Ahhh, vacation. More Americans should enjoy them.
Finally got around to watching the extended version of Coppola's "Apocalypse Now". The result is a mixed bag -- the added layers of symbolism are welcome (e.g. Lance's increasing use of face-paint, corresponding to the dehumanization of the crew), but the larger canvas also highlights the flaws in the original. The film can't grasp gender, and the Vietnamese remain inscrutable Others.
What Coppola does get right, though, is the delusionary madness of Empire, how its utopia of endless malls turned into napalm and mass murder. Yesterday's heli-war is today's drone bombardment, but the result is the same: slaughter, mayhem, and utter futility. In my most nightmarish dreams, never did I imagine that the US would be insane enough to commit suicide the same way the USSR did, bankrupting itself on military-industrial folly and foreign debt, and going so far as to recycle the same Central Asian burial ground.
Meanwhile, a fresh crop of Colonel Kurtzes is showing up in Central Asia. The greatest irony of all is that America's creditors are beyond caring. If the Americans want to bleed themselves further, that's America's problem, not theirs. The BRICs have time and T-bills on their side.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Victory!
This is what democracy looks like...
...a whole bunch of people from different continents and cultures, and with wildly different backgrounds, interests and talents, all banding together to improve working conditions for all. It took just two days, but massive turnout and campus solidarity caused the UI administration to see the writing on the wall and agree to a reasonable compromise.
The weather deities must have a union contract of their own, because the rainstorm ceased and the sun began to peek out at the exact moment we won our fight at the bargaining table. Here's the celebration:
...a whole bunch of people from different continents and cultures, and with wildly different backgrounds, interests and talents, all banding together to improve working conditions for all. It took just two days, but massive turnout and campus solidarity caused the UI administration to see the writing on the wall and agree to a reasonable compromise.
The weather deities must have a union contract of their own, because the rainstorm ceased and the sun began to peek out at the exact moment we won our fight at the bargaining table. Here's the celebration:
Monday, November 16, 2009
After 30 Years of Neoliberalism, the Payback Begins
Spent today on the picket lines and oh hell yes did it ever feel good. Our friendly neighborhood university-industrial complex is trying to fix its financial woes by taking away our tuition waivers, which is utter madness. 90% of graduate students could not afford to attend the university without those waivers. We grads teach most of the classes for ludicrously low pay, and contribute countless unpaid hours on cutting-edge research projects (my own workweek is never less than 80 hours, and sometimes more).
Slashing tuition waivers to save money makes as much sense as a weight loss program which involves chopping off both your legs.
It's incredible how every single institution in this entire country has become clinically suicidal, from the biggest Wall Street vampire squid to the most out-of-the-way school district. Meanwhile, this failed Empire's twin failed wars devour an inconceivable $1 trillion a year, while Wall Street pays itself record bonuses thanks to a $14.1 trillion bailout.
Highlight of the day: an irate passerby upset with our picket line told us we were going to Hell. Ever courteous, we refrained from informing this person that, on our salaries, we already live there.
Slashing tuition waivers to save money makes as much sense as a weight loss program which involves chopping off both your legs.
It's incredible how every single institution in this entire country has become clinically suicidal, from the biggest Wall Street vampire squid to the most out-of-the-way school district. Meanwhile, this failed Empire's twin failed wars devour an inconceivable $1 trillion a year, while Wall Street pays itself record bonuses thanks to a $14.1 trillion bailout.
Highlight of the day: an irate passerby upset with our picket line told us we were going to Hell. Ever courteous, we refrained from informing this person that, on our salaries, we already live there.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Financial Education
Long ago, in another life, I watched a documentary about neoliberalism in Jamaica. A dairy farmer complained about how imported powdered milk destroyed the local agricultural base. Right now I'm waiting on line to buy $6 of powdered milk because it's all I can afford.
The person ahead of me swipes his card. Nothing. The clerk suggests retyping the password. Swipe. Nothing. Swipe. Nothing.
