Archive | Commentary

Introduction Recently governments, economists, and international financial institutions have been debating the merits of further fiscal stimulus to combat the Great Recession versus fiscal austerity or “adjustment” — that is, higher taxes and/or lower government spending — to combat budget deficits.  Some supporters of austerity have gone as far as arguing that fiscal adjustment could […]

  Esteban: Hello, this Tuesday’s action is a symbolic last-ditch stand, isn’t it? Olivier Besancenot: No!  It’s another stage toward the general strike which is beginning to happen.  On Tuesday night, strikes will be renewed, and there will be new demonstrations, as well as numerous blockades.  The question posed now is about blocking the economy […]

Some 8,000 people marched through Tel Aviv to the Ministry of Defense on 16 October 2010, in protest against the racist laws being promoted by the Israeli government and the Israeli security forces’ population transfer exercises. A long list of organizations, movements, and political parties participated in the demonstration, including the Hadash Party, Hithabrut-Tarabut, and […]

Doug Minkler is a poster maker in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Minkler’s Web site is .  For more information about the Sit/Lie ordinance in San Francisco, visit ; ; . | Print

Dietrich Wagner, 66, blinded by police, Stuttgart, 30.09.10 A retired engineer of 66 loses an eye, forced from its socket by water cannon at short range.  High school kids in an approved protest demonstration get beaten and excruciatingly blinded by pepper gas.  Over 400 people are injured in a major police attack, which failed completely […]

  Is the United States at long last getting serious about global imbalances, or are we risking currency wars that can end in unmitigated disaster for all?  No one knows, though tension is on the rise with China.  This much is certain: Any advantage from a lower currency is a zero-sum gain for the world […]

  Houses on the Moon Zombie Banker Blues Roscommon Death Trip Eamonn Crudden is an Irish filmmaker.  See, also, “A Curse on the Zombie Establishment: An Interview with Filmmaker Eamonn Crudden” (MediaBite, 23 September 2010). | Print  

When the Crash of 2008 hit Wall Street, European capitalism was thrown into disarray.  With the demise of the export-absorbing monster that was the US consumer market, what in 2003 Joseph Halevi and I called “The Global Minotaur” (see Monthly Review, Vol. 55), Europe not only lost a critical source of aggregate demand but also […]

After the Band TV debate on 10 October 2010. . . . Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  Cf. “Datafolha: Dilma lidera e vencerá o segundo turno” (9 October 2010); “Vox Populi: Dilma tem 54,5% dos votos válidos” (13 October 2010); “CNT/Sensus: Dilma vence com 52,3% […]

From the bottom of my urban project Deep into your countryside The reality has changed And the revolt is brewing everywhere In this world there was no place for us We didn’t look the part We were not to the manor born Not on daddy’s plastic The homeless, the unemployed, workers Farmers, immigrants, the undocumented […]

  The Venezuelan foreign minister characterizes as insolent the statement of the US State Department spokesperson who said that the US will closely watch Russia’s agreement to build a nuclear power plant in Venezuela.  The United States has no moral high ground to stand on, since the US is using nuclear energy for military purposes. […]

  For colored boys I will crucify myself like Christ let my blood purify and sanctify these words create a doctrine and go knocking door to door letting the people know that messiahs are here that we are messengers even though we embody the word queer that we are a reminder of how colonization has […]

After a high-level meeting of the Russian and Venezuelan delegations, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed this Friday a series of strategic agreements, including an agreement to build the first nuclear power plant in Venezuela. The agreement, which had been negotiated during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to Caracas last April, […]

Pedro Méndez Suárez is a Cuban cartoonist.  This cartoon was published in Rebelión on 16 October 2010. | Print

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.1 percent in September as consumer energy price inflation slowed to 0.7 percent after gains of 2.6 and 2.3 percent in July and August.  Overall prices have grown at a 2.7 percent annualized rate over the last three months.  The core CPI remained unchanged over the month and has now […]

The Mine The Miners Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  This cartoon was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 15 October 2010.  Cf. “In fact, the 33 miners over whom the media have swarmed paradoxically remain voiceless.  Neither they […]

A Nobel Prize for an armed hand of bourgeois culture Allan McDonald is a Honduran cartoonist.  This cartoon was first published in Rebelión on 14 October 2010.  Cf. “The Spanish liberal media explain the Honduran military coup using the same argument used by the perpetrators of the coup in Honduras: that is to say, it […]

In France, millions march against the Sarkozy plan to push the age of eligibility for full retirement benefits from 65 to 67.  “We can no longer afford” to pay for workers’ retirements at age 65, Sarkozy says.  Similarly, rumors swirl in Washington and beyond that Obama’s special Deficit Reduction Commission is tilting toward similar changes […]

Bettencourt has supplied the pot . . . let’s turn on the heat! Karak is a cartoonist based in Montpellier, France, who blogs at .  This cartoon was published in his blog on 24 September 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).  Cf. “President […]

By the greater use of compulsory licenses, Brazil could lower drug costs not only in Brazil, but in developing countries overall.  At a time when the New York Times is reporting that “the global battle against AIDS is falling apart for lack of money,” it is absolutely essential that the price of lifesaving medicines in […]