William Greider Quotes (33 Quotes)

Conceivably, we could be witnessing the start of a break from the era of US-led globalization in which Washington preached unfettered trade to the rest of the world.

The regime of globalization promotes an unfettered marketplace as the dynamic instrument organizing international relations.

The do-it-yourself version of pensions is a flop, as many Americans have painfully learned.

As the world's finest democracy, we do not do guillotines. But there are other less bloody rituals of humiliation, designed to reassure the populace that order is restored, the Republic cleansed.

The juggernaut -- the best and biggest military force in the world -- lumbers on, doing what it knows how to do best. It is unwilling to rethink its future, unable to let go of the past. Like the shark, it must keep feeding, only now it is feeding on itself.

If you think about it, Washington's overwhelming power in the world is founded on death, the awesome arsenal for killing people.

The great, unreported story in globalization is about power, not ideology. It's about how finance and business regularly, continuously insert their own self-interested deals and exceptions into rules and agreements that are then announced to the public as free trade.

The far more threatening problem is elsewhere - shrinking pensions, collapsed personal savings and soaring costs for health insurance.

While Washington focused obsessively on war with Iraq, it seemed to forget for the moment that the global economy remains wounded and groaning.

Obviously, people with low or even moderate incomes could not afford such savings rates, and even diligent savings from their low wages would not be enough to pay for either retirement or healthcare.

If US per capita income continues to grow at a rate of 1.5 percent a year, the country will have plenty of money to finance comfortable retirements and high-quality healthcare for all citizens, including those at the bottom of the wage ladder.

A recent survey in Wisconsin found that only 6 percent of citizens believe their elected representatives serve the public interest.

The global economy has largely disappeared from political discussions in recent months as national leaders preoccupied themselves with warmaking.

The point is, the political reporters are the ones who no longer understand the ritual they are covering. They keep searching for political meanings in the tepid events when a convention is now essentially a human drama and only that.

If we have wealth, it will be protected from inflation and possibly even enhanced in value.

Leaks and whispers are a daily routine of news-gathering in Washington.

Everyone's values are defined by what they will tolerate when it is done to others.

Nevertheless, I resist cynicism and continue to believe in the possibilities for genuine democracy.

Children born today have a fifty-fifty chance of living to 100.

The burnt odor in Washington is from the disintegrating authority of the governing classes.

A profound political question is suddenly on the table: Must the country continue to give precedence to private financial gain and market determinism over human lives and broad public values?

The US financial position is rapidly deteriorating, due mainly to America's persistent and growing trade deficit. US ambitions to run the world, in other words, are heavily mortgaged. Like any debtor who borrows more year after year with no plausible way to reverse the trend, a nation sinking deeper into debt enters into an adverse power relationship with its creditors -- greater and greater dependency.

Animal-rights advocates remind us of this admonition: The ways in which people treat animals will be reflected in how people relate to one another.

In 1900 Americans on average lived for only 49 years and most working people died still on the job.

Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own.

The economy is not governed with the bottom half in mind.

If one benefits tangibly from the exploitation of others who are weak, is one morally implicated in their predicament Or are basic rights of human existence confined to the civilized societies that are wealthy enough to afford them Our values are defined by what we will tolerate when it is done to others.

In the deregulated realm of US banking and finance, crime does occasionally pay for its foul deeds, not in prison time but by making modest rebates to the victims.

Modern Americans are remarkably capable people, skillful and inventive in many ways, but they are not so good at talking to one another across their vast differences of social class and economic status.

The threat to globalization is not the wasted American dollars but Washington's readiness to mix US commercial interests with its self-appointed role as global protector.

The Democrats should concentrate instead on how to spend money - lots of it - in smart, socially useful ways that help struggling wage earners.

Folks in the bottom half of the economy are already squeezed hard. They will be bloodied and bankrupt if economic policy inadvertently induces a recession.

In this country you can say aloud or publish just about anything you like.