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REUVEN BRENNER
Faster learning, route to wealth
If students could complete their education a year faster, the many benefits would include increased personal wealth, decreased government spending, and more sustainable entitlement programs.
(Apr 3, '13)
It can happen here
Confiscating customers' deposits in Cyprus banks was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few eurozone officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. The stage is been set for depositors in the United States and Britain to suffer a similar fate. - Ellen Brown
(Apr 3, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
'Indigenous' threat to us all
Partial application of ''First Peoples Worldwide'' principles through government regulation is a genuine threat to us all. Replacing competition by co-operation, and resource exploitation by harmony with nature, is a prescription for stone-age existence. - Martin Hutchinson
(Apr 3, '13)
CHAN AKYA
Beyond parody
Who needs parody when the news - such as ''Governments borrow to fight debt crisis'' - already fills the spot, supported by ill-informed commentators and readers/audiences? People in the West, emerging from a period of prosperity and "entitlement'' are ill-equipped to deal with this crisis, and hard facts are putting comedy writers out of work.
(Apr 2, '13)
WTO chief warns on agriculture subsidies
Export subsidies for agricultural products are the most egregious form of trade-distorting support, leading to decreases in world prices, with negative consequences for producers and exporters from developing countries. The World Trade Organization secretary general calls for a recommitment to commodity sector development to promote growth and eradicate poverty. - Pascal Lamy
(Mar 28, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Not a decent banker around
The evidence, from JP Morgan's grilling in the US Senate to the European Union's blundering over the Cyprus bailout, is only too clear: the public and private sectors in Europe and the US cannot produce a decent, competent banker between them. - Martin Hutchinson
(Mar 26, '13)
The Battle of Cyprus
The rejection by Cypriot legislators of a proposed levy on bank deposits is a victory for democracy over a confiscation plan that was long in the making by bureaucrats whose concerns range far wider than a small island in the Mediterranean. The push to confiscate savings is a wake-up call to how tiny cadres of elites call the shots and the rest of us pay the price. - Ellen Brown
(Mar 22, '13)
Putin has Med opportunity
The Western powers think they have the ordnance required to produce regime change in Syria, as they had in Libya. But they don't appear to have the US$6.5 billion required to do the trick in Cyprus. That creates an opening of historic proportions for Russia in the Mediterranean, if Vladimir Putin grasps opportunity better than his predecessors. - John Helmer
(Mar 21, '13)
CHAN AKYA
EU takes sinister path in Cyprus
The European Union's action against banks and (notably Russian) deposits in Cyprus marks a departure from usual EU practices to something more sinister and ''directed''. If in the name of social justice for Europeans, Russian depositors can be targeted today, what next - Muslims tomorrow and Chinese investors the day after?
(Mar 21, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
The non-existent contradiction
Keynesians argue the need to cut government spending is contradicted by ill-effects from declines in government employment. This is nonsense. There is no contradiction. Government employment cuts are good, not bad for the economy. - Martin Hutchinson
(Mar 19, '13)
Spartacus in China
China's plans to enforce real-name registration on the Internet, fearing "netizens" could lead a revolution. Ironically, the real source of government concern is demand for political reform from Maoists on the left, rather than democrats on the right.
- Yu Jing Shen Tu
(Mar 15, '13)
QE for the people
Beppe Grillo, comedian and kingmaker in Italy's hung parliament, has exit from the euro, bank nationalization and a guaranteed basic income among his party's goals. They sound a joke, but his proposals have a solid history of success elsewhere. "Quantitative easing" funds do not have to go to bankers. - Ellen Brown
(Mar 15, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Keynes' fall of Singapore
The fall of Singapore was the first major blow in the dismantling of the British Empire. The Bretton Woods Agreement, arrived at with the aid of the vain and foolish John Maynard Keynes, did just about as much damage to the British economy, damage that lasted until the early days of Margaret Thatcher.
- Martin Hutchinson (Mar 12, '13)
Central Asia's ECO wants
energy ties, just not on oil, gas
The latest gathering in Tehran of the Economic Co-operation Organization of Central Asian states plus neighbors to the south and west had, unusually, a full-house in attendance. They failed to sign up to Iran's "ECO Energy Charter", but agreement elsewhere bodes well for pursuing a more sustainable energy future. - Chris Cook
(Mar 11, '13)
THE POST-CRASH AUTOPSY
Bank critics miss relative value
The financial crash is widely attributed to failures of international investment banks (with various other "culprits" also held up for castigation). Yet the problem might lie deeper, in the roots of outdated but still over-popular economic theory espoused by Adam Smith (and even Karl Marx). The way out of the mess is even deeper - and it is all relative. - Friedrich Hansen
(Mar 8, '13)
CHAN AKYA
Of mutton and lamb
Britain has been rocked by the scandal of liberal portions of horsemeat being found in what consumers thought was beef. It has been less shocked by a health scandal involving hundreds of negligent hospital deaths. The different levels of apparent concern could be down to a media conspiracy - or just a preference for juvenile jokes over grim facts of healthcare.
(Mar 8, '13)
Who saw the economic
crisis coming and why?
You have heard the widespread thesis that no one saw the current financial crisis coming. That thesis is simply wrong. However, it makes sure that those are not seen and heard, who a) did see it coming, who b) could have prevented it, and who c) have the knowledge of how we can get out of the schemozzle we're in. - Lars Schall
(Mar 8, '13)
China needs vigor in income policy
Retiring Communist Part of China General Secretary Hu Jintao set his successor, Xi Jinping, a goal of doubling income for all Chinese workers by 2020, eight years hence. Adoption of a proactive policy of raising worker wages is encouraging; the timid pace of that commitment is disappointing. - Henry C K Liu (Mar 6, '13)
This is the first part of a series.
