Economic « Tikkunista!

May 18th, 2012 :: Year 9, Issue 18

May-18-2012 | Comments (0)

1. Europe Swerves Left

Bird’s Eye: In the past fortnight Greece, France, and Germany all have voted against austerity as a solution to economic problems. We precede individual articles about each with two overviews: Paul Krugman looks at the possible breakup of the Euro, while Adam Gopnik writes about how successful the EU has been at reining in European nationalism. It remains unclear where we’re going, or why everyone is in these hand-baskets.

* Eurodämmerung Paul Krugman New York Times

Some of us have been talking it over, and here’s what we think the end game looks like:

1. Greek euro exit, very possibly next month.

2. Huge withdrawals from Spanish and Italian banks, as depositors try to move their money to Germany.

3a. Maybe, just possibly, de facto controls, with banks forbidden to transfer deposits out of country and limits on cash withdrawals.

3b. Alternatively, or maybe in tandem, huge draws on ECB credit to keep the banks from collapsing.

4a. Germany has a choice. Accept huge indirect public claims on Italy and Spain, plus a drastic revision of strategy — basically, to give Spain in particular any hope you need both guarantees on its debt to hold borrowing costs down and a higher eurozone inflation target to make relative price adjustment possible; or:

4b. End of the euro.

* Hollande, Sarkozy, and Democracy in France Adam Gopnik The New Yorker

The hope of American liberals that an Hollande victory would vindicate their position that austerity is bad policy—even though that may be the case—seems unlikely to take hold here. To the American right, anything that goes wrong in Europe does so because Europe is wrong, and not because of austerity, because austerity is right.

This anti-European bias is producing an indecent-seeming amount of schadenfreude—on the right but also on the left—about the prospect of the dissolution of the European Union. The potential Franco-German split, Germany’s own ambivalences, the Greek crisis, the fall of the Dutch government, the backslide of the British economy—the tone about all this is oddly punitive here, as though the E.U. had been the product of some Brussels bureaucrat’s utopian folly rather than a miracle of coexistence wrought by a handful of quiet visionaries after more than fifty years of catastrophe. In thinking about Europe and its union, the number that one needs to keep in mind is not the rate of the euro exchange or the measure of the Greek deficit but a simpler one, of sixty million.

That is the approximate (and probably understated) number of Europeans killed in the thirty years between 1914 and 1945, victims of wars of competing nationalisms on a tragically divided continent. The truth needs re-stating: social democracy in Europe, embodied by its union, has been one of the greatest successes in history.

* Eurozone crisis: Merkel tells Athens and Paris to stick to spending limits The Guardian

Europe’s 30-month effort to save the euro by slashing spending and debt levels risks turning into a crisis of political legitimacy after EU leaders’ strategies collided spectacularly with the wishes of voters inGreece and France.

The impasse was most graphically demonstrated when Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, insisted Athens must comply with the stringent terms of its €130bn (£100bn) bailout even though more than 60% of the Greek electorate had voted for parties rejecting those terms.

Following a French election campaign in which she strongly backed the loser, Nicolas Sarkozy, and snubbed the president-elect, François Hollande, Merkel stressed her opposition to Hollande’s central campaign pledge: reopening the euro’s new rulebook, or fiscal pact.

“That’s just not on,” she told a Berlin press conference called to address the huge shift from right to left in France.

* In Rebuke to Merkel, Social Democrats Win German Vote New York Times

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered a stinging defeat in Germany’s most populous state, one likely to embolden her opposition both at home and abroad as the European debt crisis enters a critical new phase.

One week after Socialists seized the French presidency, the Social Democrats won the parliamentary election in North Rhine-Westphalia, early results and exit polls released Sunday showed….The strong showing for Ms. Kraft and the Social Democrats, as well as what the German news media described as a “debacle” and a “disaster” for the conservatives, sends a clear signal that Ms. Merkel could face a difficult road to re-election.

* Greece Takes A Leap Into The Dark, Driven By Defiance And Despair Maria Magaronis The Guardian

The message of Sunday’s election in Greece is clear: the Greeks have said no to more of the cuts and austerity measures that have devastated the country, pushing unemployment above 20%, shattering the healthcare system, tearing families apart and leading some to suicide. It was above all a vote of rage against the two major parties, Pasok and New Democracy, which between them ran the economy into the ground, signed up to a disastrous austerity programme in exchange for dead-end bailouts from the EU and IMF, and then allowed the blows to fall on the most vulnerable.

