All the articles
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Illegal projects: How World Bank Arbitrators Mugged Pakistan
9 December 2019 - by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Thanks to the World Bank’s flawed and corrupt investment arbitration process, the rich are making a fortune at the expense of poor countries. The latest shakedown is a $5.9 billion award against Pakistan’s government in favor of two global mining companies for an illegal project that was never approved or carried out. NEW YORK – Wall Street (...) -
The fantasy world continues
29 November 2019 - by Michael Roberts
The fantasy world continues. In the US and Europe, stock market index levels are hitting new all-time highs. Bond prices are also near all-time highs. Investment in both stocks and bonds are delivering massive profits for the financial institutions and companies. Conversely, in the ‘real’ economy, particularly in the productive sectors of (...) -
A critical review of Costa-Gavras’ Adults in the Room
26 November 2019 - by Eric Toussaint
In his latest work film director Costa-Gavras seeks to denounce the brutality with which European politicians treated the 2015 Greek crisis. Very commendable, but it is also regrettable that so much more is ignored. Costa-Gavras is one of the great film-makers whose work is a permanent outcry against injustice. His political films have (...) -
For food sovereignty in Morocco
24 November 2019 - by ATTAC/CADTM Maroc
The ATTAC/CADTM Morocco organization has recently published its study in Arabic on agricultural policy in Morocco and its multiple impacts on small farmers, on agricultural workers, on economy and on environment. The title is: ’For food sovereignty in Morocco, a field study on agricultural policy and resource robbery’. A first national (...) -
Extractivism and resistance in North Africa
23 November 2019 - by Hamza Hamouchene
Northern African countries are key suppliers of natural resources to the global economy, from large- scale oil and gas extraction in Algeria and Tunisia, to phosphate mining in Tunisia and Morocco, to water-intensive agribusiness paired with tourism in Morocco and Tunisia. The commodification of nature and privatisation of resources entailed (...) -
The accomplices to austerity are also responsible for human rights violations
21 November 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
The question is not whether austerity plays a role in violating human rights but how big a role it plays: how much of an impact it has on indicators such as mortality rates, employment, equality, health, housing and levels of violence. Adjustment and austerity measures are often among the conditions associated with multilateral loans and (...) -
« We are at the beginning of the end of neoliberalism in Chile »
19 November 2019 - by Franck Gaudichaud
Franck Gaudichaud is a specialist of contemporary Chile, president of the association France Amerique Latine and member of the editorial board of Contretemps. He is a political scientist and teaches Latin American history at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France (1). Here he develops several hypothesis bout Chile and the development of (...) -
More than just a “Spring”: the Arab region’s long-term revolution
14 November 2019 - by Gilbert Achcar
The Arab region is immersed in a long-term revolutionary process that pits youth-led movements against authoritarian rulers and neoliberal capitalism, explains Gilbert Achcar. When in late 2018 the people of Sudan took to the streets demanding an end to Omar al-Bashir’s authoritarian rule, this immediately triggered memories of 2010, when (...) -
South Africa: actions against the abusive debts imposed on the popular classes
13 November 2019 - by Eric Toussaint
The 2012 Marikana mine massacre In 2012 thirty-four protesting miners employed at the Marikana platinum mine were massacred by police repression. They were in a hard fought struggle for wage increases. They had nothing left to lose because at the demand of creditors the mining company was directly stopping large sums from their wages. The (...) -
Series: Adverse International and Local Conditions for Sub-Saharan Africa (Part 6)
New Threats, New Resistances and New Alternatives
12 November 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Patrick Bond, Ishmael Lesufi, Lisa Thompson
We conclude with thoughts about the agency for resistance to these neoliberal policies, both ones in existence since the early 1990s (Bond 2014) and those that are being re-introduced through SEZs and the renewed export-led ‘growth’ strategy. The SEZ strategy did not begin well, Treasury at least admits in its new policy paper: In South (...) -
Alert on the sophistication of illegitimate debt techniques via mobile telephony
8 November 2019 - by Eric Toussaint
