Market forces rule only if we let them.
neoliberalism
What financial crises teach us about economic democracy
The left can learn an important lesson from the financial upheavals that are becoming routine these days. As elites scramble to confront each successive crisis, they prove by example that which they consistently deny: there is an alternative to the dictates of the free market.
One of the most politically disempowering aspects of neoliberal capitalism is the mantra that we were powerless to resist economic forces. We are constantly told that there is no help for our economic complaints. The free market created the situation, and market forces reign supreme.
Canada-EU trade talks put Canada's water up for sale, says new report
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
December 16, 2010
Ottawa, ON -- Canada's already challenged public water systems are under threat from a broad free trade agreement being negotiated by Canada and the European Union (EU). A new report released today, Public Water for Sale: How Canada will privatize our public water systems, warns that public water in Canada will be lost unless the provinces and territories take immediate steps to remove water from the scope of the proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Is Stephen Harper a Straussian?
I'm talking political philosophy here, not Viennese waltzes. People keep asking why Stephen Harper acts as he does, it looks so buttheaded. He seems to muck up his own prospects: firing decent people, lashing out, raising the partisan rhetoric, proroguing Parliament haughtily, binging on military toys, mauling the census -- he's a bright boy, it's hard to figure.
I used to favour a theory of political Tourette's, the kind portrayed by Robert Redford in 1972's The Candidate. You suppress your political ideals for the sake of electability as long as you can; then the buildup leads to random outbursts. But there's another explanation: Straussianism.
Forgery. Murder. Deception. The Canada-Colombia free trade agreement
The Canada-Colombia free trade agreement currently before the House of Commons Trade Committee has all of the elements of a fast-paced action novel.
In the last week alone, breaking news of a forged letter of support from Canadian activist Maude Barlow was distributed to all Liberal MP's and there were emerging allegations of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez's brother, Santiago, being directly involved in brutal murders by the government`s paramilitary forces. It should be enough to put the scandals around the agreement on pages of the nation`s newspapers.
So why are Canada's big corporate media refusing to pay attention and cover the issue?
Europe counts in French elections
The biggest smile, the night of the first round of the French presidential elections, belonged to Marine Le Pen, candidate of the extreme right Front National (FN) who obtained 17.9 per cent of the vote, a record for the party formerly led by her father.
It's time to expect more from our government
Something is happening in Canada that seems, in the context of a majority Harper government, counter-intuitive. Harper continues implementing his right-wing revolution by virtual fiat, and Preston Manning's "democracy" institute says Canadians actually want "less" government and more individual responsibility. Yet a flurry of polls in the past few weeks and months suggest two dramatic counterpoints to this self-serving narrative.
The problems with U.S. foreign policy in Latin America
President Barack Obama's re-election campaign launched its first Spanish-language ads this week, just after returning from the Summit of the Americas. He spent three days in Colombia, longer than any president in U.S. history. The trip was marred, however, by a prostitution scandal involving the U.S. military and Secret Service. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "We let the boss down, because nobody's talking about what went on in Colombia other than this incident." Dempsey is right. It also served as a metaphor for the U.S government's ongoing treatment of Latin America.
