EU politics
Politico: French communists recruit ‘Yellow Jackets’ for EU election
Party leader said they cannot go into the vote ‘without taking into account’ recent protests. Read here
Year: 2019
Economics
Adrian Bua and David Lawrence – How trade deals are undermining standards that protect us
EU trade deals are conducted in an undemocratic process, mainly with corporate lawyers and lobbyists. Their goal is to strengthen trans-national corporations. It is always interesting to note how progressive NGOs deny that it was […]
Corruption
Erika Harris – Does Zuzana Čaputová’s victory signal a new kind of politics in Slovakia?
A sobre, good analysis of the recent election results in Slovakia. Unfortunately the author fails to mention that the egregiously corrupt, even prepared to form a coaltion with national neo-nazis, SMER is a Social Democrat […]
Energy
Gizmodo: China Considers Ban on Cryptocurrency Mining Because It’s a Stupid Waste of Energy
No one talks about the environmental impact of e-technology, e-finance, and e-commerce. Also see our article here concerning music streaming. Read here
Economics
Richard Wolff – What MMT has taught us
Now that Modern Monetary Theory has finally left the defamatroy voodoo and charlatan economics corner there is finally a constructive critical discussion concerning its approach.
Economics
Bill Mitchell: IMF changes tune on industry policy – shamelessly – Part 2
In Part 1, I introduced the discussion about the use of industry policies in the Keynesian period after World War 2. Most nations adopted a mixed planning-market based system for allocating productive resources and the […]
EU politics
The National: Catalan public figures charged for role in independence referendum
The newest wave of repression by Spain led by the Social Democrats against the Catalan movement for self-determination continues. Read here
Energy
Matt Brennan and Kyle Devine – Music streaming has a far worse carbon footprint than the heyday of records and CDs – new findings
Emission accomplished. Nicoleta Ionescu Matt Brennan, University of Glasgow and Kyle Devine, University of Oslo It is easy to get nostalgic for the era when most music lovers bought LPs. They would save their pennies […]
EU politics
Felix Keß and Helge Schwiertz – Safe harbours: the cities defying the EU to welcome migrants
With the EU deadlocked over migrant reception, the German Seebrücke movement offers a model for bypassing it. Helge Schwiertz and Felix Keß are graduate students at the University of Osnabrück, Cross-posted from Open Democracy This […]
EU politics
Reuters – Setback for Macron as court vetoes key plank of anti-protest law
French President Emmanuel Macron’s crackdown on anti-government protests with tougher police tactics hit a fresh snag on Thursday as France’s Constitutional Court canned one of the central elements of the new rules. Read here