Articles by Gar Lipow
Gar Lipow, a long-time environmental activist and journalist with a strong technical background, has spent years immersed in the subject of efficiency and renewable energy. His new book Solving the Climate Crisis will be published by Praeger Press in Spring 2012. Check out his online reference book compiling information on technology available today.
All Articles
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Public investment and regulation can be main means to green
In the face of economic catastrophe, yesterday’s controversial assertion has become today’s conventional economic wisdom. That lack of regulation is one root of the current depression is not only the view of liberals and moderates, but also of sensible conservatives. And the need for public investment to fight the depression is no longer in doubt […]
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Finance is valuable to the ‘real economy,’ but the system needs to be replaced
Some Grist readers in comments seem to think we should ignore the financial aspects of the crisis to focus on the “real economy.” The problem is, finance is part of the real economy. Credit was invented before paper currency; there are records of debt in ancient Babylon. Try and imagine life without currency, or checkbooks, […]
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Deregulation and inequality are bad for both the economy and the environment
Now that financial apocalypse has been (possibly) delayed a few weeks, let’s focus on the mortgage crisis and see what it teaches us about financial regulations in general. Mortgages once were great investments. When lenders were highly regulated and careful never to lend more than the underlying value of homes, mortgages provided a higher return […]
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The financial crisis, how we got here, and who knows what to do about it
David Roberts recently said about the current financial crisis: • Nobody clearly understands how we got in this situation. • Nobody clearly understands what situation we are in. • Nobody clearly understands what’s going to happen next. The first and second were, I think, serious errors. Dean Baker predicted this back in September of 2002 […]
