This years’ World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, marks the start of the perennial capitalist meet-and-greet summit season.
The economic equivalent of the Oscars, the WEF is a time for the 0.1% to celebrate the achievements and successes of free-markets, and to discuss how to keep the crumbling ship from running ashore; it’s also a time to get in a few good runs on the slopes, deep tissue massages and a soothing hot tub session on the 99%’s dime.
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As Occupy gears up for the American Spring, our European counterparts will soon have one OWS victory to put in their cap. In France this past week, lawmakers put their backing behind a bill for a Robin Hood (Tobin) Tax. The tax, a fraction of a percent on all derivative, currency and securities transactions, will equate to billions of dollars for social programs (at a nominal cost to the markets) and will reign in the worst elements of speculative trading in Europe.
Read more ...Once a rising star in the industrialized world, Ireland now has the highest per capita national debt in the world – a debt to be paid by the people, not the 1% behind the crash.
Read more at Al Jazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/01/2012119847466...
For the past eight months Chilean high school students have shut down classrooms, organized massive street protests and refused to go to school. Watch this Al Jazeera report about Latin America’s most unequal education system and what young people there are doing to fight back.
Chico Mendes, Ken Sarowiwa, Dian Fossey, Joan Root, P.D. Majhi and Amit Jethwa, are just a handful of the thousands of environmental activists murdered for defending the planet. As another year approaches, be reminded of the majesty of the earth that inspired them, and also let it inspire you.
Unrepentant architects of the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Harvey Mansfield and Niall Ferguson get a holiday visit from the Occu-elves.
On November 13th 2011, economists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst drafted an open statement to the Occupy Wall Street movement pledging their support. Since then, more than 250 economists from around the world have added their names.
Join them at econ4.org
After 70 students staged a walk-out of Gregory Mankiw’s infamous Econ 10 last week, graduate and undergraduate students from all departments have now escalated the struggle. Yesterday students moved into the campus’s cherished Harvard Yard. By midnight, 500+ battled through police and security to set up an encampment, and now the eyes of the nation are having a double-take.
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