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Showing posts with the label Neoliberalism

January 21, 2010: The day corporate dictatorship destroyed the last remnants of US Democracy

globinfo freexchange     As we described many times in this blog, corporate power grew rapidly since the early 70s with the rise of neoliberalism and its subsequent establishment as the dominant culture, especially in the West.  In the motherland of neoliberalism, the United States, corporations essentially legalized corruption in politics during the 70s in order to capture the entire political system and put it under their complete control. As David Harvey describes in his book A Brief History of Neoliberalism :                          The supposedly ‘progressive’ campaign finance laws of 1971 in effect legalized the financial corruption of politics. A crucial set of Supreme Court decisions began in 1976 when it was first established that the right of a corporation to make unlimited money contributions to political parties and political action committees was protected under the First Amendment guaranteeing the rights of individuals (in this instance corporations) to freedom of speec

Julian Assange and the rapid decline of liberal Democracy

by system failure We are now in 2023, and after 1362 days, Julian Assange is still in prison. If you seek something to measure the decline of liberal Democracy in our days, the Julian Assange case will help you a lot. And it's most amazing that in the era of information overflow (with plenty of means available to transfer it almost instantly in every corner of the planet), there are still many people who are unaware of the Assange case.   The origins of this deterioration go back in 1968 when the Left made a disastrous compromise with the powers of the establishment. Since the early 70s and after Nixon's shock , the cultural domination of neoliberalism paved the way for the restriction of certain types of liberties in Western societies.  The 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 became the perfect opportunity for the establishment to abolish instantly a significant portion of the civil liberties that came out of the 1968 compromise. The liberal Democracy in the West suffered a heavy

Top billionaire oligarch Elon Musk chooses camp in the capitalist civil war

globinfo freexchange     As we continue to monitor the developments in the capitalist civil war (which is particularly evident in the US/UK, the motherlands of neoliberalism), we covered the recent pro-Brexit capitalists' stressful attempt to find a suitable Thatcherite zombie that would help them stabilize their political power. It seems that they found a not so reliable solution in the face of Rishi Sunak, for now.   On the other side of the Atlantic, it seems that the top billionaire oligarch, Elon Musk, decided to join the alt-right, pro-Trump capitalist faction, for good.   The first signs of Musk's connection with the pro-Trump capitalist faction came out for the first time, probably during the US-backed coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia, back in 2019. In 2020, Musk responded to an accusation on Twitter (that the US government organized a coup against President Evo Morales so that Musk could obtain Bolivia's lithium), with the shockingly straightforward admiss

Pro-Brexit capitalists desperately seek a suitable Thatcherite zombie to govern Britain

by system failure   We can almost certainly conclude that the removal of Boris Johnson from the position of the UK prime minister came as a result of a counter-attack of the liberal globalist faction against the pro-Brexit faction in the capitalist civil war .   And it is almost certain that the utterly grotesque political figure of Liz Truss was a far more easy target for the anti-Brexit liberal capitalists. It took them only 45 days to overthrow her, making her the shortest serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Liberal capitalists proved that Truss-type politicians are a 'piece of cake' for them, especially when they decide to mobilize the global markets and their agents inside the Tories.   As George Monbiot reveals , Truss' policies shaped by lobby groups like the Institute of Economic Affairs, the TaxPayers' Alliance and the Adam Smith Institute. It seems that these are some key groups behind BrexitCentral website. And together, they form a network of rig

August 12, 2020: The day capitalism officially died and replaced by something even worse

globinfo freexchange   It was the 12th of August, 2020. Nine o'clock in the morning, in London, the news came out that the national income of Britain (GDP) had fallen by more than 20% . That had never happened before in the history of capitalism - British GDP falling by 21% or so in one year. It was not anticipated. The markets were expecting a fall of 8,9,10%. No one was expecting a 21% fall. Fifteen or sixteen minutes later, the London stock exchange went up by 3% . There can be no explanation of that along the lines of capitalism.     This is how the Greek economist, Yanis Varoufakis, described essentially the official death of capitalism and its replacement by something even worse. The thing he calls "technofeudalism". While Varoufakis in various discussions struggles to explain why capitalism is already dead, it's rather funny that people still willing to debate on something that's already dead (capitalism) against something that's far from being practi

