Madoff's London Money-Laundering Scam - The Daily Beast

New evidence suggests Bernie had powerful accomplices in his scheme—philanthropist Norman Levy and a second accountant. Lucinda Franks reports on the international investigation.

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New Progressive Era

A SECOND PROGRESSIVE ERA?WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE?I think we're in a reform period that will resemble the First Progressive Era (1900-20) and the New Deal (1932-40) rather than the 1960s. This means that economic issues will be first and foremost rather than issues of race, culture, sexuality and gender, etc. For one this, the working class and middle class were hit hard during the Second Gilded Age (1970-2000), and real wealth and incomes stagnated or declined for 80% of the population. This heyday of free market capitalism is a well known story by now, with its destruction of organized labor, the welfare state, tax and trade policies that favored the wealthy and big business. It was bound to end in a crash and it did--a very big one. So did the First Gilded Age and the New Era of the 1920s.We can already see where Obama is going with his reforms, at least in outline. Aside from the emergency stimulus packages, public works and relief, we can already see that he wants to create a greener economy, and expand and improve educational opportunities, and provide health care for those who have none. This also opens up the thorny area of de facto segregation in housing and education, which has not been addressed since the 1970s, but the fact is that blacks and Hispanics still get the short end of the stick disproportionately when it comes to jobs, housing, health care and education. Obama is understandably cautious about this, recalling all too well what happened when these issues exploded in the 1960s, but he is also clever enough to realize that today, as in the 1930s, enough white voters are hurting economically so that major federal initiatives and reforms will have as much opposition as they might otherwise.Internationally, we can also expect major changes in the IMF and World Bank, with the developing countries having more of a say in how these organizations are run. I regard this as an absolutely essential reform, that the role of Wall Street and private capital be reduced in the world, and that the poorer countries are no longer subjected to free market austerity programs. I'd go so far as to say that if this system isn't changed, then there will be no recovery from this depression. I also suspect that the US is going to have a much less militaristic and interventionist foreign policy, not least because we simply can't afford it any more. We're no longer the Great Superpower of 1945, and truth be told we haven't been for a long time. We're just going to have to accept the reality of a diminished and diminishing world role, and learn how to better work and play well with others.At the very least, private capital is going to be a lot more regulated and controlled than it has been in the last 30 years, and some banks and industries may stay under de facto state control for quite some time--at least until the next conservative cycle in 10 or 12 years. We might have a more mixed economy rather than pure free market capitalism, more along the lines of social democracies like Canada or Western Europe.

2009. Michael C McHugh. All rights reserved.