Archive | Commentary

  • The Wall Street Coup and the Bailout Scam

    The “rescue” plan is not only fraudulent, it is also the wrong medicine for the ailing economy. The Wall Street took the US (and the world) hostage and extracted a heavy ransom.  But while the enormous ransom was successfully extracted, there are no guarantees that the hostages will be set free from the shackles of […]

  • The Financial Crisis of U.S. Capitalism

    The Will Miller Lecture, University of Vermont, October 28, 2008 Like many people who do not live around here, and maybe some who do, I had not heard of Will Miller, so, on being invited to be part of the Will Miller Social Justice Lecture series, I went to the organization’s Web site and learned […]

  • Can the Financial Crisis Be Reversed?

    Página/12: What is your opinion about the decision of the Treasury Department to consider taking ownership stakes in many United States banks?  Do you think this is the right political-economic strategy?  I mean, will it lead to the recovery of the system? JBF: The Treasury Department proposal to purchase majority shares in major U.S. banks […]

  • Real Economy

    To reassure myself completely, I visited my banker.   He welcomed me with his usual warmth.  “Your savings aren’t at risk at all,” he assured me in a firm voice, giving me a big pat on the back.  “Having lost 30% of their value since the 15th of September, your various assets add up to 69,990 […]

  • The Global Financial Crisis Has a Social Cause, Too: the World of Low Wages: An Interview with Emiliano Brancaccio

      Emiliano Brancaccio is a professor of labor economics at the University of Sannio, member of Rifondazione Comunista, and advisor to the largest union of Italian metalworkers FIOM-CGIL. You maintain that the financial crisis is not purely a technical financial phenomenon but has a social cause.  Why? The starting point is the weakness of the […]

  • Israeli Bestseller Breaks National Taboo: Idea of a Jewish People Invented, Says Historian

    No one is more surprised than Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel’s bestseller list — and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel’s biggest taboo. Dr. Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation — whose need for a safe haven […]

  • Financial Crisis Hits Mexico: Social Crisis on the Horizon?

    The international financial crisis that originated in mortgages and derivatives in the United States has spread to Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and Mexico will be significantly affected by the crisis.  Government, business leaders and analysts say that for Mexico the crisis means: Less foreign direct investment. A decreasing market for its exports. Lower prices […]

  • What Does the US Left Need? A Review of Left Turn

    In the minds of some, the name of Stanley Aronowitz — and Social Text and Situations, the two journals he is associated with — may immediately conjure up the specter of postmodernism.  But in Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future, he champions a number of ideas that go against the grain of all that […]

  • The Forgotten Fighter: Nablus’s Will to Live

    Many Palestinians that I met during my travels in the West Bank told me that to know what Palestine really was about and meant, I had to go to Nablus.  Most of them also told me that Nablus was their favourite city. After spending 5 weeks there this summer, I understand why. Arriving from Ramallah […]

  • Of Little Faith and Liberalism

    Lewis Black, Me of Little Faith, New York: Riverhead, 2008 Now even the stand-up comics are embracing godlessness.   First came the scientists, then the pundits, and now Lewis Black and his collection of autobiographical snapshots and pensées, Me of Little Faith.  In a country supposedly under the iron heel of the Christian Right, how heartening […]

  • Wall Street — Cold, Flat, and Broke

      “Dreamed about AIG and the stock market, woke up with the urge to stock up on canned goods and shotguns.” — Michele Catalano of Long Island, an angry blogger. The month of September was cruel for Wall Street.  Stormy winds blew away the venerable institutions of Wall Street and they collapsed one by one […]

  • “Africa COMMAND” Spells Colonialism

      For years, the U.S. never considered Africa as a priority foreign policy agenda.  The only context in which Africa came up in Washington was for preferential trade as in AGOA (Africa Growth & Opportunity Act) or in AIDS funding from PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and of course humanitarian assistance.  Despite its […]

  • Step Up to the Plate: Ending the Food Crisis

    When: World Food Day, Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 7 PM Where: Great Hall of Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th Street (at 3rd Ave.), New York City Cost: Free (suggested donation at the door) RSVP (encouraged): [email protected].  Seating is first come, first served. As U.S. food pantries face long lines and empty shelves while food […]

  • Where We Stand: Monthly Review and the Credit Crisis

    Sunday afternoon, October 5th, 2008, a moment at the height of a global credit crisis, the like of which has not been seen by anyone under the age of eighty.  The time will come when calm has returned, and when we at Monthly Review will point to a record over the last several years of […]

  • Why Japan Clings to the Declining Dollar

    Saori Katada* poses a most compelling question: why does Japan continue to denominate so much of its accumulated export earnings in dollars?  Katada frames the question slightly differently, asking why Japan has not moved from being a “supporter” of the dollar-denominated currency regime in East Asia to being a “challenger.”  But it’s essentially the same […]

  • In House’s Final Bailout Vote, Money from Finance Sector Sided with Bill’s Supporters

      House members voting for the bailout Friday have collected 41 percent more than opponents from the industries most eager for emergency aid.  Senate vote was similarly divided. WASHINGTON (Oct. 3, 2008) — Members of the House of Representatives who voted Friday afternoon in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 had received […]

  • Tax the Rich to Pay for the Bailout

    The Senate approved a $700 billion Wall Street bailout on 1 October 2008.  The House voted for it on 3 October.  Senator Bernie Sanders voted against the bill.  Sanders proposed a five-year, 10 percent surtax on families with incomes of more than $1 million year and individuals earning over $500,00 to raise $300 billion to […]

  • Argentina: The Crisis That Isn’t

    In recent weeks there have been numerous press reports and articles indicating that Argentina is facing serious economic problems that could lead to a default on its sovereign debt.  Some of these analyses compare Argentina’s current situation to that of 2001, when the government of Argentina did actually default.1 It is not only journalists and […]

  • Bolivia: Defeat of the Right

    In the amazing series of elections in South America in the last five years, the most radical results were in Bolivia, with the election of Evo Morales as President.  It is not because Morales stood on the most radical platform.  It was rather that, in this country in which the majority of the population are […]

  • A Primer on Wall Street Meltdown

    Flying into New York Tuesday, I had the same feeling I had when I arrived in Beirut two years ago, at the height of the Israeli bombing of that city — that of entering a war zone. The immigration agent, upon learning I taught political economy, commented, “Well, I guess you folks will now be […]