Archive | March, 2010

  • “Progressive Exit” from the Eurozone

    The crisis facing the eurozone looks at first sight as German efficiency clashing with Portuguese, Irish, Greek and Spanish sloppiness.  But in many respects Germany has performed worse than the “peripheral” countries in the last decade.  The largest economy of the eurozone has been marked by slow growth, poor domestic demand, weak investment, high unemployment, […]

  • “We Must Take Public Criticism into Account.  Criticism Is Good and Should Help the Process”

      What is the characteristic of the Latin American Left today? 20 years ago, when the Berlin Wall fell, there was no revolution foreseeable on the horizon.  However, it didn’t take long before a process began to emerge in Latin America with Hugo Chávez.  We have gone on to form governments with anti-neoliberal programs, though […]

  • Israel: The Global Pacification Industry

      Jeff Halper: We’re one of the leading — I would say, modestly — peace and human rights organizations in Israel.  We started about thirteen years ago.  I’ve been involved for forty years in the Israeli peace movement.  During the Oslo peace process, during the 90s, the Israeli peace movement also, like other Israelis, invested […]

  • Housing Tax Credit Continues to Support Housing Market

    Mortgage applications are running below the depressed levels of 2009. The Case-Shiller index showed house prices continuing to rise at a modest pace in January, with the 20-city index rising by 0.3 percent.  Over the last quarter, the index has risen at a 3.2 percent annual rate.  The index is almost flat over the last […]

  • Estimating the Value of Iran’s Subsidies

    Estimates of Iran’s subsidies vary widely.  The figure that I see most often quoted is $100 billion per year, which is a huge sum considering the fact that Iran’s GDP is less than $400 billion.  I have used a figure of $50 billion in a previous post, which maybe an underestimate.  My back-of-the-envelope calculations below […]

  • Ambivalent Feminism: Romantic Socialism, Gender, and the Individual

      Naomi Andrews, Socialism’s Muse: Gender in the Intellectual Landscape of French Romantic Socialism, Lanhan, Md.: Lexington Books, 2006.  210 pp.  $66.00 (hb).  ISBN 10-0739-108-441. In Socialism’s Muse: Gender in the Intellectual Landscape of French Romantic Socialism, Naomi Andrews brings her readers into a complex conversation that touches on individualism and egoism, on the nature […]

  • Faculty of the University of Regina Say No to “Project Hero” and Canadian Imperialism: An Open Letter to President Vianne Timmons

    March 23, 2010 Dear President Timmons: We write to you as concerned faculty members of the University of Regina, to urge you to withdraw our university immediately from participation in the “Project Hero” scholarship program.  This program, which waives tuition and course fees, and provides $1,000 per year to “dependents of Canadian Forces personnel deceased […]

  • GlobalFoundries Wants $300 Million More from NYS Taxpayers While Paying Down Debt for Singapore Chip Fab Plant

    When it comes to scamming workers in the name of “JOBS,” big multinational corporations have few peers.  Case in point: GlobalFoundries, the chip fab company set up by AMD, now majority-owned by Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC). GlobalFoundries has already hit up New York State taxpayers for a cool 1.2 billion to build […]

  • Ask Ms. Liberty: Advice for the Lovelorn and the War-Torn

    In today’s column, our Statue of Liberty once again gasses up her torch to answer two timely letters: Dear Green Lady, I am a gay soldier, trying to have safe sex at an air force base in Nevada.  It is really rough here with that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and all.  Also I got […]

  • Crisis Management in the Israeli-American Family

    Michael Warschawski: Before speaking about the crisis, one has to understand the special relationship between the United States and Israel.  Between these two states there is a strategic alliance, which is something extremely solid, very central to the US Middle East policy and very essential to Israel.  This strategic alliance is not in crisis.  In […]

  • Obama Nation

    Lowkey (born Kareem Dennis, 23 May 1986) is a British musician, poet, playwright, and political activist of English and Iraqi descent.  Check out Lowkey’s MySpace page: .  For bookings, email . | | Print

  • On China

      Andrew Fischer: The Chinese oversaving, I think, is a false argument.  If you say it’s because of Chinese oversaving, what you’re basically implying is that Chinese households save a lot of money because their consumption is being repressed because of industrial policies in China that take money away from households and direct it toward […]

  • The Return of the Multi-Generational Family Household

      In 2008, an estimated 49 million Americans, or 16% of the total U.S. population, lived in a family household that contained at least two adult generations or a grandparent and at least one other generation.  In 1980, this figure was just 28 million, or 12% of the population.   This 33% increase since 1980 […]

  • Still Struggling, Still Protesting, Fifty Years after the Sharpeville Massacre

    It is amazing that I am now at last again on South African soil, since my previous trip here was in December.   I am at home in my soul in a way that is unique for my travels.   I am breathing in the salty air from the Indian Ocean, feeling the hot rays of the […]

  • To the Next Crisis

    Corruption asks Economy: “Can you give me a ride to the next crisis?” Tomás Rafael Rodríguez Zayas (Tomy) is a Cuban cartoonist.  This cartoon was first published by Rebelión on 28 March 2010.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | | Print

  • Studying Madrasas in West Bengal

    Nilanjana Gupta.  Reading with Allah: Madrasas in West Bengal.  New Delhi: Routledge, 2010.  Pp. 192.  R. 595.  ISBN: 978-0-415-54459-7.  Much has been written on the Indian madrasas or Islamic seminaries, but because the most influential madrasas in the country are concentrated in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, many of these writings tend […]

  • The Diffusion of Activities

    One of the striking features of the recent period has been the diffusion of manufacturing and service activities from the countries of the core to the periphery.  The logic of competitive striving for the export market among the many “labour reserve” economies in the periphery leads to the accumulation of ever-growing reserves and a constraint […]

  • Neo-Liberalism, Secularism, and the Future of the Left in India — A Day-long Conference

      Neo-Liberalism, Secularism, and the Future of the Left in India A Day-long Conference Thursday, April 1, 2010, 10 am — 7:30 pm Heyman Center for the Humanities, Second Floor Common Room Keynote speaker: Sitaram Yechury Additional Speakers: Prabhat Patnaik Jayati Ghosh C.P. Chandrasekhar Javeed Alam Discussants: Sanjay Reddy Arjun Jayadev Anwar Shaikh Anush Kapadia […]

  • Honduras: Communiqué No. 53

    The National Front of Popular Resistance informs the Honduran population and the international community: 1.  The Honduran oligarchy, through their representative, the de facto regime of Porfirio Lobo Sosa, are accelerating their execution of a plan to continue enriching themselves, at the cost of robbery and exploitation of the people.  Taking advantage of their absolute […]

  • Health-Insurance Coverage Rates for US Workers, 1979-2008

    The share of workers with health insurance fell from 93.5 percent in 1979 to 83.3 percent in 2008.  If health-insurance rates in 2008 had remained at their 1979 levels, an additional 12.6 million workers would have had health insurance in 2008.  The main reason for the decline in overall coverage rates was the steep drop […]