nous les 99%

Ideological foundations of the mainstream neoclassical economics – Published on Intrepid Report, by Ismael Hossein-zadeh, Nov 20, 2014.

There is now a widespread consensus that mainstream/neoclassical economists failed miserably to either predict the coming of the 2008 financial implosion, or provide a reasonable explanation when it actually arrived. Not surprisingly, many critics have argued that neoclassical economics has created more confusion than clarification, more obfuscation than elucidation. Economic “science” has, indeed, become “an ideological construct which serves to camouflage and justify the New World Order” [1].   Continuer la lecture de « Class interests as economic theory »

Published on The Guardian, by Spencer Ackerman in NY, Nov 19, 2014.

• Senators, mostly Republicans warning of leaving the country exposed to terrorist threat, voted to beat back the USA Freedom Act
• Failure to pass US surveillance reform bill could still curtail NSA powers
• Nearly 18 months after Edward Snowden’s disclosures, the USA Freedom Act has died

… It was the denouement to over a year’s worth of political drama, characterized by shifting alliances and a reduction in ambitions for constraining the NSA, even in a post-Snowden Congress.   Continuer la lecture de « US: Senate Republicans block landmark NSA surveillance reform bill »

Published on VOXeu.org, by Alex Bryson, John Forth, Lucy Stokes, Nov 17, 2014.

It is generally agreed that firms can improve their employees’ wellbeing through improvements in job quality – but is it in their economic interests to do so? This column reports research showing that satisfied employees and higher productivity go together. Analysis of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey finds that employee job satisfaction is positively associated with workplace financial performance, labour productivity, and the quality of output and service … // Continuer la lecture de « Does it pay for firms to invest in their workers’ wellbeing? »

in Texts, on Russia Today RT:

• Putin: Supporting Russophobia in Ukraine will result in catastrophe, on Russia Today RT, Nov 16, 2014 … Transcript of the Interview;
• Putin: Economic blockade of E. Ukraine a big mistake, Nov 16, 2014;
• Ukraine scraps human rights treaty for rebel areas, cuts services, freezes banks, Nov 16, 2014;
• Politics blinded them?’ Putin says sanctions against Russia may backfire on Ukraine, on Nov 15, 2014;   Continuer la lecture de « Putin's ARD Interview »

Published on The Guardian, by Daniel Boffey, Nov 15, 2014: study shows gains for wealthier half of population, delivering a blow to George Osborne’s claims on fairness;

A landmark study of the coalition’s tax and welfare policies six months before the general election reveals how money has been transferred from the poorest to the better off, apparently refuting the chancellor of the exchequer’s claims that the country has been “all in it together”.

According to independent research to be published on Monday and seen by the Observer, George Osborne has been engaged in a significant transfer of income from the least well-off half of the population to the more affluent in the past four years. Those with the lowest incomes have been hit hardest.   Continuer la lecture de « Revealed: how coalition has helped rich by hitting poor »

Published on Global Research.ca (first on War is a Crime), by David Swanson, Nov 13, 2014.

The similarities between mass incarceration and mass murder have been haunting me for a while, and I now find myself inspired by Maya Schenwar’s excellent new book Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better. This is one of three books everyone should read right away. The others are The New Jim Crow and Burning Down the House, the former with a focus on racism in incarceration, the latter with a focus on the incarceration of youth. Schenwar’s is an overview of incarceration in all its absurd and unfathomable evil — as well as being a spotlight leading away from this brutal institution.   Continuer la lecture de « How Is a Prison Like a War? »

Published on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Doaa El-Bey, Nov 13, 2014: On Egypt’s defence of its record at the UN Periodic Review meeting in Geneva.

While the head of the Egyptian delegation to Geneva insisted Egypt had witnessed a qualitative “leap” in the status of human rights, human rights groups have widely condemned Egypt’s record on basic freedoms over the last four years.

More than 300 recommendations, questions and comments from member states were included in the UN outcome report that followed Egypt’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) last week. Reservations were expressed over laws regulating NGOs, human rights, judicial procedures and the right to protest. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, however, was keen to point out that amid the criticisms there were positive remarks. “From at least 100 countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti told Al-Ahram Weekly. Continuer la lecture de « Egypt: Human rights under scrutiny »

Published on farmlandgrab.org, by Chris Arsenault, Nov 12, 2014.

