Friday, Jan 27th 2012
It was almost inevitable. Following Kraft’s acquisition of Cadbury, the US food giant has gone back on its guarantee not to close the Cadbury plant in Somerdale with the loss of 400 jobs. According to the BBC, Cadbury employs 4,500 people in the UK. Kraft has yet to announce plans for its Bournville factory in [...]
Shell Corrib Gas - Who are the real Thugs & Bullies? | Indymedia Ireland
A number of high profile Shell to Sea campaigners including 'the Chief' Pat O'Donnell and Maura Harrington sought to appeal certain criminal convictions in cases heard last week at Castlebar Circuit Court from 9th - 11th February. A few of the appeals [...]
“Swallow my luminous cack!” When Swindon mom Debbie Flobb heard her four-year-old son, Robert, use this phrase in conversation with a telecoms engineer on the phone one Monday morning, her first response was utter horror. “I can’t imagine where he might have picked up language like that,” said the 63-year-old mother of three from Didsbury. [...]
Palestinian Avatar « Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
Bilin Reenacts Avatar Film A.K.A The Palestinian Avatar!
Sex, Lies, and Economics: The Amazing Story of Economics and Economists Before Adam Smith | Michael Perelman
Michael Perelman provides some details and short excerpts from his current project a book which he hopes to publish called Invisible Handcuffs. It includes an incredible story of 17th Century economist William Petty, who:
Besides having the distinction of being [...]
The real reason for the euromess | Paul Krugman
For the truth is that lack of fiscal discipline isn't the whole, or even the main, source of Europe's troubles not even in Greece, whose government was indeed irresponsible (and hid its irresponsibility with creative accounting).
No, the real story behind the euromess lies not in the profligacy [...]
Iceland’s fight for press freedom | Alda Sigmundsdóttir | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
I thought the idea of creating this sort of haven in Iceland – a country struggling with the exposure of massive amounts of corruption, not to mention a severely restricted media sector – was both novel and intriguing. It also seemed perfectly [...]
The latest DAFT report is out covering rents. I have written the quarterly commentary which can be read here (and thanks to Ronan Lyons for inviting me to write the commentary). The headline news is that rents have ’stabilised’ and have started to rise - though whether this presages a long-term upward trend remains to [...]
Even before EU Finance ministers were due to meet today to discuss whether Greece needs to do more to reduce its deficit this year from 12.7 to 8.7 percent GDP, Jean-Claude Trichet was on TV demanding that Greece needs to take “extra measures” to ensure the credibility of their “turnaround plan”. These extra measures, a [...]
Proinnsias Breathnach | Competitiveness myths unsupported by the evidence
"The preoccupation of many economists with labour costs as the key to export competitiveness is difficult to fathom given the minor role played by such costs in the overall cost structure of Ireland’s main export sectors. In manufacturing as a whole, labour costs amounted for just 15.5% [...]