The clerk tries to help, punches in some numbers. "Looks like you have only $4 left." The customer looks down at his two items, triages the most valuable, pays for that.
* * * * * *
Another $50 drained from my vanishingly small bank account. This wasn't bad planning on my part, but an accident due to the debit card float -- the time it takes, sometimes a week or more, for debit purchases to register in your checking account. It looked like my account had enough money, so I sent in my rent check, but the debit charges hit at the last second. Overdraft fee: $25 per transaction.
What I didn't realize is that this means each and every transaction. Access your account again, and you pay another $25 fee. So now I'm out an extra $50 that I can't afford. That's on top of my $88 traffic ticket and charges for a check lost in the mail.
Yeah, just pile it on, transnational capitalism, just pile it on. Kick me when I'm down.
You'll regret not killing me when you had the chance.
The person ahead of me swipes his card. Nothing. The clerk suggests retyping the password. Swipe. Nothing. Swipe. Nothing.
The clerk tries to help, punches in some numbers. "Looks like you have only $4 left." The customer looks down at his two items, triages the most valuable, pays for that.
* * * * * *
Another $50 drained from my vanishingly small bank account. This wasn't bad planning on my part, but an accident due to the debit card float -- the time it takes, sometimes a week or more, for debit purchases to register in your checking account. It looked like my account had enough money, so I sent in my rent check, but the debit charges hit at the last second. Overdraft fee: $25 per transaction.
What I didn't realize is that this means each and every transaction. Access your account again, and you pay another $25 fee. So now I'm out an extra $50 that I can't afford. That's on top of my $88 traffic ticket and charges for a check lost in the mail.
Yeah, just pile it on, transnational capitalism, just pile it on. Kick me when I'm down.
You'll regret not killing me when you had the chance.
Monday, November 9, 2009
How Wall Street Is Ripping You Off
Nomi Prins' "It Takes a Pillage" should be required reading for all US citizens.
It explains in clear, terse prose what Wall Street did to blow up the US economy -- run up wild debts, polarize incomes, gamble like there was no tomorrow, and pay regulators to look the other way, until the house of credit cards collapsed -- and how they've bought off the politicians of both parties in Washington DC.
Prins also has this indispensable running tally of the total cost of the bailout. Hint: it's bigger than you think.
It explains in clear, terse prose what Wall Street did to blow up the US economy -- run up wild debts, polarize incomes, gamble like there was no tomorrow, and pay regulators to look the other way, until the house of credit cards collapsed -- and how they've bought off the politicians of both parties in Washington DC.
Prins also has this indispensable running tally of the total cost of the bailout. Hint: it's bigger than you think.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Multipolar World...
...what dreams will it dream?
In my profession, people often ask me if there is hope for the future.
Yes, there is hope -- but not from the US political overclass or US ruling elites.
This week, the forex reserves of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) increased to a total of $3.22 trillion. This isn't some speculative stock position -- this is cold, hard cash.
Historically, the 42% of humanity comprising the BRIC nations have been ravaged by centuries of colonialism and neocolonialism, as well as titanic world wars and the ruinous burden of Cold War military expenditures.
But today, thanks to their own sweat, labor, and sheer determination, they have colossal sums of money at their disposal, the power to "control and mold the world to do your wishing" as Ice-T rapped nearly two decades ago on the title track of Power.
All the signs are that the BRICs have no intention of paying Wall Street rentiers a dime for managing these funds (sorry, Squidsters, you'll have to make do heatmapping gullible US consumers).
Instead, the BRICs have decided to invest in humanity's egalitarian future, not its imperial past.
I didn't think it would happen for another 12-15 years, but it's happening anyway.
And that is a powerful reason to hope.
In my profession, people often ask me if there is hope for the future.
Yes, there is hope -- but not from the US political overclass or US ruling elites.
