Dani Rodrik, author of The Globalization Paradox and professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University, wrote an interesting article on contemporary economics called Occupy the Classroom? which comments on the Harvard students who walked out of an economics class taught by Greg Mankiw. While the students complained that the introductory economics course “propagates conservative ideology in the guise of economic science and helps perpetuate social inequality,” Rodrik insists that it is only at the undergraduate level (or in media reports) that economics conveys that impression. In Rodrik’s view, that appearance of conservative ideology evaporates at the graduate level. Consider the following: “Let…
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Rocky Anderson for U.S. Justice Party
Very interesting interview on Democracy Now: A new political party has entered the fray as an alternative to Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2012 elections. On Monday, the Justice Party formally kicked off its formation with an event in Washington. Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson will run for president on the Justice Party ticket. Although hailing from a solidly red state, Rocky Anderson has been known as one of the most progressive mayors of any major U.S. city in recent years. During his two mayoral terms from 2000 to 2008, Anderson was an outspoken champion of…
Student speaks up at the UNCCC in Durban
Anjali Appadurai, a student at the College of the Atlantic in Maine, addressed the United Nations Convention on Climate Change on behalf of youth delegates. It was a powerful speech. Some Quotes: I speak for more than half of the world’s population. We are the silent majority. You have given us a seat in this hall, but our interests are not on the table. What does it take to get a stake in this game? Lobbyists, Corporate Influence, Money? Now is not the time for incremental action In the long run, these will be seen as the defining moments of…
Constitutional amendment: corporations are not people
Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed an amendment to the Constitution to exclude corporations from First Amendment rights to spend money on political campaigns. The bill is a reaction to the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the government cannot put limits on election advertisements funded by corporations, unions, or other groups. Democrats have charged that the decision essentially treats corporations as people who can enjoy First Amendment rights. Some Quotes: Make no mistake, the Citizens United ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy, further tilting the balance of power toward…
Chain gangs are cheaper
As one could expect, Alabama’s tough new immigration law induced a large percentage of immigrants to flee the state. However, the Alabama legislators responsible for the new immigration law apparently either thought otherwise or simply underestimated the consequences this law would have for the agricultural sector, which is heavily reliant on low-waged Hispanics to do the hard labor and now struggling to replace the lost labor force. But fear not, for John McMillan, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries knows the solution to this problem. He suggests: […] that inmate labor through the state’s work-release program offers a…
Supreme Court might legalize medical patents
On the 7th December, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that raises a fundamental question of whether a physician can infringe a patent merely by using scientific research to inform her treatment decisions. ars technica covered the matter quite well: Prometheus (the company responsible for the particular case) claims much more than its specific testing process. It claims a physician administering thiopurine to a patient can infringe its patent merely by being aware of the scientific correlation disclosed in the patent—even if the doctor doesn’t act on the patent’s recommendations. The extraordinary claim prompted a broad coalition…
U.S. Congress and insider trading
Apparently there is a loophole in U.S. legislation that excludes Congress members from laws against insider-trading. According to an article published by the Business Insider many Congress members are guilty of abusing this loophole, including John Kerry, Dick Durbin, Jim Moran, and especially Spencer Bachus. Some quotes: According to a new book called Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer, as relayed by Dave Weigel at Slate, Rep. Bachus made more than 40 trades in his personal account in the summer and fall of 2008, in the early months of the financial crisis. The fact that Bachus personally traded on private…
Time magazine and American ignorance
Here is a comparison of the front page covers of recent editions of the various regional editions of Time magazine (US, Europe, Asia, South Pacific). These images have been circling around on the Internet lately. The discrepancy between the US versions and the others is so dramatic that it’s hard to believe, but if you look them up at Time Magazine, you can see for yourself that the images below are correct. Americans are notorious for their ignorance of world affairs. For instance, according to Rick Shenkman, Associate Professor of History at George Mason University, In 2003, the Strategic Task Force on…
Video: Seymour Hersh on propaganda for war with Iran
This Democracy Now interview on the propaganda for a war with Iran is an absolute must-see: Interesting quote: But there’s an element of rationality in the Israeli intelligence community that’s not being expressed by the political leadership. It’s the same madness we have here. There’s an element of rationality in our intelligence community which says, in ’07, and it has said it again last year, they don’t have the bomb. They’re not making it. It’s at NIE, 16 agencies agreed, 16 to nothing, in an internal vote, before that—they did an update in 2011 on the ’07 study and came…
Don’t let a financial crisis go to waste: use it to privatize public education
Another must-read article in The Nation magazine documents the successful efforts that are underway to privatize the last shreds of the crumbling public education system in the US. The author, Lee Fang, picks up where Naomi Klein ended in No Logo. Reader beware: the information contained in this article is extremely distressing and should not be read by those who are easily depressed.
