China's Golden Rule of Consumption. With China’s economy slowing faster than expected, Beijing is considering another stimulus program. While there are reports of “mega” investment projects being advanced as an option, some observers are pushing for a more modest consumption-driven approach. Hopes for such a program, however, are tempered by a much-publicized decline in the share of consumption in the country’s GDP from 50 percent to below 35 percent over the past fifteen years. This trend is deemed the clearest sign that China’s growth process is unbalanced, with consumption repressed and investment overdone. But this perception is wrong. High investment rates in China are building off of a very low initial capital stock and have thus enabled China to sustain an extremely high GDP growth rate for three decades. The accompanying decline in consumption as a share of GDP is not cause for concern, as it is helping to lay the foundation for future prosperity and is typical of industrializing economies.
The Golden Rule. Sweden’s Green Veneer Hides Unsustainable Logging Practices by Erik Hoffner. 01 Dec 2011: Report by erik hoffner On a misty August morning in northern Sweden, a team of conservationists was combing an old spruce forest for rare species of lichen and fungi. The woodland was thick with trees towering over a mossy forest floor tracked up by moose, and it contained rare species of lichen, such as Platismatia norvegica, which is on Sweden’s Red List of Threatened Species.
A GIS map carried by Mahlin Sahlin, a forest campaigner for the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), put the tract at 57 hectares (141 acres). The map also showed that this patch of forest was surrounded on all sides by recent clear-cuts. The northern county of Jämtland, where we tripped, slid, and sloshed on a late-summer day, is under intense pressure from logging companies.
Sweden has long been viewed as one of the world’s most environmentally progressive nations, possessing comprehensive laws to protect nature, including its extensive boreal forest. View gallery country’s forests. Paul Krugman on what's next for the American economy - Countdown with Keith Olbermann. To Our Faithful Current.com Users: Current's run has ended after eight exciting years on air and online.
The Current TV staff has appreciated your interest, support, participation and unflagging loyalty over the years. Your contributions helped make Current.com a vibrant place for discussing thousands of interesting stories, and your continued viewership motivated us to keep innovating and find new ways to reflect the voice of the people. We now welcome the on-air and digital presence of Al Jazeera America, a new news network committed to reporting on and investigating real stories affecting the lives of everyday Americans in every corner of the country. You can keep up with what's new on Al Jazeera America and see this new brand of journalism for yourself at Thank you for inspiring and challenging us. We are incredibly proud of what we have been able to accomplish together!
– The Current TV Staff. British workers strike over retirement benefits. NEW: The majority of key public services have stayed open, Cabinet Minister says75 people have been arrested in connection with strike protests, London police sayPM David Cameron says the strike is "wrong" when negotiations are still ongoingWorkers in the public sector say they are being unfairly penalized for the deficit London (CNN) -- Mass strikes swept across the United Kingdom Wednesday, with public sector workers walking off jobs in schools, hospitals and police stations to protest proposed pension reforms. The government said the majority of key public services remained open, however, although more than half of the country's schools were closed, affecting many families.
The unions said up to 2 million public sector workers could go on strike but early indications suggested the total might be fewer. Those traveling to Britain had experienced minimal disruption to their journeys as a result of border control staff striking, he said. Walking off the job in Britain. It's Getting Real in the Eurozone: Self-Inflicted Recession Threatens World Economy. Mark WeisbrotThe Guardian Unlimited, November 29, 2011 The Mark, December 1, 2011See article on original website The economic news out of the eurozone is getting worse every day, and so is the contagion to the rest of the world.
The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), the club of 34 mostly high-income countries, has now lowered its projection for eurozone growth for 2012 from 2 percent (in May) to just 0.2 percent. According to their report, the 17-member eurozone economy already "appears to be in a mild recession. " For the U.S., the forecast for next year was lowered from 3 percent to 2.1 percent. Forecasts for China, India, and Brazil have also been lowered significantly since May. From Asia to Latin America, the problems of the eurozone are reverberating as international banks contract credit, big investment projects are canceled or postponed, stock markets and real estate prices fall, and investor and consumer confidence drops. KPFK 90.7 FM. CHARTS: OECD Sends Out Warning On The Global Economy.
The OECD is out with a fresh warning for the global economy, and a call for "urgent action" to address the crisis in Europe. Even if things get "fixed", the organization is still lowering its growth outlook. The Outlook’s baseline scenario assumes that policy-makers take sufficient action to avoid disorderly sovereign defaults, a sharp credit contraction, systemic bank failures and excessive fiscal tightening. It sees GDP across the OECD countries slowing from 1.9% this year to 1.6% in 2012, before recovering to 2.3% in 2013. Unemployment in the OECD area is also projected to remain high for an extended period, with the jobless rate staying at around 8% through the next two years. Included in the announcement are some fantastic charts that show, well... what a mess things have suddenly become for the economy. Whether it's trade volumes, financial stresses, or confidence, things are all turning south all around the world. The euro: Beware of falling masonry.
