When the global financial crisis started with the collapse of the sub prime mortgage market in the spring of 2007, it became clear that the world economy was facing a severe downturn and that unemployment would rise. At that time, my husband, the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, remarked that there […]
If indeed the time has now arrived to seek monetary justice and to harness public indignation at usurious banking practice, then it is also time to seek a better understanding of how it all went so suddenly wrong and what is to be done about it. The current procedure – […]
Many supporters of the Occupy movement identify the need for more effective regulation of financial institutions as one of their central demands. At the same time, the response of governments to the myriad abuses and ethical failures of the financial sector has been to call for new regulation or legislation, […]
Stretched across the tent town by the London Stock Exchange is a banner spelling out the slogan of 2011: “Real Democracy Now”. Go to the camp and many participants will tell you that it is not their demands which are key – it is their process. The old chant “This […]
Lucas Papademos is the new Greek prime minister. He is also the former vice-president of the European Central Bank. A man who would possibly do anything to ensure that Greece remains in the Eurozone, despite public outcry. In Italy, Berlusconi is replaced by an ex-EU Commissioner named Mario Monti. Monti […]
We do not occupy in isolation. Yet while spiritual-mystical-historical connections to other popular movements are evident, it is not always welcome to make them publically. Witness the BBC reaction to Darkus Howe’s claim, much replayed on Youtube, that the riots in London were part of a world-wide spirit of “insurrection […]
What has united the myriad of occupy movements, so far, has been a critique of rampant privatisation and inequality correlated to a demand for a ‘real’ democracy. The latter implies that the current model is a fake and expresses the necessity of building something different. Over the past decades, our […]
If there’s one conclusion I’ve come to after five years of suffering from it, it is that mental illness doesn’t happen in isolation. We know that 1 in 4 Britons will suffer from a mental disorder in their lifetime. The World Health Organization even predicts depression will be the second […]
Ask ten people – occupiers, bankers, journalists, company directors – not whether they agree with capitalism but instead “What is Capitalism?”. The ten different answers proffered suggest that the ‘are we anti-capitalist?’ question is moot. Those who identify with the anti-capitalist label describe capitalism as necessarily exploitative. They see it […]
If anything bridges the gap between many in the Occupy movements, the mainstream press, and many in the financial elite, it is their diagnosis of the causes behind the current crisis. Finance got out of hand; bankers got too greedy; governments didn’t regulate properly. Having a similar diagnosis of the […]