or provide other environmental benefits. “The Park district is happy to be a trailblazer on Certified Green Bonds” said Board Director and Board Finance Committee Chair Ayn Wieskamp. “Certified Green Bonds allow investors to put their money toward improving the environment while also benefiting from the tax advantages and stability of municipal bonds. Green Bonds are the new standard in environmentally friendly investing.”

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Big Lie: taxes cuts benefit the middle class.

Published December 30, 2017 | By Tim Reese

The idea that the tax cut is going to bring high paying jobs and put big money in in middle class people’s pay checks is a big lie, look at any graph since Ron Reagan and trickle down economics; income distribution for the middle class has remained flat while the growth for the 1% is off the chart. This is more of same, it is only going to speed up the transfer of wealth. It was not the tax rate that moved jobs offshore, it was wages. Tax cut will not increase wages, save or bring jobs as evident by Carrier Corp. The tax break Carrier got will help pay for the transfer of those jobs to Mexico. $1.5 trillion is going to be borrowed and added to the debt, that our children and grandchildren will have to pay. The payments will be made by cuts to healthcare, education, infrastructure. This tax cut does help the middle class, it is only going to put us deeper in debt with little or no income gain as it transfer $trillions more to the 1% to move offshore or to speculate in the stock market and hope they don’t speculate us into another recession. It will be easy to test this premise next year if it is the big tax break for the middle class as well rising wages or is it the big lie, like health care, cheaper and better.

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Peace Economy: Yemen

Published August 21, 2017 | By Tim Reese

Tens of thousands of people attend a protest rally in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on May 12, 2017 to voice their outrage at the US-backed Saudi war on the impoverished Arab country. (Photo by al-Masirah) The Yemen war economy that stretches back decades between Shia and Sunni has evolved into a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-allied Saudi Arabia and it’s ally the US. This conflict has become an epic tragedy of destruction and starvation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reports that the scale of the food crisis in Yemen is staggering with 17 million people – two thirds of the population – severely food insecure and seven million of these on the verge of famine. “The need for long-term political solutions for achieving sustainable peace in Yemen is unquestionable, but there is much we can do now to fight hunger and malnutrition. We save lives by saving livelihoods,” Graziano da Silva said of FOA. It is time for a peace economy between Shia and Sunni, between America and Iran to save Yemen and the Middle East. The Yemen people want peace not more destruction. Continue reading →

The US is losing the War.

Published December 27, 2015 | By Tim Reese

“I feel very angry, but I don’t want anything from the U.S. military,” said Khalid Ahmad, a 20 year old pharmacist who survived the U.S. bombing of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz on the 3rd of October, “God will hold them accountable.” Khaild is recuperating at Emergency Hospital in Kabul from a U.S. shrapnel injury to his spine that nearly killed him. This why the US is losing the war, they turning the very people they are trying to help against them.

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