debt
-
Bruiseology By S. Artesian
You will recall that way back when in 2009 and 2010 some of us sectarian, socialism now, ultra-left types where sectarianly and ultra-leftly calling for the immediate repudiation of the debt. When the recent contest for parliamentary power took place, we, incurable sectarians/Bordiga-ists/ultra-leftists/DeLeonites, urged no support for Syriza’s program because that program did not call… Continue reading
-
US: Retail Death Rattle Grows Louder
The absolute collapse in retail visitor counts is the warning siren that this country is about to collide with the reality Americans have run out of time, money, jobs, and illusions. The exponential growth model, built upon a never ending flow of consumer credit and an endless supply of cheap fuel, has reached its limit… Continue reading
-
Michael Hudson: The New Cold War’s Ukraine Gambit
Finance in today’s world has become war by non-military means. Its object is the same as that of military conquest: appropriation of land and basic infrastructure, and the rents that can be extracted as tribute. In today’s world this is taken mainly in the form of debt service and privatization. That is how neoliberalism works,… Continue reading
-
Can the Top 10% Prop Up the Whole Economy? By Charles Hugh Smith
Since the entire economy depends on consumption for its “growth,” and discretionary consumption is financed with either cash or debt, that leads to two questions: 1) who has cash to spend on non-essentials and 2) who is credit-worthy enough to borrow money for non-essentials? Continue reading
-
Video: Indebted citizenship – an interview with David Harvey in Teatro Valle
Austerity doesn’t make sense economically: but it does make sense as a politics of autocracy and the securitized state. Europe should learn from China and Latin America, interviewed by Andrea Mura. (Video, 17 minutes). Continue reading
-
The Entire Fiat Money System is Bankrupt: Demise of the Global US Fiat Dollar Reserve Currency By Matthias Chang
The events unraveling post Bernanke’s decision not to taper QE is most significant because it confirms our analysis that the banking crisis has not been resolved in any significant way after five years of money printing and massive asset inflation. The fiat money system has but one outcome – total collapse. It will also mean… Continue reading
-
New at Strategic Culture Foundation 27 October – 2 November 2013
2 November 2013 — — Strategic Culture Foundation Who is the USA in Debt to? (II) 02.11.2013 | 00:00 | Valentin KATASONOV …Switzerland, Belgium, Great Britain, Luxembourg and Ireland each have a bundle of securities amounting to more than USD 100 billion, and each of them has external debt that far exceeds their GDP… It is one of Continue reading
-
The European Union and Greece: the Murder of a Nation By Anna FILIMONOVA
At the end of July, eurozone deputy finance ministers approved another transfer of money to Greece to the tune of EUR 6.8 billion (it had previously been thought that Athens would be allocated EUR 8.1 billion). Several days earlier, meanwhile, the Greek parliament approved the latest in a series of legislative acts, the adoption of… Continue reading
-
China – Avoid the West’s Debt Overhead: A Land Tax is needed to hold down Housing Prices By Michael Hudson
How can China avoid the “Western financial disease” – a real estate bubble followed by defaults and foreclosures? The U.S. and European economies originally sought to avoid this fate by taxing the location’s site value. A rent tax was the focus of Progressive Era reforms. Continue reading
-
Alter-Summit in Athens: A pseudo-left response to growing social opposition in Europe By Christoph Dreier
Last weekend, approximately 200 European trade unions, political NGOs (non-governmental organizations), charity groups, and feminist, environmentalist and pseudo-left groupings organized a so-called Alter-Summit in Athens. The meeting endorsed the institutions of the European Union (EU), with which union bureaucracies have worked closely in negotiating and approving austerity policies since the outbreak of the European debt… Continue reading
-
Alter Summit: A People’s Manifesto
The European oligarchy employs ever more authoritarian methods to prop up a failed neoliberal system – all this despite widespread protest and resistance. Democracy and peace are under threat. Discrimination, based on religion, racism, homophobia or sexism and nationalism are on the rise and the crisis is deepening daily. Continue reading
-
The Manifesto of the Mediterranean Meeting in Tunisia
1. For more than a quarter of a century, neoliberal capitalist globalization has extended its dominance over the entire planet. The processes launched have accelerated the commodization of the world in favour of a minority and have confiscated people’s citizenship and nations’ sovereignty. They are exacerbating economic insecurity and social inequality in the North and… Continue reading
-
Video: Privatizing Europe
Nick Buxton: A massive European fire sale is one way finance is using the crisis to entrench neo-liberalism (inc. transcript) Continue reading
-
Video: Study Debunking Austerity Research Sparks Wide Reaction
Bob Pollin (Co-Author of Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogoff): Deficit Hawks still defend conclusions of a study that contained spreadsheet errors and weighted selected countries in an inappropriate way; led to incorrect theory about public debt and growth (Inc. transcript). Continue reading
-
Statewatch News Online, 17 April 2012 (05/13)
17 April 2013 — Home page: http://www.statewatch.org/ • e-mail: office@statewatch.org 1. EU: Dublin III: Council of the European Union 2. EU: Agency for Fundamental Rights report: Fundamental rights at the EU’s southern sea borders3. EU: European Commission: Proposal for a Regulation for the surveillance of the external sea borders in the context of operational cooperation4. UK: Secret mission? UK “homeland security” Continue reading
-
“Let us glory in our inequality.” By Michael Hudson
As in Chile, privatization in Britain was a victory for Chicago monetarism. This time it was implemented democratically. In fact, voters endorsed Margaret Thatcher’s selloff of public industries so strongly that by 1991, when she was replaced as prime minister by her own party’s John Major, only 35 percent of Britain’s voters supported the Labour… Continue reading
-
Demise of Britain’s Welfare State: Largest ever Welfare Cuts. Millions of Families Affected By Paul Mitchell
For the next three years, most welfare benefits will be limited to just a 1 percent rise a year—well below the expected inflation rate and equivalent to a 4 percent cut in real terms. Other benefits have been frozen including Child Benefit and the Working Tax Credit available to low-paid workers. Over nine million families… Continue reading
-
CREATING AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION by Jiang Chunyun
As the old Chinese proverb goes, “To return a kindness with gratitude is a good deed, the act of an upright man; to treat a kindness with ingratitude is a bad deed, the act of a petty man.” These words, “good” and “bad,” “gratitude” and “ingratitude,” have long been the most fundamental criteria for judging… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 