October 16, 2008 – 9:01 am
For Release Sunday, October 19, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
Before the fiscal crisis, there was the global climate crisis. After the fiscal crisis, we’ll still have the global climate crisis — for the rest of our lives.
A nightmarish future awaits our children unless we can forge international accords, with [...]
October 9, 2008 – 11:33 am
For Release Sunday, October 12, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
For many years, official Washington — its own “echo chamber,” as some say — has been ignoring the financial needs and prospects of state and local governments.
That era is now coming to a crashing end.
The headline event is Gov. Arnold [...]
October 2, 2008 – 10:09 am
For Release Sunday, October 5, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
Imagine the next president of the United States moving decisively to slow down the world’s population growth as it arcs from today’s 6.7 billion toward a predicted and perilous 9.2 billion by 2050.
The cost to the U.S. Treasury could reach $1 billion [...]
September 25, 2008 – 8:56 am
For Release Sunday, September 28, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
With the Wall Street mortgage meltdown so massive its costs could reach toward $1 trillion, where’s the economic plan to rebuild America’s cities and infrastructure, to retool our businesses and people for a risky century?
It seems totally missing in official Washington today. [...]
September 18, 2008 – 9:08 am
For Release Sunday, September 21, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
CHICAGO– Obama versus McCain, and the places we live — what difference will this election make? After the speeches, ads, debates, saturation media, are over and the voters have spoken, how will the new president work with the cities and metropolitan [...]
September 11, 2008 – 9:58 am
For Release Sunday, September 14, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
For years, in company with most journalists, I’ve been ducking the population issue. We Americans seem to have it on our DNA — we believe that all economic development and growth, no matter the consequences, is a positive thing.
But a new [...]
September 4, 2008 – 8:46 am
For Release Sunday, September 7, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
Will America’s ill-starred “war on drugs” and its expanding prison culture make it into the presidential campaign?
Standard wisdom says “no way.”
We may have the world’s highest rate of incarceration — with 5 percent of global population, 25 percent of prisoners worldwide. [...]
August 28, 2008 – 10:25 pm
For Release Sunday, August 31, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
For close to a century, the automobile has so boldly seized Americans’ imagination — sparking the economy, paving the continent, designing our neighborhoods — that even the thought of curbing its dominion seems unnatural.
But check what’s happening right now:
High gasoline prices are [...]
August 22, 2008 – 6:35 pm
For Release Sunday, August 24, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
City or suburb? For decades that’s been the choice for most Americans. Suburbs have been the hands-down winners — by the millions, we’ve rushed to the urban edge.
But could we be on the cusp of an historic “back to the [...]
August 15, 2008 – 6:00 pm
For Release Sunday, August 17, 2008
© 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
By Neal Peirce
In a rare burst of positive news for America’s hard-put poor families, 15 states have set up bipartisan commissions to see how to narrow the yawning income gaps that leave so many Americans in destitution.
The advent of the commissions and serious studies [...]