Ten years ago on Buy Nothing Day we were awaiting the release of Naomi Klein's No Logo. Definitive in nature, it captured the meaning in a growing rejection of marketing, brands and over-consumption. And reflected the growing movement to create a world of individuals with control over government processes.

But even the numerous tomes of anti-consumption had their problems. As authors Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter pointed out in The Rebel Sell, Klein's book opens with her description of her Spadina neighbourhood, how collective it was, individual and away from the mainstream, words that authors Heath and Potter believe allowed corporations to begin to commodify counter-culture. Corporations stole the counter culture and sold it back to us.

by Zach Carter, TMC MediaWire Blogger

President Barack Obama rolled out his plan to overhaul financial regulation last week. While much of the Obama plan relies on the same regulators and structures that led to the current meltdown, there is one key exception. The establishment of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency would give ordinary citizens a seat at the financial policy table for the first time and prevent the abuses in credit card and mortgage lending that have wreaked havoc on households all over the country.