A severe explosion in the economic world is called a depression

There are two main causes for economic depressions - first, the concentration of wealth, and secondly, blockages in the rolling of money. If capital is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals or the state, most people will be exploited by a handful of exploiters. As a result of this process of severe exploitation, a serious explosion takes place. This explosion is known as a depression in the economic world. The concentration of wealth, and particularly the concentration of the value of wealth, is the fundamental cause of a depression. Secondly, a depression may occur when money that is in the possession of individual or state capitalists stops rolling. Money remains inert or unutilized because those capitalists think that if the money is allowed to roll freely then their profits will decrease, even though it will bring relief to the common people. The very psychology of capitalists is to make profit from the rolling of money. When they discover that the investment of money does not bring profit up to their expectations, then they stop rolling money. This keeps money immobile or inert; consequently, there is no investment, no production, no income and hence no purchasing power. The situation becomes so dangerous that there are few buyers to buy commodities. If there is surplus labour and deficit production, the effect of depression is more acute. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, especially the Telengana region, and Orissa are surplus labour areas, so during a depression these areas could face indiscriminate closure of business houses and lay-offs. When wages fall, the people in surplus labour areas who used to go to deficit labour areas for employment will be subjected to more hardships. This will aggravate the unemployment problem in surplus labour areas. In such situations, restricting the transfer of food among different socio-economic units could lead to an acute scarcity of food in the deficit production areas, and therefore a cordon system should not be introduced. Countries and regions with surplus production and deficit labour usually suffer less hardships during depression.

Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Florida foreclosure future shock

A tidal wave of foreclosures may be heading toward Florida, if you judge by the number of homeowners looking to get rid of their homes as fast as they can. "Orlando has blown up. There's been a 700 percent increase in traffic of people filling out our forms," he said. "I could put a bull's-eye on Orlando and write the headline for what will be going on in January and February." What will be going on could include a large increase in foreclosures as well as lower prices, longer inventories and a slower sales pace. - Les Christie

American Debt Has Destroyed American Independence

On Monday, the dollar fell to a near 26-year low against the English pound. Against the euro, it dropped to near its lowest level ever. Why this should be happening is both a long story and a short one. The short story is that currencies go up and down all the time; the long story is the subject of so many of these Daily Reckonings that readers are getting bored with them. Dollars are losing their appeal, generally, because there are so many of them. One of the great laws of economics is that quality and quantity vary inversely in many things, not the least of which is money. Each paper dollar represents an I.O.U. from the USA. As the United States increases the quantity of dollars, their credit quality comes into question. - Bill Bonner

Great Depression fall looms

In its annual report the Bank for International Settlements noted that the conditions which led up to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Asian crises in the 1990s were reflected in the current environment. "Each downturn was preceded by a period of non-inflationary growth exuberant enough to lead many commentators to suggest that a 'new era' had arrived," the bank said. The BIS, the central bankers' bank, pointed to a confluence of worrying signs, citing mass issuance of new-fangled credit instruments, soaring levels of household debt, extreme appetite for risk shown by investors, and entrenched imbalances in the world currency system. - Jacob Saulwick

Mela Chamliyal - Yet To Become A Testimonial Of Friendship

Despite exchanging Chaddar (which the Pakistani side offers at the Shrine of Baba Chamliyal) and "shakkar" (sacred earth), "sharbat" (holy water) which the Indian side offers, mistrust seemed evident with one keeping a strict vigil over the other. Shifa's incident is merely an indication of the fact that the two sides are yet to reconcile heart to heart. "The walls of hatred still exist between the two countries, People might be comfortable but neither the politicians nor the generals are interested in listening to them, reconciliation might take some more doing," said one Sher khan who had traveled all along from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK) to pay obeisance at the Baba's shrine standing at a distance of around 300 yards from it. - Syed Hashmi

Over 6 Million Face Food Insecurity In Afghanistan

Afghanistan needs to preserve its natural resources (including forests, rangelands, wildlife and plants), improve water and irrigation management, diversify agricultural production, expand its fruit and vegetable production, improve livestock production and help households diversify their sources of income in order to overcome the challenges millions of its citizens face now, FAO said.

