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Weisbrot: How Wars Are Made
Commentary, February, 20 2010
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
In a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia this week, Hillary Clinton said that Iran "is moving toward a military dictatorship," and continued the Administration's campaign for tougher sanctions against that country.
Weisbrot: World Recession Forces Economic Re-thinking
Commentary, March, 07 2009
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
A serious economic crisis can force some rethinking of economic and political dogma. The current crisis is serious for most of the world; the IMF is projecting world economic growth of just one half percent this year - the worst since World War II...
Weisbrot: The Failure of Hugo-Bashing
Commentary, April, 05 2006
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
It was yet another public relations coup for Venezuela: Vila Isabel, the samba club sponsored mainly by the Venezuelan government, won the parade competition in Rio de Janeiro's Carnaval last week. A float with a giant likeness of Simon Bolivar, c...
Weisbrot: IMF Influence?
Commentary, October, 17 2005
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Sometimes historic changes take place quietly, while no one is looking. Great institutions lose power with a whimper rather than a bang. Such is the case of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which will hold its annual fall meetings with the W...
Weisbrot: Social Security: It's Not Broken, So Don't Fix It
Commentary, December, 21 2004
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Four years ago Dean Baker and I wrote a book entitled "Social Security: The Phony Crisis" (University of Chicago Press, 2000). We showed that there was no financial, economic, actuarial, or other reason to be worried about the future of Social Sec...
Weisbrot: George W. Bush's Record-Breaking Economy
Commentary, August, 12 2004
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
"Our economy since last summer has been growing at the fastest rate in 20 years" said President Bush in a speech last week. The word went out from on high, and soon it began to spread: the fastest-growing economy in 20 years! A very important disc...
Weisbrot: Is The Fed Playing Election-Year Politics?
Commentary, April, 09 2004
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Is Alan Greenspan trying to get George W. Bush elected President this November? Accusations of partisanship have dogged the Fed Chairman for some time -- especially since he told Congress in January 2001 that, with continuing budget surpluses, we ...
Weisbrot: It Pays to Get Tough with IMF
Commentary, February, 23 2004
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
For the second time in less than six months, the government of Argentina stood up to the International Monetary Fund -- and the IMF backed down. Last week the Fund approved the latest installment of its lending to Argentina, after having failed in...
Weisbrot: CAFTA Not Likely to Do Better Than NAFTA
Commentary, January, 09 2004
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
NAFTA, CAFTA, do we hafta? That was one of the slogans that thousands of demonstrators brought to Miami last month, as they protested the ministerial meeting of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. After having trouble bullying some of the bigger ...
Weisbrot: Labor Day 2003: Nothing to Celebrate
Commentary, September, 01 2003
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
If ever there was a Labor Day for American workers to celebrate, this sure isn't the one. It's now thirty years since the end of the "golden era" for American labor, which by most accounting ended in 1973. Over the past thirty years the productivi...
Weisbrot: False Promises on Trade
Commentary, August, 07 2003
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
The New York Times editorial (7-20-03) on the developed countries' agricultural subsidies and trade barriers massively overstates the potential gains that developing countries might get from their elimination. While many of the agricultural subsid...
Weisbrot: The IMF and World Bank
Commentary, May, 05 2003
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
As the IMF and World Bank officials convene for their annual Spring meetings this weekend amidst Washington's blooming cherry and magnolia blossoms, they will be breathing a sigh of relief. Unlike in 2000, when thousands of angry protesters conver...
Weisbrot: Military Force Won't Restore Lost U.S. Power
Commentary, March, 23 2003
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Many people are discouraged to see that the efforts of millions throughout the world have failed to prevent a great crime. With the vast majority of humanity against it, and without even the cover of UN approval, the Bush administration has launch...
Weisbrot: Why He Can't Wait
Commentary, March, 17 2003
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
"These are the actions of a regime engaged in a willful charade. These are the actions of a regime that systematically and deliberately is defying the world."
