Economic « Tikkunista!

5. Apple, Foxconn, and Economics

Jan-27-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: As Apple set all-time records for profit this week, we learned that in the last quarter year Apple made more iphones made than humans made babies. The process of making them appears to be a lot less fun, however. The lead This American Life is their most downloaded podcast, and has been linked to all over the net in the past month. It’s about how Foxconn, the Chinese company, makes iStuff, and about the lives of the people who work there. Brilliantly presented (Mike Daisey does stand-up) and memorable. The Times has a follow up article, and we offer Apple’s reaction. Worth noting is that while this focuses on Apple, most other computers (Sony, HP, Dell, Samsung, etc…) are made in the same factory under the same conditions. If you need a piece for your next ideas discussion group, this might be a good one to consider.

* Mr. Daisey And The Apple Factory This American Life (60 minute audio)

Mike Daisey was a self-described “worshipper in the cult of Mac.” Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.

* Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class New York Times

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

* Apple ‘Attacking Problems’ At Its Factories In China Telegraph

In an email allegedly sent to Apple’s 60,000 or so employees, Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive said that Apple “cares about every worker in its supply chain”. The letter appears to be in response to a series of articles in the New York Times cataloguing the company’s problems in China and divisions within Apple about how to handle the issues.

Mr Cook’s letter, which was reproduced on the website 9to5mac.com, promised that Apple would “continue to dig deeper” into problems in China and that it would “undoubtedly find more issues”. “What will not do, and never have done, is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain,” he added. “Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are,” he said.

1. Why Occupy Wall Street?

Oct-14-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: “But what do they want?” moans the right-wing media, hoping that if they don’t listen, the public won’t hear. A few eloquent answers, and a few detailed ones. We start with two very short films, as Allan Grayson and Chris Hedges eloquently say what OWS (Occupy Wall Street) wants (and Kevin O’Leary makes me embarrassed to ever have defended the CBC against cuts!) Business Insider gives an extensive set of charts that lay out how the US financial sector has been changing, for the worse. Dissident voice highlights some of the same issues, James McMurtry (“The songwriting conscience of America”) sings a song that could be the OWS anthem, and the New York Times’ Krugman looks at why the powers that be claim not to understand the protests. For some groups, denial is so much more than just a river in Egypt.

* The Best 2 Minutes On Why We Should Occupy Wall Street MoveOn.Org (Thanks, Gabe and Kyla!)

On Friday’s ‘Real Time With Bill Maher,’ former Rep. Alan Grayson (D – FL) sums it up so well, the crowd ends up on their feet. Watch:

* CBC’s Kevin O’Leary Smacked Down by Chris Hedges Creekside

“I’m putting the vid and a transcript up here because Hedges’ argument bears repeating and also because, as appalling as O’Leary’s behavior certainly was, even more appalling is that O’Leary affects to be completely unable to follow Hedges’ logic as to what exactly went wrong that caused OWS to happen.”

* CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About… Business Insider

If America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly “de-stabilized,” as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning. The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation’s history—at the end of the 1920s–and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And corporate profits are at a record high.

* Austerity is Euphemism for Class War Waged by Rich Dissident Voice (Thanks, Amy)

We live in an age of the superlatives as well, ironically being touted as the Age of Austerity by the state-capitalist oligarchs. But the superlative qualities of our age mark a world in decline. Consider some of our superlative achievements:

•The US financial “crisis” of 2008 was the largest private sector theft of public money in history, an estimated $16 trillion, followed by an aggressive global “austerity” push that targets the poor, the middle class, and people of colour to pay for the systemic fraud that caused the crisis.
•The US income disparity gap between rich and poor is the greatest of any industrialized country.
•For the first time in US history, student debt exceeds consumer debt. Never has a young generation of Americans seen this much debt, and consequently they await a life of serfdom in the capitalist order.
•The global 2011 Billionaires List recorded a record number of billionaires and combined wealth.
•There are more slaves today than at any time in human history.
•Worldwide military spending reached a record high in 2011.

