Subjects Archives: Global Economic Crisis

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • The United States and the World: Where Are We Headed?

    This paper was presented at the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation and the International Relations Research Institute’s (IPRI) “Seminar on the United States” hosted by the Itamaraty Palace (Brazilian Foreign Ministry) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 29, 2008. Introduction The United States appears to be embarking on a transition on two major fronts: its […]

  • Simple Solution to a Financial Crisis

      Seeing how the Democrats seem incapable of figuring out the boondoggle Bernake and Paulson are in the process of engineering, I thought I might outline a modest proposal for a fair resolution to the present financial crisis. Buy two trillion dollar toxic sub-prime at 40 cents on the dollar; disaggregate, repackage and sell back […]

  • An Alternative Bailout Plan

    Instead of giving a couple trillion dollars to the financial institutions, how about instituting a financial holiday — something like what FDR did — and using the trillions of dollars to create infrastructure and affordable housing? We could also raise some more money by ending the wars and cutting back military spending. Some of the […]

  • The Financial Crisis: Will the U.S. Nationalize the Banks?

    The political conflict over the Bush administration’s plan for a bailout of the banks, brought about both by differences with the Democrats and even more intensely with rightwing Republicans, makes it highly unlikely that Congress will be able to pass a bailout plan that can stabilize the financial situation along the lines that Secretary of […]

  • The $700 Billion Bailout Plan’s Fine Print

      Treasury Sec. Hank Paulson’s $700 billion bailout plan now has a name: the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.  But even as Capitol Hill debates TARP, few seem to have noticed the proposal item that puts taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts.  It’s in Section 6, and the key phrase is this: “The […]

  • The Financial Crisis: A View from the Left

    Faced with the failure of the financial sector and the possible collapse of the economic system, Republicans and Democrats are working together feverishly to come up with a plan and find the funds to save the American financial system.  The Congress that has been unable to provide adequate funding to health, education, housing, public transportation, […]

  • Third World: Is Another Debt Crisis in the Offing?

    While taking a significant toll on public revenues,1 repayment of the public debt has, since 2004, ceased to be a major concern for most middle-revenue countries and for raw material-exporting countries in general.  In fact the majority of governments of these countries are having no trouble finding loans at historically low interest rates.  However, the […]

  • The Current Situation of the United States Economy

    A Briefing to the Vietnamese Central Committee Delegation, September 11, 2008 The economic situation of the United States today is widely understood to be the most serious since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and not only for this country.  So far the actions by the government have been inadequate, late, and do not address […]

  • Slavoj Zizek in Defense of “Lost Causes”

    Leftist intellectuals basically fall into two camps.  There are those who believe that the challenge we face is the existence of certain structures (the IMF, the US, the media, capitalism, etc.) and that avidly denouncing these structures is the key to our liberation.  And then there are the more interesting intellectuals who insist that at […]

  • No Human Being Is Illegal

    In April 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant rights protestors marched in cities across the United States.  They countered prolonged debates about the pros and cons of comprehensive immigration reform with a short but sweet affirmation, scrawled on placards: “No Human Being Is Illegal.”  Their direct assertion challenged the deeply entrenched practices of our government […]

  • Interview with Prof. Jose Maria Sison: On His Current Status, People’s War, and Peace NegotiationsPart II

    People’s War in the Philippines Q1: The Arroyo regime has vowed to destroy or reduce the CPP, the NPA, and the NDFP to an inconsequential level before she steps down in 2010.  Is this possible?  Prof. Jose Maria Sison before a painting of the people’s war in the Philippines at the NDF Information Bureau in […]

  • The Current Financial Crisis and the Future of Global Capitalism

    Prophecies of Downfall The fact that Marx finally began with the composition of his long-planned economic work in the winter of 1857/1858 was directly occasioned by the economic crisis that broke out in the autumn of 1857 and the concomitant expectations of a deep trauma from which capitalism would no longer recover.  “I am working […]

  • Global Economic Crisis: Interview with John Bellamy Foster

    The current global financial crisis is said to originate with a few dodgy “sub-prime” mortgages made by US banks to poor people. Yes, the financial crisis that began in late 2007 is associated with the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market.  But that is just one aspect of a much larger financial crisis and that […]