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Occupy 2.0: Strike Debt
by
Astra Taylor
7 September 2012
When Occupy Wall Street sprang up a year ago, one of its most aptivating features was that it was one big tent, an overarching idea linking together a long-fragmented left. Today, bereft of the encampments—all the little tents—there’s no denying that Occupy isn’t as powerful a connector as it once was. Given this knowledge, Occupy organizers have been searching for a next step: a way to marshal the political energy that still exists without starting from scratch or denying all that their (...)
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Can Debt Spark a Revolution?
by
David Graeber
7 September 2012
The idea of the “99 percent” managed to do something that no one has done in the United States since the Great Depression: revive the concept of social class as a political issue. What made this possible was a subtle change in the very nature of class power in this country, which, I have come to realize, has everything to do with debt. As a member of the team that came up with the slogan “We Are the 99 Percent,” I can attest that we weren’t thinking of inequality or even simply class but (...)
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Occupy Wall Street. No more bubble gum
by
Mike Davis
24 October 2011
Who could have envisioned Occupy Wall Street and its sudden wildflower-like profusion in cities large and small? John Carpenter could have, and did. Almost a quarter of a century ago (1988), the master of date-night terror (Halloween, The Thing), wrote and directed They Live, depicting the Age of Reagan as a catastrophic alien invasion. In one of the film’s brilliant early scenes, a huge third-world shantytown is reflected across the Hollywood Freeway in the sinister mirror-glass of Bunker (...)
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What everyone should know about the "debt crisis" in the U.S
by
Mark Weisbrot
6 August 2011
Since the U.S. "Debt Crisis" has been a big international story for the last few weeks, it is worth clarifying what is real and what is not. First, the U.S. government does not have a "debt crisis." The U.S. government is paying net interest of just 1.4 percent of GDP [http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12212] on its public debt – this is not much by any historical or international comparison. The relatively large annual deficit at present (9.3 percent of GDP) is overwhelmingly the result of (...)
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Barack Obama: the change that didn’t happen
by
Daniel Munevar,
Éric Toussaint
3 August 2011
With the announcement of the candidacy of Barack Obama for President of the United States in 2012, the campaign trail has officially started. Contrary to what one might have expected two years ago, Obama faces a tough re-election challenge. Furthermore, a victory does not seem guaranteed. Despite the stabilization of the financial system, achieved through a massive handout of public resources without any type of restrictions to the same people responsible for generating the crisis, the real (...)
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Analysis of the military deployment in Haiti following the earthquake of 12 January 2010
by
Tony Rebecchi
26 January 2010
Chronological summary 1914 – The US marines plundered, guns in the hand, the National Bank of Haiti, and transferred the money in the coffers of the Citibank 1915 to 1934 – The US army occupied and exploited Haiti 1934 to 12 January 2010 –Setting up of various puppet-governments 1994 to 1999 – New occupation of the country by the US army 2004 to 12 January 2010 – the military occupation is subcontracted out to a UN mission 12 January 2010 – Catastrophic and destructive earthquake 13 (...)
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The U.S. and its unruly Latin American ’backyard’
by
Éric Toussaint
26 January 2010
U.S. aggressiveness towards the Venezuelan, Bolivian, and Ecuadorian governments has increased in response to diminishing U.S. influence over the Latin American and Caribbean area, which Washington has been blaming on Hugo Chávez in particular (and also on Cuba, but Cuba is a much older story). Several examples illustrate the United States’ waning control During the negotiations that followed Colombia’s attack on Ecuador on 1 March 2008, instead of appealing to the Organization of American (...)
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Before and after the quake
The incapacitation of Haiti
by
Ashley Smith
17 January 2010
A devastating earthquake, the worst in 200 years, struck Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, laying waste to the city and killing untold numbers of people. The quake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, and detonated more than 30 aftershocks, all more than 4.5 in magnitude, through the night and into Wednesday morning. The earthquake toppled poorly constructed houses, hotels, hospitals and even the capital city’s main political buildings, including the presidential palace. The collapse of so many (...)
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Obama, an “F” in political theory
by
Atilio Boron
9 January 2010
Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech was not much different from the ideological tone set by Bush Jr. and his cronies. Obama took some courses in political theory at Harvard. But the speech he gave upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize — an undeserved distinction that still arouses reactions ranging from amusement to indignation — reveals that he did not learn the subject well and that his flawed interpretation of the doctrine of "Just War" merits an “F” in political theory. According (...)
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Notes on the Fiscal Deficit of the U.S. and the Future of the Dollar - Part 1
by
Daniel Munevar
20 October 2009
Over the last decade, much of the academic discussion in the economic arena remained concentrated on the topic of the growing current account deficit of the U.S. and its implications for the global configuration of trade surpluses and economic growth patterns. The international context during this period was characterized by 3 interconnected trends. The first trend was the consistent expansion of the current account deficit of the U.S. throughout the last decade, reaching a historical (...)
Afghanistan
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