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Triple-A jeopardy
Since modern governments, with electorates to bribe, should never be given top-notch credit ratings, wailing over the UK downgrade last week is misplaced. Strong companies with diversified businesses and low debt are AAA-worthy, not nations that are repeat offenders, run at a loss year by year. - Martin Hutchinson
(Mar 6, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
China robots signal US challenge
The robotic invasion on factory floors in China points the way to the power of automation to "reshore" American industry. Along the way, the battle to maintain low-skilled jobs needs to end, and a swathe cut through regulations that prevent companies from attracting innovators. - Joshua Jacobs and Eftychis Mourginakis
(Mar 5, '13)
China key to BRICS bank
China is lobbying hard for the planned BRICS Development Bank to be headquartered in Shanghai and to operate in the yuan. Success would amplify the challenge a new funding institution would pose to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. - John Fraser
(Feb 28, '13)
Fed can fix the economy
Quantitative easing has failed to stimulate the economy because as practiced for the last two decades the "cash" merely cleans up banks' toxic balance sheets. A real "helicopter drop" that puts money into the pockets of consumers and businesses has not yet been tried. Why not?
- Ellen Brown
(Feb 27, '13)
CHAN AKYA
All the world's a stage...
The sight of Michelle Obama involved in the Oscars circus was, for some, an affront to the dignity of the office of the United States president. They miss the point - our time requires those in power - from presidents to treasury secretaries - not so much to enact their authority but merely to act as if they were doing so. And an important part of such acting is to be seen to be acting.
(Feb 26, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Buffett as a leading indicator
Warren Buffett's US$28 billion purchase of H J Heinz looks vastly overpriced, but his reasoning is clear - when cash is trash, beans are queens, and in the worst conditions they can be worth more than gold. Maybe Buffett's genius is telling us his view on what form civilizational collapse will take. - Martin Hutchinson
(Feb 26, '13)
 THE ROVING EYE
And the Oscar
goes to... the CIA
As poetic justice, the Ben Affleck-directed (and George Clooney co-produced) Argo snagging the Best Picture Oscar makes sense. A patriotic Hollywood saving the CIA and a certified Hollywood ending proved irresistible. But Argo is really for pussies. Django Unchained best captures the United States as still the Wild West. Next up for Quentin Tarantino's dark arts? Obomber Unchained...
- Pepe Escobar
(Feb 25, '13)
 SPENGLER
Vatican wars and
the fight
for China's soul
Scandal surrounding the Roman Catholic Church in the run-up to the election next week of a new pope is a distraction from a real scandal - the belief that God holds one people above others - that still finds support in Latin America and Africa. That is one reason why the election of a pope from a self-confident Asia would be better for the Church. The other concerns the greatest battle of the 21st century: the fight for the soul of China.
(Feb 25, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Zero Dark Oscar
Tension is undoubtedly rising in Los Angeles for that "And the winner is ..." Oscars moment and the pride that will burst forth over the "liberal" leanings of leading contenders Argo, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty. Yet major sponsors, as in the CIA, will merrily bask in the glow of cinematic myth - and gongs or not, nothing will beat Zero Dark Thirty as the representative of the post-modern military-industrial-security-Hollywood complex. - Pepe Escobar
(Feb 22, '13)
ORIGINS OF WEALTH
Mobility, talent and capital
Creative sparks ignite wealth when freed from the stifling interventions of big government and linked to financial markets sophisticated enough to match capital with diverse talent. The inevitable dispersion of power in such circumstances is evident in economic history, from the merchants of Venice to Deng Xiaoping's reforms in China. - Reuven Brenner (Feb 22, '13)
Part four of a four-part series.
Part 1: Prosperity's timeless sources
Part 2: The myth of government aid
Part 3: Uniqueness of the Scottish miracle
Washington debates the pivot to Asia
Liberal critics of the US Asian pivot rue the consequences of putting the containment of China at its heart, and see it as a misreading of Beijing's bellicose rhetoric. Defenders of the strategy in Washington have lost its true purpose - to cover up a strategic retreat from disaster in the Middle East and Southwest Asia - and underestimate the ability of China and its neighbors to establish a new regional order. - Walden Bello
(Feb 21, '13)
ORIGINS OF WEALTH
Uniqueness of the Scottish miracle
Through low taxes, investment in education and a unique banking system that allowed entrepreneurs free credit, Scotland in a century transformed itself from a land of subsistence farmers to a nation at the forefront of the industrial world. That the "miracle" only ended when the smartest Scots migrated is a lesson for today. - Reuven Brenner
(Feb 21, '13)
Part three of a four-part series.
Part 1: Prosperity's timeless sources
Part 2: The myth of government aid
ORIGINS OF WEALTH
The myth of government aid
The migration of hard-working, skilled people, stable money and low taxes has always sparked economic miracles. In an era of globalization it is surprising then that economists recommend policies from an immobile world that greatly exaggerates the impact of large-scale government aid on wealth creation. - Reuven Brenner (Feb 20, '13)
Part two of a four-part series.
Part 1: Prosperity's timeless sources
SPENGLER
Ketchup, not blood,
on the trading floor
Amnesia is an unlikely culprit for the collective dissonance of US stocks at pre-financial crisis valuations of 2007 at a time the global economic outlook looks increasingly treacherous. Financial carnage hasn't been forgotten, it's just that record-low funding costs are leveraging deals like last week's takeover of boring, predictable Heinz, while risky innovation - the lifeblood of growth - is ailing and starved of cash.