This week, the forex reserves of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) increased to a total of $3.22 trillion. This isn't some speculative stock position -- this is cold, hard cash.
Historically, the 42% of humanity comprising the BRIC nations have been ravaged by centuries of colonialism and neocolonialism, as well as titanic world wars and the ruinous burden of Cold War military expenditures.
But today, thanks to their own sweat, labor, and sheer determination, they have colossal sums of money at their disposal, the power to "control and mold the world to do your wishing" as Ice-T rapped nearly two decades ago on the title track of Power.
All the signs are that the BRICs have no intention of paying Wall Street rentiers a dime for managing these funds (sorry, Squidsters, you'll have to make do heatmapping gullible US consumers).
Instead, the BRICs have decided to invest in humanity's egalitarian future, not its imperial past.
I didn't think it would happen for another 12-15 years, but it's happening anyway.
And that is a powerful reason to hope.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
This is What Imperial Collapse Looks Like
Price tag of a US mayor: $90 million. Meanwhile, the Party of Government Sachs gets clobbered.
To anyone with a functioning neural cortex, all this is utterly unsurprising. Conservativism and regression are the hallmarks of every dying market-based Empire, from 16th century Spain to 17th century Netherlands, all the way to post-Victorian Britain. In each case, all the social, economic, political and cultural factors which unwittingly conspired to forge a given Empire, turn at a certain point against that Empire.
Odd as it sounds, the closest geopolitical parallel to the US decline isn't Victorian Britain, but Russia's post-Soviet collapse. So far, Obama has followed the Gorbachev script of catastrophic dithering to the letter. The US has -- and the USSR had -- Federal superstructures pinned down by severe military-industrial overstretch; declining local state capacity (the fiscal collapse of California and New York, versus the collapse of state authority throughout the former USSR), and a disastrous occupation of Afghanistan. The only difference is that Obama's team is rebranding the assets of a dead banking system, where Gorbachev's team rebranded dead party-state dogmas (or maybe the equivalent is the Chubais privatizations, when the oligarchs plundered Russia's energy and mineral resources).
I've written elsewhere that there would be a three-month window at the beginning of Obama's term for mildly progressive legislation. This window has now closed. No card check, no health reform worthy of the name, no real banking re-regulation.
In place of those things, I fully expect the Dems to institute a major austerity drive beginning next year, and to be thoroughly thrashed at the 2010 polls -- we're talking possibly losing the Senate -- which will lead to more austerity, etc.
It's not the end of the world. The BRICs will pick up where the US left off, and the EU has finally figured out that it is indeed a genuine superpower. The semi-peripheries and the new metropoles will get the world economy humming again, and the US will bump along in tow, like the derelict supertanker it indeed is.
To anyone with a functioning neural cortex, all this is utterly unsurprising. Conservativism and regression are the hallmarks of every dying market-based Empire, from 16th century Spain to 17th century Netherlands, all the way to post-Victorian Britain. In each case, all the social, economic, political and cultural factors which unwittingly conspired to forge a given Empire, turn at a certain point against that Empire.
Odd as it sounds, the closest geopolitical parallel to the US decline isn't Victorian Britain, but Russia's post-Soviet collapse. So far, Obama has followed the Gorbachev script of catastrophic dithering to the letter. The US has -- and the USSR had -- Federal superstructures pinned down by severe military-industrial overstretch; declining local state capacity (the fiscal collapse of California and New York, versus the collapse of state authority throughout the former USSR), and a disastrous occupation of Afghanistan. The only difference is that Obama's team is rebranding the assets of a dead banking system, where Gorbachev's team rebranded dead party-state dogmas (or maybe the equivalent is the Chubais privatizations, when the oligarchs plundered Russia's energy and mineral resources).
I've written elsewhere that there would be a three-month window at the beginning of Obama's term for mildly progressive legislation. This window has now closed. No card check, no health reform worthy of the name, no real banking re-regulation.
