Labor, Trade, & Finance Archives - Page 94 of 233

We Have to Trim the Bloated Pentagon Budget and Use the Cash for a ‘Green Dividend’ to Create Good Jobs

by John Feffer, Miriam Pemberton | Oct 1, 2010

Creating jobs is not easy work. The federal government, challenged at every turn by Republican opposition in Congress, has been unable to push through a second stimulus package focused specifically on jobs. The private sector, which the Tea Partiers see as the motor of the economy, has been sitting on an unprecedented amount of wealth — a record $837 billion in cash — that companies are saving for better investment opportunities.

Forget the FTA Fix, Just Say No

by Christine Ahn, Martin Hart-Landsberg | Oct 1, 2010

The free trade push has begun again. Both U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak are calling for ratification of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by the two countries’ trade representatives in April 2007 but has yet to be approved by either the U.S. Congress or the South Korean parliament. Aware of how unpopular the agreement remains, President Obama wants the U.S. Congress to delay the approval vote until after the mid-term elections in early November but before the mid-November G-20 meeting in Seoul.

Cuba: New Corporate Utopia?

by Hannah Gurman | Sep 29, 2010

On the list of America’s most-hated leaders, Fidel Castro gets the award for longevity. Outlasting ten U.S. presidents, from Eisenhower through George W. Bush, Castro has managed to maintain his high ranking for over five decades. Though the 84-year-old ex-president of Cuba is unlikely to drop off the list during his lifetime, the persistent image of Cuba as communist dystopia may be on the verge of changing–that is, if the dreams of American big business come true.

2010: Year of the Nini

by Kent Paterson | Sep 29, 2010

If Time magazine had any inkling of sense, it would name the Nini the person of the year for 2010. Just what, you might ask, is a Nini? Adopted in Mexico during the crisis, the slang word means a young person who does not work or study.

Immigration Economics: An Interview with Professor Giovanni Peri

by Mark Engler | Sep 16, 2010

Facts or no facts, many people simply do not want to believe that undocumented immigrants coming to this country don’t steal jobs and undermine the American economy. When economic studies come along that challenge their preconceptions, they don’t take kindly to the troublesome conclusions.

Global Solidarity Levy Urgently Needed

by William Minter | Sep 16, 2010

When world leaders gather for the Summit on Millennium Development Goals on September 20, the reports and the speeches will be largely predictable. True, there has been some progress made against global poverty. But particularly in Africa, the international community will likely fall far short of meeting the goals by the target year 2015. And even if the goal of reducing the poverty rate by half is achieved, about one billion people will still be living on less than $1.25 a day.

Don’t Celebrate Mexico’s Independence…Yet

by Manuel Perez-Rocha | Sep 15, 2010

Contrary to common belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s national holiday. That date is September 16, which this year marks the bicentennial of the independence of Mexico. In 1810 Mexico started its independence struggle against Spain, its formal colonial ruler. One hundred years after that, in 1910, Mexico rose up to free itself from three decades of dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz and leave behind the unjust redistribution of wealth, the concentration of large extensions of land (latifundios) in a few hands, the exploitation of workers by capitalist industrialists, corruption, the denial of democracy in elections, and other historic problems.

60-Second Expert: The Political Consequences of Stagnation

by Samer Araabi, Walden Bello | Sep 10, 2010

Two years after the collapse of the global economy, prospects for economic recovery remain distant. Despite modest upturns at the end of 2009, the end of public stimulus spending in the United States, China, and other states has renewed fears of a double-dip recession. All major sectors in the economy remain cautious; firms are not investing, banks are not lending, and consumers are not spending. Partly to blame for the continued mess is a lack of coherent, focused, and directed government action.

Dodging World Bank Schizophrenia: The Looting of Africa Continues?

by Patrick Bond | Sep 10, 2010

The continent’s own elites, together with the West and now China, are still making Africans progressively poorer, thanks to the extraction of raw materials. Reinvestment is negligible and the prices, royalties and taxes paid are inadequate to compensate the wasting-away of Africa’s natural wealth. Anti-extraction campaigns by (un)civil society are the only hope for a reversal of these neocolonial relations.

The Political Consequences of Stagnation

by Walden Bello | Sep 1, 2010

My apologies to T. S. Eliot, but September, not April, is the cruelest month. Before 9/11/2001, there was 9/11/1973, when Gen. Pinochet toppled the Allende government in Chile and ushered in a 17-year reign of terror. More recently, on 9/15/2008, Lehman Brothers went bust and torpedoed the global economy, turning what had been a Wall Street crisis into a near-death experience for the global financial system.