As the Greek crisis continues to unfold, both sides continue to blame each other for the impasse. There is little question that Greece dug a good part of the hole in which it currently resides, and the owners of Greek debt made the loans in good faith that the debts would be repaid. But since 2010, Greece has followed the austerity policies of the troika and, as a result, its economic growth has plummeted. Declining economic activity actually makes the debt grow relative to the overall economy. So the parts of the hole that have been dug since 2010 is due almost exclusively to the troika’s misguided policies, and Greece has made huge cuts to his government budget in order to comply. What hasn’t changed is the demand of the troika for full repayment even though its policies have truly harmed Greece’s ability to repay. Perhaps it is time for some of the pain to be shared by the troika, and a willingness to take some losses on the debt.
A new study indicates that human beings are responsible for the “sixth” great extinction. There have been five previous periods in Earth’s history where a large number of species died off. In the worst, 250 million years ago, 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species died off. According to the new study, “…the rate of extinction for species in the 20th century was up to 100 times higher than it would have been without man’s impact.”
The Global Peace Index measures violence and the fear of violence in different countries. It uses a set of quantitative and qualitative indices to measure the level of fear, and by these measures the world spent $14 trillion in 2014 to address the problem of violence. The highlights of the annual report are:
Since last year, 81 countries have become more peaceful, while 78 have deteriorated.
Many countries in Europe, the world’s most peaceful region, have reached historically high levels of peace. 15 of the 20 most peaceful countries are in Europe.
Due to an increase in civil unrest and terrorist activity, the Middle East and North Africa is now the world’s least peaceful region for the first time since the Index began.
Globally the intensity of internal armed conflict has increased dramatically, with the number of people killed in conflicts rising over 3.5 times from 49,000 in 2010 to 180,000 in 2014.
The economic impact of violence reached a total of US$14.3 trillion or 13.4% of global GDP last year.
Unfortunately, most of the world’s population (2 billion) live in the 20 least peaceful countries while a minority (500 million) live in the 20 most peaceful countries.
1. “Laudato si’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.
2. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made upof her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.
Most analysts have concentrated on the Pope’s analysis of the problem of climate change. But his more important analysis has to do with the link between inequality and the environmental crisis:
56. In the meantime, economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain, which fail to take the context into account, let alone the effects on human dignity and the natural environment. Here we see how environmental deterioration and human and ethical degradation are closely linked. Many people will deny doing anything wrong because distractions constantly dull our consciousness of just how limited and finite our world really is. As a result, “whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule”.
The Greek Parliament established it Truth Committee on Public Debt in April 2015. Today it published its Preliminary Findings and used the term “odious debt” to describe the current circumstances of Greece. Odious debt is considered an illegitimate debt that does not need to be repayed. The Executive summary describes the debt in these terms:
“All the evidence we present in this report shows that Greece not only does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay this debt first and foremost because the debt emerging from the Troika’s arrangements is a direct infringement on the fundamental human rights of the residents of Greece. Hence, we came to the conclusion that Greece should not pay this debt because it is illegal, illegitimate, and odious.”
The Report concludes with an attack the International Monetary Fund, The European Central Bank, and the European Commission:
“Having concluded a preliminary investigation, the Committee considers that Greece has been and still is the victim of an attack premeditated and organized by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission. This violent, illegal, and immoral mission aimed exclusively at shifting private debt onto the public sector.”
The report certainly strengthens the hand of Prime Minister Tsipras but points to a repudiation of the debt. A Greek default is looking more and more likely.
Relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the same island of Hispaniola, have never been very good. Haiti is significantly poorer than the Dominican Republic, and there is significant racial prejudice against Haitians within the Dominican. The Dominican Republic has begun a massive drive against Haitian immigrants and deporting them back to Haiti. The drive is reminiscent of a massacre against Haitians which occurred in 1937, and resonates strongly with the anti-immigrant hysteria that seems to be affecting countries all across the planet.
Hungary is also part of the anti-immigrant campaign. But it is going one step further and building a security fence along the entire Hungarian-Serbian border to prevent the influx of refugees from Serbia. The refugees come largely from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but the EU has a rule (called the Dublin Regulation) which places the initial responsibility for asylum on the state first processing the refugees. The current right-wing government of Hungary is not at all sympathetic to the plight of the refugees.
