Resolved: Federal government bailouts of 3
SECTION 3: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Download 343.42 Kb.
|
SECTION 3: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHYThis section provides a selection of resources to provide additional reading of the items covered in the overview above and evidence below. These resources should provide a broad-based background on the relevant topic issues. Barry, Norman. “The Theory of the Corporation.” Ideas On Liberty. March 2003: 22. Barry offers a wide range of topics related to corporate entities. Distinctions between different types of corporations are made, which could allow Negatives more ground in terms of Topicality. Barry also discusses the various privileges enjoyed by corporations. This is contrasted with his discussion of whether or not these “privileges” are actually “rights” afforded to corporations. Collins, Michael. “Bailout Bill Defies Will of the People.” Dissident Voice. 29 September 2008. Accessed 12-10-2008, This article offers a detailed description of the legal structure of the $700 billion bailout package passed by Congress. The author makes several claims about the efficacy of this bailout in terms of government responsiveness to the public trust. According to Collins, if the public cannot trust the government to use their tax money for the general welfare instead of lining the pockets of poor business leaders, then democracy becomes “collateral damage.” Cox, William John. “Betrayed by the Bailout: The Death of Democracy.” Global Research. 3 October 2008. Accessed 12-10-2008, Cox describes a laundry list of social projects that he feels should have been paid for with the $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street. He cites things such as stocking depleted local food banks, addressing homelessness, helping those facing bankruptcy and home foreclosure, and more. These examples allow debaters to put a face on the problems ignored by the bailout. La Monica, Paul R. “Be ticked off - but get over it.” CNNMoney.com. 22 September 2008. Accessed 12-13-2008. This articles strongly leans toward the Affirmative side of the resolution. The author gives a detailed explanation of the economic ramifications of letting the financial institutions subject to the bailout collapse. Specificity allows you to easily answer many of the generic complaints against the bailout. Even if $700 billion will not entirely solve the problem, the alternative of a collapsing economy is net worse. McGee, Robert W. “An Ethical Analysis of Corporate Bailouts.” SSRN Working Paper. 20 November 2008. Accessed 12-11-2008. This is the material for the topic. McGee is the first (and to my knowledge the only) author to address the recent corporate bailout in terms of ethics and morality. In particular, McGee explores the idea of utilitarianism as a criterion for judging corporate bailouts. You cannot get more specific! In the end, McGee claims that bailouts fail the test of utilitarianism. One reason cited was overwhelming uncertainty in calculating the relative costs and benefits of bailouts. For example, most Affirmatives will argue that the bailout was good because it prevented an economic disaster. However, this does not account for the absent referent costs to the individual homeowners, small business, etc. Therefore, we cannot determine if the benefits outweigh the costs in terms of bailouts. Morgenson, Gretchen. “Fair Game, Blank Check for Banks, Pink Slips for Detroit.” New York Times. 14 December 2008. Accessed 12-14-2008. Morgenson refers the U.S. as “Bailout Nation.” She compares and contrasts the Wall Street bailout with proposals for bailing out the automobile industry. Since the first round of auto industry requests have been denied, Morgenson looks to the reasoning behind that decision. She found that many of the justifications for saying no to the auto industry relied on assumption that these corporation deserved to fail because of poor business practices. She rightly points out the hypocrisy in this when compared to similar circumstances with the Wall Street bailout. Morpheal, Robert. “Constitutional Challenge to Corporate Bailouts.” Democratic Underground. 10 December 2008. Accessed 12-11-2008. Nader, Ralph. “Cutting Corporate Welfare.” Third World Traveler. 8 May 2002. Accessed 12-10-2008, Former Green Party candidate for President, Nader has had a long stance against “corporate welfare.” He uses this phrase to describe preferential treatment give to large corporations by the government at the expense of the people. He argues that such treatment is fundamentally unjust and undermines small businesses and efforts to address poverty. This article is a summary of his 2000 book. Nader, Ralph. Cutting Corporate Welfare. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press, 2000. As mentioned previously, Nader takes a strong stance against corporate welfare. In this book, Nader goes into more detail about the role of corporate welfare (particularly in the form of subsidies) and democracy. For Nader, the two are fundamentally incompatible. Reiss, David. “The Federal Government’s Implied Guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Obligation: Uncle Sam Will Pick Up the Tab.” Georgia Law Review. 42 Ga. L. Rev. 1019. Summer 2008: np. This article describes the impending bailout of financial institutions like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae before an agreement was reached in Congress. For Reiss, such a bailout is an undemocratic stab at the American taxpayer. If the government cannot guarantee a return on its investment, it is the tax payers who ultimately lose out. These actions undermine democracy by breaking the public trust. Sirota, David. “The Bailout: How Capitalism Killed Democracy.” AlterNet. 4 October 2008. Accessed 12-10-2008. Sirota offers perhaps the most scathing criticism of the financial bailout as a retreat from democracy. For Sirota, too much authority and power were vested in the Treasury, violating separation of powers. He uses strong rhetoric, like “murdered” or “pulverized” democracy. This of course becomes a treat for debaters! The rhetoric in this article will make for excellent quotations, especially given the low expectation for a lot of evidence in LD debates Slivinski, Stephen. “Politics as usual can't tackle U.S. corporate welfare.” The Financial Post (Canada). 15 May 2007: FP19.
Slivinski, Stephen. “The Corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses.” CATO Policy Analysis No. 592. 14 May 2007. In this paper, written for the CATO Institute, Slivinski argues that aid to corporations falls outside the authority of the federal government. He does so by citing the lack of Constitutional provisions. This is contrasted with the increasingly common practice of corporate welfare and an expansive reading of the “General Welfare Clause”. He would argue that bailouts are unjust because they benefit corporations, not the public. Tozzi, John. “Corporate Bailouts Through History.” Business Week. 28 September 2008. Accessed 12-10-2008. Tozzi briefly looks at the history of federal government action to assist failing corporations. Since the New Deal, these actions, such as bailouts, have occurred with increasing frequency. Debaters should be able to extract a few historical examples by which to make their cases. Whipps, Heather. LiveScience's History Columnist with an Anthropology degree from McGill University in Montreal, December 8, 2008. “The Big Bailout: Product of a Flawed Democracy,” LiveScience, Whipps offers a solid discussion of the Wall Street bailout and its implications for democracy in America. She answers the common objection to bailouts, that being public opposition. She claims that the Founding Fathers knew governmental action would spark popular opposition from time to time. According to here, this falls in line with the democratic process. Zepezauer, Mark. Take the Rich Off Welfare. Cambridge: South End Press, 2004 Zepezauer is best known for his cartoon panel “US History Backwards.” But in this book, he takes a serious stab about corporate subsidies. While bailouts specifically are mentioned in the context of the S & L crisis, he attacks virtually all other forms of corporate welfare in existence. While some of this may not apply per se, debaters will find many quotes about the nature of corporate welfare. Additionally, Zepezauer segments the chapters into individual investigations into specific forms of corporate welfare, such as subsidies agricultural, oil, timber, mining, nuclear power industries, and more. Specific budget outlays for each are also included. Zuckerman, Mortimer. “Wall Street's Day of Reckoning.” U.S. News & World Report. 19 September 2008. Accessed 12-13-2008. This article is a concise examination of the economic ramifications of not bailing out Wall Street investors. Like La Monica, Zuckerman cites the role of financial confidence in these markets in heading off a credit liquidation cycle and economic collapse. Download 343.42 Kb. Share with your friends:
|