This and that for your Thursday reading. – Wolfgang Munchau writes that the rise of right-wing insurrectionism can be traced largely to “centre-left” parties who have focused most of their attention on imposing austerity and catering to the corporate sector while offering little to citizens, while Naomi Klein comments on
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Michal Rozworski: Trudeau’s economic model is clear and it is not good
Last week gave us a good idea of the economic model that Trudeau’s Liberals are gradually putting forward and it is business-friendly to the core. The infrastructure bank privatization scheme was the big news item in the fall fiscal upate (see my post from last week), but there are far
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Economic woes create anti-establishment movements around the world | Business | The Guardian
In some western countries frustration with the status quo is boosting populist and rightwing political parties Source: Economic woes create anti-establishment movements around the world | Business | The Guardian Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Austerity, crisis of capitalism, neoliberalism
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – George Monbiot rightly makes the point that a general attitude of kindness is a must for a functioning society – while lamenting that anything of the sort is all too often lacking from public policy choices. – James Di Fiore discusses Justin Trudeau’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Dani Rodrik discusses the growing public opposition to new corporate-dominated trade deals based on the lessons we’ve learned from previous ones: Instead of decrying people’s stupidity and ignorance in rejecting trade deals, we should try to understand why such deals lost legitimacy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Mainly Macro offers a useful definition of neoliberalism, while highlighting its relationship to austerity. And Ed Finn writes that we shouldn’t be too quick to presume neoliberalism is going to disappear just because it’s proven to be harmful in practice – and that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Boyle discusses how the principle of free trade – once intended to empower consumers against monopolies – is instead being used to lock in corporate control: (T)he original idea of free trade was not a simple licence to do whatever you
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.
– Scott Sinclair, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood and Stuart Trew study the contents of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Sinclair and Trew also highlight why Canadian progressives should oppose the deal, while Howard Mann notes that the same criticisms, including a gross transfer of power to the corporate sector and the absence of any concern for developmental and environmental issues, apply to all of the new generation of corporate rights agreements. But the Council of Canadians notes that not only are the Trudeau Libs pushing ahead with every single trade agreement currently on the table, they’re also trying to lay the groundwork for a similar deal with China – even if it comes with both a blind eye to human rights violations, and an obligation to approve a tar sands pipeline.
– Bill McKibben examines how new climate data shows that we need a nearly immediate transition away from dirty energy in order to meet the Paris conference commitment to rein in global warming. And Seth Klein and Shannon Daub call out the new form of climate denialism – which pays lip service to the science of climate change, but attempts to detach it from any policy steps to improve matters.
– Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson argue that there’s no reason to keep hewing to neoliberal orthodoxy when decades of evidence show how it exacerbates inequality and harms health:
Even before the 2008 global financial crisis, neoliberalism was causing what the University of Durham’s Ted Schrecker and Clare Bambra have called “neoliberal epidemics.” As Schrecker and Bambra and many others have shown, income inequality has profoundly damaging and far-reaching effects on everything from trust and social cohesion to rates of violent crime and imprisonment, educational achievement, and social mobility. Inequality seems to worsen health outcomes, reduce life expectancy, boost rates of mental illness and obesity, and even increase the prevalence of HIV.
Deep income inequality means that society is organized as a wealth-based hierarchy. Such a system confers economic as well as political power to those at the top and contributes to a sense of powerlessness for the rest of the population. Ultimately, this causes problems not only for the poor, but for the affluent as well.…Careful analysis of statistical data debunked the idea that stressed executives are at a higher risk for heart attacks. Now, it has debunked the 1980s myth that “greed is good,” and has revealed the extensive damage inequality causes. It was one thing to believe these myths decades ago, but when experience and all the available evidence show them to be mistaken, it is time to make a change.“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error,” said the Roman philosopher Cicero. Now that we know how inequality harms the health of societies, individuals, and economies, reducing it should be our top priority. Anyone advocating policies that increase inequality and threaten the wellbeing of our societies is taking us for fools.
– Finally, Thomas Walkom rightly notes that a federal crackdown on extra-billing under the Canada Health Act is long overdue.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Neoliberalism In Four Easy Panels
This probably says all we need to know about neoliberalism.Should you have the stomach for it, you can read more here.Recommend this Post
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Martin Jacques writes about the inescapable failings of neoliberalism, along with the question of what alternative will come next: (B)y historical standards, the neoliberal era has not had a particularly goo…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Joseph Stiglitz writes about the continuing need to rein in the excesses of corporate-dominated globalization:The failure of globalization to deliver on the promises of mainstream politicians has surely unde…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- Michael Wasser comments on the importance of unions – and the need to ensure that corporate-dominated politics don’t stand in the way of worker organization. And Ben Sichel rightly argues that Ontario’s widesprea…
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Neoliberalism and De-democratization in Greece
Public discourse of neoliberalism often fails to appreciate the extent to which it entails not a simple process of de-regulation, but rather, a process of pro-market re-regulation. In many cases, constraints are removed from the organizational capacities of capital while more constraints are imposed upon organized labour. For example, the neoliberal era has witnessed increasing… More Neoliberalism and De-democratization in Greece
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Mariana Mazzucato discusses (JPG) the importance of an intelligent industrial strategy. And David Kotz argues that neoliberal capitalism has reached the point where there’s no plausible path toward sustainable …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading.- Larry Elliott discusses how the rise of Donald Trump and other exclusionary populists can be traced to the failed promises of neoliberal economics:The fact is that the US middle class, which in Britain we would c…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Bjarke Skærlund Risager interviews David Harvey about the history and effect of neoliberalism: I’ve always treated neoliberalism as a political project carried out by the corporate capitalist class as they felt i…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Brexit Madness: Propaganda and Hyperbole
The media and the politicians are screaming that the world will end if Britain really does leave the EU. The absurdity of this now-standard narrative should be clear from the outset to anyone of sound mind. But in case it is not, let us say this. The E…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: In or Out? Democracy, the EU, and the Fate of the Earth
The people of Britain have now voted to leave the EU. That vote has deeper and more far-ranging consequences than many people realize. Among other things, it means the beginning of the dissolution and death of the EU. And I would say that is a very goo…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading:- Ross Douthat (!) discusses the distinction between actual cosmopolitanism, and the global elitism that’s instead come to dominate international power relations:Genuine cosmopolitanism is a rare thing. It require…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Ed Finn discusses how to fight for needed alternatives to neoliberalism in the face of seemingly daunting odds and structural barriers. – Noah Smith points out how most economic analysis omits important social …
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