The medium, though, is more confused and troubling. As elsewhere in Europe, the draining away of the centre has revealed a jagged landscape: the shorthand of “extremes of left and right” doesn’t begin to map it. The most obvious rift in Greece in the last months – a rift that’s been described to me more than once as a “civil war”– has been between those who are for and against the “memorandum”, the EU/IMF schedule of demands. The pro-memorandum forces want to keep Greece in the eurozone at any cost; most of their opponents also want to stay in Europe – but not of “Merkozy”, austerity and the banks.

2. Canada: Three Left Jabs

Apr-27-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: The NDP (are they still the socialist party? Well, the left-wing party, anyway) is now tied in the polls nationally with the Conservatives, (resulting in a desperate Stephen Harper falling prey to Godwin’s Law.) Across the country there are signs that the political pendulum is swinging back to the left… here are three from this week.

* Alberta Election Proves Red Tories Alive And Well Thomas Walkom The Toronto Star

When Stephen Harper took over the right in 2004, his victory appeared to signal the demise of that stock figure in Canadian politics, the Red Tory. Harper’s more muscular brand of conservatism had little use for those who thought government had a legitimate role in restraining markets.

…But as events in Alberta and Ontario showed this week, Red Toryism — that peculiar Canadian mix of conservative and communitarian ideologies — is alive and well…. After 41 years of PC rule in the province, a victory by Danielle Smith’s upstart Wildrose Party had seemed inevitable….But in the end Albertans rejected Smith in favour of Redford’s more progressive conservatism.

Why the federal-provincial disconnect? Certainly Albertans seem to think that Harper’s hard-line Conservatives will better protect their interests in far-away Ottawa. But at home, they are much like other Canadians. They want a provincial government that will not only manage its finances well but that will soften some of the edges of the free-market economy. Or, to put it another way, they want a Red Tory government.

* McGuinty Agrees To Horwath’s Tax-The-Rich Scheme The Toronto Star

Premier Dalton McGuinty has agreed to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath’s “tax-the-rich” scheme in order to ensure the minority Liberals’ budget passes Tuesday, averting a snap election call….The tax — which would cost someone making $600,000 an extra $3,120 annually — will be in place until Ontario balances the budget, now scheduled for 2017-18. Horwath also said the 1 per cent increase to Ontario Works welfare benefits and Ontario Disability Support Plan, which will cost the government $55 million, made the budget “a little more fair.”

… Horwath’s proposal is popular with Ontarians — a Forum poll last week suggested 78 per cent support with only 17 per cent opposition — and many Grit MPPs urged McGuinty to adopt the levy. But last week the premier expressed reservations in part because he still bears scars from raising taxes after the 2003 and 2007 elections despite promising not to do so. At the Liberals’ caucus meeting last Tuesday, MPPs and cabinet ministers spoke overwhelmingly in favour of making the concession to Horwath — to McGuinty’s chagrin.

* Anger Mounting Over Quebec Student Boycott Crisis Globe and Mail

The more than 10-week student strike over tuition fee hikes, the longest ever in Quebec, may have reached its breaking point. Faced with civil disobedience and violent confrontations, Quebeckers are demanding a speedy end to the conflict. After spending millions of dollars on extra policing over the past two months, Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay called on the government and students to find a solution…..

Yet Quebec Premier Jean Charest remained firmly entrenched in his position. And the students, well-organized, articulate and persistent, refused to retreat. Meanwhile, public opinion polls show a record level of voter disapproval toward the government. Voters criticize Mr. Charest’s handling of the student-strike issue. …Professors, teachers, intellectuals and even prominent Liberals have urged the Premier to temporarily suspend the tuition fee hikes and end the crisis. Some even suggested that Mr. Charest had a hidden agenda and was deliberately polarizing the debate and dividing the students as part of a pre-election strategy….

Angered by the Premier’s refusal to respond, Ms. Marois lashed out at him. “These are our children that are in the streets. These are our children getting belly-clubbed and pushed around,” Ms Marois said. “I’m looking the Premier in the eyes and telling him he is responsible.”

3. Günter Grass, Israel, and that Poem

Apr-27-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: “Poetry makes nothing happen” wrote Auden. Günter Grass (who’s he?) seems to have disproved that theory, as his poem criticizing Israel resulted not only in heated debate but got him banished from Israel. Below, the poem itself (we report; you decide) and two Jewish perspectives. Rabbi Rosen’s link is devastating accurate.