In the era of widespread mobile telephony, we witnessed certain capitalist firms employing a sophistication of techniques to ensure the illegitimate debt of the lower classes. Kenya, a country of 50 million people, is considered to be at the forefront of mobile telephony and digitalisation. Here, capitalist firms have developed telephone (...) -
The top 1% own 45% of all global personal wealth; 10% own 82%; the bottom 50% own less than 1%
6 November 2019 - by Michael Roberts
The annual Credit Suisse (CS) report on global wealth has just been released. This report remains the most comprehensive and explanatory analysis of global wealth (not income) and inequality of wealth. Every year the CS global wealth report analyses the household wealth of 5.1 billion people across the globe. Household wealth is made up of (...) -
Series: Adverse International and Local Conditions for Sub-Saharan Africa (Part 5)
Local South African Economic Conditions
6 November 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Patrick Bond, Ishmael Lesufi, Lisa Thompson
As the world economy spirals into crisis stage, with fully-fledged deglobalisation and a new round of financial turmoil, the South African context is just as foreboding. Corporations and workers alike are ill prepared for the period ahead, especially if it entails another export-led drive through SEZs, particularly if the 4th Industrial (...) -
Series: Adverse International and Local Conditions for Sub-Saharan Africa (Part 4)
Africa’s Renewed Crises of Unbalanced Trade, Disinvestment, Debt
29 October 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Patrick Bond, Ishmael Lesufi, Lisa Thompson
In addition to China, Africa is meant to be one of the most critical markets for South Africa’s SEZs, and attracting other investment, trade and finance to the continent was one justification for entering the BRICS bloc, according to Jacob Zuma and his colleagues. In 2013, for example, deputy foreign minister Marius Fransman (2013) argued is (...) -
Another look at the Federal Reserve’s panic in September 2019 and solutions to the crisis
28 October 2019 - by Eric Toussaint
You may recall that from 17 September 2019, the United States Federal Reserve injected massive amounts of liquidity into banks due to a quite abnormal situation on the repo market [1]. The repo market designates a mechanism used by banks to obtain short-term financing. They sell securities they hold in repurchase agreements (repo). For example (...) -
New bubbles, mounting debt: preparing for the coming crisis
24 October 2019 - by Ben Reynolds
A new global recession looms on the horizon, pointing to a new era of financial crisis, government bailouts and popular outrage. Financial markets roil and the banking system groans. The US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates, even as Chairman Jerome Powell claims that he expects the economy to remain strong. Meanwhile, the Fed is forced (...) -
Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay
24 October 2019 - by Jerome Roos, George Souvlis
Debt-stricken countries like Greece have continued repaying their creditors even though it’s hammering workers’ living standards. They should stick it to the banks and default instead. The European debt crisis that began a decade ago has offered stark insights into not only the European Union itself but also the mechanisms of neoliberal crisis (...) -
Corporate debt, fiscal stimulus and the next recession
23 October 2019 - by Michael Roberts
The debt owed by corporations in the major economies has risen since the end of the Great Recession in 2009. With global growth slowing and the prospect rising of an outright global recession recurring ten years after the last one, the debt held by corporations may soon become so burdensome to a sufficiently large number of companies that it (...) -
Series: Adverse International and Local Conditions for Sub-Saharan Africa (Part 3)
The China Factor
22 October 2019 - by Eric Toussaint, Patrick Bond, Ishmael Lesufi, Lisa Thompson
The most crucial factor in whether South African SEZs succeed may well be the complicated role of China. There are three aspects worth discussing: overall demand; Chinese incoming FDI to South African SEZs (such as is driving Coega and Musina-Makhado); and Chinese-financed and built competition via the Belt & Road Initiative, which is (...) -
Final Declaration of the Global Campaign to Claim People’s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and End Impunity in Relation to the V Session of the OEIGWG
22 October 2019 - by Stop corporate impunity
Final Declaration of the Global Campaign to Claim People’s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and End Impunity in Relation to the V Session of the OEIGWG. Mr. Chair President and delegations of the States present, This statement is made on behalf of the Global Campaign to Reclaim People’s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop (...)
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