Nobel Laureate, Former Economy Minister and Experts Propose Improving Debt Analysis (tags)
Experts Present a Series of Papers to IMF Executive Directors Ahead of Annual Meetings
NATO Summit: Collectively Losing Their Minds (tags)
U.S.-led NATO could not launch its economic, information and proxy war against Russia without cause. That cause would be Russia invading Ukraine to defend ethnic Russians in a civil war that had raged since 2014, sparked when the U.S. helped to overthrow the democratically-elected government that year.
The center will not hold (tags)
The existing late capitalist ideology in the center of society, the tattered national identity, is being driven to barbaric extremes in reaction to the crisis. Neo-liberalism, with its social Darwinism and economic nationalism, provided the springboards that the new right used.
What Russia proposed in Istanbul in March 2022 (tags)
Sachs writes that Russia has proposed negotiating security arrangements with the US for the fifth time since 2008. NATO, led by the US, has steadily expanded its alliance to the east, which has contributed to the current crisis in Ukraine. Putin's fourth offer of negotiations came in March 2022, which led to Russia and Ukraine almost concluding a peace agreement.
The Enemy and the Libidinal Economy of the Apocalypse (tags)
The West continues to avoid introspection by invoking the Other as pure evil. While the terminal crisis of capitalist civilization is truly global, and no emancipatory model can be seen on the geopolitical chessboard, it is also evident that today’s anti-Russian sentiment stems from a consolidated ideological framework. To West, Russians have always been an inferior race,
Ukraine: Expansion of the battle zone (tags)
Russia is vastly superior in this type of warfare – which resembles an industrially operated process of destruction – because the Kremlin can draw on far greater reserves. Putin's gamble on a war of attrition is paying off. It is not just about the superiority of tanks, artillery and ammunition, or about the increasing Russian air superiority. It is above all about manpower.
Multiple crisis and catastrophe (tags)
The official self-image of bourgeois society remains strangely untouched by crises. They are understood as improbable and short-lived interruptions of what are actually successful processes. Disruptions and crises are denied, are considered technical and, through a variety of individual measures, if not solvable, then at least postponable into the future.
A look back makes the outlook easier: A speculative boom in 1929 leads to a stock market crash and recession, the budget deficit increases, the austerity policies drive the economy into a depression. Tensions within and between countries increase, scapegoats are sought, anti-Semitism and protectionism are spreading.
Our Zone of Interest: The Noise of Permanent Warfare (tags)
Wars (especially when marketed as humanitarian, defensive, or “against terror”) are, in essence, criminal means to “easy money”, which is what keeps today’s financial bubbles inflated to record-breaking highs while the actual economic conditions of millions of workers (or “inactive workforce”) are cratering at an equally record-breaking pace.
Trust in Institutions and the War Dividend (tags)
Even if almost no one wants to admit it, our “system” is obsolete, and for this reason it is now morphing into a “closed system” – totalitarian in nature. It is equally clear that the few who continue to benefit materially from the capitalist system (the 0.1%) are willing to do whatever it takes to prolong its obsolete existence. Debt is issued from one door and purchased from another.
The sun is setting in the West (tags)
The West's misjudgement also applies to the course of the war, where the Russian army is advancing again after the failed counter-offensive in Ukraine. There is a shortage of weapons, ammunition and soldiers. The strategy of wearing down the West seems to be working. In the US, the Biden administration is already encountering difficulties in mobilizing further war credits.
Global Economic Losses Since Dawn of Pandemic Hit $3.3 Trillion (tags)
Since 2020, the global economy lost $3.3 trillion. The loss affected the most vulnerable countries hardest noted International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.
Global Economic Losses Since Dawn of Pandemic Hit $3.3 Trillion (tags)
Since 2020, the global economy lost $3.3 trillion. The loss affected the most vulnerable countries hardest noted International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.
Self-fulfilling Prophecy (tags)
The orchestrators of this global coup must be credited with a certain sadistic brilliance. Their sleight of hand succeeded, perhaps even beyond expectations. However, any power aiming at totalization is destined to fail, and this applies also to the high priests of the Covid religion and the institutional puppets they have mobilized to roll out the psyop.
A Phuilosopher's Critique (tags)
Because the declining middle classes are unable to see past individualism and economic self-interest, they stick with the fantasy that any loss of purchasing power is a temporary glitch awaiting systemic resolution – as if Capital were an eternal and inexhaustible mode of wealth creation.
Saving the planet means saving the world (tags)
Instead of today’s economic system, which increases inequality, a new system is indispensable, according to Rockström and colleagues. What is needed is a ‘wellbeing economy’ which serves people and the planet—rather than people and the planet serving the economy, as the Wellbeing Economic Alliance (WeAll) puts it.
"Modern societies cannot function without a welfare state" (tags)
Modern societies cannot really function well without a general social security system. That's why we need a security system for the whole of society that everyone pays into. In addition, growing social inequality is also a major economic risk.
The indispensable opponent (tags)
The West's hostility towards China has increased since China's engine began to stutter. At the same time, the US government is pumping massive amounts of money into the economy and has thus been able to prevent an impending recession for the time being, but is far from regaining its former role as a global engine of growth.
IMF Says Historic Low Growth and Sluggish Economy Will Continue (tags)
The IMF forecast 3.1% global growth in 2024, a fifth of a point increase on its October projection.
The Looming War Against China (tags)
In the United States, in the wake of Ronald Reagan's tax cuts for the wealthy & state-undermining deregulation, & Bill Clinton's "Third Way" takeover by Wall Street, there was an equally devastating shift of wealth & income to the finance, insurance & real estate (FIRE) sector. The "Third Way" was financial capitalism that made its profits by exploiting & indebting industry and labor.
The division of the world (tags)
The USA is responsible for what is happening in Ukraine with this provoked war, which is currently being overshadowed in the media by the Middle East conflict, just as it has determined developments in Europe for more than a hundred years...It is becoming apparent that Germany is being systematically destabilized and ruined.
Memorandum 2022 and Memorandum 2023 (tags)
The Bremen study group on Alternative Economic Policy has been publishing analyses since 1975. Sustainable infrastructure Investments, de-carbonization, environmental safeguards, work protections and welfare regulations are primary as well as resisting profit maximization and environmental destruction.
Fairer Taxes and Inheritance for all! (tags)
A few people own the majority of the wealth, the rest share what remains. Star economist Thomas Piketty wants to change this. He has developed reform proposals that distribute the wealth of our society more fairly and make our lives more democratic. The most important pillars of his reforms are economic co-determination, fairer taxes and a stronger welfare state.
The four-day week as a transformation project (tags)
The pandemic, environmental disasters and the current wars have ushered in a new era, a kind of "turning point"... As the demand for a reduction in working hours is shared by a broad majority of employees across generations, this offers the opportunity to produce a conflict that has the potential to have an impact and contribute to renewing the trade union movement.
Too big to fail, too weak to lead (tags)
Through the World Bank and IMF, they were able to push through privatization and the dismantling of social benefits and trade union rights in the over-indebted countries of the South. They also pursued this policy domestically, while corporations and the upper income brackets were spoiled with tax gifts. There were also massive arms orders.
Qualitative Break: Why a Radical Critique of Work is Necessary Today (tags)
Capital has increasingly decoupled itself from directly expended labor and accumulation is now taking place predominantly on the level of financial markets... In large parts of the Global South, the majority has long since been declared ‘superfluous.’
Morocco G20 Finance Meetings Make Few Decisions on Crisis Response (tags)
G20 finance ministers met on global economic growth, debt, inflation, expanding development bank aid, the pandemic and other crises.
Jubilee USA Statement on IMF World Economic Outlook Report (tags)
As world leaders arrive in Marrakesh for the Annual IMF and World Bank Meetings, the IMF releases its flagship World Economic Outlook report. The IMF projects the global economy to grow 3% this year, which remains below the average of growth for two decades before the pandemic.
Russia's victory in an economic war (tags)
If perspectives for ways out of the increasingly worsening crises of capitalist socialization are to emerge, it is indispensable to look at the whole of conditions and their complex entanglements. It is necessary to break with the myths and life lies of the 'free West' as well as with those of a mission for a Russian empire or any other autocratic fundamentalism.
Happy Anti-War Day! - September 1 - Say No! (tags)
War always has two losers. Neither side can win the Ukraine war. Russia will not lose a war of attrition. Ukraine lacks recruits, artillery and time!
African socialism & the common good economy are discussed. In view of the problems we face in our society today, triggered by the striving for power of the elites leading to social inequality, environmental destruction & corporate greed, there are good reasons to practice the common good economy as an alternative & sustainable economic model more strongly worldwide.
Welcome to post-democracy! (tags)
In the current systemic crisis, this capitalist pseudo-democracy is producing a real dystopia on a par with the nightmares of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley: the apparently responsible citizen (in reality a powerless object in the heteronomous process of capital exploitation) chooses the way in which his intensified exploitation and alienation is to be concretely organized and perfected.
G20 Finance Ministers Focus on Debt, Development and Dismal Economic Outlook in Gandhinaga (tags)
On Monday, G20 Finance Ministers hold their third meeting hosted in Gandhinagar by the Indian government.
China's further development has priority (tags)
The focus of Chinese policy remains the economic and social development of the country... Despite the enormous successes in economic and social development, there is still a long way to go before China catches up and can also keep up with the rich industrialized countries
The end of the "Golden Age" of cqapitalism and the rise of neoliberalism (tags)
The rise of the neoliberal world economic system marked by the dominance of financial markets – whose financial superstructure collapses over us – resulted from the radical economic crises of the early 1970s that seized nearly all western industrial countries.
Authoritarian Capitalism (tags)
The banks and auto corporations were bailed out and rescued and the ensuing public debt was invoked in order to cut public expenditures on health care, education, pensions, and public salaries. Furthermore, a new race to the bottom has started.
Car Plants Are Making Medical Equipment - And Things Should Stay That Way (tags)
The time has come for progressive nationalization and socialization. This includes the financial sector, because only if we gain control over the financing of socially necessary areas of production will it be possible to ensure that we as a society can plan our future.
Covert wars in the shadow of international law (tags)
In the years between the end of the Cold War in 1991 and 2022, the United States has carried out at least 251 military interventions in almost every country on earth. Going back to 1789, there were a total of 469. In all of these interventions, the United States formally declared war 11 times.
Inflation in the Age of Finance Capitalism (tags)
The shift of profit-striving from the real- to the financial-economy lowered economic growth Unemployment and atypical jobs soared. The welfare state was weakened. At the same time, financial wealth grew exorbitantly (the DAX increased 14-fold since 1988).
Can state-capitalist China inherit the USA as hegemon? (tags)
China's growth is also running on credit, and the People's Republic is similarly highly indebted as the descending Western centers of the world system.10 The Chinese deficit economy is generating even far greater speculative excesses than was the case in the U.S. or Western Europe,
Why China wont replace the US as hegemon. Chaos instead of hegemony (tags)
China's growth is also running on credit; the People's Republic is similarly indebted to the descending Western centers of the world system. This trend toward de-dollarization can only be properly understood against the backdrop of the imperial descent of the United States.
At universities, the reality of the financial casino is taboo (tags)
When buying or selling, high-speed trading can bring profits a few milliseconds or microseconds ahead of other high-speed trading bidders. These speculative trades have nothing to do with the good functioning of the financial markets. On the contrary, prices can be manipulated.
The Seven Loose Pieces of the Global Jigsaw Puzzle (tags)
Toward the end of the Cold War, capitalism created a military horror: the neutron bomb, a weapon that destroys life while leaving buildings intact. During the Fourth World War, however, a new wonder has been discovered: the financial bomb.This new bomb destroys the polis (nation)
Senile Economics: Bubble Ontology and the Pull of Gravity (tags)
The entire banking system is closing in on folding, which is why it so desperately needs new inflationary liquidity to keep afloat. The Great Reset is our owners’ authoritarian attempt to respond to this systemic threat by taking control of the collateral (our lives).
Financial crisis and The time of change (tags)
A utopian society will have learned to decentralize power, to keep it manageable and controllable, instead of creating supranational institutions and conglomerates. Look at the EU & Brussels, an estimated 25,000 lobbyists besiege and work the deputies and commissioners.
The final system question Parts 1 and 2 (tags)
The enrichment elites of the West in particular have been trying for decades to extend their influence to the whole world. That is their declared concept. The worldwide "final victory" has been part of capitalism and imperialism from the very beginning.
Democracies against Autocracies & Decline of Civilization (tags)
The time of decadence, i.e. the creeping decay of civilization, in which we find ourselves again today, is characterized by fear, nihilism, radicalism and depression. The decline is seen as the unalterable end of a nostalgically transfigured past while life loses all meaning.
Davos: Crises, Developing Country Debt, WB Forecasts (tags)
World Bank Cuts Global Growth Forecast as Developing Countries Struggle with Debt
The Octopus of Davos and The club of right-wing apostles (tags)
Decisions affecting all of humanity are being made undemocratically by a wealthy global elite. And yet most of us look the other way, as if the WEF were a charity that wants to make the world a better place - and not an unscrupulous community...
Negotiated Solution - No Alternative! (tags)
NATO intervention seems unlikely so far, after U.S. President Biden ruled out direct military intervention even in the run-up to the war...Nevertheless, a further escalation of the war cannot be ruled out. At present, the powerless left has only the option of fighting for peace. (TKonicz)
Rethinking the State and Rent Madness (tags)
The right to housing for everyone must be understood as a public challenge and presupposes the de-commodification of the housing supply, a democratization of urban policy, and breach with the real estate exploitation coalition.
Reflections on the Political Crisis and Right-wing Populism (tags)
The policies of neoliberal globalization have driven an enormous strengthening of transnational corporations and finance capital, and at the same time the division between rich and poor, between the top "1%" and the rest of the "99%"[28].
Farewell to the unipolar world and Disaster capitalism (tags)
The sanctions have already proved to be a dangerous boomerang because they hit Europe harder than Russia... It is a suicidal illusion to try to win a war against the raw materials giant Russia - which possesses more than a third of all fossil energies and raw materials on earth...
Misjudgments and Biden's foreign policy (tags)
Russia is to blame for our gas shortage, rising prices and high inflation. That's what the newspapers say, that's what you hear on the news and that's what presenters claim. Of course, this is not true. But the constant repetition shapes the public consciousness.
In the Trap of NATO and The Collapse of US Hegemony (tags)
Even before the outbreak of the global Covid pandemic, it was widely recognized that U.S. hegemony was in irreversible decline. In August 2021, the Taliban captured Kabul as U.S. forces withdrew. Only about six months later, war broke out between Russia and Ukraine.
Against the cannabilism of capital (tags)
Let the advertising die! (tags)
Advertising leads to useless purchases because it often persuades consumers to have needs instead of satisfying existing desires. This leads to excessive consumption of resources and materials and thus damages the environment.
Propaganda against war fatigue and 12 theses for survival (tags)
What peaceful alternatives and perspectives of reconciliation must we demand against the prevailing war propaganda? Let us demand: cease-fire! Negotiations! Disarmament and mutual security guarantees!
Pandemic and the Policy Roots of a Steady State Economy (tags)
We are in the midst of a radical disruption and nurturing the roots of a just transition. Whichever way events unfold over the coming years, it’s clear that returning to the pre-pandemic status quo is less realistic and more difficult than embracing the change that’s well underway.
Question sanctions and The cry of the poor (tags)
In Germany, we tend to moralize and romanticize in politics. This prevents us from taking a sober view of world events. We fail to recognize that the U.S. is ruthlessly asserting its own interests, against enemy and friend. The interests of the EU and the U.S. have long since ceased to coincide.
Economic war instead of climate policy and Russia is enemy (tags)
Sustainability and capitalism do not go together. Because capitalism needs growth and drives environmental destruction. The consequences: Species extinction, drought stress for trees, water scarcity. A consistent climate policy is overshadowed by the economic war.
Only a progressive tax revolution can stop the climate collapse (tags)
There is an urgent need for a pluralistic opening of the economic sciences, so that the argumentative dispute about the ethically correct interpretation of market-competitive interaction relations and the status of market logic again becomes a normal part of economic discourse.
Spiral downward and No exit! (tags)
The austerity dictates imposed on the Eurozone are only exacerbating the crisis they are supposed to be fighting. The austerity measures are leading to a collapse in domestic demand.
The necessary breach and Rackets and Rockets (tags)
The climate movement should not be afraid of being accused of radicalism. It is a matter of sheer collective will to survive to solve this monstrous problem. Capitalism, in its compulsion to grow, is incapable of reducing resource consumption and emissions.
Opportunity instead of crises and End this madness! (tags)
Almost no one asks what an economic policy looks like that no longer subordinates everything to economic growth: How to reduce the debt mountain to a reasonable level without GDP growth? How can pensions be secured without GDP growth and employment be guaranteed?
Opportunity instead of crises and End this madness (tags)
History teaches that major course corrections usually emerge from crises. However, far-sighted economists and politicians should start thinking today about how to shape a future without debt crises, without ecological and social exploitation, and without compulsive growth.
Total Competition or Repressive Administration of People (tags)
An awareness of the monstrosities of our glorious capitalist society is the first prerequisite for thinking beyond that society.:..The regularities of capitalist society are not laws of nature, so they can be abolished in principle. With such abolition, a new society can become possible.
The Unbroken: Evo Morales (tags)
Recent events give hope for a resurgence of the left on the continent. Morales points to recent electoral victories in Peru, Chile, Colombia, as well as Lula's soon expected return to the Brazilian presidency. "These times are coming again," he says.
The lure of unreason and The crisis profiteers (tags)
The essence of transhumanism is pathological. This ideology is carried by psychopaths and narcissists. Such people love only themselves, their infallibility and uniqueness. The others are only mass. Mass is despised by "the unique".
Energy crisis: market intervention by policymakers is necessary (tags)
We are in the middle of a multiple energy crisis. The supply of energy is in danger, and prices will continue to rise. This is not only a problem for private households and companies. There is a danger that persistently high inflation will become entrenched. Then severe economic depression
Hysterical Populism and the Appetite of Leviathan (tags)
The relationship between economy and social order has been turned upside down: economy is no longer a function of an overarching culture, but conversely, "human society has sunk to being an accessory of the economic system" (Karl Polanyi). RK was founder of Exit & Krisis blogs.
Making yourself comfortable in capitalism (tags)
"Whoever has a wife should behave as if he had none, ... whoever buys as if he were not the owner, whoever makes use of the world as if he did not use it" (1 Cor 7:29f). Paul is speaking here to people who were "called" as slaves into the messianic church (1 Cor 7:21).
Degrowth - not just Green New Deals! (tags)
We live in a time of many and accelerating crises. Climate breakdown is breathing down our neck. Biodiversity is collapsing in ecosystems around the world, and many natural safety nets – water cycles, soil fertility, fish stocks, microbial diversity – are unraveling.
Plunder less and do more to preserve the one world (tags)
It is downright absurd that in our latitudes, half a century after "Limits to Growth" and a cascade of catastrophic ecological reports, every dip in economic growth rates is perceived as negative, even dramatic. Immediately shore up, revive, that's what politicians and the media agree on.
95 Theses Against the Rule of the Financial Markets (tags)
The financial markets have made themselves independent of the real economy. As the selling of indulgences led to Martin Luther's 95 Theses in 1517, the rule of speculative financial markets has led to revenue shortfalls of US cities and states. Tax havens hide between $22-33 trillion.
Myths of the Crisis and Enemy Images in the Media (tags)
The Ukrainian ambassador was quoted in the FAZ as saying: "All Russians are now our enemies". This rhetoric is classic enemy image cultivation... This homogenization is so pre-Enlightenment and always wrong.
A new quality of crisis (tags)
From the systemic urge to self-destruction arises the survival necessity of the emancipatory overcoming of capital. The capitalist regime of constraint must be transformed into history. The struggle for the transformation of the system has to be the central moment of left practice.
The window of opportunity is closing (tags)
Oscar Wilde wrote: "A map of the world in which Utopia is not marked is not worth looking at, for it undercuts the shore on which mankind will eternally land." "Disobedience, for anyone versed in history, is man's true virtue. Through disobedience came progress..." (Wilde 2014)
A Radical Peace Economy (tags)
We live in a time of real militaristic orgies of war and rearmament, not only in Ukraine, Russia and Yemen, also in the US airbase Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate. The war against nature on our planet puts continued human existence at risk.
The war in Ukraine and the consequences for the world economy (tags)
The Corona pandemic already shows that a rethink of trade policy is needed and that the neoliberal form of globalization is not fit for the future. Large-scale investments in renewable energies and a fair design of trade agreements would be advances that benefit everyone.
“An injury to one is the concern of all.” The events of 1886 – powerful displays of solidarity and mass strikes for an eight-hour work day followed by absolute abuses of state power in executing innocent labor organizers – continue to inspire workers to demand fair, just workplaces & laws.
Russia and China are no match for the United States’ Instruments of National Power. The Pale Blue Dot’s existence is at risk if nuclear weapons are employed by either one or both sides.
Ukraine: No to Putin's war! No to NATO's escalation! (tags)
Nato expansion to the east: an imperialist act Putin bears full responsibility for the current Ukraine war. However, Scholz's rearmament speech is a reminder that the foundation for the escalation that is now culminating in Russian aggression was laid by NATO and the EU.
The spiral of uncertainty (tags)
Exiting this spiral is difficult. The first step is to acknowledge one's own involvement. It is said that Putin is the prisoner of his historical myths. But this is also true for the countries of the West. Their myth is that of their own blamelessness.
Ukraine: A war for the disintegrating world order (tags)
The consequences of rearmament and economic sanctions are foreseeable: among other things, the aggravation of crises through higher economic burdens. They can already be seen in the form of price increases for heating oil, fuel and gas.
A radical peace movement is needed more than ever (tags)
The prevention of Ukraine's integration into NATO is likewise not a snap idea of an irrationally acting Russian President Vladimir Putin, but a basic consensus within the Russian state oligarchy.
War as crisis accelerator (tags)
Opportunistic parts of the German left are already sorting themselves into NATO supporters and cheerleaders of hollow Western values, who are peddling the stale bourgeois-liberal ideology one last time before the Western states also sink into barbarism.
The UN vote against the Ukraine war (tags)
For many abstaining states in the UN vote, Russia's belligerent incursion into Ukraine should be rejected, but the U.S. should be denied its prosecutorial status as a champion of a just and peaceful international order, and Russia should be accorded legitimate security interests.
Truth dies first and then intelligence (tags)
The war in Ukraine is an exception to the rule of thumb that in war the truth dies first. The truth was already dead before the war began... War is the greatest crime imaginable. War creates endless suffering, whoever starts war is a war criminal. (Note: There is only one exception)
LeftEast condemns Putin's imperial war against Ukraine (tags)
We say "No!" to Moscow and "No!" to the false choice between Moscow and NATO in the future. We demand an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table. The interests of global capital and its military machine are not worth another drop of blood. Peace, land and bread!
I don't want Russia and China marching arm in arm (tags)
We should also take a step back and look at somewhat longer horizons, not just the moment - the aim must be to win Russia back as a partner. One sentence by Egon Bahr remains true: "Without or against Russia, there will simply be no peaceful future on this continent."
Can economy and ecology be reconciled? (tags)
The Corona-related shutdown, imposed by the state and whose effects are to be dampened by the state with enormous sums of money, will go down in history as the classic example of how states create unhappiness and unemployment with unilateral interventions in the economy.
The Curse of Financial Entrepreneurship (tags)
We are not prisoners of bad decisions made in the past. We can and should rein in Wall Street, break up its five giant “too-big-to-fail” banks, support local and state banks, resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act’s divide between investment & commercial banking, tax all financial transactions
What 2022 is about: eliminating conservatives with progressive economic policies (tags)
A labor shortage that is slowly taking shape and the demand for progressive taxation of high wealth, which is being championed in many countries, will make it possible to change the economy and society in Austria and Europe for the better. They will help us eradicate poverty.
Bidenomics, One Year Later (tags)
The Center for American Progress takes a different approach, examining the successes of President Biden’s bold economic policies and calling for the continuation and expansion of those policies in the years ahead by making permanent expansions to the safety net.
Education neoliberalism disguised as social policy (tags)
The share of the workforce with a college, university or technical college education is rising. The ever-increasing demands on skilled workers and the needs of the labor market are also driving up the cost of education. It is right and necessary to ask questions about financing.
Keeping Business Alive: The Government Will Pay (tags)
A buyer-of-last-resort program would alleviate the hardship of workers and businesses. It would maintain the cash flow for families and businesses, so that the coronavirus shock has no secondary impacts on demand — Business activity is on hold today, but with an intravenous cash flow, it can be kept alive
Promoting Sustainable Economics (tags)
The protagonists of neoliberal globalization seek to fight the devastations – for which they bear responsibility – by the same means that cause the devastations. Now is the time to seize the opportunity and build up economic policy pressure to enforce the development of an economic order that is sustainably oriented...
Capital is losing its capacity for productive investment and is turning to the financial markets, which are more profitable. It is with this money that the war machine and the trade deficit are financed. The US is under great pressure to constantly show that it is in control.
What will it be like after the pandemic? (tags)
From the March outbreak to the end of May 2020 alone, over forty million people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits. Images of endless lines in front of soup kitchens went around the world. In the meantime, the USA threatened to sink into chaos.
The Endgame of Capitalism (tags)
I develop a positive vision for a system change in part four. Before that, however, the question is raised how the corporations envision the system change: Their way of wanting to preserve their power after the inevitable collapse of the Ponzi-scheme of financial capitalism is a transition from free-market capitalism to feudalism.
Capitalist crisis policy is ultimately in a crisis trap... The central banks' billion-dollar "quantitative easing" may have prevented the collapse of the world financial system in 2020, but it is only a postponement of the crisis.
The question arises: Why does such a narrative have to be invented, why does it have to be prescribed and enforced by a few powerful and rich people? Here, an agenda is despotically implemented and then colored with fine words, in which we have no say.
Is China in danger of collapse? and Anti-economics and anti-politics (tags)
In the process of modernization, the relationship between market and state can be boiled down to the formula of a general law: the more market, the more state... The bloated market and the bloated state can only live or die together.
We only live in half a democracy (tags)
The machine used in the production process counts more in the constitution than the working person who created this machine in the first place. As a result, the employees in the production process are hopelessly inferior to the capital owners. That is the legal situation. But it doesn't have to stay that way.
Toward a new economic policy paradigm (tags)
Over the years, the institutionally enshrined budget discipline has created a considerable investment backlog. Important investments in infrastructure, education and climate protection have not taken place.
There is an alternative to maximizing profits (tags)
In a new encyclical, the Pope denounces the pursuit of profit. The Sonntagszeitung spoke about this with the business ethicist Peter Ulrich. He defends the Holy Father, criticizes the managers and calls for economy for fifth graders..Financial products seek to make money out of money, without the inconvenient real economy.
Capitalist dilemmas and The Greed for More (tags)
The overexploitation of nature did not remain without resistance. However, these were ignored by both the left and the right. The "requirements of shipping and agriculture" destroy original functions of the floodplain landscapes. "And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find,maybe we should change the system"
Renaissance of the Social Market Economy (tags)
A social market economy is based on two political pillars: (1) taming the market dynamics via regulation and (2) mitigating its consequences in distribution policy. (3) The development and care of an economic culture of moderation and fairness in dealing with one another forms the third, the cultural pillar of taming and civilizing
Overcoming the epidemic of loneliness (tags)
The planet can do without human beings, but humanity cannot do a second without the planet. A subsystem can never dominate the superordinate system, nor can it grow indefinitely within it. For this simple reason, the two central premises of industrial society - endless growth and domination of nature - are deadly illusions.
Limitation to 1.5 degrees is not possible with our economic system (tags)
In economics, an international mainstream dominates, which establishes optimized formal models that exclude many areas of economic relations, such as feminism, historical school, as well as post-Keynesianism, which considers the importance of demand and demand to be at least as important as good conditions for companies.
The Endgame of Capitalism: Introduction (tags)
This economic system is permanently out of joint. Interest rates have been virtually zero for over a decade, despite the fact that many consider interest a considered a cornerstone of the capitalist system. The central banks are pumping money into the system on an unprecedented scale, but this is not resulting in inflation.
For a democratic polarization (tags)
The new world economic crisis has shown yet again that one can't leave it to the market to provide for a strong economy. In any case, it is a truism that a community with a certain quality of life depends to a great extent on resources that the market does not produce.
Beyond market and state (tags)
The dominant, financial market-oriented factions of capital are using the crisis to further enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else by attempting to appropriate even the wealth of society that is yet to be generated in the medium term by indebting the state.
Rescue Plan of the Biden Administration (tags)
Thanks to the rescue plan, the US economy is expected to grow faster than at any time since 1984. The rest of the world will also benefit. Families with children will receive tax rebates. 70% of Americans are in favor of the plan.
Corona containment and capital utilization (tags)
In the Corona crisis, it became obvious that our capitalist economic system is not suited to protect human life. There must finally be an end to eternal growth, the exploitation of nature and people and the shortage of time, an end to "more & more, faster & faster and further & further."
The big crash isn't just hitting the stock markets (tags)
The author reminds us that "never in history has a crisis been solved by printing money." The states and central banks had "maneuvered themselves into a dead end from which they can no longer get out" through their own fault.
Climate Crisis and Social Transformation in the Age of Corona (tags)
The temporary moratorium on economic activity in large parts of the world has done nothing at all to change the fundamental logic of the capitalist mode of production, which is driven by the end-in-itself motion of endlessly reproducing abstract wealth, represented by money.
Collective working-time reduction is long overdue (tags)
The overall economic fact is further that from 1960 to 2019 the volume of work (despite reunification) increased only from 56.2 to 62.6 billion hours (by 11.4%), while the potential labor force grew from 26.3 to 46.5 million persons, i.e. by 76.8%.
Capitalism as the religion of indebtedness and debt (tags)
In capitalism, the fundamental social relation is neither exchange nor production. Rather, it is debt that dominates and supersedes every other way of recognizing and valorizing the measure between people. Those who have money are creditworthy, manifesting the sign of God's grace.
The "Great Reset" and the Deep State (tags)
Taboo truths, about which the authorities remain shamefully silent, can indeed be kept under the carpet very well for decades. The course of history is massively influenced by these informal, unelected structures that operate in the interests of the old elites.
Criminal banks and criminal capitalism (tags)
Since the 1970s, the real economy and the financial economy have been increasingly diverging. Gigantic assets vagabond around the globe, desperately looking for profitable investment opportunities.
Lessons from the First New Deal for the Next One (tags)
Learning from MLK, the inconvenient Hero (tags)
We should not lose our sense of how the civil rights movement happened, because if we do, younger generations, along with ourselves, will lose a sense of how new opportunities were fought for, and won.
Shrinkage means the voluntary downsizing of the national economy, including a reduction in gross domestic product. "Voluntary" here indicates a preference for voluntaristic solutions - though not as individualistic and unplanned where well-to-do opt out of the consumerist market model.
We are all social democrats now. Almost all of us (tags)
A few weeks ago, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said rich households should pay higher taxes. Inequality in income and wealth had reached proportions that threatened social peace. The head of the IMF, Alfred Kammer, called on the German government, as in previous years, to increase its investments.
Austerity's Hidden Purpose & From California Economics to Bidenomics (tags)
For governments pursuing austerity, spending cuts mean lower national income and fewer taxes. Unlike a household or a business, if the government cuts its spending during tough times, it is cutting its revenues, too.
What does socialism mean in the 21st century? (tags)
"Socialism" should be much more than a mere buzzword. In light of the fact that current capitalism is in the process of destroying our planet and our prospects for a free, democratic, and good life, "socialism" must become a genuine systemic alternative.
Bidenomics: Doomed to success (tags)
America has an acute fascism problem. Joe Biden is doomed to succeed. He must convince enough of Trump's rather less educated supporters of a better future in a fair and democratic America through successful progressive economic policies.
Five reasons for an "investing initiative" (tags)
Public investments not only bring more employment in the short term, they also increase public wealth and thus enhance the quality of life of the population. Accordingly, they form an important basis for sustainable prosperity and well-being. Investment at the federal level is already on the rise,
The seizure of power that we are currently experiencing must necessarily be a form of foreign domination. The population is not consulted on large-scale planning agendas, such as the Great Reset. We encounter this foreign domination, on the one hand, in the form of bundled interests of large power players
Welcome to a `systemic risk' (tags)
In fact, the US has just passed one of the most progressive laws in its history. It departs from the economic strategies of the past few decades, which have favored capital income — of both ‘innovators’ and rentiers — and increasingly left the working class behind
Post-democratic Capitalism (tags)
The fact that money can buy political influence is a central problem for democracy. All citizens are equal in terms of their voting rights, but not in terms of their wealth - this is one of the great unsolved challenges of liberal systems of government.
The issue of white-collar crime, on the other hand, is apparently impossible to address. None of the major parties has so far shown any inclination to take up the demonstrable threat to the welfare state and democracy posed by white-collar crime in the election campaign.
Corona: When will we ever understand? (tags)
The Corona measures of those currently in power are intended to prevent great calamity. They are used to justify the most severe restrictions on constitutional rights, the likes of which have not been seen since the end of World War II.
Terrorist threaten United States through drug lords (tags)
Criminal organizations are constantly adapting their methods for trafficking across our borders
There is currently no alternative to national debt (tags)
A private economy left to its own devices is completely incapable of immanently combating the crisis. This is especially true for future-oriented investments for ecological modernization that serve climate protection. The vaccine against Covid-19, which will apparently be available shortly, would not exist without govt funding.
"Europe derived great power and huge profits from colonizing Asia, Asia has grown amazingly because of American and European outsourcing, and now the United States and Europe are propped up by infusions of Asian investment and talent. This is the true nature of the global system, not multipolar competition."
The Corona crisis is currently overshadowing three crises that are also currently being - covertly - negotiated: First, an economic crisis since the fall of 2019. Second, the crisis in municipal finances Third, an investment crisis, better known as an investment backlog.
Corona vaccines-nothing would work without public funding (tags)
"The Covid 19 crisis is a perfect test of whether a more public health approach to innovation and production will prevail in the years ahead. Although recent vaccine news has raised hopes, it has also exposed the broken business model of the pharmaceutical industry and cast doubt on the prospects of getting a vaccine to people..."
Never waste a good crisis (tags)
The negotiation of society after Corona is now beginning, and it is now important to strengthen positive tendencies such as the expansion of the public health system, a more planned economy and social solidarity. But these appeals only cover up their own helplessness and lack of advice. .
Life Lies of the Islands of Prosperity (tags)
The embarrassing secret of the 'Western' model of society and development is that it only works under very specific political and economic, ecological and social conditions. Preconditions that lie essentially outside this model and are hidden or made invisible by the social actors of its glorifying preservation. '
How the economic doctrine of salvation is changing education (tags)
Economy always takes place in social contexts - even more: It is itself a result of social contexts. In this respect, a discussion in the context of sociology, culture or politics is essential. However, this insight is already missing in academic economics.
Crisis rent instead of debt trap (tags)
Store closings, event cancellations, slumping orders, short-time work and job losses, especially in precarious employment, have left many unable to afford their apartments or rented commercial space. Despite initial easing, there is no end in sight.
So how exactly can we fix this economic mess? (tags)
“It’s the conditions that generate pessimism, which are also the conditions that are likely to generate the resistance, which is a source of optimism,” says Blakeley.
The Cure is the Sickness, 2001 (tags)
"Good policy" in the sense of the Washington Consensus can be paraphrased with these ten principles. The key to development successes lies only in a correct policy mix. Development backlogs, continuing poverty and so forth are referred back everywhere to "bad policy".
Why capitalism compels renunciation and we could work less (tags)
How much human and natural resources are squandered on taxation, trade and advertising, how much on labor administration, justice, police, prisons, armaments, military? How many people work overtime without end, suffer heart attacks and burnout, wear themselves out in the brutal competition?
New Prosperity. Is a paradigm-shift necessary given the limits of economic growth? (tags)
Politicians and economists have adhered to the principle of steady growth. One possible explanation may be that "central areas of society, politics and the economy.... are existentially dependent on constant growth"
How should our economy grow? (tags)
If, on the other hand, the inequality distribution is reduced via increased spending on education, positive growth effects may result. In addition, too much inequality can destabilize the political system through social unrest, creating great uncertainty for investors, for example with regard to the protection of property rights.
8 points for a global agenda of structural change in the COVID-19 pandemic (tags)
"We can have democracy or concentration of wealth, not both," said Justice Louis Brandeis, the longest-serving Supreme Court justice."
For a borderless pragmatism. Outline of a Progressive Migration Policy (tags)
Immigration leads to stronger economic growth, which in turn creates jobs, Without migration, we would all be sitting in Olduvia in East Africa, as we were 100,000 years ago. About 3% of the world's population, about 215 million people, live in a state other than the one in which they were born. Migration has always existed.
Easing into a New Normality of the Crisis (tags)
With the intertwining of the Corona and economic crises, massive distribution struggles are already looming. Society, in a collective effort to prevent illness, has downsized its economic activity. This collective decision must not serve to enrich a few. The radical taxation of the great fortunes is indispensable.
Climate crisis and social transformation in times of corona (tags)
Companies go bankrupt, workers are laid off, and because the sources of income dry up, millions of people can no longer even buy the most basic necessities... What counts is whether the things produced can be sold on the market and make a profit.
Reduced working hours as a socio-economic investment (tags)
In this Austrian article, reduced working hours is seen as a socio-economic investment, not as a cost-trap. In a 1909 study by Sidney Chapman, shorter working hours leads to higher productivity and greater output. More time sovereignty and better health of workers would be long-term gains.
Bolivia - the left returns to power (tags)
The Bolivian people have proven that reason, dignity and fighting spirit cannot be suppressed either by a military coup or by government repression. The election result has implications not only for Bolivia, where it is an important step towards the restoration of democracy, but for the entire Latin American region.
The New Deal and Self-destructive Donald Trump (tags)
From 1929 to 1932 industrial production halved and in a chain reaction over 5000 banks went bankrupt. Farmers' incomes shrank by 70 percent, unemployment rose to 25 percent, and there were no welfare state measures to cushion the misery.
The US economy needs Joe Biden (tags)
The economic and socio-political record of US President Donald Trump is devastating. Wages stagnated even before the Corona crisis. Instead, the national debt increased because he lowered taxes for the rich - without any economic benefit. Joe Biden knows the reasons for the misery and knows what to do.
Debts are not a problem (tags)
The Democrats have learned from their mistakes. This time they want a big stimulus package to invest in infrastructure and climate protection. This change in sentiment is partly thanks to Keynesians like Paul Krugman, who have always called for government investment when the economy is paralyzed.
Is Trump failing in the fight against the pandemic and the shattered economy? (tags)
The state of the economy is rightly considered the most important factor influencing the re-election or de-election of an American president. Voters* tend to blame the leader in the Oval Office for their personal situation in the labor market and the economic situation in general.
The complementary reality (tags)
Where we cannot completely displace the mainstream, we should first try to supplement it with our own more humane concepts.
Behavior and body in the sights of capital (tags)
The proclamation of states of emergency in the spring of 2020, even if not in all countries, helped to consolidate a state crisis management system that overturned constitutions and now completely bypassed democratic decision-making processes.
Treading in Deep Waters (tags)
As one good reason for voting for Biden: should he win, Democrats will not be able to continually blame all of our sorry politics and capitalism’s contradictions on Trump. And the experience of a Biden government might well hasten the defection from a moribund Democratic Party.
Job guarantee for COVID-pandemic victims (tags)
A job guarantee for the long-term unemployed is needed. A sufficient number of jobs must be created. This is where politics is needed. The quality and range of public services can be improved. Long-term unemployment is a market failure.People who want to work cannot find a job.
Trump has no concrete strategy for restoring economic growth or for defeating CoViD19 (tags)
Trump is faking it on the economy, just as he’s faking it on the pandemic, just as he’s faked everything his whole life
Europe needs an effective guarantee of youth solidarity (tags)
The Youth Guarantee could create an entry-level job market in the public or non-profit sector - in other words, jobs that serve the common good. It is the austerity policy in the wake of the financial and economic crisis that has delayed the socio- and ecological transformation.
A fair and solid crisis financing (tags)
The contrast between the EU and the US in COVID financing could hardly be greater. McDonald's operators, Marathon Oil (over $400 million), Exxon, Chevron and Sea World received relief and will reduce their future tax payments. Tax gifts characterize the US way of corruption and contradict these recommendations.
Economic impact of corona lockdowns (tags)
Even before the current lockdown-induced economic depression, the assets of the lowest 20 percent of US households - between 2007 and 2019 - had fallen by about a third according to the Wall Street Journal, and their incomes had fallen by 2 percent in real terms
Advice on Corona and Budget 2020 (tags)
Emancipatory politics is characterized by the fact that interests are negotiated. The post-Corona phase will show what can be learned about the relation between politics and capital. Civil society should be engaged and resistant to ruling politics
Capitalism, Coronavirus and the Road to Extinction (tags)
The only way to ‘re-embed’ our economies and save our lives from ecological collapse is by intervening in the very heart of the beast: land and human beings need to be taken out of the market. The beast is not tameable; it needs to be killed.
Financial Markets and National Socialism (tags)
Joseph Goebbels was appointed "Reich Minister for National Enlightenment and Propaganda "7 on March 15, 1933.: "The people should begin to think and react in a unified way. [...]" They should stand behind the actions of the government with full sympathy and support.
The Job Guarantee in the Corona Pandemic (tags)
If the tax system is not reformed in an equitable manner, this will probably mean 10 to 20 years of cutbacks, starving basic services such as education, health, and care, as was the case in many European countries after the 2008 financial crisis.
The chances of the Corona crisis (tags)
Public debt only became a problem after the bank bailouts...Crises cause fear and reinforce deep-seated anxieties.. The market under capitalism is not an efficient distribution mechanism, but a means to enrich private corporations at the expense of society and its environment.
End of a Career. Obituary The "Swabian housewife" (tags)
The "Swabian housewife" dominated politics. Now she was buried by her inventor. The state is not a business or a housewife but can borrow and become indebted to help present and future generations. System change, not climate change! Fight ignorance, not immigrants!
Disease, Power and Capitalism (tags)
Have you tried DeepL.com, academia.edu, grin.com or grammarly.com? Send me your comments and/or discoveries - as we await the reopening of the libraries and the Biden landslide! Will the great comedian Stephan Colbert be the dark horse candidate?
Our normality is not returniing (tags)
If the government's response to the debt accumulated during the crisis is austerity, it will make the situation even worse. It is therefore right to call for a more active and visionary state policy that shows a way out of the crisis. What form will these policies take?
Wave of layoffs in the US election campaign (tags)
The corona pandemic triggered the most massive job losses in the USA since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unemployment rose to its highest level in more than 70 years. In April alone, 20.5 million jobs outside agriculture were cut, according to the government
The welfare state - anchor of stability in the crisis (tags)
Work, income and wealth must be distributed more fairly, and a number of "rules of the game" in our society must be changed. The upheaval forced by the crisis will hopefully force even hard-boiled defenders of the existing to rethink.
"It's the economy stupid!" (tags)
US unemployment at the start of April 2020 is higher than at the peak of the 1929 Great Depression. Trump is to blame for the botched response to the Coronavirus that he initially called a hoax. The real hoax is Trump's commitment to America!
"We do not live in capitalism" (tags)
After the transition to Atlantic turbo-capitgalism, little can be recognized from the earlier times of the initiatives of the social market economy. In this situation, the counter-factual and fact-immune creed of all conservatives is enmeshed in a deep unconsciousness about the world.
On the Power of Money: Three by Eugen Drewermann (tags)
Only faith (as in a religion), the "invisible hand," the "law" of the "free" market can judge everything. State interventions can only be annoying. The market itself is allegedly "social". Everyone acts according to his advantage. The system is not social but criminal and unjust.
Economics in the times of the coronavirus (tags)
Most people’s thinking is determined by the development of the Covid-19 crisis, the return of “the hour of executive power” (Gerhard A. Ritter), i.e. state of exception legislation, and the fears which it evokes as well as the economic measures in response to the health crisis.
Alternatives to Maximizing Profit and The Fragility of Power (tags)
We must look for the "signs of the times" that point to the coming of the Kingdom of God or, as John Holloway puts it, the signs "of the presence of the material power of the cry." The world of struggle against the instrumental power that oppresses and exploits often seems invisible.
Is Capitalism Out of Order? (tags)
Growing debt is actually not a big problem in a growing economy as long as it does not grow faster than the gross domestic product (GDP). The debt mountain of the capitalist world system is growing much faster than the world economic output.
Less is more and Tightening the rules for the unemployed (tags)
Gainful employment is just one form of work alongside others such as care work or voluntary work. Here I would like to endorse the model of the 30-hour week... There is a need to expand investment-based active labor market policy.
The Exodus from the Mega-Machine (tags)
His book "The End of the Mega-Machine. History of a Failed Civilization" explores the origins of economic power. For 40 years, the global economy has headed into a structural crisis. This crisis is hidden by growing indebtedness.
How Misguided Financial Policy Strengthens the Right-Wing (tags)
Capitalism has shown how democratic processes can be easily evaded. The Chicago boys carried out their radical reform program that was known as shock therapy. This included dismantling social state structures, opening the market to foreign investors and shattering unions
The US Tramples on International Law (tags)
The US surprise attack on Iraq in March 2003 was a primal catastrophe. International law was eliminated and replaced by the imperial dictatorship of the US. Those who destroyed a whole people and have a million casualties on their conscience are not punished in any way.
The Social State in the Age of Global Capitalism (tags)
Welcome to techno-corporate feudalism-where the richest three Americans have more wealth than 160 million, where the wealthiest 86 have more wealth than 3.6 billion, where the foul-mouthed cancelled free school lunches for 1 million and where market distortions rule.
Pope Francis: Mauritius Reject "Idolatrous Economic Model" (tags)
Reject your "idolatrous economic model," were the words Pope Francis addressed Mauritius' political leaders with on Monday.
From Punitive Tariffs and Trade Conflicts to Economic War (tags)
Trump's punitive attacks on several trading partners, above all China, are changing suddenly into a destruction of the multilateral structures of the world market. With "America first," the president wants to restore the past hegemony. The wrecking ball is not the only model!
The Bank Of Israel, Gold, And The Third Temple (tags)
BUY GOLD, GLOBAL DEPRESSION COMING!
From Ayn Rand to Paul Ryan: Capitalism as Morality (tags)
Society doesn't play any role in Ayn Rand's perspective. Rand reduced persons to the bourgeois who only thinks in economic categories and only needs to respect himself and no one else - unlike the citizen engaged in society and actively championing enlightenment.
Economists criticize the austerity religion and demand investments. Germans ardently believe in economic fairy-tales that the 2007/2008 world financial crisis was a crisis of state indebtedness and that state debts burden future generations,
Fighting the Causes of Flight (tags)
The refugee debate is back but only the symptoms are in the spotlight. Refugees are fought instead of the causes of flight. The political failure is as dreadful as the forgetfulness of the media and politics. More than 70 million persons are fleeing from war, persecution and conflicts.
Venezuela and International Law (tags)
International law professors explain a US military incursion in Venezuela would violate the UN Charter. "All nations must desist from any threat or use of force in their international relations. The media and governments denounce violations of international law very selectively.
From Enlightenment to Counter-Enlightenment (tags)
Brilliant minds elevated "the market" into a "higher being" of the post-modern age to which we must submit. The primacy of the market replaced the primacy of politics. Dr. Schulmeister is an economic researcher in Vienna whose latest book is "The Road to Prosperity" (2019).
We the Scattered in the Insult Society (tags)
Hans-Peter Martin is the author of "Game Over. Prosperity for a Few, Democracy for No One and Nationalism for Everyone" (2018). Now it is Game Over for the West, for our civilization model. Capitalism functions without democracy, without observing liberal human rights.
What is a Crisis? A Retrospect on the 2008 Economic and Financial Crisis (tags)
The economic guild interprets crisis through an ideological lens. The financial crisis is redefined as a state debt crisis. Illuminating the systemic causes of crisis or discussing the crisis proclivity of the capitalist system is not possible anymore.
IMF Says Global Economy Faces a "Delicate Moment" (tags)
As world leaders, finance ministers, business leaders and development groups gather for the Spring International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings, the IMF raises fresh concerns about the global economy. The IMF releases the biannual World Economic Outlook Report noting a slowdown in global growth and focusing on economic challenges that include unsustainable debt, trade tensions and the impact of natural disasters on the financial system.
Capitalism and democracy: what if we have it backwards? (tags)
Public Good or Private Wealth (tags)
The deep and growing chasm between the rich and the poor is not an accident. This gulf is the result of political decisions. Many rich countries have lowered or abolished property taxes. Governments reduce spending on education and health care.
Rainer Mausfeld and the Silence of the Lambs (tags)
Consciousness should be manipulated so the subjected do not even know centers of power exist beyond the seemingly democratically controlled political surface. The media are no longer the watchdogs of the public interest over the centers of power.
Why Cities Should Stop Playing Amazon's Game (tags)
New York City should count its blessings. Amazon’s decision to walk away from its plan to build a new headquarters in Queens stunned city and state officials, who had promised US$3 billion in incentives in exchange for some 25,000 jobs.
What are the Alternatives to Neoliberal Globalization? (tags)
Capitalism seemed to have a more social or civilized face for a time. After Roosevelt's New Deal and the defeat of fascism, gradual development of the social state occurred in Europe. Unions were accepted. The rulers were forced to political and social concessions.
?Who can withstand electronic rip-offs the upper classes or lower income labor?? (tags)
the barrage of electronic hacking and ripoffs have started a large debate. Do working class allies gain when accounts are invaded, open theft of numbers and the logjam of private application s?The middle may need some reinforcements as well. They have a large number of homes in every corner of the mighty us these are often held by many many ethnic groups thru morgates and a payment plan.hopefully fair and not having to jump out a window because of economic war.
Ten Years After the Financial Crash (tags)
US economic statistics are dubious since financial markets are based on financial products and money out of nothing. Tax havens, micro-second betting, stock buybacks and corruption through lobbying are market-distorting and cause revenue shortfalls.
The Cure is the Sickness: Washington Consensus (tags)
Reality could replace the elite economic myths!
The Populist Makers and Dangerous Optimism (tags)
The people vote and capital decides. Another capitalism appears that is marked by an anti-liberal and intolerant culture. The goal of the new capitalists is the same as the old capitalists: to make the rich even richer. The governing elites gamble away the future of coming generations.
Markets as a Fetish, Globalization, and Dissent Management (tags)
Economic inequality must be reduced and democratic participation regained. Resisting tax avoidance, financial market regulations, climate policy, and globally combating poverty should be priorities.
The rulers want to divert from the real causes of the refugee wave and from their own misdeeds because the cause of the misery is an exploitation crisis of capital and the greed of mammoth world corporations. Only the prospect for a future in their country can stop refugees.
Driven to Consumption and Money out of Nothng (tags)
Growth originally created a material prosperity about which earlier generations could only dream. However, more economic growth does not lead to people becoming happier. We are prisoners of a system that forces us to permanent growth. Banks create credits.