* Günter Grass: ‘What Must Be Said’ The Guardian

But why have I kept silent till now?

Because I thought my own origins,

tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,

meant I could not expect Israel, a land

to which I am, and always will be, attached,

to accept this open declaration of the truth.

* Günter the Terrible Uri Avnery Counterpunch

Grass has done the unthinkable: he has openly criticized the State of Israel! And he a German!!!

The reaction was automatic. He was at once branded as an anti-Semite. Not just a run-of-the-mill anti-Semite, but as a crypto-Nazi, who could easily have served as a henchman of Adolf Eichmann! This was shown by the fact that at age 17, near the end of World War II, he was recruited to the Waffen-SS like tens of thousands of others and then – oddly enough – kept the fact hidden for many years. So there you are.

Israeli and German politicians and commentators vied with each other in cursing the writer, with the Germans easily trumping the Israelis. Though our Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, may have garnered the individual championship by declaring Grass persona non grata and banning him from entering Israel for all eternity (at least)….

So what did Grass actually say?

* What Must Be Said: We All Profit from Occupations Rabbi Brant Rosen

There’s been a great deal of analysis written about German writer Gunther Grass’ now-infamous new poem, “What Must Be Said” (in which Grass criticized Israel’s nuclear program as endangering an “already fragile world peace.”) For me, the most astute response by far comes from Mideast historian Mark LeVine, writing in Al-Jazeera.

…These facts are that Israel, however egregious its crimes – and anyone who denies them is either completely ignorant or a moral idiot – is but one cog in a much larger global machine, one that includes too many other cases of occupation, exploitation, and wanton violence to list comprehensively here (we can name a few – Syria, China, Russia, India, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, the Congo, and of course, NATO and the United States – whose oppression, exploitation, and murder of their own or other peoples is a far more concrete “fact” than the potential for mass destruction caused by Israel’s nuclear programme)…

The larger fact is that the global economy is addicted to war, to militarism, oil and the rape of the planet for the minerals and resources that fuel the now globalised culture of hyperconsumption that will doom our descendants to a fate we dare not contemplate. Israel’s gluttony for Palestinian territory, and its willingness to encourage a regional nuclear arms race to keep it, is ultimately no different than the the gluttony for the 60-inch TV, the iPhone/Pad, the cavernous homes and cars, the ability to live at levels of consumption that are only sustainable if most of the world lives in poverty that increasingly defines all our cultures.

3. Occupy What?

Apr-20-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Whither or wither occupy? As spring comes, what will follow? The complaints it raised are clearly still as pressing as ever, but will the movement manage to become more than a branch of the Democratic party? And if so, how will they do it? Three intelligent perspectives look at those questions.

* The Itinerant US Left Has Found Its Home In The Occupy Movement Gary Younge The Guardian

The legacy of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is still in the making. Those who believe it came from nowhere and has disappeared just as quickly are wrong on both counts. Most occupiers were already politically active in a range of campaigns. What the occupations did was bring them together in one place and refract their disparate messages through the broader lens of inequality. The occupations were less an isolated outpouring of discontent than a decisive, dynamic moment in an evolving process.

Over the last decade in the US there has been an itinerant quality to the progressive left. Activists have sought shelter in the anti-war movement, Howard Dean’s primary campaign, gay rights, immigrants’ rights or the Obama campaign. Each more powerful and hopeful than the last; each too narrowly focused and lacking the social or economic base to sustain it. In the occupations, these political vagrants found a home.

* Is The Occupy Movement Being Hijacked? Al Jazeera English (Thanks Gabe)

After a quiet winter, Occupy Wall Street is gearing up again for a summer of protest. Four months after they were evicted from bases across the country, protesters are emerging once more to camp out in New York’s financial hub. It is a movement that, at its peak, brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets of the US – united by a common anger at the excesses of the financial industry, and a dismay at government unwillingness to rein it in. There is a day of mass protest and a general strike planned for May 1. The renewed demonstrations will undoubtedly be accompanied by renewed questions about the movement itself – some say is too unfocused in its objectives.

…But now a rival group has emerged – called the 99% Spring – which says it wants to train protesters for a campaign of peaceful protest. Critics have denounced the group as a Democratic Party attempt to galvanise support for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Nonetheless, some former Occupy protesters are now advocating that change should come from within the government itself. So with a rival action group emerging, how is the Occupy Wall Street movement developing? Is the movement’s message in danger of getting hijacked by Obama’s re-election campaign?

