Is the United States at long last getting serious about global imbalances, or are we risking currency wars that can end in unmitigated disaster for all? By Korkut Ertürk October 13, 2010 CREDIT: Prashant Zi (CC). Is the United States at long last getting serious about global imbalances, or are we risking currency wars that [...]

It is important to recall lessons that we once knew more confidently and which we now need to update.  One lesson that we learnt in the 30s was that, when oligopoly capitalism goes into a major crisis of demand, trying to engineer an escape in the realm of paper assets is not only doomed but [...]

Can we expect that an alternative to what looks like certain death for the planet will come from the imagination that has brought about this crisis in the first place? It seems unlikely. The alternative, if there is one, will emerge from the places and the people who have resisted the hegemonic impulse of capitalism [...]

Is there some intent here behind—. Like, the traditional conservative view of what you do at times of crisis, economic crisis like this is you, quote-unquote, let the economy take its natural course, which is let things close down, let there be massive unemployment, you know, destroy all the overcapacity, and then you can rebuild [...]

There are three dimensions to the current, unprecedented global crisis of capitalism: economic, ecological, and political. This is not just a crisis of improperly regulated markets. It is a crisis of unequal distribution, and it should be asked why labor continues to suffer. Business as usual is not an option. Our starting point must be [...]

The law locks up the hapless felon who steals the goose from off the common, but lets the greater felon loose who steals the common from the goose. -Anonymous, England, 1821 Arundhati Roy, 11 September 2010 A powerful indictment of Indian democracy by the Booker Prize-winning novelist and activist. Indian opposition activists protest outside the [...]

America and Europe face the worst jobs crisis since the 1930s and risk “an explosion of social unrest” unless they tread carefully, the International Monetary Fund has warned. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The labour market is in dire straits. The Great Recession has left behind a waste land of unemployment,” said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s chief, [...]

History is teaching its own lessons, and is not to be denied. The current recovery that began a year ago is already losing ground before having gained steam: “Along with the U.S. economy, the global economy in terms of growth rates is turning back down. And we’re doing it in a fairly synchronized manner. Pretty much [...]

The business and political leaders generated by the last 30 years of neoliberal capitalism simply assumed that they could impose the costs of their crisis on their countries’ people.  That assumption is now being contested.  The European people are beginning to fight back. By Rick Wolff Where is this elusive recovery?  The banks, some say, [...]

We’re at a point at which there is a convergence between, you know, I think, the short-term interests of a revival, of an economic revival, and the long-term transition to an egalitarian growth model that would benefit even very large sectors of the financial industry. we’re at that point (not that everybody recognizes that yet).” [...]