(Feb 19, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Greed is not industrious
Industrious workers would reap rewards for lifelong devotion and toil two centuries ago. Today, they would just get chewed up in a system that creates insecurity, favors short-termism and gives the most to shysters who engineer buyouts, gobble stock options and open golden parachutes when the bubble bursts. - Martin Hutchinson
(Feb 19, '13)
 Dumb and dumber
As America's leaders repeat their mistakes endlessly - using tactics ranging from surges to counterinsurgency to special operations raids to drones - everything remains repetitively the same. Simply keep your eye on where the latest drone bases are being set up (in Saudi Arabia or in Niger, for example) and you can trace the further destabilization of the planet. - Tom Engelhardt
(Feb 19, '13)
BOOK REVIEW
Gore has seen the future
The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore
Identifying the big trends that will drive global change, from environmental changes to scientific advances and the impact of social media, the former US vice president urges Americans to restore their "hacked" democracy through turning to emergent centers of influence not controlled by elites. Some readers will be disheartened by dehumanizing effect of markets and technology portrayed, others will see hope in Gore's "global mind". - Dinesh Sharma
(Feb
15, '13)
US can fix budget woes
The United States cannot pay off a US$16 trillion debt by tightening belts, slashing public services, and raising taxes. The solution is for government to shed allegiance to banks and their profits and pay for all services by issuing the dollars to pay for them, debt- and interest-free. - Ellen Brown (Feb
15, '13)
ORIGINS OF WEALTH
Prosperity's timeless sources
Politicians and economists promise economic growth and prosperity - then either fail to deliver or claim unjustified credit for whatever improvements occur. Governments tend to hinder more than they promote wealth creation, yet miracles can, and do, happen. - Reuven Brenner (Feb
15, '13)
Part one of a three-part series.
THE BEAR'S LAIR
How to revive Detroit
The City of Detroit is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, but it has the makings of a revival entirely under its own steam, provided crime is brought down, and with Michigan's new right-to-work legislation attracting outside investment. Additional incentives would speed a revival. The question is: what form these should take? - Martin Hutchinson (Feb
14, '13)
Keystone XL can change the world
The stakes in this battle could not be higher. If the Keystone XL pipeline fails to win approval from President Barack Obama, the heavily invested tar-sands oil industry may suffer an industry-wide contraction. If approved, production will soar and global warming will occur faster than previously projected. In this way, a presidential decision will have an unexpectedly decisive and lasting impact on all our lives. - Michael T Klare (Feb
14, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
The illusory state
of the Empire
US President Barack Obama used the State of the Union address to conjure up the
illusion of America as a controlling force in the world, while keeping his
actual foreign policy cards close to his chest. The smoke and mirrors belie the
political role of the US back in the real world and mask questions he would
never dare ask anyway. - Pepe Escobar (Feb
13, '13)
Constitution-free zone
rises on Canada border
For decades a peaceful, semi-guarded crossing, the US-Canadian border is
increasingly a national security hotspot watched over by American drones,
surveillance towers, and agents of the Department of Homeland Security. With
most of those detained being Muslims or of the "wrong" skin complexion, the
target is not just non-citizens or terrorists, but any "undesirable". - Todd
Miller (Feb 13, '13)
CHAN AKYA
Ride the chaos curve
Little about the present bond and stock markets makes sense, with ridiculously
low bond yields and laughable share valuations. Investors would be advised to
consider chaos and game theories rather than fundamentals (or take a speedier
route to wisdom and just buy gold). (Feb 8, '13)
Paying the
bin Laden tax
Americans have been paying "the bin Laden tax" for national state security
since 9/11. Not forgetting the overlooked US$120 million for Inauguration Day,
the bill gets more onerous. Arrangements for presidential protection on that
day illustrate that the US is a new lockdown state, with a security apparatus
outside the rule of law. - Tom Engelhardt (Feb
7, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Myanmar's debt millstone
The weight of US$6 billion of debt, owed to the World Bank and other
international creditors, has been lifted from Myanmar's shoulders, allowing the
release of more funds to the world's sixth-most corrupt country. This will do
nothing to build the private sector the country desperately needs. - Martin
Hutchinson (Feb 5, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Woeful governance for global
issues
International migration and global environmental change pose formidable
challenges for policymakers the world over and the two issues are inextricably
intertwined like never before. Yet a well-coordinated and multi-level system of
governance to overcome state-centric approaches is sorely lacking. - Hossein
Aghaie (Feb 4, '13)
The new Grand Bargain
The economic trajectory of the world economy over the next decade could be
transformed by unlocking the $3.5 trillion of reserves at China's disposal. Key
to fulfilling this potential is to find a way to unravel the economic stalemate
between China and the US and create capital flows free of political
constraints. - Bill Mundell (Feb 1, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
The
missed Eisenhower moment
High-tax advocates point to the Eisenhower years with claims that savage rates
have no negative supply-side effects. A closer study reveals that "Ike" oversaw
a poorly performing economy, with "peace dividends" wasted and entrepreneurial
opportunities snuffed at birth. - Martin Hutchinson
(Jan 30, '13)
REUVEN BRENNER
Land-based spells bring
crises
John Law believed that issuing land-backed notes would allow credit expansion
without risking inflation and economic destabilization. The subsequent
disastrous South Sea Bubble did not prevent, more recently, Japan and now the
United States from repeating his catastrophic "insight".
(Jan 25, '13)
Russia, China grapple with Mali's future
Moscow and Beijing, which condemned the West's intervention in Libya as
unlawful, are being more reticent in their reaction to events in Mali. Russia
has little to gain or lose in the present adventure. China is a different
matter. The West cannot compete with its broadening relationships with African
nations. Containment and recolonization is the name of the game. - M K
Bhadrakumar (Jan 24, '13)
A trillion-dollar game
changer
That the US Treasury might produce a trillion-dollar coin is more than a joke.