* Timothy Noah, Charles Murray, and America’s Inequality The New Yorker

The most striking change in American society in the past generation—roughly since Ronald Reagan was elected President—has been the increase in the inequality of income and wealth. Timothy Noah’s “The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It” (Bloomsbury), a good general guide to the subject, tells us that in 1979 members of the much discussed “one per cent” got nine per cent of all personal income. Now they get a quarter of it. The gains have increased the farther up you go. The top tenth of one per cent get about ten per cent of income, and the top hundredth of one per cent about five per cent. While the Great Recession was felt most severely by those at the bottom, the recovery has hardly benefitted them. In 2010, ninety-three per cent of the year’s gains went to the top one per cent.

Since rich people are poorer in votes than they are in dollars, you’d think that, in an election year, the ninety-nine per cent would look to politics to get back some of what they’ve lost, and that inequality would be a big issue. So far, it hasn’t been. Occupy Wall Street and its companion movements briefly spurred President Obama to become more populist in his rhetoric, but there’s no sign that Occupy is going to turn into the kind of political force that the Tea Party movement has been.

3. Syria: Will Assad Survive?

Feb-24-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Two articles arguing that Assad’s rule will survive in Syria. Rosen analyzes the fragmented nature of the opposition within Syria; War Tard does a superb job of looking at the gridlock country by country that prevents any intervention. And the Times’ piece exemplifies the pointless posturing to which Western leaders have been reduced.

* Nir Rosen’s predictions for Syria Al Jazeera (Thanks, Gabe!)

Journalist Nir Rosen recently spent two months in Syria. As well as meeting members of various communities across the country – supporters of the country’s rulers and of the opposition alike – he spent time with armed resistance groups in Homs, Idlib, Deraa, and Damascus suburbs.

Al Jazeera: To quote General David Petraeus in Iraq: ‘Tell me how this ends.’
Nir Rosen: The regime can survive for a long time, even if it steadily loses control of territory within the country. It is very unlikely that there will be any large-scale international military intervention. In Washington, there is a great deal of frustration. Zionists and advocates of the muscular use of US power, including several Republicans, are calling for Obama to arm the opposition. Even the neoconservatives are climbing out from under their rocks to call for a US military intervention. Fox News has seized on this cause too.
Contrary to conspiracy theories, until now the Obama administration has not made the policy decision to aid the opposition on the ground, as far as I know, let alone provide it with weapons. US and European officials who would like to intervene in Syria complain that there is no “silver bullet” or easy option for them. They don’t even know who to support inside Syria. The exiled opposition, such as the Syrian National Council, are too busy fighting among themselves and too disconnected from events on the ground, so the outside powers do not even have a convenient local collaborator or proxy to deal with.

* The Syrian Uprising: No Foreign Intervention When You’ve Got No Oil? War Tard

The fun question is whether NATO or the Russians or even the Arab League will get involved to stop the shooting? And the short answer is no. For lots of reasons, not all of which are predicated on the fact that, unlike say Libya, Syria has no oil so there’s nothing obvious for anyone to grab. That doesn’t mean that Syria doesn’t figure in to our global proxy resource war future. It’s geography is pretty critical in Middle East strategic terms and that makes it important enough that Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel and the US all have a stake in how this mess plays out. That, paradoxically, means it’s probably too risky for any foreign player to allow a rival power to get directly involved. That’s really bad news if you’re a Syrian protester dodging artillery fire. This war has long drawn out stalemate written all over it.

… Let’s take a look at the complex web of foreign players with a stake in this mess.

Israel: Obviously, Israel would like Syria destabilized but this is a risky game even for them. When Mubarak fell in Egypt, they lost a compliant dictator on their southern border. It remains to be seen if a new regime in Damascus would be compliant enough to settle the Golan Heights dispute. Strangely, you can throw Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Sunni Arab US allies in the region in with Israel as they all fear the growing power of Iran. A weakened Syria plays to this interest.

* Wounded Journalists Appeal for Evacuation From Homs New York Times

A French reporter wounded in the Syrian government’s bombardment of Homs made a video appeal on Thursday for a cease-fire and evacuation for urgent medical attention. “My leg is broken at the level of the femur, along its length and also horizontally,” said the reporter, Edith Bouvier, in a video posted by antigovernment activists. “I need to be operated upon as soon as possible.”…

The journalists had taken great risks to enter the besieged city and report on that part of a government crackdown that has left thousands of civilians dead. The government’s assault on the makeshift media center where the journalists were working brought a new intensity to international condemnations of President Bashar al-Assad and his forces. Activists who created the media center said that satellite transmitters on the roof had probably been spotted by Syrian reconnaissance aircraft before the strike.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France called the journalists’ killings “murder” and repeated demands that the Syrian government stop attacking peaceful demonstrators and allow humanitarian aid from abroad. He said that “this regime should leave” power. “Those who did this will have to account for it,” Mr. Sarkozy said during a campaign visit to northern France. “Thanks to globalization, you can no longer commit murder under cover of utter silence.”

