All Commentaries
The World According to Robert Gates
Calls for deep cuts in the federal deficit have returned the military budget–now more than twice the 2001 budget even before counting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–to the fiscal chopping block for the first time in ten years. In response, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spent his last months in office stiffening his rhetorical defense of the Pentagon budget. His discourse reveals both the distance we have come in recent years in eliminating Pentagon inefficiencies and excesses, and the numerous dangers threatening American security around the world.
Rethinking Sweatshop Economics
The news that a Romanian sweatshop manufactured one of Kate Middleton’s most famous dresses has inspired renewed popular interest in the ethics and economics of outsourcing jobs to utilize super-cheap labor. This is only the most recent of a string of cases that exemplify the shocking proliferation of sweatshops — even across Europe — over the past few decades. But the truly troubling part of the story is the logic that Kate’s defenders have invoked to justify this trend, drawing on arguments made by allegedly “progressive” U.S. economists.
Shifting Targets: From Iran to Libya and Syria (Part 1)
Invading Libya is about the oil, Syria — eliminating the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean and weakening Hizbollah.
Tracking the Saudi Arms Deal
On May 19, President Barack Obama said that “extraordinary change” is sweeping the Middle East. But the president’s silence about signs of counter-revolution in the Middle East is deeply disturbing. This silence comes not just from the White House but also from the Republican and Democratic leaderships in Congress, and the mass media. There is a particularly deafening silence about the arms deal negotiated with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last year.
Apple: Crown Jewel of Technology or Human-Rights Abuser and Tax Cheat?
The path an ore for Apple’s batteries takes to the marketplace is roughly analogous to that of “Blood Diamonds.”
Europe Taking Lead on Speculations Tax
Out of the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis, an idea that progressives have been kicking around for decades – a financial transactions tax (FTT) – took on new life. There were high hopes that the G-20, which had declared itself the “premier forum for international economic coordination,” would take up the proposal as a way to raise massive revenues to pay for the costs of the crisis and also discourage reckless short-term financial speculation.
Burma’s Ethnic Insurgencies Erupt in a Chain Reaction
Burma’s three ethnic insurgencies are on full boil, but at a time when support from former benefactors Thailand and China has grown tepid.
Report of the Task Force on a Unified Security Budget for the United States
The U.S. needs to repair the extreme imbalance in our security spending to strengthen our non-military security tools. This year’s Unified Security Budget would create that balance by getting serious about waste, reviewing roles and missions, and reforming the budget process.
Washington Okays Attack on Unarmed U.S. Ship
The Obama administration appears to have given a green light to an Israeli attack on an unarmed flotilla carrying peace and human rights activists — including a vessel with 50 Americans on board — bound for the besieged Gaza Strip. At a press conference on June 24, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized the flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Campaign by saying it would “provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves.”
The Healthy Wage War
Eighty-four percent of all income growth in America between 1989 and 2007 went to the richest ten percent of households. That dramatic increase in inequality corresponds closely with the decline of organized labor—from covering 24 percent of workers in the late 1970s to just 11.9 percent in 2010.