It would harken back to when the US could and did create debt-free money, while
the Federal Reserve's rejection of such a coin, though the Treasury's legal
tender, means it claims to outrank elected representatives. - Ellen Brown
(Jan 24, '13)
China-Mexico ties hitting 'all-time low'
A multi-hectare retail complex planned by China for the south of Mexico, to
serve as a Latin America hub for Chinese-made goods, is attracting increasing
local and national concern at a time when the Mexico is struggling to identify
how to improve and rebalance ties with the Asian giant. - Emilio Godoy
(Jan 24, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Four more downhill years
President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, in mutually
supporting roles, are set to continue their damaging policies of wasteful
spending and massive quantitative easing. The country's resources, intellectual
and physical, mean it will see prosperity once more - but not in the next four
years. - Martin Hutchinson (Jan 23, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
War on terror forever
The Global War on Terror is the gift that keeps on giving for the
French-Anglo-American industrial-military-security-contractor-media complex.
Follow the line from cosy NATO ties with Salafi-jihadi "freedom fighters" in
Libya west to the gold and uranium, and the shift in focus from Afghanistan to
Mali emerges as power play in the fight with China. - Pepe Escobar
(Jan 22, '13)
CHAN AKYA
Schumpeter's long revenge
The recent demise of various high-profile companies, including HMV and
Blockbuster, highlights the benefits of creative destruction, while posing
uncomfortable parallels where non-market forces interrupt this process. While
the French keep their industrial giants like Peugeot alive, capital thus wasted
will add inexorably to longer-term liabilities. (Jan
22, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Burn, burn - Africa's
Afghanistan
For French neocolonial interests, United States' plans to dominate Africa
militarily and for jihadis formerly known as NATO rebels, the fighting in Mali
feels like an excuse to party with Mirage jets and Kalashnikovs. Washington and
Paris seem unaware that the fatal hostage crisis at Algeria's Amenas gas field
is just an hors d'oeuvres for blowback likely to convulse the area across Niger
and the whole Sahara-Sahel. - Pepe Escobar (Jan
18, '13)
Oil optimism relying on fudged
statistics
The latest World Energy Outlook report from the International Energy Agency
would lead you to think we are literally swimming in oil, a view echoed by
other oil-industry forecasts. For that, they rely on an optimistic outlook for
shale gas and oil sands, industries whose economics doom them from the start. - Nafeez
Mosaddeq Ahmed (Jan 17, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Nixon in China revisited
Richard Nixon's 1972 triumph in China, viewed from a century after his birth,
has so far brought considerable economic return to the world's peoples, and in
particular to the profit statements of multinational corporations. Probable
losers include several Asian neighbors. - Martin Hutchinson
(Jan 15, '13)
INTERVIEW
Gold emerges as euro debt-crisis
option
The European Union is running out of options as it seeks to emerge from the
debt crisis burdening member states. Economist Ansgar Belke, an important voice
in advising Europe's politicians on what can be done next, explains how the use
of gold as collateral can support struggling countries' sovereign bond issues.
- Lars Schall (Jan 11, '13)
Sandy highlights bank need
Two months after Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the northeast United
States, politicians still scrap over the relief funding and individuals and
small businesses face onerous terms for recovery loans. The presence of local
public banks would resolve such woes. - Ellen Brown
(Jan 10, '13)
Climate change won't
wait for Obama
From the Jersey shore to the parched Midwest, Americans have met the effects of
climate change up close and personal as billion-dollar "natural" disasters
multiply. Despite the increasing awareness this it isn't a vague, futuristic
disaster but a growing reality, US President Barack Obama - fearful of voters
and powerful lobbies - hasn't seized his "Peal Harbor" moment. - Bill McKibben
(Jan 8, '13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Silicon Valley spark fades
Innovation in the US technology sector is not what it was, with glitzy products
taking the place of genuine change. Ironically, given the similar earlier
downturn in the automobile sector, the driverless car may be the next
breakthrough. - Martin Hutchinson (Jan 8,
'13)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Time to brace for crash
Japan's new prime minister Shinzo Abe's determination to boost inflation and
public spending will help set the clock ticking on the forthcoming global
crash. The good news is that we may have to wait another 12 months for the
unpleasant downturn. - Martin Hutchinson (Jan
4, '13)
CHAN AKYA
Deaf frogs, markets and credit
ratings
Much like central bankers who took and applied the wrong lessons from the
financial crisis, we now have sundry pundits pronouncing the end of credit
quality as a determinant for sovereign debt yields, due mainly to the strong
performance of the category this year. That is the primary reason there will
very likely be a blow up in the global sovereign debt market over the course of
2013. (Dec 21, '12)
Developed nations must boost
growth
Renewed fragility in the world economy is threatening to bring on a second
recession. Developing countries cannot bear the burden of supporting global
growth alone, putting the onus on the developed world to take measures to
prevent a recurrence of the financial and economic crisis. - Supachai
Panitchpakdi (Dec 20, '12)
Call the fiscal cliff bluff
The "fiscal cliff" has all the earmarks of a false-flag operation, intended to
extort concessions from opponents. There are plenty of solutions that could fix
the problem at its core. In particular, a new economy needs new methods of
public financing. - Ellen Brown (Dec 20, '12)
Asian countries head financial
crimes list
Corruption, tax evasion and non-cash financial crimes are costing the
developing world as much as US$1 trillion, according to a report, 10 times the
amount provided in assistance. China leads the field in illicit outflows ahead.