In place of those things, I fully expect the Dems to institute a major austerity drive beginning next year, and to be thoroughly thrashed at the 2010 polls -- we're talking possibly losing the Senate -- which will lead to more austerity, etc.
It's not the end of the world. The BRICs will pick up where the US left off, and the EU has finally figured out that it is indeed a genuine superpower. The semi-peripheries and the new metropoles will get the world economy humming again, and the US will bump along in tow, like the derelict supertanker it indeed is.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Fustercluck Nation
Long ago, in what seems like another life, I visited Russia during the mid-1990s, the heyday of neoliberalism and the economic nadir of Russia's post-Soviet era. The immiseration and suffering of millions of ordinary people was starkly visible, but I also saw pride, spirit, and astounding tenacity. Russia had survived civil war, political repression, the unthinkable bloodletting of WW II (22 to 26 million Soviet citizens perished in that war, or roughly 20 million ethnic Russians), and the costly burden of a bloated military-industrial complex. It would survive neoliberalism, too.
One of the small details which struck me back then was the disruption of public services: the mail had almost stopped being delivered. You had to send things by private courier.
How things have changed. Today, in one of the great ironies of history, Russia has finally recovered, at precisely the moment America is entering its post-Cold War collapse.
Case 1: the local mail at the university town where I live is becoming increasingly unreliable. Mail wasn't being delivered properly, and then finally my rent check was lost in the mail. (From now on, I drop off rent payments in person).
Of course, when public services decline, they don't just fall apart overnight. What happens is that fiscal crises drive local authorities to try to capture revenue, by raising fees, imposing surcharges, or privatizing and monetizing previously free services.
Case 2: I took a wrong traffic turn while driving in a certain midwestern city. It was dark and raining like hell, but whatever, I'll pay the fine. Total bill: $88.80. What the hell? I didn't endanger any lives, didn't cause any accidents, didn't run any lights, didn't cut anyone off, wasn't in the wrong lane per se, just turned left at a major intersection. Thank goodness I wasn't speeding, otherwise I would've been on the hook for $300 or more.
Case 3: sending the check for the traffic ticket. I have to mail it to the courthouse, of course. So that means spending an extra $3.24 on certified mail, just to make sure the damn thing gets there.
$88.80 + $3.24 for certified mail + $20 late fee on rent = $112.04. As for my salary, let's just say I have to make do on about $10,000 a year.
These fees hurt. A lot.
And that's just one of my monthly bills for living in a fustercluck nation.
One of the small details which struck me back then was the disruption of public services: the mail had almost stopped being delivered. You had to send things by private courier.
How things have changed. Today, in one of the great ironies of history, Russia has finally recovered, at precisely the moment America is entering its post-Cold War collapse.
Case 1: the local mail at the university town where I live is becoming increasingly unreliable. Mail wasn't being delivered properly, and then finally my rent check was lost in the mail. (From now on, I drop off rent payments in person).
Of course, when public services decline, they don't just fall apart overnight. What happens is that fiscal crises drive local authorities to try to capture revenue, by raising fees, imposing surcharges, or privatizing and monetizing previously free services.
Case 2: I took a wrong traffic turn while driving in a certain midwestern city. It was dark and raining like hell, but whatever, I'll pay the fine. Total bill: $88.80. What the hell? I didn't endanger any lives, didn't cause any accidents, didn't run any lights, didn't cut anyone off, wasn't in the wrong lane per se, just turned left at a major intersection. Thank goodness I wasn't speeding, otherwise I would've been on the hook for $300 or more.
Case 3: sending the check for the traffic ticket. I have to mail it to the courthouse, of course. So that means spending an extra $3.24 on certified mail, just to make sure the damn thing gets there.
$88.80 + $3.24 for certified mail + $20 late fee on rent = $112.04. As for my salary, let's just say I have to make do on about $10,000 a year.
These fees hurt. A lot.
And that's just one of my monthly bills for living in a fustercluck nation.
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