Civic Organization Can Turn Around Small Communities by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
April 3, 2014

Image by Steve Brand via Flickr

Perhaps there are lessons for other small communities from the conditions, positive and negative, of Winsted, Connecticut (the Town of Winchester), a community of about 11,000 people nestled in the beautiful Litchfield County Hills.

First, Winsted is unique in numerous ways. Northwestern Connecticut Community College, established in 1965 through local initiatives, has expanded its facilities. Winsted is the second smallest community in the U.S. to have a community college located within its boundaries. About the size of Manhattan in New York City, the Town of Winchester sports two lakes plus Crystal Lake, the drinking water reservoir, two rivers named Mad and Still, and an abundance of woods and meadows.

P is for Ponzi by Michael Hudson

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
April 3, 2014

Image by LEOL30 via Flickr

Part P in the Insider’s Economic Dictionary.

Panic: The abrupt culminating stage of the business cycle, in which inflated asset prices collapse in price as financial securities and properties are sold to pay off debts.

Parallel Universe: The objective of modern economic methodology. A hypothetical exercise in science fiction depicting a world that conceivably could exist, given a sufficient number of internally consistent assumptions. (See Neoclassical Economics.)

Reflections on Ukraine and Regime Change, by Michael Parenti

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Michael Parenti Blog
michaelparenti.org
April 3, 2014

More than 83 percent of the qualified voters of Crimea recently participated in a referendum to rejoin Russia. And of that number well over 93 percent voted to separate themselves from Ukraine and once more become a part of Russia, in what was a massively one-sided victory.