Notice a trend?

* We Can’t Make it Here James McMurtry, youtube

“The bar’s still open but man it’s slow

The tip jar’s light and the register’s low

The bartender don’t have much to say

The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards

Some are working two jobs and living in cars

Minimum wage won’t pay for a roof,

Won’t pay for a drink, if you gotta have proof

Just try it yourself Mr. C.E.O.

See how far $5.15 an hour will go

Take a part time job at one of your stores

Bet you can’t make it here anymore”

* Panic of the Plutocrats Paul Krugman New York Times

The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

… What’s going on here? The answer, surely, is that Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe realize, deep down, how morally indefensible their position is. They’re not John Galt; they’re not even Steve Jobs. They’re people who got rich by peddling complex financial schemes that, far from delivering clear benefits to the American people, helped push us into a crisis whose aftereffects continue to blight the lives of tens of millions of their fellow citizens…. This special treatment can’t bear close scrutiny — and therefore, as they see it, there must be no close scrutiny. Anyone who points out the obvious, no matter how calmly and moderately, must be demonized and driven from the stage. In fact, the more reasonable and moderate a critic sounds, the more urgently he or she must be demonized, hence the frantic sliming of Elizabeth Warren.

5. Comparing Countries, by the Numbers

Oct-14-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Four charts comparing how different countries rank worldwide on some basic questions. Simple and clear.

* Income inequality by Country

133 countries: US is 93rd, Canada 35th

* Evolution Less Accepted In US Than Other Western Countries

(Editor’s note: In Canada 59% accept evolution). The chart shows 34 countries: only Turkey is lower than the US

* Child Poverty Nation Master

US is second worst, Canada 7th of the 23 countries studied

* Ratio of CEO pay to Average Worker, by Country

Japan 11:1, Canada 20:1, US 475:1 Any further questions?

9. Useful Comparisons

Oct-14-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Simple binary comparisons can be very revealing. Here are four memorable examples.

* The U.S. Now Uses More Corn for Fuel Than Food

Only about 20% of all the corn grown in the U.S. now goes to feed humans directly, and more than half of what remains is now being turned into ethanol fuel while the other half goes to feed livestock. The problem is that life-cycle studies show that corn ethanol ranges from barely better than fossil-fuel gasoline to significantly worse, especially if you take into account land use issues and the impact of higher food prices on the poor. Many would agree that corn ethanol is a net loss for society, yet this industry keeps growing.

* Twice as many Americans view Occupy Wall Street favorably than view Tea Party favorably Washington Post

Time released a new poll this morning finding that 54 percent view the Wall Street protests favorably, versus only 23 percent who think the opposite. Interestingly, only 23 percent say they don’t have an opinion, suggesting the protests have succeeded in punching through to the mainstream. Also: The most populist positions espoused by Occupy Wall Street — that the gap between rich and poor has grown too large; that taxes should be raised on the rich; that execs responsible for the meltdown should be prosecuted — all have strong support.

* Obese Now Outnumber Hungry Red Cross

Obese people now outnumber the hungry globally, but hardship for the undernourished is increasing amid a growing food crisis, the International Federation of the Red Cross warned Thursday….In statistics used to underline the unequal access to food, the IFRC stressed there were 1.5 billion people suffering obesity worldwide last year, while 925 million were undernourished.

* Consumers Now Owe More On Their Student Loans Than Their Credit Cards.

2. Inside Wall Street

Oct-07-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: This was the week that the pendulum swung, and the Occupy Wall Street movement began to be taken seriously. Part of that was either caused (or proven) when support started to come from groups such as the steel workers union and climate activists 350.org. (“If Wall Street is occupying President Obama’s State Department and the halls of Congress, it’s time for the people to occupy Wall Street,”). Part of that was the intelligent non-confrontational tactics the group is using. And part of that was the word finally getting into the main-stream media of what the group stood for. We offer a link to Avaaz, where you can sign and show your support. In the centre of occupied Wall Street, a giant live counter shows the numbers and names of people signing (from 50,000 up to 100,000 in the last 12 hours). And the final proof that this movement matters is that the Democratic party is trying to co-opt it, as Salon magazine explores.

* Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

* Occupy Wall Street Rediscovers The Radical Imagination David Graeber Guardian

Why are people occupying Wall Street? Why has the occupation –despite the latest police crackdown – sent out sparks across America, within days, inspiring hundreds of people to send pizzas, money, equipment and, now, to start their own movements called OccupyChicago, OccupyFlorida, in OccupyDenver or OccupyLA?

There are obvious reasons. We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. … Is it really surprising they would like to have a word with the financial magnates who stole their future?

Just as in Europe, we are seeing the results of colossal social failure. The occupiers are the very sort of people, brimming with ideas, whose energies a healthy society would be marshaling to improve life for everyone. Instead, they are using it to envision ways to bring the whole system down.

*Unions, Democrats and Occupy Wall Street Salon

But what happens when the liberal establishment begins to reach out to this amorphous collection of anarchists, libertarians, Ron Paul fans, sectarian lefties – plus many, many ordinary people turned activists, drawn by the call to protest the power of Wall Street? How will they relate to “a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system with roots in anarchist thought,” as the Occupy Wall Street folks describe their decision-making process? Can a leaderless movement get along with liberals and Democratic Party poobahs, who are essentially leaders without a movement? It looks like we’re going to find out.

* The World vs Wall Street Avaaz

Thousands of Americans have non-violently occupied Wall St — an epicentre of global financial power and corruption. They are the latest ray of light in a new movement for social justice that is spreading like wildfire from Madrid to Jerusalem to 146 other cities and counting, but they need our help to succeed. If millions of us from across the world stand with them, we’ll boost their resolve and show the media and leaders that the protests are part of a massive mainstream movement for change.

Click to join the call for real democracy – a giant live counter of every one of us who signs the petition will be erected in the centre of the occupation in New York,, and live webcasted on this web page. Sign up now

3. “There’s Something Happening Here”: The Spreading Protest

Oct-07-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: “146 cities and counting” says Avaaz. Why now? Answers include both the inspiration of the ‘Arab Spring’, and the technology of the internet, as a fascinating NY Times article explores the non-hierarchical, decentralized nature of these protests. We look at the Canadian protests, scheduled to start in a week, and at a Big Picture photo album of current protest world-wide. We sure do live in interesting times, don’t we?

* ‘Ready for a Tahrir moment?’ Mondoweiss

The Occupy Wall Street protests taking place in New York, and spreading across the country, continue to grow. If you haven’t yet, please check it out, and read these profiles of “the 99 percent” who are inspiring, and inspired by, the protests. Although it has become a bit of a mainstream media cliche to say that the Occupy Wall Street protest is an American “Arab Spring,” it is undeniable that the Egyptian revolution, and other protests across the Middle East have inspired the protesters.

* As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe New York Times

Increasingly, citizens of all ages, but particularly the young, are rejecting conventional structures like parties and trade unions in favor of a less hierarchical, more participatory system modeled in many ways on the culture of the Web. In that sense, the protest movements in democracies are not altogether unlike those that have rocked authoritarian governments this year, toppling longtime leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Protesters have created their own political space online that is chilly, sometimes openly hostile, toward traditional institutions of the elite.

The critical mass of wiki and mapping tools, video and social networking sites, the communal news wire of Twitter and the ease of donations afforded by sites like PayPal makes coalitions of like-minded individuals instantly viable. “You’re looking at a generation of 20- and 30-year-olds who are used to self-organizing,” said Yochai Benkler, a director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. “They believe life can be more participatory, more decentralized, less dependent on the traditional models of organization, either in the state or the big company. Those were the dominant ways of doing things in the industrial economy, and they aren’t anymore.”