Malaysia ranked an easy second in 2010, the Philippines and Thailand not far
behind. - Jim Lobe (Dec 18, '12)
CHAN AKYA
A paean to (corporate) tax
evasion
Tax evasion has become an international obsession particularly as bankrupt
governments attempt to raid companies to cure their own excesses. Yet when done
by companies, such savings actually benefit society at large due to
recirculation of productive savings to capital investments that bear higher
returns than generic government waste. (Dec 18, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
US must strip costs
The United States needs to cut costs across swathes of industry and the economy
as a whole, even more than raising taxes. Such cuts will be enormously
unpopular initially as they will strike at vested interests in every sector of
American life. But they are essential if the US is to compete successfully with
Asian economies. - Martin Hutchinson (Dec 18,
'12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Twilight of the four-year
college
Bad debts on US student loans now exceed those on all credit card debt. It is
time to curb the waste of student resources and government funds on unnecessary
four-year degrees. Less will definitely not mean worse. - Martin Hutchinson
(Dec 13, '12)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Picking up a $170 billion tab
No great power has ever garrisoned the globe quite the way the United States
has done. Washington's base-building mania has spread to every continent (there
is even a drone base in the Seychelles). While the Pentagon isn't keen to let
American taxpayers know that the annual bill for its occupation of the planet
is at least $170 billion, the true reckoning is inestimably higher. - David Vine
(Dec 12, '12)
Ensuring Scottish sovereignty
The level of Scotland's public spending is one weapon levied against those
seeking the country's independence. Establishing a Scottish publicly owned bank
would help to relieve budgetary pressures and bring true economic sovereignty,
a fact now coming gaining recognition in Edinburgh .- Ellen Brown
(Dec 11, '12)
Climate talks branded a lot of
hot air
More than 16,000 delegates to the latest UN climate talks in Doha were able to
produce nothing but another lost opportunity, according to critics who say rich
countries' decision to delay for another three years the action needed to
combat global warming will be extraordinarily expensive and a sellout of future
generations to come. - Stephen Leahy (Dec 11,
'12)
SPENGLER
What's bad for Apple
is good for America
The 25% decline in Apple's stock price since mid-September will bring a wry
smile to anyone who recognizes as devoid of merit the bourgeois-bohemian ethos
promulgated by the brilliant, odious Steve Jobs and the company's supposed
patent on creativity. The American economy has do to more than market video
games and movies. (Dec 10, '12)
US should rethink China
views
The United States should reconsider its commercial attitude to China. Many US
claims against the Asian power are hypocritical, others suggest crude
xenophobia. It would gain by opening up to more Chinese investment, and good
relations with your fastest growing (and soon biggest) export market make
sense. - Ruoweng Liu (Dec 7, '12)
Green Fund faces early cash
shortage
The Green Climate Fund, aimed at helping developing countries cope with climate
change, may one day have a bigger budget than the World Bank. Right now, it has
nothing, though it is supposed to start handing out money next year. - Stephen
Leahy (Dec 4, '12)
REUVEN BRENNER
The 1930s all over again
In the 1930s, as today, countries were uncertain about which model of society
to strive for and how to repair monetary systems. Societies bet on the wrong
ideas; we may be committing similar mistakes now. Centralization of powers and
the thinning of capital markets are the most dangerous parallels.
(Nov 30, '12)
Energy outlook spells doomsday
The latest report on the global energy outlook portrays a world of transformed
supply, with the United States leading the field. The gloss masks a much more
pessimistic supply side, while continued reliance on fossil fuels, it makes
clear, spells doomsday for our civilization. - Michael T Klare
(Nov 28, '12)
The euro lives, but unity is
dead
Europeans hopeful that economic crisis would bring nations together will be
sorely disappointed. Greece is saved and the euro is sound, but politically the
continent looks dead. Solace comes with the perspective that in the general
scheme of global affairs, and with the refocus on Asia, the European setback
may not count for much. - Francesco Sisci (Nov
27, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Time to dump on housing
The United States' and British economies are hugely and unnecessarily burdened
by numerous mortgage subsidies. The governments of both countries, struggling
to control budget deficits, should get rid of such support - and look to
Germany for a sensible and sustainable housing model. - Martin Hutchinson
(Nov 27, '12)
SPENGLER
Post-US world
born in Phnom Penh
President Barack Obama used a summit in Cambodia to tout a US-based
Trans-Pacific Partnership that would exclude China. Representatives of 3
billion Asians preferred, with good reason, a regional grouping that excludes
the United States. Washington might want to pivot towards Asia. At Phnom Penh,
Asian leaders in effect invited Obama to pivot 360 degrees and go home.
(Nov 26, '12)
CHAN
AKYA
The end of Japan as we know it
Between a dysfunctional democracy that seeks to return traditional parties that
show little innovation, an economy that is losing competitiveness with every
passing day, a demographic time bomb and prickly relations with its neighbors,
Japan as we know it may simply cease to be a major functioning economy over the
next couple of decades. Political paralysis may embody rather than be the cause
of a sclerotic economy. (Nov 26, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Time for root canal therapy
The next four years are likely to be unpleasant for the United States and the
Barack Obama administration's policies in the fiscal, monetary, regulatory and
general economic areas are likely to be counterproductive. Republicans in
congress will do the country a favor by facing reality now. - Martin Hutchinson
(Nov 20, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
US shifts to Brazilian standards
President Barack Obama's re-election victory means he will now be able to
pursue the economic policies he truly favors. Their result is already evident
in Brazil - and if the US follows such a course for two decades it will produce
a Brazilian standard of living. - Martin Hutchinson
(Nov 14, '12)
CHAN AKYA
Are storms 'good' for the
economy?