Fifty years from Nixon's shock: The moment the gates of hell opened to release neoliberalism and financial capitalism

globinfo freexchange   Half century passed from Richard Nixon's economic reform. The "Nixon shock" included " the unilateral cancellation of the direct international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. Although Nixon's actions did not formally abolish the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange, the suspension of one of its key components effectively rendered the Bretton Woods system inoperative. While Nixon publicly stated his intention to resume direct convertibility of the dollar after reforms to the Bretton Woods system had been implemented, all attempts at reform proved unsuccessful. By 1973, the Bretton Woods system was replaced de facto by the current regime based on freely floating fiat currencies. "   And so, one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States opened the door to the domination of financial capitalism and the correlated destructive neoliberalism.    Two years after Nixon's s

It's over: corporate neoliberal pseudo-Left takes over Sanders' "Our Revolution" - Time for a third, grassroots party

globinfo freexchange   Back to zero. Back to the corrupted, failed, obsolete, destructive neoliberalism. US corporate establishment played every dirty game to get rid of Bernie Sanders and take over Justice Democrats and Our Revolution. They did it.    The rebranding of Our Revolution into "pragmatic progressives" is all you need to know to understand that the corporate power has eventually crushed the progressive momentum. The neoliberal component of the corporate America, the Clintonian machine and the establishment of the Democratic party is actually giving the finger to the progressive movement. It tells progressives to sit down and be quiet. No significant change is going to come.   The message is brought to you by the most official channels of the neoliberal establishment:                                  Rather than insisting on “Medicare for All” — Sanders’ trademark universal, government-funded health care plan — or the climate-change-fighting Green New Deal, Our Re

WikiLeaks reveals what else is behind US imperialists' obsessive hostility against China

The WIKILEAKS Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) holds the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents released by the US State Department systematic declassification review.      globinfo freexchange An August 10, 2009 cable from the  US Embassy in Canberra, Australia, reveals the serious concerns of the US officials for the absolute dominance of China in the rare earths global market, which involves materials critical for modern technologie

As the Left wins big in Chile, neoliberalism is about to suffer another decisive blow

globinfo freexchange   Sepúlveda Allende, a grandson of Chile’s legendary socialist President Salvador Allende, spoke with Ben Norton about the historic May 15/16 elections in which left-wing and independent candidates won two-thirds of the seats for a convention to rewrite the constitution, which dates back to the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.   Allende described the political situation in Chile after the fall of Pinochet's brutal regime. This is an interesting period because it  proves that what happened in the entire West, happened in Chile too.  As he pointed out: When the dictatorship ended, there was a kind of alliance made between the parties that historically had represented certain parts of the old left, like the Socialist Party of Allende. Another that was newly formed in that moment, which had not existed before the coup, called the Party for Democracy, which had (ex-President) Ricardo Lagos, and had a lot of power in that moment. There is also the C

Boris Johnson attributes UK's vaccine success to dead capitalism with a BS typical argument from the bankrupt neoliberalism

globinfo freexchange   It's almost grotesque the fact that many fans of capitalism still don't realize that capitalism is dead . And it's certainly grotesque the fact that they use the same, typical and obsolete bullshit arguments (coming straight from the bankrupt neoliberal ideology), to defend it.   It was UK's PM this time, Boris Johnson, who used such an argument to defend the already dead capitalism. An argument coming straight from the dustbin of history and from the grave of one of the most unpopular and unsuccessful PMs in UK's history: Maggie, the Iron Lady. According to a Johnson's private call with Conservative MPs that has been circulated by the mainstream media, the British PM hailed the fact that more than 28 million people have been given a first jab in the UK, saying: “ The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends. ”   The response to this BS not only came almost immediately, but it also came fr

"The prices are going up quickly": Bulgarian PM reveals huge scandal around the negotiations between EU and Pfizer for the price of the COVID-19 vaccine

globinfo freexchange   It should be a big headline in every major media outlet. Yet, in the era of corporate feudalism (where the mainstream media are bought by big corporations), this story has passed almost unnoticed, despite the fact that it has been brought to light by a Prime Minister of a European country.   Almost buried in a "corner" of the Reuters website, the short report reveals that according to the Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov, the EU is about to make a new deal with Pfizer-BioNTech for additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, at a significantly increased price:   The bloc is seeking the new supply deal with the two companies for up to 1.8 billion vaccines, of which is 900 million optional, to be delivered in 2022 and 2023, Reuters reported on Friday. Borissov, speaking on Sunday, said the EU was negotiating the new contract at a price of 19.5 euros ($23.22) per dose. “The prices are going up quickly,” Borissov said during a trip to a village in southern Bulga