India: Taken Over by Foreign Banks?

Published on Global Research.ca, by Kavaljit Singh, Oct 29, 2013.

On October 12, Raghuram Rajan, the new Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, announced that the RBI will soon issue new rules allowing a more liberal entry of foreign banks in India. “That is going to be a big opening because one could even contemplate taking over Indian banks, small Indian banks and so on,” he stated in Washington at an event organized by the Institute of International Finance, a global banking lobby group.  Continuer la lecture de « India: Taken Over by Foreign Banks? »

US Political Dysfunction and Capitalism’s Withdrawal

Published on e-International Relations, by Richard D. Wolff, October 27, 2013.

After 200 years of concentrating its centers in western Europe, north America, and Japan, capitalism is moving most of its centers elsewhere and especially to China, India, Brazil and so on. This movement poses immense problems of transition at both poles. The classic problems of early, rapid capitalist industrialization are obvious daily in the new centers. What we learn about early capitalism when we read Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Maxim Gorky and Jack London, we see now again in the new centers.   Continuer la lecture de « US Political Dysfunction and Capitalism’s Withdrawal »

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Lessons from Iceland: Capitalism, Crisis, and Resistance

Published on Monthly Review, by Martin Hart-Landsberg, 2013, Volume 65, Issue 05 (October),

If we are to build support for an alternative to capitalism we need clarity on the causes and consequences of the contemporary capitalist drive for greater liberalization and privatization, as well as the benefits from and limits to state direction of capitalist economic activity. Although a small country, Iceland’s recent experience has much to teach us about capitalist dynamics and strategies of transformation.   Continuer la lecture de « Lessons from Iceland: Capitalism, Crisis, and Resistance »

we move forward, in any way

US: is there really a majority in favor of marijuana legalization?

Gallup’s just-released poll showing a majority of Americans support the drug’s legalization isn’t quite true … at least not yet – Published on The Guardian, by Harry J. Enten, Oct 23, 2013.

Ever feel like you’re experiencing deja vu? I’m sure it’s happened to those of you who have smoked cannabis – you know, grass, marijuana, or, as the cool kids might say, weed. And while I’m not personally smoking the stuff, I get the same feeling when talking about marijuana polling.

It was big news Tuesday when Gallup released a poll showing that a record high 58% of Americans believe marijuana should be legalized. But the proof that a majority of Americans are in favor of cannabis legalization is, as I wrote earlier this year, simply not there yet. Take the Gallup poll, and the trend in it over the past few years.  Continuer la lecture de « US: is there really a majority in favor of marijuana legalization? »

Why Washington Can’t Stop

The Coming Era of Tiny Wars and Micro-Conflicts – Published on ZNet (first on TomDispatch), by Tom Engelhardt, Oct 23, 2013.

In terms of pure projectable power, there’s never been anything like it … //

… Despite this stunning global power equation, for more than a decade we have been given a lesson in what a military, no matter how overwhelming, can and (mostly) can’t do in the twenty-first century, in what a military, no matter how staggeringly advanced, does and (mostly) does not translate into on the current version of planet Earth.   Continuer la lecture de « Why Washington Can’t Stop »

Reports document US slaughter of civilians in drone strikes

Published on World Socialist Web Site WSWS, by Barry Grey, Oct 23, 2013.

A series of reports released over the past several days document the killing of thousands of people, including hundreds of non-combatant civilians, in US drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and other countries. The reports, issued by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, 105 pages, on Tuesday and the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions last Friday, expose as lies the claims of President Obama and administration officials that the drone strikes are “surgical” attacks that kill few civilians.  Continuer la lecture de « Reports document US slaughter of civilians in drone strikes »

Let’s Get This Class War Started

Published on truthdig, by Chris Hedges, Oct 20, 2013.

“The rich are different from us,” F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have remarked to Ernest Hemingway, to which Hemingway allegedly replied, “Yes, they have more money.”

The exchange, although it never actually took place, sums up a wisdom Fitzgerald had that eluded Hemingway. The rich are different. The cocoon of wealth and privilege permits the rich to turn those around them into compliant workers, hangers-on, servants, flatterers and sycophants. Wealth breeds, as Fitzgerald illustrated in “The Great Gatsby” and his short story “The Rich Boy,” a class of people for whom human beings are disposable commodities.   Continuer la lecture de « Let’s Get This Class War Started »

Economic uncertainty and the effectiveness of monetary policy

Published on VOX.org, by Knut Are Aastveit, Gisle James Natvik, Sergio Sola, October 19, 2013.

Many analysts blame uncertainty for at least part of advance nations’ poor economic performance since the crisis. This column discusses new research showing that the economic impact of monetary policy is dampened when uncertainty is high. This means that high uncertainty forces monetary policymakers into a trade-off between acting decisively and acting correctly as policy must be more aggressive than otherwise in order to stabilise economic activity. The finding is particularly stark when uncertainty measures from financial markets are utilised.   Continuer la lecture de « Economic uncertainty and the effectiveness of monetary policy »