By the time I finished writing TCGC, at the beginning of this year, I had only three examples to offer of what I believed to be the game-changing power of modern communication technology: the use of mobile phones to foment and organize unrest in Iran (population 75 million) and Moldova (population 4 million), and the […]
Category: Politics
HERE COMES THE AMERICAN AUTUMN
Finally, on the 14th day of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration and rally, the NY Times has acknowledged its existence on its front page this morning. What must eventually become clear is that this is a global movement that cannot be stopped, and the fact that it has now landed on the doorstep of the […]
NO ONE KNOWS WHAT TO DO
Last week, reporting on the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve Bank, NY Times reporter, Catherine Rampell, opened her story with this line: “No one knows what to do to fix the economy.” How frightening is that? The US and the rest of the world are being sucked into a vortex of political, economic […]
MASTERS OF WAR
Dick Cheney, the warmonger, has now written his version of events, IN MY TIME, in which he proudly recounts his role in some of the more egregious activities of the Bush administration. For conservatives, who are quick to call for law and order when people begin to get a little restless over injustices, it is […]
HOW CAPITALISM IS LIKE A PONZI SCHEME
In the Ponzi and Madoff schemes, participants were promised a generous monetary return on their monetary investments. In the capitalist version, the investment is not money, but labor. As individuals invest their labor in the production and distribution of goods and services, they are paid wages that enable them to purchase and consume the goods […]
WHAT IS MONEY?
The concept of money is as pervasive as the air we breathe. It governs every aspect of our lives: where we work, where we live, how we live, how long we live. It consumes our thoughts, focuses our ambitions, colors our dreams, sparks our disputes, and stokes our anxieties. It’s here, there and everywhere. No […]
IT’S CAPITALISM, STUPID
The cause of the debt crisis is to be found in the essence of capitalism itself: competition, which – surprise! – produces losers as well as winners. The primary mechanism through which this contest is engaged is the corporation, which the US Supreme Court recently declared to be the legal equivalent of a person. Here […]