* Occupy Wall St. protest to march into Canada CBC

Activists are planning an occupation of Toronto’s financial district as well as other Canadian cities following in the footsteps of protesters currently camped out on Wall Street in New York City. A group calling itself Occupy Toronto Market Exchange has launched a website to organize a march on Bay Street beginning Oct. 15…. Occupations are also planned in the streets in other Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary.

* Global Protests The Big Picture

4. What’s Gone Wrong with Capitalism?

Oct-07-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: It’s clear that the protests wouldn’t be happening if people were all employed, and getting richer, and the future looked rosy. So why doesn’t it? A week after the BBC ran the interview that swept the net, a corporate trader saying the system was irrevocably doomed, that question seems critical. We start by looking at Leopold Kohr, and his economic predictions that increasing size of corporate power presaged a global collapse. Will Hutton looks at capitalism world-wide, and sees disaster coming. And the current New Yorker looks in detail at the implications of the possible collapse of the euro.

* This Economic Collapse Is A ‘Crisis Of Bigness’ Paul Kingsnorth The Guardian

Leopold Kohr warned 50 years ago that the gigantist global system would grow until it imploded. We should have listened

Living through a collapse is a curious experience. Perhaps the most curious part is that nobody wants to admit it’s a collapse. The results of half a century of debt-fuelled “growth” are becoming impossible to convincingly deny, but even as economies and certainties crumble, our appointed leaders bravely hold the line. No one wants to be the first to say the dam is cracked beyond repair.

To listen to a political leader at this moment in history is like sitting through a sermon by a priest who has lost his faith but is desperately trying not to admit it, even to himself. Watch Nick Clegg, David Cameron or Ed Miliband mouthing tough-guy platitudes to the party faithful. Listen to Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy or George Papandreou pretending that all will be well in the eurozone. Study the expressions on the faces of Barack Obama or Ben Bernanke talking about “growth” as if it were a heathen god to be appeased by tipping another cauldron’s worth of fictional money into the mouth of a volcano.

*The Ailing Euro Is Part Of A Wider Crisis. Our Capitalist System Is Near Meltdown Will Hutton The Observer

Eighty years ago, faced with today’s economic events, nobody would have been in any doubt: we would obviously be living through a crisis in capitalism. Instead, there is a collective unwillingness to call a spade a spade. This is variously a crisis of the European Union, a crisis of the euro, a debt crisis or a crisis of political will. It is all those things, but they are subplots of a much bigger story: the way capitalism has been conceived and practised for the last 30 years has hit the buffers. Unless and until that is recognised, western economies will be locked in stagnation which could even transmute into a major economic disaster.

Simply put, the world has trillions upon trillions of excessive private debt financed by too many different currencies whose risk is allegedly mitigated by even more trillions of financial bets which in aggregate do not minimise the systemic risk one iota. This entire financial edifice, underwritten by tiny amounts of capital, has been created over three decades backed by the theory that markets do not make mistakes. Capitalism is best conceived and practised, runs the theory, by hunter-gatherer bankers and entrepreneurs owing no allegiance to the state or society.

This is nonsense.

* Greek Debt, Angela Merkel, and the European Central Bank The New Yorker

Outsiders to the world of money who start to take an interest in it soon notice that most of the things that alarm and outrage the wider public are taken by insiders to be perfectly routine and unremarkable. Consider the sums that bankers get paid, or the disruptive impact of hot money zipping around the world at the click of a mouse, tearing up industries and whole economies at will. To moneymen, those are just givens of the way the world works, and have to be accepted, in the absence of a credible plan to go off to found a new system on another planet.

Once in a great while, though, something happens that reverses the loop, and has the moneymen more scared than the rest of us. That happened in late 2007, when the credit crunch began, and it’s happening again now. The cause is the crisis affecting the euro, and the risk that the economic difficulties of the seventeen euro-zone countries will break up the European Union. That prospect once seemed like an alarmist fantasy. Today, it is something that reasonable people see as a possibility—and if it did happen it would cause a financial convulsion that would make the collapse of Lehman Brothers seem like a theme-park ride.