The thinking that anything that adds to gross domestic product is "good" for
the economy - such as rebuilding post-Hurricane Sandy - is hogwash. The notion
that reconstruction, by adding to production boosts economic well-being runs
counter to the wealth-creation logic. Economic pump priming that fails to
achieve productive potential is equally useless. (Nov
14, '12)
Why bankers rule the world
The inexorable mathematics of the private banking system guarantees that 35% to
40% of everything we buy goes to interest, leading to exponential growth in
financial sector profits at the expense of the non-financial sectors. The
answer is turning banks into public utilities and their profits into public
assets, so they can feed the economy rather than feed off it. - Ellen Brown
(Nov 13, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
No fun for the president
The next man in the White House will have little time for fun as the country's
financial mess worsens and every other major economic bloc, from China and
Japan to Europe and the BRICS, will undergo their own global-impacting crises.
- Martin Hutchinson (Nov 6, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Euro breaks up the hard way
If you've seen Atlas Shrugged 2, you will have seen a foretaste of the
eurozone, even Germany, in five years' time - only alas there are no redeemers
hidden in Alpine or Carpathian hideouts waiting to emerge and sort the
continent out. - Martin Hutchinson (Oct 30,
'12)
CHAN AKYA
UBS goes under cover
The decision of UBS to close its investment banking side is a response only in
part to regulatory action against "casino banking". It also reflects a slump in
fee income and that global banking is going private, beyond the disclosure
requirements of the corporate world. (Oct 29, '12)
CHAN AKYA
Regulators fail nerd test
Microsoft's launch of its new operating system, Windows 8, was spoiled by Apple
grabbing the limelight and European Union regulators moaning about the absence
of browser choice. It was little consolation that the EU suits were merely
demonstrating their own ineptness. (Oct 26, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Blacker Monday
The 1987 US stock market crash - a near 25% one-day plunge - did not bring
about recession, and the Dow fully recovered within two years. The world is
unlikely to be anything like so lucky next time around. - Martin Hutchinson
(Oct 24, '12)
Will the Apocalypse arrive online?
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's recent comparison of cyberattacks to the
events of September 11, 2001, was telling. With blowback already starting from
the US-Israeli cyberattack on Iran, it's clear that the devastation a real
cyberwar could wreak is threatening to become a reality. But as Americans found
out after the 9/11, subsequent attacks on civil liberties came not from
al-Qaeda but from the government. - Karen J Greenberg
(Oct 22, '12)
Will the Apocalypse arrive
online?
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's recent comparison of cyberattacks to the
events of September 11, 2001, was telling. With blowback already starting from
the US-Israeli cyberattack on Iran, it's clear that the devastation a real
cyberwar could wreak is threatening to become a reality. But as Americans found
out after the 9/11, subsequent attacks on civil liberties came not from
al-Qaeda but from the government. - Karen J Greenberg
(Oct 22, '12)
CHAN
AKYA
A tale of two princes, part 2
The tale of the Bumi price collapse unravels into a potentially messy divorce
for the Indonesian tycoon from his British partners; but along the line also
raises some serious questions on what it is about the search for capital that
drives Asian tycoons into Western markets with results that seem primed for
disappointment. (Oct 19, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Foreign policy in a bad world
Mitt Romney's foreign policy agenda would lead to permanently higher taxes and
high federal spending. There is a cheaper alternative for whoever wins the
coming US presidential election, one that would benefit both US security and
the US budget. - Martin Hutchinson (Oct 16,
'12)
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The week the
world stood still
Fifty years on, the accepted - at least by the US and its allies - analysis of
the Cuban missile crisis is that the John F Kennedy administration, through an
astute combination of threat and negotiation, saved the world from nuclear war.
But documentary evidence has long shown it was the US, not the Soviets, that
precipitated the crisis, not only through its belligerence against Cuba but in
its belief in its ownership of the world. The crisis officially ended in
October 1962, but the threat of nuclear annihilation remains to this day. - Noam
Chomsky (Oct 16, '12)
Overwrought empire
The more dominant the US military becomes in its ability to destroy and the
more its forces are spread across the globe, the more the missteps and mistakes
grow, the more the strains show, the more the suicides rise, the more the
United States treasure disappears down a black hole. In a world without major
enemies, the failure of American military power is a mystery. - Tom Engelhardt
(Oct 11, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Population the only problem
The prospect of an inexorable slowing of US economic growth, as set out in one
recent widely read paper, overlooks the clumsy hand of politicians among other
factors. A better future is there, waiting for us nationally and globally, if
we take the steps to achieve it. - Martin Hutchinson
(Oct 10, '12)
Back to $chool
California's public higher education system, once the envy of the world, has
been brought to its knees by plummeting state funding caused by the
population's revulsion at paying for government services. The working and
middle classes targeted by the state's 144-year-old education experiment are
being shut out as universities again become the exclusive domain of the elite.
- Andy Kroll (Oct 5, '12)
 THE
ROVING EYE
The $5 trillion question
President Barack Obama didn't go after Mitt Romney in Denver over his US$5
trillion promise to create millions of jobs without increasing the deficit, or
Romney's recent 47% gaffe. Perhaps Obama was taken aback at his rival's
debating style - a bat out of hell at an Actor's Studio portraying a fired-up
politician - or perhaps Obama is pursuing a give-him-enough-rope strategy. - Pepe
Escobar (Oct 4, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Back to gold - eventually
If US politicians continue to misbehave and trillion-dollar deficits continue
the world could emerge without the dollar as its reserve currency. The
alternative would not be the Gold Standard - at least, not for a while. - Martin
Hutchinson (Oct 3, '12)
Diplomats tested as East Asia
tensions rise
As tensions from East Asia's territorial disputes reach breaking point in
China, Japan and Taiwan, diplomats will be trying to keep cool heads. Yet while
tradition dictates that emotion is anathema to diplomatic practice, it holds
that even the most rational and calculated decision-makers, such as Henry
Kissinger, react in human fashion.