ROME, Nov 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Development funds from European governments have helped to rescue a Canadian company that pays workers as little as $1 per day to toil on some of Africa’s largest palm oil plantations in the impoverished Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Government-backed investment funds from Britain, France and Spain, designed to help poor countries develop, stepped in to buy 60 percent of Toronto-listed Feronia Inc for about $35 million in two separate investments in 2012 and 2013.   Continuer la lecture de « Taxpayer funds save Congo plantation paying workers $1/day »

latest Related Links:

• Pax Pacificana? US, China agree to avoid military conflict, on Russia Today RT, Nov 12, 2014;
• (remember on Global Research.ca, by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts:
• Will Russia and China Hold Their Fire Until War Is the Only Alternative? Sept 26, 2014; … and: Washington’s War Against Russia – Undermining Russia’s Historic Relationship with Western Europe, Sept 15, 2014);     Continuer la lecture de « USA – CHINA – RUSSIA – (and our politician's arse licker eu) … quo vadis? »

LIVE UPDATES – Go-go-go! Rosetta’s Philae lander descent to comet surface, on Russia Today RT, Nov 12, 2014!
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Published on The National Security Archive, by Thomas Blanton and Svetlana Savranskaya, Nov 9, 2014.

• Documents show accident and contingency, anxiety in world capitals;
• East German crowds led the way, with help from Communist fumbles, self-fulfilling TV coverage, Hungarian reformers, Czechoslovak pressure, and Gorbachev’s non-violence.

Washington, DC, November 9, 2014 – The iconic fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago today shocked international leaders from Washington to Moscow, London to Warsaw, as East German crowds took advantage of Communist Party fumbles to break down the Cold War’s most symbolic barrier, according to formerly secret documents from Soviet, German, U.S., Czechoslovak and Hungarian files posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (The National Security Archive.org).   Continuer la lecture de « The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 25th Anniversary »

Published on Russia Today RT, Nov 10, 2014;

New rules are being proposed that will force creditors, not taxpayers, to carry the losses of banks deemed “too big to fail.” The plans come after Western taxpayers were asked to pay trillions of dollars to bail out banks in the 2008 financial crisis. The new global rules will force creditors to bear banks’ losses, ensuring that taxpayers’ money should never be used again to bail out banks.  The proposal was unveiled by Mark Carney, chairman of the Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board (FSB) and governor of the Bank of England. The new rules would require big banks to hold much more money against losses, which Carney called a “watershed” moment, adding that the bailout by the taxpayers in 2008 and 2009 was “totally unfair” … // Continuer la lecture de « No more bailouts: BoE chief says banks won't be save by taxpayers »

LIVE UPDATES – Go-go-go! Rosetta’s Philae lander descent to comet surface, on Russia Today RT, Nov 12, 2014!

Published on The Independent.co.uk, by KITTY KNOWLES, Nov 9, 2014.

Dutch astrophysicist Dr Fred Jansen is no stranger to the difficulties of space exploration. He led the team that put an X-ray observatory in orbit in the 1990s, and has since overseen exploration operations to Mars and Venus. But the Rosetta mission manager described his latest challenge as the most difficult yet. Continuer la lecture de « Rosetta spacecraft to land probe on comet – and make scientific history »

how tiny state rubber-stamped tax avoidance on an industrial scale – Leaked documents show that one of the EU’s smallest states helped multinationals save millions in tax, to the detriment of its neighbours and allies – Published on The Guardian, by Simon Bowers, Nov 5, 2014. (See also: Audio – Irish Times Business Podcast: Lux Leaks, 19.44 min).

An unprecedented international investigation into tax deals struck with Luxembourg has uncovered the multi-billion dollar tax secrets of some of the world’s largest multinational corporations.

A cache of almost 28,000 pages of leaked tax agreements, returns and other sensitive papers relating to over 1,000 businesses paints a damning picture of an EU state which is quietly rubber-stamping tax avoidance on an industrial scale.   Continuer la lecture de « Tax avoidance – Luxembourg tax files »

Published on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin no. 1052, by Pedro Marlez, Nov 6, 2014.

… The Spanish political crisis is advancing slowly but inexorably. In the last five or six months we have witnessed a series of events that have exacerbated the process of decomposition: the turbulence produced by the European elections, the succession to the throne, the most serious corruption scandals to surface for generations, and the conflict between the central government and Catalonia. The right-wing government of [Prime Minister] Mariano Rajoy has sought relief in macroeceonomic data, but the optimism expressed is groundless: no figures are available to show a solid recovery, with the exception of the fall in unemployment, which is explicable on the basis of a seasonally favourable situation in the services sector. The period to come will be very difficult for the government, even decisive in different areas of conflict … // Continuer la lecture de « The “Consultation” in Catalonia: A New Episode in the Political Crisis of Spain »

Published on Axis of Logic (first on teleSUR), by Ezequiel Adamovsky, Nov 5, 2014.

Announcements by the World Bank, the IMF; and other neoliberal think tanks, that poverty is decreasing and the middle class increasing is just a fantasy that stems from ideologically biased research programs and conceptions of poverty … //

… All this, of course, is nothing but a fantasy that stems from ideologically biased research programs and conceptions of poverty. In the past decades, international organizations and think tanks have produced a subtle shift in the way we understand poverty and class differences. We used to think of both as relations: there is no poverty in itself, but only in relation to wealth; one can only be of “lower” condition by contrast to the “higher” class. Continuer la lecture de « Poverty, World Hunger: Time for a relational approach »