May 2011
26 posts
“I don’t understand how social democratic, socialist, popularly-elected...”
– David Harvey quoted in Debtocracy
The Guardian - Housing market fears as 'generation... →
In a survey of 8,000 people aged between 20 and 45, only 5% of those described by the Halifax as “Generation Rent” (those with no realistic prospect of getting on the housing ladder) are making spending sacrifices to save towards their first home. The remaining 95% have no spare cash, no interest in saving or are trying but failing to save.
Globe and Mail - Back in the green: CEO pay jumps... →
“A Globe and Mail review of executive pay last year shows CEOs at Canada’s 100 largest companies saw their compensation jump 13 per cent last year, led higher by a 20-per-cent increase in annual cash bonuses. Base salaries climbed 4 per cent.”
Mouvement des Jeunes Socialistes - " La rebelión... →
Un texto escrito por el Mouvement des Jeunes Socialistes de Francia sobre la situación española, traducido al castellano:
“Hace una semana miles de jóvenes españoles ocuparon la plaza de la Puerta del Sol en Madrid y las calles de las principales ciudades del país. Reivindican sin ser de ningún partido político ni de ningún sindicato. Se trata de un movimiento ciudadano, espontáneo y...
Una alternativa a los recortes: un impuesto contra...
En febrero, el gobierno de Taiwán anunció un nuevo impuesto en contra de la especulación, con la intención de frenar la creación de una burbuja inmobiliaria.
Se cobraría un 10% del precio de cualquier propiedad revendida en menos de dos años desde su adquisición original.
La tasa sube a un 15% si la reventa tiene lugar en menos de un año.
La ley también contempla un impuesto del 10% sobre...
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La brecha de ocupación en España
Al ver el titular, “La OCDE cree que España tardará 15 años en volver a la tasa de paro previa a la crisis”, considero oportuno hablar del concepto de la brecha de ocupación.
The Hamilton Project del Brookings Institution ha desarrollado el concepto de la brecha de ocupación (the “job gap”). La brecha de ocupación es la cantidad de puestos de trabajo que se tendrían que...
Presupuestos Alternativos
Para criticar a los recortes que se están llevando a cabo, también es necesario explicar que existen alternativas. Ya he señalado repetidamente que la austeridad se está imponiendo desde Europa, pese a que no funciona, y que desde allí toca un cambio de rumbo. Pero igualmente, dentro del escenario más cercano, también existen alternativas (como siempre).
El motivo de este post es compartir y hacer...
Guy Standing, "The Precariat - The dangerous new... →
“Progressive politicians must wake up and realise that sanity and recovery from the financial crisis will depend on their response to the needs, fears and aspirations of this emerging class.
This is the first systemic crisis without a progressive vision on offer. Most of the world’s social democrats have lost the plot. Their rhetoric is stuck in the 20th century, with images suited to a...
¿El PP provocará una intervención económica y unas...
Elena Salgado ha jurado constantemente que España logrará cumplir con los límites de déficit marcados por Europa. Para 2011, el objetivo es un 6%. Toda noticia que indica que España no cumplirá con sus deberes provoca que disparan los tipos. Los inversores ya están muy nerviosos por lo que está ocurriendo en Grecia, Irlanda, y Portugal.
Ya existen una serie de factores desafortunados:
La...
A couple of articles by Robert Skidelsky
Robert Skidelsky, “Keynes for the 21st Century”
A National Investment Bank, initially seeded with capital by the government, could mobilise funds on the open market to support long term private investment. The essence of banking is the ability to make loans up to a multiple of several times the initial capital. Such a bank could attract money now languishing in idle balances by...
El Índice de Miseria en Europa
El Índice de Miseria se calcula sumando la tasa de paro a la tasa de inflación. Según los últimos datos disponibles en Eurostat:
No solo ganamos a los holandeses en fútbol.
Nuno Monteiro and Eduardo Sousa, "Europe's denial... →
A great piece from the Guardian:
“In fact, there is a lot of middle ground between the complete fulfilment of Greece, Ireland and Portugal’s debt obligations and a hard default in which they suspend all payments to their creditors and, inevitably, pull out of the euro. The key issue at stake is how to distribute losses between debtors and creditors in an equitable fashion. Peripheral...
Crisis denial in Europe
Denial has been a constant feature of the crisis of the euro zone. Earlier I noted that, “when it comes to the sovereign debt crisis, it seems that the more strenuously an event is denied, the more likely it is to occur.” Here’s a few examples.
