Category Archives: developed countries

Posted on August 14, 2018 by tokugawa98

So some guy rams his car into the barriers in front of parliament, no weapons or explosives are found, yet the thing is designated a “terrorist act”. Maybe because according to the NYT: Declaring the episode a “terrorist incident” allows … Continue reading →

Posted in infrastructure, media, terrorism | Leave a comment

Merkel on Trump

Posted on November 10, 2016 by tokugawa98

Angela Merkel has called on Trump to respect “democratic values”: “She stressed that “the partnership with the USA is and will remain the foundation of German foreign policy so that we can meet the great challenges of our times”. These … Continue reading →

Posted in democracy, developed countries, Hypocrisy | Leave a comment

Beware of false friends

Posted on March 2, 2016 by tokugawa98

There’s a website called “Curious Apes” that published an article called “You’ll have to choose sooner than you think: Basic Income or Dystopian Slavery”, which a friend linked on Facebook. It’s an extended argument for the Basic Income Guarantee that … Continue reading →

Posted in democracy, developed countries, housing, neo-liberalism, standards of living, techno utopianism | Leave a comment

Jacobin both good and bad

Posted on October 13, 2015 by tokugawa98

I guess that I should really get a subscription, given how often I read JacobinMag nowadays. This morning, for instance, I read a piece where they point towards the role of the Netherlands as vanguard of everything that’s wrong in … Continue reading →

Posted in belief systems, deficit spending, developed countries, health care policy, human rights, MMT, public debt | Leave a comment

That’s what you get when you hollow out the middle class

Posted on January 21, 2015 by tokugawa98

So, the supermarket chain Target closes down its Canada operation. CBC News discusses this further in an article titled “Middle class retailers dying a slow death: Don Pittis“. And, of course, in a move nobody should be surprised by, their … Continue reading →

Posted in developed countries, private debt, standards of living, wealth distribution | Leave a comment

We’re reduced to liberals vs conservatives again

Posted on May 16, 2014 by tokugawa98

Ars Technica reports that the Pentagon will move Chelsea Manning and start hormone treatment: Formerly known as Bradley Manning, the private was court-martialed last year and sentenced to 35 years for forwarding a cache of classified documents to WikiLeaks. After … Continue reading →

Posted in "free trade", developed countries, gender | Leave a comment

The American dream is dead and rotting

Posted on April 18, 2014 by tokugawa98

New Economic Perspectives hits us with this: The Washington Post recently reported that Day Care now costs more—in 31 U.S. states—than a college education. In a fit of logic rarely exhibited in today’s journalism, the article explains that since it … Continue reading →

Posted in developed countries, health care, neo-liberalism, standards of living | Leave a comment

Nothing worse than bad arguments for a good idea

Posted on April 4, 2014 by tokugawa98

Business Insider, which gives Steve Keen a platform and therefore, when in doubt, should be considered sensible, has felt the need to publish a piece “Why we still need French” (a while back). This in reaction to an NYT piece … Continue reading →

Posted in developed countries, media | Leave a comment

Is voter apathy and little control by non-elites baked into western “liberal” democracy?

Posted on February 26, 2014 by tokugawa98

And if so, can internet initiatives improve things, asked Yanis Varoufakis on NC. The entire post is rather interesting in its interpretation of what western “liberal” democracy was supposed to mean and achieve: Magna Carta, the defining document to which … Continue reading →

Posted in democracy, developed countries | Leave a comment

With friends like these…

Posted on February 7, 2014 by tokugawa98

NC has a post up that takes Krugman to task for peddling outdated theories w.r.t. the trouble Argentina has experienced recently.

Posted in deficit spending, developed countries, economic policy, inflation, public debt, standards of living | Leave a comment