"We live in a time of radical counter-enlightenment" (tags)
Political struggle always means the struggle over the definitional power and appropriation of the world. For decades, neoliberalism has carried out a redistribution project against the majority of the population. This neoliberal project is only possible when
Right-wing Populism: Can More Madness Cure the Madness? (tags)
Neoliberal policy was always mad. But an even greater madness now appears with rightwing populism. Politics is mad because it writes off large parts of the population. Economic Darwinism has nested and established itself as market ideology in the brains of people.
Oversight Board Reviews New Fiscal Plan for Puerto Rico (tags)
Puerto Rico's oversight board reviews a new plan on economic growth and debt payments to the island's creditors in San Juan today.
Dark Clouds Gather on Horizon for Financial System, Warns International Monetary Fund (tags)
Bali, Indonesia -The International Monetary Fund releases its "Global Financial Stability Report" ahead of its Annual Meetings held this year in Southeast Asia.
IMF Lowers Global Growth Projections and Raises Concerns of Financial Crisis (tags)
Bali, Indonesia - The International Monetary Fund released the World Economic Outlook Report and lowered global growth projections to 3.7 percent for 2018 and 2019.
The Criminality of the Elites (tags)
The offenses of the upper classes are hardly publicized. People wait in vain for strong interventions in the economic realm. Financial criminality harms the state, the community and economic growth (e.g. high-frequency trading, shadow banking, financial products)
Steer clear of work morality! (tags)
The change must begin with a fundamental collective questioning of our world of work and work morality. Everyone should have the chance to find meaning and identity outside the world of work and develop more freely.
Crisis Regulation in Global Capitalism (tags)
The globalization euphoria waned with the 1997 Asian crisis. Hundreds of billions were needed to bailout bankrupt banks. The US with its high solvent demand stabilized the world economy for a long time. The US could become indebted in its own currency.
Against Market Radicalism (tags)
Capitalism is not "the end of history" as the American Francis Fukuyama postulated in 1992. The system question is open! The economy should be re-embedded in society. What seems rational in microeconomics collides with the irrationality of maximum profits as en end-in-itself
Capitalism and Worldwide Inequality (tags)
Thomas Piketty's motto "Inequality is always a problem when it is excessive" introduces the new World Inequality Report. Inequalities of income and wealth swell globally and in individual regions and nations.
Capital as Climate Killer (tags)
The growth pressure of the world economy makes a resource-sparing social order only possible beyond capital. The seeming rationality of capitalist goods production serves an irrational end-in-itself - the multiplication of capital.
Social Policy as Social Infrastructure (tags)
Work and income must be uncoupled. In Germany, thanks to higher productivity and information technology, 30% more was produced from 1970-2010 with 30% fewer workers. Demonizing China will not resuscitate the Rust Belt. Social policy is crucial.
Amazon, the Elephant in the Bookshop (tags)
Amazon is one of many examples of a gigantic problem. International corporation s shirk from contributing their just share to financing the community. Hosts of advisers and lawyers have created a "tax avoidance industry."
Finance Ministers Applaud Greece Debt Deal that Provides Aid and Continues Austerity (tags)
European Finance Ministers endorse a new Greece debt agreement that provides financing in exchange for maintaining austerity policies and economic reforms.
More Public Investment is Sensible and Necessary (tags)
Low-interest rates should create possibilities for expansive budgetary policy. Public investments in the infrastructure and education could benefit future generations by helping raise long-term prosperity and well-being. The one-sided narrowing of budgetary possibilities is excessive
Dismantle the ICE Detention System (tags)
The entire detention system, which is a boondoggle for cops, should be dismantled.
The Beam in the White House (tags)
Iran is the "greatest supporter of terror," declared president Donald Trump. With that, he justified his peace-endangering cancellation of the nuclear agreement with Iran. Reducing foreign policy to scapegoating is Hitlerian.
Austerity Policy as Momentous Mistake (tags)
The IMF's austerity policy of the last years was misguided. That austerity policy led to intensified growth declines and increasing unemployment and did not reach its goal of permanently calming the financial markets. Public investments could raise economic growth.
Neoliberalism and Authoritarianism - A Symbiotic Pair (tags)
Rightwing populist parties mix the conventional rightwing authoritarian political style with neoliberal economic ideas emphasizing the free unregulated market and the sleek but strong state. For Hayek, unions allegedly threaten democracy and force a just redistribution policy.
Neoliberalism or New Freedom for Corporations (tags)
"The interests of merchants always differ from public interests. As a rule, they are interested in deceiving and misusing the general public" (Adam Smith). Keynes established that the market alone cannot ensure the prosperity of everyone.
China's 6.9% Growth: The Superiority of the Plan (tags)
China has brought hundreds of millions out of poverty in only three decades thanks to the opening of the economy. In 1978, 90% of the population lived below the absolute poverty line of $1.90 a day. Today, there are `only' 43 million, three percent of the population of 1.4 billion.
Downshiftism
The Market is a Universal Totalitarian Religion (tags)
The market accepts and rejects like a Calvinist God. The market only promises itself. Its highest good is the economic boom. The market theocracy makes this side into something otherworldly. The cult of money and the commodity eclipses all its predecessors.
The World Dependent on Central Banks (tags)
The situation seems extremely contradictory. The global economic and financial system has been clinically dead since 2008. It only functions because it is artificially kept alive by the central banks like a patient in the intensive care unit $!8 trillion was pumped into the global system.
Prohibiting Micro-Second Betting on the Exchanges (tags)
The financial sector that has gone off course should serve the real economy again in the future. The exchange functions like a gigantic casino. Throwing some sand int he gears with a transactions tax would slow down the speculation.
Puerto Rico Governor and Oversight Board Spar on Fiscal Plan (tags)
The certification of a plan to get Puerto Rico out of debt and back to economic growth was delayed again this week.
Unemployment and New Ways (tags)
The rise of unemployment worldwide has reached unparalleled dimensions. In 1999, 700 million were affected. The neoliberal economic theory promotes the prosperity of the rich, not society as a whole. Profit maximization is often the only goal. Reducing working hours is vital.
There is outrage over the nationalist economic policy of "America First." The parallels to the 1929 system crisis are obvious. The unstable house of cards could now finally collapse. Credit-financed demand is created for a goods-producing system that suffocates in its own productivity.
Debt, Corruption and Tax Policies Impact Poverty, Says Vatican at United Nations (tags)
During United Nations Human Rights Council meetings last week, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, the Geneva based Vatican representative stated, “We can no longer frame the debt crisis as an exclusively economic problem. It affects future generations, as well as the social conditions that allow the enjoyment of human rights of vast numbers of people entitled to the solidarity of the whole human family.”
Housing is not just another commodity (tags)
Like food, clothing, health, and education, housing is an elementary need. On'e apartment is a place of retreat of the private person, a protective- and creative space of inviolable identity, Long-term low-interest housing tax credits & SROs, are alternatives to indifference.
Living Together Differently! (tags)
Modern politics must fight against excessiveness and inequality. All progress narratives have worn out. The cake will not become larger. The perspective of conviviality aims at abundance, not at tightening belts..
Working Digitally in Just Economies (tags)
Reducing working hours is an attractive scenario, an optimistic picture of a possible future of society. Less than 2% of German workers labor in agriculture, down from 40% in the 19th century. The future of work is person-related work. The state must intervene with subsidies.
Adam Smith as Philanthropist (tags)
The market can only fulfill its technical function when its rules and mechanisms are politically fixed and governmentally monitored...Adam Smith's theory has nothing to do with neoliberals and market radicals who preach the sleek state, low taxes for businesses and low wages.
State Investments and the Public Sector (tags)
The public infrastructure is something positive, even from a business perspective. it is a kind of advance concession, increases the entrepreneurial production potential and lowers the production costs. If state investments are trifling, this will have negative long-term effects
The Future as Transformation (tags)
There is no future with present-day capitalism. Capitalism stands for a movement of endless profit-making. Only a radical breach with the capitalist accumulation dynamic can nurture the hope of a reasonably tolerable future for human civilization on this planet.
The Shortwave Report 01/26/18 Listen Globally! (tags)
A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet. With times, frequencies, and websites for listening at home. 3 files- Highest quality broadcast, regular broadcast, and slow-modem streaming. Radio Deutsche-Welle, Sputnik Radio, Radio Havana Cuba, and NHK Japan.
Government Shutdown Solutions Could Leave Out Disaster Aid for Puerto Rico (tags)
As the Senate and White House struggle to avert a government shutdown, US disaster victims from Puerto Rico to Texas worry a deal on relief and recovery aid will continue to be delayed.
Is Economic Speculation a Form of Structural Violence? (tags)
According to neoclassical economic theory, the financial markets return to equilibrium. Problems only occur because of state intervention. The roaring twenties led to an enormous stock euphoria. In 2018, companies inflate their stocks in a $70 billion stock buy back program.
Refused sharing and rediscovery of sharing are signs of this time. "This economy kills." So Pope Francis judges socio-economic conditions. Taxing the rich is vital. With additional revenue, workers would not feel threatened by immigrants
Philippines - Why there is nothing Revolutionary about the call for a "Revolutionary Govt" (tags)
Statement of Dr. Walden Bello, National Chairman of Laban ng Masa (Fight of the Masses), Nov 30, 2017
US and China: International Policy as a Zero-Sum Game (tags)
After a half-year in office, a coherent foreign policy strategy under Donald Trump is not in sight. The US and China have very different ideas about creating prosperity and security. 600 million Chinese gained prosperity in the last 40 years.
The Welfare State in Crisis (tags)
Since 2008, crisis was the defining political theme. "No one should be fooled about the majority will of the population regarding taming wiled finance capitalism. The system could only be bailed out from collapse with taxpayer guarantees." (Habermas 2010).
IMF Reports Global Growth and Releases New Ways to Predict Economic Crisis (tags)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) releases its biannual report on global economic stability and presents new indicators it says can help predict financial crisis.
The Fairy-tale of the End of the Financial Crisis (tags)
Between 2008 and 2010, the EU Commission approved state aid of 4.3 trillion euros. The potential crisis of the global economy has grown and not declined. A system crash was prevented by the actions of central banks and states.
Limits to Growth Published Forty Years Ago (tags)
The MIT scholars under Dennis Meadows came to four core conclusions: 1) there are limits to economic growth on finite planet, 2) the economy and population are growing exponentially, 3) exceeding limits will lead to collapse and 4) collapse could be avoided by turning from growth
Tax Avoidance: Drastic Consequences for the Public (tags)
Taxes are the most important foundation of all government activities and public services. Corporate economic activity and profits cannot be clearly assigned to individual nation states anymore. Founding offshore centers is child's play Tax avoidance and tax fraud lead to revenue crisis
How the World Heads for the Next Crash (tags)
Governments secure the money of the rich. State debts have grown in nearly all countries of the world since 2010. Ten years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, the economy is again in a standstill or mired in crisis. Trump wants to cancel the recent bank regulations and cut corp taxes.
Economic Stagnation and its Mastery (tags)
Corporate profits explode while investments stagnate.Social housing declines with privatization. According to neoliberal theory, higher profits lead to grater investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to more use of tax havens and companies buying back their stock.
The President as Businessman (tags)
Trump's gigantic tax cuts will only benefit the rich. Revenue losses of six trillion dollars are expected for the first decade after the Trumpian tax cuts start. Trump sells the illusion that the old order can be restored.
Memorandum 2017: Alternatives for a Solidarity Europe: Instead of "Germany First" (tags)
The European Union is at a crossroads. The reason lies in the neoliberal redistribution policy favoring capital incomes over many years. "Mass unemployment intensified and was not ended in Europe. Millions of those with work are in precarious working conditions."
Neoliberal Austerity Leads to Deeper Crisis (tags)
A high state share in the economy, developed social states and readiness to intervene actively and anti-cyclically prevent falling into a depression. Trump's demonizing regulation, Medicaid, public schools, Head Start, Meals on Wheels, taxation and democracy must be resisted
Puerto Ricans Gather at Diaspora Summit as Island Begins Bankruptcy Process (tags)
Puerto Ricans from across the United States and the Caribbean island are meeting in New York City to discuss the island's economic crisis.
Capitalism in the Faith Crisis (tags)
Trust in the "invisible hand" is a religious exercise ensuring a rule over people that is destructive and fatal. Christians and Marxists wage a common struggle against the spirit, logic, and praxis of the false money-god and its servants.
Competition Ideology and Power Reality (tags)
Competition cannot be an end-in-itself. Uncontrolled private power leads to misuse. Uncontrolled competition increasingly destroys itself through concentration and centralization processes. Bastard Keynesianism helps the banks. People diverted from real cause of crises
Trumponomics: Failure Pre-Programmed (tags)
Macro-economic and ecological connections are simply ignored with the concentration on short-term profit. The planned reduction of corporate taxes from the current 35% to 15 or 20% recalls the Laffer-curve as the basis of Reagan's fiscal policy error.
Global Economic Risks Ahead Warns International Monetary Fund (tags)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its bi-annual report on global economic stability, warning that the financial system could face serious risks in the year ahead.
Private Enterprise Committed to Social Interests (tags)
Social needs like energy- and water-supply, the waste industry, education, senior pensions and health care can be solved better publically than privately.
Puerto Rico Oversight Board Holds Economic Growth Meeting (tags)
Puerto Rico's Financial Oversight and Management Board meets in San Juan to discuss economic growth proposals for the island.
After the economic crisis in 2008, the neoliberal fairytale of austerity was given a new boost. The neoliberal ideology reflects the idea the dismantling of the welfare state is urgently needed. Austerity means that all state expenditures are reduced to a minimum...
Unemployment and Inequality (tags)
"The past will devour the future" if there is no radical change of direction in economic development. That is Thomas Piketty's prediction. Piketty sees the solution in a global capital tax or wealth tax.
Puerto Rico Governor Releases New Fiscal Plan (tags)
Puerto Rico's Governor Ricardo Rosselló released a new fiscal plan that seeks to balance the island's budget by 2019.
America under Donald Trump (tags)
The "elite-mass split," the tear between the establishment and the masses, damages American democracy. As a damaged democracy, there is very low trust in the competence of the government. The official unemployment figure of 4.9% is regarded as a distortion of reality.
Attempt the Impossible! Theses for a New Left Majority (tags)
The Brexit vote and the American presidential election have dramatically accelerated the crises of classical neoliberal policy. The exit from neoliberalism can only succeed in a social movement and cannot only be a matter of a government or of the parties.
Trumpism and the Working Class (tags)
Trumpism understood via Dimitrof
President Trump - We are Witnesses of a Turn of an Era (tags)
Trump manageed to stage himself as a candidate who waged a crusade against the political establishment. Does politics only give more to the top 1% and lose sight of the remaining 99%. Insulting voters is not competence.
Rethinking Economic Policy! (tags)
The economic crisis calls for social-democratic answers. The fading mass purchasing power (in Germany) is due to the increasing inequality of income and wealth. Deregulation promotes social problems like precariousness and greater income inequality.
A society of social descent, precariouisness and polarization has emerged out of the society of ascent and social integration. The modern age continues developing but backward. The social state, is a de-commodifying institution since it socializes risks.
The Civilization Crisis: Post-Factual Criticism of Politics (tags)
In Trumponomics, falling tax rates for businesses should increase tax revenues. When businesses do not invest in an under-financed infrastructure, the tax gifts lead to lower stater spending and higher stater debts at the end.
Philippine President Duterte: A fascist original (tags)
'Like the anti-Marcos resistance 4 decades back, the only certainty members of the anti-fascist front can count on is that they’re doing the right thing. And that, for some, is a certainty worth dying for'
Low Taxes is an Act of Desperation (tags)
A low business tax can be counter-productive if a deadbeat infrastructure arises through lower state revenues. Lowering business tax rates leads first to enormous budget holes. Employees will bear this burden at the end.
Donald Trump as the Antithesis of Liberal Politics (tags)
Was this a victory of a show over substance? Was this a triumph of anti-intellectualism rampant for years? Trump capitalized on the economic plight of a very concrete section of the population. Today the US is a source of fear for the rest of the world
Video: How to Know if Your Country Is Heading Toward Despotism, 10 min (tags)
Nobody likes a despot — even despots know it. But actually identifying despotism can pose a certain difficulty — which despots also know, and they’d surely like to keep it that way. Hence Encyclopedia Britannica’s Despotism, a ten-minute Erpi Classroom Film on how a country slides into that eponymous state.
The ABCs of Meaningless Economic Phrases (tags)
The most common myths start from the tax state that burdens the economy, the housework ordered by the state (save,save,save) to the Schwabian housewife prescribing the austerity creed. Politics must tend to every need of capital as a scared doe and therefore lower taxes.
Public Risks, Private Profits and Prosperity (tags)
All personal and corporate achievements are based on state investments in roads, schools, hospitals, community centers, airwaves, food safety, and water quality. The Apples and Googles of this world are businesses that developed the results of state-financed basic research...
Manipulation of Public Opinion (tags)
Timocracy-rule of the propertied-threatens to replace democracy. The large majority is blocked from political participation and from forming their social future-unlike what was intended in the model of the majority principle in democracy.
The class struggle of th Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson (tags)
The Libertarians’ economic program voices the economic grievances of some of the more economically insecure layers of the American middle class through their criticisms of the domination of the major banks and corporations. Based on conceptions which originate in the right-wing and anticommunist Austrian School of bourgeois economics
The Supposed "Omnipotence" of Politicians (tags)
The key to a new peace policy could lie in denouncing mechanisms of economic coercion that are not only states and politicians. As the warnings of Eisenhower and JFK teach us, politics is massively subject to the influences of economic power.
Ethics and the Profit System: Global Change of Values Necessary (tags)
Profit-making is not profit-maximizing. From the magic word profit-mongering is derived the absurd unequal distribution of wealth, cheating of consumers, the exploitation of workers and ultimately the abolition of democracy. An invisible hand makes business profit into common good
Poisoning the Well, or How Economic Theory Damages Moral Imagination (tags)
Markets are human inventions. Today's neoliberal economic dogma creates myths that strengthen the most powerful, most greedy, and most short-term economic actors and undermines the normal longings of people.Structures must change
Neoliberal Crisis Policy has Failed (tags)
The term "invisible hand of the market" goes back to Adam Smith. This assumes all economic activity promotes the common good. Neoliberalism's survival is surprising because its theoretical assumptions are dubious. People cling to neoliberal prescriptions against reality.
Growth Criticism and Reduced Working Hours (tags)
Today's growth critics speak of the necessity of a post-growth society, a "renunciation society" or at least of a "green" capitalist model... A political transformation process is necessary. The economist John Maynard Keynes dreamt of a time when his grandchildren would only have 15hr wk.
US Economy: False Diagnoses and False Solutions (tags)
Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's economic plans are too simplistic. Innovations and ideas are lacking. Many people despair. Washington did not always ignore the middle. FDR's New Deal built 165K public buildings.
US and Puerto Rico Faith Groups Send Congress Recommendations on Island's Crisis (tags)
Religious leaders in Puerto Rico and Jubilee USA urged a new Congressional task force to reform US laws to promote economic growth in Puerto Rico.
The Digitalization of Labor (tags)
Robots and algorithms are ready to automate many activities like the manufacturing robot Baxter... John Maynard Keynes dreamt of a future in which the work week of his grandchidren would by only 15 hours.
Growing Inequality Harms the Political Economy (tags)
Neoliberalism and finance market capitalism encourage creating money out of thin air, exploding inequality, precarious work and environmental destruction. Wages are not only a cost factor but an important demand factor leading to either investments or social blight.
It’s enough to read just a few lines of the bourgeois press to get an idea of what will happen after the failed coup of 15 July: “The iron fist of Erdogan after the failed coup in Turkey: I am ready to reinstate the death penalty. 8000 police officers were suspended, opponents were stripped naked and hog-tied. The European Union: If executions resume, Turkey will not enter Europe“(1).
UN Summit Reaches Debt, Tax and Trade Agreements (tags)
Member countries of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) renewed a mandate for the UN agency on economic issues. The agreement will guide UNCTAD's work for the next four years.
The Social State Benefits All of Us (tags)
The social state can on ly fulfill expectations when financed on a broad and just basis. The social state must be adjusted to do justice to the pressing challenges.."The social state is the greatest cultural achievement in the 20th century"
Holy See Calls on UN Development Summit to Build an Inclusive Economy (tags)
Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, called on a United Nations development summit to address debt, tax, trade and environmental policies that impact poverty.
The Totalitarianism of the Market (tags)
Neoliberalism demands reeducation for its implementation like command socialism. The neoliberal view of the person is exemplified by the figure of the Homo Oeconomicus and is the antipole of the socialist person. All persons are entrepreneurs of themseves.
Basta Ya, Brussels! British Voters Reject EU Corporte Slavestate (tags)
“The EU is an instrument of the ruling classes of Europe for the imposition of brutal austerity measures—most directly on the workers of Greece, of Spain, Portugal and Ireland, but also on workers in the UK, France and Germany….Prime minister, Cameron, has even proclaimed an “Age of Austerity” as his government imposes cuts of £210 billion, (€263 billion), equivalent to over 10 percent of Britain’s GDP, at the cost of the destruction of 20 percent of all public sector jobs, millions more in the private sector and the decimation of vital services.
The Works Progress Administration created 651K miles of highway, 124K bridges, 8K parks and 125K public buildings including 41K schools. In the US of Amnesia, corporate subsidies are called public necessities and public welfare unnecessary Orwell warned us of this inversion of language.
Who Owns the Sky? The Climate in the Globalization Trap (tags)
The bad news is that there are more inconvenient truths. Climate change is present, not future. Globalization and protection of the atmosphere do not go together. Climate policy has a past. Economic profit dominance always has a priority over climate protection.
Planned Crises or Alan Greenspan's "Tsunami" (tags)
Greenspan knew his policy would create a financial bubble that ultimately had to burst. The subsequent crisis was consciously accepted since it speeded up the process of creative destruction. Lessons from the 2008 financial meltdown include shrinking the financial sector and expanding the public sector.
Philippines: Rodrigo Duterte’s One-Man Revolution and the CPP (tags)
Rodrigo Duterte’s authoritarian vision is no way forward for the Philippines.
House Republicans Convene to Discuss Puerto Rico Legislation (tags)
Speaker Paul Ryan is holding a special meeting with Republicans to discuss the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Ahead of the Republican special session, Jubilee USA sent a letter from its executive director advocating passage with key changes.
The Financial Crisis in the Light of the Social Market Economy (tags)
In 2007 and 2008 the US housing market almost completely collapsed. The crisis was brought about by a combination of state- and market failures. Extensive deregulation and violation of the liability principle were jointly responsible.
How Much State Does the Social Market Economy Need? (tags)
The use of property is only legitimate within the limits of the public interest. Whoever takes a risk must bear it and be liable for the losses. The state has the political task of laying down effective rules for risk assessment, liability and providing transparency. Distributive battles intensify.
Politics in the Age of Acceleration and Sharing (tags)
Why do international crises always come over us so suddenly, seemingly without any signal? This happens because we consistently ignore all the signs. We want to know everything in real time-and miss the big connections. Whoever sows weapons reaps refugees.
Capitalism as a Religion (tags)
"Capital is the only god that the whole world knows, sees, touches, smells, tastes and excites all our senses. It is the only god that doesn't encounter any atheists" (Paul Lafargue's little known genial satire "Religion of Capital" from 1887.
Austerity Against Democracy, 40 pp (tags)
How much state does the social market economy need? What lessons should be drawn from the 2008 financial meltdown? What happens to trust when financiers are above the law?
Energy for tomorrow, 15 pp (tags)
“The time of cheap and abundant energy comes to the end. It is the beginning of the transition of the fossil era to a post-fossil age, a transition which will be in the same measure fundamental and decisive as it was the by fossils imprinted industrial revolution of about more than 200 years ago”.1
This crisis is only another warning shot of the current economic system and offers a window of opportunity to leave behind the neoliberal path of development taken since the end of the 1970s. The root of the problem is the economic model based on growth and exploitation of nature.
Farewell to Homo Oeconomicus (tags)
Capitalism is not running so well. Is this because people are judged wrongly with misguided models? Don't competition and cooperation strengthen each other? Why is the SF-condo model praised to the skies and the Vancouver BC- community center model scorned as unrealistic?
Capitalism's growth problem (tags)
Contemporary capitalism has a big problem. And no one seems to be able to refute it. The problem, as Robert J. Gordon sees it, is that economic growth is slowing down, it has been for decades, and there’s no prospect for a resumption of fast economic growth in the foreseeable future.
Congressional Hearing Examines Puerto Rico Debt Crisis (tags)
The US House of Representatives held its second hearing on Puerto Rico's debt crisis this year. The hearing focused on potential legislative solutions including bankruptcy protection and an economic oversight board
Economic Multicutural Strangulation in US 2016 (tags)
We welcome immigrants. However certain subgroups are getting the lions share of visas both temporary and resident as well as the jobs. This economic cancer must be turned around before more locals are threatened.
Oxfam Study: Six Reasons to be Outraged (tags)
Whether inequality harms or benefits was disputed for a long while. It could motivate individuals to more effort and stimulate growth, one side believed. It takes the chances for education and development from those who are poorer, the other said... Money buys power.
Economic Inequality Divides Economics and Society (tags)
An unequal distribution of income paralyzes the whole economy... Redistribution from top to bottom in a national economy ultimately depends on which social groups can enforce their interests more strongly.
Social Inequality Today (tags)
The neoliberal rollback has created growing instabilities. An advancing process of de-democratization and social re-feudalization is connected with the rise of the new "super-rich." Piketty warned of the growing inequality between rich and poor.
The Crisis of Economists (tags)
The mainstream economy doesn't know what an argument is any more. Claims or assertions are made. This neoclassicism is not a science but resembles a religion that proclaims dogmas. The economy is a social science that offers interpretations.
Video: It's Time to Get Radical On Inequality, Stiglitz, 18 min (tags)
We are the least consistent with the American Dream. An economic system that doesn't raise standards is a failure.
Neoliberalism as a movement and ideology is a world of ideas where egoism and personal responsibiilty are celebrated, the social is faded out and no place exists for solidarity and social balance. Everyone is the creator of his own happiness here.
Criticism of Market Theory and Market Ideology (tags)
Market fundamentalists cling to the myths of the self-healing market and corporate beneficence..The real market economy functions very differently than the fantastic notions of the theoretical market economy. Maximum individual profit does not agree with social welfare.
Quandary & Crisis Facing USA (tags)
My opinion follows on serious economic and political challenges on the horizon.
The Rich are the True Social Parasites (tags)
In the past, social events and revolts shaped a generation. That changed in the 1990s. Identity is drawn from the consumption of brands. Therefore the public longing today is for better products and no longer for a better world.
Casino Capitalism and Profit Maximization (tags)
In the 1960s the average holding time for stocks was 10 years. Now the holding time is not 9 months but 22 seconds. Like shareholder value, profit maximization leads to exploding inequality and the waste of resources. States are weakened by tax cuts.
Indigenous Hispanic areas also Economic Rights US (tags)
Many Central and South American countries claim to have indigenous populations. This is true and false. Panama, Costa Rica Venezuela and Colombia have rates under 2% each. The substantialsubstantial populations are in
Economic Crises as Sicknesses and Catastrophes (tags)
The 2008 financial crisis is often wrongly described as a "state debt crisis" where cause and effect are inverted and economists and the market are released from responsibility. Sickness and catastrophe metaphors dominate discussion
Capitalism is the Problem (tags)
Prosperity in large part is based on the ecological and social exploitation of poor countries in Africa and Asia. Today 20% of humanity consume 80% of global resources. The poor are played off against each other while the richest hide billions in tax havens.
Witness Venezuela’s Elections This December-6, 2015 (tags)
This December, witness one of the most important elections in the history of Venezuela, and of the hemisphere. On December 6, the people of Venezuela will exercise their right to vote in elections for deputies to the country’s National Assembly. Voters will decide whether to carry forward the Bolivarian Revolution by retaining a Chavista majority in the National Assembly or return the political intitative to the traditional elites represented by most of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
Reviews: Submission as Freedom. Life in Neoliberalism (tags)
The challenge of neoliberalism took an offensive form in the global North with the victories of Reagan and Thatcher. No coup and no dictatorship were needed to gain mass support for carrying out the political ideological hegemony Stagnation, unemployment and futurelessness
Philippines: Unions decry deceptive, vague ‘labor agenda’ of APEC (tags)
ORGANIZED workers sneered at the so-called labor agenda in the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila next month by describing it as deceptive and vague, which merely reaffirms APEC’s ideology based on the primacy of corporate power and profits over labor and trade union rights.
For 40 years, the Bremen study group has published memorandums. The council of experts promoted the profits of businesses, not aggregate economic demand. Mass unemployment surpassed the 5 million mark because of neoliberal structural reforms.
Putin
“Every city in our country has some serious similarities to New Orleans. Every city has some abandoned neighborhoods. Every city in our country has abandoned some public education, public housing, public healthcare, and criminal justice." (Bill Quigley quoted by Naomi Klein)
Hedge Fund Threatens Trade Tribunal to Sue Peru for Old Military Debt (tags)
A US hedge fund is threatening to sue Peru for $5.1 billion over decades-old military debts it bought.
Obama Approved Israeli West Bank Violence (tags)
Israel
State Indebtedness: The Beloved Enemy (tags)
"The slow one now will later be fast as the present now will later be fast." The state unlike the Swabian housewife can become indebted to invest in a more social and more human future. All personal and corporate profit depends on state investment in roads, schools, food safety etc.
Jeremy Corbyn's Economic Vision (tags)
Corbyn
Can Keynes Rescue Europe from the Euro Crisis? (tags)
Keynes' theories and concepts were pushed back with the rise of neoliberalism in the 1980s. A complete change of course occurred when state spending cuts, lower wages and devaluations failed. The state spent money to create demand for products and services.
Irresponsible US China Bashing (tags)
China
With slogans like "Less State, More Private," the state was run down for years. Neoliberal ideology managed to present it as a bureaucratic monster. Banks were bailed out. In the emergency, the most wicked neoliberal becomes the state fan. The history of innovations shows the state takes risks
Dollar As World's Reserve Currency Threatened (tags)
dollar
Gaza: A Socioeconomic Dead Zone (tags)
Gaza
Farewell to Homo Oeconomicus (tags)
The model of homo oeconomicus is antiquated and over-simplified. Dominant economic models are not based on a realistic picture of humans... The model does not know different human human motives that could be differently activated depending on the context.
Differing Views on China (tags)
China
Living and Working Differently and Self-Optimization (tags)
How did neoliberal policy gain a mass influence? To neoliberalism, we must soon oppose a great alternative narrative of freedom, democracy and solidarity before the social dislocations neutralize the positive resources amid a collapsing world climate.
Witness Venezuela’s Elections This December-6, 2015 (tags)
This December, witness one of the most important elections in the history of Venezuela, and of the hemisphere. On December 6, the people of Venezuela will exercise their right to vote in elections for deputies to the country’s National Assembly.
Israel
From the Free Economy to the Share Economy (tags)
n 1970 the economics Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman argued the social responsibility of business was only maximization of its profits. This is not true any more today. The responsibility of businesses goes beyond profit maximization. More can be demanded of those with power/
Philippines: Binay tirades smack of desperation (tags)
Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay’s attempt at delivering a “True” State of the Nation Address (TSONA) suffers from a very basic flaw: a lack of credibility in the one delivering it. His antics reek of desperation against the mounting cases of corruption against him. Binay, in the course of losing his grip on the Presidency is trying to grasp at straws to deflect issues.
Patients are not Customers (tags)
Mainstream economics is always based on the idea of homo oeconomicus, an egoist who maximizes his own advantages. In economics, the extreme form of egoism is treated as rationality. July 30 was Medicare's 50th birthday and August 14 is Social Security's 80th birthday. Celebrate!
Deepening Greek Depression (tags)
Greece
Puerto Rico's Debt Crisis (tags)
Puerto Rico
Greece: Approving Its Own Death Sentence (tags)
Greece
Reduced Working Hours as a Socio-Economic Investment (tags)
In these Austrian articles, reduced working hours is seen as a socio-economic investment, not as a cost-trap. In a 1909 study by Sidney Chapman, shorter working hours leads to higher productivity and greater output. More time sovereignty and better health of workers would be long-term gains
Life in Donetsk: Resilient Despite Obama's Continuing Proxy War (tags)
Ukraine
Entrapping Greece in Debt (tags)
Greece
US-Installed Ukrainian-Style "Democracy" (tags)
Ukraine
Greek Bailouts for Creditors, not Economic Recovery (tags)
Greece
New York Times Big Lies (tags)
NYT
TTIP: Trifling Economic Advantages at the Cost of Democracy and the Public Interest (tags)
TTIP represents a crisis for democracy and the constitutional state. Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO describes the TTIP as “secret tribunals” where only “foreign investors” can sue. Frank Bsirske of the German Verdi service union said the TTIP is a “black box” transferring sovereignty.
Obama Wants Regime Change in Ecuador (tags)
Ecuador
Irresponsibly Freezing Russian Assets (tags)
Russia
TISA vs Public Services, 28 pp (tags)
The TISA is among the alarming new wave of trade and investment agreements founded on legally binding powers that institutionalize the rights of investors and prohibit government actions in a wide range of areas only incidentally related to trade.
Greece Defies Washington: To Join Russia's Turkish Stream Pipeline Project (tags)
oil and gas politics
The Lie of the Weak State (tags)
The good condition of German labor markets is in reality in a catastrophic state...Unemployment is an "act of violence" against every unemployed person and represents an enormous waste for society as a whole.
Heading Toward Financial Maidan in Ukraine? (tags)
Ukraine
Free Trade and Economic Growth instead of Democracy and Ecology (tags)
The TTIP agreement between the EU and the US creates a parallel private arbitration system where corporations can sue states for lost profits and decisions are irrevocable. Labor and environmental regulations can be invalidated as “takings” or “indirect expropriation.”
US Defense Department's Fabricated Chinese Threat (tags)
China
Philippine President Aquino no longer deserves any support from workers and trade unions (tags)
THE workers and the trade unions throughout the world mark today the International Labor Day – 125th anniversary globally and 112th celebration here in the Philippines. This historic and revered day has been an enduring and stirring symbol for the working class despite serious setbacks caused by multipronged and systematic neoliberal attacks against the workers, the masses and their organizations, which have seriously threatened to dilute if not totally wipe out the hard-fought sociopolitical gains achieved by the labor movement in the past hundred years or so.
Obama's Duplicitous V-Day Remarks (tags)
Obama
Deepening Sino/Russian Ties (tags)
anti-war
Wealth is not a Private Affair (tags)
The US faces a revenue- and a war-spending crisis. The top tax rate was over 70% from 1938 to 1982; corporations put trillions in tax havens. Alternative economics emphasize profit maximizing is not profit making. In financial capitalism,Profits explode, not investments.
On the End of Capitalism (tags)
The bridge from capitalism to the new "post-growth economy" is lacking. Hardly anyone reflects about the process of transformation...If the climate should be spared, flying cannot be a human right. The R-word will be unavoidable again: renunciation.
Average wages in the US are lower than 30 years ago. Profits and income inequality explode, not investments. The austerity policy that has always worsened unemployment and economic growth is promoted as without alternative by German chancellor Merkel.
Overdue farewell to dogma (tags)
Mainstream economics did not see the crisis coming – and so far it has not done much to overcome it. However, at least in the USA, a rethink has started.
IMF Reports Debt and Human Crises Drive Uneven Growth (tags)
Global Stability and Economic Outlook Reports Released
Fast Track, TPP and TTIP Should Be Scrapped! (tags)
How scandalous that communities and states should lose sovereignty to corporations! In the TTIP, corporations can sue states for lost profits. Public interest legislation can be called a trade barrier or indirect expropriation.
Greece Proposes Plans to Tackle Tax Evasion and Corruption (tags)
Greece submitted a list of economic reforms to the European Union (EU) in an effort to secure emergency financing.
Seeing behind the Global iron Curtain. (tags)
What I saw behind the Global iron Curtain which, in my view, exists between the UN and the rest of humanity. I describe what I consider to be very much of enormous and profound importance hidden from people.
Hypocritical and Hippocratic Economic Policy in Europe (tags)
The crisis is multilayered-a bank crisis, a crisis of wealth distribution and a misallocation of capital between long-term real investments and virtual financial investments.. The frugal Schwabian housewife is not a suitable model.
Less Growth and Less Work (tags)
French economist Thomas Piketty described neoliberalism or finance capitalism as an "inequality machine." Profits soar and investments are delayed. Keynes spoke of three phases: investments, surplus and stagnation. Reduced working hours is the only way to full employment.
Degrowth - a vocabulary for a new era, 19pp (tags)
From a degrowth perspective, the current economic crisis is the result of systemic limits to growth. It is not a cyclical crisis or fault in the credit system.
Growth, Prosperity and Quality of Life (tags)
"Our understanding of a modern economic and social system is strongly influenced by the phase between 1950 and 1975 when the social market economy was created and democracy was re-stabilized. Since then conditions have changed. New answers are necessary."
Washington Declares Political and Economic War on Russia (tags)
Russia
Growth Criticism and Social-Ecological Transformation (tags)
Unlike a chair, an idea can be shared by a whole people. Words can be like spears breaking frozen souls. (Kafka) Education is the great transformer (John Kenneth Galbraith). Economics as taught today is like brainwashing. (Ulrich Thielemann) Incentives to investing in the real economy are vital after the phase of credit- and bubble prosperity.
Washington and Kiev Willfully Sabotaging Minsk Agreement (tags)
Ukraine
The New York Times War on Truth Revisited (tags)
NYT
Venezuelan Anti-Imperialist Enabling Law (tags)
Venezuela
Ukraine on the Boil: Washington Prepares for Greater War (tags)
Ukraine
Poroshenko Prepares for More War (tags)
Ukraine
Homo Economicus and Dethronement of the Profit Principle (tags)
Max Frisch summarized economism int he formula: "what brings profit is rational." Economism is a business ethics conception, a justification theory for profit maximization that declares ethics superfluous. Ultimately this is an "ethic" without morality.
Profit-Making is Different Than Profit-Maximizing (tags)
Discussions of jobs and the economy are often marked by trivialization, distortion, unreality and wishful thinking, The neoliberal model promotes profits, not investments and rationalization and digitalization lead to mass unemployment. System analysis and market failure are often glossed over
TTIP: Trifling Economic Advantages at the Cost of Democracyand the Public Interest (tags)
The controversial investment-protection agreement establishes a parallel justice giving security to all investors.. The states would be liable for compensation for any lower profits.. We all know our plane can only survive when we do everything for a sustainable economy.
America's Interventionist Legacy (tags)
anti-war
The Catastrophe has Already Begun (tags)
Capitalist growth has become the problem, promotes famines and strangles full employment. Can the world be rescued? Mass unemployment has never lasted as long as today; global problems increase... A change of consciousness is necessary so the population strives for justice.
Dr. Jill Stein for President (tags)
Imagine a presidential candidate not stuffing her pockets and legitimating the status quo of lobbyists writing laws, unending wars, tax evasion by corporations in the Cayman Islands and exploding inequality! Alternatives of community centers and reduced working hours are possible!
US Orchestrated Coup Plot in Venezuela? (tags)
Venezuela
TTIP: Redistribution of Power, not Free Trade (tags)
The TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement) involves the redistribution of power away from the parliaments and to the executive and its unelected lobbyists. The TTIP does not involve freedom of trade.
Heading for War with Russia? (tags)
anti-war
Greek Election: Mixed Messages, Hold the Cheers (tags)
Greece
US/UK Special Relationship: Partners in High Crimes Against Humanity (tags)
anti-war
Oil Prices: What Goes Around Comes Around (tags)
oil
How Economists Change the World (tags)
Theory development is also a war over dominance. The goals of Hayek's war were expulsion of the Keynesians, liberalization of the financial markets, abandonment of full employment policy, dismantling the social state and weakening unions.
Thomas Piketty and the Growing Inequality in Capitalism (tags)
"When capital profit is permanently higher than the growth rate for production and income which was the case up to the 19th century, capitalism automatically produces unacceptable and arbitrary inequalities that radically put in question the achievement principle..."
New York Times: Enemy of Truth (tags)
NYT
Corporate Predators Want Compensation for Lost Cuban Assets They Stole (tags)
Cuba
Ukraine Headed for Disaster (tags)
Ukraine
America's Deadly Embrace (tags)
Putin's Annual Marathon Press Conference Tour De Force (tags)
Putin
Economics is Onesided and Reactionary (tags)
The homo oeconomicus cannot be our hope and is not desirable or future-friendly. The economic benefits to the capitalist entrepreneur are in contradiction to nature and to the person..We face completely oversized financial markets that have uncoupled from the real economy creating value.
For a Different Economics (tags)
Economists are criticized everywhere for their onesidedness, their focus on markets and their inability to deal with the burning problems... From neoclassical assumptions "more is better" or markets lead to efficient distribution, a perspective on the world results that sets efficiency over justice
Market Euphoria: The Mother of All Ponzi Schemes (tags)
markets
Ukraine: Central European Powder Keg (tags)
Ukraine
Phony Kiev Day of Silence (tags)
Ukraine
US House Declares Cold War on Russia (tags)
Russia
Capitalism and Its Crisis Proclivity (tags)
The liberal economists of the 19th century claimed no crises could occur in capitalism since every supply creates its demand. On the other hand, Marx and Engels recognized early on the causes for crises in capitalism. The contradictions of the accumulation process lead to crises.
Austerity Policy as Momentous Mistake (tags)
The IMF's austerity policy of the last years was misguided. That austerity policy led to intensified growth declines and increasing unemployment... Public investments could raise economic growth both in the short- and long-term.
Ukraine: Waging War During Economic Crisis Conditions (tags)
Ukraine
The poorest and weakest persons must pay the price for misguided political decisions. Political-economic decisions decide over the life and death of persons. The New Deal stands for an effective debt reduction. Germany has been an active driver of austerity.
Kiev Imposes Economic Blockade on Donbas (tags)
Ukraine
Putin: Sanctions Violate International Law (tags)
sanctions
The European Commission suspended the secret TTIP negotiations for four months to get citizen consultation on the Investor-State-Dispute SettlementThis proposed parallel system with 3-person courts of arbitration allows corporations to sue for lost profits. Decisions are irrevocable.
Obama
Putin Prioritizes Strong Sino/Russian Ties (tags)
Putin
CT Repub. Candidate Tom Foley's Role As G W Bush's Biggest Crony During the Iraq War (tags)
Like Paul Bremer, 'czar' in Iraq with his famous executive order 19 preventing Iraqi farmers from saving their own crop seeds, Tom Foley did the bidding of Bush and Kissinger in Iraq.
Fed
No Redistribution Without the Social State (tags)
In Austria 30 percent of the gross domestic product is spent on social services (not including education spending)...Since the 1990s social security has been increasingly discussed as a financial burden and less as a social achievement
TheInheritance of Inequality and Rethinking Growth (tags)
The economy exists for people, not vice versa. Economics should be pluralist, not a monolith. The economy should be embedded in society; society should not be embedded in the economy. Thomas Piketty and alternative economics emphasize inequality and mass unemployment.
Crowning the Dragon: World's Top Economy (tags)
China
Strengthening Sino-Russian Ties (tags)
business and finance
Argentina's Christina Fernandez de Kirshner's UN Address (tags)
predatory capitalism
New Economy and New Prosperity (tags)
Economic structures that form the basis for social prosperity have become dysfunctional. The financial markets have expanded their original function and are now self-financed markets in which protection from risks has become a highly speculative business.
Making Sense of the CETA, 128 pp (tags)
An analysis of the final text of the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
Asian Socialism Conference in the Philippines (tags)
The Asian Socialism Conference will be held in Manila from November 28 to 29, 2014. The conference will be capped by the participation of guests and delegates to the November 30 rally in Manila to commemorate Bonifacio Day, a national hero who led the armed struggle in the revolution against Spain.
Why a Global Wealth Tax Reduces Inequality (tags)
The distribution of income and assets is one of the most controversial themes today. History teaches us that economic forces press in different directions - either to more equality or away from equality. Which will prevail depends on what political decisions we make.
Karl Polanyi - Still Actual 50 Years After His Death (tags)
Karl Polanyi was the author of "The Great Transformation." As in Polanyi's times, the absurdity of the market utopia must be made clear and confronted with social reality. Freedom and democracy are goals to defend, not markets.
How Neoliberalism Gained Hegemony (tags)
The pressing question is why do the masses vote against their own interests and applaud those who champion goals opposed to their well-being or welfare? Ideas prevail because power is on their side, not because they are better. Neoliberalism went from sect to cultural hegemony
The BRICS: Challengers to the Global Status Quo (tags)
Can the BRICS wrest control of the global economy from the United States and Europe, or will their internal contradictions tear them apart?
TISA: Everything Will Be Marketed (tags)
A new agreement (TISA, Trade in Services Agreement) could privatize drinking water and health care through the back door. The resistance by many non-governmental organizations to the free trade agreement TTIP seems to pick up speed
Anti-Russan Sanctions Wars Continue (tags)
Russia
The wealth of others has become more a problem and less an incentive. Capital is blind, Thomas Piketty says. Capital grows faster than the economy. Differences in wealth are inherent in capitalism but do not represent a natural law. A society can accept them or act against them.
Philippines: Charter change and foreign ownership of land not solution to development (tags)
As plenary debates on House Joint Congressional Resolution No. 1, amending the economic provisions of the 1986 Constitution, began today, Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello challenged proponents of the resolution to admit that foreign ownership of land is among the main objectives of the proposal.
A Frenchman Admonishes Americans to Equality (tags)
With his book and the data, Thomas Piketty has shaken the self-understanding of American society.. In 2010 the richest one percent had around 20 percent of the total income. In the 1970s the share was under 10 percent.
TTIP: Threat to Democracy and the Constitutional State (tags)
The TTIP, the largest free trade zone comprising 800 million of the EU and the US is being secretly negotiated. Democracy and the constitutional state are threatened by 3-person arbitration courts where corporations can sue states and decisions are irreversible.
Self-Determination Means Market Determination (tags)
We face the continuing dissolution of traditional types, forms and rules, not a new type, a new form or a new rule... What was once called estrangement or objectification should appear as workers' own interest. .. Karl Polanyi spoke of a dis-embedded economy.
Both Germany and the US follow an economic policy without enlightenment. Slight economic stimulation will not solve problems of mass unemployment and corporate welfare. Tax evasion of corporations and tax cuts for the super-rich lead to suffering and a revenue crisis.
Learning from Roosevelt: HIs "New Deal" (tags)
The Civilian Conservation Corps helped overcome the basic pessimistic mood in society. Within a few months, 500,000 young persons had hope again. The government should intervene in case of an economic emergency.
The "Great Transformation" of the 21st Century (tags)
An end of the Great Crisis is not insight at the beginning of the 21st century... The regime of finance-market driven accumulation has not brought forth any new formation of capitalism capable of development.
The Middle Class Continues Shriveling (tags)
A century ago people said a progressive income tax would never happen. Today it is reality. The top tax rate in the US between 1930 and 1982 was 82 %. That was a very interesting experiment because very high incomes were covered.
A term becomes a myth; the myth becomes a religion. We are all conditioned by the misguided use of terms and connections so a way of looking at things seems absurd. The German economy acts like a bulldozer rather than a locomotive.
Mainstream Economics: Monocultures at the University (tags)
The "Plural Economics Network" challenges breaking through the monoculture and intellectual one-sidedness in economics...Instead of viewing our varied social problems from different perspectives, all the answers are derived from very similar models.
On World Economic Forum on East Asia 2014 (tags)
All Glitz, Nothing New to Solve Poverty and Inequality
Free internet Book: The triumph of failed ideas, 286 pp (tags)
Free Internet books like Swiss, Austrian, Polish and German critical economists could help us to a sustainable future-friendly economy where the tax code is revised and the top 1% pay more taxes than their secretaries.
Human rights groups close ranks after Pope urges UN resist Culture of Death. (tags)
Human rights group members ignore posts in which Pope urges UN to resist Culture of Death and UN Watch reports the rise of repressive States to prominent UN positions.
Ha-Joon Chang on Economics (tags)
Ha-Joon Chang is a professor of politics and economics at Cambridge University.
Financial Market Inflammation (tags)
Bubble formation covered up a period of long-lasting stagnation... Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers even spoke of stagnation as a "new normality"... The crisis consequences are shifted to other subjects. Unemployment and indebtedness are exported.
Putin in St. Petersburg (tags)
Putin and Lavrov
Challenging the Ruling Economic Orthodoxy: Economics Students Begin to Revolt (tags)
Pete Dolack writes the Systemic Disorder blog. He has been activist with several groups.
Historic Sino/Russian Trade Deal Signed (tags)
trade
Sino/Russian Unity: What Washington Fears Most (tags)
anti-war
After HUge Tax Cuts for the Rich, Kansas's Economy is Foundering (tags)
Things are also getting worse for the neediest people in the state. Brownback’s official response to the state’s poverty problem was a brief report that advocated fighting poverty by encouraging traditional family structures through eight-hour “pre-marital education” classes for couples
Intricacies of economic growth (tags)
ECONOMIC GROWTH
The new indebtedness is a consequence of the crisis caused by the financial industry-and in no way owed to an excessive social state, demographic change and so forth.. There are many critics of this policy of mastering crisis by flooding the financial markets with fresh money.
Ukraine
Time to act with urgency and determination to improve the lives of Filipino workers (tags)
Philippines: As the country observes the International Labor Day, Akbayan Party would like to draw attention to the inability of the current economic growth to translate into an improvement in the lives of ordinary workers from both the urban centers and the countryside. While the Aquino administration takes pride on the 7.2 % growth rate for 2013, it cannot mask the fact that this growth has been insufficient to curb massive unemployment and poverty.
TTIP: Emperor's New Clothes (tags)
Welfare state achievements, quality and environmental standards as well as consumer interests are up for negotiation..For Austria, an annual jobs gain of 0.06% is forecast...93% of the consultations were with lobbyists.
US President Obama Visit in Manila (tags)
The small window of opportunity to forge an independent foreign policy that the Philippines gained with the expulsion of the US bases in 1992 will disappear with the impending signing of the Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation with the US.
Sweden: How the welfare state was stolen (tags)
The entrance of private equity from 2005-6 was a big shift. They created a totally different logic, where short-term extraction of profit was the only goal. In 2011 the shit really hit the fan.
The Neoliberal Model: Profits without Investments (tags)
According to the neoliberal myth, higher profits would lead to more investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to corporations buying back their stock and currency speculation. In truth, higher investments lead to higher profits.
Casino Capitalism and Profit Maximization (tags)
“The state is consciously weakened to speed up the redistribution from bottom to top because that corresponds to the dogmas of the neoliberal ideology.” Our state was systematically weakened in the last 15 years by extensive tax cuts. I remember the lowering of the top income tax rate.
