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Earlier this week, Beacon Power, a company that builds systems to stabilize solar and energy power, declared bankruptcy. The company’s Massachusetts plant will continue to operate at full capacity, but its finances will be restructured. This is big news mostly because Beacon Power received $43 million in Department of Energy loans, and because it follows the recent closure and bankruptcy of Solyndra, which got $534 million from DOE.
These developments have tongues wagging — some see it as a symbol of government excess while others repeat the old myth that renewable energy just can’t work. These critics are overlooking one important fact — if our strategy for building new energy markets is having the federal government bet on winners and losers, then that is exactly what we are going to get: winners and losers.
Winners and losers happen all the time in the

By now, most food magazines have us all starting to think about preparations for the Thanksgiving turkey, but I say what about the sides? Sides give added significance to the bounty of the table.
Most of us are comfortable with making the traditional family favorites. There will most likely be sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans almondine and scalloped potato casseroles to round out the meal. Some people just don’t want to tinker with change when it comes to holiday meals. But if you are up for something new to go with that bronzed bird, how about some different sides for a change?
Here are ten that just might start a new tradition in your house.
The links are to recipes from my website, Ciao

Question: What do job creation, the federal budget deficit, the war in Afghanistan, health care, and energy have in common?
Answer: Each of these important issues facing the federal government consistently ranks as a higher priority among voters than abortion, contraception, or any other hot-button social issue.
In polls — and, more importantly, in elections — Americans have repeatedly made clear that when the campaigning is done and the votes are counted, they expect their elected representatives to focus on kitchen-table issues. Now more than ever, families are focused on meeting the monthly mortgage payment, sending their children to college, and retiring with dignity and financial security.
The proper role for government at a time of unemployment, underemployment, and financial insecurity is to boost demand, incentivize economic activity, and help hard-working families and the most vulnerable.
That is why the culture war and attack on women’s health the House Republican majority have pursued in the 112th Congress are so insulting and tone deaf.
Having failed — so far — to outlaw abortion through the courts, the House Republican majority’s first priority upon assuming the majority was to take their argument to the tax code.
The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), would impose tax penalties on Americans who purchase private insurance plans that offer abortion

One of my all-time favorite movies is “The Third Man” starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten. It is a British film noir from the 1940s. Perhaps the most striking part of the movie is the shadowy cinematography, set in post-World War II Vienna. Strangely, it springs to mind lately when I have been thinking of China.
Many China-watchers looked on in awe in 2009 as the government’s response to the global financial crisis unfolded, causing bank lending as a share of the economy to expand by close to 20 percentage points in less than a

About ten years ago I listened to a great Tony Robbins CD. In it he talked about how when things were lousy you need to do something to “change your state.” It made sense to me. So now if I’m in a funk about something and I’ll do something to change my state. Like going to the batting

Neil Young
Song: Revolution Blues
Album: On the Beach (Remastered)
Genre: Rock
Buy: iTunes.com
Hoagy Carmichael (& Ella Logan)
Song: New Orleans
Album: Stardust–51 Original Mono Recordings 1924-1957
Genre: Jazz
Buy: Amazon.com
Paul Bley
Song: Topsy
Album: Paul Bley
Genre: Jazz
Buy: iTunes.com
Francy Boland (& Kenny Clarke)
Song: Fiebre Cuban
Album: Mambomania-Talkin’ Verve
Genre: World
Buy: iTunes.com
Ray Coniff (& Mindy Carson)
Song: Memories Are Made of This
Album: Ray Conniff Presents Various Artists, Vol. 1
Genre: Big Band
Buy: iTunes.com
Joe Bushkin
Song: Medley 1
Album: Live Embers 1964 and C. 1966 Violin Solos
Genre: Jazz
Buy: iTunes.com
Donna Fargo
Song: Happy Together
Album: Shame on Me
Genre: Country
Buy: iTunes.com
Fabolous
Song: Breathe
Album: Real Talk
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Buy: iTunes.com
John Philip Sousa
Song: Light Cavalry Overture
Album: The March King: John Philip Sousa Conducts His Own Marches and Other Favorites (An Historical Recording)
Genre: Classical
Buy: iTunes.com
John Hammond
Song: Judgment Day
Album: So Many Roads
Genre: Blues
Buy: iTunes.com
Scarface
Song: Dopeman Music (with B. James & Monk Kaza)
Album: Dopeman Music
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Buy: iTunes.com

This post was written by Nancy Watzman, consultant for the Sunlight Foundation.
Late last year MF Global — the failed investment firm headed by Democratic heavyweight Jon S. Corzine that can’t account for as much as $900 million of its clients’ money — urged a federal agency to allow futures firms to invest funds from their customer segregated accounts in foreign sovereign debt.
In a December 2010 comment letter to the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), MF Global, along with another firm, Newedge, argued that the agency’s proposal to disallow such investments “is unnecessary, and will eliminate a liquid, secure, profitable and necessary category of investment… no foreign country that actually defaulted on its debt resulted in any [futures commission merchant] being unable to return funds to its customers upon request.”
MF Global filed for bankruptcy earlier this week after its exposure to the European debt crisis pushed it over the edge of