6. The Best of Times

Aug-26-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: But there are sound reasons for hope as well. And here we left out that Germany is eliminating nukes, and France has banned fracking.

* Fewest War Deaths in 100 Years Joshua S. Goldstein Foreign Policy

The early 21st century seems awash in wars: the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, street battles in Somalia, Islamist insurgencies in Pakistan, massacres in the Congo, genocidal campaigns in Sudan. All in all, regular fighting is taking place in 18 wars around the globe today. Public opinion reflects this sense of an ever more dangerous world: One survey a few years ago found that 60 percent of Americans considered a third world war likely….

In fact, the last decade has seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years, based on data compiled by researchers Bethany Lacina and Nils Petter Gleditsch of the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Worldwide, deaths caused directly by war-related violence in the new century have averaged about 55,000 per year, just over half of what they were in the 1990s (100,000 a year), a third of what they were during the Cold War (180,000 a year from 1950 to 1989), and a hundredth of what they were in World War II. If you factor in the growing global population, which has nearly quadrupled in the last century, the decrease is even sharper. Far from being an age of killer anarchy, the 20 years since the Cold War ended have been an era of rapid progress toward peace.

* Global poverty rate falling, says UN Mark Tran The Guardian

The world is still on track to signficantly lower poverty rates despite setbacks from recent economic, food and energy crises, but progress has been uneven, the UN said on Thursday.

The overall poverty rate is expected to fall below 15% – well below the 23% target set in the millennium development goals (MDGs) – by 2015, fulfilling the target of the first MDG of halving between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people living on less than $1 day. The gains come despite the economic and financial crisis of 2008 that began in the US and Europe. That the world remains on track is due to the momentum of growth in the developing world. In absolute numbers, the number of people in developing countries in extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 a day) is projected to fall below 900 million

* Iceland’s On-going Revolution Daily Kos

As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here’s why…

Protests and riots continued, eventually forcing the government to resign….What happened next was extraordinary. The belief that citizens had to pay for the mistakes of a financial monopoly, that an entire nation must be taxed to pay off private debts was shattered, transforming the relationship between citizens and their political institutions and eventually driving Iceland’s leaders to the side of their constituents. The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

Of course the international community only increased the pressure on Iceland. Great Britain and Holland threatened dire reprisals that would isolate the country. As Icelanders went to vote, foreign bankers threatened to block any aid from the IMF. The British government threatened to freeze Icelander savings and checking accounts. As Grimsson said: “We were told that if we refused the international community’s conditions, we would become the Cuba of the North. But if we had accepted, we would have become the Haiti of the North.”…In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt.

* Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Maize Fields Planetsave

In an effort to rid the country of Monsanto’s GMO products, Hungary has stepped up the pace. This looks like its going to be another slap in the face for Monsanto. A new regulation was introduced this March which stipulates that seeds are supposed to be checked for GMO before they are introduced to the market. Unfortunately, some GMO seeds made it to the farmers without them knowing it.

Almost 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds have been destroyed throughout Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar said. The GMO maize has been ploughed under, said Lajos Bognar, but pollen has not spread from the maize, he added. Unlike several EU members, GMO seeds are banned in Hungary.

4. Europe Swings Right

Jun-17-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: It is stretching to call Berlusconi’s defeat a rightward swing (more likely the Italians got tired of too much bungle-bungle), but the left in Greece in on the verge of collapse, in Portugal they’ve been ousted, in Turkey Erdogan (centre-right) consolidates his power, and everywhere (except Turkey, obviously) the anti-Islamic parties are gaining support. Here are some analyses, starting with specifics and moving to the general.

