...word. I cannot get enough of it. And I can say the same about Japanese economic organization. It remains the world’s second largest economy, and managed to attain that ranking only a couple of decades after a war that had left it with a devastated industrial base. The manner in which it did this, and in which economic activities continue to flourish, has perplexed most economists who took a close look, and provides compelling arguments against prevailing economic doctrine in Europe and the United States. I made an attempt to put that in perspective in a recent talk, which was published and can be found here in pdf form. I will continue to come back to that subject. As for the United States, my preoccupation hardly requires explanation. The way in which much of the world with access to TV sets and the Web followed a year-long battle for the presidency may have had something to do with its soap-opera qualities, but probably more important is the general understanding of our planet’s population that it does matter very much who occupies that “most powerful person in the world” position. The first decade of the twentyfirst century, now nearing its close,...

...since the Enlightenment. Come back and help recreate a world in which a phrase like “values dear to our hearts” still has meaning. An improved global order cannot come about if the label of “anti-American” is automatically and unthinkingly slapped on any serious analysis of anti-democratic trends, of political excesses and abuse when, as so often happens, the United States provides the clearest examples. Cries of “anti-American” amount to intimidation, as do the labels “leftist” and “bleeding heart liberal” thrown at those whose conscience and intelligence drives them to rethink political purpose amid their country’s technocracy and corrupted media. In all the sadness and anger after September 11, the world expressed a hope through much commentary that the tragedy might lead to a serious rethinking of America’s political and economic purposes. To support this hope is not to endorse the notion that Americans “had it coming” — of course, no American action in the world has made the terrorist attacks morally comprehensible. But that does not excuse Americans for failing to rethink national purposes in a world that they dominate. The hope may still be realized, but only if the millions of Americans of goodwill wake up and speak out....

...Strike initiative that intends to provide the US with the capability to strike anywhere on earth within 60 minutes; is working to destabilize the government in Iran, with military attack still on the table as an option; supports America’s new military African Command; intends to encircle Russia with US bases in former constituent parts of the Soviet Union”. And he reminds us that the NATO serves as a pool of “mercenaries in US wars of aggression”. On this subject see also Jan Sampiemon’s new column on the NATO Zombies in their Afghan vicious circle. This will come come across as overly harsh for the majority of the European elites Roberts wishes to reach, because their denial is nurtured by continuous propaganda about Russia, Iran, Venezuela, or for that matter China; propaganda that has been mistaken for analysis. They have not bothered to look in the kitchens of American think tanks where much of it is produced. What will also come acrosss as exaggerated is Roberts’ alert against the grand sounding concepts of “self-determination and the sovereignty of the people” used by the Obama administration as “useful platitudes with which to mask the hegemonic interests of the US government. US money...

...devoted to the international financial crisis. That situation was examined for the further damage it could do to countries with developmental problems, but by my knowledge no sustained effort was undertaken to get down to the power relations that made possible the relations and transactions that lie at the root of the crisis. Sometimes I heard some disturbed voices, from Latin America, Africa and, indeed, from the Netherlands, inching in such a direction, but these were lost in the general potpourri of opinion. Sustainability is not a useful political concept. But, worse than that, it has in the broad circles represented at Tallberg taken the place of the notion ‘the public good’, and is confused with it. Listening to how the assorted troubles connected to the crisis are framed you would never have guessed that a great transformation is taking place in the relationship between financial corporations, supposedly existing in a ‘private sector’, and governments using tax money to keep them going in such a way that they can consolidate their positions and continue with the ‘financialization’ of economies in which the recognition of such a thing as the ‘public good’ has virtually disappeared. This variant of what is still...

...invasion this was greeted with much disdain in other European countries. Commentators up and down the continent agreed that this was just an electoral trick of a weak leader, one that would result in an isolated Germany; precisely the explanation that most American commentators were peddling. The Belgian and French obstruction of American wishes within NATO awoke the ire of other European NATO members. How could this be otherwise, as long as the relevant discussions were built on American terms of debate handed down by the Bush Administration? In the same way, European governments and commentators could still imply, throughout the George W. Bush period, that a looming end to the Atlantic Alliance was being brought about by recalcitrant European members, rather than by unilateral cancellation in Washington. What was judged appropriate comment on the failures and horrors of the Iraq occupation in Dutch mainstream media had to wait for cues from the United States. Only once the flow of domestic American criticism about American politics becomes unstoppable does such a thing make itself felt in Europe as it dribbles through to TV talk programs and other popular means of mass opinion formation. There exists no European public sphere to...