Greek Prime Minister Tsipras accused Greece’s creditors of “criminal responsibility” and of trying to humiliate Greece. The harsh rhetoric did not sit well with the economic ministers that are scheduled to meet for the last time this weekend. Tsipras is holding to a very hard line, but the troika is doing so as well. Such rhetoric is not unusual at the moment just before a crisis breaks, but both sides are going to have a difficult time walking back their words if a compromise is eventually found.
It did not take long for Russia to respond to the US decision to place heavy equipment and more troops in the Baltic states and other eastern European states. Russia President Putin announced that Russia would increase its intercontinental ballistic missiles by 40 in order to address what he termed as the US attempt to place anti-ballistic missiles in eastern Europe. President Putin has referred to the Russian nuclear capability on a number of occasions since the Ukrainian crisis developed, and the implicit message is that Putin believes that Russia should be taken more seriously in world affairs because of that capability. It is a strong but dangerous message.
Abdel Bari Atwan is one of the Arab world’s most respected journalists and he has written a new book on the Islamic State that will be published in September. It is reviewed in The New York Review of Booksand the book apparently does a very good job of explaining the attractiveness of the Islamic State and its ability to run the affairs of the caliphate in the manner of a traditional state. Its application of sharia law seems barbaric to many in the West, but Atwan argues that the Islamic State is a very disciplined and ordered state. The West would be well advised to shed its misconceptions about the IS and deal with the group as an adversary not completely dissimilar from other non-liberal states that it has faced in the past.
The US Congressional Research Service is well-known for its ability to present information in a fairly objective manner (no source is free of bias). It has released an analysis of US-Israel relations which is substantive and filled with information that is not readily available from news sources. It was released on 1 June and is up-to-date.
The IMF has just issued a report on income inequality which essentially refutes the distributional model of market capitalism which is colloquially termed “trickle-down.” The report finds that:
“We find that increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth—that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down.”
The study seems to be fairly comprehensive: ““159 advanced, emerging, and developing economies for the period 1980–2012.” It remains to be seen whether the IMF pays any attention to its own research.
The US is planning to send heavy military equipment and about 5,000 troops to the Baltic states and other eastern European countries. The move, which has not yet been fully approved by the Defense Department, is designed to send a message to Russian President Putin that NATO is not willing to accept any further Russian moves like the one in Crimea. Of course, the Russians will interpret the move as an attempt by the West to encircle and contain Russian aspirations. A classic case of the security dilemma.
The slow motion train wreck that has impoverished Greece over the last five years seems to be coming to a head, although many have thought the end point had come many times earlier. So one should not think that a Greek default is inevitable. But talks between the Greeks and the troika broke down over the weekend and the Greeks refused to make any changes to their pension plans. The complete Greek payment to the IMF is due on 30 June, but the Greeks have already missed the full installment and it is unlikely that the Greeks can come up with the full amount if they could not make the first payment.
Today is the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. It was an agreement between King John of England and 40 nobles who were tired of being taxed by the King to finance his failing war against France. Many regard the document as the beginning of what we now know as liberal society. Its most important clause reads: “no free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” King John repudiated the document a month after it was signed, but the idea of restraints on the monarchy was an idea that refused to die.
A South Korean videographer asked a number of international students in Japan how they recognized Americans traveling abroad. The stereotypes are fascinating. Like all stereotypes, they are both offensive and amusing (which is probably the reason why humans indulge in such weird analysis).
The Jubilee Debt Campaign is a non-governmental organization dedicated to erasing many of the onerous debts held by many governments, both rich and poor. Thus, it has a clear point of view and one has to take that point of view into account when reading its material. But its estimate of how much the IMF has made from its loans to Greece (€2.5 billion since 2010) seems to me to be about right. The human costs of the repayment have been very high for the Greek people, and one is not unreasonable when one asks if profit made from the suffering (not the actual repayment of the loan) is justifiable.
