Friday, Jan 27th 2012
Sandmonkey | 10 points
Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey provides a 10 point post on the situation now in Egypt. Here's one:
"The Salafists & Muslim Brotherhood (MB) are local players, but they have foreign ties and funding. Qatar fully funds and supports the MB , and Saudi fully funds and directs the Salafists. While Qatar is more [...]
How To Repudiate The Debt?
Invitation to a citizens’ think-in
The ongoing crisis in this country over the socialising of the banks’ debts and the imposition of the EU/IMF package have engendered widespread popular indignation and anger - but so far no concerted popular opposition from citizens has emerged.
However, recent examples - from the UKUncut movement to [...]
Michael Burke: Pavlov’s dogs and barking mad economics
Michael Burke on the inability of mainstream economics to admit what even the Pavlovian dogs in the street know.
“For 12 quarters mainstream and official economic opinion has expected government spending cuts to produce growth. It has produced contraction. ‘Pavlov’s dogs’ were smarter.
This is a new low-point for the [...]
Ernst Hillebrand | Forget Redistribution – Why Direct Income Distribution is Key for Equality and Justice
Equality and justice have many dimensions – economic, legal, social, and cultural ones. In real life, capitalist society is neither just nor equal in any of these dimensions. Just look at the differences in the average life expectancy between blue-collar [...]
ZCommunications | Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective by Gilbert Achcar | ZNet Article
Gilbert Achcar responds to the very strong reaction to his 19th of March interview, in which he deals with the complexities of the UN intervention in Libya.
“The interview I gave to my good friend Steve Shalom the day [...]
A Land Fit for Falangists!
“This is our country. This is our journey. Yes, we are in times without precedent but I believe that for Ireland this current crisis is the darkest hour before the dawn, that we have a generational lightness of soul, that in the long Hibernian nights on the western edge of Europe [...]
It is often said that a definition of insanity is to do the same action over and over again, each time expecting a different result. In that case, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), Ireland’s single-largest creditor, is a 21st century Bedlam.
Originally set up as a temporary measure, the EFSF was created in June 2010 [...]
How many zeroes are there in a trillion? On Economics, Neoliberalism and Economic Justice | Nitasha Kaul
When economics was understood as ‘political economy’ (before the era of 19th and 20th century physics-inspired ‘experts’ had obtained a monopoly on speaking about what they saw as the ‘science of society’, or econom-ics), there was a focus on [...]
progressive-economy@tasc: Debt-equity swap for banks won’t work
Michael Burke provides an analysis of Karl Whelan's idea of a Debt for Equity Swap with the ECB to resolve our banking crisis. Michael says it won't work.
"The sheer size of the bank debts being assumed by the State has led to a flurry of alternative proposals which [...]
FGs secret cash from developers: Hundreds of thousands of euro handed over at lavish golf events | Mail Online
Ironically, Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Michael Noonan banned such corporate donations when he was party leader in 2001, telling his members that such ‘gifts’ always came with an expectation of something in return.
However his party has since [...]