* Portugal swings right The Guardian

Portugal has moved sharply to the right after a general election saw socialist prime minister José Sócrates ousted by opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho as the country voted under the shadow of a €78bn euro bailout package….Sócrates admitted defeat and said he would stand down as party leader. “The Socialist party lost these elections,” he said.

The vote saw yet another left-wing government ejected from power in Europe because of the economic crisis, with the socialists paying heavily for the sharp downturn that forced the country to seek a financial rescue package. Only five left-wing-led governments now remain among the 27 member states – in Spain, Greece, Austria, Slovenia and Cyprus.

* Greece In Turmoil As Papandreou Tries To Salvage Government The Guardian

The economic and social mayhem gripping Europe’s peripheries appeared to have claimed the scalp of another government after the Greek prime minister admitted he could not drive through reforms to shore up the beleaguered economy, and offered to make way for a government of national unity.

After a day on which tens of thousands marched on parliament to oppose the swingeing austerity measures designed to stave off bankruptcy, George Papandreou effectively conceded that he had not been able to muster enough support in parliament for the swingeing cuts required by international creditors to enable Greece to balance its books.

* Turkey: Admiration And Apprehension The Guardian

Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, boasts an election-winning record of which other European leaders can only dream. Sunday’sgeneral election victory for his AKP party was not just his third in a row. It was also his most emphatic yet. When the AKP first won power in 2002, it got 10.7m votes and a 34.3% share. On Sunday, on an 87% turnout that puts other countries to shame, Mr Erdogan hoisted those figures to 21.4m (double his 2002 support) and a 49.9% share. Bizarrely, under Turkey’s idiosyncratic proportional representation system, this means the AKP now has 326 members in the 550-seat parliament, compared with 363 in 2002. But this decline in AKP seats, though politically very important, should not detract from a stellar electoral achievement.

Mr Erdogan commands the Turkish political scene thanks to one factor above all – the economy. Turkey continues to grow at around 9% a year; GDP per head has nearly doubled since 2002; and Turkish exports have nearly tripled. In particular, the AKP has delivered a transformation in life chances for the largely rural, predominantly religiously conservative but highly entrepreneurial Anatolian Turks who form its power base. Life across many parts of central and eastern Turkey is incomparably better today than 20 years ago. In the election campaign Mr Erdogan promised major new public works to carry the momentum further. While other European politicians battle to avoid the blame for economic downturn, Mr Erdogan claims the credit for economic success and as a result surges onward politically.

* Berlusconi’s nuclear power plans crushed The Guardian

The anti-nuclear movement won a crushing victory in Italy on Monday when well over 90% of voters rejected Silvio Berlusconi’s plans for a return to nuclear power generation.

The result represented an overwhelming setback for the prime minister, who had tried to thwart the outcome by discouraging Italians from taking part. The referendum needed a turnout of at least 50% to be binding. Interior ministry figures projections indicated that more than 57% of the electorate had taken part. Greenpeace called it a historic result. Quorums were also reached in three other referendums held simultaneously – the first time in 16 years that a quorum had been achieved in any referendum in Italy.

Official projections showed more than 95% of voters rejecting water privatisation and a law allowing Berlusconi and other ministers to cite government business as a reason for delaying trials in which they were defendants. The expected majority against nuclear power was 94%…. The ballot was also the latest, and most persuasive, evidence that a majority of Italians have turned against their flamboyant prime minister.

* While The European Left Dithers, The Right Marches Menacingly On Will Hutton The Observer

The longer the left’s response is confused, the more the populist right has begun to make anti-immigrant attitudes culturally acceptable. Unless a quick response can be found to the economic dislocation, uncertain job prospects and sense that European states cannot offer their populations security that is feeding the current mood, noxious attitudes will start to become culturally and politically entrenched. …For what is unifying all Europe’s populist right is outright hostility to Muslims. What has triggered the attack on the Schengen Agreement is fear of another wave of Muslim immigrants from north Africa. But immigration controls are only as strong as their weakest link – and every national European politician is prey to electors’ fears that the EU or another country is just that weakest link. Thus the descent into beggar my neighbour anti-immigration policies. But these quickly become beggar my neighbour tax and trade policies. It is a culture of closure, negation and mutual suspicion.