2. Austerity Fail

Feb-17-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: There is an overwhelming push to cut benefits, vacation time, pensions, and medical support across much of the Western world. But why? How much of this is just the 1% pushing for more in the bonus packet? Where is the evidence that this “tough medicine” offers any likelihood of a cure? We look at two perspectives on Greece, and then to Ontario, where massive cuts to the social net have been proposed to offset the massive cuts to taxes. For historical context, watch 4 minutes of Huey Long, fighting the same battle in 1934.

* European Doubts Growing over Greece Debt StrategyDer Spiegel

The plan to save Greece, it turns out, is based on assumptions that have proven to be hopelessly optimistic. Europe’s leaders had assumed that Greece would quickly return to economic growth. But the severity of the austerity measures demanded makes that doubtful. Cuts in salaries and social spending have resulted in a dramatic drop in demand, which has accelerated the economy’s contraction. Tax revenues have plunged as a result, leading to the need for even more spending cuts.

That is hardly a recipe for coming to terms with the country’s debt problem, particularly given the lack of clarity regarding the degree to which Greece’s private creditors will participate in the new bailout package….Yet even as international investors are hesitant, the Greek population has passed its judgment. Greeks, it would appear, no longer want to be rescued if it means even lower minimum wages and yet more pension cuts.

The Athens-based left-leaning daily To Vima urged its government last week to break off the talks “immediately” and negotiate an alternative arrangement with the United States. Greece still had the “power to blow everything up,” the paper said, adding that this was “the only remaining path.”

* What passes for smart on the Greek Debt Crisis Ian Welsh

Westerners thought that they could have consumer democracy: they didn’t have to participate in it except at election time, when they would vote for parties and platforms paid for and produced by someone other than them. Coke™/Pepsi™ politics – you have a choice, you can choose either Coke or Pepsi! Politicians aren’t paid by you (their salaries are the least part of their real income) why would you think they care about your concerns?

You don’t pay for politicians or politics. This is the Facebook rule: if you don’t pay the freight, you aren’t the customer, you are the product. Politicians compete for the money and favors of the rich, and what they sell is the ability to wrangle you: to pass the austerity bills, to cut the benefits, to privatize the jewels of the public system, to force through the multi-trillion dollar bailouts. They control government for the benefit of the rich.

And the rich pay all the way down the line. They control the media, right down to the bottom, to make sure that what is discussed is what they want discussed, in the terms they want it discussed. That default isn’t that bad: forbidden. That currency controls mitigate damage in these circumstances: forbidden. That lenders will lend to defaulting countries almost immediately: forbidden.

* Drummond Report To Cut Deeper And Last Longer Than Harris Reforms Of 1990S rabble.ca

According to Drummond, eliminating the deficit by 2018 will require cutting program spending in real terms by 16.2 per cent over the next seven years. The Conservative government of Mike Harris cut program spending by 4.7 per cent in the first four years, but was forced to raise spending in the second term for a total increase of 5.6 per cent over the 8-year period.

Drummond’s report has drawn fire for recommending increased privatization, including of health care and education services, despite the Commission’s mandate explicitly forbidding it.

…..The report is based on assumed GDP growth of only 2 per cent annually from 2014-18 –lower than the Ministry of Finance projections — and the goal of eliminating Ontario’s deficit by 2018.

The Commission was prohibited from considering revenues, but a recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has shown that Ontario’s deficit is largely equal to the cuts to capital, corporate and income taxes under the Liberal and Conservative governments of the last 15 years. In the last year for which calculations were available, Ontario had forgone $15 billion in revenues due to these tax cuts.

* Huey Long: Share the Wealth YouTube, 4 minutes, 1934

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

Older Posts »

RSS Feed

May 18th, 2012 :: Year 9, Issue 18

2. Canada: Three Left Jabs

3. Günter Grass, Israel, and that Poem

3. Occupy What?

3. Syria: Will Assad Survive?

2. Austerity Fail

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

Categories

Blog Roll

Tags