Capitalism
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Nestlé: Multinationals as the New Colonial Powers. A tale of Many Cities
On November 14th the Canadian group Wellington Water Watchers organized the «All Eyes on Nestlé» conference in the city of Guelph, Ontario, bringing together indigenous’ peoples and citizens’ movements fighting Nestlé’s water takings from Canada, the US, France and Brazil. Continue reading
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Once it was the banks that were too big to fail, now it is the financial bubble
30 December 2019 — theplanningmotivedotcom A BUBBLE TOO BIG TO FAIL ‘The global economy was an economy of two halves, the halve-nots and the halves- everything. I have pointed out a number of times, that in many major economies, especially the biggest of them all, the USA, the top 10% spend as much as the… Continue reading
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How the rich plan to rule a burning planet
The climate crisis isn’t a future we must fight to avoid. It’s an already unfolding reality. It’s the intensification of extreme weather – cyclones, storms and floods, droughts and deadly heat waves. It’s burning forests in Australia, the Amazon, Indonesia, Siberia, Canada and California. It’s melting ice caps, receding glaciers and rising seas. It’s ecosystem… Continue reading
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‘The Calculated Subversion of Humanity’ …and How to Resist It
As we transition into 2020, our World is in the grip of a deliberate attempt to destroy the fundamental values upon which all civilised life depends. Continue reading
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Ecosocialist Bookshelf: Best of 2019
12 December 2019 — Climate & Capitalism This was a bumper year for books of interest to ecosocialists. Here are ten that we found particularly interesting or valuable, or both. Climate & Capitalism receives more books than we can possibly review, but we can and do compile a monthly list of those that seem relevant to… Continue reading
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Get Brexit done!
That was the campaign slogan of the incumbent Conservative government under PM Boris Johnson. And it was the message that won over a sufficient number of those Labour voters who had voted to the leave the EU in 2016 to back the Conservatives. One-third of Labour voters in the 2017 election wanted to leave the… Continue reading
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FINANCIAL MARKETS APPROACH A YEAR END TEST
12 December 2019 — theplanningmotivedotcom The US Federal Reserve launched Quantitative Easing (QE) after the 2008 Crash. Beginning this September, it has launched a new round of QE that dares not speak its name. This facility mimics the scale of QE1 at an annualised $1.2 trillion, but has been initiated before the next Crash. Despite… Continue reading
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Is Johnson really going to ‘rein in’ NHS privatisation? Don’t you believe it!
The end of NHS privatisation would appear – once again – to have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, things could be about to get considerably worse… Continue reading
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Big Pharma Bought Access to Your DNA From Genealogy Company and What They’re Using It for Should Concern Everyone
Have you paid for an ancestry report? Perhaps someone gave it to you as a gift. Either way, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline now owns your genetic fingerprint. Continue reading
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Santa Trump comes to Brixton
Imagine if you met Donald Trump on your high street handing out boxes of chlorinated chicken and pesticide contaminated baby food – all with festive Christmas cheer! Continue reading
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Patient data from GP surgeries sold to US companies
7 December 2019 — The Guardian Dealings with international pharma raise new fears about American ambitions to access NHS Toby Helm Data about millions of NHS patients has been sold to US and other international pharmaceutical companies for research, the Observer has learned, raising new fears about America’s growing ambitions to access lucrative parts of… Continue reading
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Economics as a social science
Recently, Benoît Cœuré, a leading French member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, delivered an address to economics students at the job forum of Paris School of Economics. He wanted to explain to the gathered students that becoming an economist was a great thing to do and paid well. “For many, a master’s… Continue reading
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Capitalism: The fantasy world continues
The fantasy world continues. In the US and Europe, stock market index levels are hitting new all-time highs. Bond prices are also near all-time highs. Investment in both stocks and bonds are delivering massive profits for the financial institutions and companies. Conversely, in the ‘real’ economy, particularly in the productive sectors of industry and transport, the… Continue reading
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A system that steals from our future
A major report on human health in the Anthropocene, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, begins by noting an apparent paradox, that global human health has been improving even while environmental destruction is undermining it. The explanation, the authors say, is “straightforward and sobering.” Continue reading
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Green Strategy: To beat climate change, humanity needs socialism
Humans may not survive. Reports from the UN’s Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change provoke images of land masses drowning, fleeing populations, starvation, terrible droughts, terrible storms, migrating diseases, new deserts, and intolerable heat. It’s an “ecological Armageddon,” says one expert. We hear about “the sixth extinction,” the geologic epoch that is our own. It’s called the “Anthropocene.” The… Continue reading
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Hunger Games: Food Abundance and Twisted Truths
The world already produces enough food to feed 10 billion people but over two billion are experiencing micronutrient deficiencies (of which 821 million were classed as chronically undernourished in 2018). However, supporters of genetic engineering (GE) crops continually push the narrative that GE technology is required if we are to feed the world and properly support farmers. Continue reading
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UK: Labour’s economic policy: the challenge ahead
Whatever government is formed in the UK after the 12 December election, it faces an immense challenge. The British economy is in a mess and its society is riven with division. Continue reading
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Europe’s Economy Today & Tomorrow, Part 2: Artificial Intelligence, Uberization, & Capitalist ‘Sharing Economy’ Ideology
The Wall St. Journal page one article of November 18, 2019 broadcast: “Europe’s New Jobs Stoke Discontent”. It asked: ‘why are workers so angry’, when millions more jobs have been created since Europe’s last recessions (2008-09 and 2011-13), when millions more job openings remain, and when minimum wages have been raised in most countries’? Continue reading
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Lawyers launch $500M class-action lawsuit against Roundup makers
Darryl Singer, the head of commercial and civil litigation at Diamond & Diamond, said the plaintiffs involved in this class-action lawsuit are looking not only for financial compensation, but also what he calls “behaviour modification” so that the same thing doesn’t happen again in the future with other products in Canada. Continue reading
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Capitalism’s suicidal trajectory can’t be ignored
If we make it out of the climate emergency, we may come to view the few decades usually described simply as the Cold War that followed the Second World War as halcyon days – at least relative to what we are facing now. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 