George Monbiot – How to Build a Crisis

What have governments learnt from the financial crisis? I could write a column spelling it out. Or I could do the same job with one word. Nothing. Actually, that’s too generous. The lessons learned are counter-lessons, anti-knowledge, new policies that could scarcely be better designed to ensure the crisis recurs, this time with added momentum and fewer remedies. And the …

George Monbiot – The Gathering Financial Storm Is Just One Effect of Corporate Power Unbound

Corporate-friendly international agreement like TPP and TTIP, writes Monbiot, “could scarcely be better designed to exacerbate and universalise our multiple crises – financial, social and environmental.” What have governments learned from the financial crisis? I could write a column spelling it out. Or I could do the same job with one word: nothing. Actually, that’s too generous. The lessons learned …

Laura Colby – How Do You Boost GDP by $28 Trillion? Gender Equality Would Do It, McKinsey Says

Denying women full participation in the global economy is costly.McKinsey & Co. has now calculated by just how much. Full gender equality would add 26 percent, or $28 trillion, to globalgross domestic product in 2025, according to a new report by the consulting firm’s research and economics arm. While capturing that potential may not be realistic in the short term, boosting women’s …

Stanley Heller – It’s Time to Break With Saudi Arabia’s ‘Kingdom of Horrors’

Saudi King Salman decided that a 10-vehicle motorcade in Washington, D.C., was too small for his needs, so his people rented 400 black Mercedes S-class automobiles to make it bigger. There was no place to put them all, so the White House housed them at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland until they were needed. Wall Street Journal correspondent Carol Lee …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky – Bill Clinton Worked Hand in Glove with Al Qaeda: “Helped Turn Bosnia into Militant Islamic Base”

Known and documented, since the Soviet-Afghan war, recruiting Mujahideen (“holy warriors”) to fight covert wars on Washington’s behest has become an integral part of US foreign policy. A 1997 Congressional document by the Republican Party Committee (RPC), while intent upon smearing President Bill Clinton, nonetheless sheds light on the Clinton administration’s insidious role in recruiting and training jihadist mercenaries with a view …

Charles Eisenstein – “Don’t Owe. Won’t Pay.” Everything You’ve Been Told About Debt Is Wrong

The legitimacy of a given social order rests on the legitimacy of its debts. Even in ancient times this was so. In traditional cultures, debt in a broad sense—gifts to be reciprocated, memories of help rendered, obligations not yet fulfilled—was a glue that held society together. Everybody at one time or another owed something to someone else. Repayment of debt …

The Bankruptcy Of The Planet Accelerates – 24 Nations Are Currently Facing A Debt Crisis By Michael Snyde

There has been so much attention on Greece in recent weeks, but the truth is that Greece represents only a very tiny fraction of an unprecedented global debt bomb which threatens to explode at any moment.  As you are about to see, there are 24 nations that are currently facing a full-blown debt crisis, and there are 14 more that …