By Angela Vullo October 3, 2019–On September 23, 2019, Illinois State Representative Mary Flowers called for an emergency hearing in Chicago to determine the causes of lead contamination in the city’s drinking water. Chicago has now joined Flint, Newark, and many other American cities in exposing the deadly threat of […]
By Nancy Spannaus Aug. 7, 2019—On August 7, 1789 Congress approved legislation for the first public infrastructure project in the just-born United States—our lighthouses! The legislation created the U.S. Light House Establishment, and it mandated that state lighthouses be turned over to the Federal government, which was charged with managing […]
July 6, 2019—As of July 1, 12 states raised their gasoline taxes, in a concerted effort to get the revenue to deal with their collapsing bridges and highways. The actions follow a pattern from recent years, over which time the Federal share of contributions to building and maintaining the nation’s […]
On the occasion of the anniversary of the TVA By Nancy Spannaus May 18, 2019—As we celebrate the 86th birthday of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), while in the midst of devastating floods in the Midwest, it is time to turn our minds to building a TVA on the Missouri. […]
Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10. By Nancy Spannaus May 11, 2019—When President Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address, spoke of the need to “bind up the nation’s wounds,” he was not specifically referring to his signature construction project, the Transcontinental Railroad. But in all […]
By Nancy Spannaus March 9, 2019—The March 6 House Ways and Means Committee hearing on transportation infrastructure put the crucial problem which is blocking vitally-needed action on this topic, squarely on the table: the lack of understanding of the Hamiltonian principle of credit. From Representative Peter DeFazio, Chairman of the […]
Feb. 18, 2019—The need for a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), built along Hamiltonian principles, has come sharply to the fore in the current debate/uproar over the fate of California’s plans for a high-speed rail connection between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Establish a national bank with long-term, low-interest credit, capitalized […]
Feb. 5, 2019—On Feb. 4, a group of Arizona legislators, led by State Senator Juan Mendez, joined the national movement to get Congress to reimpose Glass-Steagall and establish a Hamiltonian National Infrastructure Bank. SM1001, a “Memorial urging Congress to reinstate portions of the Glass-Steagall Act and to support national banking […]
Feb. 2, 2019—Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Or), Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will convene his first hearing on the nation’s infrastructure needs on Thursday, Feb. 7. According to the announcement on the Committee’s site, the hearing is entitled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why Investing in Our Nation’s […]
By Nancy Spannaus June 14, 2021—One of the common questions I am asked during my classes of Alexander Hamilton’s American System is: Where did Hamilton get his ideas? In a one-and-a-half-hour presentation on June 6, I addressed that question at some length. My power point presentation was entitled “Cameralism, Leibniz, […]
By Nancy Spannaus June 10, 2021—As President Biden shifts course from negotiating with the GOP, to counting on a bipartisan “Group of 20” in the Senate to come up with an infrastructure compromise plan, the ideal solution for funding the trillions of dollars required is in plain sight. As I […]
FDR’s Environmentalism: Improve Nature for Mankind
By Nancy Spannaus (Sept. 24, 2019–Yes, we need to improve nature! I am reprinting this article because I believe it is crucial to resurrect the thinking of the author of the original New Deal, in order to address the array of crises being faced by this nation, and the world. […]