I Stand With Paul Krugman.
Belarus. Belaruse. Europe. The Fallacy and Failure of Neo-Liberalism: Any Lessons from. Hudson in Russia: The Myth of Neo-Liberalism. Arrivederci, Water Profiteers: Italians Claim Water as a Common Good. Why 96 percent of Italian voters rejected their government’s push for water privatization. posted Jul 22, 2011 An Italian protester in favor of keeping water ownership public. Photo courtesy Daniel Moss “Water—whether we treat it as a public good or as a commodity that can be bought and sold—will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous,” wrote the scholar Maude Barlow.
In Italy last month, an overwhelming number of people (96 percent of the 57 percent of the population that voted) cast their ballots for a peaceful future based on shared ownership of water. The referendum overturned a law passed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government, which would have encouraged private companies to buy up public water utilities and guaranteed them a profit on their investment, opening the door to rate hikes. The referendum also stripped Berlusconi government ministers of special court privileges and reaffirmed public opposition to nuclear power. Interested? Immanuel Wallerstein: 'Capitalism Collapsing, cash-n-grab system cannot survive'
There is barely a corner of the globe that has not been touched by the current financial meltdown. But a senior sociology scholar at Yale University thinks the crisis is far wider than the economic crash - it is capitalism itself which is collapsing. Immanuel Wallerstein explained his theory to RT. The Big Picture: A 40-Year Scan of the Right-Wing Corporate Takeover of America. October 3, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. At this moment, there are growing protests on Wall Street in Manhattan, in Boston at the Bank of America, and in cities around the country.
These embryonic and creative efforts are targeting the greed of the banks, the collusion of the corporate class with their corrupt elected officials, the high level of unemployment, the huge burden of student loans in a time of diminished opportunities, the increasing numbers of poor and hungry people, and much more. These protests, along with those earlier in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, are signs of revival of a long tradition of popular revolt against excesses of wealth and the corporate class. The new protests come after a long dark period -- specifically the last 11 years of George W. The conservative ascendancy is hardly an overnight phenomenon. Colin Greer: There is no single causal factor. Washington Considers Sale of Spare Properties to Raise Revenue. Free Trade Is Ravaging National Economies. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Equal trade, fair trade, honest, decent trade requires reasonable balance between trading partners and strong domestic economies.
When that happens, Adam Smith’s model works pretty well: prices for labor, materials, and finished goods all settle near the area where they “naturally” should be. But as we’ve seen from the immensely imbalanced statistics on distribution of wealth in chapter 19, something is not working the way Smith envisioned. Wages appear to be dwindling, and the number of strong, healthy competitors appears to be shrinking. Watch: Free Trade - POOF goes the Money & the Stimulus Teddy Roosevelt Weighs In President Theodore Roosevelt brilliantly defined the American Dream in the context of the dynamic difference between a business that is a builder of community and one that hollows out community. The tillers of the soil, the wage workers, the business men—these are the three big and vitally important divisions of our population.
Wall Street and ethanol cause starvation, say scientists. Today's supervillains are soooo boring. If only they'd wear tights and touch entrapped damsels’ hair in a way that made us uncomfortable, we'd be up for patriotically pistol-whipping them, Captain America style. Instead we find out that Wall Street and ethanol — a diffuse network of trading computers and a colorless inebriant, respectively — are the reason billions are going hungry in the developing world.
How are we supposed to launch a hideously expensive vendetta-war against that? The takeaway from Brandon Keim's excellent writeup of a study conducted by researchers at New England Complex Systems Institute is that if you want to model the extraordinary run-up in food prices worldwide, you have to include both large dollops of speculation by financiers and the increasing diversion of farmland and corn to ethanol, which is now consuming more than half of America's corn crop. All this speculation was a result of — surprise! — deregulation. Banksters Bailout Builds. Who We Are. For more than 100 years, The Rockefeller Foundation’s mission has been to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Today, we pursue this mission through dual goals: advancing inclusive economies that expand opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity, and building resilience by helping people, communities and institutions prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses.
To achieve these goals, The Rockefeller Foundation works at the intersection of four focus areas – advance health, revalue ecosystems, secure livelihoods, and transform cities – to address the root causes of emerging challenges and create systemic change. Together with partners and grantees, we strive to catalyze and scale transformative innovations, create unlikely partnerships that span sectors, and take risks others cannot – or will not.
Revalue Ecosystems » Secure Livelihoods » Transform Cities » Advance Health » How The Financial Crisis Created A 'New Third World' | WAMU 88.5 - American University Radio. Hide caption After adopting the euro, Greece borrowed huge sums of money. The country is now on the brink of a major default. "They're going to default ... it's now a question of how messy it will be," says writer Michael Lewis. His new book Boomerang looks at Greece and four other places affected by the financial crisis. iStockphoto.com Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass had made a fortune betting against the subprime mortgage market when it collapsed in 2008. Bass' story is chronicled in Michael Lewis' latest book, Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour, which tells the stories of the fiscal recklessness in both Europe and the U.S. that led to the current debt crisis.
Lewis tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that Bass realized that governments around the world weren't ending the 2008 financial crisis — they were just delaying it. "What he saw was that the debts that had been accumulating in the banking system were too large for governments to handle in some countries," Lewis says. Interview Highlights. Demotix. Disclaimer Please note: the text contained in "People against water privatization" has not been corrected, edited or verified by Demotix and is the raw text submitted by the photojournalist. All views and opinions expressed are that of the independent photojournalist and do not represent the views of Demotix Ltd.
These details have been included in order to provide as much information as possible to the Media buyer. Demotix reserves the right to pursue unauthorised users of this content. If you violate our intellectual property you may be liable for: actual damages, loss of income, and profits you derive from the use of this image or clip, and, where appropriate, the costs of collection and/or statutory damages. Our Rigged Economy, Our Rigged Democracy - The Progressive magazine. Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | World news. Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list.
In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody. They were not figuring these things out as they went along. As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration. Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations.
Conason eloquently warned of the danger of American authoritarianism. 1. 2. 3. Thugs in America? 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.