No one predicted the dramatic fall of President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, least of all the astrologers who assured him it was a propitious time to go to the polls. Not that it took any special powers to predict he’d be the likely winner. Rajapaksa had cemented his rule after defeating the Tamil insurrection …
Following the lively discussion yesterday between Owen and Ezra I would like to offer an explanation of what “neoliberalism” is. The best way to do this is to quote a review by Eugene McCarreher of a book by Philp Mirowski called How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown, (Verso, $29.95). It is deeply scary, and points up …
Continue reading ‘Neo-liberalism and the market: peddling bogus beliefs’ »
In Russia 110 people own 35% of the wealth of the country. The median wealth of the average Russian is $871, less than the median wealth of the average Indian, which is $1000. (quoted on PBS Frontline TV program on Vladimir Putin).
From a historical point of view Iran (Persia) was long the hegemon in that part of the world, and was the bane of the Roman Empire. London is now the home of tens of thousands of emigre Iranians, and I got to know quite a few of them. They hate the mullahs, but they do …
The claim is that Iranian ownership of nuclear weapons would “vastly increase” the already substantial risk of an accidental nuclear catastrophe. Only luck has spared us so far, journalists claim. We in the West have had forty years of unremitting propaganda against Iran, much of it misleading. Contrary to propaganda Iran is an educated, sophisticated …
