Archive | Commentary

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 […]

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

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

  “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  

  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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

Depending on the poll one consults, anywhere from 54 percent to 61 percent, and as many as 68 percent of Americans, oppose the building of an Islamic community center two blocks from “Ground Zero,” the site of the World Trade Center.  Polls, of course, are notoriously inaccurate measures of public opinion.  Depending on the framing […]

The howls of surprised economists were everywhere last week as the government reported on Tuesday that July had the sharpest single-month plunge in existing home sales on record.  The next day the Commerce Department reported that new home sales hit a post-war low in July. All the economists who had told us that the housing […]

Veterans for Peace president Mike Ferner responds to President Obama’s rebranded occupation of Iraq. A veteran’s perspective makes it clear that two major points must be made in response to President Obama’s announcement regarding combat troops leaving Iraq. First, there is no such thing as “non-combat troops.”  It is a contradiction in terms.  It is […]

Last Thursday and Friday (August 26-27), police and military violently repressed public school teachers who have taken to the streets for almost 3 weeks to demand, amongst other things, that the Pepe Lobo regime return 4 billion lempiras (or some 200 million dollars) that were taken from the National Institute of IMPREMA, an institution that […]

The New York Times told readers that the Fed’s ability to take steps to boost the economy are limited because: The dramatic expansion of the national debt — which began in the Bush administration, via hefty tax cuts and two wars — has ratcheted up fears that, one day, creditors like China and Japan might […]

Adel Yaraghi is an Iranian filmmaker. | Print

The biggest economic question facing Brazil, as for most developing countries, is when it will achieve its potential economic growth.  For Brazil, there is a simple, most relevant comparison: its pre-1980 — or pre-neoliberal — past. From 1960-1980, income per person — the most basic measure that economists have of economic progress — in Brazil […]