Autor: Maria

From Izabella at Alphaville Fresh off the wire on Wednesday: RTRS – ITALY TREASURY SAYS TO LAUNCH AUCTIONS TO LEND OR BORROW SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF CASH ON MONEY MARKET USING …

From Reuters China’s central bank said it lowered the reserve ratio by 50 basis points. That reduces the ratio for the biggest banks to 21 percent from a record high …

En el Parque Nacional Lanín, mapuches y Sin Techo compartirán un lote de 100 hectáreas. Aguardan la sanción de una ley. La lucha de la comunidad mapuche Curruhuinca por la …

Denis Merklen analiza las diferencias entre las clases populares de los ’70 y las actuales, su cambiante presencia política a lo largo de las últimas décadas y sus relaciones con el Estado. Pone en duda el mito del clientelismo y explica por qué la Asignación Universal refuerza la idea de ciudadanía en estos sectores.

Los acontecimientos de alcance histórico, como fue la votación del domingo tardan en ser metabolizados por la política. En la Argentina se abrió una nueva etapa política. Gran parte de …

Estuve hoy, miércoles, a la mañana en el Ameghino, centro de salud mental de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Participé de una asamblea de varios cientos de hombres y mujeres. …

El escritor español ladea su cabeza y me mira mejor. «¿Le tienes algo de simpatía o me parece a mí?», me pregunta. «Algo», reconozco con un estremecimiento. «Hoy la mejor …

La presidente Cristina Kirchner, en su discurso ante la Asamblea de las Naciones Unidas, lanzó preguntas muy comprometedoras a los líderes mundiales. Preguntó cómo puede justificarse el sistema de países con derecho a veto dentro del Consejo de Seguridad cuando ha desaparecido el tipo específico de equilibrio mundial que le dio vida. Preguntó cómo se explica que las resoluciones de las Naciones Unidas sean insistentemente incumplidas por uno de los miembros permanentes de ese Consejo, como ocurre con el Reino Unido en relación a Malvinas. Preguntó cuál es la lógica de una “lucha contra el terrorismo” que pretende librarse manteniendo la negación al derecho del pueblo palestino a constituirse como estado y alimentando así la retórica de los grupos más fundamentalistas. Preguntó por qué se insiste en enfrentar la crisis sobre la base de inyectar recursos en el sector financiero, sin la necesaria regulación y de restringir el consumo popular. No se trata de una intervención revolucionaria. El registro desde donde se hicieron las preguntas es el del deber ser de las democracias liberales, siempre que éstas no se entiendan como decorados formales del poder de los grupos económicos dominantes.

And the austerity has been real. In Europe, troubled nations like Greece and Ireland have imposed savage cuts, even as stronger nations have imposed milder austerity programs of their own. In the United States, the modest federal stimulus of 2009 has faded out, while state and local governments have slashed their budgets, so that over all we’ve had a de facto move toward austerity not so different from Europe’s.

Strange to say, however, confidence hasn’t surged. Somehow, businesses and consumers seem much more concerned about the lack of customers and jobs, respectively, than they are reassured by the fiscal righteousness of their governments. And growth seems to be stalling, while unemployment remains disastrously high on both sides of the Atlantic.

The real problem is not the business community. The real problem is: the Democrats and the Republicans fight for one point or another in a political sphere, while the rest of us are waiting for the government to do something concrete and predictable. What business needs is predictable, long-term plans. We need to know: Where is government spending going to be, what are the government programs going to be? And off we go.

The Libyan Revolution has largely succeeded, and this is a moment of celebration, not only for Libyans but for a youth generation in the Arab world that has pursued a political opening across the region. The secret of the uprising’s final days of success lay in a popular revolt in the working-class districts of the capital, which did most of the hard work of throwing off the rule of secret police and military cliques. It succeeded so well that when revolutionary brigades entered the city from the west, many encountered little or no resistance, and they walked right into the center of the capital. Muammar Qaddafi was in hiding as I went to press, and three of his sons were in custody. Saif al-Islam Qaddafi had apparently been the de facto ruler of the country in recent years, so his capture signaled a checkmate. (Checkmate is a corruption of the Persian “shah maat,” the “king is confounded,” since chess came west from India via Iran). Checkmate.

So rather than fight for a bold jobs plan, the White House has apparently decided it’s politically wiser to continue fighting about the deficit. The idea is to keep the public focused on the deficit drama – to convince them their current economic woes have something to do with it, decry Washington’s paralysis over fixing it, and then claim victory over whatever outcome emerges from the process recently negotiated to fix it. They hope all this will distract the public’s attention from the President’s failure to do anything about continuing high unemployment and economic anemia.

LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Tuesday to flood the streets of London with 10,000 extra police officers, and said Parliament would be recalled in emergency session after rioting and looting spread across and beyond London for a third night in what the police called the worst unrest in memory.