Twilight Zone - 'Mowing the grass' in Nablus

The house overlooks Jerusalem Street, the main thoroughfare of Nablus, and also the entrance to the Balata refugee camp in the valley opposite. Nablus is dying. It is no longer the bustling city it once was. The mayor is in an Israeli jail, but the city is still relatively clean. Maybe because it is so deserted. At the Golden Table restaurant, once the leading local eatery, an elderly couple has the place all to themselves. Now the look of the restaurant reflects that of the city: neglected, empty, fading. - Gideon Levy

One Student Does the Incredible: Gets Law Passed for State to Pay Off College Debts

Andrew Bossie found the staggering costs of tuition, books, and living expenses at college in Maine to be untenable. Working with fellow activists, his campaign eventually convinced the Legislature to offer a way out of debt. - Joshua Holland

Sorry, Thomas Friedman, the World Is Round

In an excerpt from the new book, Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, Stephen Marshall takes on liberals like Friedman, who would have you believe that our capitalist system is inherently just and self-regulating when, in reality, it is anything but.

Home Values Slashed in Half? The Housing Bubble Is About to Burst

Similarly, foreclosure rates are soaring. Foreclosure rates had been very low in 2004 and 2005. In a period of rapidly rising house prices, very few borrowers had no equity in their homes. If they found they could not meet their monthly mortgage payments, they could borrow against their newly accumulated equity or simply sell their home and cash out excess equity. Homeowners in a market with declining prices have no equity cushion. While the run-up in foreclosures was originally concentrated in depressed markets like Ohio and Michigan, it has now spread to some of the formerly hot markets like San Diego and Miami. Prices have dropped enough in these areas that many recent buyers are now letting the banks take possession of their homes. Of course, few things will bring down house prices more quickly than a spate of foreclosure auctions.

Spies, lies, and war: Lessons of COINTELPRO

Among the many targets of COINTELPRO, the most serious attention was paid to those movements that most threatened state interests. The most violent repression under COINTELPRO was used against the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the American Indian Movement, and the Puerto Rican independence movement. It was fueled by the state's need to preserve the near total political and economic disenfranchisement of people of color in the face of the first serious threats to the racial status quo since post-Civil War Reconstruction. The need of the American empire to keep Puerto Rico in its colonial orbit, while it was losing the war in Southeast Asia, drove the violent repression there and against Puerto Rican immigrants in the United States. - Sherry Wolf

Anthrax Coverup? A Government Insider Speaks Out

Boyle alleged that due to his activities as a lawyer, he was interrogated by an agent from the CIA/FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in the summer of 2004. The agent tried to recruit him as an informant to provide the FBI with information on his Arab and Muslim clients. When he refused, according to Boyle, the FBI placed him on the government's terrorism watch lists. - Steve Watson

The Crashing U.S. Economy Held Hostage: Our Economy is on an Artificial Life-support System

Here's how I would put it today: our economy is on an artificial life-support system, a barely-breathing hostage in a lunatic asylum. That asylum is the U.S. and world financial systems which are on the verge of collapse. The inmates are the world's central bankers, along with most of the financial magnates big and small. The fact is that the economy of much of the world is in a decisive downward slide which the financiers cannot stop because the systems they operate are the primary cause. As often happens, the inmates rule the asylum. - Richard Cook

An Open Letter to Michael Moore

The most important point of the film might be the explanation about the cause of the problem in the United States. You very clearly show the deadly effect of the greed of politicians and insurance companies. I was left wondering who are the real terrorists. Insurance company "denials-of-care" kill more people than foreign enemies invading our shores do. Though the film does not exactly come out and say it, the solution is obvious. We have to get Wall Street out of the health care industry. A single-payer system would save lives and money. - Rosemarie Jackowski

Whither Women's Activism?