To stop this movement becoming a stampede, the European left has to find a more certain voice. It must argue passionately for a good capitalism that will drive growth, employment and living standards by a redoubled commitment to innovation and investment. It must spearhead the case for new international rules of governance that can make citizens believe that globalisation is not a terrifying threat; it need not be a charter for bankers making dynastic fortunes for doing nothing valuable, nor an unstoppable force homogenising national cultures.

7. Know Your Enemy

Apr-01-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: It may be helpful, whether you’re depressed or not, to know exactly who the enemy is.That’s why the CIA has a team who try to analyze leaders who might be the enemy, someday. To Paul Farrell, the super-rich are the enemy. In an earlier piece he quotes Warren Buffet,“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Here he discusses what’s needed. And if these aren’t your enemies, sing along with the Toronto Complaints Choir live, and maybe you’ll find them lurking in one of the verses.

* C.I.A. Profiling Delves Into the Minds of Global Leaders New York Times

He is a delusional narcissist who will fight until his last breath. Or an impulsive showman who will hop the next flight out of town when cornered. Or maybe he’s a psychopath, a coldly calculating strategist — crazy, like a desert fox…..At least one group has tried to construct a profile based on scientific methods, and its conclusions are the ones most likely to affect American policy. For decades, analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense have compiled psychological assessments of hostile leaders like Colonel Qaddafi, Kim Jong-il of North Korea and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, as well as allies, potential successors and other prominent officials.

… The resulting forecasts suggest that “at-a-distance profiling,” as it is known, is still more an art than a science. So in a crisis like the one in Libya, it is crucial to know the assessments’ potential value and real limitations.

“Expert profilers are better at predicting behavior than a blindfolded chimpanzee, all right, but the difference is not as large as you’d hope it would be,” said Philip Tetlock, a psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?”.

* Tax the Super Rich now or face a revolution Paul B. Farrell – MarketWatch

Revolutions build over long periods — to critical mass, a flash point. Then they ignite suddenly, unpredictably. Like Egypt, started on a young Google executive’s Facebook page. Then it goes viral, raging uncontrollably. Can’t be stopped. Here in America the set-up is our nation’s pervasive “Super-Rich Delusion.”

We know the Super Rich don’t care. Not about you. Nor the American public. They can’t see. Can’t hear. Stay trapped in their Forbes-400 bubble. An echo chamber that isolates them. They see the public as faceless workers, customers, taxpayers. See GOP power on the ascent. Reaganomics is back. Unions on the run. Clueless masses are easily manipulated
….Our top 1% honestly believe they’re immune, protected from the unintended consequences of beating down average Americans for three decades with the free-market, trickle-down Reaganomics doctrines that made them Super Rich. They honestly believe those same doctrines will protect them in the next depression. Why? Because they have megabucks stashed away. Provisions for the long haul. Live in gated compounds with mercenaries guarding them..

* The Toronto Complaints Choir The Toronto Star

Have something to complain about? Try singing it instead. The Toronto Complaints Choir took over St. Lawrence Market for their first public performance. (Video by Randy Risling)

5. How the Economy “Works”

Nov-26-2010 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: It’s always hard to find explanations of what causes the economic shifts that rock our world. Riots in Greece, in France, in London, in Dublin… but what’s the overview? Tikkunista had the happy discovery of Gonzalo Lira this week (his bio is mind-blowing!) who writes about economics like a latter day Hunter S Thompson. We supplement him with a NYTimes piece that makes it clear where the disappearing money is going, and a look at the US military expenditure and where it’s going.

* For Europe’s Future, Spain Is All That Matters Gonzalo Lira

Last Spring it was Greece that was in crisis mode—then last week, it was Ireland—and coming up next is Portugal— but all those pale in comparison to Spain.