In fiscal year 2014, the US Federal government gave out $444 billion in contracts. Over $117 billion–nearly 27%–went to just 10 companies and all ten are military contractors. The top contracts went to Lockheed-Martin and the most expensive contract to that company was for the development of the F-35 fighter plane which has been under development since 2001, or 14 years. The F-35 has been plagued with all sorts of problems and its total cost over the 55 year life of the program is likely to be $1.5. trillion. Lockheed-Martin “saw over $5.5 billion in profit, and paid its CEO more than $70 million in 2014. And the $32 billion it received from the U.S. government made up more than seventy percent of its total sales.” The SNAP program, which offers money for food to almost 47 million Americans in 2015, has a total cost of about $74 billion.
Officials in Myanmar have issued an edict that prevents Rohingyas from leaving the country. The edict comes in response to the horrific stories of Rohingya refugees being turned away from other Southeast Asian countries, and the exposure of the terrible treatment the Muslim minority has received. Speigel has published a report on the conditions in which the Rohingya live, and the Kafkaesque circumstances which prevent them from either living comfortably or leaving the country.
Hyperinflation is a difficult concept to describe verbally. Zimbabwe has experienced hyperinflation for some time, but has finally decided to scrap the Zimbabwean currency and use the US dollar or the South African rand instead. In order to retire the old currency the government is using the following exchange rate: $1 for 35,000,000,000,000,000 old dollars. It is hard to imagine that the central bank had to print a one hundred trillion dollar bank note:
The Obama Administration is thinking about adding a network of bases for additional US soldiers operating in Iraq. There are at least 3500 US soldiers there already. They are supposed to be there only to train and to give advice, but there is a fine line between such activities and combat. It is difficult for me to see the long-term objective of such incremental moves. The strategy is opaque and I suspect that not even Obama’s advisers can define an end game with any great precision ore clarity.
One of the uncertainties about global warming has to do with the effects of warmer temperatures on agriculture. Some have argued that plants will thrive with higher temperatures and more carbon dioxide. A new study, however, suggests that, while some areas might benefit such as Russia and Canada, the net effect will be negative. In fact the new study concludes that:
“In fact, on a global scale, the authors predict that the Earth will lose a whopping 11 percent of its annual suitable growing days by the year 2100 under a business-as-usual scenario.”
Apparently, there are no silver linings at all to global warming.
In 1492 Jews in Spain were given a choice: convert to Catholicism or be burned at the stake. Today Spain is considering a law to give the descendants of those who fled Spain a chance to gain Spanish citizenship (about 90,000 such people) in a measure of atonement for the historical crime.
We tend to think about extremists who use the mantle of Islam as justification for their actions as being fairly monolithic. Nothing could be further from the truth. As groups become more extreme. minor ideological or theological differences can become paramount. The Guardian has an excellent article on the competition between the Islamic State and al Qaeda. If one has only a passing interest in the competition, then the article will be quite challenging. To follow the struggle between the two groups requires close attention to detail. It is precisely such differences that the opponents of these groups must exploit if they are to succeed in defusing the threat of extremism.
The European Parliament has passed a strong resolution calling upon the European Commission to take steps to prevent “financing of political parties in the EU by political or economic stakeholders outside the EU.” The resolution specifically condemns the financial assistance Russia has given to right-wing parties in Europe. Not unsurprisingly, the nationalist Members of Parliament, such as the British representative of the UK Independence Party, voted against the resolution. It is widely believed that the right-wing groups, such as the National Front in France, have received substantial contributions from Russia.
Even though we have yet to see the complete version of the Trade Bill, there have been sufficient leaks (Thanks, Wikileaks!) to get a rough idea of some of the essential components of the bill. What is extraordinary is the size of the campaign contributions given by corporations in order to gain support for the bill. One cannot help but be discouraged by the degree to which money influences legislation that affects every citizen. The playing field is far from even.
“I was brought up, like most Englishmen, to respect free trade not only as an economic doctrine which a rational and instructed person could not doubt but almost as a part of the moral law. I regarded departures from it as being at the same time an imbecility and an outrage. I thought England’s unshakable free-trade convictions, maintained for nearly a hundred years, to be both the explanation before man and the justification before heaven of her economic supremacy. As lately as 1923 I was writing that free trade was based on fundamental truths ‘which, stated with their due qualifications, no one can dispute who is capable of understanding the meaning of the words'” John Maynard Keynes, “National Self-Sufficiency” 1933
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