Archive | Commentary

The Case-Shiller 20-City index rose by 1.1 percent in May, its second consecutive increase.  Prices rose in 19 of the 20 cities, with Las Vegas being the only city with a price decline. Minneapolis had the sharpest jump in prices, with prices rising 2.8 percent in May.  This is the second consecutive monthly increase after […]

Uncle Sam: “Israel!  You need to come and give me a little hand. . . .” Tomás Rafael Rodríguez Zayas (Tomy) is a Cuban cartoonist.   This cartoon was published in Cambios en Cuba on 29 July 2010.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print

Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 30 July 2010.  | Print

Mohammad Shirvani, born in Tehran in 1973, is a filmmaker.  See, also, Mohammad Shirvani, “Iranian Conserve.” | Print

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said earlier this week that the Islamic Republic is prepared to stop enriching uranium to the nearly-20 percent level required to fabricate fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR), if others agree to provide new, finished fuel for the TRR, in line with the Joint Declaration that Iran negotiated with […]

Where is this elusive recovery?  The banks, some say, have “recovered.”  Yet they remain dependent on Washington, they do not make the loans needed for a general recovery, and many medium and small banks keep collapsing.  The stock market shows no recovery.  The Dow index was 14,000 in late 2007 when capitalism hit the fan, […]

  To suppress the most articulate voice of the Indian revolutionary movement, the state indulged in the brutal assassination of Cherukuri Rajkumar, popularly known as Azad, spokesperson of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), along with freelance journalist Hemchandra Pandey, on July 2.  Azad was supposed to meet a courier at Sitabardi in Nagpur, Maharashtra […]

  Sukina Abdul Noor and Muneera Rashida, born in Bristol and based in London, are the hip-hop duo Poetic Pilgrimage.  For more information about Poetic Pilgrimage, visit <www.myspace.com/poeticpilgrimage>. | Print  

  Arash Khakpour and Arash Radkia are filmmakers based in Tehran, Iran.  For more information, visit <www.tehran-zoo.com>. | Print  

In March I wrote about the Obama Administration’s contribution to the election campaign under way in Venezuela, where voters will choose a new National Assembly in September.  I predicted that certain things would happen before September, among them some new “discoveries” that Venezuela supports terrorism.  Venezuela has had thirteen elections or referenda since Hugo Chávez […]

Amir Sulaiman is a poet based in Rochester, New York.  This poem was performed at the University of London during the Dangerous Ideas Tour (2008).  For more information about Sulaiman, visit .  See, also, Jordan Flaherty, “Manifest Liberation” (Al-Awda Newspaper, August/September 2005). | Print

The Colombian government thanks Uncle Sam: “Thank you for helping me tighten the ties of friendship that unite the neighboring countries.” Tomás Rafael Rodríguez Zayas (Tomy) is a Cuban cartoonist.   This cartoon was published in Cambios en Cuba on 26 July 2010.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  See, also, Mark […]

Tens of thousands of people in Egypt — Africa’s second most populous country — have taken to the streets in recent months to protest against water shortages, a fact which goes some way to explaining the government’s reluctance to relinquish its current share of River Nile water. On 26 July, 600 people from the southern […]

  Excerpt: [T]he conventional growth accounting based on the national income identity does not provide an adequate framework for assessing the contribution of components of demand to growth.  The standard exports/GDP ratio overestimates the income (value-added) generated by exports because it ignores the foreign (import) contents of exports, which tend to be particularly high in […]

Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 27 July 2010.  Cf. Hugh Bronstein, “Colombia Taking Venezuela Rebel Accusation to OAS” (Reuters, 17 July 2010); “Chávez advierte que EE.UU. está detrás de acusaciones […]

Artavazd Peleshian, born in 1938, is an Armenian filmmaker.  USSR: Yerevan Film Studio, 1982.  Cf. “One of the central motifs is the rhythm of the 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 countdown that leads up to the launch of the rockets.  Often, this rhythm dissolves into the sound of a heartbeat.  […]

  Financial crises and uncertainty go hand in hand; some make sacrifices and others plan on having to.  But how many countries stricken by the global crisis actually feel existentially threatened? Iceland does.  Since the start of the kreppa (“catastrophe” in Icelandic) in the fall of 2008, the small island nation of 320,000 has had […]

Politics, a blind piper, is followed by Economy, followed by the Media, followed by those who follow the Media. . . . Fahd Bahady is a Syrian cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in his blog on 13 July 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  The text above is an interpretation of the […]

  Excerpt: Importantly, the initial collapse and following standstill in economic activity and nominal levels of GDP is also extremely bad news for the strategy of fiscal consolidation itself.  On the one hand, to keep on servicing interest payments (see above), nominal debt will continue to go up.  On the other hand, nominal GDP goes […]

DKK: Joan, because people know you as many things — as a theorist of gender, as a cultural historian, as an inveterate advocate for academic freedom and defender of the rights of the professoriate — I’m curious how you would describe yourself to someone who had never met Joan Scott. JWS: That’s really hard . […]