Banking

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. In recent years it has faced severe internal divisions, especially a Saudi-Qatar split over the Muslim Brotherhood, which Riyadh wanted to crush but which Qatar generally has supported. After […]

Banking

The Real Reason Critics Hate The Iran Nuclear Deal

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks Video) | – – “There’s something wrong with people’s reaction to the Iran nuclear deal. If what they’re saying is true then the deal makes no sense at all. They’re saying Iran will be more likely to get a nuclear weapon, but that simply isn’t true. Cenk Uygur delivers […]

Banking

Is Greece’s “No” on Debt Referendum another Youth Revolution?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – During the past 5 years, the old categories of politics– left, right, center or capitalist and socialist– have been challenged by a new one, that of youth. What the Millennials want has begun to matter in addition to the other factors. That Greece has a left-wing […]

African-Americans

Bernie Sanders’ 10,000-person crowd in Madison biggest of any Candidate so Far

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Democratic Party’s left wing is fed up and isn’t going to take it any more. Americans in opinion polling overwhelmingly favor the positions of Bernie Sanders on most political and social issues. But gerrymandering, big money in politics, and voter suppression have produced presidents who […]

Banking

The Would-be Bush Trifecta, Brought to you by the Family Bankers

contributors

By Nomi Prins | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – [This piece has been adapted and updated by Nomi Prins from her book All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power, recently out in paperback (Nation Books).] It’s happening. As expected, dynastic politics is prevailing in campaign 2016. After a tease about as long as Hillary’s, Jeb […]

Acidification of Oceans

5 Radical Takeaways from the Pope’s Letter on Climate

contributors

By Janet Redman | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – Francis recognizes that there’s no way to stop climate change without confronting the way the world does business. That’s huge. Pope Francis just released an “encyclical,” a letter meant to serve as a guide to understanding our personal relationship to some of the most […]

Banking

The Wall Street Connection: The Clintons and their Banker Friends

contributors

By Nomi Prins | (Tomdispatch.com) | – The past, especially the political past, doesn’t just provide clues to the present. In the realm of the presidency and Wall Street, it provides an ongoing pathway for political-financial relationships and policies that remain a threat to the American economy going forward. When Hillary Clinton video-announced her bid for the […]

Banking

‘Too Big to Exist’: Sanders Introduces Bill to Break Up Big Banks

contributors

by Nadia Prupis, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – If passed, bill would give Treasury Secretary a year to break up institutions bailed out in financial crisis. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is running for president in 2016, will introduce a bill to Congress that would break up “too big to fail” institutions. (Photo: Brookings Institution/flickr/cc) […]

Banking

Warren Buffett betting big on Wind Energy in Nebraska, & other Planet-Saving News

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Wind power is on a roll in the US despite a fickle Congress and the machinations of Big Coal and Big Gas to keep all the subsidies for themselves. And one of the world’s most successful investors, Warren Buffett, has noticed. As of the end of the first […]