Rejecting TTIP, AFDL-CIO's Trumka Calls for "Global New Deal" (tags)
The demonization of anyone who talks about the dangers of concentrated wealth is based on a misreading of both the past and the present. Such talk isn’t un-American; it’s very much in the American tradition. So who will be this generation’s Teddy Roosevelt? (Paul Krugman)
Plundering Ukraine for Profit (tags)
Ukraine
TTIP Attacks on Wages, the Social and the Environment (tags)
The belief that growth and prosperity for all people are promoted by free trade is as old as capitalism. This is often wonderfully represented in the model worlds of economists. But reality looks different. Specific particular interests are sold as the general interest.
Cheerleading Potential Disaster (tags)
Ukraine
Technology, Unemployment and Policy Options (tags)
Navigating the Transition to a Better World
On the Death of John Kenneth Galbraith (tags)
The great economist John Kenneth Galbrath was shocked at the public squalor alongside private affluence. He devised the horse-sparrow theory, horses must be fed so the sparrows can live. A healthy economy means shrinking the financial sector and expanding the public sector.
Propaganda War on Russia Rages (tags)
Ukraine
White House Crime Boss Powwow (tags)
Ukraine
Global turn-around: to persuade Western Powers to adopt 'bottom-up' ethical human rights. (tags)
Major Western Powers invited to New Zealand gives opportunity to adovate a global 'turn-around' by adopting the 'bottom-up' emphasis of global ethical human rights (developed in NZ) to replace 'near absolute', 'top-down' control of 'neoliberal absolutism'.
TTIP: International Mega-corporations prevent social and ecological globalization (tags)
In the reality of international monopolist competition, narrow economic profit interests dominate to the disadvantage of broad prosperity gains. Protection of foreign mega-investors before indirect expropriation leads to a dispossession of nation state democracy.
Structural Weaknesses of Capitalism (tags)
Ignorance and ideology replaced facts and economic fairness under Reagan. Reagan appealed to the Laffer curve and argued tax cuts bring higher revenues, He confused investment and speculation, SROs and SUVs, militarism and security and decried government as the problem.
On the Global Conjuncture, February 2014 (tags)
The key feature of the global landscape is the continuing stagnation of the centers of the global economy, the United States and the European Union. The promise of sustained recovery from the financial implosion has eluded the United States for over three years now while most of Europe remains mired in very deep recession, with the notable exception of Germany.
Wall Street Journal Reinvented History (tags)
media
In the Whirlpool of Deregulation (tags)
The economy changed from real- to finance capitalism since the 1970s. This was not an accidental development. The economic researcher Stephan Schulmeister sees a pattern where deregulation created problems that were fought with more deregulation.
The Free Trade Agreement TTIP - New Version of the "Golden Age" (tags)
Lobbyists and think tanks of transnational corporations dreamt of a global market without limits. With enticing slogans like more economic growth or creation of new jobs, the population should accept the trade-and investment agreement.
Modesty as an Economic Model (tags)
"This completely deregulated sphere (derivatives) ultimately grew to greater dimensions than the real economy. That was undoubtedly absolute madness..A smaller financial sector need not be unconditionally bad.. The economy is a faith like every other..."
Inside the Whale: On the Origin of the Democratic Consensus (tags)
In his 1940 short story "Inside the Whale," George Orwell satirizes the focus in Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. Miller's characters are protected by the fat of the whale and never discuss the challenges and tasks of their historical time. In his poem Is this an apt characterization of our time?
Netanyahu and Rohani in Davos (tags)
anti-war
Jubilee USA Urges Business and Political Leaders at World Economic Forum to End Corporate (tags)
Washington, DC - Heads of state, financial ministers, celebrities and representatives from many of the worlds most powerful corporations are meeting in Davos, Switzerland for the 2014 World Economic Forum.
Oxfam's 2014 Report: Working for the Few: Political Capture and Economic Inequality (tags)
According to this Oxfam report, the richest 85 persons in the world have more wealth than half of the world's population. "Rigging the System in Favor of the Few" and "Cascading Privilege" are titles of two sections in the report.
Both Germany and the US seem locked into unsustainable models. The Alternative Economic Policy study group has been publishing memorandums for 20 years urging a radical change of course: qualitative growth, expansion of public sector and reducing working hours.
Obama Nominates Three Fed Governors (tags)
Fed
Obama's Fake Economic Recovery (tags)
class war
What people have not been told about GFC 2009 - West in 'permanent' decline. (tags)
The global financial crisis of 2009, which affected the West far more than other regions, was, in my view, a consequence of a UN decision on 10 December 2008. In my view, it was a deliberate decision at the UN that the West would go into permanent decline.
Video: Republican Theme Song - Nothing Really Matters and The Fear Economy (tags)
Thanks to House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican caucus, the "Do-Nothing Congress" was so awful this year that I decided it deserved its own theme song. I had fun putting together this video—which also calls out some uplifting wins MoveOn members and other progressives were able to achieve this year
Mission Accomplished, Says Snowden (tags)
NSA
Bracing for An Eventual Day of Reckoning (tags)
markets
Hardball US Geopolitics (tags)
imperialism
Book Review: "The Victory of Capital" (tags)
A society can only provide for the future by investing today in the production of tomorrow...What may be sensible economically for a private individual or individual business could be harmful for the national economy, particularly when the economy staggers.
Tea Party: Extremism of the Middle (tags)
The Tea Party wants to return to an idyllic past that never really happened. The Tea Party wants to stop the accelerating descent of the white middle class by driving ideological ideas to the extreme. The right-wing hardliners believe capitalism could be reanimated if the state were shattered.
Venezuelan Municipal Elections (tags)
Venezuela
Mandela's Disturbing Legacy (tags)
Mandela
Fact Check on Venezuela's Economy (tags)
Venezuela
Ukraine
Ukraine Dodged a Bullet (tags)
Ukraine
Market Euphoria During Troubled Times (tags)
markets
'Divide and Rule' at the UN misdirects Occupation's discontent towards the two percent. (tags)
The Occupation - often with good hearts but heads not straight due to the 'divide and rule' which stems from the UN.
Stop the TTIP - Elephants-Marriage! (tags)
TTIP Is old wine in new wineskins. Free trade- and investor-protection prescriptions from the 20th century according to the style of the WTO are not solutions for current challenges. A transatlantic partnership for social-ecological transformation would look very different.
Market-conforming Democracy (tags)
Market-conforming democracy," Angela Merkel's guiding idea, is a pleasant-sounding description of plutocracy where the forms still exist but their substance is "financialized," where myths of privatization. corporate beneficence and self-healing markets are zombie gods.
The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing self-determination and creativity. Crisis and chance are represented by the same Chinese letter. Finance capitalism makes the state the errand boy of the banks. State debt crisis is a crisis of the myth of deregulation.
Vilifying Venezuela's Maduro (tags)
Venezuela
Waging Economic War on Venezuela (tags)
Venezuela
Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (tags)
Book review of Mark Blyth's "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," 304 pp, March 2013: "Slaves of Defunct Economists: Why politicians pursue austerity policies that never work" by Henry Farrel, Washington Monthly, Mar/Apr 2013
Studying Economics Today is Like Brainwashing (tags)
The blind trust in efficient markets must be replaced and bankers given a new understanding. Profit making is different than profit maximization. Banks should be a public function, not a casino and the real economy and the environment not abandoned.
Movie Review: Dirty Wars (tags)
Jeremy Scahill, reporter for such outlets as The Nation and Democracy Now, has come out with the most hard hitting documentary of recent years entitled, “Dirty Wars.” He takes us around the globe from Afghanistan to Yemen and Somalia documenting the crimes of U.S imperialistic foreign policy in tragic detail.
Consumption: Endless Growth is Senseless (tags)
Writing in 1930, John Maynard Keynes thought people would soon have everything they need and envisioned a 15-hour work week. In the midst of the worst economic crisis, he foresaw a world where people had to work much less because their needs were satisfied.
The "ABCs of Alternatives" published in May 2013 includes chapters on democratization, globalization criticism, global social rights, good work, Keynesianism, knowledge commons, liberation pedagogy, no person is illegal, peace, rebellion, redistribution and the WSF,
America's Economic Dark Side (tags)
class war
Study Shows Palestinian Authority Corruption (tags)
corruption
Palestinians' Right to Resist (tags)
resistance
Criticism of Market Theory and Market Ideology (tags)
Market fundamentalists cling to the myths of the self-healing market and corporate beneficence..The real market economy functions very differently than the fantastic notions of the theoretical market economy. Maximum individual profit does not agree with social welfare.
From Summit to Summit: Lost Generation and Lost Decade (tags)
Neoliberal economic thinking explains unemployment as a balance phenomenon with only supply-side causes: poorly trained, wrong place, excessive wage demands and an overly generous social state.. Youth unemployment of 30 or 60% is a catastrophe.
Capitalism is not the Opposite of the State (tags)
Without the permanent intervention of the state, there would be no functioning capitalism. No economic branch depends on the state like the financial branch The deregulation was based on the trick of slandering state regulation as strait-jackets.that could strangle the economy.
Bernanke Stays the Course (tags)
Fed
Janet Yellen Likely New Fed Chairwoman: Hold the Cheers (tags)
class war
Cost of the Crisis, 72pp (tags)
The cost of the Wall Street-caused financial collapse and ongoing economic crisis is more than $12.8 trillion. $12.8 dramatically understates the true costs of the crisis because so much is simply unquantifiable.
The Egyptian Revolution’s Next Barrier (tags)
When the Egyptian army first began its offensive against the Muslim Brotherhood, many speculated that such an assault would likely be extended to the same revolutionaries who demanded — in massive demonstrations — that President Morsi be evicted from office.
Video: Bruce Gagnon: The Deadly Connection: Endless War and Economic Crisis (tags)
Bruce Gagnon, is Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and long-time member of Veterans For Peace.
Politics Serving Free Financial Markets Creates False Incentives (tags)
Stable exchange rates, a strict regulation of (financial-) capital transactions, a transactions tax and low interest rates should make financial speculation so unattractive (“euthanasia of the profiteer”) that real investments would quickly expand to maintain full employment.
Why Was Syria Attacked? (tags)
Syria
Helen Clark ignores question on global ethical human rights. (tags)
When Helen Clark, Head of the United Nations Development Program, was asked during question time after delivering a lecture why the UN says nothing about the new plan for the world, global ethical human rights, she ignored the question.
To question Helen Clark regarding UN silence on global ethical human rights to rule world (tags)
Hope to question Helen Clark, head of the UNDP and considered one of the world's most powerful women, why the UN has failed to inform the global mainstream of new plan to rule the world, global ethical human rights, for over five years and despite the significant support it is receiving.
Video: Taming Capitalism Run Wild : Richard Wolff (tags)
The system must be changed because the system leads to stagnant wages over 30 years, totally inadequate creation of family-wage jobs, education for the elite and destruction of nature. A public debate on job creation and shriveling the financial sector is vital.
Ten Theses on the Crisis and its Solution (tags)
Problems don't disappear when they are ignored. Deregulation is a collective and political crisis. Language and democracy are endangered when arsonists are called firefighters, when private losses become public losses and crime in the suits is normalized as a business model.
Larry Summers: Wall Street's Man (tags)
Fed
The August 24 March on Washington: Why We Need a New Civil Rights and Labor Movement (tags)
It could have been left as a relatively small event that would make little impact, but plans for the 50th anniversary of 1963′s March on Washington appear to have taken another course.
Wall Street plunders Detroit while pensioners take blame (tags)
In North America, Detroit fulfills the same function as Greece does for Europe: A scapegoat. Larger economic and social forces, disinvestment and financial industry legerdemain are the major factors in Detroit’s financial struggles.
Alternatives to Stagnation and Depression (tags)
Politics has fought the symptoms of the great crisis with banking- and economic packages while its systemic causes remain untouched… The hardest phase of the great crisis is ahead of us, not behind us. All sectors try to safeguard their position through spending cuts...
Obama's Grand Bargain 2.0 (tags)
class war
The Dislocation of Homo Oeconomicus (tags)
"Students rate the teachers and demand a very specific kind of knowledge from them: it should be measurable, packaged and practical and cannot contain any uncertainties. Experimenting or thinking is not desired. There is a relation between service-provider and customer..."
Hardwired Inequality in America (tags)
class war
Filipino workers challenge to Aquino (tags)
Three years ago, President Aquino promised to substantially reduce poverty, create quality and secure jobs, and end the reign of impunity, among others. He promised “inclusive growth”. Workers have had enough of these broken promises.
Greatness or Mediocrity? Global ethical human rights or Neoliberal absolutism. (tags)
Do we want a great society based on ability and hardwork (often includes character) where people can reach their full potential or the prevailing mediocrity, with its descent-based 'bi-cultural' elite and, what I see as, 'arrested development' ?
Addicted to Liquidity Injections (tags)
Bernanke's announcing of lower monthly printing of money was enough to make stock exchanges collapse in many threshold countries. The monetary policy of printing money and zero interest is caught in a vicious circle. Liquidity glut generates credit growth.
Professional comments: global ethical human rights to replace neoliberal absolutism (tags)
More in the professional sector prepared to discuss global ethical human rights to replace neoliberal absolutism.
After the removal of Morsi in Egypt (tags)
The removal of the Morsi government is not a victory for the proletariat and the exploited Egyptian masses Victory can only be achieved by the proletarian class struggle against capitalism!
Fed
The Ideological Mantra "Competitiveness" (tags)
The policy that Merkel and Co. forced on the crisis countries has led to social catastrophes...The competition ideology has managed to establish the notion that generalized competition is the real human condition.
Labor Solidarity in Neoliberal Structural Change (tags)
The self-regulating market and the invisible hand were neoliberal theories of Frederick August von Hayek and Milton Friedman. Submission to the market was described as a natural law, as natural and self-evident as the rotation of the planets. Solidarity and unions were decried as barriers.
Austerity Policy Leads to Low Economic Growth, 43pp (tags)
This IMF Working Paper published on January 31, 2013 was co-authored by the chief IMF economist Olivier Blanchard. The IMF erred in its fiscal multiplier in estimating the effects of state spending cuts in deficit countries. The paper was greeted by silence in Germany and the US.
Corporate America Loves Jason Furman (tags)
class war
How Does Justice Come to the Economy? (tags)
For Immediate End of Austerity Policy in Europe (tags)
The growth model forced in the past with redistribution from bottom to top and increasing export surpluses has failed. For years, the demands of the Alternative Economic Policy study group emphasized combating unemployment and poverty and, taming the financial markets.
"Politics prepared the ground for financial war" (tags)
The current economic crisis is a product of political mistakes, economic incompetence and criminal energy. Capitalism altogether has been a declaration of war. Politics bungled deregulation. The wisdom of the market never existed.
Bilderberg Conference Convenes (tags)
anti-war
North Korean economy surrenders to foreign currency invasion (tags)
Chinese currency and U.S. dollars are being used more widely than ever in North Korea instead of the country's own money, a stark illustration of the extent to which the leadership under Kim Jong-un has lost control over the economy.
Quantitative Crisis: Bernanke’s “Stimulus” For The 1% (tags)
When I heard that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last week that it was too soon for the Fed to end its extraordinary stimulus programs, I did a double take.
10 Theses about the Crisis: Ingo Schulze (tags)
German novelist Ingo Schulze's 2012 "Our Beautiful New Clothes" explains how we have accepted the form without the substance of democracy. People accepted the emperor's new clothes until a child cried "but he has nothing on." Maybe Hans Christian Anderson can help us.
Less Growth = More Happiness (tags)
The question about alternatives to the dominant western model of life and greowth becomes increasingly urgent together with the looming-or already occurred-surpassing of Peak Oil. New measurements of prosperity include life satisfaction, access to health care and education
Economic Ethics After the Crisis (tags)
Peter Ulrich is an emeritus professor of Economic Ethics at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and author of Integrative Economic Ethics (2008). The economy should be embedded in society; society should not be embedded in the economy. The invisible hand is a myth to be unmasked.
The exodus from the casino capitalism producing ever faster and ever deeper crises cannot succeed without a broad and powerful democratic base. Parliamentary democracy is urged to finally take up the struggle around the primacy of politics
The State Should Rescue the Market Economy (tags)
A balance recession is more than a temporary slump of the economy. During a balance recession, private economic actors try to reduce their debts. The cheap money seeps out on the financial markets where it leads to new bubbles. The labor market does not function like other markets. Falling wages did not lead to more employment - as claimed for decades.
Financial War - How Banks and Bandits Endanger our Democracy (tags)
Political failure follows market failure. Participation in system criminality is without risk of prosecution. The financial crisis is not only a system failure. It was caused by human actions in the banking sector that are objectively punishable.
Local Fights Against Austerity Are Growing Across the U.S. (tags)
Between sequestration, with its damaging impact on workers and the entire economy, and the billions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other necessary social programs that President Obama is pushing, it is evident that the economic policies of both major parties are not intended to promote a recovery for working people. You cannot lift up a nation’s economy while slashing away at its consumers’ pocketbooks. In order to justify their defiance of this elementary law, both Republicans and Democrats start talking the language of “austerity,” that is the notion that economic policy must be guided by reducing budgetary deficits first and foremost, and that workers exclusively must be made to pay the cost.
US-Style Free Trade in Good Hands with Michael Froman (tags)
corporatism
TELL THE WORLD: Ethical human rights, develop, globaliz to replace Neoliberal Absolutism (tags)
TELL THE WORLD. Ethical human rights, development, globalization to replace Neoliberal Absolutism which now prevails. The latter rarely use direct violence but control by keeping people ignorant so the mainstream media have never informed the global community of the ethical alternative.
A letter: Neoliberal Absolutism and global ethical individual rights plan for youth. (tags)
The young need to know there is a plan they can peacefully fight for which will give them a future. The following includes a brief description of neoliberal absolutism which involves very extreme top-down control denying them their individual rights.
People still believe in the “faster, higher and bigger.” This fiction is maintained through over-chemicalization, over-technization, genetic manipulation or simply bribery of the judges. People lie to themselves.
Neoliberalism as a Variety of Social Darwinism: Ten Million More Unemployed (tags)
Social cuts are a danger for democracy..When fear of social descent or collapse seizes the middle class, the danger grows that exclusion-ideologies may gain acceptance like racism, nationalism or social Darwinism..The economic future is given away on the altar of an ideology that raises location competition to the leitmotif of political-economic policy.
gold
Budget Cuts and Happy Times (tags)
For around three decades, a Troika from Wall Street, the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve pushed global (capital) investments with a mixture of tax cuts, cheap credits and overrated securities.
Greater Grand Theft Cyprus (tags)
class war
The BRIC - States: World Economy on a Silk Thread (tags)
In 2013 for the first time since the beginning of European industrialization, the production volumes of the threshold- and developing countries will surpass the volumes of the triad. Sinking real investments is true for all `developed' countries.
Another Dismal Jobs Report (tags)
jobs
Growth Euphoria and Distribution Reality (tags)
The chasm between poor and rich opens even more. The uncoupling of growth and quality of life on one side and productivity and work volumes on the other side make clear that "business-as-usual" leads to growing problems. German GDP grew 300% with 20% fewer workers.
New BRICS Development Bank Announced (tags)
banking
End the WTO and the Stop the new wave of Free Trade Agreements (tags)
Call to action of the Indonesian People's Movement Against Neocolonialism-Imperialism toward Bali WTO Ministerial meeting on 3-6 of December 2013
class war
Remembering Rachel Corrie (tags)
Israel
Paul Ryan's At It Again (tags)
class war
A ‘mixed’ economy brought down Sandinistas; same danger exists for Venezuela (tags)
The question of who owns, controls and/or manages production and distribution is what will be decisive. Venezuela’s economy remains mostly in the hands of capitalists, and that represents a threat to the Bolivarian Revolution.
When Theory and Reality Diverge (tags)
Politics forces crises and prevents their ending every day by holding to its ideological blinders. The state is not a private household and spending cuts always strike back on other actors of the economy. When theory and reality diverge, the theory is wrong, not the reality.
"We need a new economic balance" (tags)
If the US removed the cap on social security taxes, public spirit and generational fairness would return to the states. At present, there is a cap at $106K. If you make $4 million, you only pay social security tax on the first $106K.
More Economic Straight Talk (tags)
class war
Spectacle of Irrationality (tags)
The bailout umbrella may establish a modern kind of feudal rule. The abdication of politics is one of the worst consequences of the financial crisis. Many politicians believe the market-radical nonsense that tax cuts finance themselves.
class war
Dissent, ethical human rights, to create 'thinking culture' for progress. (tags)
Dissent, shut down under neoliberalism, is taking New Zealand, prompted by the Chch earthquakes, from a 'stupid culture' to a 'thinking culture' to enable progress. I consider the global ethical human rights plan far superior to neolib.
Newspeak Rules: How Neoliberalism Explains the World (tags)
Originally positive terms were devalued in the last decades (social state became "welfare dictatorship") Social dislocations are charged to the impacted themselves. The scandal of poverty mutates to the scandal of the poor themselves.
jobs
Responding to financial crisis: are austerity and suffering inevitable? (tags)
Austerity in a recession is counter-productive. Lower taxes and lower wages mean lower demand, lower GDP, lower state revenue and higher unemployment.
Down with French military intervention in Mali! (tags)
Commencing on January 11, the French government launched a military intervention in Mali under the pretext of “saving” the country against an alleged imminent terrorist threat and in “response” to a request for aid by the “interim president” of the country. But for several months the present “socialist” government, in continuity with the previous Sarkozy government, has multiplied its diplomatic maneuvering, its pressuring on the Government of Mali and the material preparation of military forces to organize a military attack against insurgents in northern Mali .
US Economy: Troubled or All's Well? (tags)
economy
Vulgar Materialism: The Madness of Growth and the Casino (tags)
Renouncing on growth or tolerating a shriveling economy is hard. Greece is a shocking example. Many people cut down the last trees because they could not afford heating oil. Nature is the first victim in an economic crisis. Whole generations are traumatized.
Three Approaches to the Economic Crisis (tags)
Before 1980, wages, productivity, investments and production pushed one another and ensured general prosperity. After 1980 wages were dropped as a driving force of economic demand. Demand gaps were filled by consumer credits.
U.S. Cannot Tell Iran to Abandon its Nuclear Program (tags)
Interview conducted by Iranian journalist Kourosh Ziabari with Mark Vorpahl
VIDEO: "Occupy Movement and Economic Inequality" (tags)
Supporters of the “Occupy Movement” talked about the state and future of the movement. The Occupy Movement began in 2011 as a protest movement against social and economic inequality.
Barry Commoner (1917-2012) (tags)
The economic theory of socialism does not demand an unlimited growth. The capitalist agrarian economy and industry wear out the two exclusive sources of wealth: the earth and workers. Capitalist accumulation and the finite earth are in contradiction.
Never mind! IMF now says austerity mistakes don’t matter (tags)
IMF paper says damage wrought by austerity much greater than expected, but it should continue anyway.
New York Times Supports Austerity Harshness (tags)
class wa
Chavez
Fiscal Cliff Postmortems (tags)
class war
Flim Flam Fiscal Cliff Legislation (tags)
class war
Responsible Fiscal Cliff Resolution (tags)
class war
A Western Rebellion could ensure global ethical human rights 'bottom-line' for all. (tags)
Rebellion justified.The adoption of a human rights instrument by the UN General Assembly in Dec 2008 led to the Global Financial Crisis in 2009.Involving international h.rights law it strongly favored Devel Asia, incl China, over the West.
class war
Real-World Economics Review, December 2012 (tags)
The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing self-determination and creativity. Access could replace excess; enough cou9ld replace more. Qualitative growith could replace quantitative growth.
Navigating Egypt’s Revolutionary Crisis (tags)
As chaos again envelopes Egypt, the revolution is evolving in new directions, along contradictory and confusing channels. It’s tempting to immediately support the “opposition” to the Muslim Brotherhood’s apparent “power grab,” but the situation in Egypt is more complex. The recent events in Egypt are not simply signs of a healthy revolution, they include immediate dangers.
From Financial Crisis to Stagnation: An Interview with Thomas Palley (tags)
"The way economies are organized and function is significantly the product of social choices, not the product of nature. Over the past thirty years we (society) have embraced a set of economic ideas..."
Stagnation, not growth, is the norm for mature capitalism (tags)
The dynamics of a mature capitalist economy result in stagnation and financialization, creating deepening inequality.
In show of power, financiers impose will on Argentina’s Navy (tags)
Billionaire speculator buys bonds of indebted countries at pennies on the dollar and then uses every means possible to get them to pay him for the full value, regardless of the cost to those countries’ people.
Unconditional Basic Income is not a Wrong Way: Book Review (tags)
Every step at preventing poverty is also a step at strengthening consumer demand. Steps toward basic income can achieve that change of distribution demanded in the book.
Ideology and Morality: What the Financial Crisis teaches about functioning of democracy (tags)
Moralizing is a form of argumentation found in many ideologies and academic systems of thought.. State interventions, we were taught, are bad because they run counter to the objective laws of the market.. The market is a social institution that we interpret in different ways..
To Krugman, the increasing ideological blindness of German politicians can only be explained by their belief that "hard times must be the necessary punishment for earlier excesses." Krugman overlooks that the hard times and excesses do not concern the same people.
Barack Obama must stimulate the economy with state spending. The astonishing example of Europe could convince republicans who in the past blocked everything... The monetary policy of a central bank cannot replace fiscal policy,
Philippines: FDC clamor for the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill (tags)
Freedom of Information (FOI): A Key to Freedom from Debt and Economic Justice
On the Way to the Digital Society (tags)
The net must be understood for what it is: a marvelous creative space that forces us to question traditional norms and values, organizational forms and superficially accepted conditions to find new ways into the future.
The Cup (R)money passes us (tags)
Remember the neoliberalism of Reaganomics was an ideology that is carried out from America in Germany-with all its consequences from deregulation of the banking sector and the labor market and the change from the market economy to market society up to rule of the financial sector.
Grand Bargain Betrayal Coming (tags)
class war
Self-directed workers as a “cure for capitalism” (tags)
Employees themselves should make the decisions concerning the business. They can consider a far wider set of issues and concerns about adopting new technology, or any other strategic decision, thereby fully weighing the effects on themselves, their families and their communities.
Not so fast: The contradictions in China’s capitalist rise (tags)
Let’s not hold our breaths just yet — China is not nearly capable today of becoming the new capitalist center. Its military and economy are much too small.
The strength of the democrats is the folly and mean-spiritedness of republicans. Programs to support the economy were rejected every time with the sole goal of bad economic data. Romney/Ryan rely on the short memory of voters who blame only Obama for the faltering economy Obstructionism should be the issue.
Iran
Quietly, the IMF confesses that austerity does not work (tags)
Not that those who reap rewards from austerity will admit it, but the IMF’s own calculations show that austerity accelerates economic decline.
Freedom without Equality is Only Half Freedom (tags)
Social security guaranteed by welfare state institutions ensures security and freedom. Security is one of those resources that guarantees autonomy. Whoever can lead life free from anxiety is freer. Material privileges lead to a privileged access to power. Wealthy lobbies can buy laws today and normal citizens feel cut off.
Why Chavez Won BIG! A Comparison Between the Presidential Elections in the U.S. and Venezu (tags)
U.S. workers and those who are unemployed are frequently told that the current presidential elections are among the most important in this country’s history. With continuing high unemployment and underemployment, declining wages, and looming massive cuts to social programs that help workers, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, we are at a grave point regarding the direction of this country. However, the policies of both presidential candidates and their parties have perpetuated the devastating effects of the Great Recession for workers. Wall Street, the banks, the corporations, and the wealthy have been the beneficiaries of these policies while the only thing workers have received has been more sacrifices.
Banks, Bankers and Banksters (tags)
An unrestrained speculative capitalism emerged out of investment capitalism. New financing instruments are invented. Risks are trivialized or glossed over to soothe the population. Boundless indebtedness becomes the norm. The new age led to immediate profit eclipsing investment.
Is Capitalism Collapsing? (tags)
One of the causes for the obvious helplessness of the governments is that they function as simple receivers of orders of the financial industry. The financial industry has no interest in a policy that would make it liable for its inflicted disaster..
The Marcos’ Legacy of Fraudulent and Illegitimate Debts (tags)
AS THE NATION remembers today the declaration of Martial Law and the imposition of the Marcos fascist dictatorship 40 years ago — we recall not only the crimes and abuses, but the valiant struggles of our people to end the tyrannical regime.
agitate
Vancouver Canada has 23 community centers, some with swimming pools that can take your breath away. Learning from other cultures and countries is a sign of strength, not of weakness. Without a social contract we become wolves. Without public goods, the market economy fails.
Financing the Government: Romney Must Get the Message (tags)
The role of the state and the necessity of common action is a main theme in the political debate. Regulation ensures the same rules for everyone in competition. Conservative politicians in the US underrate the importance of publically provided education, technology and infrastructure.
Neoliberalism was the Godfather of the Financial Industry (tags)
Keynesianism was replaced by neoliberalism that guided the fallow investment capital into speculation.The development of social systems and the rise of real wages contributed to social peace and stabilizing the economic upswing by strengthening mass consumption.
class war
class war
The economic crisis, the massive indebtedness of the country and Obama's election have radicalized politics and voters. Ryan's budget proposal was recently described as a fairy tale that would in no way stop the economic decline. Others call his plan a joke.
VIDEO: "The Servant Economy" - Jeff Faux (tags)
Propaganda from the right has blown away cooperation. Since Reagan, the future has disappeared from American politics. The idea of planning for the future was embedded in the New Deal and lost completely with Reagan. Reagan photoshoped the future.
There is no democracy without economic democracy (tags)
Cooperatives would not have stratospheric executive pay or financiers getting fat by skimming off a large share of the pie — without the need to produce excess profits, the result would be reduced work hours, higher pay and more left over for investment and taxes to pay for social services.
Right to Rent and Social State as Prosperity Motor (tags)
The Scandinavian countries show that more social equality can be combined with more education and economic growth and less unemployment and poverty. Humanity is rich when wealth is shared.
On the Solutions of Liberal Economists (tags)
The crisis has shaken economics to its foundations. The neoliberal mainstream has lost its support; economists alternate between self-doubt and arrogance. Once they believed in the rationality of economic actors and markets and the notion that financial management exists to serve the real economy.
The state became indebted to bailout the banks. Now the state pays them ever higher interests. The state should guarantee the deposits of small savers, not the debts of banks to other banks or hedge funds. The financial sector must be shriveled, the sector that uncoupled.
"The barbaric core of capitalist socialization is on full display in the present system crisis. The propagandists of totalitarian economism come in the mask of democrats. Economic-profitability thinking is imposed on society. Our society has long been viewed as a business."
The Capitalism of Hopelessness (tags)
Regulated capitalism reached its peak in the class compromise of the 1960s when representatives of workers could put the screws on the steamroller CEOs a little. The enemy and dynamic are lost to capitalism. Capitalism flows into a society without utopia and alternative.
Repaired Shoes or New Shoes (tags)
The economy demonstrates-in the Marxist sense-its primacy over politics. Whose interests are realized? New holes opened up after every bailout action in the last four years. Greece is only the tip of the iceberg. The debtor is not to blame for the disaster.
Austerity Hastens Economic Decline (tags)
class war
Full-Scale War in Syria (tags)
Syria
Out of the Slump: The Only Road (tags)
A real analysis of the United State’s economic history is rarely discussed by politicians or media alike, since the conclusions that would be inevitably drawn would be out of step with what politicians are currently advocating.
Democracy in Crisis: The Terror of the Economy is a Danger to Democracy (tags)
There is a powerful crisis dynamic that is stronger than the will of the sovereign and its democratic institutions. When capital relations fall into crisis, everything can be instrumentalized: the basic law, democracy, human rights and human life. Economic pressure creates extremism of middle.
Why Washington Accepts Mass Unemployment (tags)
The Fed is more worried about inflation than mass unemployment. Maybe the guaranteed basic income and/or community centers are the antidotes to elite failures and market failures. Vancouver BC has 23 community centers that have a multiplier and cushioning effect.
Illegitimate Sanctions on Iran (tags)
anti-war
class war
Fidel Castro: Absolved by History! (tags)
Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has been absolved by history, writes Nicolas Mottas on the 59th anniversary of the Moncada barracks attack.
Research as the Commons: Elinor Ostrom (tags)
Elinor Ostrom was well-known in 2009 when she was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for economics. In her analysis of governance of the commons, she put in question the past economic model that common goods can only be managed successfully by the market or the state.
PHILIPPINES: Much has been won; much still to be fought for (tags)
Akbayan on President Aquino’s 3rd State of the Nation Address
US retail sales figures slip again, showing decrease for third straight month (tags)
The road to recovery, as they might be saying on the campaign trail, is a hard one and expecting a sudden change in fortunes is fool hardy. Ever since the global financial crash in 2008, governments, political leaders and all sorts of economic and financial wunderkinds have been struggling to recover, the bite being still as wicked as before.
World Economies on Life Support (tags)
class war
New Economic Thinking - Turning Away from the Market Fetish (tags)
"New economic thinking" rejects the view of the person as "homo oeconomicus" reduced to maximization of individual benefits and offers a more comprehensive and realistic concept in which justice, norms, routines and emotions appear. "Homo recipocans" is an alternative.
America's Left and Romney's Economic Agenda (tags)
Axel-Fair Schulz is a professor of political science at the State University of New York, Potsdam.
Dismal Jobs Report Reflects Economic Decline (tags)
class war
RI Regains Mexican Presidency (tags)
Mexico
Groups urge world leaders to reject “Green Economy” in Rio+20 summit (tags)
MANILA, Philippines - Various cause-oriented groups warned the Philippine delegation and world leaders attending the three-day United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil not to fall into the trap of believing that the proposed "Green Economy" is "a tool and mechanism for sustainable development."
Heading for Economic Collapse (tags)
class war
class war
Rio+20: Asian Movements’ Statement on the Green Economy (tags)
We are movements and organizations from Asia, waging struggles on various fronts and arenas to defend our rights, resist policies and projects that cause harm and destruction, and to fight for immediate priorities and demands, as well as profound transformation of our societies. Fight for Our Future! No Price on Nature!
Economic Policy, the Schwabian Housewife and Francois Hollande (tags)
"What is rational for individuals leads collectively into a cul-de-sac.. The fundamental error is that economic policy believes the crisis can be fought with the logic of a family budget. For that reason, the collapse of the euro zone threatens." France goes a different way than Italy and Spain.
Contagion Affects Europe (tags)
Class war
Palestinian Hunger Strikes Continue (tags)
Israel
"A seeming consensus among economists can virtually force the shaping of political opinions.. For 30 years, neoliberalism marginalized all other schools, above all Keynesianism - and all of us hit a brick wall.."
Crisis Economic Conditions (tags)
class war
In the Towrope of the Financial Markets (tags)
"High growth has a well-known hook. Surpluses are only possible when natural resources from clear water to rare earth are available, when the energy supply is guaranteed and when the pollutant sinks are sufficient.. The debtors are now those states that had to become indebted.."
Presidential Candidate Stewart Alexander Deciphers Latest Jobs Report (tags)
The Socialist Party USA Presidential Candidate Stewart Alexander says that the most recent jobs report represents the bankruptcy of Obama’s economic policy.
Looming Economic Realities (tags)
class war
Bankers, Hear the Signals! (tags)
The people may freely elect their governors. But the game ends whenever they want to force a redistribution of social wealth-even if the economic system only functions with redistribution. Democracy is social action, not a gift or a state (of rest).
Greece Reflects Growing Economic Turmoil (tags)
class war
The Loss of Respect of the Economic Elite is Enormous (tags)
The embedding of the market and the economy in the civil society is the challenge of the 21st century. Tax shelters or havens must be closed. The wealthiest 400 Americans have more wealth than 150 million people. Time for Plan B, alternative economics and reduced working hours!
Economist criticizes "pathological allegience" to economic models (tags)
The crisis was born when Maggie Thatcher and then Bill Clinton deregulated the financial markets. The explosive force that was detonated was incalculable. Economics gave support because it provides models.
The Banks Should Serve the Real Economy (tags)
Democracy, risk and liability are turned upside down when trillions bailout the banks and workers, unemployed and pensioners must pay the bill! We live from those who say No to trivialization of crisis, to the state being reduced to a trough or errand boy for the banks (Bill Moyers). The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity.
Predatory Capitalism Failed (tags)
class war
Democracy, risk and liability are turned upside down when trillions bailout the banks and workers, pensioners and unemployed must pay the bill. We live from those who say No to corruption, to the state reduced to a trough or errand boy for the banks (Bill Moyers).
Ann Romney, Working Mom? (tags)
It's not that Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life; it's that she's never HAD to work a day in her life. Ann Romney, like her husband Mitt, have been insulated from the day-to-day struggle to make a living most of us have to deal with. Like Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, they soar above the country they would lead, andin the era of the Occupy movement and the huge number of Americans who are shocked, shocked! to find that 1 percent of the population actually controls half the nation’s wealth and income, the Republicans have added insult to injury by anointing a candidate not only of the 1 percent but the 0.1 percent at the top of the top.
Cooperatives and the Good Life (tags)
The rights of businesses in exploiting resources end in the rights of nature according to the constitution of the bien vivir. This understanding of the person-nature relation surpasses the rationalist model of rule over nature realized in capitalism's globalized praxis. Art 395 of Ecuador's constitution affirms sustainability.
Group of Six shutdown Wells Fargo (tags)
April 10th was a warm sunny Tuesday and exceptionally busy in downtown riverside. Walking through the main st. mall adjacent to the mission inn with men and woman in suits meeting for business lunches all seemed to be normal. However Refund California Coalition an economic justice organization, paired with group of UCR students and Occupy Riverside organizers, began to setup signs and a microphone with the Gandhi statue overlooking. People in the mall began to turn their heads in curiosity, the conversation had started.
class war
class war
class war
The great austerity war (tags)
The great austerity war: what caused the US deficit crisis and who should pay to fix it? The right-wing coalition has been so successful over recent decades that the long-run challenges facing the country today are daunting.
A letter to Katha Pollitt of The Nation Magazine (tags)
A letter to Katha Pollitt of The Nation Magazine
The Keynesian past is past: Nostalgia is not the future (tags)
Keynesianism would be much better than austerity, but would do nothing to solve the underlying structural crisis of capitalism.
The Systemic Causes of the Crisis (tags)
The crisis is 30 years old, not 4 years old. The causes of the crisis can be found in the real goods-producing economy, not in the financial markets. The wildly proliferating financial markets did not drag the industry into crisis but kept alive the industry through credit-financed demand.
In the crisis, there was a paradigm based on the belief in unlimited economic growth on a planet with infinite resources. This paradigm identifies happiness with wealth, well-being with accumulation of material goods and progress with consumerism.
What is the Origin of Wealth? (tags)
"Europe faces the choice of falling apart in the crisis or taking steps to another economic model," 50 scholars from the advisory board of Attac Germany declared. They make the connection between the chaos of the financial markets and the scandalous distribution of wealth
class war
Medrciless Samaritans and 10 Causes of the Crisis (tags)
"There is no society. There are only individual men and women," said Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, had a great share in the crisis in which Europe, capitalism and democracy find themselves.
Readying the Greek Corpse for Burial (tags)
class war
To give a credit to a customer, a bank doesn't need to take the savings of another cutomer from its vaults. It creates the money out of nothing. In a countermove, the bank must deposit money with the central bank. There is a debate whether the creation of money can be left to the banks.
Remembering Garda Ghista (tags)
activism
The Error is in the System (tags)
The financial crisis mutated into a global economic crisis and a state debt crisis. The financial crisis was not a "bump in the road" or an industrial accident but a systemic and structural crisis that caused $11 trillion of wealth to vanish while millions lost their jobs. homes and pension
PLM Statement on increased US military presence in the Philippines (tags)
PLM Calls for an Independent Foreign Policy and a Non-Aligned ASEAN
Deepening Greek Tragedy (tags)
class war
Economics' sharpest critics regard it as an auxiliary science of astrology, a sect that sings its same little song. Classical authors like John Kenneth Galbraith are finally rediscovered. Exactness is impossible. The coming generation should be protected from mono-cultural ideology
The Invisible Hand Doesn't Help Any More (tags)
Neoclassicism starts from the assumpti8ons that people always act rationally and market processes always lead to optimal results on account of the price mechanism. The market fails. Its view of the person as Homo oeconomicus must be replaced by the Homo cooperativus.
Financial Oligarch Power Raping Greece (tags)
class war
The Rule of Supply-Side Economists (tags)
Supply-side economists dominate wherever one looks in politics, economics and the media. That wages and salaries are not onl.y costs but also demand usually doesn't interest supply-side economists.
Wall Street Excess and Main Street Distress: the Apple Connection (tags)
Apple’s march to market supremacy has been accomplished at tremendous cost to both American and Chinese workers
Dominant Economy Pretends Its Breakdown Was Unforeseeable (tags)
The consensus of the past two decades on how the macro-economy functions is shattered. The breakdown of the dominant economy is a consequence of the financial crisis, the "great shock."
On Protest and the "Occupy"-Movement (tags)
National economies are now subject to the pressures of this supra-national financial "market" and to the institutions helpful to this market like the IMF and the European Central Bank. "Bailout umbrellas" at the expense of the common taxpayer are opened up.
The core of all western-individualist ideas of justice is the principle of personal responsibility. Everyone is responsible for the consequences of his/her actions. This motivates as well as disciplines. "We punish the virtuous and reward the squanderers."
Forecasting Economic Decline (tags)
class war
Obama's Failed State of the Union (tags)
Obama
Whistling Past the Graveyard (tags)
class war
So much crisis was never analyzed with a crisis-conditioned satisfaction guarantee! Instead of seeking culprits, we must seek the systemic causes of the indebtedness dynamic. These gigantic debt mountains were necessary to keep capitalism functioning. Fewer and fewer workers can producer more and more goods in an ever-shorter time.
Justice Before Efficiency (tags)
The market economy must be bound to the principles of a fully-developed civil society. More is involved than a belated redistribution. A citizen is basically a social being. To overcome feudalism, precedence must be given to human- and civil rights over the power based on property.
BTL:Without Public Policy Change, America Headed for Increased Racial Inequality (tags)
Interview with Dedrick Muhammad, senior director of the economic department at the NAACP and co-author of the report, “State of the Dream 2012: The Emerging Majority", conducted by Scott Harris
The New Normal: Economic Weakness and Decline (tags)
class war
The Financial System as a Parasite of the Economic System (tags)
In the global tax competition over tax revenues collapsing worldwide, states are run by a global financial and banking system and made into debtors. The factors taxes and labor are effectively marginalized as mere costs to be shifted. Taxes and labor (straw) are transformed into gold.
The Laffer Curve
Ongoing Global Economic Crisis (tags)
class war
Rising Economic Inequality Provokes Search for Practical, Democratic Alternatives (tags)
Interview with Gar Alperovitz, Lionel R. Bauman professor of political economy at the University of Maryland , conducted by Scott Harris
Repeal NAFTA/WTO is Ron Paul’s Answer to Undocumented Immigration & Domestic Job Losse (tags)
Part of promoting non-interventionist foreign policy is allowing for foreign nations to have self-determination and autonomy in their own economy. The greatest limiting factor to achieving democracy and self-determination in any nation is an unstable economy caused by unequal trade laws. This inequality between trade partners can occur because of different resource qualities or quantities or as a result of trade agreements that benefit one nation above another.
Raul Zelik and Elmar Altvater discuss the nature of utopia, economics, how growth and work become fetishes, how what is rational in micro-economics can become irrational in macro-economics, time prosperity and how Marx recognized the contradictions in capitalism.
Grim 2012 Economic Outlook (tags)
class war
Why America's 99% have rebelled (tags)
They sign their messages, ‘I am the 99%’. Tthe message of the site is immediately clear: while our society’s richest one per cent enjoys a hugely disproportionate share of wealth and income, the economy has left the vast majority of us behind.
Global Economic Tremors (tags)
class war
Banker Occupation and Europain (tags)
class war
Beyond the Homo Economicus (tags)
The Homo economicus is a kind of calculating machine on two legs that incessantly calculates personal benefits and profit. His conduct follows the model of rational expectations. Incursions of the state will make possible more social equality.
Wrecking Europe to Fix It (tags)
class war
The Crisis, Trust and Homeowners (tags)
Capitalism cannot function any more without credit-financed debt on account of its increasing productivity. The recession will come because the indebtedness-dynamic can hardly be maintained with which the capitalist zombie-economy is kept alive in its pseudo-life.
Learning from Roosevelt (tags)
Harry Hopkins, head of WPA under Roosevelt, created 4 million jobs in 2 months. How many jobs in health care, education, bridge repair, community centers and journalism could be created today? Solutions are not lacking, only political will. Viva sharing and redistribution!
Election 2012: Unemployment Drop a Sham According to Socialist Party Ticket (tags)
The Alexander/Mendoza campaign calls for a real jobs program, as well as protecting public sector jobs which have been faltering since the economic crisis began. They say that spending billions of dollars on incentives for businesses doesn’t get the job done – rather they call for the government to create jobs directly.
CELAC: A Washington-Controlled OAS Alternative (tags)
Latin America
Las Vegans speak out against expensive SNWA pipeline project (tags)
Anyone who wishes to comment to the Nevada State Engineer to protest the SNWA pipeline project and help protect endemic spring snails from extinction can do so today on this website link. The SNWA pipeline has been described as an economic stimulus plan for developers at the expense of ratepayers, rural people and spring fed ecosystems.
Economics could be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing self-determination and creativity. Economics changes with the times. Once saving was the elixir and then spending was the elixir. Frank Rotering in "Needs and Limits" discusses "ecological overshoot."
Criticism of Economists (tags)
Economists with their models could predict the values of economic variables but did not foresee the greatest worldwide economic crisis in 80 years. Mechanical-deterministic neoclassicism is a self-contained theoretical model offering simple answers.
Urgent Call To Save the Occupation: Stay Up All Night (tags)
Occupiers call for all-night block party and vigil tonight to save the Occupation
BTL:European Economic Crisis, Austerity Measures, Resistance Portend Future of U.S. Econom (tags)
Interview with Richard Wolff, economics professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, now visiting professor at the New School University's graduate program in international affairs, conducted by Scott Harris
Neoliberalism as Greatest Error in the History of Economic Thought (tags)
Efficiency and prosperity can only be realized on capitalist markets when the economic system is bound in a social order under the primacy of politics. Democratic legitimated politics and the provision of public goods is derived from the "anatomy of market failure."
Beyond Possessive Individualism (tags)
Shrinking the financial sector and abandoning neoliberal myths are vital to prevent the next crisis. The authors, German Young Socialists in their 30s, decry the myths that incomes are just, self-interest leads to public interest and economics and politics are separate.
Eurozone Doomsayer Got it Right (tags)
economy
National Human Rights Conference Comes to Los Angeles (tags)
Conference Moved from GA in Solidarity with Just Immigration Policies
Election 2012- Stewart Alexander Calls for an End to Attacks on Occupy Movement (tags)
Presidential Candidate Alexander says “Remember well who is behind these assaults on you; these are the men and women who are bought and sold like commodities by corporations. These are not just Republican officials, but also the Democratic Party that are assaulting your rights to free speech. Your calls for social and economic justice do not sit well with their owners. When the Democrats try to sweet talk you into believing they support the 99%: forget their words and remember their actions.”
Book Review: "The Great Crash or the Century Crisis" by Elmar Altvater (tags)
Capitalism is at an end and the whole world is drawn into the mess. Preventing this is an ethical imperative and a political duty. The multiple crisis has dragged on for years. The political class allows this to happen. Political answers to the debacle can only be found with clarity on causes.
The Future of the Social State (tags)
The extended family as a kind of "self-help group" replaces the social state in the backward-oriented utopia of liberal-conservatism. Nothing hurts families more than the "rebuilding" or dismantling of the social state and the marketing of interpersonal relations.
Kicking the Cannes Down the Road (tags)
economy
The One Percent Turns Class War into Generational War (tags)
The cost of making social security solvent for 75 years amounts to 0.58% of the GDP. The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars amount to three times as much. The cost of transferring wealth to the top 1% over the past thirty years is 6% of the GDP or 10 times as much as social security cost.
Seven Billion ... And Rising (tags)
The world’s population surpassed 7 billion on October 31. But except for perhaps the anti-family planning lobby, this was a milestone that few were in a mood to celebrate.
U.S Election 2012: Alexander and Mendoza Gives Perspective on US Jobs Situation (tags)
“We aren’t making economic progress,” says Stewart Alexander, Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party USA, “we are simply going through a long term process of replacing poorly paying jobs with even worse jobs while corporate profits soar. The only ‘change’ Obama has given us jingles in our pockets.”
A Warning To The Economic And Political Elites: Listen Now (tags)
.... this is the beginning of an American revolt. Before considering occupation, we tried other avenues: elections, lobbying, petitioning, email campaigns, telephone campaigns, marches, rallies -- but they were ineffective..... We know that decades of the expansion of corporate power will not be undone with one occupation. Plans are being made by some of us to move "Beyond Occupation" to the next steps of building a movement that represents all Americans.....
Dissing Europe's Flawed Bailout Scheme (tags)
class war
Critical thinking and cultural shock have the power to turn the world upside down (like Jesus' parables and zen koans). Trivializing structural/systemic economic problems as motivational, psychological, bumps in the road or industrial accidents is a perversion.
Stand for Socialism against Modern Revisionism (tags)
Revisionism is the systematic revision of and deviation from Marxism, the basic revolutionary principles of the proletariat laid down by Marx and Engels and further developed by the series of thinkers and leaders in socialist revolution and construction. The revisionists call themselves Marxists, even claim to make an updated and creative application of Marxism but they do so essentially to sugarcoat the bourgeois antiproletarian and anti-Marxist ideas that they propagate.
Global Economic Crisis Deepens (tags)
economy
Occupy Wall Street and its sister movements, including Occupy San Diego, have dramatically changed the terms of political and economic debate in the U.S. Before they arose, it looked like the only choices the American people would be given to understand the disaster that has befallen them in this nation's economic collapse was the mild pro-corporatism of the Democratic Party and the ardent, Ayn Randian pro-corporatism of the Republicans and the Tea Party. What's more, so far the Occupy protesters have shown an ability to learn from the Left's past mistakes, pattern their movement after the American Revolution (as the Tea Party did) and junk the hideously unworkable process of consensus decision-making.
economy
The Struggle for the Commons (tags)
"The commons is an old value that?s resurfacing as a fresh approach to twenty-first-century crises such as escalating economic inequality, looming ecological disruption and worsening social alienation."
BTL:Grim Economic Data Illustrate the Severe Decline of America's Middle Class (tags)
Interview with Andy Kroll, Mother Jones Magazine reporter and associate editor at TomDispatch.com, conducted by Scott Harris
Six Proposals for Helping the 99% (tags)
Solidarity, social justice and sharing open doors while tax cuts for the super-rich only lead to exploding inequality. double standards and cynicism. Access could replace excess. The empire could be superseded by the republic.
