growth
-
CAPITALISM COULD COST US THE EARTH!
Capitalism, society’s first industrial society, has economically raped this planet in order to maximise profit. Capitalism only recognises costs when they are paid for. Anything which reduces paid costs improves profit margin. One way to reduce cost price is to dump or pump pollution into the planet’s digestive tract, which is free, and hope it… Continue reading
-
The Debtor’s War: A Modern Greek Tragedy By Andrew Gavin Marshall
Early on Thursday, 7 November 2013, Greek riot police stormed the offices of Greece’s main public broadcaster, which had been under a five-month occupation by workers who opposed the government’s decision to shut down the broadcaster, firing thousands and destroying a major cultural institution. The broadcast seems to have come to an end. Continue reading
-
A Brave New Transatlantic Partnership: The Social and Environmental Consequences of the Proposed EU-US Trade Deal
As the second round of negotiations on the EU-US trade agreement kick off in Brussels next week, a new report published by members of the Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B), including CEO, reveals the true human and environmental costs of the proposed deal. Continue reading
-
‘Globesity’: US junk food industry tips global scales
The newly released United Nations report on global nutrition does not make for very appetizing reading: Amid an already floundering global economy, the reality of a fattening planet is dragging down world productivity rates while increasing health insurance costs to the tune of $3.5 trillion dollars per year – or 5 percent of global gross… Continue reading
-
Fracking and the Shale Gas “Revolution” By Igor Alexeev
Many US shale companies that have been beating the drums of shale “revolution” are now facing oil and gas well depletion. In February 2013 the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) warned that “diminishing returns to scale and the depletion of high productivity sweet spots are expected to eventually slow the rate of growth in tight… 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
-
Your medical data – on sale for a pound By Phil Booth
The government’s announcement today that private companies are to be given access to patient data for the princely sum of £1, is just the latest attack on the principles of patient confidentiality in the interests of commerce. Continue reading
-
The Challenge of Sustainable Development and the Culture of Substantive Equality By István Mészáros
Two closely connected propositions are at the center of this intervention: If development in the future is not sustainable development, there will be no significant development at all, no matter how badly needed; only frustrated attempts to square the circle, as in the last few decades, marked by ever more elusive “modernizing” theories and practices,… 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
-
Video: Portugal’s Architect of Austerity Resigns After Nationwide Protests
President Silva’s austerity policies made Portugal a darling of the troika, but highly unpopular at home (inc. transcript) Continue reading
-
Video: Portugal's Architect of Austerity Resigns After Nationwide Protests
President Silva’s austerity policies made Portugal a darling of the troika, but highly unpopular at home (inc. transcript) Continue reading
-
Workers in Britain suffer the greatest fall in wages since the 1930s By Robert Stevens
The UK is experiencing the deepest and most protracted economic downturn in a century. The decline in wages is even greater than that resulting from the Great Depression of the 1930s. Continue reading
-
Authoritarian Neoliberalism Hits a Wall in Turkey By Özlem Onaran
The obvious injustice and police brutality in Gezi Park was the last drop in a long process of accumulation of discontent against an authoritarian government, their social policies pushing for a conservative Islamic life style threatening in particular women and youth, criminalization and imprisoning of oppositional groups ranging from seculars to Kurds, socialists, and trade… Continue reading
-
The Finance Curse: Introduction By Dan Hind
It is now well known that many countries which depend on earnings from natural resources like oil have failed to harness them for national development. In many cases it seems even worse than that: for all the hundreds of billions of dollars sloshing into countries like oil-rich Nigeria, for instance, such places seem to suffer… 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
-
Thatcher’s Record: It’s All Smoke and Mirrors By Tim Holmes
Beneath the tide of stirring political rhetoric, it is worth taking a careful look at the woman’s true record in and out of office. What follows is an attempt to shed light on several key areas of that record. Continue reading
-
The actuality of a successful capitalist offensive By Richard Seymour
We’ve been waiting five years for a coherent left-wing response to the recession. We’ve been waiting three years for a coherent left-wing response to the cuts. Two years ago, I was asked at a talk how we could communicate the socialist solution to the crisis; I said it would be nice if we had one.… Continue reading
-
Reducing production: How should socialists relate to struggles against capitalist growth By Don Fitz
The question is not should we advocate reducing production within capitalist society but rather: How do we best relate to those struggles that are already occurring? Activists across the globe are challenging the uncontrollable dynamic of economic expansion which threatens the survival of humanity. It has never been more urgent to provide a vision of… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 