Steven Singer – Why Schools Should NOT Be Run Like Businesses

America loves business. We worship the free market. Nothing is more infallible – not reason, not morals, not even God. Money is the true measure of success – the more you have, the better a person you are. This perverted ideology has taken over much of American life. Where we once cared about our country, justice and fair play, today …

Norbert Haering – A Well-Kept Open Secret: Washington Is Behind India’s Brutal Demonetization Project

In early November, without warning, the Indian government declared the two largest denomination bills invalid, abolishing over 80 percent of circulating cash by value. Amidst all the commotion and outrage this caused, nobody seems to have taken note of the decisive role that Washington played in this. That is surprising, as Washington’s role has been disguised only very superficially. US-President Barack Obama has declared the strategic …

Tom Randall – World Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That’s Cheaper Than Wind

A transformation is happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity. This has happened in isolated projects in the past: an especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record-cheap solar costs. But now unsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete …

Junaid Ghoto – The Myth of India as an Upcoming Asian Economic Powerhouse. Rising Poverty and Social Inequality

Regret or not, but it is important to see where India stands today, the idea to write regarding this is to differentiate the illusion from fact and give reason so the sane understanding follows. A nation is called developing not because of its population, or defense budget, but how good the people fare in that country; it is about the …

Vandana Shiva – People’s Economies vs Corporate Control: First Commodification, Then Financialization, Now Demonetization

Ever since the Corporate Form was “invented” – in its earliest avatar as the collective East India Companies – those who have ruled via corporation have found innovative “means” new to extract wealth from the earth and people, leaving both poorer in a zero-sum “game”. During The Raj – Company Raj – extraction was carried out through Lagaan – taxation …

Colin Todhunter – What Has Neoliberal Capitalism Ever Done For India?

When India ushered in neoliberal economic reforms during the early 1990s, the promise was job creation, inclusive growth and prosperity for all. But, some 25 years later, what we have seen is almost 400,000 farmers committing suicide, one of the greatest levels of inequality out of all ‘emerging’ economies, a trend towards jobless ‘growth’, an accelerating and massive illegal outflow …

Rohan Desai – Bill Gates’ Philanthropy: 30,000 Indian Girls Used as ‘Guinea Pigs’ to Test HPV Vaccine

What philanthropy has to do with vaccines, we would wonder, especially if the philanthropist is Bill Gates. The world’s richest man decided to give away the massive wealth he had amassed by selling computers. It was a philanthropy that the world had not witnessed earlier. Mr. Gates, with his wife Bellinda, built up the foundation that would dispense wealth to …

Simon Black – War on Cash intensifies: Citibank to stop accepting cash at some branches

Less than a week after India’s surprise move to scrap its highest denomination cash notes, another front in the War on Cash has intensified down under in Australia. Yesterday, banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia’s $100 and $50 bills would be “good for the economy and good for the banks.” (How convenient that a bank would propose something that’s …