Common Welfare Economy: An economic model for the future (tags)
The Common Welfare Economy provides an economic systemic alternative to the free market as well as to the centrally planned economy, a completely different way and partly also a synthesis from both major historical concepts.
The crisis is 30 years old, not three years old. The causes of the crisis should be tracked down in the real goods-producing economy, not in the financial markets. The financial markets were keep alive up to the collapse of the speculative bubble by credit-financed demand.
economy
Some further thoughts on the OWS movement (tags)
I have been following the Occupy Wall Street developments with interest because ultimately I consider the only reasonable way entrenched elites become unseated is if there is mass action by citizens. I do not think military coups are a very sound way to lay the groundwork for grassroots
We Pay for Their Crisis (tags)
Making a game sound appealing whose frauds are obvious is increasingly hard for the governments. The neoliberal vision was always a society of the asocial. The categorical imperative of neoliberalism was always an open and cynical attack on the working class.
Learning Nothing in 80 Years (tags)
The crisis began in the US where the government became heavily indebted after September 11, 2001 in the war against terror and where property owners, banks and hedge funds long lived openly on credit. The German government was laughed at when it prohibited short-selling in 2010
Underway to Plutocracy: Financial Crisis (tags)
No promise of salvation can be imputed to capitalism any more.. The market is regarded as a natural law and power of fate. Nothing but Darwinism was left of the liberals' hope for progress. That Darwinism rejoices in the survival of the fittest and the sorting out of weaker debtors.
The Economy Sinks in a Deep Crisis of Meaning (tags)
Economists are compared with astrologers and mocked as crystal-ball readers because they are frequently way off the mark with their growth forecasts. Economists have not learned the great lessons. Mainstream economy entrenched itself behind a model world and often faded out reality.
Chabil Utzaj, economic momentum with social responsibility (tags)
The reactivation of Chabil Utzaj, as a sustainable sugar project, is a great opportunity for Valle de Polochic not only because it constitutes an important pole of development for a rural area with high poverty rates in Guatemala, but also because of its respect for the fundamental rights of the inhabitants of the area, its commitment to the protection of the environment and compliance with the legal framework of the country.
BTL:Is the Wall Street Occupation a Spark that Can Ignite a New U.S. Economic Justice Move (tags)
Interview with Chris Hedges, author of "The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress", conducted by Scott Harris
Imploding Bubble Economies (tags)
economy
Stagnation as a Trend-Life with Satiated Markets, Stagnating Economies and Reduced Work (tags)
45 years ago JKGalbraith was shocked at the public squalor alongside private affluence. In 2008-10 trillions were given to banks and Wall St. so private losses became public losses. By relieving corporations of taxes, neoliberal supply side strategy worsens growth and employment.
Economic Leadership and direction (tags)
economic plan
Video: Understanding the Financial Crisis (tags)
Distorted incentives drove the failure of risk management. There was an evaporization of trust in 2008. In September, Lehmann Brothers and AIG went bankrupt.
The Capitalism of Hopelessness (tags)
The capitalism of hopelessness is a capitalism where the enemy is lost, where capitalism can no longer fulfill its promise of prosperity for the people as in the 1960s and where capitalism neutralizes all utopian energy and alternatives. Public jobs must be created in the emergency.
Hard Times Getting Harder (tags)
economy
The magical world of voodoo 'economists' (tags)
It?s not just the 21st century they want to turn the clock back on ? health-care reform, global warming and the financial regulations passed in the wake of the recent financial crises and accounting scandals.
Stand for Socialism against Modern Revisionism (tags)
Revisionism is the systematic revision of and deviation from Marxism, the basic revolutionary principles of the proletariat laid down by Marx and Engels and further developed by the series of thinkers and leaders in socialist revolution and construction. The revisionists call themselves Marxists, even claim to make an updated and creative application of Marxism but they do so essentially to sugarcoat the bourgeois antiproletarian and anti-Marxist ideas that they propagate.
Stand for Socialism against Modern Revisionism (tags)
Revisionism is the systematic revision of and deviation from Marxism, the basic revolutionary principles of the proletariat laid down by Marx and Engels and further developed by the series of thinkers and leaders in socialist revolution and construction. The revisionists call themselves Marxists, even claim to make an updated and creative application of Marxism but they do so essentially to sugarcoat the bourgeois antiproletarian and anti-Marxist ideas that they propagate.
Our economic system has no future (tags)
A sustainable future requires facing the realities of waste and speculation. The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-determination. The economy should serve humankind, not vice versa.
economy
Politics in the Crisis Trap (tags)
A discontinuance of debt-financed economic programs leads to an economic slack period resulting in stagnation and recession. Crisis policy finds itself in a philosophical paradox. The political class can only choose between more indebtedness up to state bankruptcy (with hyper-inflation) or harsh austerity programs.
Libya: Coming Waste, Fraud, and Other Forms of Plunder on a Grand Scale (tags)
anti-war
Manifesto of Appalled Economists: The Shocked and the Outraged (tags)
Tax cuts for the super-rich and corporations promised economic growth and more jobs but produced exploding inequality and generalized insecurity. The US faces a revenue crisis and a war spending crisis. Tax cuts, wars and bailouts of banks and firms caused massive US deficit.
The Game with Ignorance and the Growth Panacea (tags)
A world wide economic and financial order decays to a pure end-in-itself and no longer serves people. A system build on an ideology in which everything-even the person-becomes a product is legitimated by apologists who trivialize derailments of social life as "normal."
economy
From the Debt Showdown into Recession (tags)
The scenario of an economic double-dip is very likely without additional economic measures. The budget cuts may bring about a recession. The republicans in Congress threaten to concoct an economic crisis if they are not allowed to cut spending. Our greatest problem is low spending.
Netanyahu Spurns Social Justice Demands (tags)
class war
class war
NDF-MINDANAO REAFFIRM COMMITMENT TO NDF-MILF ALLIANCE (tags)
The EPCC NEWS based in Los Angeles reported today that the NDF-Mindanao thru its spokesperson Jorge Madlos reaffirmed the rebel alliance with the MILF in the island of Mindanao. Madlos said that: ? The breaking of diplomatic protocol by the respective principals of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), for the sake of achieving a final peace settlement is admirable if only the outcome of their talks truly serve the best interest of the Moro and non-Moro peoples alike.? The NDF also said; ? Such an agreement must be based on the Moro people?s genuine right to self-determination, sovereignty, patrimony, and basic economic and political reforms that shall mainly benefit the long-suffering Bangsamoro.
The Greatest Depression (tags)
economy
economy
The US, the Debt Superpower (tags)
The state bailout of these gigantic real estate institutes, banks and insurances and the enormous economic package to get the crisis-weakened economy on its feet again is one of the essential causes of the present debt crisis. In two decades, $5.5 trillion was spent on a dozen wars.
Problems In the US Economy (tags)
We can propel our economy out of recession and quite easily. It is unfortunate all the doom and gloom in the media about the greatest economy ever created in the history of mankind. The US economy will soon surpass 20 Trillion Dollars per year,
economy
"There is an alternative to profit maximization" (tags)
The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-determination. The economy should be embedded in society; society should not be privatized and confiscated by the economy. The public sector must be expanded to create jobs.
Heading for Economic Ruin (tags)
class war
Political Washington Fiddles While Rome Burns (tags)
class war
THE ECONOMIC-POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE CORDILLERAS (tags)
A YEAR after the US-Aquino2 regime took power, the miserable situation in the Ilocos-Cordillera region mirrors the dismal state of the nation. From the impoverished tobacco and palay farmers in the Ilocos provinces to the indigenous people plowing hybrid corn fields, vegetable gardens and rice terraces in the Cordillera, the empty promises of the Aquino regime are reflected in the continuing violations and betrayal of the people?s right to land, livelihood and resources. The real boss of the Aquino administration turns out to be not the Filipino people, but US Imperialism as it furiously expands its economic interests as well as large scale corporate mines and geothermal and hydroelectric power projects in Northern Luzon and rams down the nation?s throat its Oplan Bayanihan (OPB), the so-called internal peace and security plan. It is these that exacerbate and continue to heighten the national oppression that reached ethnocidal proportion being suffered by indigenous people of the Cordillera and the Filipino people in general. Indeed, Aquino?s Daang Matuwid turns out to be no different from the substandard Halsema Highway with its erosions and slides, close-open status and serving mainly foreign interests in extracting super profits from the region?s resources. Oplan Bayanihan: Furthering the National Oppression of the Indigenous People Despite it?s deceptive psy-war features, Oplan Bayanihan (OPB) is fast showing up it?s true vicious character compared to its failed predecessor, Oplan Bantay Laya 1 & 2 of the unheralded and despicable US-Arroyo regime. The 5th IDPA and the NOLCOM of the AFP have overzealously applied its age-old imperialist master?s tactics of ?divide and rule? by exploiting indigenous social, economic and political systems in its counter-insurgency operations. They target not only combatants but more so innocent civilians including minors and the elderly. Coining nice sounding contraption to hide the harshness and vileness of Oplan Bayanihan does not succeed in erasing the notoriety of the AFP as armed units of the ruling class. Changing its notorious ?Reengineered Special Operations Teams? to ?Peace and Development Operations Teams?does not do the desired trick. It succeeds though in sowing intrigues and beclouding clear provisions of peace pact pagta where armed units (AFP/PNP and/or NPA) are not covered. Operating troops continue to quarter in schools, day-care centers, barangay halls and clinics, private homes and other public and sacred places contrary to clear provisions of CARHRIHL and Protocols of the Geneva Conventions. In many cases, families are broken up as a result of soldiers? womanizing. Young female students are also vulnerable to abuses especially where detachments are near schools. In one case, the whole tribesmen of a young lass have to be mobilized to demand accountability of the soldier?s tribes mate when a married soldier impregnated a young first year college student. Also drunken soldiers always spark troubles with youngsters even at the flimsiest of reasons.
Debts and a New Beginning (tags)
Problems don't disappear when they are ignored. Through deregulation, the law of profit maximization and government failure, the financial sector was expanded and made independent of the real economy. 14 million jobs could be created through the Internet.
Video: Michael Hudson on Democracy Now (tags)
Pushing Crisis: GOP Cries Wolf on Debt Ceiling in Order to Impose Radical Pro-Rich Agenda
Social and Economic Inequality in Israel (tags)
rights
On the Failure of the Mainstream Economy (tags)
The neoliberal mainstream economy and its political backers experienced their Waterloo with the most serious financial and economic crisis in eight decades. States bailed out banks and banks made money by lending back to states. A policy of reduced working hours is necessary.
The implications of China?s increasingly active role in multilateral Institutions (tags)
The implications for Asia Pacific security due to the active role and growing influence from the Peoples? Republic of China?s (PRC) approach to particular multilateral institutions are both economic and strategic. The PRC has also been active in several regional multilateral institutions such as the Asia Pacific Economic Community (APEC), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) but it is with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) where the PRC?s greatest multilateral engagement has been witnessed.
Kudos to Egypt for Ditching the IMF (tags)
From the beginning of the Arab Spring revolts, many progressive commentators have expressed concern that people in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia might win greater political freedoms but would have their nations? economic policies hijacked...
The Crisis of Financial Market Capitalism as a Challenge for the Left (tags)
The crisis of neoliberal financial market capitalism broke out in its center and has one central systemic cause. This crisis was triggered by the independence of the financial sphere... A solidarity mixed economy, democracy and peace are alternatives.
financial terrorism
BTL:Greeks Fight for Alternatives to Austerity Policies Provoking Economic Hardship (tags)
Interview with Peter G. Prontzos, professor of political science at Langara College, conducted by Scott Harris
PHILIPPINES: The Rough and Rugged Road toward Change (tags)
Akbayan Party?s Statement on the First Year of the Aquino Government
Working America's Dismal State (tags)
depression
Dismissively Ignoring Hard Times (tags)
depression
BTL:Widespread Protests Challenge Spain's Political and Economic Status Quo (tags)
Interview with Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine , conducted by Scott Harris
IMF Financial Terrorism (tags)
financial terrorism
Global Economic Crisis Deepening (tags)
Depression
Fukushima Mon Horreur - The Dream of Economic Reason Gives Birth to Tremendous Catastrophe (tags)
In "Anti-Duhring," Frederick Engels explained that nature also has a history and that capitalism tends to destroy its own foundations and nature. The negative is bound to the positive as conservation of energy is bound to transformation of energy.
Humala Wins Peru's Presidential Runoff (tags)
elections
Education of the Homo Oeconomicus (tags)
The school system should not only produce students with a narrowed economic view. Society consists of more than the sum of benefit-maximizing individuals.An economic system with fewer income differences, regulated financial markets and welfare state brings greater stability.
Public Banking: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (tags)
public banking
"Beyond Growth" congress in Berlin, May 20-22. 2011 (tags)
A "Beyond Growth" congress will be held in Berlin, May 20-22. 2011. The driving forces of growth, the limits of growth, the crisis of the work society, an economy beyond growth, justice and the globalized world, sharing and the good life will be discussed.
Developing a New Economic System (tags)
The stubborn Basel businessman Georg Hasler has a new economic system in mind. He joins two economic concepts that are often discussed these days: unconditional basic income and a radical change of property rights in ideas called free knowledge.
Economics as Brainwashing and Careerist Gets the Job (tags)
The self-regulating market and stgylizing all problems as exogenous, not endogenous are fatal myths as proven by Enron, Tepco, Citigroup and all corporate tax cheats. Can the real economy survive when financial profits amount to 40% of all profits? Viva economic learning!
Phantom Jobs and Economic Recovery in America (tags)
fake recovery
BTL:Economic and Political Power of Oil Industry Succeeds in Weakening Deep Water Drilling (tags)
Interview with Antonia Juhasz, author of "Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill" , conducted by Scott Harris
America's Terminal Decline (tags)
empire
We live on credit, shift costs and risks into the future and make possible a prosperity with the help of a policy of cheap money that is paid for by others. An interest-free money system would be a counter model to the growth pressure inherent in the present system.
Economic Recessions in America (tags)
The US economy, and for that matter the global economy, is a living, breathing thing. With that analogy in mind, we find that the comparison is closer than most of us would normally think.
Republicans Win Without a Shutdown (tags)
The first fight over the federal budget in 2011 is over, and the Republicans have won. For at least the past 30 years Republican ideas — that government is bad, that the private sector is always more efficient than the public sector, that wages and benefits need to be cut to make America's workers "competitive" with the rest of the world, and government spending needs to be cut even if it risks turning the current recession into a full-fledged depression — have ruled. Progressives need to understand the depth of the Republicans’ triumph in order to begin the task of reversing it.
Prosperity without Growth (tags)
Production cannot increase forever. For the developed economies of the western world, prosperity without growth is a necessity and not a utopian dream any more. See the links to five free Internet books..
imperialism
The U.S. is More Greek than Greece (tags)
Deficit economies were organized mainly by finance capital. The expansion of this credit-financed mass demand went along with the expansion of the financial sector. Trillions of dollars and Euros were pumped in the stabilization of financial markets.
Causes and Consequences of the Financial Crisis (tags)
The neoliberal restructuring and globalization of capitalism has led to states becoming the spoils of financial capital. The neoliberal program is enforced with the help of states. Governments only react to the conditions set by the economically powerful. This is the end of politics.
Bretton Woods 2.0: Soros New World Order Conference (tags)
new world order
Icelanders Vote on Predatory Bailout (tags)
bailouts
The financial crisis became an economic crisis and mutated into a state budget crisis when trillions were given to "system relevant" banks and private losses became public burdens. What is Plan B?How can the financial sector be shriveled? Can state banks (like NDakota) be a model?
Tepco is the End of the Market Economy (tags)
Tepco operated antiquated nuclear reactors and glossed over the hard of a meltdown. The Japanese government will probably nationalize the firm since it cannot pay a fraction of its liabilities. What lessons do we learn? Should the public sector be expanded? We are all Wisconsin
Weekly Demonstration Against Sleazy Banks (tags)
“We were trying to figure out a way to get The People interested in supporting the financial reform effort. We thought the main reason why people weren't talking about it was because they thought it had nothing to do with them or their daily lives. That's why we chose a focus on the foreclosure crisis--the economic collapse was caused by banks and financial institutions gambling on mortgages via Wall Street. . . ." -- Heather Meyer, organizer
The World Social Forum (Feb 6-11, 2011) (tags)
"Another world is possible," Susan George declared at Porto Alegre. 80,000 activists came to Dakar. The world has changed, not only through the financial crisis that showed the market often causes more problems than it solves. The WSF has become a source of hope for a just world.
Basic Income: The Way out of a Sick Society (tags)
Without the social contract, we become wolves to one another. Without the social contract, the state becomes a trough for the super-rich. Basic income could enable everyone to participate in social, economic and political life. Without vision, the people perish.
The Arab Revolutions and the Democratic Imagination (tags)
The Arab democratic uprisings have brought a rush of nostalgia to many people who staged their own democratic revolutions years earlier. As they watched events unfold in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Al Jazeera and CNN, that feeling of “all that is solid melting into thin air,” as Marx would have put it, returned to many of those who went to the barricades during the original People Power Revolution in the Philippines in 1986.
Stimulus Should Be Looking Pretty Good Right About Now (tags)
With states cutting budgets to the bond, we are seeing how painful the economic crisis is without federal funding to help soften the blow.
World March of Women in the Philippines (tags)
Today, women in the Philippines and all over the world gather in different places and spaces to show our collective strength and make our collective voice heard as we speak out our sufferings, challenges, triumphs and aspirations. Our voices are joined together as we resist the abuses and marginalization wrought upon us by economic policies that discriminate against giving women productive employment, just wages and benefits at the workplace, and opportunities for livelihood and income; by societies that allow, or even promote, violence to be committed against women with impunity; by governments and public institutions that turn a blind eye to the human rights of women.
The End of the Long 20th Century (tags)
The US no longer has the necessary financial means to maintain its worldwide military machine (which now drives the US deeper in indebtedness to the international financial markets). The failure of the Project for a New American Century shows the US has not succeeded in subjecting the world
Filipino Workers criticize shortcomings of EDSA 1 (tags)
The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and the anti-contractualization coalition KONTRA slammed the shortcomings of EDSA 1 in a symbolic mass action this afternoon. Scores of workers from PM and KONTRA assembled at the Ninoy Aquino monument at the corner of Timog and Quezon Avenues at around 5:30 pm.
The Shift of Power to the East and South (tags)
The shift of political and economic power from West to East and North to South and the rapid development of technological innovations have created a completely new reality..The claim of the US and Europe to being masters of the universe must be ended.
The word crisis describes a turning point where a decision about direction must be made. A dramatic turning point where business as usual is not an option does not correspond to our picture of an ordered world.
One Land, Two Economies (tags)
Economic prosperity and progress for the president are obviously synonymous with robustly higher profits for businessmen and stock speculators. The large majority of Americans must suffer more because the crisis is not over for them.
Tenants Deliver Valentine’s Day Message to Councilmember Wesson (tags)
Members of the L.A. Right to Housing Collective deliver valentine to Herb Wesson and demand that he move forward with the community's recommendations to reform rent control.
Manifesto of Appalled Economists (tags)
State debts may be caused more by reduced corporate tax revenues than excess spending. Through "location competition," corporations play off state and countries and harvest tax write-offs and sweetheart-assessments. Through "state capture," the state becomes a trough.
Economists Rediscover the Distrribution Question (tags)
Higher taxes for the rich-traditionally a horror to liberal economists-appear in a new light as state transfers to poorer sectors. Those richer than 95% pocket around 20% of the total income. It was less than half as much at the end of the 70s.
Who is the Real Opposition in Egypt? (tags)
The revolution in Egypt erupted like all revolutions do, from the bottom up. It was unemployment and high food prices that propelled working and poor people into action. Now, the media reports that the "opposition” in Egypt is a group of well-to-do folks who have very little in common with the poor of Egypt. This top down takeover of the revolution is being engineered with the support of the U.S. and European nations, the same allies of the dictatorship that lasted three decades. If this elite group of Egyptians manages to gain power, they'll soon find themselves confronted with the real opposition of Egypt, the overwhelming majority of working and poor people.
imperialism
After Mubarak: What's Next? (tags)
revolution
America after the Attempted Assasination (tags)
For three decades, incomes and assets were increasingly unequally distributed in the US. While economic output increased 60% from 1990-2008, median income only rose 10%. All governments since Reagan's first term drove this development with their tax cuts, subsidies and neglect of educ.
Link to 576-page Final Report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (tags)
Happy reading! The truth will still make some of us free!
BTL:Anti-Abortion Bills High on New GOP-Controlled House Agenda (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES - A four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcast Award for Best Feature in the non-commercial category, this syndicated, half-hour program provides a platform for individuals and spokespersons from progressive organizations generally ignored or marginalized by the mainstream media. Between the Lines covers a wide range of political, economic and social topics.
Mass Street Protests in Egypt (tags)
liberation protests
Economic Turmoil in 2011 (tags)
economic trouble
The End of the "Golden Age" of Capitalism and the Rise of Neoliberalism (tags)
"The central point is that the financial sphere has the potential of developing into an autonomous subsystem of the whole economy with an enormous capacity of self-expansion..Like cancer, it has no internal control mechanism. It can only be brought under control by external interventions"
The Logic of Imperial Insanity and the Road to World War III plus many mirrors (tags)
"Obama wasted no time in rapidly accelerating America’s imperial adventures. While dropping the term “War on Terror” from usage, the Pentagon adopted the term, “overseas contingency operations.”[4] This was to be the typical strategy of the Obama administration: change the appearance, not the substance. The name was changed, but the “War on Terror” remained, and not only that, it was rapidly accelerated to a level that would not have been possible if undertaken by the previous administration."
BTL:Obama's Staff Shake-Up Signals Less Hope, Less Change (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES - A four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcast Award for Best Feature in the non-commercial category, this syndicated, half-hour program provides a platform for individuals and spokespersons from progressive organizations generally ignored or marginalized by the mainstream media. Between the Lines covers a wide range of political, economic and social topics.
Obama's New Chief of Staff and Economic Team (tags)
Wall Street dominated
Free Internet Book: "Needs and Limits" (tags)
"The logic of capitalism must be replaced to address the crisis of ecological overshoot and to achieve a sustainable well-being."
The history of the crisis of the western world that we all experience more or less consciously or unconsciously (or partly ignore) is a history of boundless lobbylism, political corruption, market fetishism and unbroken faith in growth..Economic theories were and are children of their time.
The U.S. social and economic landscape is rapidly changing. Inequalities in wealth, which began an upward ascent back in the 1980s, accelerated in the 1990s. Now they are flying off the charts, thanks first to the tax cuts ushered in by Bush II and second to Obama’s recent continuation of those tax cuts, plus more, which have the effect of taking from the working class and poor in order to give to the rich.
True and False Causes of the Financial Crisis (tags)
If we can produce enough for all in superfluity-and we are already technically in this position-why must the whole enormous social wealth be squeezed through the needle of buying and selling, money, profit and growth? We all deserve something better than capitalist crisis economy.
Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (tags)
The Commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress has been created at the beginning of 2008 on French government's initiative.
Rising Poverty in America and Israel (tags)
mostly unreported
New Numbers for Progress: Alternative Growth (tags)
The GDP measures the wrong things and conceals destruction of the environment, unhappiness and injustice. Politics tries to force up the gross domestic product. But what if this standard does not measure the right things and leads to a misguided policy?
The Silence of Economists (tags)
In 1936 Keynes was the first established economist who explained how a free enterprise system in no way realized a state of balance by itself. The state must take an active role in crisis times to prevent an economic downswing ending in a catastrophe.
The Dictatorship of America's Aristocracy (tags)
Obama's betrayal
Corporate Media's Version of Economic Justice (tags)
middle class destructions
Seven Reasons Why the Economy Can't Recover (tags)
As the recession grinds on, politicians in most industrial countries have an incentive to make exaggerated claims about the supposed coming economic recovery. Some say the recession is over. Obama is in the group that claims we're on "the road to recovery,” while other nations can only spot recovery "on the horizon.” Below are seven important social phenomena that point to a more realistic economic and political outlook. 1) Central Banks are Dumbfounded. The usual tricks that U.S. and European central banks use to avoid recessions are long-exhausted. Interest rates cannot get any lower. And because cheap money wasn't working, the printing press was turned up a notch, into what the U.S. federal reserve calls quantitative easing -- injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the world economy, escalating an emerging trade war.
Economics is not a Science (tags)
"Observations are central in a subject like economics where experiments are not possible.. Mathematics is misused to transport a certain ideology, the neoclassical theory of the market.. Capitalist crisis phenomena have made a fool of the harmony theory of the market.."
The November 2 midterm elections were not only a decisive rejection not only of the Obama administration but a full-scale endorsement of free-market economic policies and lassiez-faire capitalism — albeit by a much smaller segment of the American electorate than voted Obama and the Democrats into power in 2008. Millions of Americans voted against the party under whose watch unemployment has risen from 6.2 to 9.5 percent, and bought into the Republicans' critique that the reason for Obama's failure is he's been too much of a progressive, unduly burdening the private sector with regulation and taxation. Thanks to talk radio and Fox News, millions of Americans profoundly believe that Obama and the Democrats are far more radical than they are — and as long as they remain on the air and have their current level of influence, U.S. politics will continue to move even further Right.
Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility (tags)
harmful incarceration
Unconditional Basic Income - More than a Social-Political Concept (tags)
"Revolutions are very hard.. Sometimes holding fast to old structures will lead to the abyss. Then very high risks of a new beginning will be accepted to escape the far worse consequences of the collapse of the old structures." Basic income would prevent death from starvation.
The KPFA/KPFK/Pacifica NPR Evening News (tags)
One segment on the Tuesday broadcast demonstrates the ongoing disconnect between the news staff and some station staffers and the political and economic reality that Obama has brought us and make many ask why contribute to a second NPR.
Worldwide Economic Crisis 2.0 or the Collapse of Neoliberal Finance Capitalism (tags)
The present crisis is a consequence of the fact that exploding business profits found inadequate investment opportunities in the productive sector and turned instead to financial speculation. Deregulation created "law-free" spaces" with the abrogation of all political controls.
Free Internet Book: Enough is Enough! (tags)
Have you had enough of infinite growth, environmental destruction, currency wars, vulgar materialism, social cuts, generalized insecurity and resource wars? How can anyone say the left has no alternatives to the status quo? Download the 10-page summary or the 130-page report.
The Financial Crisis and the Failure of the Modern Economy (tags)
The US government debt shot up from 2.9% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2008 and 11.9% in 2009. At the summits of Washington, London and Pittsburg, the goat was made the gardener. Ineffective rules were resolved that hardly helped regulate the financial markets.
Between Austerity Mania and Megalomania (tags)
The more capitalism invokes its rationality, the more irrational it seems to be. Fewer and fewer persons handle more and more tasks. This savings mania was forced to the detriment of quality controls. The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing self-determination
Relections on "Obama's Economic View Is Rejected on World Stage"--NYT 11/12/10 (tags)
G20 nations reject US plans for world economy.
World Geopolitics and The Battle for the Mediterranean (tags)
"If one were to live in a city where the only form of employment was a coal mine and there was no means to leave the city then one would have no choice but to work at the coal mine. Control of labour movement is a cornerstone to the socio-economic objectives of the U.S., the E.U., the World Bank, and a league of associated international financial institutions (IFIs). By rendering work forces immobile in any given geographic locality the rights of employment choice and occupational alternatives are removed and a new form of monopoly is established — a forced acceptance of work on whole pools of individuals. Rising fuel prices are also adding to the erosion of mobility rights.??The security agenda behind controlling movements is heavily tied to economic objectives, as are the international disease scares like avian influenza (bird flu) and the swine flue that lock up human movement. Control of mobility in the oceans and international waters of the world is also part of this objective. The internationally illegal Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) was initiated by the U.S. government, with the support of the E.U., in 2003 as part of the “Global War on Terror.” The Proliferation Security Initiative is presented as a means to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), however it can be applied to bring about a hold over global maritime mobility. The strategy is a threat to international movement on the high seas and maritime trade. There is good reason why it is illegal under international law and the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.??Industrial De-location in the European Union and the Global Economic Crisis??This process of industrial de-location has already been underway in the E.U. for years, under which industries have been relocated to Eastern Europe and other global regions. Under this neo-liberal paradigm jobs and industries can gradually be removed from wealthier E.U. states to Southern Mediterranean nations, where cheap and immobile labour forces will be awaiting."
G20: A Threat to Peoples’ Economic and Political Rights! (tags)
The G20 and its global economic agenda are an affront and a threat to people’s rights and welfare. The detention and deportation of Filipino activists from Seoul and the harassment and intimidation of a number of other activists at the hands of Korean immigration authorities are manifestations of the undemocratic and anti-people nature of the G20 and further exposed the illegitimacy of this group of self-proclaimed caretakers of the global economy.
Obama Economic Team Passes Out the Kool-Aid (tags)
Mary Bottari is director of the Real Economy Project with the Center for Media and Democracy.
Quantitative Easing: Elixir or Poison? (tags)
QE indeed poison as being used
Chinese Currency War a Red Herring? (tags)
In the 1930s countries tried to gain advantages by exporting more. This is happening today.
Science Daily reports on a new study linking health with wealth.
Violations of Workers Rights in the Philippines in 2010 (tags)
Aside from the worst forms of labor repression such as the killings of union leaders and members that are well documented by human rights groups, workers in the Philippines suffer from a host of other violations of internationally recognized and constitutionally protected rights and freedoms.
Franklin Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights (tags)
his economic bill of rights
Vote for Barry Hess as Arizona's next Governor! (tags)
Vote for Barry Hess for Arizona's next governor. Even if Barry Hess isn't 100 percent Libertarian he is better then police state thugs Jan Brewer and Terry Goddard. And Barry is against the drug war and will pardon victimless drug war criminals.
Immanuel Wallerstein's Worldview (tags)
important views
Green U.S. Senate Candidate Calls For Ending All U.S. Military and Economic Aid To Israel (tags)
“I call for ending all U.S. military and economic aid to Israel because I believe it to be morally wrong for taxpayers to continue financing this nation’s acts of state-sponsored terrorism against the Palestinian people. The $3 billion we give to this country each year would be better spent dealing with serious problems we face here at home, such as growing unemployment."
Market Failure Wherever One Looks (tags)
7-8 million jobs lost in two years, 150,000 public sector jobs lost in September, are signs of total system incompetence. It's time to redefine state and market and adopt alternative economic policy with reduced working hours and infrastructure investment.
IMF Considers Replacing the Dollar as Key Currency (tags)
More stability and efficiency will be created and money and the credit system de-politicized. In stress situations, a world central bank could serve as creditor "of last resort" to provide the necessary liquidity in the whole system in case of grave shocks.
Manifesto of French Economists: Why We Are Shocked (tags)
On October 11 three million French workers were on strike against President Sarkozy's authoritarian attacks on social security and pensions. "Despite its obvious debacle, the neoliberal dogma is still regarded as the only correct economic system."
BILL GATES & WARREN BUFFETT ARE OILING THE INTERNATIONAL POOR$ $QUEAKY WHEEL NOT AMERICA$ (tags)
THEY PRETEND FOR THEIR FAMILY & FRIENDS TO CARE DEARLY ABOUT THEIR FELLOW MAN OTHER THEN THEIR FELLOW NEEDY AMERICANS.... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrecking the American Dream (tags)
bipartisan supporting for anti-populism
In the 1960s, JKGalbraith warned of two worlds: private affluence and public squalor. Now after the neoliberal counter-offensive, more than half of US states struggle with deficits. Without the social contract, we become wolves to each other.
SURELY MIDDLE~CLASS & POORER AMERICANS SUPPORT PARIS HILTON$~ELITE TAX BREAK ENTITLEMENT$ (tags)
ELITE AMERICAN GAL$ LIKE PARI$ HILTON WHO ARE GOOD ENOUGH 2 $HED THEIR BLOOD 4 OUR WEALTHY ELITE'S COUNTRY ARE GOOD ENOUGH 2 BE GIVEN THEIR WELL DESERVED ELITE TAX CUT$ & THEIR BILLION$ BUSH JR ~ KARL ROVE ~ ESTATE TAX$ ABATEMENT$ STUPID !
The Neoliberal Experiment and Europe's anti-Austerity Strikes (tags)
"The neoliberals are fully in control of the bureaucracy, and they are reviving Margaret Thatcher's slogan, TINA: There Is No Alternative. But there is, of course. In the small Baltic economies, pro-labor parties have made it clear that the alternative to government shrinkage is to simply repeal the debts, withdraw from the Euro and break the banks. It is either the banks or labor - and Europe has just realized that this is truly a fight to the economic death. And the first test will come this Saturday, when Latvia holds its national parliamentary elections."
BTL:After Summers Resigns, Will Obama Scrap His Bank-Friendly Economic Policy? (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
The Road to World War III - The Global Banking Cartel Has One Card Left to Play (tags)
"The global elite have consistently used a strategy of arming and funding both sides of armed conflicts. While opposing populations kill each other off, they make off with their natural resources. When they confront a government that cannot be bribed or provoked into civil or regional war, they fund brutal death squads, attempt military coups and intimidate them by giving weapons to undemocratic neighboring regimes. If all that doesn’t work, they are declared a threat to national security and the US military, private contractors and NATO forces invade and occupy the country. These terrorist strategies are not limited to the Middle East and Africa, just ask our neighbors throughout Latin America about the School of the Americas. Contrary to popular belief, the horrendous torture techniques inflicted upon people in Abu Ghraib, Iraq were not an isolated incident. Many of those brutal torture techniques were developed over years by torturing innocent civilians throughout Latin America."
A World Full of Super-Bubbles: Ben Bernanke (tags)
In the last months, Ben Bernanke has emerged as a problem-intensifier, not a problem-solver. The man who flooded the world with cheap dollars faces the waste-heap of a sinking ship making the Titanic seem like a little rowing boat.
The `Rightwing Backlash' That Never Was (tags)
Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
" IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID " GOT HIM ELECTED BUT NOW THE INTERNATIONAL POOR COME FIRST .... (tags)
THIS ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT MENTALITY IS SO OBVIOUS THAT ANYONE BELIEVING THAT OUR AMERICAN ELITE CARE ANYTHING ABOUT OUR OWN AMERICANS OVER THEIR GODLY$$ IS A FOOLISH DREAMER...
"Manufacturing Dissent": the Anti-globalization Movement is Funded by the Corporate Elites (tags)
"How is the process of manufacturing dissent achieved? Essentially by "funding dissent", namely by channelling financial resources from those who are the object of the protest movement to those who are involved in organizing the protest movement. Co-optation is not limited to buying the favors of politicians. The economic elites --which control major foundations-- also oversee the funding of numerous NGOs and civil society organizations, which historically have been involved in the protest movement against the established economic and social order. The programs of many NGOs and people's movements rely heavily on both public as well as private funding agencies including the Ford, Rockefeller, McCarthy foundations, among others. The anti-globalization movement is opposed to Wall Street and the Texas oil giants controlled by Rockefeller, et al. Yet the foundations and charities of Rockefeller et al will generously fund progressive anti-capitalist networks as well as environmentalists (opposed to Big Oil) with a view to ultimately overseeing and shaping their various activities."
Growing Poverty in America (tags)
exponentially rising numbers
U.S. Socialist Alexander: NBER Offers Christmas Report Regarding U.S. Recession (tags)
Alexander says “Working people have not seen any signs of an economic recovery; as many as 22 million Americans are out of work. U.S. home sales plunged to the lowest level in 15 years, millions of working people are in jeopardy of losing their homes, and jobless claims have risen to the highest levels in 9 months. The U.S. is in the deepest recession in the past 80 years and there are no signs of a recovery.”
The Political Consequences of Stagnation (tags)
My apologies to T. S. Eliot, but September, not April, is the cruelest month. Before 9/11/2001, there was 9/11/1973, when Gen. Pinochet toppled the Allende government in Chile and ushered in a 17-year reign of terror. More recently, on 9/15/2008, Lehman Brothers went bust and torpedoed the global economy, turning what had been a Wall Street crisis into a near-death experience for the global financial system.
U.S. at a Turning Point (tags)
The real income of 90% of US families only increased ten percent since 1973. For many, the American dream has become a nightmare. More than half are even in a worse situation today than 37 years ago. The working class has not shared in the productivity growth.
U.S. Election 2012: Stewart Alexander Says Ben Bernanke Should Resign (tags)
U.S. Socialist Stewart Alexander says, “Bernanke’s speech and response to the U.S. economic crisis has revealed that Chairman Bernanke has failed in his responsibility to the nation and should resign. While providing future guarantees to Wall Street, Bernanke’s message only provided optimistic illusions for the tens of millions of working people that are struggling nationwide.”
The Banking and Financial Crisis (tags)
"The transition from a long-term to a short-term orientation went along with the exaggerated profit goals. The approach of shareholder value sets maximum profits and dividends in the center of business policy and no longer long-term investments and the interests of employees.."
MEG WHITMAN PLEASE TELL CA VOTERS WHERE YOUR WALL STREET ~BANKER BUDDIES HID THEIR TARP $$ (tags)
MEG WHITMAN HAS NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT where HER POLITICAL BUDDIES BUSH~ ROVE $750 BILLION TARP PONZI BAILOUT MONIES REALLY WENT !!!
America Facing Depression and Bankruptcy (tags)
The worst is yet to come
NDF-EV in solidarity with the Catholic Church against large-scale foreign mining in Region (tags)
The Los Angeles based PESANTE NEWS said today that the National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today ( August 26, 2010) said it is one with the Catholic Church in fighting large-scale foreign mining in Region 8. "We agree with the stand of the Palo Archdiocese that large-scale mining today will not benefit the people but only foreign capitalists, as well as seriously damage the environment,"said Fr. Santiago Salas, NDF-EV spokesperson. "Indeed, foreign mining seeks the quickest way to make profits from simple raw materials extraction and export, without contributing to our industrial development and without regard for safeguarding the environment.
Financial Crisis as Organized Irresponsibility (tags)
In the years 2002-2006, guaranteeing mortgage credits was the greatest source of profit for investment banks. US policy massively promoted and in no way curbed awarding dubious credits. In 2003 Warren Buffett described derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction."
Crisis as Permanent State (tags)
The Federal Reserve pumped far more than a trillion without stimulating the economy. 250,000 new jobs must be created month after month to reach the 4.7% unemployment rate before the crisis. 125,000 persons stream on the labor market every month.
Community Centers as a New Beginning (tags)
With $1 billion, the US could build 4000 community centers at a quarter-million dollars each. The network of community centers in Vancouver Canada could be our model. Public spirit could arise to counter the exploding inequality.
A Financial Boom Despite the Crisis (tags)
For the banks, deficit state budgets become important clients. They compensate the private demand for credit. The financial boom is completely based on support measures of state organs. An economic upswing is not in sight.
A Global Ecological Argument for a Basic Income (tags)
Erik Christensen is an associate professor of economics in Denmark.
US Capitalism in Crisis: An Emperor With No Clothes (tags)
The champions of US capitalism are having to get used to a changing global stage on which they play a diminishing role
BTL:Economic Sanctions Target Most Vulnerable, Rarely Achieve Political Objectives (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
PHILIPPINES: New Economics for a New Administration (tags)
The dominant feature of the Arroyo administration was pervasive corruption, but its most destructive legacy in the long term will probably be its policy failures. The ascent to power of a new president, backed by a new Congress, provides the opportunity for a fundamental shift in policy in order to end poverty and re-launch the Philippines on the road to development.
THE FICTION OF FREEDOM IN AMERICA (tags)
The servants of these investors and money "managers," like corporate executives and our elected - excuse the expression -representatives, look from the side, taking a payoff, as we get economically raped. This is designed to prevent wage "inflation" (that's a raise in the minimum, or any other, wage) by keeping unemployment high,
Worldwide Economic Crisis: Two Opposite Models as Answers (tags)
In a large part of the population, there is a consensus that capitalism has no answers to the great social challenges of social security, hunger and climate change. An alternative investment program (emphasizing children, culture and climate change) gives a long-term answer.
True and False Causes of the Financial Crisis (tags)
The jubilant singing about free enterprise as the supposedly best of all worlds sounds much quieter than at the beginning of the 1990s. We urgently need alternatives. This is now a matter of survival. As it was taboo to doubt the rule of the church in the Middle Ages, the thought prohibition of questioning the market economy is in effect.
If the U.S. economy eventually recovers and current trends continue, U.S. workers won’t be celebrating in the streets. The corporate establishment has made it clear that a “strong recovery” depends on U.S. workers making “great sacrifices” in the areas of wages, health care, pensions, and more ominously, reductions in so-called “entitlement programs” — Social Security, Medicare, and other social services. These plans have been discussed at length in corporate think tanks for years, and only recently has the mainstream media begun a coordinated attack to convince American workers of the “necessity” of adopting these policies. The New York Times speaks for the corporate establishment as a whole when it writes:
Philippine Situation After the 2010 Elections (tags)
We are here today because Benigno Aquino III was elected president of the Philippines. He has promised to bring CHANGE to the Philippine government, eliminate corruption, fix the education system, improve health care, improve the economy and provide housing for all Filipinos. He has said that he is the president because the people believed in HOPE. Does this sound familiar? The Reality of the history in the Islands: Economic Crisis The Reality of the Philippines is that the islands are still ruled by US imperialism, and run by its Filipino puppets. Aquino has assembled an economic team from the same breed of pro-imperialist pro neoliberlization economists who have dominated economic policy-making in the Philippines for the past three decades. Some of whom have even served the US arroyo regime.
The Case for War: The Iron Mountain Report (tags)
evidence of America's permanent war strategy
The Financial and Economic Crisis as a Normative Orientation Crisis (tags)
Prof. Ulrich presents three core theses: (1) Economics is not an end-in-itself but the means to the good life and human coexistence. (2) There is no "free" enterprise system free of ethical and political prerequisites. (3) The need for emancipatory economic citizenship rights.
Erich Fromm and His Proposal for a Basic Income (tags)
Philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm never abandoned his vision of a humanist non-estranged society where persons were not commodified or mere goods producers. His book "Having or Being" was written at age 76.
Deficit Hysteria: Wrongheaded in Times of Depression (tags)
proposed policies are wrecking economies
Saving is not a Solution (tags)
The capital markets repeatedly force the real economy to its knees. The savings orgy should help heavily indebted states regain the trust of the financial markets. In a play from the madhouse, states must run into debt to bailout their money-houses.
PRESIDENT OBAMA NEEDS ALL OUR PRAYERS WITH THIS CABAL OF SELFISH WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS ~ (tags)
TAX CUTS & TAX FREE SLUSH FUND FOUNDATIONS FOR OUR WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS AND LOSS OF HOMES,CARS, APARTMENTS etc...4 OUR MIDDLE~CLASS AND WORKING POOR AMERICANS.....
The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order (tags)
"The global debt crisis, which is beginning in Greece, and spreading throughout the euro-zone economies of Spain, Portugal, Ireland and ultimately the entire EU, will further consume the UK, Japan and go all the way to America.[50] This will be a truly global debt crisis. Government measures to address the issue of debt focus on the implementation of ‘fiscal austerity measures’ to reduce the debt burdens and make interest payments on their debts. ‘Fiscal austerity’ is a vague term that in actuality refers to cutting social spending and increasing taxes. The effect this has is that the public sector is devastated, as all assets are privatized, public workers are fired en masse, unemployment becomes rampant, health and education disappear, taxes rise dramatically, and currencies are devalued to make all assets cheaper for international corporations and banks to buy up, while internally causing inflation – dramatically increasing the costs of fuel and food. In short, ‘fiscal austerity’ implies ‘social destruction’ as the social foundations of nations and peoples are pulled out from under them. States then become despotic and oppress the people, who naturally revolt against ‘austerity’: the sterilization of society."
The future of the welfare state in the context of globalization - the German example (tags)
Following the political, social, economic and human catastrophes of the first half of the twentieth century and the liberation from fascism in 1945, there was broad consensus in Germany that the socio-economic reconstruction should move toward securing economic prosperity...
Philippine President-elect Aquino dared to reverse mom’s neo-liberal policies (tags)
MANILA, Philippines — Akbayan party-list Representative Walden Bello on Tuesday dared President-elect Benigno Aquino III to reverse his mother’s neo-liberal policies that he said have killed Philippine agriculture and industry.
Freedom is not an impossible dream (tags)
A New Zealand Tragedy
Lost Youth Employment in Illinois (tags)
an entire youth generation is being trashed
The Financial Market Must Become a Public Service (tags)
An institutional crisis faces us, not individual failure. Egoism makes one short-sighted; greed makes one blind. Capitalism is not simply a market system. Capitalism is a social order. Therefore it cannot be left to economists to decide which laws of the market should operate.
Can a Person Own HIs/Her Mother? (tags)
No one can own what exists in nature except nature. A human cannot own its own mother. However western ownership systems have been forced on us again and again that contradict our worldview and our values. Ubunto is another example: "I only live when you live."
Cuba-Venezuela relationship: What can be said from an anarchist perspective? (tags)
* This text appears in the June-July 2010 issue #59 of El Libertario, describing the position this voice of the Venezuelan anarchist movement takes regarding the close links between the governments of these two countries.
Overcoming the Dominance of Finance Capital (tags)
Changing power relations means taking up the social and political struggle against finance capital and regaining control over social resources. Reversing the redistribution of income from top to bottom is a prerequisite for containing the money flows in the financial sector.
The new senators-elect and people's issues (tags)
The line-up of 12 new senators-elect who will serve until 2016 is now complete. As nationally elected legislators, they will play prominent parts in crafting national policy for the next six years. What are we to expect from the newly elected senators? A look at their track records, or previous positions on people's issues, and their platforms of government would be instructive.
Dependence paralyzes superpowers. Washington urges Peking to upgrade its currency which China's economy cannot handle. China-bashing is an absolute necessity in the upcoming election campaigns.
Greece: Blood and tears for the proletariat! (tags)
In order to resist the policy of blood and tears which the bourgeoisie inflicts on it, the proletariat has no other possibility than the resumption of the class struggle, starting with the rejection of anti-worker measures by the government and the calls for “national solidarity”, and for sacrifices “to defend the fatherland and democracy”.
The Rebirth of Economic Thought from the Ashes of the Crisis (tags)
Reagan announced the state was "the problem" for the functioning of the economy. State action could not solve economic problems. The latest reality of economic crisis thoroughly destroyed the neoclassical theses. The crisis showed its ideological limitation and conditionality.
How Recessions Cause Wars and Revolutions (tags)
A quick glance around the globe reveals a ruined international economy, wars and more wars in the works, and revolutionary movements aplenty — all connected phenomena. No, the apocalypse is not coming; but the international economic system currently used to arrange the social order is crumbling, taking everyone down with it. The global capitalist system is in far worse shape than most people realize: it may only take the tiny economy of Greece to go bankrupt to break this camel’s back — and finally the word “recession” will be antiquated and “depression” will be in vogue.
Memorandums on Alternative Economic Policy (tags)
The social state, solidarity, sharing and social justice open doors while neoliberal deregulation leads to exploding inequality, generalized insecurity and disappearance of the public spirit.
The Economics Behind Immigration Reform (tags)
How convenient for Goldman Sachs. Just as most working people were demanding that the Goldman bosses and other Wall Street criminals either be massively fined, jailed or worse, the nation’s attention is suddenly forced to react to the racist immigration law in Arizona. And although the two incidents are not directly related, they represent a trend that is likely to increase in the months and years ahead.
How Wars are Born: the US vs. China (tags)
Those of us making the “radical” claim that wars are the result of economic/corporate interests pushed abroad, were recently given a nod of approval from a typically unfriendly source, The New York Times. The corporate controlled New York Times published a revealing article about how U.S. foreign policy really works, and why. The motive behind the sincerity is that China’s foreign policy was being attacked. However, the article soon made it clear that China’s policy is the same as the U.S.’s : dominating regions that are of “economic (corporate) interest” — raw materials, cheap labor, shipping lanes, markets, etc. — through military buildup.
For a Proletarian and Communist May 1st! (tags)
Workers! The general conditions of life and work have been deteriorating for years, becoming ever more intolerable.
The Bank Tribunal in Berlin (tags)
Even today most radical market liberals do not see beyond their ideological blinders and explain the financial market crisis as a state breakdown. The financial catastrophe is a fiasco of their religious doctrine. The catastrophe plunged the dominant economy into a crisis of meaning.
Attac's Bank Tribunal: The Jury's Verdict (tags)
This crisis did not break out over society like a force of nature. Financial managers spread the legend that financial crises belong to capitalism as water belongs to the ocean and that euphoric phases of bubble formation and the bursting of bubbles come and go like the seasons.
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution (tags)
"In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you."
Extra Tax Refund for Workers: Sch M: Making Work Pay (tags)
Be sure to complete Schedule M for Line 40 on your 1040 income tax return to get your economic stimulus if your adjusted gross income is less than $95,000 a year ($190,000 on joint return) or you are not a dependent on another return. It is called Making Work Pay and Government Retireee Credits.
Capitalism and Democracy (tags)
Citizens are protected from incursions of the state and on the other side must accept the sovereignty of the state and the general law as prerequisites of property and security. Whoever has visions should be the physician. A good physician will urge changing one's way of life.
The Anti-Venezuela Election Campaign (tags)
"The Venezuelan economy was in recession in 2009, but will likely begin to grow again this year. The business press will ignore the economic growth and hype the inflation, as they have done for the past six years, when the country's record economic growth cut the poverty rate by half and extreme poverty by 70% (which was also ignored). Resolutions will be introduced into the US Congress condemning Venezuela for whatever."
The "Houdini Recovery" under IMF-Type Austerity (tags)
the recovery is the big lie
Freedom from our social prisons require Rights Revolution (tags)
New Zealanders come home - you are needed. Submission below before UN Human Rights Commission today re NZ. Below shows NZ headed to third world status. Obama also follows UN and global elites - mass discrimination re social class.
NDF-Southern Mindanao on the GRP elections: no illusions (tags)
The EPCC NEWS sources learned today that the general elections under the reactionary Government of the Republic of the Philippines has kicked off with the usual circus that holds sway among the populace and feeds on their decades-old aspiration for true change in Philippine society. The National Democratic Front-Southern Mindanao states its position on the reactionary GRP elections: That the Filipino masses should bear no illusion that the elections will bring about thoroughgoing change in our semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, and that only the People's Democratic Revolution is our way to genuine liberation and national development.
Education as Tranquilizer (tags)
"A false strategy of combating poverty results inevitably from a flawed analysis of the causes of poverty. Whoever culturalizes the problem relies on education reforms without repairing the structural causes.."
Finance Capitalism Devalues Labor (tags)
Businesses are capital investments in the hands of shareholders. Consequently managers only serve the interests of shareholders.
Funding Israeli Militarism, Belligerence and Occupation (tags)
funding Israel's war on Palestinian civilians
Caught in the Infinite Loop of a Nightmare (tags)
Since politics has no strategies of its own to re-stabilize the economic system, it hopes in the self-healing powers of the market after the bank bailout... The hosts of decision-makers were simply "falsely programmed" in their education.
