New Statesman | David Blanchflower | Hold on tight, it’s the double-dip

But why has the UK labour market outperformed the US, where unemployment has risen to over 10 per cent? Wages are not more flexible in the UK and the shock has been greater over here, because of the relatively large size of the financial sector and the greater rise in house prices. Spending has been helped in the UK by the high proportion of tracker mortgage-holders, who have benefited from low interest rates. But this will go into reverse when rates are increased. We entered recession after the US and will likely emerge later, and there is probably quite a lot more pain to come on the jobs front when the fiscal stimulus is removed. I hope I am wrong.

In his New Year message, the director general of the CBI, Richard Lambert, noted that many businesses are still worried about the possibility of a double-dip recession and what that would mean for jobs. So am I.

Reviving Keynesianism: a Critique | Professor Richard D. Wolff

It is urgent in the current capitalist crisis to recognize the contributions of other interpretations of Marxism that do not ally with Keynesianism in their exclusive focus on the macro-level of the economy. Such Marxists go well beyond state regulation, controls, and ownership of capitalist enterprises, beyond planning (versus markets). They add an explicit micro-focus drawn from Marx's critique of the class structure of production. Such Marxists advocate ending the wage system, the fundamental split between capitalist employer and employee. Workers are to become, collectively, their enterprise's own board of directors — Marx's "associated workers" — instead of having boards selected by private shareholders or by political leaders. Such a micro-based level of socialism becomes the necessary complement to the macro-level socialisms of the classic left (Keynesian and/or Marxian). The micro- and macro-levels of such a socialism would support and constrain one another.

Gilbert Achcar: Why Holocaust Denial Is on the Rise in the Arab World | Mediapart Magazine

An interview with Gilbert Achcar about his soon to be published book Arabs and the Holocaust. ILR interviewed Professor Achcar in January 09, during the conflict in Gaza. In this most recent interview he explains that anti-semitism is not implicit within Islam or Arabic culture, but its increasing appearance in Arabic public discourse is a reaction to the escalation of the Israeli-Arab conflict and the increasing instrumentalisation of the memory of the Shoah.

In the face of growing criticism of Israel, including in the West, since 1982 especially, we have seen that state systematically resort to instrumentalization of the memory of the Shoah, beginning no later than the Eichmann trial in the 1960s. And that instrumentalization arouses, on the “opposing side,” a knee-jerk reaction that sometimes goes so far as to deny the Holocaust. The best indicator of this reactive quality is the fact that the Arab population which has received the widest education on the memory of the Shoah, the population of Arab citizens of Israel, has been prone to an absolutely striking explosion of denial these last few years.

To my mind, that very clearly illustrates the fact that denial in these cases corresponds more to a “gut reaction” out of political rancor, than to a true denial of the Shoah as is seen in Europe or the United States, where the deniers spend their time devising historical theories that don’t stand up to refute the existence of the gas chambers, etc.

Is aviation security mostly for show?

Bruce Schneier is the United States' foremost security expert and also a voice of sanity and reason in the debate on anti-terrorism measures. Here he correctly argues that terrorism is rare while conceding the value of 'security theatre' in reassuring a concerned public. Schneier is also convinced that the best way of combating terrorism is not further clampdowns on civil liberties but a less belligerent foreign policy and allowing police do their job applying existing legislation that is more than adequate.

Anne Enright | Ireland’s Recession

From the most recent London Review of Books, Irish novelist Anne Enright provides a sort of diary of Ireland’s recession.

Telling the truth was, in the circumstances, not just boring, it was also unlucky, hexed, taboo. It might even be unclean. Careless talk costs jobs. If the bubble burst it would be your fault for calling it a bubble, because, at the end of the day, it’s not an economy, it’s a mood.

I am not a Freudian about this money shit, especially these days when it is so notional, so rarely handled or seen. I do think money is a magical substance, which makes the phrase ‘frozen desire’ a little too … frozen, for me. These days I play with the idea of money as mother’s love; her body, her attention, the blessing of her gaze. It is the thing you fight your siblings for, because to be poor is to be so unloved. But money changes when you multiply it by millions of families, and that is the shift that I can not understand.

Böhm/Dabhi | Upsetting the Offset | mayflybooks.org

Something for the Xmas stocking, I seriously doubt, unless you take the contrary notion of giving it to the aspiring carbon-neutral person in your life with an energy sponge e-reader. Upsetting the Offset is available as an e-book. Still post-Copenhagen 09 it is worth reading.

“Upsetting the Offset engages critically with the political economy of carbon markets. It presents a range of case studies and critiques from around the world, showing how the scam of carbon markets affects the lives of communities. But the book doesn’t stop there. It also presents a number of alternatives to carbon markets which enable communities to live in real low-carbon futures.”

Turbulence 5: Left-wing Political Magazine | Editorial: And Now For Something Completely Different?

Issue 5 of Turbulance, a British Left-wing magazine provides plenty of interesting articles on the various crisis' across a range of issues:
"Until recently, anyone who suggested nationalising the banks would have been derided as a ‘quack’ and a ‘crank’, as lacking the most basic understanding of the functioning of a ‘complex, globalised world’. The grip of ‘orthodoxy’ disqualified the idea, and many more, without the need even to offer a counter-argument.

And yet, in this time of intersecting crises, when it seems like everything could, and should, have changed, it paradoxically feels as though very little has. Individuals and companies have hunkered down to try and ride out the crisis. Nationalisations and government spending have been used to prevent change, not initiate it. Anger and protest have erupted around different aspects of the crises, but no common or consistent reaction has seemed able to cohere. We appear unable to move on."

New Data on Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossessions | Financial Regulator

The Financial Regulator today published new data on mortgage arrears and repossessions.  The data show that as at end September 2009 there were 791,634 private residential mortgage accounts to a value of €118.6 billion. Of these 3.3%, were in arrears for more than 90 days of which 17,767, or 2.2%, were more than 180 days in arrears.  By value €4.8 billion was owed in relation to all accounts more than 90 days in arrears and €3.2 billion was owed in respect of accounts more than 180 days in arrears.
During the quarter ended September 2009, 218 enforcement proceedings were concluded.  In 79 cases the Courts granted repossession orders which included 6 properties that were voluntarily surrendered and 2 that were abandoned.  In the remaining 139 cases, 28 properties were voluntarily surrendered, 10 were concluded by abandonment while 101 were settled either by renegotiating the mortgage or on other terms.

The latest CSO Earnings and Labour Costs Survey

The CSO Earnings and Labour Costs Survey shows that average weekly earnings fell overall by 1.1% from €706.03 in Q2 2008 to €698.43 in Q2 2009. However, while there was a fall in the average unit cost of labour in the private sector, connected principally to the collapse of Financial and real estate activities there was a rise in public sector earnings (private sector fell by 3.1% compared with a rise of 1.3% in the public sector). However, big caveat, the calculations do not take account of the deduction of the pension levy that was introduced in March 2009.

Democracy Now | Study Reveals “Revolving Door” Between Capitol Hill Staffers and Healthcare Lobbyists

A new study on healthcare lobbying published in the Chicago Tribune has found that healthcare companies have spent $635 million on lobbying over the past two years. At least 166 former congressional aides involved in shaping healthcare legislation have registered to lobby for healthcare companies. This includes at least fourteen former aides to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and at least thirteen former aides to Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, the chair of the Finance Committee.