- Jeffrey Robertson (Sep 28, '12)
Joe McCarthy would understand
Historians differ over whether McCarthyism represented a perversion of
anti-communism or its truest expression. Fast forward, and present-day
observers disagree as to whether Boykinism represents a fervent - or an utterly
demented - response to the Islamist threat. For both, the enemy within poses a
greater threat than the one without. - Andrew J Bacevich
(Sep 27, '12)
QE3 won't boost the economy
The latest round of quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve will not
trigger hyperinflation, nor will it put cash in consumers' pockets. It won't do
much at all. There are actions that will help the economy. This is not one of
them. - Ellen Brown (Sep 26, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Wanted: A patriot governor
A "patriot governor", along the lines of the "patriot king" advocated in 18th
century England, would take the opportunity that will be presented by global
hyperinflation to reassert the Gold Standard for the UK - and replicate the
wealth and position of 16th century Venice. - Martin Hutchinson
(Sep 25, '12)
INTERVIEW
Exit democracy, enter
tele-oligarchy
Philosophy professor Danilo Zolo observes the disingenuousness of "humanitarian
intervention", even of the word "humanity" itself in the era of globalization.
The "Age of Rights" has seen widespread violations of the greatest "right" of
all, to life itself, as the great powers, if they are not actually dropping
bombs, ensure the further decline of the masses into poverty. While
globalization itself may be irreversible, how it is currently managed may not
be; but now Western democracy is in peril, its fundamental tenets reversed by
the elite's manipulation of technology. - Claudio Gallo
(Sep 25, '12)
THE
ROVING EYE
USS Romney goes Titanic
Barack Obama has deployed a secret weapon to clinch his re-election to the
White House - Mitt Romney. Unlike the aircraft carriers parked in and around
the Persian Gulf, this ship of misstate keeps colliding with icebergs, most
recently the "47% solution". Facing unemployment after the November poll,
Romney might look for a career in film; the emir of Qatar may be casting for
someone if Leonardo DiCaprio isn't available.
- Pepe Escobar (Sep 19, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Drowning in malinvestment
Malinvestment in 1929 took more than a decade to overcome; the current gigantic
swamp led by worldwide quantitative easing and its equivalents will doom the
global economy for a generation. We can look forward to 2035 before we see the
beginning of true recovery. - Martin Hutchinson
(Sep 18, '12)
Euro snub to German voters
On the face of it, the German Constitutional Court has placed some restrictions
on the extent to which the government can plow yet more of its taxpayers' funds
into shoring up the euro, but even these may not stand the test of time. The
court is beholden to the political establishment, not to the German people -
who are saying enough is enough. - Gunnar Beck
(Sep 17, '12)
Putin opens Benghazi door for
Obama
Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement of solidarity with the United
States over the crisis in Libya - so strikingly different to "I-told-you-so"
homilies from China - amounts to a dramatic call for new thinking to mould the
Arab Spring. Were Barack Obama to take the hint and work with Russian views on
the political transformation of Syria, a new vista of possibilities would open.
- M K Bhadrakumar (Sep 14, '12)
The persecution of John Kiriakou
In the now distant past, torture was considered a no-no in the American way of
war - at least for students of the subject. Now it is a commonplace hedged
around only by the small-print of bureaucrats and lawyers. The big sin is to
admit it takes place - as the case of whistleblower John Kiriakou attests. - Peter
Van Buren (Sep 14, '12)
THE ROVING EYE
Mr Blowback rising
The attack on the US consulate in Benghazi may have been just an out-of-control
protest against a crude movie produced by an Israeli-American certified
Islamophobe - or a determined response to the death by drone of al-Qaeda number
2 (and former "freedom fighter"), the Libyan Abu Yahya al-Libi. Either way, Mr
Blowback has his day - again. So what now? Who're you gonna bomb? Who're you
gonna drone to death next? - Pepe Escobar (Sep
13, '12)
US vote pits rich versus more
As the Republicans in the United States fight for the rights of the rich, they
face the problem of being outnumbered by the middle class championed by the
Democrats. But wealth can help bridge the numbers gap, while consistent and
determined dishonesty even on proven facts appears to have little downside in
the grab for voters, unemployed or otherwise. - Muhammad Cohen
(Sep 12, '12)
Silk Road nears an historic opening
Earnest discussions involving Afghanistan, India and Iran are opening up an
important opportunity for the creation of a "Southern Silk Road" connecting
Iran to Central and South Asia through rail-lines and roads to ports in the
Gulf of Oman. That chance will be wasted if it became another boondoggle for
corporations. - Vijay Prashad (Sep 11, '12)
THE ROVING EYE
Ground Zero redux
A walk in the dead of a New York night to Ground Zero, where our
post-apocalyptic modernity began, 11 years go, is to hear the echoes and sense
the ghosts of when it became evident, even under a thick shroud of
as-yet-unanswered questions, that turbo-capitalism is not only in crisis;
turbo-capitalism, in shorthand, IS crisis.
- Pepe Escobar (Sep 11, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
Policy for economic decay
A future reissue of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations could update his
account of the declining fortunes of 18th century Bengal with details of how
the United States followed a similar path to impoverishment, the bitter fruit
of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's easy-money policies.