If I had to bet on which country will bring about the end of the Euro—and perhaps even the end of the European Union—I’d have to say it’s Spain.

… Just like they did with Greece, the European officials colossally fucked up the bail-out package for Ireland. It turns out that—far from having put together a detailed package that could be swiftly implemented, and thereby restore confidence—the EU/ECB/IMF troika have only a flimsy framework for the Irish bailout. The vaunted European Financial Stability Facility? It’s not even fully funded yet! …Coupled to that, the bail-out announcement sparked a political fire-storm in Ireland—Cowen’s coalition partners, the Green Party, exited the government, and elections are now scheduled for January. There are even calls from Cowen’s own party for his immediate resignation.

This is bad enough—so what does the IMF go and do? Why, with exquisite political tone-deafness, it sends the clear message that Ireland is going to have to crawl if it wants the bail out: John Lipsky, a muckety-muck in the IMF, says to Reuters that“our work there [in Ireland] is technical, not political. Decisions have to be made by [the Irish] government.” In other words, the IMF isn’t going to negotiate with Ireland—it’s going to dictate. Or in other words, the IMF is saying, Beg for the money, you Irish bitches!.

* U.S. Corporate Profits Hit Record in Third Quarter New York Times

The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever.

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter,according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or noninflation-adjusted terms.

* US Military Expenditures (vs rest of the world) globalsecurity.org (table)

* US Military Bases World Wide (image)

4. Anti-Capitalist Protest Worldwide (not yet available in the US)

Oct-15-2010 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Don’t you also find yourself amazed how the financial crash didn’t produce a rise in working-class (and middle-class) anger towards the wiping out of their lives’ savings, particularly given the rise in the gap between the rich and poor? Well, the protests are starting, big time, in Europe. In the US anger has been successfully channelled towards liberals by the Koch-funded Tea partiers, or left to metastasize into depression

* Huge pensions protests in France – Europe Al Jazeera

Mass protests across France against plans to raise the retirement age were even larger than demonstrations held earlier this month, according to figures from both the government and a labour union. The CFDT union said 3.5 million people had joined the demonstrations on Tuesday, while the interior ministry said 1.23 million demonstrators had turned out.

* Global Unemployment To Trigger Further Social Unrest Guardian.Co.Uk

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned of growing social unrest because it fears global employment will not now recover until 2015. This is two years later than its earlier estimate that the labour market would rebound to pre-crisis levels by 2013. About 22 million new jobs are needed – 14 million in rich countries and 8 million in developing nations.

The United Nations work agency today warned of a long “labour market recession” and noted that social unrest related to the crisis had already been reported in at least 25 countries, including some recovering emerging economies.

* Iceland’s Politicians Flee From Demos

Protesters took to the streets of Reykjavik today, forcing MPs to run away from the people they represent as renewed anger about the impact of the financial crisis erupted in Iceland.

The violent protest came amid growing fury at austerity measures being imposed across Europe. Disruption in more than a dozen countries this week included a national strike in Spain and a cement truck driven into the Irish parliament’s gates.

* Nearly One In 10 In US Depressed, Employment A Factor

Nearly one in 10 Americans is depressed, and one in 30 meets the criteria for major depression, with the rate higher among the unemployed or those who can’t work, a study said Thursday. Nine percent of more than 235,000 adults polled from 2006-2008 in 45 US states, the capital Washington, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, met the criteria for depression, and 3.4 percent for “major” depression, according to the study by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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5. Apple, Foxconn, and Economics

1. Why Occupy Wall Street?

5. Comparing Countries, by the Numbers

9. Useful Comparisons

2. Inside Wall Street

3. “There’s Something Happening Here”: The Spreading Protest

4. What’s Gone Wrong with Capitalism?

6. The Best of Times

4. Europe Swings Right

7. Know Your Enemy

5. How the Economy “Works”

4. Anti-Capitalist Protest Worldwide (not yet available in the US)

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