United States
John Bellamy Foster: `Capitalism has reached its limits'
Postscript to "The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis"
Three left views on Obama: Howard Zinn, Mike Davis, Todd Chretien
Howard Zinn: ‘Obama creates an opening for change but direct action needed'
US$700 billion dollars is twice the combined debt of the world’s poorest 49 countries.
By Tony Iltis
October 11, 2008 -- “Meltdown” is a word that one hears a lot on the news these days.
Despite the US$700 billion government bailout of banks in the US, similar (albeit smaller) bailouts in Europe, and various forms of state intervention in the finance industry on both sides of the Atlantic, sharemarkets worldwide are in free fall. Comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s are common. Homelessness and unemployment are rising and are set to increase dramatically.
Meanwhile, more quietly but even more relentlessly, another meltdown is occurring: that of the polar icecaps. According to the Western world’s establishment politicians and corporate media, the way to avert catastrophic climate change lies in setting up elaborate emissions trading schemes and carbon markets: that is, relying on precisely the mechanisms that have created the economic meltdown!
United States: The financial calamity, African Americans and Obama
By Malik Miah
October 8, 2008 -- The deepening financial calamity exposes how the “fundamentals” of the economy impact on working people, particularly African Americans. The so-called unfettered free market system has been a failure.
The issue of the economy has given the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, the first Black candidate for a major party, a big boost. After eight years of Bush-Cheney, Obama should be a shoo-in. Democrats are expected to garner big majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
John Bellamy Foster: Can the financial crisis be reversed?
Interview with John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review, for Página/12 (Argentina).
Capitalist versus socialist state intervention in the economy
By Martin Saatdjian
Four crises of the contemporary world capitalist system
By William K. Tabb
Wall Street crisis: Poor to bail out the rich again
By Peter Boyle
September 26, 2008 -- "Rich people got it good in this country", said African-American comedian Wanda Sykes on the September 24 Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "We refuse to let them not be rich. Think about it. Broke people are about to bailout rich people. This is what is going on."
"And they want no oversight. $700 billion dollars and no oversight! No oversight? Why should we? I want receipts dammit! What do you mean no oversight? Because, oh, you're so good with the other money?"
"This is the biggest piece of garbage ever. You know what? It's welfare for the rich...
Peter Camejo remembered: tributes from the left
Below are number left tributes to Peter Camejo, who died on September 13: from Green Left Weekly (Australia); Ralph Nader, US presidential candidate; veteran US socialist
Financial crisis: working people will pay
By Dick Nichols
September 20, 2008 -- “Will my superannuation [pension] fund be next?” “Are my savings safe?” As working people in the developed economies watch the assets of one financial institution after another vaporise into nothingness, tens of millions are asking these dreadful questions.
Yesterday’s AAA assets are now junk and yesterday’s “risk-free” investments are losing money. No-one, not even the world’s central bankers, who are spending sleepless nights arranging rescue bailouts and emergency injections of trillions of dollars into a financial system frozen with fear and distrust, can answer them with 100% certainty.