March 4 Socialist Program to Defend Education (tags)
On March 4, students and workers throughout California and the US will demonstrate against the attack on public education and increases in tuition that are making a college education unaffordable for the majority of working class youth.
On the Benefits of Seceding from the United States (tags)
Time to disunite the states.
Brewing Crisis in the South Atlantic: Oil Exploration in the Malvinas Islands (tags)
For Argentineans the long simmering territorial dispute between Britain and Argentina is coming to a head, as a British oil rig travels to what analysts say is a 60 billion barrel reserve of high-grade oil located in a 200 square mile zone surrounding the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands. This would make it one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Argentina had instituted a naval embargo of the islands but has recently permitted the oil rig to land in Port Stanley, capital of the island.
Debt Dynamite Dominoes: The Coming Financial Catastrophe (tags)
-When the crisis is over, the middle classes of the western world will have been liquidated of their economic, political and social status. The global economy will have gone through the greatest consolidation of industry and banking in world history leading to a system in which only a few corporations and banks control the global economy and its resources; governments will have lost that right. The people of the western world will be treated by the financial oligarchs as they have treated the ‘global South’ and in particular, Africa; they will remove our social structures and foundations so that we become entirely subservient to their dominance over the economic and political structures of our society.-
The Neoliberal Agenda is Over and The Despised Social State (tags)
Neoliberalism is the political-economic experiment of individualizing social risks and claiming growth and employment will be higher. This claim is refuted convincingly by the global financial crisis destroying enormous assets and causing growth and employment to crash.
Climate Justice, Not Growth Mania (tags)
"In green capitalism, the bio-crisis is at the center of the growth strategy. The Green New Deal represents a kind of ecological inversion of Kennedy's famous sentence: Ask not what you can do for the environment but what the environment can do for you..."
Descent Into Barbarism: The US and NATO Wage War on the World (tags)
"In our time, war, it seems, has already begun. The US oligarchy and its NATO allies are waging a veritable war on the world: killing, disappearing and incarcerating millions of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan – a war that is expanding into Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Horn of Africa, with the militarisation of sea lanes and oceans (see Chossudovsky, www.Globalresearch.ca) and the setting up of “forward projecting” military and missile bases in every continent (see Rozoff, ditto). On top of ordinary poverty and misery, the world is truly seeing another historic descent into barbarism. Given this war-mongering dynamic, the growing US antagonism with Iran, Russia and China is far from an idle threat. It is the logical next step for a deeply illogical economic system. But history is not inevitable. We are not necessarily programmed to repeat its horrors. A combination of global communications among citizens and political and social consciousness may be enough to prevent a military conflagration and overthrow the misrule of the oligarchy. What is needed is a) a widening of the recognition that capitalism as a system of social production is finished; and b) the case has to be confidently made that an alternative is very possible."
Greed, the Corrupt System and Shadow Banking (tags)
A sudden change of thought patterns has occurred. For thirty years, the dogmas were in effect: trust in the self-healing powers of the market, the sleek state is the best of all possible states and economic policy will be unnecessary if the central banks fights inflation.
"We are in the Greatrest Financial Bubble of all Time" (tags)
"An old world perishes as a new world arises-pictorially comparable to a caterpillar that dies because the butterfly comes to life. What is called financial crisis is only a superficial symptom.. One of the main causes of the debacle is the Americanized corporate governance." (F.Malik)
CHINA’S ECONOMY OVERHEATS? (tags)
—As the Chinese authorities greets the new year 2010 as the “ year of the tiger” with high hopes, many economic observers in the west says it is “ over-heating.” This observation was made after China posted a 10.7 growth rate last year. This was attributed to the Chinese government stimulus or infusion of money to the economy much like what the US did in 2008-2009
"Concepts must be developed against the global demand-deficit. Repairing the financial system is not enough. The economic-political prescriptions of the past - flexible wages and restricted social benefits - would worsen the situation."
A TEACH-IN on the ECONOMIC CRISIS-FORO COMUNITARIO INFORMATIVO SOBRE LA ECONOMIA (tags)
A TEACH-IN on the ECONOMIC CRISIS Find out about the causes of the current economic recession, its impact and its victims
Prerequisites for Overcoming the Financial Crisis (tags)
"In analyzing financial crises, real causes should be differentiated from the side-effects. One of the essential causes for the current crisis is the discrepancy between the linear growth of the real economy and the exponential growth of financial management created by the derivative-economy,"
The Death of American Liberalism (tags)
It’s no exaggeration to say that President Obama was the Democrats’ last chance to maintain some level of political legitimacy in the eyes of working class Americans. Now, after a year of solid pro-corporate policies, it’s obvious Obama has failed; and with him the Democratic Party.
The Next Crash is Brewing (tags)
The economic way of thinking enforced for a quarter of century is one of the structural factors that helped this "economy of depression" breakthrough. This dominant doctrine denies the role of demand and concentrates on the problems limiting the supply of goods & services
Remarks by Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO, National Press Club, Washington, DC (tags)
Our economy does not work without good jobs, so we must take action now to restore workers' voices in America. The systematic silencing of American workers by denying our right to form unions is at the heart of the disappearance of good jobs in America. We must pass the Employee Free Choice Act so that workers can have the chance to turn bad jobs into good jobs, and so we can reduce the inequality which is undermining our prospects for stable economic growth. And we must do it now—not next year, not even this summer. Now.
All Cards on the Table: For a Social Ecological New Deal (tags)
The neoliberal and fossilist finance market capitalism has become a discontinued model. With his New Deal, Roosevelt introduced state pensions, unemployment insurance and the minimum wage, reduced working hours and strengthened unions.
Calculating the Real Value of Professions (tags)
The New Economic Foundation is an independent think-and-do tank that inspires and demonstrates real economic well-being. We work in partnership and put people and the planet first.
Obama Is Preparing for War in South America (tags)
"The first and foremost important achievement during the Chávez administration is the 1999 Constitution, which, although not written nor decreed by Chávez himself, was created through his vision of change for Venezuela. The 1999 Constitution was, in fact, drafted - written - by the people of Venezuela in one of the most participatory examples of nation building, and then was ratified through popular national referendum by 75% of Venezuelans. The 1999 Constitution is one of the most advanced in the world in the area of human rights. It guarantees the rights to housing, education, healthcare, food, indigenous lands, languages, women's rights, worker's rights, living wages and a whole host of other rights that few other countries recognize on a national level. My favorite right in the Venezuelan Constitution is the right to a dignified life. That pretty much sums up all the others. Laws to implement these rights began to surface in 2001, with land reform, oil industry redistribution, tax laws and the creation of more than a dozen social programs - called missions - dedicated to addressing the basic needs of Venezuela's poor majority. In 2003, the first missions were directed at education and healthcare. Within two years, illiteracy was eradicated in the country and Venezuela was certified by UNESCO as a nation free of illiteracy. This was done with the help of a successful Cuban literacy program called "Yo si puedo" (Yes I can). Further educational missions were created to provide free universal education from primary to doctoral levels throughout the country. Today, Venezuela's population is much more educated than before, and adults who previously had no high school education now are encouraged to not only go through a secondary school program, but also university and graduate school.??The healthcare program, called "Barrio Adentro", has not only provided preventive healthcare to all Venezuelans - many who never had access to a doctor before - but also has guaranteed universal, free access to medical attention at the most advanced levels. MRIs, heart surgery, lab work, cancer treatments, are all provided free of cost to anyone (including foreigners) in need. Some of the most modern clinics, diagnostic treatment centers and hospitals have been built in the past five years under this program, placing Venezuela at the forefront of medical technology.??Other programs providing subsidized food and consumer products (Mercal, Pdval), job training (Mission Vuelvan Caras), subsidies to poor, single mothers (Madres del Barrio), attention to indigents and drug addicts (Mission Negra Hipolita) have reduced extreme poverty by 50% and raised Venezuelans standard of living and quality of life. While nothing is perfect, these changes are extraordinary and have transformed Venezuela into a nation far different from what it looked like 10 years ago. In fact, the most important achievement that Hugo Chávez himself is directly responsible for is the level of participation in the political process. Today, millions of Venezuelans previously invisible and excluded are visible and included. Those who were always marginalized and ignored in Venezuela by prior governments today have a voice, are seen and heard, and are actively participating in the building of a new economic, political and social model in their country.??2 MW---On Monday, President Chavez threw a Venezuelan judge in jail on charges of abuse of power for freeing a high-profile banker. Do you think he overstepped his authority as executive or violated the principle of separation of powers? What does this say about Chavez's resolve to fight corruption?"
Worldwide 136 cities of millions at the coasts are directly endangered by the rising sea level.. The president cannot win a two-front war against the conservatives.. Over 100 German regions resolved to be completely renewable by 2025.
End the Fed? Or End the Market Economy? (tags)
When Republican Congressman Ron Paul recently introduced legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, diverse sections of the political spectrum applauded. And rightfully so. The Fed’s role in the still-developing bank bailouts is one of utter secrecy; the total cost of which — as estimated by the bailout’s Special Inspector General, Neil Barofsky — could cost taxpayers $23.7 trillion. The fact that legislation needed to be introduced to raise the question of the whereabouts of these funds points to a larger breakdown in U.S. democracy.
Every Dishwasher Will NIot Become a Millionaire (tags)
Citizens of the US are tyrannized by "dead ideas," Matt Miller insists. One dead idea is that taxes damage the economy. With taxes, long-term advantages can be created for the economy when the government invests in the infrastructure.
Filipino Workers Condemn Maguindanao Massacre (tags)
APL dares gov’t to severely punish brains, perpetrators of Maguindanao massacre
New Study Shows Ten States Face Fiscal Crisis (tags)
Crises in states worsen
Honduran President Zelaya earns high marks for governance (tags)
"MCC's eligibility criteria include a commitment to "just and democratic governance." The pattern of actions taken by Honduras beginning on June 28, 2009, is inconsistent with this commitment and MCC's eligibility criteria. For the record, under the Zelaya administration, according to the MCC fiscal year 2010 scorecard, Honduras turned in grades well above passing with respect to “political rights,” “civil liberties” and “voice and accountability” — the latter, described by MCC, as “the ability of institutions to protect civil liberties; the extent to which citizens of a country are able to participate in the selection of governments; and the independence of the media.”
Universal Single-Payer Healthcare Coverage: An Economic Stimulus Plan (tags)
Imagine - doing the right thing is economically beneficial.
Will the Great Depression Be Repeated? (tags)
Global trade fell 30 percent three years after the crash. The US gross domestic product shriveled 40 percent. In 1932, every fourth American was without a job. In Germany, industry only produced half of what was produced three years before.
The High Risk Business of Banks (tags)
The model of financial market capitalism collapsed with the greatest crisis of the financial markets since the worldwide economic crisis at the end of the 20s. The enormous accumulation of financial assets was based on redistribution of incomes continuing for 30 years.
Profits=Investments=Jobs? (tags)
The claimed connection between profits, investments and jobs is not right. Orders-literally demand-are more important than the profits that are investede for the creation of jobs. Market radicals repress market and system failure.
Everything Obama does ends up harming America.
A New Paradigm: The New Deal of the 1930s (tags)
The New Deal that led out of the worldwide economic crisis in the 1930s was based on the combination of a new technical-economic model with a new socio-economic model. Obama's achievement is not turning the necessity of overcoming the crisis against the social principle
Is Growth Only Possible Through Inequality? (tags)
Does capitalism make the rich richer and the poor poorer instead of creating prosperity for everyone as promised? Inequality declined considerably between 1930 and 1970 in western industrial states.
Building community centers could be a way to learn from O Canada and break from the false religion of the market and profit. When the market and competition are made absolute, they become idols. CEOs are called job creators and workers "cost-factors."
How Neoliberal Ideology Destabilized the World Balance: Krugman and Galbraith (tags)
"If the depression has not openly erupted, all the features of the 1930s are having a spectacular comeback." (Paul Krugman) To free the US from the claws of private interests, James Galbraith urges the public authority to set social and ecological norms.
After the recent unemployment numbers were announced, smug politicians promising economic recovery stuttered a bit. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Mainstream economists were predicting a smooth upswing in employment, but in September 263,000 more jobs were lost, 62,000 more than August. Obama reacted predictably to the surprise. He first pointed out that “employment is the last thing to recover from a recession,” and concluded that “…we are going to need to grind out this recovery, step by step.” Brilliant.
Health Bill Raises Economic Concern For Real Estate (tags)
Has Obama discounted the collateral economic damage and costs the current health bill proposals will cause Americans via surcharges and higher taxes?
The justification offered for the new military bases in Colombia is the "war on drugs (tags)
"The justification offered for the new military bases in Colombia is the "war on drugs." The fact that the justification is even offered is remarkable. Suppose, for example, that Colombia, or China, or many others claimed the right to establish military bases in Mexico to implement their programs to eradicate tobacco in the U.S., by fumigation in North Carolina and Kentucky, interdiction by sea and air forces, and dispatch of inspectors to the U.S. to ensure it was eradicating this poison-which is, in fact, far more lethal even than alcohol, which in turn is far more lethal than cocaine or heroin, incomparably more than cannabis. The toll of tobacco use is truly fearsome, including "passive smokers" who are seriously affected though they do not use tobacco themselves. The death toll overwhelms the lethal effects of other dangerous substances."
Globalization and the New Political Movements (tags)
Attac, a global justice network in many European countries, demands closing off-shore tax havens and debt cancellation for the third world. The word globalization has a function as a threat. Be flexible because capital is flexible and the state can do nothing!
Today your freedom is being signed away (tags)
Today at the UN New York States are signing a treaty which by its exclusion of core obligations and the right to development will create a people more dependent on the State and Corporations as well as discriminating against the poor. Obama ( & other States) is following such policies.
GERMANY: What Lessons Do We Learn from the Financial Crisis? (tags)
Rating agencies were paid by the firms to be rated. Ultimately rational individual conduct led to an irrational collective result. The lesson is clear. On the way of regulation or taxation, banks must be given a massive incentive to remain small.
Beyond Market and State (tags)
In a "post-democracy," the interests of global corporations prevail with the continuing facade of democratic institutions and procedures. Interest in politics in the population is very low. Criticism of neoliberalism brings together many movements and groups.
Census Bureau Confirms Rising Poverty, Falling Incomes, and Growing Numbers of Uninsured (tags)
growing poverty and despair in America
New Economic Electronic Broadsheet (tags)
Hello. For those interested, here is a new economic electronic broadsheet. Thank you for your time.
Betrayals Continue as Trumka Takes the Helm at the AFL-CIO (tags)
The partnership between the heads of organized Labor and the employers strengthens as Trumka dumps EFCA after spending millions of dollars of member's hard earned dues money getting our enemies elected in to office.
Global Systematic discriminationagainst the Poor due to be signed (tags)
International human rights law to be signed by States on Sept 24, 2009, systematically discriminates against the poor. The establishment is pitted against the independent peoples and the most disadvantaged. A mediocre nation and a dependent people are the very likely outcomes.
Satiation or Two Limits of Growth: John Maynard Keynes (tags)
"The first great economic crisis of the 21st century marks the end of a failed political-economic experiment..The past 30 years of redistribution from bottom to top were a glistening epoch for the owners of capital.."
California’s Unemployment at 60 Year High, at Depression Levels (tags)
The news out of Washington is suggesting that the bottom of the economic decline is here, and last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke stated that the “economy is leveling out;” however, the people with the Peace and Freedom Party, based in California, is dismissing the Federal Reserve report as propaganda that will only benefit Wall Street.
Growing Poverty and Despair in America (tags)
what the dominant media won't tell you
In the US, people have lived above their means for years and now must permanently lower their living standard. In America as in Europe, economists expect a tremendous rise in unemployment in the fall. This does not mean people will shop more.
Global Depression and Regional Wars - Part II (tags)
continued imperial plunder
Review: Karl Polanyi-How the State Created Capitalism (tags)
In "The Great Transformation" (1944), Karl Polanyi deconstructs the myth of a free market economy that develops naturally and spontaneously and the idea of the state as a counter-pole to capital. The transformation of labor and land into commodities was a painful process.
Economic Policy after the Financial Crisis: Keynes (tags)
Keynes saw political control of markets and a distribution and social policy in favor of lower income groups as essential prerequisites of a stable long-term macro-economic development.. Three-hour workdays or a 15-hour week would be enough.
Global Depression and Regional Wars (tags)
economic hard times and wars
Investments of the state in the infrastructure, in educational- and social services, are urgently necessary. One positive aspect of the crisis is that the financial sector has begun to shrivel. The shriveling of the financial sector must be accompanied and controlled by the state.
Self-Abandonment of the System (tags)
The banks are seemingly on Victory Street and taxpayers face bankruptcy. Bailing out banks by printing money is a dubious recovery. Paulson, Bernanke, Summers and Geithner are the architects of a policy of easy money. The money given to banks does not reach the economy.
A Cure for an Ailing Economy: Taxing the Rich (tags)
Healthcare isn’t the only social ill in the U.S. that needs a serious remedy. The list is long and growing: state budget crises, unemployment, infrastructure, education, housing, food assistance, etc. These are all things that must be paid for, but the money seems to be in short supply. When a country is in as much debt as the U.S., – $12 trillion and counting — the tasks at hand seem all but unachievable. And this is exactly what many politicians would like you to believe.
Distribute Food in the Morning, Bomb at Midday and Build a School at Night (tags)
Military deployments are more or less elegantly redefined as development policy. Poverty represents by far the most important cause of violent escalation of conflicts. Military stability export maintains poverty.
Workers can take advantage of a serious crisis too. (tags)
Capitalists aren't the only ones that should be taking advantage of a good crisis. Workers shouldn't let a crisis go to waste either.
"The Open Internet is in Danger" (tags)
The IT-branch is part of the solution. The best solution is balance or eco-social equalization. The Finnish constellation produces the greatest prosperity. Higher prosperity arises out of a state of balance, not under Brazilianization conditions.
Attac France on the Stiglitz Report (tags)
If the world really lives through a systemic crisis, solutions must also be sou9ght on this plane. Regrettably the mandate limits the commission to reform the international monetary system. The UN is the only institution with a democratic legitimacy.
For the Iranian workers, only one solution: the class struggle ! (tags)
The brutal repression of street demonstrations that have hit Tehran and the larger cities shows the determination of the Iranian government's Ahmadinejad not to tolerate any questioning of his political power. Accused of electoral fraud, the supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei and the outgoing president have responded with arrests, beatings and shootings; the police, the Pasdaran, and Basji volunteers headed by the Pasdaran are the instruments of the current repression.
Political countervailing power of the G-millions against the economism of the neoliberals can only be formed with a long breath.. The grass grows from below; words fall empty from the top.
DALUYONG: Surging to Confront the Crisis of Our Times (tags)
Filipino American youth, both immigrant and US-born, are agitated and getting ready to tell the rest of the country where they stand and how they are to respond to the current economic crisis affecting their families, their education, their work, and their rights. They are concerned over current immigration policies, race relations, exploitation of women and children, and how these and other issues are linked to the broader global economic crisis and war. They are surging forward to claim what is inherently theirs – the future.
Bottom-up rights, ethical globalization for a Great Country (tags)
A Great Country is inclusive - neo liberal social exclusion settles for mediocrity. Bottom-up rights are those excluded by the UN and States considered incompatible with neo liberalism. The discontented need to struggle for these rights which entail an ethical globalization.
Miguel d'Escoto on the Global Financial and Economic Crisis (tags)
"It is neither humane nor responsible to build a Noah's Ark only to save the existing economic system, leaving the vast majority of humanity to their fate and to suffer the negative effects of a system imposed by an irresponsible but powerful minority.."
Daluyong: National Filipino American Youth Consultation (tags)
Daluyong: Surging to Confront the Crisis of Our Times is a national Filipino American Youth Consultation that will bring together progressive youth from California, New York, and Chicago to assess, share, and plan the necessary steps to advocate for our community’s concerns and to build a broad movement and program towards fundamental change.
problem with china: they NEED a war (tags)
Piece.
Compromising Democracy in Honduras (tags)
Can a solution to the crisis in Honduras — itself the result of a military coup — be “mediated,” where on one side sit coup leaders and on the other a democratically elected but ousted President? Does any “middle ground” exist? Of course not. If President Zelaya unconditionally returns to finish his term in office, democracy will be restored; anything short of that will have democracy “compromised” into its opposite.
The Crisis and the Left: Democratizing instead of Privatizing (tags)
"Neoliberalism has no future..Since time immemorial, (neo-) liberals have wanted as little democracy as possible as an unavoidable evil that should not get in the way of the real kingdom of freedom, the capitalist market economy.."
"The logic of the stock corporation leads to all profits ultimately being used to raise the stock price which promotes speculation." The only way to solve mass unemployment, destruction of the environment and trade imbalance is to break out of the system and pursue qualitative growth."
Risk Development and Dollar Inflation (tags)
Two articles by emeritus professor Elmar Altvater reveal the contradictions of credit or bubble prosperity in the counter-revolution of capital. As work cannot define us, competitiveness and profit maximization do not define the human experience Speculation could bring a new feudalism..
"We are moving into a world-historical situation where all the points of social, economic and political life will be reset..A revolutionary process is only possible when a radical reform gets going.. A radical redistribution from top to bottom must be fought for.."
The Significance of Washington's Coup Attempt in Honduras (tags)
There should be no doubt about the U.S. decisive role behind the now-crumbling military coup in Honduras. As commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces, the blame for this intervention lies solely on President Obama. The White House, however, would like you to believe that they attempted to convince the Honduran military not to intervene. Rubbish.
Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism:" The Economic Agenda of Imperial America (tags)
How imperial America is funded
Iran's Coming Revolution: For Civil Rights or Beyond? (tags)
Simplifying the events in Iran as yet another attempt at a U.S. financed “color revolution” is shortsighted, to say the least. But this is the shallow position many on the left are taking. Fortunately, millions of people partaking in mass demonstrations cannot be reduced to “mere puppets” of Uncle Sam — they have aspirations of their own and ways to achieve them. It is possible that the U.S. played a role in the events leading up to the massive protests in Iran, since the U.S.-sponsored color revolution formula is well known: a pro-western opposition candidate creates political instability — usually around election time — and uses the demonstrators who support them, who are funneled money through the C.I.A., to help topple the existing regime.
California Showing No Signs of Economic Recovery (tags)
It is important to note that most of California’s economic woes have less to do with the national recession; California has a leadership problem in Sacramento. Under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger, California’s economy has been suffering a continuous decline. Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature have led California into a sea of red ink and have protected special interested groups over the public’s interest.
Decommissioning a Superpower (tags)
"From July to September 2008, China reduced its investment in the US real estate banks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The US tgovt needs $1.5 billion in foreign credits day after day..The greatest debtor of the world cannot force the law of trade on its creditors any more.."
Lebanon: Short film on the siege of Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp (tags)
The anarchist media collective a-films has just published a new short film ("Two Years Under Siege"/10min) from the destroyed Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp in northern Lebanon.
2015-The Year of the Final Crisis (tags)
"We are victims of an ideology of perpetual economic growth. This growth mania now collides with reality. Ideologies usually seem very normal. For a long time people believed they cou9ld pay ransom for their sins with litters of indulgence.."
Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance" (tags)
must-read on US imperial aims
From Obsuristan to Absurdistan: Barbarism or Human Future (tags)
Individual security can be emphasized so global vision fades. Half-truths and fish stories carry the day. "Communism is oppression of many by man and capitalism is just the reverse." Our challenge is to reawaken wonder and interdependence, to consider the way of nonviolent resistance.
Ecological Justice Instead of Growth Economy for the Rich (tags)
"Now the market, the god of neoliberals, cannot help any more and speculators cry for the already instrumentalized state.. Studying pre-capitalist approaches is vital to develop a post-capitalist vision. The vision of the Bible is an economy of enough for all, an economy for life."
Economic Crisis and the Crisis of Neoliberal Ideology (tags)
The crisis has his origins in the "real" economy. Inequality is the ideological motor of neoliberfalism. German president Kohler described the financial markets as a monster. The metaphor has changed from market as rational subject to monster.
AVSI Online Auction - Bid Now thru June 20! (tags)
Incredible items available for bidding! Artists, businesses, and individuals donated nationwide to support this critical fundraiser for the African Village Survival Initiative! Participate - Bid Generously - Make a donation!
Sept. G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, PA, US -- CALL FOR A GLOBAL MOBILIZATION (tags)
A CALL FOR A GLOBAL MOBILIZATION AGAINST THE G20 SUMMIT IN PITTSBURGH, PA., U.S. SEPTEMBER 24 AND 25, 2009 ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE – BUT WE MUST FIGHT FOR IT! BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE JOBS & SOCIAL NEEDS--NOT WAR AND GREED
Austria: Crash Instead of Cash (tags)
In 1978 the Bretton Woods system broke down since the US abandoned the key function of the US dollar to print money to finance the Vietnam War.. The liberalization of the financial markets started a mechanism in which the worldwide population loses.
Italy - Document of summit protest against G8 economy in Lecce, June 12-13 2009 (tags)
In 2001 G8 met in Genova. They were violent days of the suspension of civil rights that still weigh on the collective consciousness, along with the memory and sorrow for the death of Carlo Giuliani. They were also days in which the "greatest men of the earth" developed the new creed of liberal globalization as it was a new universal religion.
Daniel Estulin's "True Story of the Bilderberg Group" and What They May Be Plann (tags)
Their goal is a world with rulers and serfs, no middle class
The Misery of Economic Policy (tags)
The military Keynesianism since Reagan guided the streams of surplus global money-capital into the US as a "safe harbor." The orgies of deregulation and privatization cleared the way for the "assets inflation" of the financial bubble economy.
Manipulation - How Markets Really Work (tags)
Insiders move markets up or down for profit.
the Deeper Origins of the Economic Crisis (tags)
For all the horror the global economic crisis has caused for so many people, one progressive consequence has emerged: many of these people are becoming politically conscious — searching for information to better understand their political and economic system. They want to know how things got the way they did and what can be done about it. Unfortunately, much of the resulting analysis has focused too little on actual causes, and too much on abstract financial details and other consequences of deeper economic problems. Therefore, the typical explanation of the economic crisis goes as follows: depression-era financial regulations were tossed aside, and banks were allowed to merge into new institutions that then invented ways to transform debts into assets, which were gambled away on the stock exchange to the tunes of trillions of dollars. All of which is true. What’s missing, however, is why.
The Market Must Serve Society (tags)
In the past, the village green and market swuare were surrounded by the church, town hall, school and hospital. Without these social institutions, there would be no market. This is also true for today's global financial markets.
Ending Today's Economic Crisis Simply and Easily, in America and Globally (tags)
The solution is simpler than imagined.
We persuaded ourselves permanent economic growth was the answer to all questions. We should now engage in a growth debate about the nature of this growth, not whether we should renounce on economic growth. Increased GDP can mean destruction of foundations in long-term
Socialist Stewart Alexander: Washington and Capitalism in Shambles (tags)
Since President Barack Obama took office in January, the U.S. economy has gone from bad to worst. Nationwide, home foreclosures continue to climb, consumer spending is down due to the credit crisis, more than 6 million Americans remain unemployed, and while paychecks are shrinking, inflation and gas prices are on the increase. The U.S. economy and capitalism is in a total mess.
From Bubbles to Living Economies (tags)
"The old story promised stability based on enterprise but delivered chaos based on speculation. It preached transparency but created a world ruled by occult financial knowledge.."
Join the People's Summit in Detroit June 14-17, 2009 (tags)
People's Summit in Detroit June 14-17, 2009 to protest big-business gathering and to create a poor and working people's economic agenda. Join to protest big-business, to participate in the tent city and forums, town hall meetings and more!
The End of Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Capitalism (tags)
"Guaranteeing the social infrastructure and social security for everyone should be central instead of guarantees for banks and corporations and socialization and democratization of the economy instead of nationalization!"
The Most Credible Challenge to Neoliberalism (tags)
The People's Age is near but will have to be struggled for by focusing on the 'bottom-up' human rights approach which are the rights left out by the Global Elites at the UN in their discussions of economic and social rights over the past four years which resulted in the 'we are all in it together' approach presently being adopted by States.
Zhibin Gu: China's deadly troubles vs global financial crisis: challenges, conflicts, war (tags)
Is global financial crisis leading to new world wars? Which nation is to emerge as the next global leader, China, India, US, or Europe? How to walk out current traps of employment, shrinking business, and leadership crisis? Should entrepreneurship lead politics and competition?
Let's Really Attack our Economic Problems (tags)
Let’s show the trickle down theory the door. If a goodly majority ever faces economic reality, we could fashion a better world. It is however the wealthy that will have to sacrifice.
Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" - Part III (tags)
Federal Reserve plunder Part III
Zhibin Gu: China vs global financial crisis: trends, challenges, wars (tags)
Is global financial crisis leading to new world wars ahead? Which nation is to emerge as the next global leader, China, India, US, or Europe? How to walk out current traps of employment, shrinking business, and leadership crisis? Should entrepreneurship lead politics and competition?
In our collective helplessness, we seek salvation in the transcendental empire of the inexplicable. "How could it be?" becomes the self-defense to forget our miserable social existence.. The economic has taken society hostage.
"From now on, you work only for the shareholder!" The disappearance of traditional paid labor relations accelerated by shareholder value strategies means the middle- and lower classes are permanently threatened in their social and economic existence.
Actually, it's the system, President Obama (tags)
"Capitalist cycles recur. Each economic cycle imposes huge, painful social costs. In a parallel ideological cycle, most politicians, mass media and academics swing ridiculously between hyped celebrations of deregulation and (re)regulation as "the solution to our economic problems.."
For the Resumtion of the Class Struggle! (tags)
The economic crisis which has crashed down on society has already had and for a long time will have disastrous consequences for the lives of the masses, as every worker can see in his daily life or her work. The bourgeois economists themselves admit it: they do not know what the causes of the crisis are – satisfying themselves by blaming the greed of the bankers or excessive financial deregulation – and they do not know when it will end and give way to the long-awaited “economic recovery”. The current crisis is the crisis of the capitalist mode of production, incapable of stopping itself, forced to produce always more commodities, at a certain point it comes up against the limits of the market.
The End of Finance Market Capitalism: Renaissance of Socialism? (tags)
The crisis offers an historical chance to civilize an unbridled capitalism with reform policy. The future relation of market and state is the focus of attention.. Financial markets are characterized by herd behavior. Risk consciousness disappears.
FDR's New Deal v. Obamanomics in Their First 100 Days (tags)
stark mirror opposites
The Vacuum of World Trade Breaks Down (tags)
The unbridled free market was an illusion that gave free rein to greed and speculation and the dominance of the financial markets. Shareholder value made the profits of shareholders absolute and set short-term gain over long-term necessity.
"Low-Wage Capitalism" Author Speaks in San Diego (tags)
Fred Goldstein, contributing editor of the Workers' World newspaper and author of the new book "Low-Wage Capitalism," spoke at the Malcolm X Library April 18 and described the current economic collapse as a classic "crisis of overproduction" in the Marxist sense. Though Wall Street greed and the bursting of the housing bubble played a part, he said, the real cause was the capitalist class's success in driving working people's wages down, not only in the U.S. but worldwide, to the point where workers can no longer afford to consume the products they produce. He called for a mass progressive movement to make explicit economic demands, especially jobs.
Government Stimulus Plans are `Not Enough': Joseph Stiglitz (tags)
Governments have to do more than just spend money, says Stiglitz.
Obama Draws Fire from Socialists and Conservatives (tags)
Socialists and conservatives alike believe bigger government and heavy spending is not the answer to restructuring the U.S. economy; and even though the ideas of socialists and conservatives are vastly different, both groups are opposing the president on his enormous spending proposals that are lacking any clear plans on how to revive the economy and limit an ocean of future debt for the nation.
BTL:Obstacles Stand in Way of Thaw in U.S. - Cuban and Venezuelan Relations (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
Lessons from 1929: Christina Romer (tags)
Roosevelt's debt-financed spending packages were historically unique since balanced state budgets were the norm..Roosevelt's New Deal led to an increase of nine to thirteen percent in the real GDP between 1934 and 1938. Charlie Rose's interview with Ms Romer is life-giving.
Albert Einstein was a socialist (tags)
Famous physicist Albert Einstein wrote the essay entitled "Why Socialism?" for the first issue of left-wing magazine "Monthly Review" (May 1949).
APRIL 25, LA EVENT FOR MUMIA: Saturday, April 25 at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, 6120 S. Vermont, from 5-7 PM.
Barack Obama: Crime Boss (tags)
Obama's criminal partnership with Wall Street
Disarm the Markets! New Attac Basis Text (tags)
The therapy depends on the diagnosis. Mechanisms, instruments and actors can be identified whose action and teamwork led to the crash. The age of a unipolar world was very short. An historical chance is opening against finance capitalism.
The Misery of the WTO: For a Reinvention of World Trade (tags)
The crisis of the WTO has two causes: a lack of trust and an ideological prejudice. A lack of trust exists because the countries of the North judge trade with two standards: free trade for the South and protectionism for their own economies.
The truth is, none of the 20 leaders gathered in London has the slightest idea how to 'solve' the economic problems facing the globe....this is a crisis endemic to capitalism, where markets swallow markets and wealth is made by con games that would make the Mafia blush, by the biggest banks on earth. The latest economic summit was PR, amidst the flames of chaos.
Obama's New World Order (tags)
Obama's imperial agenda
Venezuela: The People’s Struggle is the Best Response to the Crisis! (tags)
* Soon El Libertario #56 will be available in the street and on the Internet (www.nodo50.org/ellibertario). El Libertario is the voice of free ideas and independent social movements in Venezuela and Latin America. As a preview of its usual combative, irreverent and uncompromising position with regard to authoritarian power and oppression, here's the editorial:
Obama's G-20 Confession "I Take Responsibility" (tags)
"The economic crisis had begun in the US.. The US president is accepting responsibility for the beginning of one of the worst economic crises of the last century...One of the excesses of the American way of life -- the craving for huge profits -- has brought the world to the brink of disaster.."
BTL:Corporate Media "Embedded" with Wall Street as Economic Crisis Hit (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
Lessons from the Great Depression: Christina D. Romer (tags)
This paper was presented at the Brookings Institution Washington D.C. March 9, 2009. Christina Romer, economics professor at Berkeley, is one of President Obama's economic advisers in the Council of Economic Advisers.
The Shortwave Report 04/03 Listen Globally! (tags)
A weekly 30 minute review of news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio. With times and freqs for listening at home. 2 files- broadcast and slow-modem streaming. Free to rebroadcast. China, Netherlands, Cuba, and Russia.
This struggle demands more than setting up wind turbines, buying more economical cars and rehabilitating houses. An historically unique pact is necessary between North and South, between industrial countries and threshold and developing countries.
You don’t want to pay for the crisis of capital? Then just don’t do it. (tags)
A critique of the calls for demonstrations against the G20 in Berlin, Frankfurt and London under the slogan “We won't pay for your crisis! – For a solidarity society”
global economy, politics, jobs in the Chinese age: Johnson, Frank, Gu (tags)
is global financial crisis leading to a new war? Why is a new world order troublesome? How to move to the next stage world finance, economy, management, jobs, politics and competition in light of emerging giants China, India? Get provocative thoughts from 3 educators Chalmers Johnson, Andre Gunder Frank, and George Zhibin Gu.
Obama: Lot's of Noise, Little Change (tags)
We've been had.
GERMANY: Notes on Neoliberalism (tags)
"The neoliberal revolution was the product of an historical development, a reaction to changed circumstances. In its course, many western states in the 1970s and 1980s reordered the relation of state and private power.."
BTL:Campaign Cash Bought Deregulation Triggered Economic Meltdown (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine
The Goldman Sachs Coup D'etat (tags)
is nearly complete
"Down the Memory Hole," Alan Greenspan Style (tags)
Greenspan-caused housing bubble
What is Behind the AIG Scandal (tags)
The controversy surrounding the American International Group (AIG) is one for the ages, for it starkly reveals who is really running our economic system and to what end. In an effort to please two irreconcilable groups — the vast majority, average working Americans, versus the few financial elite — Obama has lately resembled a tightrope walker on a tattered rope. The AIG debate has now unsettled this delicate balance; no longer will it be so easy to give billions to Wall Street while fake rage is hurled against this same group. The jig is up.
Alexander: Food Lines Show Signs of National Depression (tags)
According to Reuters, “The previous record for food stamp enrollment was 31.6 million last September, which included “disaster” stamps for states hit by hurricanes and floods.” Today’s disaster, that has increased that number is the U.S. economy; even with the government bailouts totaling close to $3 trillion, the U.S. economy is in freefall and the lines for food stamps and unemployment benefits continue to climb.
Fallen Stars: On the Greed of Bankers and a New Morality (tags)
The economic ethicist Ulrich Thielemann explains how greed, false theories and the herd instinct caused the massive financial crisis. They had the theory when we make profits that is ultimately good for everyone.
I believe that the only way out of our current economic and environmental woes is through expansion to the moon.
The Casino is Closed: Reasons for the Crash (tags)
Ulrich Schafer discusses the greed for fast money, a world without rules and why the market alone cannot regulate everything. The crisis has a pre-history. The state simply abandoned control over many economic areas. The financial world in particular was left to itself.
Monetary and Fiscal Failure, Fraud, and Fear of What's Next (tags)
looting the treasury continues with militarism ready to confront dissent
"Like the Shipwreck of the Titanic" (tags)
Around five million Americans have no job. "If nothing is done," the president warns, "the unemployment rated will soon be in double-digits." Whoever is unemployed in the US usually loses his health insurance and is threatened with personal bankruptcy.
Updating the Militarization and Annexation of North America (tags)
The North American Union is still viable.
Obama's Mistake in Reasoning (tags)
The accumulation of capital in fewer and fewer hands first made possible the worldwide economic crisis. For Obama's economic policy to be successful, he must reverse the assets disparity and force the 10% with two-thirds of the assets to solidarity through higher taxes.
PHILIPPINES: Thousands of Women Marched to Demand Full Employment (tags)
Amidst a deepening economic crisis engendered by the global financial meltdown, thousands of women workers belonging to the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) poured out into the streets of key Manila, Cebu, Davao, General Santos and Cotabato, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day to demand full employment and equality between women and men.
What has occurred throughout the U.S. is much more than an economic decay. It is a national lifestyle change.
Stiglitz Calls for Global Solutions to Crisis (tags)
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues that the only way to fix the world's economic crisis is to act globally. Speaking at the Development Policy Forum in Berlin on Monday he said the reform of the world's financial institutions wasn't going fast enough.
Faith in the Invisible Hand of the Market is Over (tags)
The people will not be so easily convinced of liberalization, deregulation and privatization. On the contrary, people will have a clearer consciousness of the primacy of politics. The false incentive systems in the businesses must be removed.
Alexander: Socialists Say Nationalize All U.S. Banks (tags)
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan thinks it’s necessary to temporarily nationalize some banks. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in recent statements has indicated that the nationalization of some banks may be necessary under certain conditions, and many economic analysts believe nationalization is only a matter of time; however, socialists nationwide say nationalization of all U.S. banks is now necessary to achieve a national economic recovery.
Putin and China: US Responsible in the Economic Crisis (tags)
Investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have practically ceased to exist, Putin added. In only twelve months, their losses exceeded the profits of the past 25 years. Wen said the blind pursuit of profit led to the worst crisis since the Great Depression of 1929.
On the Psychology of Neoliberalism (tags)
The claim of non-wage benefits was stylized as social misuse, recipients of high incomes as achievers and unemployment as personal responsibility. According to this ideology, the optimal conditions for gaining profits lead to prosperity for all.
"Mainstream politicians want to "fix" capitalism so we can return to a state of steady economic growth. But capitalism is broken when it is growing -- we don't want to return to business as usual. How can we use this period of economic collapse to move farther away from capitalism?"
A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas (tags)
The old gives way to the new as the snow gives way to the spring. (Rilke)
The California Budget and Class War (tags)
On February 19, the California legislature, after weeks of wrangling, passed a special budget to address the historically high $42 billion deficit. It represents an unadulterated washout for working people who are attacked on almost every front by the Democratic Party, which controls a broad majority in the legislature.
GERMANY: Oscar Lafontaine on the Financial Markets (tags)
"The present crisis cannot be overcome without a regulation of the financial markets.. When banks are given billions through the so-called bank bailout and these billions disappear somewhere, that is a misappropriation or embezzlement of tax funds.."
The Language of Looting by Michael Hudson (tags)
What "Nationalize the Banks" and the "Free Market" Really Mean in Today's Looking-Glass World
Employee Free Choice Act: The Enemies of Unions and The Lies They Tell (tags)
Corporate leaders see the proposed Employee Free Choice Act as a grave threat--and they'll say and do just about anything to prevent its passage.
Ronald Reagan: Betrayer of Main Street America! (tags)
William Kleinknecht takes the gloves off in his new book,”The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America.” He shows that the so-called “great communicator,” was, in fact, the “great enabler of corporate greed.” The Vulture Capitalists were set loose on the people by “Reaganism.” I say: Take Reagan’s name off that airport in D.C. Let his Fat Cat cronies pay for his memorials, not the taxpayers.
PHILIPPINES: Scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement now! (tags)
The secret Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) document exposed by Sen. Joker Arroyo is the latest in a string of arguments to hang the iniquitous agreement. The secret document is an insult that adds to the injury of Daniel Smith’s contempt of our justice system.
Economist Dean Baker on Book TV: "Plunder and Blunder" (tags)
Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.
American Politics: The 2-Party System Still Hurts Americans (tags)
It took at least one decade to get the U.S. into such dire economic straits.
Fear of the Great Depression (tags)
The acute danger exists of a self-reinforcing downward spiral from deflation, increasing debts and new problems in the financial sector..Degenerate banks must be closed by the state in a controlled way. Politics must try to reduce the uncertainties of consumers.
Light at the End of the Tunnel: Communities Must Stand Together for Change (tags)
Diverse communities in the U.S. have been standing together to bring about social change at the grassroots level in an unprecedented wave of euphoria set off by the inauguration of Barack Obama. Whether in public meetings, workshops, or protests the unity of purpose and momentum is palpable. What will it take to translate that human energy into real change?
Between Russophobia and Russophilia (tags)
The neoconservative revolutionaries wanted to make the export of democracy into the absolute military hit and harvested bloody noses. Western values and western democracy cannot be simply exported for forced on foreign countries.
Capitalists Attempting to Redefine Socialism (tags)
Since Congress passed the first $168 billion government stimulus, the “S” word has become a favorite term for the corporate media in referring to socialism. It would be more appropriate to use the “S” word to refer to “stimulus” because it is evident that the capitalists are moving no closer to a transition to socialism; however, as the U.S. economic crisis continues to expand and the failure of capitalism become more apparent to the world, the wealthy ruling elite are now sustaining capitalism with one stimulus after another.
Facing the Economic Crisis (tags)
Stanley Aronowitz teaches at the City University of New York and is the author of Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future (2006). More important articles and videos are available at www.socialistproject.ca.
CRISIS RAISES RISK OF SOCIAL UNREST IN ASIA (tags)
The global economic crisis heightens the potential for social unrest in Asia, where millions of people suddenly out of work will demand governments take swift and decisive action, analysts said.In the Philippines, of the country’s 36 million labor force, an estimated 40,000 to 200,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs this year, the National Economic and Development Authority said.
BTL:Replace Wall Street's Phantom Wealth with Main Street's Real Wealth (tags)
BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine --Weekly Summary
The Neo liberal elite seize their opportunity to increase unemployment globally. (tags)
The neo liberal elite seized their opportunity to create global unemployment when an ideological shift by the global elites occurred over the past four years at the UN from right wing neo liberalism (Bush) to left wing neo liberalism (Obama).
Rebuilding the House George Smashed:Can America Avoid Fascism? (tags)
America can avoid sliding into a full-blown fascist state complete with concentration camps and right wing death squads if we begin to act now. If we fail to act wisely we will face that dreaded moment when the gestapo pounds on our door in the middle of the night.
THE FILIPINO SPIRIT IN THE REMAKING OF AMERICA (tags)
Today, we celebrate our misa ng bayan with great hopes for brighter days of economic and moral recovery and renewal under our new President Barack Obama. It is certainly heartening and uplifting to know that we have a lot to hope and be thankful for after this nation demonstrated great courage by electing the first black, indeed, the first colored man in history, to the presidency. It brings much satisfaction after periods of intense crises and conflicts under the Bush administration, remembering 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic meltdown that continues to wreck havoc on us andespecially the common workers not only in the United States but all over the globe. After passing through the bleakest of days we earnestly hope to see light.
THE FILIPINO SPIRIT IN THE REMAKING OF AMERICA (tags)
Today, we celebrate our misa ng bayan with great hopes for brighter days of economic and moral recovery and renewal under our new President Barack Obama. It is certainly heartening and uplifting to know that we have a lot to hope and be thankful for after this nation demonstrated great courage by electing the first black, indeed, the first colored man in history, to the presidency. It brings much satisfaction after periods of intense crises and conflicts under the Bush administration, remembering 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic meltdown that continues to wreck havoc on us andespecially the common workers not only in the United States but all over the globe. After passing through the bleakest of days we earnestly hope to see light.
Time for a Bad Ideas Bank (tags)
The global economic disaster plunges economics into a legitimation crisis-not yet noticed by the vast majority of the affected. The current financial crisis involves dogmas that markets function best and correct their own mistakes.
What Obama Could Learn From Germany (tags)
The United States is experiencing its worst crisis in decades. Obama is trying to fight it by preparing one gigantic economic stimulus program after the other. But the hangover is inevitable, and if the desired economic miracle doesn't materialize, it will be a massive one.
Banks Injure Economic Stimulus Plan by Jacking up Credit Card Interest (tags)
Could banks jacking up credit card interest during a horrendous recession—delay U.S. economic recovery and destroy the expected benefits of the Economic Stimulus Plan?
A New Administration, Tired Old Policies (tags)
Counterproductive policies heading America for depression
Portland's Town Hall Meeting on the Economic Crisis (tags)
On January 31st, Portland Oregon held an important — perhaps historic — mass meeting in response to the economic crisis. Dozens of unions and other progressive organizations were able to attract over 800 people to hear an analysis of the crisis itself, proposed solutions, and a variety of workshops which included everything from labor rights, trade and immigration, and a "green economy." It is believed that this was the first such event in the country.
Senate votes to give a tax break to new car buyers (tags)
Alternative economics emphasizes reducing working hours, investing in the infrastructure, expanding the public sector, reducing consumption, ending wars of choice and reconsidering the 700 military bases in 130 countries-all seemingly taboo.
Competing Ideologies: Davos v. Belem (tags)
alternate ideological views
After the Meltdown: Economic Redisgn for the 21st Century-David Korten (tags)
"The task before us is to replace the culture and institutions of a twentieth-century economy designed and managed to serve financial values with the culture and institutions of a new twenty-first-century economy designed to serve life values.."
No One Can Escape the Crisis (tags)
From a long-term perspective, the crisis could bring about a radical rethinking in politics and the economy away from the mantra of shareholder value and the pursuit of short-term profits. The neoliberal model of the Washington consensus has revealed its fundamental weaknesses.
Bashing Venezuelan Democracy (tags)
The dominant media again on the rampage.
Recession Raises the Question of Meaning (tags)
The facade of a sound world suddenly crumbles. Are the funds available to the productive economy or are they sinking in the swamp of a degenerate global financial- and economic system? An economy that prioritizes human needs and nature is primarily regional.
An Umbrella for Workers (tags)
The economic crisis is a structural crisis where productivity has soured and wages have stagnated. The fraud in public regional banks must end. Unemployment benefits must increase. Michael Schlecht is a union spokesperson for the German Left party (Die Linke).
Berlin Sees No Limits to Economic Intervention (tags)
"As part of her efforts to combat the economic crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is increasing the state's influence in the market, buying holdings in banks and bailing out individual industries and companies. Is Germany turning into a planned economy?"
Some Thoughts on Obama and the US Empire (tags)
Chris Burnett is host of "Indymedia On Air" on KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles
Liberal Prof Confronts Socialist Audience (tags)
Grossmont College economics professor Shahrokh Shahrokhi was invited to speak at the January 12 meeting of Activist San Diego, but though he attacked "market fundamentalism" and called for more government regulation of the economy,,public equity purchases iin the major financial firms and an extensive stimulus plan, many in the audience didn't think his proposals went far enough. They also bristled at his contention that homebuyers who took out mortgages beyond their means were partly responsible for the current economic crisis.
Bob Herbert the African-American New York Times columnist has just published a column in the New York Times called "Zimbabwe" in which he claims that Zimbabwe it is in a total mess and that it's all the president of Zimbabwe's fault.
Common Security in Economic Crisis (tags)
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. In his sermon, he challenges us: "We can retreat into fear or move to community. We have ventured to the limits of acquisitive greed. Our `mutual aid muscles' may have atrophied and need strengthening.."
Sean Baker on Finance Capitalism (tags)
Education and health care are the new gold. Without massive investments in education and health care, dour country will be under-developed and under-achieving.
The Blame Game in Gaza: Covering for Israel, Concealing War Crimes (tags)
Israeli war crimes in Gaza
new century war: by Frank, Johnson, George Zhibin Gu (tags)
is global financial crisis leading to a new war? Why is a new world order troublesome? How to move to the next stage world finance, economy, management, jobs, politics and competition in light of emerging giants China, India? Get provocative thoughts from 3 educators Chalmers Johnson, Andre Gunder Frank, and George Zhibin Gu.
Mass Mobilization In Los Angeles On Obamas Inauguration Day! (tags)
This is a Call out for all those out there fed up with the U.S. government. Their Abuse of the Economic Crisis among the American People and the Global Community. For the Continuous Murders commited by the LAPD and Surrounding Police Authorities and the Constant Racial Profiling and Discrimination done by the Police. This is For the U.S. Involvement in Israel and the Gaza Massacre which has claimed over 300 lives. Mass Mobilization In Los Angeles On Obama's Inauguration 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles-Also Known As Los Angeles City Hall. This is a Call out for all those out there fed up with the U.S. government. Their Abuse of the Economic Crisis among the American People and the Global Community. For the Continuous Murders committed by the LAPD and Surrounding Police Authorities and the Constant Racial Profiling and Discrimination done by the Police. This is For the U.S. Involvement in Israel and the Gaza Massacre which has claimed over 300 lives. So! A Call out to all, passionate, hopeless romantics, to all families who struggle, to all races, ethinicities, genders, Homosexuals Bisexuals, Transgendered, to all anarchists and marxists, democrats and republicans, to all those who are unhappy with the current state of the world. Lets Make Obama, the United States, and the Rest of the world Know that We Arent going to Stand for the Oppression the U.S. Government, Police,and Other Governing Bodies Commit.
On the Financial Crisis in the 20:80 Society (tags)
The question is how we deal with the 20:80 society, not whether the 20:80 society is coming because the development is irreversible. In the long-term, work will disappear.. Jobless growth has become the normal condition.The end of work can be a great leap for humanity.
