austerity
Austerity Bites–The Hunger Games
by Matthew Payne on May 26, 2013
Despite the collapse of any intellectual justification for cutting deficits during times of economic weakness and the political defeat of those factions supporting such so-called “austerity” policies, both tired and largely ignorant defenses of deficit cutting continue (even from the so-called “left”) and even governments elected on opposing austerity have continued to cut spending and increase taxes. The results, as Krugthullu never tires of pointing out (and has increasingly been …
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Washington Ignores the Real Cliff–Unemployment
by Matthew Payne on January 5, 2013
So, after the predictable anti-climax to the engineered crisis known as the fiscal cliff (essentially a political ploy by both American political parties to engineer their preferred policy outcomes through crisis management), the data on December’s (and, indeed 2012′s) employment makes it quite clear where the real cliff is. From the estimable blog, Calculated Risk (which is very good at keeping its eye on the ball) on prime-age labor force …
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Video: Madrid on the Brink
by Andrew Loewen on October 2, 2012
Madrid On The Brink: S25 → S29 from brandon jourdan on Vimeo.
This short film chronicles the events of September 25-29th in Madrid, Spain where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of the government and an end to police brutality. Many of the protests ended in clashes with the police. Since the stand off began on September 25th, the images of
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The Paul Ryan VP Pick and the Ascendancy of Neo-Hooverians (Updated)
by Matthew Payne on August 15, 2012
Ryan is not the extremist here – he is the standard-bearer.
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Video: Spanish Miners Fight Austerity with Homemade Rockets
by Andrew Loewen on July 10, 2012
Powerful 5-minute Associated Press video essay documenting the militant resistance of Spanish mining communities in their own words.
Who voted for the health care cuts? The retired who paid taxes for years now have to pay for medicine. It’s dictatorship in disguise. They lie to us as if we were stupid … We didn’t cause this situation. The politicians did … To other workers who are precarious, who are being
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Politicians Are Not Allowed to Tell the Truth About the Miserable Economy
by Laurence Miall on July 4, 2012
I would normally leave the economics and world politics to my more capable fellow Sapiens, Matthew Payne and Andrew Loewen, but this little bad-news nugget, harvested from a corner of the Internet where I seldom tread – an investment firm’s website! – was too good to pass up:
“We have no doubt that everyone is tired of bad news, but we are compelled to review the facts: Europe
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The Class War (Not Generation War!)–in Graphs
by Matthew Payne on June 27, 2012
The standard line for political and economic elites noticing the craptastic economy is to go all Shock Doctrine on the public, which inevitably focuses on two major constituencies–children and seniors, since this is where a disproportionate amount of social spending goes (those famous “entitlements”–like retirement benefits and public education). The case of the United States–a relatively strong economy at the moment, in that it is in “recovery” (sounds like an AA …
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Taibbi And Smith On Moyers
by Nick Glossop on June 23, 2012
How Big Banks Victimize Our Democracy
Vampire-squid hunter Matt Taibbi joins Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism on Moyers & Company to discuss the ongoing crisis in the financial sector in the context of the oleaginous spectacle of CEO of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon’s appearance before the House Financial Services Committee a panel of fawning lickspittle congressmen.
Moyers & Company Show 124: How Big Banks Victimize Our Democracy from BillMoyers.com…
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(Video) Give It A Name – Fascism
by Nick Glossop on June 14, 2012
They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective towards which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they can keep the common man in eternal subjection.
- US Vice-President Henry
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The Monster Beneath the Muddle: A Response to Matthew Payne on the Politics of Austerity
by Andrew Loewen on June 14, 2012
This post began as a comment on Matthew’s last post, but grew to a point it may as well stand alone, muddle or not. It’d be nice to think that the little dialogue Matthew and I have going (he playing Keynesian reformist and me playing anti-capitalist radical) is of use to more than just the two of us. But that’s for others to say. I should say I’m riffing …
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