Catalog Search Results
Language
English
Description
Is big government stifling the American spirit? Just about everyone has a reason to question how the size of our government affects the nation's economic and political structure. Is government intervention in everything from financial policy to health care rewarding the "takers" and not the "makers," stifling innovators, entrepreneurs, and business owners? Or has government done too little to support the growing poor and rapidly shrinking middle class?...
Language
English
Description
America has long been a nation of immigrants, built by the labor of millions who came from other lands. As the words on the Statue of Liberty proclaim, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." But today, the United States is home to millions of undocumented immigrants, and the federal government has been unable to reach a consensus to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. Are immigrants taking American jobs,...
Language
English
Description
In this eye-opening documentary, investigative journalist Danny Schechter traces the connection between corporate wrongdoing, the 2007 housing market crash, and the economic catastrophe that followed the crash. From the mysterious collapse of Bear Stearns, an 85-year-old investment firm that went under in a week, to the shadowy world of trillion-dollar hedge funds, Schechter argues that criminal activity on the part of major financial institutions...
Language
English
Description
In the past decade, a large influx of immigrants has expanded beyond traditional polyglot cities. This has produced a backlash, especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, made immigration a national security issue. Some argue that the U.S. economy demands immigrant labor, and by denying these workers legal status, the government is fostering a shadow sub-class subject to abuse. Others, contending that illegal workers depress wages...
Language
English
Description
In the 1970s, antidiscrimination legal rights gained in past decades by the civil rights movement are put to the test. In Boston, some whites violently resist a federal court school desegregation order. Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, proves that affirmative action can work, but the Bakke Supreme Court case challenges that policy.
Language
English
Description
One morning in 1939 residents of southeastern Missouri awoke to a startling sight. More than 1,000 African-American sharecroppers had camped out alongside two state highways, taking a stand against the corrupt planters and marginalizing government decrees that made it impossible for them to ever escape economic disparity. Narrated by Julian Bond, this film tells the story of their labor strike, mixing commentary from former sharecroppers and scholars...
Language
English
Description
The Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa peoples live along northern California's Klamath River, and each tribe's ancient culture revolves around the majestic Pacific salmon. Today, four large hydroelectric dams have made salmon extinction a real and frightening possibility. This case study follows tribal members as they confront the owners of the dams-specifically, a global energy giant in Scotland which is subsequently bought out by Warren Buffett's corporate...
11) Ellis Island
Language
English
Description
For some it was the Isle of Hope. For others, it was the Isle of Tears. For half a century, Ellis Island was America's "golden door," where entrance meant a new life and rejection meant a heartbreaking return to hopelessness. In this A&E Special, we meet an ethnically diverse group of immigrants who recall their extraordinary adventures, from the treacherous passage across the sea to the daunting challenge of starting life over in a new and foreign...
Language
English
Description
This episode of The Green Interview features Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition movement, an idea that began in 2008 and since then has gone viral around the world. It's been called "the biggest urban brainwave of the century," a visionary, practical blueprint that took root in a town and is circling the globe. The Transition movement is founded on the principles of permaculture, gardening techniques modeled after natural ecosystems. At its...
Author
Language
English
Description
"The fundamental motive for financial innovation is not to make the system work better, but to avoid regulation and oversight. This is not a bug of the financial system, but a built-in feature. The president of the US is not a tax avoider because he is an especially fraudulent financier; he's a tax avoider because he is a wealthy man in a system premised on such deceit. Finance is an industry of sabotage. This book is a brilliant, intellectual detective...