Alexander Cockburn: The Ruin of His Presidency

" The oft-announced goal of training an Afghan Army and Police Force is faring no better – in fact considerably worse – that the efforts at “Vietnamization” forty years ago. "

Alexander Cockburn: The Ruin of His Presidency

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Obama and Netanyahu Still Tussling Over Priorities

t r u t h o u t | Obama and Netanyahu Still Tussling Over Priorities

"But the administration has undertaken no visible policy steps at all towards securing either the construction halt or, more importantly, the final peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Instead, Mitchell got into a lengthy, inconclusive, and quite diversionary negotiation with Netanyahu on defining some limits - far short of a total freeze - on Israel's construction in the settlements.

Netanyahu has publicly embarrassed Obama by announcing several rounds of new housing starts in the settlements, and has met no consequences at all for that defiance. Generous U.S. aid in the financial, military, and economic fields continues to flow to Israel unimpeded."

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t r u t h o u t | Joseph Stiglitz:

t r u t h o u t | Joseph Stiglitz: "Our Faith in Markets Blinds Us"

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Alan Nasser: New Deal Liberalism Writes Its Obituary

Who could blame GOP vultures for feasting on the rotting corpse of American Liberalism.

Alan Nasser: New Deal Liberalism Writes Its Obituary

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No Slowdown for Weapons Industry

Obama's Big Silence: The Race Question

by Naomi Klein

In the late 50s and early 60s, angry white mobs were reacting to life-changing victories won by the civil rights movement. Today's mobs, on the other hand, are reacting to the symbolic victory of an African American winning the presidency. Yet they are rising up at a time when non-elite blacks and Latinos are losing significant ground, with their homes and jobs slipping away from them at a much higher rate than from whites.
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When the conference arrived in Durban, many delegates were shocked by the angry mood in the streets: tens of thousands of South Africans joined protests outside the conference centre, holding signs that said "Landlessness = racism" and "New apartheid: rich and poor". Many denounced the conference as a sham, and demanded concrete reparations for the crimes of apartheid.
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The overriding message was that even though the most visible signs of racism had largely disappeared – colonial rule, apartheid, Jim Crow-style segregation – profound racial divides will persist and even widen until the states and corporations that profited from centuries of state-sanctioned racism pay back some of what they owe.

Give a Worker a Raise

How to Fight Deflation

By MIKE WHITNEY

"Deflation has spread to every sector of the economy; retail, travel, luxury items, autos, building supplies, home furnishings, electronics. No business has been spared. The C.P.I. inflation-gauge has slipped into negative territory and is now at -2.1 percent. Prices are headed down and spending is falling fast. Unemployment is soaring, wages are dropping, and the average work-week has been sliced to just 33 hrs.
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Economist Irving Fisher tackled the problem of deflation 76 years ago in his masterpiece "Debt-Deflation Theory of the Great Depression". Fisher showed how over-indebtedness eventually triggers a chain of events beginning with debt liquidation and ending in distress selling, huge capital losses, and violent economic contraction. This is the challenge that Bernanke faces today.

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Wall Street likes to stimulate demand through credit expansion and bubblenomics because they can skim fat bonuses on the front end and then bail out before stocks crash. But this perennial "boom and bust" cycle is a real loser for ordinary working class Americans, who merely want a little stability and a paycheck that keeps pace with inflation. The best way to avoid "demand shock"--which is at the heart of every recession--is through wage growth and full employment. It's that simple. When workers get better pay, they buy more more stuff and the economy thrives. Everybody wins!"