Moody’s warns on France’s rating outlook - FRANCE-ECONOMY. Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster: A `realistic’ answer to the ecological crisis. "What is clear from ... Magdoff and Foster, is that 'what every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism' is that: 1) it is the root cause of the environmental crisis, 2) capitalism is incapable of solving it, either by going green or by becoming non-growth.' John Bellamy Foster, co-author with Fred Magdoff of What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism, will be a featured international guest at the second World at a Crossroads: Climate Change – Social Change Conference, Friday, September 30 – Monday, October 3, 2011.
Read an exclusive excerpt from What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism HERE. By Liam Flenady September 25, 2011 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Resolving the ecological crisis is incompatible with capitalism. We must build a movement that works against capitalist logic with the aim to overcoming it in favour of a properly sustainable and egalitarian form of society. Climate change Planetary boundaries.
Congressional Insider Trading Gone Wild. Banker's Choice. So Greece has a new prime minister – Lucas Papademos – and Italy looks about to have a new one, too – Mario Monti. To which not just you and I but damn near every Italian and Greek responds, “Who?” Neither Papademos nor Monti has ever held elective office, or even run for one. Neither has been a minister, sub-minister or even civil servant in one of their nation’s ministries. Neither has developed, or sought to develop, a public following from their careers as economic technicians, chiefly on the European supra-national level. Yet each is about to lead a major nation. Papademos and Monti are something new under the sun: national leaders elected by the markets. But imagine if the U.S. couldn’t sell its Treasury notes (which has never been a problem, let’s be clear), and the IMF and Germany and China got together and said that Barack Obama, Joe Biden, the Cabinet and the Congress had to go.
Advertisement So what do we call this? InstapaperPocketShare on emailEmailShare on printPrint Comments. G20 - People in, corporate sponsors out. Chevron "Dirty Tricks" Operative Diego Borja Could Face Criminal Liability for Obstructing Ecuador Trial, His Lawyer Concedes. Borja Claimed Chevron Tried to Corrupt Process That Led to $18 Billion Judgment Against Oil Giant SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 01 /CSRwire/ - Chevron's self-proclaimed "dirty tricks" operative Diego Borja – accused of trying to orchestrate a bribe to an Ecuador judge to undermine the environmental lawsuit against Chevron – could face potential criminal liability in the U.S. for his actions, according to an unusual admission in federal court made recently by his own lawyer.
The San Francisco-area lawyer Ted Cassman, who is paid by Chevron to represent Borja, conceded that his client could face potential criminal charges in the U.S. for orchestrating a sting in 2009 against a sitting judge in Ecuador just before the trial was about to end in what both parties expected to be a verdict against Chevron, according to a transcript of recent proceedings in federal court in San Francisco. Evidence demonstrates that while living in the U.S.
"It was clear to us – and to Ms. What are those OWS people so angry about? - Glenn Greenwald. One of the most revealing aspects of the rapidly growing OccupyWallStreet protest movement has been the bewilderment and befuddlement expressed by so many media stars as to what the “message” is of these protests and what these protesters are so angry about. Perhaps this juxtaposition can clarify things, from The New York Times today: Anyone who expressed difficulty seeing or understanding what motivates these protests revealed many things about themselves. None is flattering. The only thing that’s surprising is that these protests didn’t happen sooner and that they’re not more widespread and intense. I think it’s become increasingly clear that that is likely to change, and soon. Like the Arab Spring, the rapid growth of these protests should be a permanent antidote against defeatism. The Politic, a political journal at Yale University, has published an interview with me about a number of related topics, which can be read here.
Awakening Millennial Generation Occupy Global Revolution Awakening Millennial Generation Occupy Global Revolution Awakening Millennial Generation Occupy Global Revolution Awakening Millennial Gen…. (continuously updated) « Culture War, Class War. Nearly 1 million Californians long-term jobless - Handling Hard Times : The Orange County Register. California has 988,000 people who have been unemployed more than six months, with the majority of those out of work a year or longer, according to the state Employment Development Department. That is more than the entire population in each of the states of Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.
Typically, workers who have just lost their jobs make up the bulk of the unemployed. But as the economic downturn has dragged on, those who don't find work in the first six months of unemployment find it increasingly difficult to get a job. That six-month mark is critical because the unemployed typically only receive benefits for 26 weeks. However, because of the depth of this downturn Congress has extended benefits for up to 99 weeks. Even with those extensions, more than 533,000 people in California have become so-called 99ers, people who have exhausted their benefits and no longer are receiving unemployment.