"The economic emergency, however, is not simply the consequence of mindless, ideological deregulation and investment bubbles gone bust. It is the result of a narrowly conceived economic model and the failure of Washington's social contract with America.."
Obamanomics: Why the Stimulus Plan Will Not Revive the Economy (tags)
This article was published in: The Independent, Dec 12, 2008.
Venezuela: No concentration of power is ever revolutionary (tags)
*As Chavez attempts to allow indefinite presidential reelections for himself by way of the approval of the Referendum for Constitutional amendment, anarchists publish this declaration, which is also the Editorial of El Libertario #55, January-February 2009 (now on line, in Spanish www.nodo50.org/ellibertario).
From Real Estate Speculation to Collapse of Global Deficit Economy (tags)
Joy to the world, the world of fallen idols and bubble transfer. The truth will set us free but the truth is a process, not a cudgel or stimulus. After the dot-com bubble, trillions were "invested" in real estate speculation. The crisis of the work society is the background for low interests.
World and US Situation, 2008 (tags)
For more than two years, we revolutionaries had observed the impending total unravelling and complete discredit of the "free market" pretense of monopoly capitalism and the full bankruptcy of the policy of "neoliberal globalization." But the leaders of the US and other imperialist countries and the puppet states were always lying and boasting about the so-called strong fundamentals of their economies. Only recently have they been compelled by the circumstances to admit that the US and global capitalist system are beset by the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression.
A Journey Through Economic Time (tags)
This interview broadcast in 1994 is available at www.booknotes.org. Education is the great transformer. Economic development is a pacifier. FDR identified with the republic, and the republic with him, and he gave his whole life to the country
The State Invests and Memorandum 2008 (tags)
When the state invests, it ensures that the economy will grow faster tomorrow than today: new streets, better schools and new eco-techniques. In a few years we will all earn more. Even German bank president Axel Weber urges a state economic program.
Economy Between Competition and Cooperation (tags)
"Market" already includes the concept of "symbiosis" in which two symbiots have advantages through their relation to one another. An increasing net consciousness will have a huge influence on economic interactions by strengthening the partnership principle.
5 Disastrous Decisions That Got Us into This Econmic Mess (tags)
We are at a dangerous moment. Behind the debates about future economic policy is a debate about history. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate, is a professor of economics at Columbia University.
The International Crisis WS almost Final Report (tags)
The solemnity of closure had the presence of governors of Parana, Roberto Requião, of Sao Paulo, Jose Serra, of Santa Catarina, Luiz Henrique da Silveira, and Senator Alvaro Dias, in addition to the speakers as teachers and economists as Carlos Lessa and Darc Costa.
Memorandum 2008 Summary-Crisis Underrated (tags)
Without increasing internal demand, the upswing based on replacement investments and exports cannot continue. Without reduced working hours, adequate jobs will not be created in a world of reduced work volumes, rationalization and information technology.
Alexander Wants Jobs for Local Communities, Construction Industry (tags)
Once again Stewart A. Alexander is rejecting the continuous flow of U.S. dollars to bailout banks and corporate America; instead, Alexander says any public funds should go to local communities to help working people, creating jobs in the building and construction industry. Alexander says the U.S. government should establish a $1 trillion fund to make available low interest loans for home improvements; this would create jobs across America and benefit local communities.
Spreading the Wealth: A Review of Unjust Deserts (tags)
The foremost ethical question is, given that we owe most of our productivity to a common social inheritance, to what extent can we say that we have "earned" our personal wealth? There is a growing consensus in favor of a new robust public compact to regulate our shared conditions.
III-the International Crisis WS Report (tags)
The Master in Economics and official of the Ecuadorian Central Bank, March Naranjo Chiriboga, asked help from the Mercosur countries, mainly from Brazil, to overcome the global financial crisis. He believes that Ecuador, which has no own currency and uses the U.S. dollar for internal commercial transactions, will feel the results of crisis in a more pronounced way and will be one of the most affected countries in Latin America.
Human Rights Begins at Home (tags)
On December 10th, 2008, DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association celebrates the 60th anniversary of United Declaration of Human Rights with the domestic workers, women, im/migrants, people of color and all oppressed people whose human rights are under attack and are struggling for justice, dignity and liberation. Filipino im/migrant women workers continue to face the brunt on the deepening global economic crisis and are subjected to rampant human rights violations perpetrated by bad employers, diplomats, governments. We demand that individuals and institutions be accountable for upholding the basic rights of all people as recognized in the United Declaration of Human Rights and the need to develop additional protection for domestic workers. Like Marichu Baoanan, a Filipina nursing school graduate and caregiver who filed 15 counts of trafficking, forced labor and racketeering against former Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja, women workers from around the world have first-hand experience of abuse, dehumanization and enslavement. Marichu was forced to make the painful and risky decision of migrating abroad in the interest of her family's survival. While she expected to earn a living in a forieign land, away from her family and familiarity of her homeland, she did not anticipate the slave wage equivalent to 6 cents per hour, 18-hour working conditions and being subjected to routine insults, curses and humiliation.
II-The international Crisis WS Report, Curitiba, Pr, Br (tags)
Watch it now at web tv at http://www.aenoticias.pr.gov.br/tv-aovivo.php
The International Crisis Report, from Curitiba, PR, BR (tags)
Adjusting to avoid the concentration of the financial system, maintaining that system under the domain of public power and invest in infrastructure and in social policies are functions that the state should recover from the current global crisis. That is what said the teacher called Alex Izurieta, senior secretary of
The Global Economic Crisis - Bad and Worsening (tags)
the crisis is deepening
533 JOBS LOST IN NOVEMBER, the MOST IN 30 YEARS (tags)
Labor Department statistics show that U.S. employers have cut 1.2 million jobs in the last three months. 'This was much worse than was expected,' one analyst says.
Somebody had to offer a calm and serene response even though this will have to swim up the powerful stream of hopes raised by Obama in the international public opinion...
Obama's Economic Dream Team? (tags)
indeed for Wall Street bankers
After the Bankruptcy (Jurgen Habermas) (tags)
The privatization mania has ended. Politics is necessary for the public interest, not the market. A tension always exists between capitalism and democracy because the market and politics are based on opposite principles.
12/1 Lee Siu Hin: What We Should Expect from President Barak Obama? (tags)
If history can teach us something, the election of Obama and Clinton has many similarities: after the initial excitement we might experience the same disappointment and disillusion like Clinton-era--and even the possibility of Republicans can capitalize the public disappointment to regain the control of Congress at the future elections.....
Holy Scripture is the Standard, not Capitalism (tags)
Describing the dominant system as a social market economy is a deception. Social justice should be the integrating element of our economic order. Justice is not something additional to faith in God. Trust in the invisible hand is the core of the religion of the market.
The New Deal - in the US and Germany (tags)
A radical rethinking, a New Deal, is on the agenda. The worldwide depression can only be countered with stronger economic regulation, increased public spending and fiscal measures. This means an end to privatizations and rebuilding the essential infrastructure.
International WShappens December the 6th to the 11th (tags)
We want a debate not from the perspective of the market because the market heralds resolved now that they will make the solution for what themselves caused, with their bad conduction of economic policy
Buy Nothing Day Organizers Confront the Economic Meltdown Head On (tags)
The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-realization. Bailing out speculators while ignoring the imperatives of reducing working hours and building community centers is a blindness.
GM, The NY Times, & Marxism 101 (tags)
As Socialists, we are consistently asked to present our ideas in a clearer, easier to understand manner. To achieve this goal, I’ll enlist the help of former Governor of Massachusetts and candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, who appeared in the New York Times Op-Ed section on Nov. 19th. Romney’s piece, entitled “Let Detroit Go Broke,” laid bare the intent behind the angry rhetoric used by politicians against the proposed bailout for the “Big Three” automakers. Whereas the giant Wall Street banks received over 1 trillion dollars — so far— without barely having to ask, an industry that actually produces something has to beg for a handout. Why the difference?
The economy elected Barack Obama President, and it will make or break his administration. Right now it seems likely to break it, as Obama's announced appointees to staff his government come almost exclusively from the moderate administration of Bill Clinton, thereby assuring the ruling class that "change you can believe in" means "change the rich and powerful won't have to worry about." Without a mass Left movement on the order of the socialists and communists who in the 1930's pushed Franklin Roosevelt to the Left, Obama's Presidency is likely to be yet another suck-up to corporate America and its anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-worker "free trade" agenda.
Klaus Offe, a left thinker, once proposed Offe's paradox, the idea that"while capitalism cannot coexist with, neither can it exist without the welfare state." Canada has done better than some countries in protecting social welfare. The welfare state is not dead; what is dead is econ security.
The global crisis is a crisis of capitalism (tags)
It is time for the workers and the poor in the Philippines to prepare for the worse the moment its government keeps on repeating the mantra that the economic fundamentals remain good and thus there is little to worry about effects of the global recessionary trend. The world found itself in the present mess precisely because of such blind faith in neoliberal fundamentalism.
VIDEO: Joseph Stiglitz on NOW, 11/20/2008 (tags)
Insight on the Economic Meltdown. Joseph Stiglitz talks about misplaced priorities in handling the economic meltdown and what we should do next. A culture of risk-taking was totally inappropriate.
Bankruptcy of the Last Utopia (tags)
The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-realization. The economy should serve humankind; humanity should not serve bankers, SUVs and sports stadiums. The same Chinese letter represents crisis & opportunity.Will future be more human?
Philippine social movements storm US Embassy (tags)
Philippine social movements hit G-20 summit’s exclusivity, call for a new and democratic world order
Obama and the Crisis of Expectation (tags)
With Obama elected President but not yet inaugurated, the question on everyone’s mind is, “what’s going to happen next?” Millions of people around the world are hoping that a Obama presidency will radically change the course of US politics, and with it, world politics. This is especially true for the huge numbers of mostly young volunteers working for Obama’s campaign, most of whom had never been involved in politics before. And while it is impossible to predict the future precisely, one can make an educated guess as to Obama’s future actions, based on answering two fundamental questions: which social class is Obama and the Democratic Party going to represent while in office, and what are the current interests of that class. For example, if Obama were to act in the interests of the working class, a number of measures would be immediately taken, such as increasing wages, improving healthcare, funding schools, ending war, etc. If, on the other hand, Obama is going to represent the ruling class, we can expect policies similar to the Bush Presidency, who long ago proved himself to be a puppet for the banks and corporations.
International seminar to discuss how to exit the financial crisis announced (tags)
He criticized the conduction of economic policy by Brazilian Central Bank. "The CB is throwing money in the market without taking a specific concern with the change in the economic model, with public investment." Our concern is to analyze the crisis from the perspective of individuals, of the nation, and not
A reality check.
The deepening economic crisis.
The wages of sin have come due.
2008 Pre-Election Message from Stewart A. Alexander (tags)
Every 75 years the capitalists ruling class devise an economic crisis which is always followed by a conflict between nations or a major war. We must end this cycle and support socialism and socialist candidates.
Income Distribution is Perverse (tags)
Redistribution of income is central. Another economy is necessary in which people are more important than profit percentages. A shareholder value philosophy ruthlessly downsizes and closes plants in pursuit of maximum profit.
Tinkering with Symptoms (tags)
The bailout plan does not tackle the causes of the financial crisis. The question remains why financial institutions should be saved from a crisis they created and in which they earlier earned vast amounts of money. The American government has no Plan B.
Lebanon: "Nahr al-Bared Between Past and Present" (Video) (tags)
New short film on current developments in the destroyed Nahr al-Bared Camp.
US Government Report Undermines Zimbabwe Opposition’s Claim of Independence Filed under: (tags)
The US government had a hand in formulating the policy platform of the Tsvangirai faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, and funded community-based newsletters to create a platform to persuade Zimbabweans to accept Washington’s point of view, according to a US government report
Growing financial crisis.
Past sins are coming home to roost.
IRS Federal TAX Property Liens Underwater (tags)
Federal IRS TAX Collection CRISIS Averted The major Federal tax enforcement and collection system in the United States is in jeopardy. Billions of dollars in IRS property liens are "underwater". IRS property lien collection payments and wage garnishments, based on a persons employment and property ownership, is in a catastrophic state of failure. The United States Federal Government has averted this failure by buying the mortgages and banks that hold these liens and write the paychecks.
Pre-Election Message from Stewart A. Alexander (tags)
Every 75 years the capitalists ruling class devise an economic crisis which is always followed by a conflict between nations or a major war. We must end this cycle and support socialism and socialist candidates.
FIGHT THE SECOND JAPANESE INVASION OF THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
The Filipino Community and all concerned Filipino Americans in the United States vehemently condemn the Senate's railroading of the ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) on Wednesday night. October 8th.. Pro-Japan collaborators also known as the modern MAKAPILIS, the sixteen senators led by JPEPA's sponsors Senators Miriam Santiago and Mar Roxas (whose grandfather was a Japanese and an American puppet) have compromised the country's national patrimony and sovereignty by approving a patently one-sided, anti-Filipino economic treaty.
The Terrorist Among U.S. (tags)
("Papers, - Do You Have Your Papers?") Do you remember the Fred McMurray Building in Oklahoma City? It was blown up by an ex-army USA home-grown terrorist. Do you want this to happen again? How many Federal Government checkpoints will it take until a patriotic American goes crazy and becomes a terrorist? (I feel it will be an ex-military person who has seen checkpoints blow up before and knows exactly what it is they are doing.)
OPPOSE JANP-RP TREATY (JPEPA), STRUGGLE AGAINST JAPANESE IMPERIALISM (tags)
The Filipino Community and all concerned Filipino Americans in the United States vehemently condemn the Senate's railroading of the ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) on Wednesday night. October 8th.. Pro-Japan collaborators also known as the modern MAKAPILIS, the sixteen senators led by JPEPA's sponsors Senators Miriam Santiago and Mar Roxas (whose grandfather was a Japanese and an American puppet) have compromised the country's national patrimony and sovereignty by approving a patently one-sided, anti-Filipino economic treaty. This is a reminiscence of how the Philippine Senate in 1972 passed the RP-Japan Treaty of Amity that opened the Philippines to the exploitation and oppression of the Japanese Imperialists.
AJLPP Analysis on the Current World Capitalist Crisis (tags)
The capitalist bailout rammed into the US Congress has infused into the banks more than $ 500 B out of the $ 700 appropriations. But despite the huge infusion to the capitalist system, the crisis marched on with impunity. The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) believes that the latest unraveling of the “free market” dogma, the ultimate exposure of the failed concept of “neoliberal globalization” and the gravity of the current level of the economic and financial crisis of the imperialist powers headed by the US is now totally exposed to the whole world. But this phenomenon must be explained and understood and should not be feared. We must act to face this crisis with renewed determination and readiness to struggle for the people and to change this rotten system.
The President of the United States, George Bush, enters today his last 100 days in power overshadowed by very high unpopularity rates and one of the worst economic crises in recent decades.
Federal Government Border Patrol Checkpoints on Olympic Peninsula (tags)
I think people at these Federal Government Border Patrol Checkpoints, should be forced to produce a valid Federal Income Tax Return from the previous year. If you can not produce this document (FEDERAL INCOME TAX FROM PREVIOUS YEAR) you should be arrested and put in an internment camp and forced to work for the Federal Government.
The October Surprise - Global Panic (tags)
It's not over.
Deforestation Costs More than Financial Crisis (tags)
It is a steep bill. Our shrinking forests cost us up to $5 trillion a year -- far more than the current banking crisis. Environmentalists hope the sobering calculation, made by a European Union commissioned team, will focus political will on funding conservation.
It is very simple economic fascism, animal farm economics 101. IRS property confiscation for taxes; this is the definition of economic fascism; IRS property confiscation for taxes.
V.P. Candidate Alexander: U.S. Economy is Beyond Recession (tags)
Socialist Vice Presidential Candidate Stewart A. Alexander says the measures that are being taken by the Fed, in the midst of this growing economic crisis is an indication that the U.S. economy has now passed the stage of a recession and is now in the early stage of a depression. “It will take more than printing truck loads money and bailing out the capitalists to prevent the U.S. and global economy from slipping into a deeper depression.”
Let's Have a New President November 5 (tags)
With the U.S. economy in free fall, this country doesn't have the luxury of waiting until January 20, 2009 to swear in the winner of this year's presidential election, This post presents a modest proposal for installing the election winner in the White House immediately, so he can get to work on fixing the economy right away.
The United States of America Claims Bankruptcy! (tags)
After taking on more than 14 trillion in Federal debt, the housing market in the United States dropped 40%, and the United States was burdened with another 10 trillion dollars in mortgage debt. The FED’s spending did not stop there, another 2 trillion was spent bailing out companies and banks. US treasuries faltered and failed as global wealth funds dumped the dollar. FANTASY? Economic Fascism and The United States
The "haves and have-mores" must move on (tags)
And bring their "Masters of the Universe" with them
US Real Estate: From Goldmine To Money Pit (tags)
Mortgage Backed Securities and Derivatives are Flawed and Failing. The mortgage debt problem is simple really, it has been a total mis-appropriation of equity. The equity lost on flat screen TV's, boats, new cars, vacations, and other living expenses; is equity lost forever. This loss of equity spent on consumer goods and expenses is a pyramid scheme of hyper-capitalism that is flawed and failing. Equity not spent on the property the equity comes from, is equity lost forever, a mis-appropriation of funds, and inappropriate; it is a failing economic model.
The U.S. Economy on FIRE (tags)
The current U.S. economic crisis didn't start a few years ago when banks and financial institutions started selling "subprime" real estate loans to high-risk borrowers and then repackaging them as "mortgage-backed securities." It began in the early 1970's as a result of a long-term plan by America's major corporations and business leaders to drive down workers' wages and extract more surplus value — and the workers' response, which was to take on more debt. Any real solution that benefits working people cannot be instituted until the power of the corporate rich over the political system is broken.
Meltdown and Bailout: Why Our Economic System Is on the Verge of Collapse (tags)
Today's highly speculative economy pushes capital into developing countries and into bubble after speculative bubble in search of a better profit margin.
Bush....an economic terrorist
Why Socialism? (by Albert Einstein) (tags)
This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949).
The Credit Crisis may reflect concern with likely growing trade union power. (tags)
The credit crisis may reflect a likely increase in the power of the trade union movement as a consequence of decisions made at the UN.
Bail-Out, Economic Democracy and the Socialist Path (tags)
David Schweickart, political philosopher, discusses the financial crisis, what it exposes about capitalism, how it can set the stage for economic democracy, and open the socialist path.
Changing the Rules to Keep the Ruling Class in the Drivers Seat (tags)
A better solution would be to cancel all debts.
V.P. Candidate Alexander: Fed Rescue Plan a Temporary Fix (tags)
Vice Presidential Candidate Stewart A. Alexander, says the $700 billion rescue plan is only a temporary fix for an economy with many fractures. “The root cause of the U.S. economic crisis is the system, capitalism; and every 75 years a new bailout plan becomes necessary.”
Philippine women’s groups urge lawmakers to pass Reproductive Health Bill (tags)
MANILA, Philippines – A day before several lawmakers deliver their respective sponsorship speeches on the controversial bill promoting the use of both artificial and natural means of family planning, among others, a network of more than 50 non-government and people's organizations advocating women's and people's rights today urged other members of the House of Representatives to affirm women’s right to reproductive self-determination, and to support the immediate passage of the Reproductive Health Bill.
a fire
The Angels on the Economy by Doreen Virtue (tags)
Economic conditions are more affected by human beliefs and expectations, than by oil prices or political concerns. This is true for you personally, as well as for everyone globally. Your personal finances are greatly influenced by your expectations and emotions
The Homeless Move to Bushville. (tags)
This is what I have been watching the wires for, a report revealing the 21st. century Hooverville.
The Shortwave Report 9/19 Listen Globally! (tags)
A weekly 30 minute review of news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio. With times and freqs for listening at home. 2 files- broadcast and slow-modem streaming. Free to rebroadcast. China, Netherlands, Cuba, and Russia.
Reviewing Danny Schechter's "Plunder" (tags)
A masterful account of the subcrime crisis.
Excesses of Supply Theory (tags)
In Germany, the competitiveness of businesses is still set above strengthening domestic demand. Therefore Germany could skid into a recession. In the US, trickle-down economics, tax cuts benefiting the top 1% and military Keynesianism make the economic future ominous.
Further Oppression of the Poor likely at the UN: America – both the Problem and the Soluti (tags)
After many years I devised a human rights approach to address the problems faced by societies, national and international. This includes immediately addressing core minimum obligations (i.e. dealing with the most serious violations), including the empowering rights to human rights education (re democratic support for human rights) and the right to development (re small business promotion) as well as non-retrogression (the protection of existing rights). However remarkably I was to find that the rights I focused on were virtually identical to the rights excluded by the complaints procedure due to be adopted by the UN General Assembly next month. I am now even more convinced than ever that my socially responsible ‘bottom-up’ human rights approach is the path forward while the global elites, international and national institutions fear any change that threatens their positions and lifestyles.
ECONOMIC CRISIS AFFECTS ELDERLY (tags)
Recession whatever they call it, marches on! They called it “ jobless growth”, a “slowdown” an economic crisis and all politicians call it except by its true name. Why are they so afraid of this word? Although it affects everyone, politicians and bourgeois econimist refuse to call it by its name. But the hard facts tells the truth. Now, the seniors and older Americans are the latest victims of these recession.
Biblical Sabbath Economy (tags)
Franz Segbers insists the Biblical Sabbath economy cares for the oikos, not speculation and accumulation When the right of speculation trumps the right of housing, we end up protecting the sharks from the sardines (cf "Housing as a Human Right")
Energy and Climate - Hunger and Money (tags)
At the World Economic Forum, the extensive global crisis is trivialized to four "great risks." The neoliberal elite does not want a system change. It wants to assure itself against the threatening fourfold injustice. A 20% loss in the global social product could be avoided.
Growth and Social Justice: Joseph Stiglitz (tags)
The trickle-down economy does not function. The left understands the market and rhe role the market can and should play in the economy. The right doesn't understand either. The Bush administration is nothing but the old corporatism in a new garment.
When I was a kid growing up my parents weren’t rich weren’t poor. They didn’t have a lot of money, but enough to qualify as lower middle class and at times middle class. My father had a visiting teacher’s position at a university and my mother was an administrative assistant working towards a college degree. The highest tax bracket they got to was middle class just before my dad passed away in 1987.
Why We Challenged Barack Obama (tags)
On Friday, August 1st I led a contingent of the Uhuru Movement into Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida to raise the question, “what about the black community, Obama?” Without the benefit of a big media budget, our organization attempted to bring the serious issues experienced by African working class people across this country into the national political debate.
Rude Awakening in Mexico (tags)
US businesses invested $120 billion in Mexico between 1994 and 2006. Only 80,000 jobs were created per year while 730,000 Mexicans pressed on the labor market every year. While migration climbed 95% from 1980 to 1994, it soared an incredible 452% from 1994 to 2006.
The Great Ruin by Joseph Stiglitz (tags)
The war has destroyed the economy, society and sovereignty of the country. The economic misery is only an integral element of the general debacle. Paul Bremer issued laws abolishing import duties and lowering corporate taxes. Privatizing state enterprises violated Hague Convention of 1902.
Full Speed Against the Brick Wall (tags)
Massive capital has streamed into the raw material sector and crude oil. When we leave the market to speculators, panic rules. The economy falls into a double crisis-out of scarce raw materials and energy and falling profit rates and mass demand.
Without Ethics the Economy Runs into the Wall (tags)
Only 27% of Germans think the population benefits when business does well. Only 40% believe the economy and the population sit in the same boat. With tendencies to screen itself socially and give priority to its own goals, the economy loses the important capital of trust.
Alexander Dismisses Economic Plans of Obama and McCain (tags)
There is no easy fix for the ailing U.S. economy, and Barack Obama and John McCain are not prepared to make the necessary changes that will protect the interests of working people. Comparing the economic plans of the two candidates, it does not matter whether McCain or Obama is elected in the 2008 Election; the economic programs that have been outlined by both candidates will only produce minor differences to the present Bush White House.
System criticism is often repressed. Private vice does not bring public virtue. Everyone pursuing self-interest does not usher in public welfare. Inequality, growth, competition and market fundamentalism are not panaceas or inevitabilities but false securities.
Underground workers movement vs. DCWD, Franklin Baker (tags)
Joint Statement on the 34th G8 Summit in Tōyako, Hokkaidō, Japan
Money for those Arrested at the World Economic Forum 2003 (tags)
In late January and early February 2003, the World Economic Forum meetings were held in New York City. In a class action lawsuit later brought by demonstrators arrested at the meetings, it was alleged that the NYPD attempted to show the world it was in control by illegally arresting and detaining 215 persons.
Revolutionary Justice for the Filipino Working Class Victims of Big Capitalists! (tags)
The Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions (RCTU) in Southern Mindanao, an underground group of revolutionary unions and an allied organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) expresses its strongest indignation of the systematic attack perpetrated by foreign and local comprador-capitalists against the Filipino working class.
Alternatives to Free Trade: Fair Trade and Beyond (tags)
The global debate around free-trade and its consequences has evolved tremendously in recent years, from tiny circles of leftist critics into a broad international protest movement. Although the movement began to bloom in response to the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the biggest demonstrations have been in response to the now-popular "bi-lateral" free-trade agreements that economically powerful countries sign with poorer nations. Once one has become conscious of the problems created by free-trade agreements, whether they are international or regional, an immediate task presents itself: finding a feasible alternative. Yes, the trade policy advocated by most big business politicians is "free-trade," and yes, this policy has had devastating consequences for working and poor people worldwide, while filling the already-full bank accounts of the rich. But the issue of "free-trade" alone isn't sufficient to fully explain the vast social problems that plague so many countries.
The Time is Ripe: Democratic Controls of the Financial Markets! (tags)
Like the melting of the dollar, the energy, food and housing crises have systemic roots, the logic and dynamic of maximum profit.. The US is experiencing a "margin call." The world wants its money back. The economy and the financial markets should serve people, not vice versa.
Crisis Populism and Rose-Colored Glasses (tags)
When it concerns socializing the losses of the financial disaster, the head of Deutsche Bank no longer believes in the "self-healing power of the market." The bankruptcy of neoliberalism is blatant.
Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge" (tags)
an indictment of imperialism
Deregulated Markets and Alternative Economics (tags)
In the last ten years there was more speculationthan ever, more than before the 1930 worldwide economic crisis. A policy of deregulated financial markets made this possible. That real investment profits turn out relatively small encourages the speculation tendency.
Working people relying on stimulus checks, coins and lotto (tags)
The platforms of the Socialist Party USA and Peace and Freedom Party outline fundamental approaches that will promote economic policy that will benefit working people. Both socialist parties are rejecting the economic strategies of the Democrats, Republicans, and their candidates; advancing U.S. imperialism and waging war is not the answer for our economy that is now in economic free fall.
Potential Future Hyperinflation (tags)
Potential economic trouble ahead.
Economic troubles are broad, deep and worrisome.
Game of Deceived Deceivers (tags)
The worldwide game with fictional assets has a few winners and many losers. Who has deceived whom in the game of deceived deceivers is hardly clear. The world econmy is too important to be left to gamblers. We need far more than a few new surveillance cameras and watchmen in the casino
While Suppresing Voices from UCLA ISSE Students, Jim Lafferty States Their Message Well (tags)
Suppressing Voices from UCLA International Students for Social Equality (ISSE) Students on the Station Listener Web Forum, KPFK General Manager Jim Lafferty Nonetheless Articulates Their Message Well.
World Bank and IMF Policies Caused Food Crisis (tags)
The IMF changed its economic direction and took a market radical neoliberal economic course at the beginning of the 1980s with the rise of monetarism. Hunger inthe world can only be overcome with long-term sustainable strategies, not with the short-term horizon of Wall Street.
Limits of Private Property (tags)
If life does not consist in the abundance of things and if time is borrowed from the future, do possessions invalidate community? Is life colonized by instrumental rationality (Habermas) when all life and relations are determined by money?
Supernote Enigma: american economic warfare against North Korea (tags)
The supernote claims made against North Korea by the US government indicate a plan of economic terrorism and sabotage disguised as a jusitified penalty for an international crime. Read more about this latest round of hypocrisy, whereby North Korea is accused of doing what the evil empire is: economic warfare
Will the Neoliberal Consensus Survive the Banking Crisis? (tags)
These are hard times for the neoliberal consensus whose message was forced worldwide for three decades by the ruling classes in the imperialist metropolises on free capital flows. Business data is a fetish constructed for the goal of profit maximization.
Warning of the American Friend (tags)
What primarily motivates US foreign policy-economic interests or a religious mission consciousness? A special world view is added to the economic interests In this perspective, economic liberalism brings political freedom and both together lead to peace and free trade.
Why Are Banks Failing, Mr. Giegold? (tags)
The crisis will cost massive job losses and strain public budgets. The policy of market opening that refuses social and ecological regulations is a disaster. We must raise new taxes. Closing the tax havens would also be desirable.
Thousands Marched Through Downtown Milwaukee (tags)
Protesters want a fair and just immigration reform bill passed within the first 100 days of the next President’s term
Shouting from the Caboose (tags)
Hope lies beyond Social Darwinism and hyper-individualism. As the end of cheap oil could be the beginning of real community, the end of everyday time could be the beginning of kairos time, the time of decision. Black is a new consciousnessness, not a skin color (Steve Biko)
Civil Society by Stephen Hume (tags)
Improvements in people's lives often have come about when society listened to voices on the periphery, not just the political and economic elites.
Six Years Ago: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (tags)
the importance of the peoples' uprising in April 2002 that returned Hugo Chavez to power (http://amleft.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_amleft_archive.html#1824647354471283476)
The US military occupation of Iraq cannot be won militarily and cannot be paid for. The military occupation was sold as a cheap war that would only help the US and the world: more security and a lower price of oil. Empire and double standards bring only nihilism and distrust.
"The workers who have to sell themselves bit by bit are a commodity like every other commercial article." This quotation from the 1848 Communist Manifesto is an accurate description of the current system which is morally sick and lacks consensus.
The greatest risks threaten through the crisis of the financial system, through further price increases for food, the sensitivity of global supply routes and the increasingly expensive sources of energy. 2008 could develop into a worldwide crisis year.
Socialists: Re-Thinking Electric Cars and Automobile Industry (tags)
Today, it has become necessary to re-think the future of three industries to reduce U.S. dependency on oil; the automobile industry, the petroleum industry and the ethanol industry. The future direction of these three industries will definitely determine the quality of life for working class people for the next 300 years. The world will face certain economic and environmental disasters, including severe food shortages worldwide, if world governments fail to exercise proper controls over the automobile, petroleum and ethanol industries.
The Downhill Plunge Speeds Up (tags)
The state has a social nature and cannot only be power and security state. In crisis, we are all Keynesians. Taboo for a long time, the New Deal program slowly sounds promising again. The 1933 "Home Owners Loan Act" was created in the first 100 days of Roosevelt's presidency.
Shameful Defeat for SOS/Minutemen in Ventura County! (tags)
The Minutemen had a hard time selling their brand of anti-human agitation in Ventura County. The Frente Contra las Redadas del Condado de Ventura successfully delivered a "stealth upper-cut" by organizing a community response to this incursion by racists from Orange, San Berdu, etc.
Alan Greenspan at the Feds: A Disaster for America (tags)
The supposed financial guru, Alan Greenspan, was nominated to head the Federal Reserve, in 1987, by that union-bashing dunce, President Ronald Reagan. At his confirmation hearing, the late Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI), exposed the fact that Greenspan’s economic forecasting record was “dismal” and “wrong” most of the time. In his book: “Greenspan’s Bubbles,” William A. Fleckenstein proves Sen. Proxmire’s instincts were prophetic.
The Legal Criminality of Finance Capitalism (tags)
The market mechanism, the Keynesians say, is not efficient or balanced. Charles Ponzi was one of the greatest swindlers of American history. Instead of the capitalist economy holding the strings of politics, politics could use economic power to create new realities.
Psychology has a great influence on developments of the world econmy. In Tokyo, the G7 states agreed to avoid negative terms to not worsen the situation. Neither the extreme price drop of the dollar nor of the Yen were mentioned in the final declaration.
Bishop Huber on the Increasing Cisis of Trust in Society (tags)
Responsibility for fellow-workers is just as important as responsibility for profits. The growing mistrust toward the economic elite changes directly into mistrust toward our political system. To find ourselves and affirm human limits, we need persons who share our hopes and suffering
Financial Meltdown A "Gigantic Fraud"! (tags)
Leading Economic Writer: Financial Meltdown A "Gigantic Fraud" - Says Americans "duped" by "serpent-tongued" elite!
Sharing the Economic Pain (tags)
Now that the economic crunch is reaching those near the top of the pyramid, there is finally a sense that the US is facing a real crisis. The dream is in great danger because the ruling elite stopped looking after the collective interests of society and all but stopped investing in the future.
Security is not War, Torture and Terror (tags)
"The swan that floats and doesn't sink represents the intransitory in the transitory." (Heidegger) "Truth is the first casualty in war." (Aristotle) "Every war has two losers." (Wm Stafford) We are called to resist the normalization of war and the militarization of foreign policy.
Global Casino Capitalism (tags)
What began with cheap money for American homebuyers has expanded to the greatest financial market crisis since the war. The whole extent of bad credits with banks is not yet known, let alone the effects on the world economy.
Federal Tax Relief Vanishing at Pumps (tags)
Senators Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and John McCain are rehashing the old political rhetoric that the Democrats and Republicans have coined to win elections every four years. However, in 2008, working people are searching for real solutions to complex issues; ending the Iraq War and dealing with a global industry that is beyond the control of the Democrats, Republicans or their candidates.
Peak Oil: The Global War for Oil (tags)
Despite optimistic estimates, the market seems to accept peal oil since the rich oil companies are not investing in new refineries. The 150-year American expansion explains the military option. Speculation caused the tenfold increase of a barrel of oil from $10 (1998) to $100 (2008).
Don't Rerun That '70s Economic Show (tags)
The difference is that the problems look a lot worse this time. A serious fiscal stimulus plan-one that emphasizes public investment and aid to Americans in economic distress-could do a lot to ease the country's economic pain. Mending our own pockets is vital.
A whole manager generation will have to be retrained or change its ideas. Life is measured in money by such people becaused they learned this as the ultimate truth in their training, not because they are immoral or amoral. Countries that once amassed dollars to buy oil are now unloading dollars to diversity their holdings.
Phase of collapse of US real economy (tags)
It is neither a “remake” of the 1929 crisis nor a repetition of the 1970s oil crises or 1987 stock market crisis. It is truly a global systemic crisis, that is to say a crisis affecting the entire planet and questioning the very foundations of the international system upon which the world was organised in the last decades.
Democracy and the WTO: Alternatives to Free Trade (tags)
Trade policies that benefit multinational corporations are undemocratic and promote exploding inequality. "The negotiations are carried out on a supra-national plane where democracy or civil society interests fall by the wayside."
Bush and ExxonMobil v. Chavez (tags)
The latest salvo in Bush v. Chavez.
CEO Salaries and the Minimum Wage (tags)
"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, capitalism let its mask fall. Capitalism did not have to be social any more since socialism did not exist any longer as a counter-movement..Most economic leaders act irresponsibly today toward Europe's people and the future."
The Republican Candidate (4 and 5) (tags)
If this is a subject of interest to you, in the United States today there are five Cuban prisoners, separated one from the other by thousands of miles. They have no area that can be sarcastically called the “Hanoi Hilton”. Their suffering and the injustice of which they are victims will be known the world over; don't doubt it for a minute
F. William Engdahl's "A Century of War" - Part II (tags)
Part II of this epic book.
US Crisis Sends Europe's Housing Market into Free Fall (tags)
Investor George Soros sees the worst economic crisis since the Second World War as the aftermath of heavy debts and the credit crunch. Speculative greed for profits and contempt for whistle-blowers led to the crisis. Will there be system correction or only cosmetics?
A Will for Change: New Economic Thinking (tags)
Since economic thinking shapes the world, we can't leave economists alone to putter with their theories. Too many of them hung up their thinking caps the moment they got their degrees, and stopped looking out the window.
Kenya: The Hidden Hand of Destabilisation (tags)
Circumstantial evidence is presented to advance the theory that Kenya is a victim of Western destabilisation to stop its growing economic relations with China
The US Will Experience Its Big Surprise (tags)
The dollar devaluation has to do with many things, above all with the double deficit. The US must become indebted more and more. China and Dubai could go on a shopping spree and buy oil companies. The US must earn euros to pay for the oil to be imported.
CDIR Marks Martin Luther King Day, January 21, 2008 (tags)
The Coalition In Defense of Immigrant Rights (CDIR)-USA pays tribute to the great African American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today January 21,2008. “While we commemorate Dr. King and his greatness and the American people’s struggle, for justice and equality, the CDIR is however militantly preparing for the surge of anti-immigrant scape-goating in the face of the current economic recession in the United States”, the CDIR-USA coordinator Arturo P. Garcia said.
CDIR Expects Surge Of Anti-Immigrant Scape-Goating (tags)
The Coalition In Defense of Immigrant Rights (CDIR)-USA expects a high tide or a surge of anti-immigrant scape-goating in the face of the current economic recession in the United States. The CDIR-USA coordinator Arturo P. Garcia also expressed alarm over the move of anti-immigrant lobbyist Ward Connelly, the author of the infamous Proposition 209 in California to put into ballot initiative in five states propositions about race and gender equality. The ballot measures will have better chances of winning in those states like Arizona, Missouri and Colorado with high anti-immigrant bias and forces.
Socialists: Feds Offering Little for U.S. Economic Recovery (tags)
It is extremely unlikely that working people will benefit from the economic package presented by President Bush; millions of working people are presently behind on house payments, auto payments and are finding it difficult to pay monthly bills, including the cost for food, gas and fuel for home heating. Today, a majority of working class people are living from check to check and are struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
Trends guru says you'll be living in a storage bin next year (tags)
Trends Journal publisher Gerald Celente says Wall Street will crash, everyone's going to be living out of storage lockers and the government won't be able to help.
COLLAPSE OF THE US DOLLAR (tags)
Imagine being sent forward in time from 1967 to 2007. Instead of gas costing 25 cents a gallon, it's $2.50. A decent home, intead of costing $15,000, costs $250,000 or more.
The United States' Selfish Solicitude (tags)
Interference with another country's internal affairs violates international law. In contrast to this, the neo-conservatives' revolutionary way of thinking preaches "democratic inter-ference" with all the consequences we are now observing in Afghanistan and Iraq.
On the Anti-Democratic Character of Neoliberalism (tags)
Privatization, deregulation and cuts in social spending is the trinity of the free market, Naomi Klein explains. The consciou8s production of unemployment is anti-democratic. The conscious worsening of income- and assets distribution is anti-democratic.
The Cart in the Speculative Mud (tags)
Liberalizing markets leads to instability, not growth. Developing and thresholdc countries suffer grievously through US speculation. The New Year is a time to abandon myths of American exceptionalism and corporate beneficence, mending our own pockets and footprints.
Joma Sison slams Arroyo for lying about the economic situation (tags)
Prof. Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, slammed Gloria M. Arroyo for lying about the Philippine economic situation by claiming that she is propelling the Philippines to become a “first world country”. Prof. Sison declared, “In utter subservience to the US-dictated policy of “neoliberal” glob” alization, she has worked against the line of national industrialization and genuine land reform and has aggravated and deepened the agrarian, pre-industrial and semi-feudal character of the Philippine economy. She has worsened the backward and impoverished “third world” conditions of the Philippines.
Arroyo's bankrupt and deceptive economic policy (tags)
Gloria M. Arroyo, the fake president, keeps on babbling that her regime is propelling the Philippines to become a "first world country". She is obviously lying.
Interview with Kurt Richebacher (tags)
"The dangers that loom on the currency front are immense. The US trade deficit and the accumulated foreign indebtedness have reached a scale that defies any possible action by central banks." Dr. Richebacher is a former economist of the Dresden Bank.
The Dollar and US Hegemony (tags)
The dollar devaluation since 2001 is a necessary adjustment for the twin US deficits, the national budget deficit and the foreign trade deficit. US imports are nearly double US exports. A drastic change of lifestyles is imperative where modesty and simplicity are encouraged.
U.S. isolated on the Human Rights Issue in CUBA (tags)
The recent Cuban decision to sign the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Civil and Political Rights is a clear example of the island's conduct when it is not subjected to external pressures...
Bolivia: Drastic action needed (tags)
In Bolivia, poverty and inequality are on the increase because the government has not been able to implement its National Development Plan. A report drawn up by the Planning Ministry in Bolivia and an arm of the United Nations, the UNFPA, came to the following conclusion: "There is social and economic inequality in the country due to a lack of government policies to bridge the gaps and these inequalities will increase as time passes." The figures say it all. Poverty affects 6 out of 10 Bolivians, while 4 out of 10 live in extreme poverty. The situation is getting worse each year because the annual growth rate of the population is 200,000, but 174,000 of these will live in poverty. While the bourgeoisie plays with hunger strikes to gain so-called Autonomy, some 15,000 children die each year from hunger or hunger related diseases. On the same day that the UN report appeared, it was announced that annual economic growth had fallen from 4.5% in 2006 to 3.8% in 2007. At the same time inflation has risen to 12% mainly due to the rising cost of foodstuffs. Here are two examples. In 6 months a kilo of rice in Santa Cruz had doubled in price from 4 Bolivianos to 8. Gas bottles used for cooking had risen from 25Bs to 50Bs, but it was still hard to find any because most are being exported to Peru where they will sell for up to 125Bs. So business does not worry if Bolivians have no gas to cook with as long as they make a profit.
The Chinese century: global competition, finance, politics, jobs, outsourcing, tech, law (tags)
Watch out on the next greatest empire! Why is China's economy and trade booming? What is really inside Chinese society, banking, management, outsourcing, education, politics, and daily life? How to do investing, travel, trade inside China? Talk to provocative thinker George Zhibin Gu.
Community Centers: Learning from O Canada! (tags)
The mosaic works in Vancouver, B. C. Community centers provide a buffer and cushion from the brutal and commodifying market. In happier days before Reagan and market fundamentalism, the Carnegie Center was bursting with activity, counseling, classes and circles.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo: Economist or Politician? (tags)
I think I’m a pretty good economist, but a very bad politician.” - by Gloria Macapacagal-Arroyo
"Africa and the West" Conference Broadcast (tags)
UhuruRadio.com to broadcast Omali Yeshitela's keynote address on December 16 from "Africa and the West" conference in Huelva, Spain
Another Economy is Possible (tags)
The world economy increasingly has the character of a plutonomy, a wealth economy where the rich appropriate an ever larger share of the social wealth. Imagine an economy that serves justice, peace and creation, where competition and cooperation coexist and the future is safeguarded
Reviewing James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer's "Multinationals on Trial" (tags)
How corporate giants plunder developing nations.
Venezuela: The economic tug of war between revolution and counter-revolution (tags)
A recent report from Datanalisis (1) [the Venezuelan statistical service] revealed what already many people knew and suffered from. Scarcity of basic foodstuff is becoming intolerable. This study established that milk, beef and sugar have become very difficult to find. Other products like chicken, cooking oil, cheese, sardines and black beans are also very scarce. The analysts who compiled the report interviewed 800 people in some 60 different shops, supermarkets and markets, both in the private sector and the public distribution network, Mercal. 73,3% of the places visited had no milk powder for sale. 51,7% no longer had refined sugar, 40% had no cooking oil, and 26,7% no black beans, a basic staple in Venezuela. Two thirds of the shoppers declared that they experienced food scarcity to one degree or another in the shops where they usually buy. Queues of a few hours, sometimes up to four hours, to buy some milk are no longer the exception. This is reminiscent of the situation in Chile when wholesale economic sabotage was used against the left-wing Popular Unity government of the 1970s. Without giving in to the panic stories and exaggerated reports of the right-wing media, we must understand that this is a serious situation. The bosses have even threatened to extend this situation into the first quarter of 2008, especially because of the uncertainties related to the questions of private property included in the new constitutional reform. They are grabbing the revolution by its throat.
Criticism of Neoliberalism: Book Review (tags)
The neoliberal understanding of freedom restricts the possibilities of individuals to participation in the market. Structural and economic power are faded out.
Reforms and the System Question (tags)
According to Marxist perspectives, capitalism develops with crises and ruptures. Possibilities of revolutionary social upheavals open up in these crises. The old wisdom of the Fordist age that cars cannot buy cars has lost all value to the elites.
Neoliberalism in Crisis (tags)
Liberation theology warns the future of the first world is the third world. Everyday time is replaced by kairos time, the time of decision, when lawlessness masks as lawfulness. The language of proclamation runs crossway to the language of time. Cast your net on the other side!
Crushing Defeat of US blockade of CUBA at UN General Assembly (tags)
For the sixteen consecutive time, United Nations members voted against the US economic, financial and commercial blockade of Cuba. The resolution presented by the island received 184 votes in favor, one more than in 2006, four against and one abstention.
Retirement under capitalism (tags)
Sometimes small statistics can have huge implications. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics recently reported that the age at which U.S. workers retire has risen for the first time in 100 years. According to the report, in the mid-1980s, 18 percent of people in their late 60s still had jobs; today, it is 29 percent. Millions of U.S. workers can no longer look forward to the “Golden Years” of guaranteed Social Security, Medicare health insurance and employer pensions. One in four baby boomers surveyed said they would likely never be able to retire – in other words, they will “work until they drop”. For those that do want to retire, the age at which they can do so is also being systematically raised. Workers born in 1960 or later must wait until age 67, rather than 65, to get their full Social Security benefits. There is talk of raising it further to 70. The mainstream media took scant notice of this, and for good reason; it’s a huge indicator of deeper processes that are destroying the standard of living of workers in the United States and internationally. A quick look into why workers are delaying retirement – if they have the “luxury” of retiring at all – points a condemning finger at the current state of international capitalism, while at the same time warning younger workers of the even worse conditions they’ll certainly face under the auspices of the capitalist system.
Promised Social Change in Ecuador (tags)
Hope for social change in Ecuador
A Hundred and Fifty Years Later and Marx Still Prevails (tags)
Marx Was Right But Don’t Tell Them
Social Economies and Political Conflicts (tags)
Most of our serious social, ecological and economic problems can only be solved bottom-up with the insight and will of concerned citizens. The challenge consists in a radical democratization of the economy. Otherwise we put the cart before the horse and bridle the horse by the tail.
Reviewing James Petras' "Rulers and Ruled in the US Empire" (tags)
An in-depth review of James Petras' important new book.
Greenspan's Dark Legacy Unmasked (tags)
Alan Greenspan's true record of public disservice.
The Tavistock Institute Institute of Human Relations by John Coleman ebook (2005) (tags)
PDF of "The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations - Shaping the Moral, Spiritual, Cultural, Political, and Economic Decline of The United States of America" (2005)
Venezuela today: complexities and outright lies (tags)
* A member of the editorial collective of El Libertario (www.nodo50.org/ellibertario; in Spanish & English) prepared this article for the 6th edition of the Costa Rican (A) journal La Libertad [September 2007; http://revistalalibertad.blogspot.com] in response to an inconsistent effort to establish impossible affinities between Chavism and Anarchism.
Reviewing Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" (tags)
The human wreckage of disaster capitalism.
Deliberate Lies, Strange Deaths and Agression to the World Economy (tags)
Fidel Castro denounced that the United States government is using unimaginable economic means to defend a right that violates the sovereignty of all the other countries...
Philippine Protest Marks The First Senate Hearing On The JPEPA (tags)
14 September 2007, Manila, Philippines. – A crowd of more than 300 workers, farmers, fishers, and environmentalists from the Magkaisa Junk JPEPA Coalition (MJJC) today called on the Senators of the 14th Congress to look beyond the rosy projections and government hype surrounding the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), and to carefully assess its short-term and long-term implications. The group’s call came on the day of the first scheduled Senate hearing for this historic, precedent-setting treaty.
Real Estate Crisis in the US (tags)
Credit failures in the real estate business threaten the whole payment system between banks, private businesses and households handled through short-term credits..The US real estate crisis affects other economic sectors and countries and cal also lead to a shift in class relations.
Deregualtion and liberalization have contributed to the present chaos. Through deregualtion and internationalization, getting into and out of investments as fast as lightning becomes possible.
Marijuana Dealers/Growers Offer Schwarzenegger One Billion Dollars (tags)
August 6 -- A coalition of California marijuana growers and dealers has offered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger one billion dollars to solve the current state budget crisis. The group, calling itself Let Us Pay Taxes makes the offer through its web site LetUsPayTaxes.com. The offer comes at a time when the California legislature is deadlocked on a new budget and California has stopped issuing checks for vitally needed social services. Legislators are currently arguing over which programs will be cut in order to balance the budget.
The War on Working Americans - Part II (tags)
Part II of how American workers are losing out.
The Coupon Clippers Get A History Lesson From One Of Their Own (tags)
Bourgeois theoreticians take measures to assure their class that the present crisis will pass. "Do not panic" is the message. Good times will return and the robbery can go on. Time for a history lesson.
Privatization Endangers Democracy (tags)
Neoliberal hegemony or market radicalism is a danger for democracy because economic mechanisms replace politics. Neoliberals change the understanding of justice in society. The less generous the social benefits, the more powerful must be its security machine.
Market Efficiency Hokum (tags)
Debunking the myth that free markets work best.
The present economic crisis has the capitalist class calling for state intervention again. They claim another bout of memory loss, they simply "forgot" the business cycle exists.
Who Profits From the Crash? (tags)
A criminal corruption on the highest planes is at the heart of the assets transfer. Every few decades, the real owners of the world arrange an economic crisis to steal the assets of the people. The incredible sum of $325 billion was injected into the financial system within a few days.
America Before a New "New Deal" (tags)
The laissez-faire capitalism as practiced in the US turned out to be a flop. The New Deal and the welfare state built by Roosevelt and his direct successors was systematically slandered, delegitimated and then destroyed.
A "Slow Motion Train Wreck" (tags)
Financial market turmoil and the Federal Reserve increases it
'Old Europe' Bails Out Idiot-run Free-Market US Government - Again (tags)
Right now, the entire world's banking system is being pressed to the limit of what it can do to prevent a worldwide crash of the capitalist system due to what one European banker called "a complete evaporation of liquidity" [Source: "ECB reportedly weighs dollar swap with Fed", MarketWatch.com, 13 August, 2007]. In layman's terms, that means that the world's banking system is running out of the funds needed to keep the capitalist credit system running.
Ready or not, here it comes
NeoCon 'Plan Africa' Oil Manifesto (tags)
“Along with Latin America, West Africa is expected to be one of the fastest growing sources of oil and gas for the American market. African oil tends to be of high quality and low in sulfur, making it suitable for stringent refined product requirements, and giving it a growing market share for the refining Centers on the East Coast of the U.S.” “National Energy Policy Report” Office of the Vice President Richard Cheney May 16, 2001
Alternatives to Neoliberal Globalization (tags)
Refusing to work out historical sins like colonialism, fascism and apartheid repeats the historical model of conquest, domination and exclusion. Kairos Europe is directed against a system and its structures. Its positive goal sets life and people in first place.