Highs and lows in American politics
Four remarkable individuals (Amy Goodman, Michael Moore, Cornel West, and Chris Hedges) have really stood out lately in providing a coherent analysis of the Occupy Wall Street movement and an understanding of the social and political crisis that caused it. Here are two moving interviews worth watching: 1) Amy Goodman and Chris Hedges on Charlie Rose; 2) Cornel West and Michael Moore on Democracy Now. At the extreme other end of the spectrum, Ed Lee has just recently released this politic ad for his election campaign, demonstrating the depths to which American politics can sink:
The network of global corporate control
Unfortunately, though there are many books and articles written on the tight grip multinational corporations have on global governance, there is relatively little empirical research conducted on this matter. This recently published paper by Swiss researchers however provides some practical empirical evidence and background research on the network of global corporate control: Abstract: The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along…
Study reveals that traders are worse than psychopaths
St. Gallen University in Switzerland recently conducted a study to examine the differences and similarities between stock market traders, clinically diagnosed psychopaths, and representative “normal” citizens when tested with the classic prisoners dilemma game. As expected, the traders revealed a much higher penchant for competitive advantage and destructive behavior than the “normals”. What wasn’t expected–and what is highly interesting–is that the traders outdid the clinical psychopaths in psychopathic tendencies. Thomas Noll, one of the conductors of the study said in a Spiegel interview: “Naturally one can’t characterize the traders as deranged, but for example, they behaved more egotistically and were more willing…
Anonymous exposes the pedophiles
Apparently the latest Operation Darknet by the (in)famous Hacker Collective Anonymous, known for its support of the whistle-blower platform Wikileaks and the Occupy Movement, took matters into their own hands and succeeded where the police and FBI failed. During Operation Darknet Anonymous hunted for darknets (hidden networks only visible for their members) and this time revealed one of the biggest sharing platforms for child pornography ever discovered. Staying true to their manifesto, they published all user data they could unveil and subsequently killed the platform. This case is especially interesting because one of the main mantras and characteristics of the group Anonymous was broken…
Libya: voices from within
Some students from Tripoli University recently expressed their opinions on the killing of Gadhafi and the post-Gadhafi development inside Libya. The views expressed don’t bode well for the future peace and stability of Libya. Two Quotes: “We are very angry but not really surprised by what Sanad did. He’s a stupid guy and I am sure someone whispered in his ear that he would become famous and rich if he did NATO’s dirty job by killing Colonel Gadhafi. NATO did more than 1000 bombing attacks “to protect Libyan civilians” but killed thousands of us instead. For sure NATO and their…
Video: Speech by Chomsky on academic freedom and the corporatization of universities
On April 6, 2011 Chomsky gave a speech at the University of Toronto mainly focusing on the decline of academic freedom going and the coporatization of universities. In his speech he connects the issue with the larger picture of corporate reality. The recorded Q&A session after his speech is especially worth watching. Quote: There’s, furthermore, no way to measure the human and social costs of converting schools and universities into facilities that produce commodities for the job market, abandoning the traditional ideal of the universities: fostering creative and independent thought and inquiry, challenging perceived beliefs, exploring new horizons and forgetting…
50% debt cut for Greece?
Reading German newspapers theses days, one of the most prominent headline reads “50% debt cut for Greece settled.” The headline refers to the latest meeting of the EU member head of states, who supposedly settled for a 50% debt relief for Greece and most notably with “substantial participation” of the private banking sector holding Greek government bonds. Why then did stock prices of these institutions surge upwards shortly after the 50% cut publication? Here’s why: What was settled for is by no means a real 50% debt cut and was even less settled with the “substantial participation of the private banking sector.”…
Protect Life Act passed by House of Representatives
“Protect Life Act H.R. 358” was passed on October the 13th by the House of Representatives by a majority of 248 to 173. Despite its nice and positive name, it should actually be called the “Let Women Die Act” (as most women rights organizations call it), because one of its most prominent features is that it allows doctors and hospitals to “exercise their conscience” by letting pregnant women if they face an emergency medical condition in which it is necessary to perform an abortion to save the life of the mother. The implications are breathtaking: It actually overrides previous bills protecting women,…
Hedge funds buying African farmland
Starving? Not able to live off your land? Well here’s the solution: just sell it to a hedge fund! No time to worry about your family’s future when there are much more urgent problems to deal with! Economically this makes perfect sense–buy cheap farming land now and sell it when farming land becomes the next scarce resource: Over 148 million acres of farmland in Africa have been purchased by Western hedge funds in the last three years. Western hedge funds have begun buying up vast parcels of land all over Africa. According to a series of new reports by the Oakland…
Dylan Ratigan’s rant
No further introduction needed, just watch this: Similarly entertaining: How did this guy ever pass under my radar? Here we go with Ratigan vs. Glenn Beck:
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