In the 1970s radical women activists proliferated across America. Today there are but a handful. The words "feminist" and "feminism" have been watered down entirely and are used by both liberals and conservatives, with entirely different meanings for each. Since Bush occupied the White House we've seen the disbanning of important women's agencies. The same thing is happening at the state level where Republican governors come into office. Women no longer want to be radical. They want to be moderates. While keen on volunteering and doing service, they are not inclined to become activists, to ask important questions such as, what causes women's poverty? Why are the laws regarding domestic violence so skewed in favor of men? Nowadays, the few women ready to be activists spend all their time fighting the retarded, stone-age policies of the New Right. This has to change. We need to once again inspire women to fight the hard battle - against racism, poverty, violence, war and capitalist imperialism. We need to get all women engaged in consciousness-raising. Then we need to take action. - Garda Ghista

Thorough preparation is required to end the age of capitalism

Capitalists believe that only a few people can accumulate material wealth, depriving the rest. Thus there will always be only a few capitalists , while those who are the objects and tools of their exploitation form the majority. Like exploited beasts of burden which carry bags of sugar, in their crippled state of mind the majority feel that they do not have the right to taste the sweetness. This feeling is the greatest ally of the capitalists, so directly or indirectly they always try to nurture this type of feeling in the minds of the majority. Consequently they propagate various types of isms and ethereal theories with the help of the intellectuals in their pay whom they have reduced to the level of slaves. When the majority, unable to tolerate this exploitation any longer or find any other way out, desperately leap into action, the Capitalist Age comes to an end. But it takes a long time for downtrodden people to understand that the capitalists are the parasites of society. Hence thorough preparation is required to end the age of capitalism.
-
Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Earning a living in the capitalist age

A Postcard from Iraq

His wife reminded me the way Shehrazade recounted endless tales to Shahrayar the king from the Tales of the 1001 nights. Thus delaying and preventing her beheading. Except Raouf's wife tales was to prevent her husband's beheading... She must have struck a chord somewhere in their collective memory. They dropped him on the 4th day, in the middle of the night, on some dark street... Raouf carried his wounds and his broken body and walked for miles before he could get any help at all. And us, for three days and nights we would roam the rooms like animals in a cage, pacing back and forth...Praying, crying, bargaining, pleading, supplicating, begging, God, the Universe, the Darkness, the Silence, the Walls.... When Raouf finally arrived to Baghdad, the whole family went to visit him. A sight that could not be described in words. Raouf was so badly tortured, he was unrecognizable. You cannot see his eyes anymore. His face, his nose are so swollen , as if about to explode with pain and hurt. His body, his body, the marks of a thousand rods, chains, sticks on it. His legs, his back, his chest, his arms, his stomach... His white shirt was dark brown with blood. Someone took pictures. For the memory, for the record, for the family album. An Iraqi family album. - Layla Anwar - May God have mercy on our souls. - WPA

Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die

A widow makes her way in Vrindavan, India, where an estimated 15,000 widows live on the streets.

A widow at the Amar Bari refuge home rebels against tradition by wearing bright blue instead of white.

Many of the widows have been hobbled by age and must use walking canes to get around.

The Secret History of the American Empire: An Excerpt 'Hired Guns in Guatemala'

United Fruit launched a major public relations campaign in the United States; it convinced the American public and Congress that Arbenz had turned Guatemala into a Soviet satellite and that his land reform program was a Russian plot to destroy capitalism in Latin America. In 1954, the CIA orchestrated a coup. American planes bombed the capital city; the democratically elected president was overthrown and replaced by a brutal right- wing military dictator, Col. Carlos Castillo Armas. - John Perkins

If Iran Were America (And We Were Iran): A Timeline

March 2003

After endless harassment, Mexico's José Husseino fails to divest himself of the weapons of mass destruction he does not possess. Iran invades and occupies Mexico. No WMD are found, though it takes the Iranian government a year or two to gradually acknowledge this. No matter. Mexicans suffered horrendously under the Husseino dictatorship. Remember how he gassed the poor Chihuahuans? (Forget the context, or where he got the weapons, just remember that it happened.) They should welcome Iranian occupation, even if the number of violent deaths soars!