Weisbrot: Bush's New Tax Cut: Another Dividend for the Rich
Commentary, February, 24 2003
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Here we go again, as Ronald Reagan used to say. The Bush administration has already taken advantage of our most recent recession to pass a $1.35 trillion tax cut, of which 36 percent went to the richest one percent of taxpayers. These are people w...
Weisbrot: Election Year Politics And The Road To War
Commentary, November, 03 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
George W. Bush wants war. He makes
Weisbrot: War Talk: Changing the Channel
Commentary, October, 02 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
"The [political] polls are dropping, the domestic situation has problems.... So all of a sudden we have this war talk, war fervor . . . said Senator Robert C. Byrd last week. "This is the worst kind of election-year politics."
Weisbrot: Brazil's Challenge
Commentary, July, 22 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Having won the World Cup Soccer Championship before a captivated audience of 1.5 billion people -- nearly a quarter of the world's population -- Brazilians now face an even tougher competition. In this contest, one team defends a goal that is only...
Weisbrot: What Are They Doing to Argentina?
Commentary, June, 27 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
The head of the IMF's delegation to Argentina was recently cornered outside his hotel room by reporters from a popular, muck-raking television show. They handed him a set of large, plastic Halloween vampire teeth. "We found these lodged in Preside...
Weisbrot: The Africa Tour: First, Do No Harm
Commentary, June, 04 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Whoever dreamed up this tour had a sense of theater. Paul O'Neill, the straight-laced, tough-talking US Treasury Secretary, former corporate CEO, and foreign aid skeptic; with Bono, humanitarian, highly worshipped Irish rock star, in trademark wra...
Weisbrot: What About the Trade Deficit?
Commentary, May, 15 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
The much-feared Federal budget deficit is back in the news: the latest projections show it could be twice as high in the coming year as previously thought. Should anyone be worried?
Weisbrot: The Myth Of The Global Economy
Commentary, March, 31 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Now that the US recession is over (Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has pronounced it), it is worth glancing back at the widespread concerns of a global economic slowdown that prevailed just a few months ago. These fears turned out to be o...
Weisbrot: Imf Playing With Fire In Argentina
Commentary, February, 22 2002
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Imf Playing With Fire In Argentina
Weisbrot: The New Economy?
Commentary, December, 08 2001
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
In economic history, great myths are often made and sustained not so much by the difficulty of the subject matter, but by the failure of the discussants to look at the readily available data. America's longest business cycle expansion, which has n...
Weisbrot: What Everyone Should Know About Nicaragua
Commentary, November, 09 2001
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
The United States' first post-September 11 foray into Latin American politics -- in Nicaragua's election -- provides a glimpse of how Washington's new "counter-terrorism" policy may play out in this region.
Weisbrot: Protecting Pharmaceutical Companies from the Threat of Bio-Terrorism
Commentary, October, 29 2001
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Some principles are so important that they cannot be violated even in a time of national emergency. One of those, it now appears, is the principle of patent rights for multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies.
Weisbrot: Trading on Tragedy
Commentary, October, 12 2001
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Every crisis and tragedy is an opportunity for some, as any ambulance-chasing lawyer can tell you. We expect the Pentagon to lard its already bloated budget, and Attorney General John Ashcroft to chip away at the Bill of Rights, all in the name of...
Weisbrot: IMF "Rescue" Won't Help Latin America
Commentary, September, 07 2001
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
When I was a child growing up in Chicago, we heard stories of lifeguards who saved panicked, drowning beach-goers by first knocking them out with a punch to the face, then hauling them to shore. This seemed like a risky strategy to me, and I never...
Weisbrot: Return of the Lockbox
Commentary, August, 30 2001
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
Just when you thought the debate over national budget and economic policy couldn't get any more confusing or silly, the "lockbox" is back. Big time. The Democratic National Committee is running TV ads asserting that "the Bush budget raids the Medi...
Weisbrot: Has Globalization Helped the Poor?
Commentary, August, 06 2001
Mark Weisbrot
Weisbrot's ZSpace page
It has become increasingly fashionable for our government officials and their friends to promote Washington's global agenda as a helping hand to the world's poor. "If one is concerned about the developing countries, both history and recent studies...