NYPD charges Times Square protesters with police horses. By Muriel KaneSunday, October 16, 2011 18:03 EDT When thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched north to Times Square on Saturday, the New York Police Department was quick to respond with barricades, horses, and arrests. Ryan Devereaux, a reporter with Democracy Now! Who accompanied the march, described the police deployment of barricades and kettling nets and the subsequent escalation of tensions in a series of tweets. At 6:21 pm, he tweeted, apparently with reference to a police officer, “He then says, ‘It’s gonna get ugly,’ as he announces they will now be pushing the line back.” A minute later, he added, “They’re using the horses to push us back.
A few hours later, Devereaux was able to expand on his account, noting, “I heard a NYPD whiteshirt announce by megaphone ‘That horse is gonna hurt’” and “That was after the horse had crossed the line where the barricade was, before it went to down. Protesters responded to the police actions by shouting, “Who are you protecting?” G-20 Focuses on Crisis as Europe Mulls Greek Writedown. Group of 20 finance chiefs are pressing Europe’s leaders to deliver within the next few days a comprehensive plan that stamps out the region’s sovereign debt turmoil, according to an official from a G-20 nation. G-20 finance ministers and central bankers will say in a statement to be released after talks in Paris today that an Oct. 23 Brussels summit of leaders must quell the threat of contagion, the official said on condition of anonymity because the communique isn’t finished. They will also urge the euro-area to maximise the firepower of its 440 billion-euro ($611 billion) bailout fund, the person said.
European governments are concentrating on a plan which would include writing down Greek bonds by as much as 50 percent and establishing a backstop for banks, people familiar with the discussions said yesterday. Worldwide stocks rose and the euro rallied the most against the dollar in more than two years this week on optimism officials are ramping up their crisis-fighting.
Greek Unrest. Senate Democrats Propose To Pay For Obama Jobs Bill With A Millionaire Surtax. Here's Why That Matters. Remember when President Obama wouldn’t even utter the word “Republican”? Those days are long gone. And maybe, just maybe, the change in rhetoric is starting to pay off. We’re now into week four of the administration’s campaign to promote its jobs proposal. And instead of dialing down the pressure, Obama has been dialing it up. One day after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced Republicans wouldn’t bring the proposal to a vote in the House, Obama on Tuesday criticized Cantor – and he did so by name: Yesterday, the Republican Majority Leader in Congress, Eric Cantor, said that right now he won’t even let this jobs bill have a vote in the House of Representatives. This is what he said. Look, I’d like Mr. A new ABC-Washington Post poll suggests that, so far, Obama's campaign is working.
Of course, Obama and his allies still face a problem in the one chamber their party controls: The Senate. Purely from a policy perspective, the millionaire surtax is not as elegant as Obama’s proposal. Congress sits idle while economy falters. The possibility of enlightening the MSMerized & FOX-notized is what’s awesome about #occupywallstreet #globalrevolution — John Birch Society, Congress, and Fat Lines of Koch. Newsworthy News: 200 Million Depend on Melt...
200 Million Depend on Melting Glaciers for Water. PORTO DE GALINHAS, Brazil, Sep 27, 2011 (IPS) - At least 200 million people in the world are in danger of being left without water, because they depend for their supply on glaciers that are melting, although paradoxically the process creates the illusion of plentiful water resources.
While the average global temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last 100 years, the temperature of glaciers has increased by 1.5 degrees in just two decades. Local communities, especially in the Himalayan and Andes mountain ranges, are the most affected. If the temperature is below zero, "ice remains frozen, but if it rises even a little bit, it is enough to turn the ice to water," Marco Rondón, a Colombian expert on natural resource management at the Canadian government's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) , told IPS. In the Andean region, close to 10 million people depend directly on water from glaciers.
"The availability of water is changing.
Michael Moore @ #OccupyWallStreet. U.S. Day Ahead: World Bank, IMF in focus amid market turmoil. The IMF on trial - Empire. GUATEMALA: All Candidates Jump on the Social Programmes Bandwagon. Looking for work? Try Canada - GlobalPost. Project Associate/Coordinator, Industrial Jobs (Ethiopia) | Innovations for Poverty Action. Greek cabinet meets to decide more austerity steps. Slovenian government ousted by vote of no confidence. Couple to lose kids for obesity in Scotland. The United States of Europe? Don Group, Standard Bank May Move: South African Equity Preview. Greece Braced for Mass Protests as Austerity Cuts Bite. Dragon's teeth. Why China's Rich Want To Immigrate To America. French banks hit hard as markets fall. Understanding Trichet and Conpany: A Note.