From the Market of Religions to the Religion of the Market (tags)
The democratic order became concrete as a form of the market. While a secular state forms around the market, the market ceases being merely profane. The market as a fate religion accepts and rejects like a Calvinist God,
Gloria Arroyo’s Economy: NOT WORKING (tags)
Today, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo will again address the Congress to give a report on the achievements of her government, and at the same time express her primary focus for the next year. As she did during her previous State of the Nation Address (SONA) speeches, she may yet again boast the economic feats of her administration, including the strengthening of the peso and the recent booming of the stock market.
Philippines: On Mrs. Arroyo’s 7th State of the Nation Address (tags)
"Gloria's economy is not working." This is what the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said of Mrs. Arroyo's flamboyant and rosy economic claims; two days shy from the Executive's 7th State of the Nation Address (SONA) this 23rd of July.
Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country (tags)
...while there is growing recognition that global warming is a problem, little attention has been paid to the likely impact at the country level, especially in the developing world. In this new book, William Cline, a joint senior fellow at CGD and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, provides the first ever estimates of the impact on agriculture by country, with a particular focus on social and economic implications in China, India, Brazil, and the poor countries of the tropical belt in Africa and Latin America.
“Green” capitalism: German Greens adopt new economic programme (tags)
Germany’s Green Party recently agreed to a new economic programme, published under the title “The Green free-market economy.” The programme paper was developed by prominent party figures under the auspices of the party’s parliamentary faction leader Fritz Kuhn, heralding the free market as the guardian angel of the environment—and their own wallets. Every line of this document reflects the class outlook of the upper middle class—those owning medium-sized businesses and the better-off self-employed—by glorifying the market and private property, while simultaneously expressing the authors’ fear of mounting social inequalities. The entire document is characterised by a continuous “on the one hand...and on the other hand” type of argument.
Competition and the Legal System (tags)
Competition is not always a fountain of economic development..Certain academic findings are dangerous for the functioning of norm systems. The critic becomes the delinquent. Several wicked mosquitos may be criticized, not mosquitos in general.
Privatization as a Threat (tags)
Privatization undermines the nature of the state, the state's reason to exist, and leads to the loss of identity and sovereignty. The state revenue side is weakened by privatizing profitable state expenses. Siegfried Bross is a judge on the German Constitutional Court.
on Middle East
Cults of Unreason and the End of Species (tags)
People today seem perplexed as civilisation as we know it plummets into the abyss. Yet, in the broad sense, the future is entirely predicable. The much lauded system of economic rationalism has resulted in huge disparities in wealth comparable to ancient societies; the wealth of Pharaoh-God-Kings of the past was staggering and in stark contrast to the wealth of their subjects. The peoples’ living standards were maintained at ‘adequate‘ levels to ensure a fit work/slave force for their rulers – remind you of anything, are you able to draw any comparisons today? In fact ancient Egypt (utilising modern poverty statistics) would have fared better in the social sense than most of today’s societies. So much for economic rationalism and laissez-faire capitalism! The inequity of today’s economic reality is far from mysterious; however, one mystery remains, the masses of today tolerate far greater inequities than the masses of yesterday.
Loan defaults escalating: Big Finance and governments Responsible (tags)
Many articles have been written on the tactic of pervasive and continuous debt as a form of economic social management. However, few financial ‘wizards’ and politicians understood the ramifications of such a tactic. To meet regular needs average people have been forced to borrow at rates never before seen. As a result of the created necessity to borrow large amounts and the ease of obtaining large loans, a rapid increase in loan defaults is occurring. Perhaps statistical information on the ‘spike’ in long term debt servicing and mortgagee defaults highlights the failure of the debt strategy. Hailed at the time as the optimum method of economic and social management, today it is proving to be just another strategy of big business appropriating more at the expense of EVERYTHING and everyone else.
The Underrated Power of Economists (tags)
During the Great Depression between the two world wars, the Brit John Maynard Keynes came to an insight that was implemented in the 1960s. The state must guide the economy by its spending to avert the danger of depression.
The big brother from the North misled the South.. The slogan "More Market, Less State" is losing a few old friends in Europe.. What is changing is the discourse, the eulogy of the market and its possibilities.
The Neoliberal Catechism (tags)
Turning away from the state causes old age poverty and endangers life and limb.. The consequences of privatization are faded out in the US and Germany.. Defining freedom as only entrepreneurial freedom and freedom of capital can be easily veiled.
Green Candidate Brezenoff Criticizes New Energy Bill (tags)
"The energy bill now before the Senate, far from being any kind of solution to our economic and environmental crises, represents exactly the kind of thinking and legislating that has brought us to the point of crisis in the first place," says Brezenoff.
Who Frees Us From Capital? (tags)
Whole continents bowed to the Washington Consensus..The World Bank must end its embittered attack on distribution policy.. Privatization awakened false hopes.. Evo Morales in Bolivia nationalized the oil and gas economy and raised the monthly minimum wage to $100.
the Iraq War -- a Socialist perspective (tags)
The war in Iraq is at the heart of the instability in the Middle East – and the U.S. It is now the third-longest-running war in U.S. history: longer than the American Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean War. Only the Philippine-American and Vietnam Wars have lasted longer. Although control over Iraq’s oil was a major reason for the invasion, it was not the main factor. Overall strategic control over the region and teaching a “lesson” to any country that dares “step out of line” was the main objective. However, none of U.S. imperialism’s political, economic, or military objectives have been achieved. Far from demonstrating its power, U.S. imperialism has demonstrated the limits of its power. The results will be far-reaching both internationally and within the U.S. itself.
Homo Oeconomicus and Economic Theories (tags)
The neoclassical theory dominant today is different from the Keynesian theory that defined the decades after the 2nd World War. "Bad ideas flourish because theya re in the interest of powerful groups." (Paul Krugman)
Financial Guru Julian Robertson : We have problems! (tags)
He has predicted every economic cycle, every debacle, every bull market, and every bear market. Of course, he´s a very old man now. But his reputation on the Street is like nothing you could imagine. When the segment of his interview was through, his comments alone took the Dow Jones down 50 points. Just on his comments alone. That's how powerful this man's reputation is.
AJLPP Oppose Another US-Arroyo Sell Out of Philippine Sovereignty. (tags)
SOFA, another grand sell-out”. This is how the Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace (AJLPP)-USA characterize the treasonous action of puppet president when it signed the RP-Australia Status of Forces Agreement. (SOFA) The AJLPP never forget that the United States and Australia connived in supprting the US-Marcos dictatroship and its active involvement in the counter insurgency war against the Filipino and the Moro people since the end of World War II. Expect that the terrorism of the Arroyo regime is further emboldened by VFA and SOFA treaties and the military intervention and hegemonic superpower support of the US and its regional junior partner Australia." ?
"Capitalism is not the solution" (tags)
Attac turns against the unjust sides of globalization. We need the contagious power of the ideas of freedom, justice and equality. The last European revolution in 1989 succeeded despite dictatorial conditions.
North American Union Plan Headed To Congress In Fall (tags)
same perps as 911
North American union plan headed to Congress in fall (tags)
"Powerful think tank prepares report on benefits of integration between U.S., Mexico, Canada"
The delegates at Bilderberg 2007 (tags)
These people need to be tried for crimes against the commons. And their toys taken away to enjoy a life in one of their ruined poisoned lands. Some need to be hanged.
Elections in RP successful – US (tags)
A US State Department official said yesterday the May 14 elections were generally successful despite reports of violence and fraud. “I know there have been some problems with violence. But I would say overall the elections have been very successful and a real sign that the Philippines has a very well-developed democracy. It has never been an easy process,” Christopher Hill, US State Department assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, said over Radyo ng Bayan. Hill’s observation followed an earlier statement of concern from the US Embassy in Manila on reports of violence in many parts of the country during the elections.
North American union plan headed to Congress in fall (tags)
this is when the money will change to world paper currency...be ready....
Neoliberal Rule as Trauma (tags)
With the absolutizing of profit maximization, the neoliberal elites ruthlessly dehumanize workers by reducing them to a cost factor to be lowered.
6th UNPF Session to Focus on IP Land Rights (tags)
The Sixth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) slated to start on May 14 in New York will focus on indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and natural resources. The UNPFII sessions will also include presentations on other key issues such as urban indigenous peoples and migration, data collection and disaggregation. Three Cordillerans will be among the over 1,000 representatives of indigenous organizations and communities around the world and advocate groups who are expected to participate in the two-week long UNPFII sessions. Joan Carling, from the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA)’s Advisory Council will present issues on political killings and worsening militarization of indigenous communities in the Philippines. She will also give a presentation on the continuing violation of the ancestral land rights of indigenous peoples and the manipulation of the Free Informed and Prior Consent (FPIC) process by mining and agribusiness companies, among others with the connivance of some government officials.
U.S., Israel Negotiate New Aid Package (tags)
"Danny Ayalon, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States until November, said Israel was hoping to seal a new 10-year deal before the end of President George W. Bush’s mandate in January, 2009."
UCLA vivisection protest (tags)
Demonstration at UCLA campus for World Week for Animals in Laboratories. Fight for the mice, rats, cats, dogs, primates, and other animals imprisoned and tortured needlessly inside UCLA.
Latin American School of Medicine (tags)
In the midst of all the US-Cuban relations stories, primarily, the focus is on the imposed economic sanctions against Castro’s Cuba. But, there is a story of unity, progression, and humanitarian efforts lying within those pages written about Cuba. It is one that is hardly, if ever, told; a story that calls attention to the concern for human life above economic strife.
Regional Economics Against Climate Change (tags)
Modern industrial society faces a dilemma. On one hand, people of industrial countries do not want to abandon their assets and habits or way of living. On the other hand, the climate problem ends up in destruction of humanity if emissions continue as in the past
US Locomotive Losing Steam (tags)
In 2006 after the crash of the New Economy boom, we are again witnessing irrational excess in the credit system and in the prices of assets and property titles.
The Tasks of the Immigrant Workers’ Movement: For a working class program! (tags)
As we approach the first anniversary of the immigrant worker mega-marches, the struggle for our rights continues. We defeated the Sensenbrenner bill, and yet the attacks on the families of undocumented workers have intensified. Dozens of raids, the limitation of habeas corpus, the militarization of the border, “no-match” letters, and other attacks on our class must be met with a decisive response! We need a clear program of struggle that can lead us to victory – to full amnesty and equal rights for all immigrant workers and their families.
De-industrialization reduces the long-term wealth-formation of broad sectors of the population. An extremely high indebtedness of private households also contributes to the disastrous total deficit of the US.
May 1st - Great American Boycott II (tags)
Major Events in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, Boston, and more! STOP THE RAIDS & DEPORTATIONS!
Economic sanctions on Israel (tags)
It is a disgrace that the Iranian government should be able to tell the US government what to do.
Brazil: The "brake" is COPOM. (tags)
The logic of the the Growth Acceleration Program opposes classic economists as Michael Kalecki and John Keynes. The GAP that does not contain a expansionist monetary politics is not the GAP, is the anti-GAP, as, by the way, the last act of the Copom made clear.
Health Reform: Turning from the Solidarity Principle (tags)
Neoliberal economic and labor market policy, stagnating working income and continuing mass unemployment have withered the extent of employment paying into social security.. The next financing crisis of health insurance is pre-programmed.
Chinese multinationals and globalization: insights on global business and politics (tags)
gain insights on China and globalization
the welfare state is exposed to serious shocks. Working life is essentially changed. The welfare state protects from the injustice of the free market and creates an identity for those who must claim its benefits.
Border Fence- The Cost is Far Too High (tags)
A study released last December by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service says a proposed 700 mile stretch of fence, along the 2,000 mile U.S. – Mexico border, could cost an estimated $49 billion. But what the report fails to say, U.S. –built walls on the border would cost both the U.S. and Mexico trillions of dollars in economic losses over the predicted 25-year lifespan of the fence, and non-monetary damage to political and cultural relations between the two countries would also last for decades.
BTL:Democrats' First 100-Hour Agenda Doesn't Address America's... (tags)
...Racial, Economic Divide~Interview with Emma Dixon, executive director of the Creation of Wealth Project, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
More Employment through a Different Distribution (tags)
More employment comes through reduced working hours and public investments more than tax subsidies. The state has destroyed jobs. The global attack of neoliberalism has gravely damaged the democratic welfare state.
Growth in justice, opportunity and environ-mental caring requires identifying blind spots and abandoning myths. Economists must learn to subtract. The state must control the market so everybody shares in wealth and increased productivity.
BTL:Hugo Chavez Deepens Venezuela's Social and Economic Transformation (tags)
Interview with Steve Ellner, professor of economic history at the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Irrational fear of Cuba dissected (tags)
A Miami Herald commentator, who specializes in bashing Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez travels all the way to India, only to find that Castro and Chavez are very popular there. He tries, but fails, to convince his audiences that live in Venezuela is hell. I analyze his pitiful attempt.
Dialectic of Enlightenment (tags)
"War is the greatest evil requiring taxes and police so the few can control the many." (James Madison) In imperialism, sacrifices are made for corporations and the egos of the powerful, not for the country.
The Nature of The Jevons Paradox (tags)
The Jevons Paradox is a multiple intersection of several issue threads including economics, peak oil, global warming, social movements, and the philosophy of science
Christian Morality and Economic Reason (tags)
Finance capital circling anonymously around the globe seeking only short-term profit must expect the resistance of the affected and of the church that turns to the affected. The question is who profits from globalization.
The Welfare State and Democracy (tags)
The German presidential cabinets following the Mueller government cut the basic social rights of employees and unemployed at a breakneck speed and dismantled the welfare state and democracy.
Pinochet is dead! It is time to kill the system that spawned him! (tags)
The fact that the death of Pinochet on Sunday sparked off celebrations in Chile and around the world should surprise no one. He was a hated figure, a living symbol of the real face of the bourgeoisie. In "normal" times the capitalists prefer to govern through "democratic" parliamentary means, so long as their fundamental interests are guaranteed. But the capitalist system cannot always guarantee that its interests can be defended through parliamentary means. History is full of examples where the bourgeoisie has preferred to do away with the niceties of "democracy"... Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto... the list is endless.
Congress on Solidarity Economy (tags)
Solidarity economy is part of a strategy against neoliberal exactions. Economic self-help must not be used as a social fig leaf for the continued neoliberal reorganization of society.
A recent news report detailing the effects of Globalisation – western economic/military expansionism by any other name – and the explosion of organised criminal activity in the Balkans was aired today on ABC Radio Australia. The primary item of interest dealt with the negative impact that Western Europe, including the UK, is experiencing as a result of the activities of Albanian, Turkish, Bosnian, Bulgarian and Serbian criminal syndicates. According to the report NATO’s intervention and the subsequent elimination of traditional regulatory forces and authorities in the region has facilitated the “explosion”.
Economic Values and Impending Collapse (tags)
Foreboding has hit the ranks of private equity firms; try as they might to unload vast amounts of funds (monetary value is inextricably linked to the movement of those funds) they have been unable to spend/invest at a rate that would sustain value let alone increase real profits! The ‘healthy figures’ reflecting increased acquisitions/investments are on paper only – it ‘looks good’ at the moment!
Theologians of the Market Economy (tags)
Mandeville's thesis that private vices often change inadvertently into collective virtues as a bee collaborates in building a beehive is a literary construction. The market in Smith's explanation is nothing but a religious paradox.
Venezuela, Elections 2006: Anarchists Speak (tags)
From the Commision of Anarchist Relations (Comision de Relaciones Anarquistas) and its organ El Libertario, we disseminate three texts in which we publically express our perspective on the upcoming Venezuelan elections of December 3, 2006.
Economist Milton Friedman dies at 94 (tags)
Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who advocated an unfettered free market and had the ear of three U.S. presidents, died Thursday at age 94.
This is What Recuperation Looks Like: the Rebellion in Oaxaca and the APPO (tags)
A look at the events in Oaxaca and a critical look at the APPO and its program of struggle.
Wartime military spending fuels economy (tags)
War is good for the military police state? Well good for the people that supply the military war machine!
The critical fight today is against those who kill, maim, exploit and destroy the natural world. This is the fight of my/our lives; to lose this fight is to lose them all. Resist, oppose, and fight against those who would kill and destroy for personal gain and money. Our values are the enduring real values of life, clean air, water, food and a sustainable world for our children to inherit. Economic rationalism is the enemy of everything that is natural and balanced – economy is another word for catastrophe! Those who continue to espouse antiquated economic formulas of death, greed and destruction are those devoid of vision, the hollow people who cleave to redundant formulas that have clearly failed. They cling desperately to their ‘holy’ books in a futile effort to locate meaning for their failed vacuous existences.
The Right of All People to Self-Determination (tags)
With the military strike against Iraq, the intervention forces have fulfilled the fact of aggression.. Aggression is one of the worst crimes according to the 1999 statute of the International Court.
The Rise and Fall of the UN (tags)
One’s opinion of the United Nations reveals a lot about political consciousness; and because perception is usually based on experience, it’s only natural that people from different countries have opposing views about the UN and its pillar institutions— the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the United States, familiarity of the UN is limited to vague notions of ‘international democracy’ and ‘peacekeeping’, words that inspire the noblest of intentions; the World Bank and IMF on the other hand are institutions that invoke little reaction among the US public. How and by whom the UN was formed, whose interests it serves, and the actual history of its ‘peacekeeping’ missions are all things rarely examined. It is the purpose of this essay to look at the formation and development of the UN, and in so doing, attempt to show the evolution of the capitalistic system itself, which was ‘reborn’ upon the back of these hardly-neutral organizations.
Behind the love/hate relationship of China and the U.S. (tags)
A zealous distrust of China is something most American’s learn at an early age. The lessons include stunning visuals of atrocities, complete with attacks on helpless Tibetan monks and nuns, fearless democracy-seeking students staring down advancing tanks, and innumerable horrors of life within the totalitarian ‘communist’ society (yes they are still calling themselves that, and yes our government still clings to the word— as an abusive epithet— in a McCarthy-like attempt to browbeat). China cannot be defended if one is on the side of democracy, equality, and freedom, but neither can many of the US’ allies, past and present, who’ve had similar records (the US itself is looking more and more like China every day). Because China is outside the domain of US dominance, it is viewed as a competitor, and a threat; therefore, Chinese human-rights violations are a god-send for the White House PR staff, who look for any reason to conjure fear and create misgivings towards a country who, for purely economic reasons, is the prime candidate to face the US in World War III.
In one of many reports and accounts of economic life in the Gaza Strip that I have recently read, I was struck by a description of an old man standing on the beach in Gaza throwing his oranges into the sea. The description leapt out at me because it was this very same scene I myself witnessed some 21 years ago during my very first visit to the territory. It was the summer of 1985 and I was taken on a tour of Gaza by a friend named Alya. As we drove along Gaza's coastal road I saw an elderly Palestinian man standing at the shoreline with some boxes of oranges next to him. I was puzzled by this and asked Alya to stop the car. One by one, the elderly Palestinian took an orange and threw it into the water. His was not an action of playfulness but of pain and regret. His movements were slow and labored as if the weight of each orange was more than he could bear. I asked my friend why he was doing this and she explained that he was prevented from exporting his oranges to Israel and rather than watch them rot in his orchards, the old man chose to cast them into the sea. I have never forgotten this scene and the impact it had on me.
Beyond the Border, Sharing Responsibility for Immigration (tags)
A public forum designed to empower and inspire people to take responsibility for creating a fair, sustainable, environmentally friendly development plan with Mexico. Doing so addresses a solution to the root cause of illegal immigration.
Paralysis of the Palestinian 'Authority': What's to be done? (tags)
Protests have erupated throughout the West Bank and Gaza as thousands of Palestinian Authority employees have not received wages for months (Rima Merriman)
CDC's Pelican Bay abuse of prisoners, rural community (tags)
Calling for shutting down of CDC's Pelican Bay State Prison for human rights abuses of prisoners, economic exploitation of disadvantaged rural community during construction and CDC's exploitation of low income prisoners detained into coerced slave labor for corporations..
Turning the Tide on Religious Fundamentalism— Free Lecture (tags)
I’ve been invited to give a lecture at Arizona State University this fall on evolutionary science and its uses in progressive activism. The version of the lecture I wanted to give turned out to be 4 hours long, so I recorded that version in 13 tracks and posted it on my website for free download at www.newbookforanewworld.com/lecture.
BTL:Iran Defies UN on Uranium Enrichment, as US Pushes for Sanctions &... (tags)
...Contemplates "Other Consequences" ~ Interview with Arang Keshavarzian, assistant professor of government at Connecticut College, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Justice and Peace: Globalization from Below (tags)
Free trade is one of the most important idols that rule over us in Babylon..Deregulation as the owners of the world call this lawlessness leads to new forms of impoverishment..The greatest terrorist is neoliberal economicorder
Warnings of a US recession and global slowdown (tags)
Three commentaries published in the Financial Times over the past week have pointed to the increasing likelihood of a US recession that would have major implications for the global economy.
Why Democracies evolve into Dictatorships (tags)
It took only six years with Bush Jr. as President to give birth to a new generation of radical political activists, journalists, and commentators, whose main concerns are subjecting the insane policies of the President to exposure and condemnation; this, it seems, constitutes the foundation for nearly the entire realm of real political opposition in the U.S. The strategy here is limited to educating people about the destructive policies of the Republicans and hoping that in response, a protest or political movement will evolve powerful enough to either reform or displace those in power. Education of course, is absolutely crucial in transforming any dissident organization into an entity capable of action and results. However, by focusing only on the policies of the Republicans, without explaining the larger framework from whence they came, political education is greatly hindered, limiting the potential for effective action.
Oil Robbery by Law: The Economic Invasion of Iraq (tags)
The US does not rob Iraq of its oil. The emphasis is on sharing. Production Sharing Agreements are long-term agreements between oil corporations and coil states. Richard Perle once said solidarity means countries agreeing with the US.
Hollywood firm gets to use freeway for Free!!!! (tags)
City slickers from Hollywood sucker Mesa hillbilly government rulers into letting then use a Mesa freeway to film an expensive move for FREE! Mesa citizens are not as dumb as their hillbilly government rulers and are pretty angry because they can’t use the freeway and because the rich Hollywood firm gets to use it for free.
Rains, loud music keep protesters away from cops (tags)
It rained on their parade, but the band played on. Incessant heavy rains spawned by typhoon "Glenda" and loud music from the Philippine National Police (PNP) band kept hundreds of protesters in Quezon City in check and away from police lines hours before President Arroyo delivered her State of the Nation Address (SONA), a ranking police official said yesterday. The police initially expected the number of protesters to be between 15,000 and 20,000. As of noon yesterday, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) estimated that its delegation totaled 10,000 people.
Another World is Possible! (tags)
Globalization from above is a barbaric system impoverishing the majority of people and destroying the earth. We need another economic globalization, a globalization from below in the interests of the earth and the poorest.
A Century of Oil Imperialism (tags)
The current Iraq War, waged primarily to seize incredibly rich oil resources for the benefit of the U.S.-UK Oil Cartel, was predictable. This type of imperialistic evildoing has been going on for a century, and countries and individuals who get in the Cartel's way tend to meet violent ends.
In the Stagnation Trap: Capitalist Development (tags)
Demands for a different distribution and re-distribution, for economic democracy and social regulation opposing market radicalism must be in the foreground. Crisis and opportunity are represented by the same Chinese letter.
Among the many shouts of warning from environmentalists about global catastrophes, ‘Peak Oil’ stands out as the newest and most imminent. The issue has gained special acceptance from different sections of the left, who have chosen it as their primary concern – aside from of course, defeating Bush. Peak Oil and other environmental issues, such as global warming, have created important political questions that need to be addressed; the following is an attempt to analyze the different political considerations that arise when one discusses the topic of Peak Oil.
The Colonisation of Australia (tags)
The world’s most cowardly leader, John Howard, has surpassed even himself with his latest spineless effort of making a gift of the (once sovereign) Australian nation to the Yanks. The clearest indication of America’s newest colonial acquisition is the construction of permanent US military bases in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Those who imagine that US bases are not an indication of US military or economic supremacy, think again. Locating all the US bases on the globe is a revealing exercise. Without exception all the bases that exist outside continental USA have been built after either military or economic CONQUEST.
Neoliberal Geo-Politics (tags)
In truth, the war on Iraq is lost. Military com-manders in the field admit this in reports to the Pentagon. In truth, American military power cannot contain the growing violence. War is part of neoliberalism since profit maximization is made the supreme goal.
BTL:Bush-GOP Tax Cuts Benefit Wealthy While Jeopardizing U.S. Economic Future (tags)
Interview with Len Berman, director of the Tax Policy Center, conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
COMMENTS ON JOHN PILGER'S NEW BOOK FREEDOM NEXT TIME (tags)
PILGER'S ACCOUNT OF COURAGEOUS PEOPLE FIGHTING FOR THEIR FREEDOM
Break the Neoliberal Hegemony! (tags)
This call to a new LEFT party in Germany could give hope to all who yearn for social justice and structural/systemic corrections. While corporate profits and assets incomes set new records, wages, unemployment benefits and pensions are cut.
Philippines: Anti-Arroyo Groups Brace for Bigger Fights Ahead (tags)
In a gathering of around 100 leaders from labor, peasant, urban poor, women and youth groups, the umbrella coalition Laban ng Masa is bracing for bigger fights in its bid to oust the Arroyo regime and initiate reforms under a transitional revolutionary government.
No Peace to the Western War Policy and the Neoliberal System! (tags)
This war policy is justified as a completely selfless undertaking..When industrialists say a constitutional state must be built militarily, they really mean the right to plunder..What we witness now is the return to jungle law or double standards.
The Dilemma of Capitalism (tags)
Without capitalism, we could not live but we can hardly survive with it. Shifting social costs is the real core of capitalism..Politics is powerless toward the economy. Governments are forced to weigh the control of capital against positional deterioration.
The new typoe described by the sociologist Christopher Lasch in his book "The Blind Elite" is unscrupulously fixated on economic calculation.. He cannot feel a sense of responsibliity for the community of a city, region or country.
GOVERNMENT Lula: The NEOLIBERAL GOVERNMENT THAT WORKED? (tags)
Ivo Lesbaupin is a sociologist and professor of the School of Social Service of the UFRJ. He studied at a Dominican seminary, contemporary of frei Beto, frei Tito and others.
STOP CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION: ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE! (tags)
A Statement of Unity from the OUR WORLD IS NOT FOR SALE Network:(www.ourworldisnotforsale.org)
CALL TO ACTION: RE-INSTATE EU AND US AID TO PALESTINE (tags)
Please join thousands in signing a petition that may encourage the international community to head off the serious humanitarian crises in Palestine from getting even worse. There is also a link to this on Dr. Marcy Newman’s blog http://bodyontheline.blogspot.com/ Additional information about the region and political action at http://www.voicesofpalestine.org Please copy, e-mail and distribute this as widely as possible. http://www.petitiononline.com/JfJfP/petition.html
"The US is a Terrorist State": Leonardo Boff (tags)
Everyone feels we are on a wrong track because we do not have a social contract any more..The US is a terrorist state. The US acts with violence, crushes human rights and tortures Americans and foreigners.. As humanity, we stand at a crossroads.
Why Are Gas Prices So High? (tags)
A Primer on Oil: Past, Present, Future of Oil and Gas in the United States
In "1984," George Orwell warned that war would become a domestic necessity to divert the people from economic contradictions. Inequality may promote productivity but also undermines public spirit and social ochesion
Immigration opponents hiding behind the myth of stolen jobs and lost wages.. The research shows that immigration only has a tiny negative impact on local wages.
African-Americans, Economic Well-Being, and Immigration (tags)
...while the concern for African-American well-being is well placed, the source of the problem is not always correctly located...
Why politicians hate immigrants (tags)
Throughout the history of the United States immigrant workers have been the victims of racism, exploitation, and in times of war, internment and violent attacks. While Spanish-speaking immigrants have had especially turbulent periods in the past, only recently have politicians made attempts at further marginalizing this already oppressed layer of society. Why these attacks are suddenly reemerging is something left unexplained in the mainstream media, and is thus an important issue to examine.
Hillary Clinton outlines Democrats’ big business agenda (tags)
New York’s Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton delivered a speech last week to the Economic Club of Chicago that served as an introduction to the right-wing economic platform upon which she and her party intend to run in the 2006 US midterm elections, as well as her own agenda in an expected bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
Psychology of a Guaranteed Income (tags)
The main obstacle to a guaranteed income seems to be psychological, the envy triggered by another's good fortune.. People will always work since boredom becomes overwhelming.
The Iraq war and the eruption of American imperialism (tags)
In the field of politics, there are events which mark a fundamental turning point in the historical process. There is no doubt that the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which began three years ago, was one of these. In September 2002, with the decision to invade Iraq having already been made, the Bush administration published its National Security Strategy (NSS). This document set out clearly and unambiguously that the United States was now reserving to itself the right to use military force pre-emptively in pursuit of its national interests and objectives on a global scale.
Unions and the Growth Mania (tags)
The more productivity advances, the less labor is needed to realize a certain growth rate.. A de-acceleration can reduce the increase of labor productivity and lead to more employment.. A strategy beyond growth should be developed.
IWW resolves to join May 1 General Strike (tags)
The Industrial Workers of the World have passed a resolution supporting the struggle for immigrant workers' rights and calling on their membership and all workers to join the General Strike on May 1st, 2006.
Capital Needs a Counterveiling Power (tags)
Functionless profits do not lead to more investments..The market, competition and profit are not ends in themselves. The economy exists for people, not vice versa.
Bashing Chavez at The Times: How Dare He Do Good With Oil Revenues! (tags)
The nation’s leading newspaper calls Chavez a threat to the U.S. for using Venezuela’s new oil wealth to aid development and help the poor in Latin America.
Liberation Theology and Globalization (tags)
Economic globalization leads to the exclusion of the masses..When world hunger increases, we must change the nature of the world economy to survive..We are all enslaved by a paradigm that makes us enemies of nature.
provocative book on China and globalization (tags)
New book reveals what is China and current global affairs.
Coming Next: "El Gran Boicot" (tags)
Pro-immigrant coalition to paralyze US economy
US Comptroller General predicts economic disaster for the U.S. (with video) (tags)
The Coming U.S. Dollar Collapse
financial newshour: China's changing global role (tags)
China's development vs world
The Land Needs a New Vision (tags)
In capitalism, production is for the market instead of for satisfying needs..The postulate `Work as cheap as possible and at the worst possible conditions' leadsus back to the 19h century. We are far removed today from the watchword More Time for Living and Loving'.
Imperial Conquest, Torture, and a Little Matter of Genocide (tags)
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here....
Memorandum 2005: Alternative Economic Policy (tags)
In Germany and the US, the corporation is often stylized as the suffering servant. The market is made sacrosanct; all problems are defined as interferencs with the market. Profits soar and investments fall. Corporations pay increasingly less tax.
No Work instead of Precarious Work (tags)
After the fall of the New Economy, flexibility, individualization and outsourcing are obviously threats not promises and mean nothing but poverty and precarious working conditions.
National Black Peoples Unity Convention to Convene In Gary, Indiana in March (tags)
Thirty-four years after the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention, a new group of activists will convene in Gary, Indiana from March 9 – 12. They will come together as participants, ready to formulate a strategy around not just a political plan, but around the more important agenda of a long term Black economic empowerment strategy.
3 authors interviews: The China Factor and the Overstretch of the US Hegemony (tags)
3 books that can change your mind in 2005 about the geo-politic and geo-economic dynamics going on
Report: Housing Will Slow, Claiming 800,000 Jobs (tags)
LOS ANGELES -- A sustained decline will hit the U.S. housing market next year, costing the nation as many as 800,000 jobs, according to a new economic report released Wednesday.
Politics of Extreme Unction: Revolutionary Rights (tags)
Revolutionary rights. when constitutional rights are either absent or fail.
The Work Society and the Work Religion (tags)
Work is only a part or fragment of life. Where it becomes everything as a steamroller or religion, it leads to idiotism where social questions and reproduction are ignored.
Instead of overcapacities and selling houses to each other, America is called to radical economic change and sustainability. The economy should servie humanity. Progress and work should be redefined for the post-fossil age.
Hardly anyone today dares financing the social state by cutting the armament budget.. The fat years are over! Three cheers for dis-possession! Expropriation instead of representation!
What are Social Human Rights? (tags)
Who prosecutes those responsible that more than a billion people must live from a dollar a day while wealth constantly grows?
The total commercialization of the world has triumphed..A dynamic of growth withdrawal could be initiated through a few simple measures..Internalizing costs would drastically change our societies..Democratic local initiatives are realistic.
No Room for Grace: Book Review (tags)
If abundance of life for all people is the heart of the biblical vision, economic thinking focuses on the shortage of resources.. Not subjecting everything to the market-benefit-calculus is vital.
Money, Power and the Human Psyche (tags)
Slavery still exists as money slavery all over the world where more than a third of humanity must survive at the subsistence level..Our relation to money has characteristics of madness. . When value blindness occurs in a person, his sense of reality becomes dead.
Open Letter to United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) From Mobilization for Global Justice (tags)
Congratulations on organizing a very large demonstration in Washington, D.C. the weekend of September 24-25. The numbers and the resulting media coverage and visibility were indeed impressive. Having said that, we would like to share with you some fundamental political concerns of ours with: • the manner in which the mobilization was called, • what was and what was not included in the political message, • and how that was reflected in the way in which the organizing for the demonstrations happened on the ground.
The Coming Great Global Re-Balancing (tags)
On the economic horizon is an event that will exceed the Thirties.
Paul Samuelson Attacks a Dogma (tags)
The best-known economist of the world doubts that shifting services to india and buying cheap goods from China bring advantages to Americans when the income of workers falls through foreign competition. The rich North will lose its monopoly profits under the conditions of globalization.
America's Corporatocracy (tags)
While he may be dead in the corporal sense, the spirit of Simon Bolivar continues to wage the struggle for freedom from oppression. Hugo Chavez is perhaps the most familiar incarnation of Bolivar's élan vital as he defies the neocolonial policies of the United States, a nation which has supplanted the European colonial empires as looters of Latin American bounty. Bolivar's spiritual essence also burns brightly in Evo Morales, another leader of the poor and oppressed in Latin America. Barring a CIA-orchestrated assasination or sabotage of the election process, in December Morales will be the next democratically-elected president of Bolivia. And deservedly so.
"The Days of the US Empire are Numbered" (tags)
"I love the US but I hate the American empire.. The US cou9ld escape a sudden downfall if it recognizes economic equality, appears as one country among others and abandons its military presence in the 140 countries where it presently stations troops.:"
China's Global Reach: Book Review (tags)
China is rising and understand its consequences
Only the Rich Profit from US Growth (tags)
"The same Congress since 1997 has consistently rerfused to raise the minimum wage from $5.15.. The founding fathers defined their new form of government as government by the people for the people. In the meantime US democracy has become government by the rich for the rich.."
Humane Freedom and the Free Market (tags)
"MOre free market is a social-political program involving a redistribution of power and money - in favor of a few special interests of the already rich and powerful.."
Taking a Stand Against Injustice: a Historical Account (tags)
Slaughter in Serene: the Columbine Coal Strike Reader tells the history of Colorado working folk taking a stand against economic injustice
Competition is not a Natural Law (tags)
Instead of working out and overcoming the causal problems, people put a veil of the fun society over the whole-as in the times of Rome..Ideologues elevate the principle of competition into a natural law to immunize the market econmy from all criticism.
The time is now to rally around hemp for energy independence and reduction of global warming.
Global Capitalism: the Scourge of Democracy (tags)
global capitalism is an economic Colt 45 for the times
CUCKOO ECONOMICS (Abridged Ed.) (tags)
By deliberately confusing assets that can be *produced* with assets that can only be *acquired*, modern economics laid the ideological foundation for unemployment, poverty, inequality, and the looming global depression.
The Re-Nationalization of World Politics and the End of the Liberal Era (tags)
The empire has cut off its umbilical chord to the nation state and is no longer territorially limited..The US under George W Bush strives for a global monopoly.. Naked imperialist policy now replaces liberal globalization.. The US is resolved to undermine the existing world system.
America's Middle Class: In the Tank! (tags)
Just about everyday, the news is bad! The economy is going to hell, the Iraqi War continues unabated and the energy crisis is shifting into high gear. One direct result: The Middle Class is disappearing. No Middle Class, no democracy! And yet, our people seem to be sleepwalking through it all. Maybe, Carl Jung was right when he said, “The people can’t stand too much reality.”
This is the judgement
When Americans Learn Fear (tags)
The German writer for DIE ZEIT describes anoher scenario for an oil crisis in America that would be similar to past experiences: a sudden price jump on the oil market could accelerate the loss of trust in the American economy.
Potemkin Village Chief dines in luxury in New Orleans (tags)
While large portions of New Orleans remain unlivable, the clueless Coward from Crawford 'got a taste of one of New Orleans' finest restaurant last night in the French Quarter & stayed in the luxury hotel Windsor Court.' Marie Antoinette would have died in envy of such imperial decadence.
"The Market Has No Heart": Paul Samuelson (tags)
A post-Katrina economics must emphasize parallel worlds, solidarity and human dignity to safeguard long-term necessities and creativity. If all countries only become more competitive, mass unemployment will result. What is public must remain public.
Time Autonomy for Everyone (tags)
Given the enormous advances in productivity, radical reduction of working hours is an overdue demand. However working hours are actually lengthened.. Power relations are hidden behind the distribution structures.
"Counterpoints to the Standardized World": Book Review (tags)
"The world plague globalizationis a practiced philosophy in the interest of business and exploitation without responsibility toward our living space and without humanliness.."
Join us in Washington, DC! Protest Military and Economic Violence! (tags)
Global Justice Feeder March! Saturday, September 24, 2005. 11:00 am Dupont Circle, Washington D.C.
From Keynesianism to Thatcherism (tags)
The analysis of whether aggregate economic problems are more on the supply- or demand side and whether they are short-term or long-term precedes all state economic policy.
Exploding Profits and Stagnant Wages (tags)
"Domestic demand has stagnated for years.. Money for investments exists in excess in Germany. However investments declined 0.7% in 2004 despite record profits. Invest-ments fell for the fourth year in a row and are 13 percent lower than the 2000 level.."
Fa;se Hopes: The Debate about Growth (tags)
"Developed industrial countries do not need global economic growth but a better distribution of economic success.. The dependence of tax revenues and social spending on economic growth is a homemade fairytale.."
"Unfortunately some market fundamentalists are at work in the EU who denounce every-thing the state does to protect public goods as distortion of competition.. The globalized market shatters balance of public & private.."
A Second Economy: Overcoming the Hurricane of Unemployment (tags)
"One of the problems since the so-called turn of 1989 is that the market is regarded as an ultimate natural law. The whole world was required to transform their economies into market economies.."
Two colossal manmade disasters: Katrina and Alan (tags)
What becomes obvious when a Katrina comes along is that for the many "born to lead," there is only a scant few "committed to serve."
Katrina has smashed New Orleans. New Orleans is the first western city to be destroyed by global warming.
Working Three Hours a Day is Enough (tags)
"Keynes predicted 60 years ago that three hours work per day would be enough. Instead more than seven million (in Germany) are in a desperate situation.. The system logic is obviously exhausted.."
"The US economy grows but depends on the rest of the world supplying hundreds of billions of more goods to the US every year than come from the US.. This will not last forever.."
How I Solved Sweden's Finance Problems (tags)
"Sweden has strong public finances today. Sometimes I compare the Swedish model with a bumblebee..I believe in our welfare model. It survived the crisis of the nineties. It will help us master the demographic challenges."
"New networks arise that support people without locking them in a cage.. We need positive freedom, the freedom to something..For that we must create new institutions. We may not return to the old.."
Literacy in Economic Questions (tags)
The neoliberal total market was created through political strategies, above all the installation of dictatorships by the secret service and military interventions of the US, not through democracy.."
Dictatorship as Economic Advantage: China's Rise (tags)
"Paul Samuelson questions the theory that existed for 200 years: the theory of free world trade..Wolfgang Hirn shows how China's rise to omnipotent production nation leads to de-industrialization..The 150 year old western dominance is obviously coming to its end.."
Disinformation as a Strategy of Power (Part II) (tags)
"Perpetual growth is not possible in nature or anywhere else..Globalization, the free market with its absolute competition protected by the WTO agreements doesn't have anything to do with fair competition...A global network of resistance is developing.."
"Redistribution to poorer groups can increase growth..The public debate about the economy and economic policy is dominated by the practical necessity logic. Desires, interests and goals of social groups play no role in the discussion of economic reforms."
Coalition of Minutemen and Migrant Groups? (tags)
A coalition of Minutepeople and Migrant-rights groups working together would really get the attention needed to make this nation aware. The real illegal aliens are the corporations that cross natural and cultural borders with impunity and are destroying the environment and people’s lives in the name of “global progress.” The only border that needs protecting is the moral and practical one that will shield us from this plunder and the destruction of quality living standards in ALL countries.
Protest the Annual World Bank and IMF meetings::Call for Direct Action::Sept. 23-25, 2005 (tags)
Join us and the millions around the world dedicated to a world where development, security, and democracy are no longer tools of rhetoric employed by the World Bank, the IMF, and the U.S. government but are realities in the lives of all. Come to Washington DC September 23-25th for a weekend of spirited action to shake the pillars of empire!
Protest the Annual World Bank and IMF Meetings Sept. 23-25, 2005 Washington DC (tags)
Block the Bank! Fight the Fund! Reclaim Our Communities! Confront Economic Violence and Corporate Capitalism during the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings September 23-25, 2005 :: Washington DC :: Call for DIRECT ACTION
Is It SOSMM Economic Terrorism? (tags)
The City of Baldwin Park has been living under the threat of what appears to me in my opinion to be economic blackmail by the "Save Our State" a.k.a. "Minutemen" who -- according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and according to white supremist web site's discussion forums -- teams up with Nazis and various other white supremists cults.
Disinformation as a Strategy of Power (tags)
"What caused this development? How could an economic system be built where ever-larger parts of the population are excluded from sharing in growth? ..In neoliberalism, the person is not regarded as a person but downgraded to mere labor power.."
An open letter to anti-immigrant groups (tags)
A satirical, but sincere offer to anti-immigrant groups claiming they aren't racists.
U.S. Congress Increases Backing for Haiti Coup Regime (tags)
Haiti: U.S. Subcommittee passes bill to recruit and deploy U.S. citizens in support of Dictatorship
Theological Reflections on Econmic Values (tags)
"The quality of a society is measured in its relations with the weakest..The economy exists for the sake of people..God's economy aims at the survival capacity of planet earth and its people..Our life is connected with all life.."
BTL:Military Base Closings Force Communities to Plan for... (tags)
...Sustainable Economic Development ~ Interview with Joanne Sheehan, of the War Resisters' League, conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
Europe and the Power of Capital (tags)
"The economic form of neoliberalism is based on political decisions, not practical economic necessities.. Only the democratic nation state can show the economy its place entitling it to exist for people and not vice versa.."
Reflections on Socialism (tags)
The main political task at this moment is to assemble the necessary social forces to defeat Bush and his counterparts in Congress and elsewhere.
Capitalism Criticism: Inexorable Struggle for Survival (tags)
"The civilized foundation of cooperative human life is furtively undermined by the capitalist form of organizing society.. Rational objectives often capsize into social irrationa-lity.. Unemployment is a form of violence.."
Speculations on Future US Policy (tags)
Without any concessions, Condoleezza Rice suggested that gulfs could be bridged and cooperation with Europe promoted. Her sneer made it seem: cooperation on our conditions. Many factors will stop the "arrogance of power" (Sen Fulbright).
Permaculture and Peak Oil (tags)
Peak Oil and Permaculture explains the dynamics of the impending peak in global oil production and the implications for Australian society. Declining energy availability will spell the end of global economic growth and the consumerist culture it supports.
A Communique From the Organizers of the J25 Anti-War March (tags)
Call to action
goon support movement (formerly anti-war movement) (tags)
soldiers are not human, and hence don't deserve rights!
Strategy for Another World: Walden Bello's De-Globalization (tags)
Walden Bello's de-=globalization hyas a power that can burst open the system. Redis-tributing work through radical reduction of working hours and exchanging part of paid work for more freedom anhd quality of life are two powerful steps to regaining human autonomy.
"The world has enough for everyone's need, not for everyone's greed." The fear of the further spread of the western lifestyle and economic mode with frequent flier rebates is at the center of political debate. Life without resource-intensive lifestyles is vital.
BTL:Neoliberal Conditions Attached to G8 Debt Relief Plan for... (tags)
...Poor Nations Exacerbate Poverty ~ Interview with Bill Fletcher, president of Trans Africa Forum, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Economism, Economic Ethics and Donations (tags)
Economism is the great ideology of our time. It claims that (1) resisting the market is impossible and (2) submitting to the market is best for everyone. Both are not true. Embedding the market in principles of useful-ness to life has a priority as an ordering task.
Time for an Economic Bill of Rights (tags)
It is time for the Democratic Party to put up or shut up.
Mr. Greenspan and the German Way (tags)
Greenspan's dilemma is that interest rates must rise to reduce the trade deficit ($617B in 2004) and keep foreign investors ($2B a day) though this could burst the real estate bubble and raise consumer prices. US prosperity is a credit-b ased prosperity.
Economic Growth as Myth and Sickness by Marc Batko (tags)
We are called to be subjects, to struggle for equal opportunities and the minimum essentials of life. Our gifts and talents, hidden, ignored or buried by the neoliberal steamroller, can be rediscovered as we reclaim self-determination.
Join Venezuela News & Action, a free weekly bulletin on Venezuelan democracy. (tags)
Join Venezuela News & Action, a free weekly bulletin on Venezuelan democracy.
6 MIles of Shacks and Kiosks Owned by Street Traders Destroyed by ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe (tags)
ZANU-PF Police were ordered to destroy 6 miles of economic activity be street traders. Falsely accused of being responsible for Zimbabwe's emergency economic crisis the street traders were located in an oppsition area near Victoria Falls.
Basic Income as a Democratic Civil Right (tags)
The ecnomic conditions in which the utopia of Aristotle or John M Keynes could become a real utopia objectively exist. We live under our real economic possibilities.The end of the work society is not the end of work but the transition to a really free society of citizens.
Economic Growth Alone Cannot Solve Social Problems (tags)
One of the central questions of this century is: How will we deal with the losers of this economic dynamic so we don't ignore their status as free citizens?.. No country has ever solved social problems by means of economic growth alone.
The Crisis of Work and its Future (tags)
"Producing more with less labor, distributing the fruits of technical progress better, crea-ting a new balance between required work and freely disposable time and giving every-one the possibility for a more relaxed life and more varied jobs are the new goals.."
Maybe we need them to take care of us. Maybe we need them to, as *they* say, take the risks. But then again, maybe we don't.
"Managers Do Not Only Serve Shareholders" (tags)
"It is not legitimate to exploit every conceivable outsourcing chance. It is not legitimate to declare jobs superfluous to realize double-digit profits.. Profit cannot be the only maxim of good entrepreneural conduct.."
Elections for Anarchist Funding Group (tags)
The Freedonia Corporation is currently seeking volunteers who wish to stand for election to its Board of Directors for a one-year term starting in June, 2005.
China's Rise to a Political and Economic Superpower (tags)
The US is increasingly losing its economic sovereignty..For the Chinese the third Iraq war was the harshest defeat in the short history of reintegration in the world economy. The more the US becomes entrenched in unilateralism the easier China finds allies.
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The market assumes control more and more while social policy is driven down with the argument of "personal responsibility." Growing impoverishment and social exclusion of ever-larger groups are the inexorable consequences.
Weak Dollar and Strong Bush: China and US Debts (tags)
To stabilize the value of the dollar, the US needs a daily currency inflow of $1.8 billion.. The budget plan of the White House rests on unrealistic assumptions.. The Bush administration assumes higher revenues by means of the tax cuts.
Vietnam and Cuba - Thirty Years After Liberation (tags)
Thirty years ago today Vietnam fell...into the hands of the Vietnamese. Actually, it was taken by the Vietnamese after decades of struggle. Cuba was there to support Vietnam all the way. A discussion of Vietnam and Cuba's links to it.
Social Justice and Social Policy (tags)
We run the risk of making economic success absolute. However economicsuccess is a means to an end..Economic success is only legitimate when it improves the living conditions of citizens..The social foundations of democracy fade when poverty, unemploy-ment and social insecurity increase.
Other causes contribte to the economic misery besides the distribution problems. There are two developmental problems. There is the shift of profit from labor to capital. There is the worldwide opening of markets causing wage pressure.
Economists and their Ideologies (tags)
The conventional economy starts from the assumption that a rational economic actor always sees himself in competition to protect his own interests..This model corresponds to the reptile brain and a territorial conduct.. Cooperative being does not oppose nature..
Land Reform Bearing Fruits- Long Live Mugabe! (tags)
In Solidarity with Zimbabwe and her anti-imperialist leadership
This show will outline why reparations should and must be paid to the descendants of America's African slaves.
Representatives of orthodox market theory are not weary emphasizing that the causes of crises only refer to economic errors in the afflicted countries. This 1988 Austrian warning calls us to resist the ideology of market fundamentalists.
Bashar Assad ordered the death of Rafiq Hariri (Bill Clinton ) (tags)
People in the media should stop making up infantile excuses by saying the real power behind Bashar Assad killed Hariri. Assad is the power
Every search for alternatives must question the "great narratives" of the free market, efficiency, competition and entrepreneurship. Economic laws could be analyzed as social constructions and economic models as social models.
A Snow Job on Social Security (tags)
Bush’s stump campaign to sell his divide-and-conquer plan for wrecking Social Security has been a failure. So now he’s sent out his Treasury Secretary to try crying “wolf” in hopes of scaring retirees and workers about the security of the system. It’s WMDs all over again.
The End of Globalization (tags)
The economy ought to serve humanity; humanity should not serve the econmy. Beware the neoliberal idolization of growth and competition! If growth becomes a law, ecological collapse is unavoidable. If com-petition is made absolute, mass unemployment will occur everywhere.
MULTITUDE: MONSTER OR MASTER (tags)
Often we suspect there is something ‘rotten’ in our global order and only an urgent adjustment can save us from calamity. But we are unable to articulate or convert our suspicions into logical concepts expressed in the context of past and current political and economic evolutions.
Bush seems to have learned the same thing as former president Reagan from the histori-cal experience of the 1930s.. What helps are tax cuts and cuts in social spending.
Current Globalization Sows Hatred and Terror (tags)
The future is very nebulous. Two different possibilities exist: balance or destruction.. A world in which 24,000 persons die of starvation everyday and several hundred million children are without a school educa-tion cannot be just and is unacceptable.
Hard Landing of the Dollar (tags)
The decline of the US dollar signals the economic weakness of the superpower and the structural crisis of capitalism. Since 1985 the US has become heavily indebted fo foreign countries. This foreign indebtedness amounts to 35 percent of the GDP.
Social Security and Modern Society (tags)
Social security is not a mere burden but a benefit of productivity. Countries with comfortable social security systems are internationally very competitive. Social security supports economic growth and employment.
Primal Fears Seize the Middle (tags)
Social justice decays to mere equal opportunities.. Demography often serves economic circles, established parties and the media as a tool for social-political demigogues in legitimating neoliberal recon-struction or dismantling the welfare state.
Globalization and the Social State (tags)
The economy exists for people, not vice versa. The economy needs a framework offering orientation to economic actors and showing the limits of the tolerable. This framework is not a limitation of freedom but the necessary condition for success..
Building Bridges Radio: Social Insecurity Bush Style & Working the Unfriendly Skies (tags)
Building Bridges : Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28 minutes radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB ADDRESS LINK BELOW
Alternatives to Neoliberal Globalization (tags)
All the alternatives begin with resistance agaisnt the neoliberal globalization that is increasingly aggressive and openly violent. The essential levers are redistribution from top to bottom and an economic policy promoting employment.
Building Bridges Radio: Social Insecurity Bush Style & Working the Unfriendly Skies (tags)
Building Bridges : Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28 minutes radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON WEB ADDRESS LINK BELOW
Returning To The Ancient Ways (tags)
Earthway
CKUT Radio: The Battle of Guadalajara Mexico - A Radio Documentary (tags)
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PowerNomics: Plan for Economic Power for Blacks (tags)
Dr. Claud Anderson will be in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, December 14, 2004, at the Power of Love Hall, which is located at 1430 West Manchester, Los Angeles, CA, at 7:00 p.m. Please attend. This is a VERY important conference concerning the creation of economic wealth for Black America...PowerNomics.
PowerNomics, The Economic Plan for Empowerment for Black America (tags)
Dr. Claud Anderson, Ed.D, PowerNomics, The Economic Plan to Empower Black America
No Prospect for Improvement (tags)
The world cannot expect any impulses for a better world from the new president. The world must adjust to a superpower armed to the teeth whose political and economic elites are hardly concerned with the well-being of humanity.
The Economy of the Plundered South (tags)
The panacea of export orientation that the IMF and the World Bank promoted in the last 25 years for the South has led to absoute disaster..There is an alternative, abandoning export orientation and strengthening domestic demand.
Psychic Systems and Economic Growth (tags)
We psychic systems are robots that first become people by understanding how the systems function. The system is not optimal when potential is squandered. Mass unem-ployment is a mega-squandering. The system is the tyrant.
The deficit can only be lowered by devaluing the dollar at least 20 to 30 percent.. In 1963 the deficit amounted to five percent of econo-mic output. This changed within eight years into a surplus of one percent. Economic growth, tax increases andspending discipline
The President Plays Poker (tags)
The past tax cuts tore holes of billions in the federal Washington budget.. The ambitious reformer GWBush puts all his eggs in one basket, that his society of owners will not soon be mocked as a society of debtors.
The New Corporate Liberation Theology. Part 1 (tags)
The US government has privatized and sold whole sectors of the Iraqi economy. Economic policy and tax laws are rewritten. Foreign firms can now buy 100 percent of Iraqi firms and export the profits. This is a blatant violation of international law...
When the social contract, the social compromise between labor and capital, is scorned, people become wolves to one another.. The dance around the golden calf is already a disaster..
General Strike - USA January 20th, 2005 (tags)
General Strike Thursday January 20, 2005 Inauguration Day
NO SURPRISES IN BANANA-BRAIN'S VICTORY...
The Day to Forget the November 2nd Election Forever is November 3rd.
No mandate, no surrender (tags)
Several months ago most pollsters predicted that the margin of difference between Kerry and Bush would be razor thin. I can’t recall anyone projecting a landslide for either candidate, let alone a major political realignment nationwide.
Venezuela's election: defeat for opposition, advance for the Bolivarian movement (tags)
Bolivarian Revolution
RECORDS FALL UNDER BUSH: THE BIG PICTURE (tags)
The U.S. Dept. of Commerce projects a record $631 billion annual trade deficit for 2004.
BEMUSED - SEIZE THE MOMENT - NOVEMBER ELECTION CRITICAL (tags)
BEMUSED - WE BEGIN AT MID STREAM WITH THE - RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM
Criticism of the Social State is Irrational (tags)
"Paul A Samuelson, an important economist of the 20th century, worries about the state of the US economy. He fears falling wages..`We in the US are on the way to a plutocratic democracy. Neither Bush nor Kerry can stop outsourcing'."
Noam Chomsky and Marxism (tags)
Noam Chomsky and Marxism
Anarchists, especially within American society, are often confronted with the argument that human society has always been hierarchical and, therefore, hierarchy in human society exists by nature. Put more succinctly, there is a natural law governing the organization of humankind such that any and all manifested societies will be hierarchical. This paper will address that argument.
The Demon and its Conjuring Trick: Money (tags)
"The light in which the glboal financial markets operate is very dim.. Unveiling the money fetish is a task of economic literacy. The monetary sphere seems uncoupled from the real economy, the world of work.."
"For the richestg 1%, the Reagan tax cuts were pure elixer.. Reagan's budgets slashed social spending. Domestic discretionary spending was the special target.. Hardest hit were programs for low-income Americans.."
US Dollar Heading for Collapse: Robert Reich (tags)
In painting a bleak outlook for the US economy, Reich suggested the worst is yet to come, especially if President George W. Bush and the Republican party's agenda of tax less and spend more is re-elected in Nov
"Rainer Roth in The House of Cards puts the mechanisms of the capitalist economy on trial.. To counter the long-term descent of profit rates, the tax burden for businesses, a constant 21% from 1960 to 1980, has spiraled down to only 8% today.."
Economics and Ethics: The Stakeholder Model (tags)
"Businesses cannot be reduced only to the principle of profit maximization.. Businesses are bound in a relational structure of different claimant groups including a critical public alongside the traditional economic actors.. Brent Spar is an example.."
US Expert Sees Danger of World Recession (tags)
"The new administration elected in November 2004 must systematically reduce the deficits. Otherwise an inflation threatens. America within the next two years could lead into a recession.."
Economics for a Shrinking Planet (tags)
The expansion of humanity's ecological impact on the planet cannot continue much longer without violating natural thresholds. To survive, we must develop a new way of thinking about our economic activities. This article briefly describes the author's approach to such a new mode of thought.
"We do not boast of our victory": Hugo Chavez (tags)
"I am not the most important. What is central is a humanist project, an alternative to capitalism, a concept, an experience and a new dream that will increase in honor and dignity.. The world has many reasons to doubt declarations of the US government.."
Bush Administration Endangers the Middle Class (tags)
"Nation-wide the social descent of many families sees a real threat.. the number of newly created jobs still lags behind the population growth. More Americans have been completely dismissed from the labor market.."
"The Young Must Have a Chance" (tags)
"The whole financial regime between the country, territories and communities is out of order. The communes were sacrificed on the altar of tax reform. Enough money is there.. Lengthening working hours in a time of weak growth and high unemployment is absurd.."
The High Priests of Economic Nonsense (tags)
"The rules of social state restraint of wild capitalism are ignored. The class struggle from above has long been a fact since the coalition of capital with the government is fairly stable and the media play along. Resistance is inevitable.."
Is Despair Spreading in the Bush Camp? (tags)
"The situation for Bush is really precarious if one considers the increasing signals that the economic system is much weaker than assumed.. Ultra-conservatives are worried about the great global instability.."
LIBERATING THE ISRAELI ECONOMY FROM OCCUPATION (tags)
It surveys the Israeli government's attempt to liberate the economy from socialist occupation. It looks at the fight over the just passed 2005 budget and gives a cautious "green light" to the direction of the reforms.
BTL:Poor People's Campaign To Hold Protest March on NYC GOP Convention (tags)
Interview with Cheri Honkala, national coordinator of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
The World is not a Commodity: Another World is Possible (tags)
"Attac is an element of the anti-war and peace movement because a just world is impossible without peace.. We reject the militarization of foreign policy and war actions of the German army abroad.."
"Wars are Good for the Economy": The Global Free Trade System (tags)
"The international free market was created artificially in the 18th and 19th centuries with the force of the English colonial state and did not develop naturally from the free exchange of goods as neoliberals constantly claim.."
The Fortune 500 are thinking Green (tags)
Global warming is becoming a major concern for businesses like Allianz Group, AON, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson and BP. They say it's a risk too costly to ignore.
Brave New World of Work: The Political Economy of Insecurity (tags)
"The utopia of the free market has an unintentional upshot: the Brazilianization of the West.. What is most remarkable is the new similarity of development profiles, the incursion of the precarious, intermittent, fluffy and unsanctioned in the Western bulwarks.."
America's Job Wonder is Pure Statistics (tags)
"Everything is only marketing.. The new statistical methods only help marketing to keep the high deficits in the US finacable. The data does not reflect reality in the US.. America wrestles with a so-called double deficit.."
Georgia Activists Prepare to Unwelcome the G8 (tags)
Georgia activists plan alternative events to the 2004 G-8 Summit in Georgia despite heavy military presence.
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists: Mobilize the vote (tags)
Bush lies ‘coming and going,’ CBTU leader charges
US Economy as an Accelerated War Economy (tags)
"A recovery based on job losses, wage cuts, increased health care costs, an incomparable increase in student fees and growing poverty is not John Kerry's idea of an American economy that works for America's workers.."
G8: Island Residents May Suffer from G-8 Presence, but Sea Island Company Will Not (tags)
Sea Island, Georgia -- Sea Island is the actual physical site of the G-8 summit this year though adjacent St. Simons Island will take at least some of the overflow. The leaders from the wealthiest nations, predominantly white, will come together in June at this southern Georgia resort to further their economic domination of the rest of world.
The US nuclear option and the "War on Terrorism" (tags)
the Bush Administration has embarked upon a military adventure which threatens the future of humanity.
Abolish the welfare state (tags)
Is China weeks away from 'Great Depression'? (tags)
Already in need of a $45 billion bailout, the CBRC suspended all lending for three days. The enormity of China's banking problem is dawning on everyone--the system is nearing meltdown.
Dangers Hang Over Latin America and the World (tags)
Havana.-
Mass meeting in NoHo to stop arts cuts (tags)
The online magazine for the San Fernando Valley's NoHo Arts District, www.nohoartsdistrict.com , is helping to organize an emergency community meeting to stop the attacks on CAD. Join representatives from the Cultural Affairs Department, the NoHo Theatre & Arts Business Collaborative, Valley Theatre League and other arts organizations to save the arts in Los Angeles.
Venezuela, March 2004: The logic of our times (tags)
* A study of the current situation in Venezuela demystifying the image sold by the media and promoted by the current rulers or by those who aspire to take their place. Originally published in El Libertario # 36, the bimonthly newspaper of the Comision de Relaciones Anarquistas
Congress abandons millions of jobless (tags)
HAMDEN, Conn. – While the White House backed off empty job creation claims last week, machinists, teamsters, building trades, and municipal workers crowded into the Job Center here, angry at the failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to extend unemployment benefits at a time of high job loss.
Developing countries summit in Venezuela: "To recover the South-South identity" (tags)
The developing countries encounter will take place next February 26th to 28th in Caracas, Venezuela. It will count with the presence of the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, among others.
Drivers Licenses, Not War! California Latino Economic Strike Great Success (tags)
Los Angeles, CA - Thousands of Latino workers, students and shopkeepers stayed away from work and school Dec. 12, in support of the statewide Latino Economic Strike. The Latino Economic boycott was called by the Mexican American Political Association and Hermandad Mexicana Latino Americana, with the support of hundreds of other organizations, to protest the repeal of SB 60, the law that allowed undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses.
Wages up for the well-off, but not for others (tags)
The gap between workers in the 90th earning percentile and the 10th has never been wider. Said Ann Owen, economist at Hamilton College (NY) and former Federal Reserve economist (DC), "we can probably project a future growth in inequality."
The Truth About How Israel Screws Over The Palestinians (tags)
The Israeli Government maintains a "Matrix Of Control" over the 3 million Muslim And Christian Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. In most areas they cannot get an Israeli Military "building permit". When they do build a home anyway, it gets bulldozed
World Social Forum challenges inequality (tags)
MUMBAI, India – On the sidewalk of a busy Mumbai street, two tiny children and their baby brother, clad only in a shirt, sit in a patch of dirt, directly in front of a cell phone store.
Miami FTAA Protest: Cops Rampage Against Youth, Labor (tags)
What Strategy to Defeat Imperialism?
First publicated on the trotskyist review Marxism Alive 6
Message to Congress: Extend jobless benefits (tags)
WASHINGTON – The New Year was a time of revelry for the corporate rich as government reports confirmed a surge in profits and productivity in the final quarter of 2003. George W. Bush trumpeted the news as proof that his trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy has pulled the nation out of recession.
World Economic Forum in Warsaw April 28-30 (tags)
Alternative Economic Summit imc pl 23.12.2003 09:39 The implication of the World Bank and the World Economic Forum (WEF) in making political decisions in Poland is poorly known. At the upcoming WEF summit in Warsaw (28-30 April 2004) it's likely that there will be organised debates at an Alternative Economic Summit.
This is the world that has been pulled down over your eyes to blind you from the truth...
The Clinton's Real Legacy (tags)
Bill Clinton benefited in a way from the myriad scandals that pervaded his tenure. Were it not for the diversion, the public might be better apprised of his many miserable policy failures.
A Conservative explains ''Why They Hate George W. Bush'' (tags)
The core of the Hate Bush Movement is fueled by the fact that he is a self-professed Christian and unfortunately many leading this parade are so-called Libertarians.
The imperial counter offensive: contradictions, challenges and opportunities. (tags)
A victory or prolonged war by the guerrillas in Colombia will provide breathing room for the rest of the left. Thus it is essential that maximum support and solidarity be extended to the Colombian struggle. Internationalism is not only the solidarity network against the new imperial military offensive, in general, but in support of the Colombian peasants and workers organized in their "Peoples Army."
peacecoup.us - Ending Market Dictatorships (tags)
please forward
Protest Repeal of SB60-Dec. 12 (tags)
see below
Lebanese Farmers and the Syrian Occupation (tags)
"It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger."[1] Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran, 1923
The Environment is Always an Economic Boom: Debating the Rightwing (tags)
The five rightwing arguments for downsizing ecology are criticized. "Ecological moderniza-tion triggers innovations, creates jobs, opens up export chances and lowers health costs.. In Switzerland per capital energy consumption could be reduced two-thirds.."
"Growth, prosperity, free trade, liberal world economy and international division of labor are all ideologically charged terms. They re-flect veiled interests more than a search for truth. The starting-point for an alternative econmics is an ideology-critical position."
Neoliberalism: Definitional Problems (tags)
"Neoliberalism starts from a negative.. assumption that every person prefers him- or herself or circle. Therefore corruption is inevi-table. This development can only be prevented by reduction of the public sector and the absolute self-control of the market."
Congressmen of 'Integrity' refuse to penalize Mutual Fund abusers (tags)
Only 2 members of the House of Representative rejected legislation that would impose penalties against fund trading abuses. Who were these industry insiders? Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), key members of the Republican Liberty Caucus.
UDHR 31st Article/ 28th Bill of Rights Suggestion (tags)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, anti-corruption, anti-cultic, referendum, new people's branch of government. In spirit of green party facilitation/process, change, add, delete to improve.
Current U.S. Intervention in the Philippines* (tags)
Over the past century, the U.S. has been the leading interventionist power in the world often victimizing small independent countries and national liberation movements and using the military as its chief instrument. In many cases, U.S. interventionism leads to wars of aggression. Other methods used are: political and diplomatic pressures; economic pressures and trade sanctions; covert operations; media manipulation; and others.
The White Collar Migration - Part 1 (tags)
As Economy Gains, Outsourcing Surges
Yes, indeed — the Bush boom has begun at last. (tags)
This week's report of a barnburner 7.2 percent rise in gross domestic product is very significant. It informs us of the likelihood of a true recovery boom — call it the Bush boom — in the months and quarters ahead.
Lebanese Farmers and the Syrian Occupation (tags)
it is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger."[1] Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran, 1923
GLOBALIZATION: A SIMPLE DEFINITION-“Diez horas con la globalización”(google) (tags)
A SIMPLE DEFINITION OF WHAT THE GLOBALIZATION IS. According to the book “DIEZ HORAS CON LA GLOBALIZACION” (amazon, google, yahoo, netbiblo, Foro-los retos de la globalización, elcorteingles, netbiblo, indymedia.org..) Author: Oscar Sanchez Fernandez de la Vega (google). ofdelavega@edu.xunta.es
Jobs Go Bye-Bye Under Bush (tags)
Another fine example of the ecomomic policies of the cheap labor conservatives.
Commerical Activity Allows Freedom of Social and Economic Restrictions (tags)
The real revolution is to become an entrepreneur. See Alex Jones (www.infowars.net) for more on government abuses.
Interesting article from the Asia Times. A different perspective than the usual propaganda from our Wall Street-controlled media.
Renowned Economist Blasts Bush's Economic Policies (tags)
After Krugman's speech, Nobel laureate and UC Berkeley professor George Akerlof led a standing ovation and hundreds of people stood in line to buy Krugman's new book.
October 4-5, The Center for Process Studies will sponsor a conference on American Empire. Saturday's proceedings will be themed "The Reality and Nature of American Empire." sundays proceedings will focus on "Alternatives to Empire."
The Cancun Summit-WTO on the edge of abyss (tags)
WTO
Are "anarcho"-capitalists really Anarchists? (tags)
Because "anarcho"-capitalists embrace capitalism and reject socialism, they cannot be considered anarchists or part of the anarchist tradition.
Job Losses At Great Depression Level (tags)
The wonders of Bushonomics on display for all. His Father may have been George Herbert Hoover Bush - does this make the current Bush Calvin Coolidge?
Netanyahu attacks-Israeli working class responds (tags)
Israeli working class
Fascism, Farm Subsidies and Suicide (tags)
As the fascists in the White House celebrate the success of the tragedy they helped make happen on 9/11 (September 11, 2001) on this day September 11, 2003, Lee Kyung-hae, a Korean farmer (who has been put out of business in Korea by cheap imports from the U.S. Global Economic Dictatorship) lies dead in a hospital morgue in Cancun, Mexico.
Poor People's Campaign To Relaunch In LA (tags)
A broad coalition of community, labor and civil rights groups join with Service Employees International Union Local 434B long term care workers to announce the kickoff of the Poor People’s Campaign to bring attention to poverty and injustices of underdeveloped neighborhoods of L.A.
Trade Talk: Speaking In Tongues (tags)
Recent ZNet Commentary on WTO
Let's talk about "Collateral Damage". Where did this term come from? How did collateral damage become the description for civilian deaths in what have been illegal wars perpetrated by America?
Between Irag and a Hard Place (tags)
War at home and abroad
"The gigantic blackout (that will certainly not be the last) was a direct consequence that the US is so exemplary in the special neoliberal disciplines privatization and lower costs..Profit maximization at any cost leads to abstract cost cutting pressure." From German
Activating State or Active Social State (tags)
"Cuts in benefits are not social reforms but a relapse to the last century when society didn't protect its members from general life risks on account of deficient resources.The welfare state is indispensable for the society altogether and for the socially disadvantaged
ACTION ALERT - Support Poor People's March in DC (tags)
Poor People's Economic Human Rights marchers were evicted from "Bushville" on August 24th, with 17 arrests. On August 28th, marchers will reconstruct the Tent City with or without a permit. Take action to support the Poor People's Movement...
This Christmas season should be designated as "Boycott Corporate America Time"! (tags)
Nov. 28-Dec. 24, 2003-This is the time when economic direct action against corporate America will be most effective!
Solidarity Economics is Ecology (tags)
How can there be a global movement with no platform and no economic vision and leaders who hide? If the Brazilian constitution defends the right of the starving to steal food, then surely the poor of the world have the right - under any way of thinking - to steal back control over their lives and their local economies.
With a $38 billion state deficit, California is labeled the nation's basket case. The election to recall the governor will be held this fall. It will determine if Bush and his gang will gain control of the state.
BTL:California Recall Election: Direct Democracy or Chaos? (tags)
Interview with Micah Sifry, journalist and author, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Opposition coalition takes shape in Colombia (tags)
A new opposition coalition challenges the hard-line regime of President Alvaro Uribe for its devastating economic policies and systematic violations of freedoms. A general strike has been called for August 12th.
Words to Seduce the Left (tags)
Watch as I make a seemingly "anti-business" argument designed to fit within the Left's world view, but ... TA-DA!!! ... I actually make an argument in favor of laissez-faire... now that's how to "serve it up with a LEFT SPIN"
"We celebrate the victory over the recession while several hundred thousand employees are dismissed every month', decried Calif congressman Pete Stark. `It would be almost hilarious if it weren't so sad.'..Employers prefer reducing personnel to save costs.."
The Forbidden Truths of Human Economic Systems (tags)
A Truth-based dissection of the genocidally evil economic policies and structures that all human governments and societies inflict upon their citizen-slaves.
It's 2003, do you know what the "Club for Growth" is? (tags)
"When the supply-siders at the Club for Growth decide to back a candidate who favors the economic policies of the Reagan era, donations don't just trickle down, they gush." -- Congressional Quarterly Today, Feb. 7, 2003
Good news! George W. Bush's "free market" economic policies are working! (tags)
The biggest surge in defense spending since the Korean War era helped drive U.S. economic growth ahead at a surprisingly brisk 2.4 percent annual clip in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.
Education For The People! All Out For Milwaukee: October 10 – 12, 2003 (tags)
Rise Up! As we move forward with our collective campaign to challenge the right wing in Milwaukee County, we have made a call for a national march on the Bradley Foundation (Oct. 10-12).
Education For The People! All Out For Milwaukee: October 10 – 12, 2003 (tags)
Rise Up! As we move forward with our collective campaign to challenge the right wing in Milwaukee County, we have made a call for a national march on the Bradley Foundation (Oct. 10-12).
How Brad and Emily took Jamal and Lakisha’s job (tags)
Attention African American’s struggling to find a job in today’s job market, George W. Bush’s miserable economic policies may not be the only reason for your unemployment. It could be your name.
"Another world is possible and another economy is necessary, an economy in which massive social resources are used according to plan..`We are attacked as in the dying phase of the Weimar republic'." This review is translated from the German.
BTL:House Passes White House Plan To Deprive Millions of Workers Overtime Pay. (tags)
Interview with Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Deflation Threatens. A Specter goes about in Germany (tags)
"The IMF recently warned of a deflationary development and a dangerous intensification of the economic crisis in Germany..Deflation is characterized by a lowering of price levels.. The cause is a surplus of goods over the demand for goods.." Translated from German
On the Human Right to Laziness (tags)
"Paul Lafargue spoke satirically about the first sinister acceleration thrusts of early industry: "All individual and social misery comes from a passion for work. O laziness, be merciful with your endless misery!: O laziness, you are the balm for the pains!"
A Plan for Privilege and Power (tags)
The American people, no longer treated to a steady diet of "embedded" reporting, are beginning to realize the true cost of the government's nice little war to make the Middle East safe for Zionists, bankers and multi-national corporations.
Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete (tags)
Taxes are NOT collected for revenue, but for redistribution of wealth to the wealthy, for the social control of YOU!
BTL:Bush Africa Tour a 'Photo-Op,' Not a Serious Policy Initiative (tags)
Interview with Bill Fletcher, president of TransAfrica Forum, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
Venceremos Brigade Cuba Travel Challenge (tags)
In a few days the Venceremos Brigade will travel to Cuba. The Venceremos Brigade is an educational work project that has traveled to Cuba every year since 1969 to work side by side with Cuban workers. We are united in opposing the travel ban and the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba.
More State Intervention (tags)
"The German economy has skidded into a recession.. In a recession, the state must take a leadership role in solving the main problem, inadequate demand.." Translated from the German
Liberia in the Bush administration’s crosshairs (tags)
This week, U.S. President George Bush embarked on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. His five-day itinerary included Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. Ironically, media attention has largely focused on another African country this week: Liberia.
The Kennedy sycophant's guide to oppressive taxes (tags)
Does the Bush tax plan favor the wealthy? Well, yeah... Let the Democrats and their ilk pool their resources to subvert the Constitution and help "the people" build a Welfare State -- the rest of declare this taxation (read: legal plunder) to be oppressive.
U.S. is 3rd on World's "Economic Freedom" Index (tags)
Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States rank first, second and third, respectively, in the latest edition of the 'Economic Freedom of the World' annual report by the Cato Institute and more than 50 other libertarian think tanks around the world.
Venezuela- the revolution faced with sabotage (tags)
Venezuela
Mr. George W. Bush and Brother Jeb ... Visit Tampa, Florida to visit "FatCats" (tags)
Tampa, Florida Protest Success at Bush/Cheney/Jeb Fundraiser
Are "anarcho"-capitalists really Anarchists? NO. They are really sham artists who are the lowest form of entrepreneur. They are worse than HONEST anarchists....if there is such a thing.
Latin America fights neolibralism (tags)
Despite the murderous repression that the Pinochet regime was known for, thousands of Chileans took to the streets in mass demonstrations. With the economy collapsing, the fascist government was forced to rehire public sector workers and reinstitute many of the laws and programs in place before the coup.
Democratic Party History: a Revealing Rap Sheet (tags)
A history of the Democratic Party's role in co-opting and diverting independent political movements, while advancing the agenda of the global capitalist police state. This and similar pieces can be found at
AS THE ECONOMY CRUMBLES - June 16, 2003 (tags)
Summarizing the crappy economic news of the week.
"The radicalisation of the strikes, the images of violence like those seen on Tuesday evening in Paris could disturb consumers' peace of mind"
AMonomaniac with a Bad idea-Bush against the Economy (tags)
Bush and the economy
Living Wage Laws Killing Jobs and Businesses (tags)
Local 'Living Wage' ordinances passed by well meaning city councils are killing jobs and businesses. The author of this article is President and CEO of K-BOB'S Steakhouses, a family restaurant chain headquartered in New Mexico, with 26 locations in New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma.
Enron Used U.S. Government to Bully Developing Nations (tags)
WASHINGTON, May 29 (IPS) - Defunct energy giant Enron used the U.S. government to coerce the World Bank and poor nations to grant concessions and resolve its investment problems, according to documents and correspondence released by the Treasury Department.
Russia after the War in Irag (tags)
Russia
After the War is Before the War (tags)
The Marburg professor of political science gave this address at the union conference "After the Kosovo War" on Sept 4, 1999. Translated from the German
Economic Fascism and Tax Slavery (tags)
"Words mean what I say they mean, Alice," said the Mad Hatter
Neo-liberalism (by Latuff) (tags)
Copyright-free artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff.
"I compare this new movement with the early battles for the abolition of slavery in the 18th century..At that time a hundred years were needed to abolish slavery, end child labor and introduce minimum wages..We need a different economic globalization from below..
'Class War' and the Bush tax cut (tags)
Chris Edwards, director of fiscal policy at the libertarian Cato Institute defended Bush's tax cuts, "though the lower income earners pay a high burden in payroll tax for social security and Medicare, they get a higher proportion of their wages in retirement benefits than do the wealthy"
U.S. Government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich (tags)
How has the secretive U.S.-based IMF/World Bank economically enslaved poor countries?
Economy for Human Needs (tags)
"If the peace movement, globalization critics and unions unite their struggles, sand can be thrown in the gears of neoliberal globalization. Then changing direction will be possible." Translated from the German
The nature of the Iraqi conquest was not lost on one cable TV news reporter who, in questioning a man who wanted the rebuilding process to be opened up to other nations than just the United States shrieked that the "French who wanted no part in the war now want to share in the spoils."
Iraqis say ‘No U.S. occupation’ (tags)
Shouts of “No to colonialism, no to occupation” resounded throughout Iraq this week.
BTL:Disorder, Protests Challenge U.S. Occupation of Iraq, Undermining... (tags)
...White House Triumphalism. Interview with Roger Normand, executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
War with Syria planned if Bush re-election in doubt. (tags)
"If Bush's re-election in 18 months should be endangered by the poor economic situation, his advisers could consider a new confrontation useful to get the voters back behind the commander-in-chief in the White House,"..
THE UNITED STATES MUST STOP SUPPORTING DICTATORSHIPS
Nine Theses on Moving the Peace Movement Forward (tags)
[Editor: John Gershman, Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) Editor's Note: This piece was commissioned under the auspices of the Project Against the Present Danger. Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org]
U.S. Lost the War Before It Started (tags)
Undoubtedly the U.S. will experience a military victory in Iraq as well as a complete and thorough occupation of the entire country but a military occupation does not a society make.
The Handmaid's Tale Proceeding on Schedule! (tags)
My fellow Canadian, Margaret Atwood, could not have predicted what we're now going through more accurately.
Halt US Intervention in Latin America, get in the streets in the South this Fall!
In other news - IMF reports globalization doesn't help the poor (tags)
While the world's attention is focused on war in Iraq, the International Monetary Fund has released a study finding there is little evidence that globalization helps poor countries. In other words, the protesters were right all along.
A War in the Planning for Four Years (tags)
Zbigniew Brzezinski and the CFR Put War Plans In a 1997 Book - It Is "A Blueprint for World Dictatorship," Says a Former German Defense and NATO Official Who Warned of Global Domination in 1984, in an Exclusive Interview With FTW
The next time some clown tells you "War is good for the economy" remember this.
A Chinese economic embargo can stop the war!!! (tags)
Why don't we organize a rally in front of the Chinese consulate on Shatto Street...if China even dreams an economic embargo, Bush will fall to his knees and bring our troops home!!!
Global Economic Boycott of all U.S. Brands, Imports and Exports. (tags)
If George Bush launches this illegal war against the people of Iraq the Global Peace Movement must impose a global economic boycott of all U.S. brand name products
For Our Common Future - No to War! Cancel the Debts! (tags)
"War has changed into a structural and permanent part of the global hegemony.. In the name of the liberalization of the market, the population sees itself robbed of its elementary rights. Every area of life and nature is for sale.." Porto Alegre Jan 2003
A Portrait of Evil :The Grand Deception Exposed (tags)
I provide this information so you will understand the true nature of the New World Order and who and where the secret rulers of planet Earth are. This is who pulls the strings of GW Bush and all of his compatriots. Stop being deceived and focus on the correct targets!
The Hyper-Power (book review) (tags)
Noam Chomsky speaks of a completely de-politicized society that has left the monopoly of decisions to an anonymous leadership caste..The war against Iraq should be considered as a kind of domestic political necessity. Translated from the German
Nationalists hijack Washington (tags)
Nationalists based in Washington have hijacked U.S. policy. These nationalists mostly worked together in the American Enterprise Institute, Project for the New American Century, etc. Find out more.
Washington - There was only one problem with President George W. Bush's claim Thursday that the nation's top economists forecast substantial economic growth if Congress passed the president's tax cut: The forecast with that conclusion doesn't exist.
SUPPORT ELECTRONICIRAQ.NET! (tags)
NEW INDY NEWS WIRE LAUNCHES FROM IRAQ!
Bush's Other War: Venezuela w/ Mark Weisbrot (tags)
Bush's Other War: Venezuela w/ Mark Weisbrot, Discussion event, Monday, Feb 24, 8 pm, UCLA 6275 Bunche
BTL: Ten Nobel Laureates and Hundreds of Economists Condemn... (tags)
...White House Tax Cut Proposal. Interview with Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, conducted by Between The Lines' Scott Harris
After Iraq: North Korea and Beyond (tags)
Iraq and North Korea are only the beginning.
The Will to Paralysis: The Crisis of Shareholder Capitalism (tags)
Scapegoats or black sheep are used to evade the crisis of the system. Considering matters more exactly would be very appropriate. Are manifestations of corruption and tax evasion normal side-effects of a system fixated on money?
BTL:Third Meeting of World Social Forum in Brazil Addresses Issues of... (tags)
...War, Peace and Economic Inequality. Interview with the Soren Ambrose, of the 50 Years is Enough Network, conducted by Between the Lines'Scott Harris
The Real but Unspoken Reasons for the Iraq War (tags)
Although completely suppressed in the U.S. media, the answer to the Iraq enigma is simple yet shocking. The upcoming war in Iraq is actually an OIL CURRENCY war. The Real Reason for this upcoming war is this administration’s goal of preventing further OPEC momentum towards the euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to pre-empt OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Iraq along with its 2nd largest proven oil reserves. (This is a long essay)
Which Direction is the US Heading? (tags)
For non-economists, income millionaires obviously have much less reason to spend this extra money than households keeping their heads above water with several jobs.. When Bush began his term of office, the Budget Office forecast surplus of $3 trillion..
AFL-CIO tells Bush and Congress: Get real on the economy (tags)
(see related story below) The AFL-CIO charged in a Jan. 27 report that, despite President Bush’s rosy claims, the economy is in worse shape than it was two years ago when measured by all the key indicators important to working families.
US to spend at least $4 bn to undermine democracy in Turkey (tags)
If the majority of the people in Turkey oppose the war, then for the US to pressure the Turkish government to support the war is to undermine democracy. Should the Turkish government answer to its citizens, or to the highest bidder with the biggest guns?
An Appeal by the Spanish Students Union to Stop Imperialist War (tags)
Anti-War
A Coalition of the Elites (tags)
The extent of this admiistration's deceiving of the public is rather spectacular. I sometimes have the feeling that I don't live in one of the oldest democracies but in the Philippines under a new Marcos. This interview is translated from the German in Der Spiegel
Assessing the Humanitarian Tragedy in Iraq (tags)
No modern humanitarian emergency has been as intensely examined as the humanitarian crisis in Iraq in this decade. Since 1990, more than thirty major studies have been conducted on the impact of the war and the continuing economic sanctions
The European Summit in Copenhagen (tags)
European summit
Bush plans $ 600 billion gift to rich (tags)
The battle over how best to boost a sagging economy became a matter of public debate last week with Democrats in the House of Representatives and President Bush introducing competing plans.
BTL:One Year After Argentina's Economic Collapse... (tags)
...Citizens Building Democratic Community Institutions. Interview with Todd Tucker, of the Center for Economic Justice, conducted by Between The Lines'Scott Harris
Join The Localization Lobby (tags)
Localization as the only means to take back our economy and our democracy.
12/30: AmericasWatch - Looking Back 2002 to Look Forward 2003 (tags)
Occational News Services from PeaceNoWar.net URL: www.PeaceNoWar.net **2002 PeaceNoWar/ActionLA Suggests Holiday Reading/Film/Music Lists URL: http://www.actionla.org/ActionLA/2002list.htm
A Left Wing New Years Resolution: Localization vs. Globalization (tags)
This is why it is good to get some union activist experience. You'll soon discover that people are mainly interested in how to improve their lives and the lives of their families first and foremost.
venezuala: gunman may havebeen hired by anti-chavez general (tags)
agent provaceteur?
Venezuelan Masses Support Chavez. Corporate media lieing as usual (tags)
read http://www.narconews.com The corporate media spinners are doing all they can to bring down the democratically elected president of venezuela. The strike by the rich in venezuela has been defeated.
BTL:Opposition to Washington's Neoliberal Free Trade Policies Bolstered by... (tags)
...Key Electoral Victories Across Latin America. Interview with Antonia Juhasz, program directdor with the International Forum on Globalization, conducted by Between The Lines' Scott Harris
The Right to Development (tags)
"The 1994 UN Development Program proposed a world social charter with the goal of building a society where the right to food is as sacred as the right to vote..and the right to development is a fundamentaql human right Brigitte Hamm is a professor in Duisberg.
Freedom Bus on its way to California! (tags)
Serviced Bus New Freedom Bus delayed. The bus was serviced and repaired after being without heat for 36 hours. This delayed the arrival of the freedom riders in Kansas.
BTL:Economic Sanctions on Iraq Continue to Exact Deadly Toll on... (tags)
...Civilian Population. Interview with Joy Gordon, professor of philosophy at Fairfield University conducted by Between the Lines'Melinda Tuhus.
Australians protest against US exploitation of Latin America (tags)
US policies towards Latin America have caused an increase in hunger, unemployment, illness and infant mortality, Australian solidarity organisations say.
The Flexible Person: Critical Psychology and Fitness Training (tags)
With athletic and medical metaphors, persons even in nursery school are urged to fitness training. Under globalization, societies find themsevles in positional competition. National chances are set against the global threat. Trans.from German
The Wilderness Lives: The End of Prehistory as a Beginning (tags)
"The status quo is limited and not lasting from eternity to eternity as the quasi-religious worship of capital asserts. This worship of capital handed over to its own destructive dynamic is still dominant but not unchallenged." H. Thielen lives in Brazil.
us (govt) warns companies over israel boycott (tags)
what was that about living in the land of the free? Great govt there: tells you they defend freedom, while preventing it.
Defeat Corporate Communism (tags)
New book excerpt explaining how everything we thought was bad about communism is what's wrong with corporatism
CONDOLEEZZA'S NONSENSE ABOUT DEMOCRACY (tags)
Some history rather than hysteria...
LESSONS FOR ANARCHISM COMING FROM ARGENTINA (tags)
It is remind that if the state and the institutions are denouncing situation for now in Argentina as anarchy, it is not anarchy in the country ! What is happening is a step toward the decay of power. In fact the chaos in argentina is caused by the state and capitalism, not by anarchists ideals.
Maxine Waters Town Hall Meeting and Speakout (tags)
October 5, 2002 First Church of God
Maxine Waters Town Hall Meeting and Speakout (tags)
October 5, 2002 First Church of God Inglewood, CA
The Appetite of Leviathan (tags)
Money replaces the `cosmos' as the unifying social characteristic. Every pack of wolves is more socially organized than free enterprise persons..The little monsters should be tamed by the enormous monster"Leviathan". The state share has increased everywhere.
World Bank and International Monetary Fund strangle economies of Third World (tags)
The World Bank’s origins go back to the Bretton Woods conference of July 1944, when leaders from 43 nations assembled to start building the global economy in the aftermath of World War II. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, hoping to avoid another worldwide depression, called for creation of institutions that would create “a dynamic world community in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
An Introduction to Dual Power Strategy (tags)
The great task of grassroots dual power is to seek out and create social spaces and fill them with liberatory institutions and relationships. Where there is room for us to act for ourselves, we form institutions conducive not only to catalyzing revolution, but also to the present conditions of a fulfilling life, including economic and political self-management to the greatest degree achievable. We seek not to seize power, but to seize opportunity vis a vis the exercise of our power.
Socialist Planning -- Liberation from the Market (tags)
The following is written by the Maoist political economist Raymond Lotta. It is excerpted from a larger discussion on http://2changetheworld.info where Ray posted a series of comments called "Socialist planning vs. Market Socialism."
Ten Years After - Time to Revisit The World Scientists' Warning to Humanity (tags)
We the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it, is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.
A history of Zimbabwe and its ongoing land reform struggles in the face of drought, starvation and economic disaster perpetrated by Western intervention and demands.
Thousands of Activists Rally in Jo'burg to Challenge World Leaders at Environmental Summit (tags)
Under the theme "A Sustainable World is Possible, " the Global People's Forum has officially opened up at an Expo Center 14 miles from the official site. Activists and NGO's will gather there for a variety of activities, rallies, and workshops on various sustainability issues ranging from environmental justice, water scarcity, and strengthing local economies.
some thoughts of the hudson institute
Consumers On Strike Against the War (tags)
Oklahoma activists have launched Consumers On Strike Against the War. They are advocating that people target an economic attack on the white collar big money psycopaths running our economy and government (collectively known as the War Party) by spending less money and shifting their remaining purchases to locally owned, independently operated, businesses and cooperatives or collectives.
Why Socialism? By Albert Einstein (tags)
Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition.
Profound Effect on U.S. Economy Seen in a War on Iraq (tags)
from the New York Times-online, monday July 29
Grassroots meeting urges good jobs now (tags)
LINTHICUM, MD. – Washington-based Good Jobs First (GJF) brought together 300 labor union, community and environmental activists July 11-13 to demand that corporations provide living wage jobs with health care and union rights in exchange for the tens of billions of dollars in annual taxpayer subsidies they enjoy.
TO PERSIST IN ERROR IS DIABOLICAL (tags)
TO PERSIST IN ERROR IS DIABOLICAL
Beware! The Maussians Are Coming! This article by David Graeber discusses the concept of the gift economy, an idea first explored by Marcel Mauss in his descriptions of the Kwakiutl of British Columbia. He describes how the historical reality of such economies refutes many of the assumptions made by neo-liberal economists about the historical development of economic systems. Also discussed are contemporary groups (such as the MAUSS group in France) who take their inspiration from such findings to attack and dismantle the philosophic basis of capitalist economic theory.
Globalization Has Helped the Poor: Study says (tags)
Contrary to anti-globalizers study says that globalization has helped the poorest in the world
Are we doomed to be a Police State? (tags)
It is time for some serious soul searching in america!!
UN development forum in Monterrey, Mexico - an anti-development paradigm (tags)
The UN's financing for development (FfD) process being discussed in Monterrey fails to address the key issues of global economic governance and systemic injustice that are at the root of poverty and the financing gap. This constitutes economic subversion, even terrorism, against the people of the South.
RISE UP 2002: Hundreds of activists join with Farmworkers at UCLA (tags)
The RISE UP 2002 Conference has started. Hundreds of participants collected at Perloff Quad on UCLA campus this morning for the opening plenary; and are presently filling the classrooms of both Royce and Rolfe Hall in the first series of workshops. The conference has been organized by the Coalition of Imokalee Workers (CIW)as part of the Taco Bell Truth Tour.
BTL White House Drive for New War with Iraq Faces International Opposition (tags)
Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Denis Halliday, former Under-Secretary General at the UN in charge of Iraq's oil for food program, who resigned his post in protest of economic sanctions in 1998. Halliday examines Washington's war plans and the potential threat that Iraq poses to its neighbors and the U.S.
just came across this reading a great essay by buddhist David Loy. Check out his essay "A Buddhist Critique of Transnational Corporations" as well.
Video: Protesting the W.E.F. in New York City, 2002 (tags)
Between February 2nd and 3rd, more than 200 were arrested outside the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum, which met in a veritable police state in New York City's elite Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
The World Economic Forum has a weak point!
Poor to March for Economic Human Rights During Olympics (tags)
On February 8, 2002, poor, unemployed and homeless people from across the United States will lead a massive March for Our Lives on the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
SAT F2: PERMITTED DEMO vs. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (tags)
In response to permit applications placed by organizers at International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), the New York Police Department have told us they *WILL NOT* be creating a Quebec-type exclusion zone surrounding the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the site of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF)...
GUARDIAN: Interim Argentinian Leader Quits (tags)
Argentina today struggled to fill a political vacuum after President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa stepped down after only 10 days in office.
World Economic Forum or Simply, Brutal Conquerors? (tags)
It is important not to be pulled into the language that the corporate conquerors are using to hoodwink the masses
The Ugly American Dollar Campaign (tags)
The United States dollar is being introduced in several Central and South American countries as a means of economic development. Even in Russia, the American dollar is more popular than the Ruble -- proving correct the old proverb: if you can't beat'em, buy 'em.
the War on Capitalist Globalisation-Pacific Rim Front (tags)
Capitalist Globalisation continues. While activists are being distracted by the "war on terrorism", the global capitalists have resumed their war on us-WTO still meeting in Qatar,IMF/World Bank meeting moved to Ottawa, Canada- and now the World Economic Forum's East Asia Economic Summit.
The Progressive Los Angeles Network's 21 Point Agenda (Summary Version) (tags)
This 21 Point Agenda provides a list of priority actions that the City of Los Angeles should take to make LA a more just, livable, and democratic place.
SAUDIS REJECT AIDING U.S. (tags)
The U.S. can not continue to maintain its economic and political domination in the Near East without the coperation of Saudi and other crucial states in the area.
In what should be recognized as scandalous opportunism, the Bush Administration and the pro-free trade think tanks have been exploiting the political leverage they've gained in the wake of the S11 tragedies to try to win "Fast Track Trade Authority" for the pResident.
"Progressive LA: The Next Agenda" Conference - October 20, 2001 (tags)
"Progressive LA: The Next Agenda" Conference Saturday, October 20th from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the California Science Center - 700 State Drive, Exposition Park, CA The conference is free and open to all! Lunch will be served. We will provide supervised children's tours of the Science Center during the conference. Limited seating, please register by calling 323.259.1412 or on-line at www.progressivela.org
ECONOMIC REPORTING REVIEW | July 31, 01. (tags)
A weekly analysis of economic reporting in the Washington Post and New York Times. Excerpts relating to corporate globalization: The G-8 Summit and protests; underfunding Third World AIDS needs; G-8 protectionism via patents and copyrights opposed by Third World; unproven claim that removing trade promotes Third World growth; U.S. obstructionism on global warming; destructive "development"; how copyrights can cause repression; how U.S. immigration policies contribute to wage inequality.
ECONOMIC REPORTING REVIEW | July 23, 01 (tags)
A weekly analysis of economic reporting in the Washington Post and New York Times. Excerpts relating to corporate globalization: G-8—excluding protesters' views; debt cancellation, the unacknowledged alternative to growth-at-all-costs; World Bank programs ill-conceived, driven by flawed ideology; ignoring Third World's top agenda item—reconsidering the TRIPS agreement intellectual property stranglehold. Also, U.S. subterfuge on global warming; Argentina's current economic crisis caused by yesterday's "solution."
40-Day Fast Launced to Protest 11 Years of Iraq Sanctions (tags)
Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with former U.N. Under-Secretary General Denis Halliday, who had been in charge of Iraq's oil for food program until he resigned his post in protest of the sanctions in 1998. Halliday explains why he and others continue to work for an end to the economic sanctions against Iraq.
World Bank chief slams "superficial" anti-globalisation protests (tags)
"My worry is that the real issues of poverty, of AIDS, of corruption of the things that we're trying to fight, get pushed to a back burner and you see on the front page really the superficialities of the protests," Wolfensohn said.
National Lawyers Guild Launches Exploratory Campaign--Impeach the Supreme Court (tags)
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is exploring the legal, economic and viable political grounds for launching a broad-based impeachment campaign against the five members of the Bush v. Gore majority on the Supreme Court. The NLG is asking for input, support and endorsements. A "very high ranking member" of the House Judiciary Committee has indicated he will introduce bills of impeachment if we can create the political support to back up serious campaign effort. This is NOT simply arguing against Bush v. Gore, but against the broader anti-democratic agenda of the conservative activist justices.
Neo-Liberalism=Hitler's "Final Solution" Pt. 2!!! (tags)
Neo-liberal economic policies are directly responsible for six to seven MILLION deaths world-wide EVERY YEAR. That's one nazi-style Halocaust being perpetrated EVERY YEAR!
Seeking Change in Genoa (tags)
G-8 nations have pledged to address poverty, disease and debt reform at this weekend’s meetings, but activists and campaigners don’t believe the G-8 has what it takes to make real change.
World leaders defend globalisation in face of protests (tags)
An anti-globalization protester strolls past a burning car as widespread clashes with police erupted though out Genoa July 20, 2001. Police have been expecting violence as some 150,000 anti-globalization protesters took to the streets as Group of Eight leaders gathered for a 3 day meeting in the northern Italian city. (Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)
Politics, Profits Increasing Risks of Biotech Foods (tags)
"I have questions about whether the scientific community has prepared for this era" of genetically modified crops, he told the conference, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Salzburg summit hit by protests (tags)
Clashes broke out when police tried to halt a march
Salzburg Protesters Sent Back to Vienna by Train (tags)
"Police charged and made a big push and the response from the demonstrators was to use flagpoles to start beating on police shields,"
Doctrinaire Unilateralism (tags)
Over the years, American leaders have insisted that the nation's real power comes not from its military might nor from its economic clout, but from the universal appeal of America's democratic ideals. NOT ANYMORE!
Neoliberalism as a puzzle: the useless global unity which fragments and destroys (tags)
This is the "new world order", the unification of the entire world in one complete market. Nations are department stores with CEO's dressed as governments, and the new regional alliances, economic and political, come closer to being a modern commercial "mall" than a political federation. The "unification" produced by neoliberalism is economic, it is the unification of markets to facilitate the circulation of money and merchandise. In the gigantic global Hypermarket merchandise circulates freely, not people.
Economic Reporting Review | Week of Apr 21 - 27, 01 (tags)
A weekly analysis of economic reporting in the Washington Post and New York Times. Excerpts relating to corporate globalization: Real Costs of Making AIDS Drugs, Labor Standards In Developing Nations IMF-World Bank Meetings, Quebec Trade Talks.
Economic Reporting Review | Week of Apr 14-20, 01 (tags)
A weekly analysis of economic reporting in the Washington Post and New York Times. Excerpts relating to corporate globalization: Turkey & the IMF, FTAA, Drug Patents, Bangladesh & Sweatshops.
May 12 First Annual People's March for Economic Justice (tags)
1st Annual Santa Barbara People's March for Economic Justice: March through the streets of downtown Santa Barbara to celebrate the victories as well as bring public attention to the increasingly serious problems that SB county residents face trying to make ends meet. Hosted by a coalition of community groups. Individuals and groups welcome to join the coalition. May 12, Saturday, Noon to 4. Rally at Ortega Park--noon, march to SB County Courthouse, rally again. Live bands, drum circle, community and UCSB speakers.
Atrocities in Cancun at the World Economic Forum (tags)
While the world follows Britain's cattle disaster, and the American press remains virtually silent on the meetings between the Zapatistas and Fox's government, Fox's riot police savagely brutalize peaceful demonstrators in Cancun at the World Economic Forum, in an all-out attack on departing protestors. This is the face of the world elite's "Globalization." From Chiapas Indymedia. http://chiapas.indymedia.org/
Pictures of demos against World Economic Forum - Davos - Switzerland (tags)
Pictures of demos against World Economic Forum - Davos - Switzerland
IMC NEWS BLAST | WORLD SOCIAL FORUM -- WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (tags)
A compilation of photos, video, and audio and text reports from the Independent Media Center's coverage of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brasil, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Released Thursday, February 1, 2001. Check the www.indymedia.org newswire for upcoming translations of this News Blast.
140 ARRESTED IN SEATTLE MAYOR TRIES TO BLOCK ANNIVERSARY TEACH-IN (tags)
Mass Arrests, Interference With WTO Event
U.N. Rights Body Calls for Lifting Iraq Embargo (tags)
Somebody is actually listening
United for a Fair Economy Brings 'Economic Apartheid' message To Shadow (tags)
United for a Fair Economy Brings "Economic Apartheid" Message To Shadow Convention "Poverty and Wealth Gap Day"; August 14th Program Challenges Parties' Neglect of "Real Issues"
United for a Fair Economy Brings "Economic Apartheid" Message to Shadow (tags)
United for a Fair Economy Brings "Economic Apartheid" Message As Convener of Shadow Convention "Poverty and Wealth Gap Day" August 14