This is a joint post with Rachel Silverman.
Since the launch of the Obama administration’s $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI) in May 2009, we have followed its ups and downs with great enthusiasm (see for example: here, here, and here), trying to better understand its structure and role within the U.S. government’s complicated global health architecture. One recurring question we have continually raised has focused on leadership: who, exactly, was to be in charge of this massive undertaking? Who would be accountable for meeting the initiative’s eight high-level targets and adhering to its seven guiding principles?
Last December, the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) appeared to put those questions to rest. According to the 200+ page document, USAID would assume leadership of the GHI by September 2012, contingent upon fulfilling a set of 10 benchmarks to demonstrate its

“Don’t fail us!” thousands of young voters shouted the night of the 14th of March 2004 in front of the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE). They celebrated the victory of the socialists with music, alcohol and waving flags. During his first term, President Jos Luis Rodrguez Zapatero, kept his promises. Now his young voters feel

Joel Salatin was in Union Square yesterday talking about his new book, appropriately titled, Folks, This Ain’t Normal and passionately spoke about the state of industrial agriculture and its effects on our soil, our health, and our culture.
When I asked him what activists can do to align ourselves with the Occupy movements and combat Big Food he said, “The beauty of that is you don’t have to wait for a government regulation, you don’t have to wait for a program, you don’t have to wait for an agency.” Rather, Salatin said that all cultural movements are started from the bottom-up with real grass-roots activism. He went on to say that we all need to get into our kitchens and get cooking. He said, “Get in your kitchens, buy unprocessed foods, turn off the TV, and prepare your own foods. This is liberating.”
Salatin also advised us all to start growing something — anything, even on a small patio or

In 2004, I had an amazing, unique experience at the movie theater, as I watched a stoner comedy about two best friends who embark on a pot-fueled quest to find their favorite hamburgers. While stoner movies are hardly new, what was so remarkable about this one was that the two friends were a Korean American and an Indian American, something I had never seen in a mainstream comedy aimed at a wide audience.
That film, of course, was Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a movie I, as an Asian American, found to be subversive and welcome on many levels. Not only did it debunk stereotypes by making its two Asian stars pot smokers (albeit high-functioning ones), but it used comedy to address race and racism for a young, post-racial American audience without making Harold & Kumar’s race their most defining

Cannes, the glamorous French Riviera resort town with its seasonal influx of movie stars and streets lined with mansions well past their glory, epitomizes the distance between the rich and poor.
It is a strangely apt venue for a conference to pull the global economy up by its bootstraps.
As the backdrop for the G20, it’s the scene for the drama being played out between bankers and leaders in the back rooms of the G20 summit.
In this script, the needs of the real economy — the reality that workers and employers inhabit — are lost in translation for the wealthy financiers, who behind the scenes are lobbying global leaders to protect their casino privileges.
Labor unions are here, speed dating with head of states, arguing that it is workers with jobs who will drive the economy out of crisis, not the bankers.
But while we argue jobs are the priority, and they are largely in agreement, the expressions on the faces of world leaders reveal their fear of financial markets punishing their economies if they act to change the dominant economic orthodoxy.
The Greek tragedy is the prime

By John Aloysius Farrell and Aaron Mehta, iWatch NewsAs select U.S. multinational corporations push for a tax holiday on a trillion dollars parked overseas, their own recent financial reports undermine the arguments they are making for preferential treatment on Capitol Hill. Proponents of the tax break for “repatriated” overseas earnings say that bringing the money home will give U.S. corporations an infusion of cash, stimulating investment and creating

The Dark Age of Banking reaches its twelfth anniversary today, November 4. It would be simplistic and unfair to blame the near collapse of the global financial system on the Financial Modernization Act, signed into law on November 4, 1999, repealing Glass-Steagall. But history will no doubt judge it as the beginning of the dark, modern banking era.
My perspective, from nearly twenty years inside Morgan Guaranty Trust Company (the predecessor bank to JPMorgan) through the time I left after the merger with Chase in 2001, suggests a different narrative. It is a narrative marked by the advance and then abuse of technology, the competitive forces unleashed by this technological change and globalization, and a collective loss of our moral and systemic understanding of the public purpose of markets and of finance itself.
The core purpose of finance is to serve the real economy through the conversion of savings into productive

The jobs report for October just came out. Headline numbers:
Payrolls up 80,000. That’s below the average of the past year — about 125,000 per month. Once again, private sector jobs went up (104,000); public sector, down (-24,000).
Unemployment ticked down to 9%.
Revisions to September and August added about 100,000 on payrolls, cumulatively, to those months.
We’re just very much stuck in a slog