A Sudden Change of State

If Hansen is correct, to avert the meltdown that brings the Holocene to an end we require a response on this scale: a sort of political "albedo flip". The government must immediately commission studies to discover how much of our energy could be produced without fossil fuels, set that as its target then turn the economy round to meet it. But a power shift like this cannot take place without a power shift of another kind: we need a government which fears planetary meltdown more than it fears the CBI. - George Monbiot

Blue State Secession

In the shadow of the election that returned to power the most autocratic and illegitimate government the nation has ever experienced, many are beginning to talk about "blue state" secession. Most of the talk has seemed frivolous, but over the weekend of November 5-7 in Middlebury, Vermont, three dozen people met to discuss and promote--seriously--the prospect of secession from the United States. - Kirkpatrick Sale - Secession may well become the latest American trend, with millions of Americans feeling helpless against Empire and tired of its crimes. Tired of Patriot Acts that throw the U.S. Constitution into the trash bin. Tired of sending more to the federal treasury than they ever get back, which hurts particularly when that hard earned money goes for perpetual war. Vermont did secede from the United States 200 years ago. Why not again? It can grow its own crops, it has water for hydro power, town hall meetings to create participatory democracy - it is ready and ripe for secession. Kentucky is another state that may be ready for secession. It has millions of tons of coal in the ground, thousands of acres of beautiful commercial timber and more than 1100 miles of navigable waterways - yet the coal and timber are all owned by outside capitalists, who leave Kentuckians sitting in cramped mobile homes on that coal to live lives of wretched poverty. Why? Secession will change it all! Laws can then be passed by the new Kentucky Republic "nationalizing" all natural resources of the country. Coal mines and timber industries can be run (as per Prout economy) by the national government on a no-profit no-loss basis. Everything else can be run as cooperatives. We can follow the sterling example of Vermont and establish the custom of town hall meetings and participatory democracy, participatory budget process. Some southern states are already moving in the direction of secession. Certainly Hawaii and Alaska have similar movements. Let every state of America secede from U.S. Empire - because if they do, there won't be any Empire. It will collapse. - WPA

Imperial Democracies, Representative Democracies, Participatory Democracies, Direct Democracies

Though the words are never used within an empire's mainstream media or educational system, the world has many imperial democracies. These too are supposedly elected by the citizenry but, just as most candidates in representative democracies being picked by powerbrokers essentially disenfranchises the electorate; the same powerbrokers picking the candidates within those imperial centers have control over who can run for puppet governments on an empire's periphery. - Dr. J.W. Smith

Between the Nimitz and the deep blue sea

In exchange for 'help' in becoming a 'world power', India is being called upon to do all it can to ensure the 21st century becomes the century of America in Asia. Enhancing military interoperability and access rights are the first steps in this process. - Siddharth Varadarajan

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Personal Gratification: "Here There Be Monsters"

If we falter in our sacred duty to over-indulge our desires at the expense of humanity and the Earth, dear reader, our world as we know it will be lost to the "Islamic hoards", "Godless Communists", and "Hispanic invaders." As long as greed, self-absorption, selfishness, and consumerism are so deeply woven into our sociocultural fabric, we who comprise the collective in the United States will exist as a living testament to Victor Hugo's observation that, "Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters." - Jason Miller

Blank Senator Specter Fights for Constitution

If it does not become law, common sense says it should be considered as a possible constitutional amendment. In fact, it is a perfect illustration of why more politically engaged Americans should support the national campaign to obtain the nation's first Article V convention for proposing amendments. When good and necessary laws cannot be obtained through the normal but untrustworthy legislative process, then lawmaking through constitutional amendments is absolutely necessary and appropriate. Our Framers knew what they were doing when they created the Article V convention option. Learn more about it at www.foavc.org. - Joel Hirschhorn

How to Avoid the Top 10 Most Common Toxins

A study in last year's British Medical Journal estimated that perhaps 75 percent of most cancers are caused by environmental and lifestyle factors, including exposure to chemicals. Another report, this one by the Columbia University School of Public Health, estimated that 95 percent of cancer is caused by diet and environmental toxicity. - Dr. Joseph Mercola

