Occupy Eugene rally, 15 October 2011 We are here as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which in a few short weeks has become a global movement in hundreds of cities around the world. We are part of the 99 percent not only in this country but the world. I have been reading the […]
Subjects Archives: Political Economy
Iran’s Massive Banking Scandal
What’s the origin of the Islamic Republic’s biggest banking scandal? The financial conglomerate Amir Mansour Arya Investment Development Company allegedly procured several letters of credit from domestic banks totaling $2.8 billion — far above the company’s available collateral. The Arya Group, founded by Amir Mansour Khosravi and now controlled by his son Mah-Afarid, controlled around […]
Message of Support to Workers in Greece on the Eve of the 48-hour General Strike
We follow the struggle of the class-oriented labour movement in Greece. The struggle of PAME constitutes an integral part of our own struggle. We express our solidarity with the strike of 48 hours, in this battle and struggle against the barbaric measures that are being promoted in Greece, such as the abolition of collective agreements, […]
Europe in Crisis: Interview with Yanis Varoufakis
“My experience of the last year and half during the acceleration of this crisis is that the worst enemy of reason and progress are social democratic parties. I say this painfully. There’s no glee in this statement.” — Yanis Varoufakis The Mess We’re In . . . The Future of Greece A Solution to […]
Production Begins on Empire’s New Script “Iranian Conspiracy”
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Understanding the Capitalist Economic Crisis
John Bellamy Foster: Economic crises are functional to the system in that a crisis helps capital readjust its imbalances, disproportions, as Marxian theories often say, and it sets the basis for a renewed period of expansion. So, regular business-cycle crises . . . help the system. . . . But, in addition to cycles . […]
KAFCA (Knowledge Against Financial Capitalism) No. 02: #15O
The Knowledge Liberation Front proposes bankruptcy and basic income as “knowledge against financial capitalism.” But does this proposal not actually serve as knowledge for financial capitalism: i.e., Bankruptcy + Basic Income = Social Democracy under the Neoliberal Regime of Accumulation? An example of how the Left, not the Right, innovates capitalism? — Ed. See, also, […]
Capitalism and Poverty
The US Census Bureau recently reported what most Americans already knew. Poverty is deepening. The gap between rich and poor is growing. Slippage soon into the ranks of the poor now confronts tens of millions of Americans who long thought of themselves as securely “middle class.” The reality is worse than the Census Bureau reports. […]
European Conference Declaration
After a day of intensive debate, analysis and planning for cooperation and action, the Europe against Austerity Conference heard Coalition of Resistance Secretary Andrew Burgin propose the following Declaration, on behalf of the European Preparatory Committee. The Declaration was unanimously endorsed by the Conference which was attended by over 600 people: This European conference […]
Living on the Edge: Economic Insecurity
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) has released not one, but two, major research reports today. Both analyze rising economic insecurity and draw on the findings from a large survey commissioned by IWPR and the Rockefeller Foundation in the fall of 2010. The first report “Women and Men Living on the Edge: Economic Insecurity […]
Class Warfare Indeed
Over the last two decades or more, Republicans have been denouncing as “class warfare” any attempt at criticizing and restraining their mean one-sided system of capitalist financial expropriation. The moneyed class in this country has been doing class warfare on our heads and on those who came before us for more than two centuries. But […]
Martial Law in Haiti
The methods of the United States in colonized Latin America have not changed. They cannot change. Violence is not used in countries under Yankee administration just by accident. Three events during the past five years underscore the increasing martial tendency of U.S. policy in these countries: the intervention in Panama against a strike, the […]
The Manufactured “Financial Crisis” of the U.S. Postal Service
September 21, 2011 Senator Joseph Lieberman Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee United States Senate SH-706 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510-0703 Congressman Darrell Issa Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee House of Representatives 2347 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-0549 If the U.S. Postal Service were forced […]
The Machinery of Hopelessness
Excerpt: For at least 5,000 years, before capitalism even existed, popular movements have tended to center on struggles over debt. There is a reason for this. Debt is the most efficient means ever created to make relations fundamentally based on violence and inequality seem morally upright. When this trick no longer works everything explodes, […]
Brazil’s “Independent” Central Bank: Independent from Whom?
In recent days the press has reported that President Dilma Rouseff has denied having tried to influence the Brazilian central bank to lower short-term interest rates, as the bank did on August 31 from 12.5 to 12.0 percent. The fact that she would feel obligated to make such a statement shows that there is a […]
Brazil’s “Wall Street” Problem
Brazil’s economy is slowing, but the government is increasing its primary surplus by cutting spending, which could slow the economy more. In June, industrial production fell by 1.6 percent, and economic activity fell for the first time since 2008. Although monthly figures are erratic and don’t necessarily indicate any trend, the overall picture raises questions […]
Two Decades of Neo-Liberal Reforms in India: The Worsening Employment Situation
Two decades after neo-liberal economic reforms started in India as part of the agenda of imperialist globalisation, the condition of the masses of the labouring poor is worse in every part of the country except where some positive intervention has taken place to stabilise livelihoods. The richest minority at the top of the income pyramid […]
Fred Magdoff on What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism
What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism is a short, accessible introduction to the ecological crisis that is intended for a wide audience — why did you decide to write a book like this, and why now? In the fall of 2008 I attended a conference where discussion of the environment was prominent, although […]
Deficits, Debts, and Deepening Crisis
Standard and Poor’s downgrades US debt, stock markets gyrate around the world, Sarkozy and Merkel perform yet another empty summit, the Chinese and Japanese economies look worrisome. Serious commentators worry about global recession, another global banking collapse, eurozone dissolution, and austerity programs that only make matters worse. Nouriel Roubini, famed Professor at NYU’s Stern School […]
A First Ever Default? Closing the Gold Window, Forty Years On
During the recent “Debt Ceiling” debacle, many warned that the failure to lift the debt ceiling would lead to a “first ever” US default and to numerous financial catastrophes, including the demise of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. “First Ever Default?” Think again. Forty years ago this month, on August 15, 1971, […]
