World-News

Part I

Henry A. Giroux, Peter Lang Publishing Group Book Excerpt: 'The twenty-first-century zombies no longer emerge from the grave; they now inhabit the rich environs of Wall Street and roam the halls of the gilded monuments of greed such as Goldman Sachs. As an editorial in The New York Times points out, the new zombies of free-market fundamentalism turned 'the financial system into a casino. Like gambling, the transactions mostly just shifted paper money around the globe. Unlike gambling, they packed an enormous capacity for collective and economic destruction - hobbling banks that made bad bets, freezing credit and economic activity. Society - not the bankers - bore the cost.'

http://www.truthout.org/zombie-politics-democracy-and-threat-authoritarianism-part-i/1306932037



Zombie Politics: Dangerous Authoritarianism or Shrinking Democracy

Part II

Henry A. Giroux, Peter Lang Publishing Group: *While precise accounts of the meaning of authoritarianism, especially fascism, abound, I have no desire, given its shifting nature, to impose a rigid or universal definition. What is to be noted is that many scholars, such as Kevin Passmore and Robert O. Paxton, agree that authoritarianism is a mass movement that emerges out of a failed democracy, and its ideology is extremely anti-liberal, anti-democratic, and anti-socialistic. As a social order, it is generally characterized by a system of terror directed against perceived enemies of the state; a monopolistic control of the mass media; an expanding prison system; a state monopoly of weapons; political rule by privileged groups and classes; control of the economy by a limited number of people; unbridled corporatism; 'the appeal to emotion and myth rather than reason; the glorification of violence on behalf of a national cause; the mobilization and militarization of civil society; [and] an expansionist foreign policy intended to promote national greatness.'

http://www.truthout.org/zombie-politics-dangerous-authoritarianism-or-shrinking-democracy-part-ii/1306795464



The Truth About the American Economy

Robert Reich, Robert Reich s Blog: 'The U.S. economy continues to stagnate. It s growing at the rate of 1.8 percent, which is barely growing at all. Consumer spending is down. Home prices are down. Jobs and wages are going nowhere. It s vital that we understand the truth about the American economy. How did we go from the Great Depression to 30 years of Great Prosperity? And from there, to 30 years of stagnant incomes and widening inequality, culminating in the Great Recession? And from the Great Recession into such an anemic recovery?'

http://www.truthout.org/truth-about-american-economy/1306953884



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=authoritarianism
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=fascism
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=corporatism
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=foreign+policy
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=national+greatness
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=national+cause
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=militarization
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=US+economy
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=financial+system
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=recession
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Great+Depression
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=recovery
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Wall+Street
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Big+Banks
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Goldman+Sachs
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=prison+system
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Henry+A.+Giroux
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Robert+Reich+Blog
-----