glazed

Debt and the Legitimacy of Capitalism

Debt is capitalism’s dirty little secret
By Ben Funnell,  June 30 2009 19:14
Just why is there so much debt in the Anglo-Saxon world? Bankers and regulators know well that it is in nobody’s long-term interests to have allowed borrowing to escalate to a position where the US now owes far more, as a multiple of the [...]

Cap’n'Trade, Obama’s Shade of Green

by RGE Monitor, July 1 009
Today we look at U.S. and global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and slow global warming. Last Friday, June 26 2009, The U.S. House of Representatives approved the landmark America Clean Energy and Security Act by a narrow seven vote margin, including 44 no votes from Democrats. The legislation, also [...]

“Why My Vote Goes to the Pirate Party”

By Lars Gustaffsson
According to an ancient source, the Emperor of Persia gave orders that sea waves be punished with beatings, for a storm had hindered him from transporting his troops by ship. That was quite stupid of him. Today, maybe he would have tried the same logic with a Stockholm district court, or asked for [...]

Italian Students Fight Crisis and G8

VOA, May 19, 2009
At least 19 police officers were injured in clashes with anti-globalization protesters in Turin. Thousands of students protested against the economic crisis on the sidelines of a G8 meeting of international university rectors.
Demonstrators hurled rocks and fire extinguishers at police in Turin while over 40 university deans from G8  industrialized countries and [...]

Anarchy in the EU

(For same-titled book, check Agenzia X; it contains parts in English and a chromatology of european movements)
Forty-one years later, and the spirit, if not the fervour, of May 1968 lives on. Then, over a month of student-led protests and a general strike crippled France and popular Marxist revolution appeared a real possibility in a Western [...]

Obama Skates on Thin Ice

THIN ICE FROM HERE TO THE HORIZON
By Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch

On any rational assessment the popular new president is skating on thin ice. Pollyanna bulletins about the economy puff up from the White House and Federal Reserve, like auguries of a new Pope through the  Vatican chimney. “Habemus spem.” We have hope. We’ve just heard it [...]

2008-2009 Is Worse than 1929-1930

World Economy Falling Faster Than in 1929-1930
By Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O’Rourke.
The parallels between the Great Depression of the 1930s and our current Great Recession have been widely remarked upon. Paul Krugman has compared the fall in US industrial production from its mid-1929 and late-2007 peaks, showing that it has been milder this time. On [...]

Postcapitalism: Movement Has Alternatives to G20

It’s hardly surprising that some want to trash the City, but to claim that the G20 protesters have no alternative is nonsense
By Seumas Milne
When mass protests exploded on the streets of Seattle in 1999 against the kind of globalisation embodied in the World Trade Organisation, their anti-capitalist message was widely portrayed as utopian. A decade [...]

FT: “Capitalism isn’t really democracy – official”

‘There is such a thing as society.’ PM’s statement
By Terence Hoffman in Westminster
The United Nations of Westminster, Whitehall and Washington have signed an accord stating Anglo-Saxon democracy is “not necessarily capitalist in nature.” The communiqué, released to mark Equal Rights Day, signifies the final deconstruction of neopostmodernist economics. It also declares the rule of law’s [...]

We, the Movement, Predicted the Great Recession

Once beaten for stating the obvious, our time has come
Katharine Ainger, Thursday 26 March 2009
Ten years ago, the anticapitalist movement predicted this recession. Now it must envisage an alternative global future
It was 1999 and the summer of corporate love. Many pundits – now talking of “bad apples” and applauding bailouts – were predicting the [...]