by Paul Mason on 24th February 2020 @paulmasonnews Paul Mason explains how even after the UK has technically left the EU, ‘Brexit’ has escalated into a culture war over immigration. Two million people saw it live and at least six…
Category: Columns
Nepal’s baby export
By Akash Chhetri KATHMANDU, Feb 21 2020 (IPS) – A major discrepancy between Nepal government and foreign records of the number of Nepali children adopted in North America and Europe has exposed a trafficking ring that involves various child welfare…
Industrial countries gamble with younger generations’ future
Through the Fridays for Future protests, young people vent their frustration with political short-sightedness—yet little is being done to tackle intergenerational injustice.
New firms for a new era
Societies should not allow firms’ owners and their agents to drive the discussion about reforming corporate governance.
Financialization increases inequality
Kuala Lumpur/Penang, Feb (IPS/Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Michael Lim Mah Hui) — Financialization has worsened inequality through various channels, including macroeconomic policies. For example, quantitative easing and low, if not negative interest rates have fuelled credit and asset price bubbles,…
Fridays for Keynesianism
Peter Bofinger Keynes recognised the key role of the financial system in modern capitalist economies and Peter Bofinger argues the 2008 crisis must bring the demise of neoclassical economics—which still doesn’t.
Brexit: The British Government starts to recognise reality
Brendan Donnelly Michael Gove’s acknowledgement that trade between the UK and the EU after 1st January 2021 will be far from frictionless is a watershed in the Brexit process. The claim that Brexit would not significantly impinge upon British trade…
Our children’s future
By John Scales Avery Loving care for our children We give our children loving care, but it makes no sense to do so unless we do everything in our power to give them a future world in which they can…
The minimum wage in Germany five years on
When the minimum wage was introduced in Germany in 2015, there were febrile forecasts of huge job losses. These have proved minimal—while incomes and consumption have benefited.
Limited liability is causing unlimited harm
The purpose of limited-liability protection was to encourage investment in corporations, yet it has evolved into a source of systemic market failure.
AI and predictive justice in our courts
By Dr Jaspal Kaur Sadhu Singh Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Talking to Strangers, wrote of the difficulty faced by a judge whether to allow bail to an accused. Gladwell, in essence, highlights that being human, there is a propensity…
What’s at stake in the Democratic primaries
Sheri Berman sets out the reasoning of the contending camps behind the US Democratic presidential contenders—and their European resonances.
Bicycle Lanes Move Everyone Forward
by Roberto Cláudio Rodrigues Bezerra FORTALEZA – The intersection of Avenida Leste Oeste and Avenida Pasteur in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza was always tricky to navigate by bicycle, especially heading east as three lanes of car traffic became two.…
Why We Need Wetlands
by Martha Rojas Urrego GLAND, SWITZERLAND – It’s called the Extinction Wing. Located in a dark corner of the Paris Museum of Natural History, it houses a haunting collection of species that have long vanished from the natural world. With…
What will it take for women to be equal at work in the UK?
Employers and policy-makers can drive real progress in improving women’s working lives.
Trump attempting to consolidate the Balfour Declaration
By Askiah Adam There are two schools of thought as to whither the fate of the newly revealed proposed settlement to the protracted Palestine problem. One espoused by Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Inspector, that it…
Politics of a just transition: avoiding fallacious arguments
by John Weeks on 4th February 2020 @johnweeks41 John Weeks argues in our ‘just transition’ series that its success is linked to a political message of hope. In December Social Europe launched its just-transition series, which has transformed the discussion…
US Mideast Peace Plan: From a paper Pharaoh and a fake Moses
By Ameen Izzadeen COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb 3 2020 (IPS) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu was slapped corruption charges last week while he was hobnobbing with US President Donald Trump in Washington. Bibi has, apparently, done his homework…
Isn’t a wealth tax common sense?
The wealth tax proposals advanced by Democratic US presidential primary contenders have drawn vehement criticism from many who should be supporting them.
WEF: Towards sustainability with neoliberal recipes?
The World Economic Forum has recognised intellectually that Scandinavian social models offer an alternative to rising inequality. It just can’t accept this ideologically.
Fears and hopes around future minimum wages
by Christine Aumayr-Pintar on 30th January 2020 @ChristineAumayr The proposal by the European Commission to legislate on fair EU minimum wages has excited contrasting attitudes among trade unions in member states.
Corporal punishment is not the panacea of society’s ills
To touch a petal of a beautiful rose flower may not kill it, but its God-given bloom wilters before your very eyes. Imagine what corporal punishment can do to the delicate developing mind of a child What a priceless 100th…
Moving beyond coal: policy lessons from across Europe
A new report has identified good and bad practices which can inform national efforts at ‘just transition’.
The fierce urgency of COP26
by Adam Tooze Adam Tooze stresses that the critical COP26 conference later this year hinges on European unity and radical leadership. There are turning points in history. Moments that matter, those mark beginnings and ends. As Martin Luther King reminded…
Class struggle à la droite
by Claus Leggewie on 23rd January 2020 Populism is boosted by economic crises, but its roots are cultural. Populism is a method. It works by mobilising an imaginary homogenous entity called ‘the people’ against an equally ill-defined and generally despised…
Beyond ‘green growth’
by Frank Hoffer on 22nd January 2020 A serious discussion of ‘just transition’ must break with a social model based on individual utility maximisation—before it breaks the biosphere.
Brexit: Rejoiners must learn from their mistakes
by Brendan Donnelly Director, The Federal Trust, 22nd January 2020 Many members of the “Remain Coalition” have been disappointed by the role played by the European issue in the leadership contest of the Labour Party. No candidate has suggested a…
From Digital Diplomacy to Data Diplomacy
By Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, Jan 20 2020 (IPS) – The digital revolution arrived late at the heart of ministries of foreign affairs across the Western world. Ministries latched on to social media around the time of Tahrir Square…
Leaving Europe
by Paul Mason @paulmasonnews Paul Mason turns in his Social Europe column from postcapitalism to the theme of post-Brexit Britain. Since 2016 there’s been a question in the back of my mind: which is the last European city I will…
Where is the ‘deal’ in the European Green Deal?
y Estrella Durá Ferrandis and Irina de Sancho Alonso on 14th January 2020 @estrella_dura The New Deal was a social contract with the American people. A European Green New Deal must likewise enshrine social alongside ecological aspirations.