In the 1970s, Cheryl Payer set out the typical IMF Structural Adjustment Programme (The Debt Trap, 1974). It included, privatisation, trade liberalisation, foreign exchange liberalisation, removal of subsidies, wage freezes, public sector layoffs, and increased taxation. We spent a lot of time last year arguing about whether the IMF had changed or not. The style [...]
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Also tagged Cheryl Payer, CIA, IMF, Immigration, Imperialism, Jamaica, NATO, Phillip Agee, The Debt Trap, Trade, War on Drugs, World Bank
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Dick Cheney seems to have a kind of Tourette’s problem, where he blurts out ugly words about Obama for no reason other than perhaps a medical one. He has Politico on speed dial and just erupts. The latest is his familiar terrorphobe tune, this time about Yemen. True: We and the world have a problem. [...]
As 2010 begins in turmoil, 10 questions to ask about U.S. military presence in distant lands. Let’s peer into the future, and consider just what the American way of war might have in store for us in 2010. Here are 10 questions, the answers to which might offer reasonable hints as to just how much [...]
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Also tagged Afghanistan War, Al Qaeda, Budget, CIA, DOD, Economics, Iran, Iraq War, Israel, Pakistan, Palestian Authority, Pentagon, Taliban, War, Yemen
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Monday, December 28, 2009
Speculation about Lieberman’s motives has focused on his connections to the insurance industry in Connecticut, home to 72 insurance companies with more than 65,000 employees, the highest concentration of insurance industry jobs in the U.S., and an annual payroll of more than $6 billion in 2007, according to report by Janet Kaminski, an attorney with [...]
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The people of Afghanistan have occupied a strip of mountainous territory in Central Asia for many centuries. If they are unable to resolve their internal conflicts, how likely is it that even the best soldiers from our distant land can put things aright? If our country which we all love is to become the world’s [...]
Saturday, December 5, 2009
As Sachs wrote last May in The Guardian newspaper of London, U.S. foreign policy “has failed in recent years mainly because the U.S. has relied on military force to address problems that demand development assistance and diplomacy. Young men become fighters in places such as Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan because they lack gainful employment. [...]
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Also tagged Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Development, Diplomacy, Economic Deprivation, Economy, Hunger, Military, Pakistan, Poverty, Sustainability, Taliban, Unemployment
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Sunday, November 29, 2009
The practice of appointing campaign donors instead of state department professionals has a long tradition in the US. However, many had hoped that Obama would reduce such displays of patronage. That has not happened. Since taking office, Obama has made almost 80 ambassadorial nominations, of which 56% went to political appointees. “It is time to [...]
Look, there’s Dick – the guy who had absolutely no clue or care about Afghanistan for eight years – attacking Obama for supposedly employing the Bush administration’s strategy there, or at least one “bearing a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them”. Really? Does that mean Obama will appropriate other groundbreaking national security [...]
So here’s why I think the virtual Obama is the real Obama, and why I think the man might deserve the hype. It starts with a quotation from a speech he gave at the United Nations last month: “We will support the Millennium Development Goals, and approach next year’s summit with a global plan to [...]
Thursday, October 8, 2009
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4MbkcUh2TU[/youtube] What I am not hearing is the national debate about what our exit strategy is going to be. We have been there now for eight years. How many more years will we be there? Originally we went in there to find Osama bin Laden; we have not accomplished that. What are our goals now? [...]
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