Archive | September, 2010

  • Update on the Venezuelan Economy

    Executive Summary: After nearly six years of record economic growth, the Venezuelan economy went into recession in the first quarter of 2009, shrinking by 3.3 percent that year.  A number of analysts see this as the end of an “oil boom” and the beginning of a long period of recession and stagnation. For example, in […]

  • Hooman Majd on Normal Politics in Iran

    Hooman Majd had another interesting piece in Foreign Policy.  His article does something that is very necessary, but which we’ve not had an opportunity to do properly over the past couple of weeks — to take on the stream of recent Western commentary arguing that the Islamic Republic is “unraveling under the weight of economic […]

  • Quds Day Demonstrations in Iran

      “Zionism has nothing to do with the teachings of Judaism.  Zionism is a political ideology and quite different from Judaism.  Therefore we as Jewish people condemn Zionists.” — Rahmatollah Rafiei, head of the Jewish community in Iran This video was released by Press TV on 3 September 2010. | Print  

  • Multidimensional Poverty in India

    If government sources — and the World Bank — are to be believed, poverty in India has declined significantly in the past two decades.  Even as newer assessments of income poverty emerge (as with the Report of the Tendulkar Committee on Poverty Estimates) that raise the proportion of people below the poverty line, it is […]

  • Mexican Community Theater: A Different View of Immigration

    In a small, crowded theater in New York’s West Village the night of August 8, a group of thirty indigenous women from central Mexico finally got a chance to perform their play before a U.S. audience. The cast, members of the community group Soame Citlalime (“Women of the Star” in Náhuatl), had spent the past […]

  • Prosperity or Plunder? Nigeria Slipping at an Oily Crossroads

    “Disaster” doesn’t begin to describe the troubled oil scene in Nigeria.  Last June, in the immediate wake of the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the New York Times ran an article exposing a crisis in Nigeria that should have been capable of piquing the conscience of even the most hardened oil barons.  It […]

  • Seven Key Facts about Social Security and the Federal Budget

    Over the summer there has been a hot debate about Social Security and the federal budget, especially in relation to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  It is reasonable to expect that the major players in this debate will do their homework about the issues under consideration.  In order to help them in […]

  • Obama’s Guantanamo

    Obama brings “change” to Guantanamo Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in his blog on 29 August 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  The text above is an interpretation of the cartoon by Yoshie Furuhashi. | Print

  • Report on UNCTAD Assistance to the Palestinian People: Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory

      Highlights: 2010: Palestinian economy far from recovery The Palestinian economy held back by: The enduring cost of Israeli military operation in Gaza The closure policy in the West Bank The siege of Gaza A weakened tradable goods sector and an eroded productive base are at the heart of the Palestinian development bottleneck. Rehabilitation of […]

  • Christianity Is Socialism

      “God is not angry.  He is pleased with the revolution.” Produced by TatuyTv, a community media collective based in Mérida, Venezuela, in August 2010.  For more information about TatuyTv, visit <www.tatuytelevision.blogspot.com>. | Print  

  • What Does Increased Palestinian Political Repression Say about the Prospects for Peace?

    In the late 1980s, Robert Putnam‘s argument about multi-level games in international bargaining kicked off a rich debate over domestic constraints.  The thesis, in essence, is that interlocutors in bargaining may choose to lend extra power to political opponents to argue that domestic constraints tie their hands and prevent them from making concessions beyond a […]

  • Capitalism and the State

    DIE LINKE (the Left Party) has initiated a debate on its draft party program, which it wishes to officially adopt in Autumn 2011.  Neues Deutschland is joining this debate with a series of articles.  In the Neues Deutschland article published on 9 August 2010, Michael Heinrich tackles the issue of the relationship between capital and […]

  • A Would-Be Paul Revere in Germany: “The Muslims Are Coming!”

    The “mosque menace” is not confined to Lower Manhattan or the USA.  In many European countries similar alarms are sounded, usually in tones recalling Paul Revere: “The Muslims are coming!”  Although according to Sarkozy in France, Berlusconi in Italy, and the militarized neo-fascist Jobbik party in Hungary the danger is more from the Roma people […]

  • This Labor Day, Let’s Salute All Union Stewards — and Their Cutting Edge in California

    The real heroes of what’s left of the labor movement are not people with full-time union jobs, union-furnished cars and credit cards, and union benefits that dues-paying members don’t get anymore.  It’s the men and women who take time out from their regular jobs, under the baleful eye of their boss, to be shop stewards. […]

  • Southern Sudan at Odds with Itself?

    A new research report into local violent conflicts within southern Sudan, Southern Sudan at Odds with Itself: Dynamics of Conflict and Predicaments of Peace, provides insights into the processes generating and sustaining conflicts.  It debunks some important assumptions.  The research team was headed by Mareike Schomerus and Tim Allen, based at the LSE, commissioned through […]

  • Making Wall Street Unhappy Won’t Reduce Private Investment

    Mr. Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times noted Wall Street’s shift of funding to Republicans and told readers that: “Mr. Loeb’s views, irrespective of their validity, point to a bigger problem for the economy: If business leaders have a such a distrust of government, they won’t invest in the country.  And perception is […]