No clouds on the horizon:
2009-02-02: Trichet denies that Ireland is “weak link”
“Ireland is not the weak link of the euro area...
Mahmoud Abbas, "The Long Overdue Palestinian... →
“We call on all friendly, peace-loving nations to join us in realizing our national aspirations by recognizing the State of Palestine on the 1967 border and by supporting its admission to the United Nations. Only if the international community keeps the promise it made to us six decades ago, and ensures that a just resolution for Palestinian refugees is put into effect, can there be a future...
El Sr. Duran i Lleida no tiene credibilidad en...
El debate sobre la política presupuestaria catalana durante las últimas dos semanas ha girado alrededor del cobro del fondo de competitividad por parte de la Generalitat de Cataluña. Reconociendo la relevancia de estos recursos, no debemos perder de vista los debates realmente importantes que existen en la política económica y presupuestaria. Aquí, algunos políticos hablan con una ligereza...
Los recortes desequilibrados de Artur Mas
Ayer Vincenç Navarro contrastó el Reino Unido y Cataluña entorno a los recortes presupuestarios. En el mundo anglosajón, los políticos se han visto obligados a explicar qué porcentaje de sus consolidaciones fiscales se realizarán a través de recortes y qué porcentaje a través de subidas de impuestos.
En Cataluña, Artur Mas plantea una consolidación fiscal aún más salvaje que la de David Cameron....
A few more links
Carmen M. Reinhart and M. Belen Sbrancia, “The Liquidation of Government Debt”
Immigration Policy Center, “Unauthorized Immigrants Pay Taxes, Too”
Silverstein v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, et al.
“I have been held in solitary confinement for the past 10,220 days, which is 336 months, or 28 years. I am 59 years old and have spent almost half of my life in solitary...
Hara Kouki, "Greece's doomed generation" →
“Young people in Greece can no longer make ordinary life choices: they cannot plan for the present, let alone for the future. But they are told – and many of them feel – that they can’t complain. They belong, after all, to a doomed generation.
Many ordinary Greeks have stopped watching the news or thinking about why all this is happening. But everybody talks with one another about...
Gerry Hassan, "The Strange Death of Labour... →
“Scottish Labour needs a new mission and purpose, one profoundly Scottish, telling a story which dares to be Scottish while acknowledging the British dimension. This account needs to take responsibility for the Labour Scotland the party has created, and apologise for its mismanagement and authoritarianism, and make a distinct break with part of its past. It has to do all of this with less...
Morgan Kelly, "Ireland's future depends on... →
“The one thing you need to understand about the Irish bailout is that it had nothing to do with repairing Ireland’s finances enough to allow the Irish Government to start borrowing again in the bond markets at reasonable rates: what people ordinarily think of a bailout as doing.”
A few interesting links
Congressional Progressive Caucus, “The People’s Budget”
Paul De Grauwe, “The Governance of a Fragile Eurozone”
OECD Forum on Tackling Inequality, “Growing Income Inequality in OECD Countries: What Drives It and How Can Policy Tackle It?”
Kevin H. O’Rourke, “A Tale of Two Trilemmas”
Mr. Y, “A National Strategic Narrative”
David Lizoain, "L’obediència no paga" →
My friends at Nou Cicle were kind enough to translate this article from the Social Europe Journal into Catalan.
David Lizoain, "Els separatistes del Quebec... →
“En gran part, la derrota del BQ va ser auto-infligida. A l’agost del 2010, van celebrar els 20 anys de presència al Parlament d’Ottawa, recordant als votants la naturalesa efímera dels seus èxits. Durant la campanya electoral, els seus cosins provincials del Partit Québecois (PQ) van aprovar fer un altre referèndum al seu congrés. Això va significar un canvi en la seva posició que es...
Gallup - In U.S., Optimism About Future for Youth... →
“Forty-four percent of Americans believe it is likely that today’s youth will have a better life than their parents, even fewer than said so amid the 2008-2009 recession, and the lowest on record for a trend dating to 1983.”
“Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas...”
– The Guardian - Ahmadinejad allies charged with sorcery
Mohamed El-Arian, "Sleepwalking through America’s... →
“At its root, America’s jobs crisis is the result of many years of under-investment in human resources and the social sectors. The education system has lagged the progress made in other countries. Job retraining initiatives have been woefully inadequate. Labor mobility has been declining. And insufficient attention has been devoted to maintaining an adequate social safety net.
These...