The three story outhouse

America is like a three story outhouse: The Republicans on the top story, the Democrats on the second story and all us beautiful humans on the bottom. The odor down here is intense so it is hard to feel a lot of sympathy for the second story occupants. - Dr. Morton Skorodin

All dogma must be replaced by non-dogma

Should one dogma be replaced by another dogma of the same order or of another order? Should a dogma of a positive order be replaced by a dogma of a positive order or by a dogma of a negative order? A dogma is an illogical, irrational sentiment. All dogma must be replaced by non-dogma. Gautam Buddha said that anger should be overcome by sweetness, miserliness by generosity, falsehood by truthfulness, hatred by love and sorrow by happiness. If we adopt the same approach, does this mean replacing a negative dogma with a positive dogma? No, because these attributes are mental propensities, not dogma. All negative mental propensities should be replaced by positive mental propensities, as Buddha advocated. This is the proper approach. All human beings want to lead a secure, harmonious life, and have the opportunity to express themselves and progress. However, religious dogma goes against these fundamental human aspirations. Some priests, for example, say that if women dance their feet will become useless, therefore they should not dance. This is dogma. Other priests force people to worship particular deities out of fear. People are told that if they do not worship the prescribed deity, then a calamity will befall their families, and the deity will even take revenge on them. But can a deity really take revenge, just like bad people do? If it can, how can it be a deity? This is all dogma. Women are considered second class citizens in each and every religion. If equal status is given to women, it will be very difficult to exploit them. So to avoid this happening, women are kept oppressed. The exploitation of women has been continuing for centuries. Some religions say that if the husband is virtuous the wife is benefited, so the wife does not have to do anything herself. Other religions say that men can go to heaven, but women have to remain standing at heavens gate. All this is dogma. Intelligent people know that nobody can share the virtues or vices of others. Everybody has to move with their own sam�skaras or reactions to past actions.

Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Oklahoma floods - June 2007

Christian Reconstructionists Are Trying to Take Dominion in America -- and They Have Powerful Friends

Despite its overtly radical theocratic agenda, American Vision is allied with some of the Religious Right's most powerful outfits. This year's conference was cosponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, a well-funded Religious Right lawyers' outfit that James Dobson and other religious broadcasters helped create; Michael Farris's Home School Legal Defense Association; the late TV preacher Jerry Falwell's Liberty University School of Law; and World Magazine, Marvin Olasky's influential evangelical Christian periodical.The major theme of this year's Worldview conference was a call for an ongoing push by Christian fundamentalists to tear down democracy and replace it with theocracy. Far from being super, it was rather scary. -

Record flooding forces thousands to evacuate in central US

Oklahoma City firefighter Cpl. Brent Koeninger reaches a car stuck in high water on a road in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, June 26, 2007. Koeninger pulled two teen-aged girls from the car and to dry land.

While the water was slowly receding in many areas on Tuesday, it continued to rise in and around Miami. Local officials were bracing for the second-highest level of the Neosho River ever recorded. "We have two children and have lost our home to the flood," said a tearful Natasha Maxon, one of several Miami residents who met with Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry while he was touring the area, reported the Tulsa World."I don't have no flood insurance," Denia Payton, a resident of Miami told the Associated Press. "Whatever's left here is gone." - Dan Knopfler

Biofuels are not an eco solution

Cutting sugar cane

The environmental impact of biofuels in the Global South has been catastrophic. In Brazil, the drive for biofuels is a continuing threat to the rainforests. In Indonesia and Malaysia - which produce 84 percent of the palm oil used in biodiesel - the UN predicts that at current rates 98 percent of the rainforest will be destroyed by 2022. In Indonesia much of the land being cleared for cultivating palm oil is peat wetlands. This is dried out, releasing more carbon as the peat oxidises. Peat and wood are often burned to speed up the clearances, driving up the levels of carbon emissions still further. - Esme Choonara