The Hightower Report

Wall Street: Part of the Solution?

An odd brotherhood is joining the populist push to rein in the narcissistic greed of Wall Street giants: Wall Streeters themselves!

There's John Bogle, the 80-year-old founder of Vanguard Group: "I am a believer that the system has gone badly awry and needs massive reform," bellowed the old Wall Street bull. That surely must have astonished the business-as-usual elites on Wall Street and the petite reformers in Washington, D.C., who want delicate tweakings of the system – not "massive reform." Joining Bogle's cry for change are such former financial barons as Nicholas Brady, William Donaldson, and John Reed, all calling for structural reforms rather than the timid regulatory proposals moving through Congress.

And, good grief, can it be? Why, yes, it's Alan Greenspan, the laissez-faire absolutist and former Federal Reserve chairman who was once hailed as the infallible guru of America's economic policy. That was, of course, before his extremist libertarian theories expired in the fire of the recent Wall Street crash. Now, even Greenspan is on the reformist stump, urging the federal government to develop plans for splitting up financial empires that fail.

Speaking of splitting 'em up, there's been a stunning call from a surprising source to do just that – and to do it now! Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a peer of Wall Street's financial establishment, has broken rank from the tinkerers, calling for preemptive action against financial conglomerates considered "too big to fail." Fisher notes that these outfits pose a systemic danger to the entire financial system and an inherent threat to our whole economy. "The sound thing to do," he says, "is to dismantle them over time into institutions that can be prudently managed and regulated."

Amazing – the rebellion against Wall Street greed is even spilling into the Street itself! Who'da thunk it?

EPA Back on Top

In a big victory for America's environment and the hard-hit people of Appalachia, Barack Obama's reorganized and revitalized Environmental Protection Agency has just proposed to veto a massively destructive mountaintop removal operation in West Virginia. The decision reverses the approval of a permit application that George W.'s industry-run EPA had rubber-stamped for the giant Arch Coal corporation three years ago. Grassroots Appalachian advocates had tied up that permit in court, and they are now celebrating the EPA's new stand against the grotesque mining practice of decapitating Appalachia's ancient, ecologically rich mountains.

After extensive scientific analysis, EPA officials found "unequivocal" evidence that Spruce No. 1, the mine owned by Arch Coal, would cause "significant and irreversible damage" to the area. Indeed, the corporation would have blasted off the tops of Logan County mountains, destroyed nearly 2,300 acres of forest, shoved toxic debris into six valleys and nearly eight miles of streams, and contaminated downstream surface waters with selenium, aluminum, and other metals – not to mention endangered the health and safety of people living around the mine.

This is the first time in the 38-year history of the Clean Water Act that the EPA has used its authority to stop a mining project that had previously been approved. But extraordinary conditions demand extraordinary action, and this is a bold, progressive step forward, perhaps signaling that this insanely ruinous method of mining for corporate profits is finally coming to an end.

The victory is not yet complete, for EPA's veto process is a long one, but at last we're headed in the right direction. To keep pushing, connect with a grassroots coalition called the Alliance for Appalachia: www.theallianceforappalachia.org.

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Don't miss "Swim Against the Current: Highlights From the Jim Hightower Archive," on exhibit currently as part of Texas State's Witliff Collections. Through July 31. Texas State University, San Marcos, www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu.