Your Search Results
Written on May 19th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Global Research.ca (first on WSWS), by Chris Marsden, May 18, 2012.
The political, economic and social breakdown in Greece is an acute expression of a broader crisis of European and world capitalism.
The fate of this small nation is being decided solely according to the predatory interests of the global financiers and their political representatives at the head of national governments as well as the “troika”—the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Continue Reading…
Written on May 18th, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Published on BATR, by James Hall, May 16, 2012.
Once again, the practices of the “Too Big to Fail” banksters bring the financial money machine to the brink. The J.P. Morgan derivative losses and trading gambles by their “London Whale” demonstrates business as usual in the murky world of risk distortion. Even the vexing progressive Robert Reich makes an accurate assessment for breaking up the big banks and the resurrecting of Glass-Steagall … // Continue Reading…
Written on May 17th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on RWER Blog, by Peter Radford, May 15, 2012.
Nothing that has emerged about the JP Morgan losses announced last week has altered my original conclusion. This was a basic failure of governance, of regulatory oversight, and of control. Oh, and of orthodox economics. Again.
Yes there were rules in place to prevent such losses. They were ignored. Vanity, hubris, call it what you will, stopped the bank from exercising self-restraint. What appeared to be highly risky, complex, and very large transactions were allowed to take place despite the fact that they were risky, complex, and very large. Continue Reading…
Written on May 16th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Spiegel Online International, May 14, 2012.
After Greek voters rejected austerity in last week’s election, plunging the country into a political crisis, Europe has been searching for a Plan B for Greece. It’s time to admit that the EU/IMF rescue plan has failed. Greece’s best hopes now lie in a return to the drachma … //
… Turning Point: Continue Reading…
Written on May 15th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
Published on ROARmag.org, by Jérôme E. Roos, May 11, 2012 … (This is the transcript of a presentation given at the
OVNI 2012 festival in the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona on May 11, 2012).
It’s amazing to be here in Barcelona – home to one of the most inspiring revolutionary episodes in European history and today once again a hotbed of popular resistance against market fundamentalism and a false democracy. Before I start, I would like to thank the OVNI organization and Carlos Delclós — a lecturer at Pompeu Fabra, an active member of the movement here in Barcelona, and a contributor to ROARMAG.org — for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today, on the eve of the global day of action of May 12. Continue Reading…
Written on May 14th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Living in America is becoming very difficult for anyone with a moral conscience, a sense of justice, or a lick of intelligence – Published on Global Research.ca (first on Paul Craig Roberts), by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, May 10, 2012 (see him also on Paul Craig Roberts, USA).
We have had a second fake underwear bomb plot, a much more fantastic one than the first hoax. The second underwear bomber was a CIA operative or informant allegedly recruited by al-Qaeda, an organization that US authorities have recently claimed to be defeated, in disarray, and no longer significant. Continue Reading…
Written on May 13th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
(Don’t Believe the NATO Hype) – Published on Global Research.ca (first on Huffington Post and Stop NATO), by Dr. Joseph Gerson, May 12, 2012.
… The U.S./NATO war in Afghanistan must end. Plans to use the summit to ratify fighting in Central Asia until 2024 spells death, suffering and disaster for all involved.
- There is an alternative to creating stability in one of the world’s poorest nations: All-party Afghan negotiations — including civil society — and a regional peacemaking process. Continue Reading…
Written on May 12th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
The European Freetrade Association EFTA would be the necessary and reasonable alternative – Published on Current Concerns, by Dr phil. René Roca, May 8, 2012.
The European Freetrade Association EFTA was founded by 7 Western European countries including Switzerland in 1960. Today the EFTA is left with only 4 remaining members, namely Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In the aftermath of the second World War, the European states had initially aimed for a solid and sustainable foundation of their economic development with a big freetrade zone built around the Organization for European Economic Co-operation OEEC. Continue Reading…
Written on May 11th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on ZNet (first on TomDispatch.com), by Noam Chomsky, May 09, 2012;
… Plutonomy and the Precariat:
For the general population, the 99% in the imagery of the Occupy movement, it’s been pretty harsh – and it could get worse. This could be a period of irreversible decline. For the 1% and even less – the .1% – it’s just fine. They are richer than ever, more powerful than ever, controlling the political system, disregarding the public. And if it can continue, as far as they’re concerned, sure, why not? Continue Reading…
Written on May 10th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Global Research.ca, by Arun Shrivastava, May 8, 2012.
Former World Bank and UN official Manmohan Singh was never projected as India’s Prime Minister; he was imposed on 1.2 billion hapless Indians. Former World Bank [WB] major domo Montek Singh was never elected yet lives a lavish life in Delhi. As one insider says he is very happy in Delhi because he doesn’t have to fetch a glass of water himself. Chauffeurs, servants, cooks, and officially employed attendants make life easy for this economaniac who thought that Rs. 32 [60 cents] per day of spending power is sufficient for urban Indians to be called ‘Above Poverty Line.’ These two minions of the neo-liberal gangsters in Washington and London will do India in unless booted out soon. Continue Reading…
Written on May 9th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Because Arab Spring opposition groups enjoy popular legitimacy but lack power, they can’t afford to be unintelligent – Published on Al JAzeera, by , May 8, 2012.
Beirut, Lebanon – As the Arab uprisings unfold it is increasingly clear that they are taking different forms in different countries. In three cases – Tunisia, Egypt and Libya – dictators were deposed definitively and relatively quickly. But in three others – Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen – the struggle continues between an incumbent regime and popular opposition. (In Yemen President Ali Abdallah Saleh has resigned the presidency but his apparatus has not disappeared). Continue Reading…
Written on May 8th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Current Concerns, by Karl Müller, April 30, 2012.
While social problems are becoming apparent ever more openly and blatantly in European countries like Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy, or France and humaneness in business and politics would be the order of the day, the German political class as well as big business focus on accelerated growth and market conquest, instead. The social ethos of a social market economy, as it was put into words, for example, by Wilhelm Röpke during the Second World War in exile in Switzerland, the ethos of humanity, respect and moderation in economic life has got lost in many economic and political leaders in Germany. The wind of megalomania, social Darwinism, neo-liberalism is blowing. Their spokesmen on the political front are Angela Merkel and Joachim Gauck, the party leaders of the Greens, and Winfried Kretschmann. Continue Reading…
Written on May 7th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Watch this video: Socialist Hollande wins French presidency, 3.05 min, published on The Real News Network TRNN, May 7, 2012 (first on Al-Jazeera (with an article) – see it also on YouTube): Swept along by groundswell of anger against incumbent Sarkozy, Hollande becomes first Socialist president in 17 years … Continue Reading…
Written on May 7th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on RiaNovosti.ru, by Konstantin Bogdanov, May 4, 2012.
An international conference on missile defense in Europe opened in Moscow on May 3. Washington and Moscow – the event’s major players – are still unable to find common ground: Russia insists that the missile defense system in Europe poses a threat, and the West deliberately shrugs off these concerns. The Russian General Staff is prepared to take strong measures to make its voice heard.
Old words, new font: Continue Reading…
Written on May 6th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Spiegel Online International, by SPIEGEL Staff, May 4, 2012.
Countries around the world envy Germany’s economic success and look up to it as a role model. But a closer look reveals a much bleaker picture. Only a few are benefiting from the boom, while stagnant wages and precarious employment conditions are making it difficult for millions to make ends meet.
What a year it’s been for carmaker Audi and its employees, a year marked by the biggest profits in company history, a bonus in the millions for its chairman and handsome bonuses for many employees — though little to nothing for those at the very bottom of the pay scale … // Continue Reading…
Written on May 5th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
Published on National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 378, by Kate Doyle – 646/670-8841, May 3, 2012. (also in espanol).
National Security Archive Expert Testifies before International Court – Fundación Myrna Mack Calls Hearing “Unprecedented”:
On April 25, 2012, Kate Doyle, senior analyst and director of the Guatemala Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, provided expert witness testimony before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of the Diario Militar (Case 12.590, Gudiel Álvarez et al. (Diario Militar) vs. Guatemala) during the Court’s 45th Extraordinary Session held in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Continue Reading…
Written on May 4th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
… first watch the full interview on the bottom of their website, 24.30 min – published on raw story, by David Ferguson, May 2, 2012.
… According to Chomsky, we are currently living in a period of “pretty close to global stagnation” but that the world’s great powers are reacting to the lack of growth in exactly the wrong manner. “The United States and Europe are committing suicide in different ways, but both doing it.” Continue Reading…
Written on May 3rd, 2012 in Economy, Society by Heidi
Written on May 2nd, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Pambazuka News, by Horace Campbell, April 26, 2012.
The unification of the water resources of Africa is one of the primary bases for African unity, with a system of canals linking rivers and lakes in the kind of infrastructure planning that ensures that all will have water … //
… Today we are now being told the truth about the abundance of water resources in Africa. In reality, the publication last week by the British on the large underground supplies of water is only news to those in the West who had built an industry out of consultancies on water shortages in Africa. Continue Reading…
Written on May 1st, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Asia Times Online, by Peter Lee, Apr 21, 2012.
With a high-profile visit to China, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his campaign to increase the geopolitical clout of his country.
Turkey has great hopes of emerging (or re-emerging, if one recalls the heyday of the Ottoman Empire) as more than the geographic and economic linchpin of Eurasia. Erdogan hopes to leverage that central position by establishing Turkey as a regional power, a country that can set the agenda for events across the continents. Continue Reading…
Written on April 30th, 2012 in Monthly Index by Heidi
2012-04-01: Iraq and its neighbours: Bombing a charm offensive;
2012-04-01: Top 0.01% … Top 1% … Bottom 99%;
2012-04-02: Egypt: Military warning;
2012-04-03: TEN MYTHS ABOUT CAPITALISM;
2012-04-03: Dok: Im Kopf des Bankers;
2012-04-04: A World without Oil: Companies Prepare for a Fossil-Free Future;
2012-04-05: Have Four Pension Funds Blown Up the $8.5 Billion Bank of America Settlement;
2012-04-06: The big Budget losers? Working families;
2012-04-07: Afghan Air Force said to be the greatest smuggling operator for drugs, weapons and money;
2012-04-08: Putting an end to the EU straitjacket;
2012-04-09: Hunger takes hold in Greece;
2012-04-10: How American capitalism came to us;
2012-04-10: Tasks of the Left;
2012-04-11: Political Revolution in Germany: Pirates Country’s Third Strongest Party in New Poll;
2012-04-12: How to withdraw from Afghanistan? Russia considers an agreement with both US and NATO;
2012-04-13: some videos in en, fr, de – not really mainstream;
2012-04-14: Mélenchon could change French politics with strong showing;
2012-04-15: Capitalist Austerity Destroying Ancient Cultural Heritages;
2012-04-16: SOMALIA: FAMINE FOR PROFIT AND THE EAST AFRICAN FOOD CRISIS;
2012-04-17: The Business of a Better World: Can a New Kind of Corporation Save Us and Our Economy?
2012-04-18: Crisis, Labour, The Left: videos and texts;
2012-04-19: Cities, Traffics, Innovations;
2012-04-20: Addicted to Antibiotics: How Factory Farm Drug Abuse Makes Vets Rich;
2012-04-21: Inequality and Instability – Krach / crise mondiale;
2012-04-21: L’argent dette – Geld aus Schulden – der Wirtschaftskiller;
2012-04-22: Egypt: The elusive formula;
2012-04-23: Productivity, The Miracle of Compound Interest, and Poverty;
2012-04-24: The international crisis;
2012-04-25: Weaponized Data: A New Front in Global Capital’s Control Grid;
2012-04-26: Crisis, Austerity, Left Responses;
2012-04-27: Proletarianisation under neoliberalism in the Arab world;
2012-04-28: China’s Land Bridge to Turkey creates new Eurasian Geopolitical Potentials;
2012-04-29: 10 reasons I dislike Neoliberalism;
2012-04-30: Draghi’s Growth Pact: Austerity Backlash Unites European Leaders.
Written on April 30th, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Published on Spiegel Online International, by Stefan Kaiser, April 27, 2012.
Be it austerity queen Angela Merkel or Socialist François Hollande, European politicians are suddenly in agreement with ECB President Mario Draghi’s proposal to round out the European fiscal pact’s austerity measures with a “growth pact.” But many seem to have a different idea about what this means. Continue Reading…
Written on April 29th, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Published on realsociology, not authored nor dated.
In brief, I define neoliberal economic policies as those which involve privatisation and deregulation and lowering taxation such that those with capital are allowed more freedom to invest in the pursuit of profit without having to consider the negative consequences of their investment decisions.
I’ve selected these things because I believe they are things which encourage ignorance, selfishness, mistrust, materialism, indiscipline, alienation, poor concentration and ultimately greater human misery. The first few things are structural features of our society which I believe breed these negative emotions, while the final few are social in nature and the rest are lifeworld- strategies: Continue Reading…
Written on April 28th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Voltairenet.org, by F. William Engdahl, APRIL 23, 2012.
The prospect of an unparalleled Eurasian economic boom has been further solidified following recent talks between Turkish and Chinese leaders. The first steps are being constructed with a number of little-publicized rail links envisioned to connect China and parts of Western Europe. It is increasingly clear to all nations concerned, especially China and Russia, that their natural tendency to develop these markets faces only one major hurdle: NATO and the US Pentagon’s Full Spectrum Dominance obsession. According to Engdahl, rail infrastructure is a major geopolitical tool for obviating that obstacle. Continue Reading…
Written on April 27th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on RWER, by Ali Kaddri, April 24, 2012.
Between 1980 and 2010 the share of the rural to total population in the Arab world dropped significantly from about 60 percent to around 40 percent. In absolute terms, an estimated seventy million people left the countryside to urban centres at home.[1] This conservative estimate is nearly equivalent to the total number of rural-urban migrants since the beginning of the twentieth century until 1980. Continue Reading…
Written on April 26th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Watch these videos:
- The Crisis of Credit Visualized – HD, 11.10 min, published on YouTube, uploaded by graphixmdp (Jonathan Jarvis), on Jan 22, 2011;
- Eurocrisis is a Global Crisis, 15.09 min; on TRNN, January 18, 2012;
- The “New Age” of Austerity, 28.37 min, published on Socialist Project: … These presentations were made at the Global Economic Crisis and Canadian Austerity conference, Ryerson University, Toronto, 23 March 2012.
- The Left’s Responses to the Crisis in Europe and North America (1/5), 28.21 min, on YouTube, by Leo Panitch;
See these texts: Continue Reading…
Written on April 25th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Dissident Voice, by Tom Burghardt, April 23, 2012.
From driftnet surveillance to data mining and link analysis, the secret state has weaponized our data, “criminal evidence, ready for use in a trial,” as Cryptohippie famously warned … //
… Mark that well:
Rejecting the orthodoxies and received wisdom of his day, Debord argued that “The reigning economic system is a vicious circle of isolation. Its technologies are based on isolation, and they contribute to that same isolation. Continue Reading…
Written on April 24th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Pambazuka News, by Yash Tandon, April 19, 2012.
An analysis of the relevance of concepts of ‘Common Goods’ and ‘Common Good for Humanity’ in the struggle for alternatives to neoliberal capitalism … //
… WHO OR WHAT IS ‘THE LEFT’? Continue Reading…
Written on April 23rd, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
From Hudson’s presentation at the Italian MMT Summit, which was also recorded by Bonnie Faulkner of Pacifica Radio’s Guns and Butter show – Published on nacked capitalims, by Michael Hudson*, APRIL 22, 2012.
Suppose you were alive back in 1945 and were told about all the new technology that would be invented between then and now: the computers and internet, mobile phones and other consumer electronics, faster and cheaper air travel, super trains and even outer space exploration, higher gas mileage on the ground, plastics, medical breakthroughs and science in general. You would have imagined what nearly all futurists expected: that we would be living in a life of leisure society by this time. Rising productivity would raise wages and living standards, enabling people to work shorter hours under more relaxed and less pressured workplace conditions. Continue Reading…
Written on April 22nd, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
Egypt’s military rulers are scheduled to meet with political leaders on Sunday in a bid to end the deadlock surrounding the drafting of a new constitution – Published on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Gamal Essam El-Din, 19 – 25 April 2012.
The heads of 20 political parties, the speaker of the People’s Assembly, the chairman of the Shura Council and a number of leading independent figures will meet on Sunday with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, chairman of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), in an attempt to hammer out the membership of a new constituent assembly. The meeting is expected to end with Tantawi asking elected deputies of the two houses of parliament to hold a new joint meeting to elect the assembly charged with drafting a new constitution. Continue Reading…
Written on April 21st, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Written on April 21st, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Watch these three videos, published on TRNN, by Paul Jay, with James K. Galbrait:
- April 18, 2012 – Part 1, 14.16 min: presents his study of the world economy just before the great crisis;
- April 19, 2012 – Part 2, 13.49 min: The Bush years – Growth demanded new markets among debtors who previously had not qualified for mortgages;
- April 20, 2012 – Part 3, 12.33 min: on link between inequality and instability: Societies that are more egalitarian are more stable; Continue Reading…
Written on April 20th, 2012 in Economy, Society by Heidi
Part 1 – Published on Spiegel Online International, by Nils Klawitter, April 18, 2012.
It’s no secret that factory farms use unconscionable amounts of antibiotics when fattening up animals for market. In Germany, however, veterinarians play a crucial role in the abuse. Many are getting rich in the process, but the risks to both human and animals are many … //
… Bigger Profits than Cocaine Dealers: Continue Reading…
Written on April 19th, 2012 in Economy, Society by Heidi
uploader IHMC (Florida Institute for Human Machine Cognition):
Written on April 18th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
The Left’s Responses to the Crisis in Europe and North America:
Uneven Worker Power and the Populism-Austerity-Labour Nexus:
More:
- Sam Gindin: Beyond Austerity, The Crisis Within Labour, 19.46 min;
- Noam Chomsky: The Left, Class, Xenophobia and the Right, 8.55 min;
- Austerity, democracy, and economics, on Real-World Economics Review Blog RWER, by David F. Ruccio, April 16, 2012;
- Defining inflation: remarkable differences between the ECB and the FED, on Real-World Economics Review Blog RWER, by Merijn Knibbe, April 15, 2012;
auf deutsch / in german:
Written on April 17th, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Publishec on AlterNet, by Tara Lohan, April 15, 2012.
Corporations by today’s definition, are obligated to make as much money as they can. But a new kind of corporation is changing that and potentially our economy, too … //
2nd page: … The Business of Saving the World: Continue Reading…
Written on April 16th, 2012 in Economy, Health, Food Security, Ecology, Climate, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
inclusive disturbing photos of people dying by hunger, Photograph James Nachtwey – Published on Global Research.ca (first on the Nile Bowie Blog), by Nile Bowie, April 14, 2012.
Some small excerpts of a huge text:
Few parts of the world aptly fit the description of hell better than Somalia’s crumbling capital city, Mogadishu; a nation ravaged by imperialism, domestic instability and economic sabotage from foreign forces. Parades of malnourished Africans queuing up to receive rations are trumpeted in thirty second news pieces on most mainstream media outlets, of which offer embarrassingly insubstantial examples of journalism with little explanation for such images of unparalleled inequality, past the effects of droughts, while never missing the opportunity to highlight the threat of al-Qaeda … // Continue Reading…
Written on April 15th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
Published on Dissident Voice, by Michael Truscello, April 13, 2012.
News from Italy and Greece in recent weeks illustrates the expanding toll of capitalist “austerity” measures on cultural heritage sites. Not only has the austerity agenda continued to feed enormous wealth into the hands of the wealthy while workers are crushed under the weight of new taxes, slashed wages, fewer rights, and disappearing social services, austerity is also contributing to the decay and disappearance of the remnants of ancient cultures. Continue Reading…
Written on April 14th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog RWER, by Mark Weisbrot, April 11, 2012.
France’s conservative President, Nicolas Sarkozy, ran for office in 2007 on a program of making the French economy more like that of the United States. He picked a bad time for that: the U.S. was on the brink of its worst recession since the Great Depression, and would help drag down Europe and much of the world economy as the American economy collapsed. He probably wouldn’t want to say these things today, after the U.S. has had four years with hardly any economic growth at all. Continue Reading…
Written on April 13th, 2012 in Society by Heidi
in english:
in de: Continue Reading…