Adam Carolla is known for his unique, comedic and brutally honest voice in broadcasting. He’s had successful radio shows (Loveline, The Adam Carolla Show), successful TV shows (The Car Show, The Man Show) and recently got a Guinness World Record for Most Downloaded Podcast in the World. In this influencer segment Adam stopped by the studio to tell us about the next thing he’s going to conquer… apps.
Adam’s new official Adam Carolla Show App comes out

By John Dunbar, iWatch NewsFive banks that received federal bailout funds during the financial crisis paid no income tax at least one year between 2008 and 2010 according to an iWatch News analysis of a new study of tax dodgers. Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group, PNC Financial Services Group, Capital One Financial Inc. and State Street Corp. were among 78 of America’s largest and most profitable corporations that managed to avoid paying income tax in at least one of those

Dear All,
I received an alarming two-sentence email from my father last week. “She’s fine,” it read. “We’re going to find an animist.” Attached to the email was a picture of my mother lying in a hospital gurney, bleeding out of her mouth.
Let me step back for a second and set the stage: My parents were in Hawaii, where my father had business meetings and my mother was spending a week doing her best impression of a woman on vacation. The important thing to know is that my mother is high strung, admirably adventurous and 61 years old.
Turns out she’d decided to take a surfing lesson while my father discussed whatever it is my father discusses when he’s wearing a

Adapted from “Fit Soul, Fit Body: 9 Keys to a Healthier, Happier You”
Whenever we teach seminars, a common theme among participants is their desire to find more balance in their lives. They work too much, eat too much, and spend too much time obsessing about things that aren’t important. On the flip side, they also complain that they sleep too little, lack passion in their relationships, and have too little motivation and energy.
Most complaints of this sort can be traced back to one culprit: a life out of balance.
During the 12 years he lived with the Huichol people and apprenticed with their 110-year-old shaman, Brant observed that these beautiful people laugh all day long, rest and relax while they work, are exceptionally healthy and happy, and live to unbelievably old

Three is rarely the charm when it comes to sequels – hell, the second one is bad enough.
But I will admit to laughing in spite of myself at A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, a movie that refuses to take itself seriously and still manages to find a few outrageous taboos to make fun of.
The formula for these films remains unchanged: One small misstep inevitably leads cautious, uptight Harold (John Cho) and his recklessly carefree pal Kumar (Kal Penn) from what seems like a simple errand into a series of increasingly outlandish adventures. This time out, the story elements include Ukrainian killer gangsters, homeboy Christmas tree salesmen, a toddler on drugs and, of course, Neil Patrick Harris.
The film was written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote the original Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, now firmly ensconced in the pantheon of stoner comedies. They start from a point where, a few years after the adventures of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the boys are now estranged and living separate lives.
Kumar has broken up with Vanessa (Danneel Harris) and lives amid a clutter of White Castle wrappers in his old apartment in Hoboken, N.J. Not that he’s unhappy; he’s just scored some primo bud from a mall Santa (whose strains include “It’s a Weed-erful Life”) and is resisting the pleas of new pal Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld) to go out to a party, saying, “I

MF Global imploded this week due to proprietary “repo-to-maturity” transactions that are in substance total return swaps, a type of credit derivative. MF Global failed to meet margin calls on credit derivatives linked to risky fixed income debt. Regulators haven’t learned much from American International Group’s (AIG) and Long Term Capital Management’s (LTCM) debacles. Like the “repo-to-maturity” transaction, a total return swap is an off balance sheet transaction treated as a sale, but the total return receiver, MF Global, is long both the price and credit default risk of the reference

In the week since devastating floods and landslides hit Italy’s Cinque Terre, I’ve heard from many friends in the region. They tell me that the communities of Vernazza and Monterosso are in for a bleak, backbreaking winter of digging out and rebuilding, but they are determined to come back.
This evening, Vernazza has been completely evacuated in anticipation of heavy rain in the next few days. Only the military is allowed in the town.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

November is nearly upon us and the elusive sun greets us less and less as we move into winter. To remedy this absence of sunshine, here at Black Tomato we’ve been seeking solace in the traditions of these sun worshipping indigenous tribes from around the world. Here is some inspiration to get you in a mood for a sun dance.
Orissa Tribes of India
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Orissa in India is home to the tribal region of Mayurbhanj. According to the indigenous tribes here, the Sun is

Andrea Blaugrund Nevins is writer and director of “The Other F Word,” a documentary in theaters now, that explores how punk’s ultimate anti-authoritarians become the ultimate authority, fathers.
Growing up in New York City, in the heyday of CBGBs, I used to cross the street to avoid punk rockers. It wasn’t only the metal and follicular spikes that scared me, they exuded something very raw and angry. And I was likely an unappealing stereotype to them: a plaid-uniformed product of an all-girls’ school, my Tretorns maybe a bit too clean. Better to keep a safe distance.
Until I gave birth to