Another day another lethal financial derivative

Collateralised Debt Obligation (CDOs) and Credit Default Swap (CDS) are old hat. Say hello to the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). The EFT  is a fund which supposedly concentrates on a discrete area of economic activity such as a the trading of a commodity, a  particular  area of business, for example, banks, or a  particular country’s [...]

The nation state: the only platform for democratic control

Democracy in the literal direct sense does not exist in the modern world, indeed for practical reasons cannot exist in a state of any size. What we have is what political scientists call elective oligarchy, a political system whereby the electorate is offered a choice ever few years between competing parts of a society’s elite. [...]

“Free markets”, “free trade” and the emasculation of democratic control

 ”I just think that a lot of modern corporate capitalists — the managerial class basically — has no loyalty to any country anymore, or any particular values other than the bottom line.” (Pat Buchanan quoted by Daniel Brandt in his article “Class Warfare” in issue 13 of Namebase Newsline -http//www.namebase.org/news13.html). Buchanan is grasping a demon which he [...]

Do you want this potential terrorist target in the heart of London?

The United Kingdom Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI) was granted planning permission for a research labratory on 16 December. This is a consortium comprised of the Medical Research Council (a taxpayers funded body) , Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and University College London which is part of London University. If built the [...]

16-Year_old delivers address to Labour Conference

Master Edward Milliband aged  about 16 in mentality if not years delivered a speech  appropriate to a fifth-form debating society.  Delivered in the flat panic-striken tones of an adolescent  making his first public speech, with the added distraction of young Milliband’s near lisp, and filled with every ghastly cliche and platitude from the NuLabour lexicon, it shrieked [...]