- Martin Hutchinson (Sep 11, '12)
Canada appeases Israel on Iran
Canada has dutifully bowed to Israel with the startling decision to put Iran on
its list of terror-sponsoring states and sever diplomatic ties. Yet the cold
shoulder should not be viewed in isolation: a whole new season of Iran-bashing
channeled through the UN General Assembly is about to begin. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Sep 10, '12)
SEPTEMBER 11 REMEMBERED
The day that didn't change a
thing
The attacks of September 11, 2001, "changed everything" for Americans - and, as
it turned out, for many non-Americans - as fear became the guiding principle
for US foreign policy and "homeland security". Yet after Anders Breivik killed,
proportionally, more Norwegians than the Americans who were killed on September
11, the response was very different. And in the US media, the pro-Zionist
diatribes in the manifesto of this white-skinned terrorist got very little
play. - Michael Robeson (Sep 10, '12)
Dumb and dumber
After eight years of cowboy globalism under George W Bush, Americans went for
the "smart power" pledged by Barack Obama - resurrecting US prestige overseas,
using diplomacy first and violence as a last resort. That was the promise; the
reality has been different, with enemies even angrier and friends becoming
foes. Come November, Americans must vote again - an unenviable choice between
Obama's "dumb power" and Mitt Romney's alternative.
- John Feffer (Sep 7, '12)
Under the mask of the war on
drugs
In the world of the global drug trade, the state is pretty much at the very
heart of the action, not just simply criminal elements. It is the state that
allows gaining and maintaining market share as author Oliver Villar explains in
this exclusive interview for Asia Times Online. - Lars Schall
(Sep 7, '12)
FILM REVIEW
D'Souza's paranoid style in US
politics
2016: Obama's America directed by Dinesh D'Souza
Like many critiques of Barack Obama, the man himself and his presidency, this
film focuses much more on self-delusion than on reality. A medley of sins of
both omission and commission, it at the same time craftily walks a fine line
between partial truths and pure fiction about the early socialization, family
life and political philosophy of the 44th president of the United States. - Dinesh
Sharma (Sep 7, '12)
COMMENT
An unlawful bet on the euro
Germany's top court is set to make a ruling in the coming week that rightly
should - but won't - stop politicians from rolling the dice one last time to
save the euro, even as the currency's stability mechanism patently breaches the
country's constitution and violates the EU's founding treaty. - Gunnar Beck
(Sep 7, '12)
THE ROVING EYE
Still in search of the American
dream
Former US president Bill Clinton all but single-handedly sealed President
Barack Obama's re-election with a meticulous deconstruction of Republican
"issues" at the Democratic Party convention. On two key questions the campaign
raises - is the US is better off now than four years ago and is Obama just a
cog in the infernal machine? - there's no possible positive spin. - Pepe Escobar (Sep
6, '12)
Clinton brush off marks new
Sino-US rivalry
Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping's snub of visiting US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and Beijing's harsh rebuff to soft US criticism on the Syrian
crisis underlines China's increasingly assertive stance towards its sole
competitor for global influence. China now has the clout to back up strong
words, helped by a decade establishing economic ties around the world rather
than building costly military bases. - Brendan O'Reilly
(Sep 6, '12)
SPEAKING FREELY
China, Europe export
gangsters to Africa
Recent police shootings of striking miners in South Africa who had been seeking
better pay have underscored the role of European firms in the exploitation of
workers. At the same time, there is little to differentiate Chinese and
European organized crime in Africa. - Emanuele Scimia
(Sep 6, '12)
Germany: Euro victim, not
winner
The euro crisis has pushed Germany into an increasingly dominant position in
Europe, yet by its own past and current global standards the country's economic
performance during the euro years has weakened. Germany has been the loser, not
the winner in an iniquitous reallocation of capital. - Gunnar Beck
(Sep 5, '12)
THE BEAR'S LAIR
An exit strategy from
Bernanke
When Ben Bernanke can be persuaded to quit as Fed chairman, the exit from loose
money and lame-duckery portends to be both painful and destructive. Interest
rates need to rise, the Fed must sell its debt, and then there's a fiscal cliff
to navigate beside the path to recovery. - Martin Hutchinson
(Sep 5, '12)
US complicit in Israel war
plans for Iran
Top US generals like Martin Dempsey are adamant that they do not want to be
held "complicit" if Israel attacks Iran in a unilateral strike. But by giving
Israel the military means to do just that, the claims ring hollow. Seen from
Tehran, the attempt to jettison itself out of the equation - to protect its
forces in the region - is actually an inducement to strike, much as it is
interpreted in Israel and the West as a sign of US disapproval. - Kaveh L
Afrasiabi (Sep 4, '12)
Hope in a new kind of union
The European Union is dead on its feet because there is no plan to restore the
fortunes of disparate countries knit together by the failed single currency
project. Yet with the vision to see beyond the horizon, single European
European countries should link as closely as possible to Asia. Germany, for
one, knows it and has been investing much of its trade surpluses in China in
recent decades. - Francesco Sisci (Sep 4,
'12)
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CREDIT
BUBBLE BULLETIN
Weber's invaluable insight
Europe's Axel Weber questions whether central banks are trying to counter something that is cyclical, when in fact the core issue could be structural - with the result that a lot of stimulus undermines the future. That is in stark contrast to the US view, still held in spite of the evidence of recent history. (Apr 2, '13)
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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US calls, Asia answers
Four decades after a Motorola engineer made the first mobile phone, Samsung leads the market for the now essential device. And while Google (now Motorola's owner) innovates with ''smart glasses'', it may face a challenge from China's Baidu. US icon Apple is already kowtowing in Asia, to keep its Chinese customers on side. (Apr 5, '13)
Martin J Young surveys the week's developments in computing, gaming and gizmos. |
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