See, also, Hajir Palaschi, “Interview with Shahla Lahiji on Women’s Presence in the Labor Market: No Vocation Must Be Prohibited for Women,” Trans. Yoshie Furuhashi, MRZine, 18 February 2008. The Iranian Revolution and its aftermath have generated many debates, one of which pertains to the effects on women’s labor force participation and employment patterns. For […]
Geography Archives: Americas
South America, Central America, United States & Canada
Interview of John Bellamy Foster on The Great Financial Crisis
John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, recently published by Monthly Review Press. MW: Do you think that the American people have been misled into believing that the current financial […]
How Should Venezuela Face the Coming Recession?
How Should Venezuela Face the Coming Recession? Presently much of the industrialized world is in a severe economic recession. The United States, Europe, and Japan are definitely in one and other important countries such as China are close to being in one. So far most South American countries have not entered into a recession. […]
Iran: Poverty and Inequality since the Revolution
Thirty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed equity and social justice as the Revolution’s main objective. His successor, Ayatollah Khamene’i, continues to refer to social justice as the Revolution’s defining theme. Similarly, Presidents Khatami and Ahmadinejad, though they are from very different political persuasions, placed heavy emphasis on social justice in their political rhetoric. Yet the […]
Lawfare in Gaza: Legislative Attack
If, therefore, a conclusion can be drawn from military violence it is that . . . there is a lawmaking character inherent in it. — Walter Benjamin The scale of Israel’s twenty-two-day attack on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009 — which killed 1,300 people and damaged or destroyed about 15% of all its buildings […]
We Are at the Beginning of a Long, Profound, Painful Process of Change
Statement by James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, jr., Chair in Government/Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin and Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute, before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearings on the Conduct of Monetary Policy, February 26, 2009. Mr. Chairman and […]
The Asian Face of the Global Recession
Delegates to the World Economic Forum at Davos this year came despondent and left in despair. Both the discussions and the new evidence released at and during the Forum indicated that the global crisis was not just bad, but worse than originally anticipated. One damaging projection came from the IMF in its January 2009 Update […]
The Wealth of the Baby Boom Cohorts after the Collapse of the Housing Bubble
Executive Summary This paper makes projections of wealth for 2009 for the baby boom cohorts (ages 45 to 54 and ages 55-64) using data from the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finance. It updates an earlier paper on this topic from June of 2008 using projections for housing and stock values that are more plausible given […]
Michael Steele Is a Nitwit and Wolf Blitzer Is a Jackass
Economic ignorance is widespread in the United States. People think they know something about the subject, but few do. My mother is convinced that China is the cause of all our economic problems. When I challenge her, she doesn’t think it matters that I have spent forty years studying and teaching the dismal science. […]
President Richard Durst, Can You Eat Three Meals a Day and Do Your Laundry on Our Budget?
Our Plan of Action: Communique #2 We, the Baldwin-Wallace Food Justice Council, have had our first meeting and discussed the strategy and tactics we plan on using in combating the insanity and greed of the college administration’s food policies. We then declared the following: we will be circulating a petition among the student body. […]
Latin America Faces the Global Crisis
It is true that banks are less leveraged, but the outflow of capital is intensifying. Internationalized industry is hit by global overproduction, and lower prices of raw materials depress growth. Moreover, attempts at stimulation collide with reduced resources from the central economies. Those who expect geopolitical benefits to follow from the crisis forget that the […]
Dignified Rage, Internally Displaced People, and “Buying Consciences”
A delightful surprise awaited us as the 3rd phase of Digna Rabia (Dignified Rage) began on January 2nd. Philosophers, writers, activist organizations, journalists, musicians, and the EZLN participated in panels, all addressing the general theme of Otro Mundo, otra política (Another world, another politics). Several thousand packed the CIDECI auditorium to overflowing and managed to […]
Statement of Binyam Mohamed
23.02.2009 I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain. Please forgive me if I make a simple statement through my lawyer. I hope to be able to do better in days […]
Mexico Unconquered: Reviewing a People’s History of Power and Revolt
John Gibler, Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt, 356 Pages, City Lights Publishers (January, 2009). Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, calls Mexico home, as do millions of impoverished citizens. From Spanish colonization to today’s state and corporate repression, Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt, by John Gibler, is written from […]
Those Alternative Socialist “Stimulus” Plans
There are, of course, other ways to “support and stimulate” the declining US economy: those that congressional debaters, presidential advisors, and the dutiful media never discuss. All the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury ever do is justify their functions as lenders and spenders “of last resort” (when the private sector will not). Neither ever […]
A Jewish Glasnost
Winning the “hearts and minds” of the civilian population, according to counterinsurgency field manuals, is key to defeating the resistance. It is a lesson that imperialists learned a long time ago, but one that they seldom put into practice, let alone successfully impart to their clients. Israel’s attack on Gaza is a case in point. […]
Back to the Future: Latin America’s Current Development Strategy
The text below is composed of short excerpts (abstract, introduction, conclusion) from Esteban Pérez Caldentey and Matías Vernengo, “Back to the Future: Latin America’s Current Development Strategy,” International Development Economics Associates Working Paper No. 07/2008. The full text of “Back to the Future” is available (in PDF) at <networkideas.org/working/dec2008/07_2008.pdf>. — Ed.
April Delegation to Venezuela: Human Rights, Food Sovereignty, and Social Change
The Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of New York invites you to join us in April for a 10-day trip to Venezuela examining advances in food sovereignty and other initiatives for social change. Start off in the capital city of Caracas, then travel to four additional states, including visits to newly formed cooperative farms and rural […]
Who’s Telling the Truth About Iran’s Nuclear Program?
Since February 2003, Iran’s nuclear program has undergone what the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) itself admits to be the most intrusive inspection in its entire history. After thousands of hours of inspections by some of the most experienced IAEA experts, the Agency has verified time and again that (1) there is no evidence […]
A Camp Follower Who Aims to Please: How Anthony Cordesman Proved That Israel Fought a Clean War
Anthony H. Cordesman, a leading military analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published a “strategic analysis” of the Gaza massacre shortly after it ended. He reaches the remarkable conclusion that “Israel did not violate the laws of war.” The report is based on “briefings in Israeli [sic] during and immediately after the […]
