Alex Callinicos looks at former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill's latest neoliberal musings
George Osborne's Autumn Statement on Thursday of this week is no doubt set to continue the tactical adjustments that a coalition that is fundamentally on the defensive has been pursuing.
It’s an open question whether or not the deal struck last weekend in Geneva between Iran and the United States, alongside five other “world powers”, will stick, writes Alex Callinicos
The paralysis in Washington is turning more eyes towards Beijing. Often this reflects quite exaggerated expectations about China’s emergence as a new superpower on the verge of displacing the United States.
Mark Carney, the new governor of the Bank of England, has learned nothing from the financial crisis, says Alex Callinicos
A great deal of nonsense has been said about the dispute over the petrochemicals plant at Grangemouth in Scotland. BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last Saturday ran an item comparing the Unite union leaders’ climb-down at Grangemouth to the defeat of the 1984-5 miners’ strike. Both, presenter John Humphreys suggested, represented a historic weakening of union power.
The British business delegation to China headed by George Osborne and Boris Johnson was more interesting than these things usually are. Chinese people still have bitter memories of imperial arrogance during the colonial era. So, if they noticed the visit at all, they must have been amused by Britain hustling for Chinese custom.
While expressing greater optimism about British prospects, the IMF cut its forecasts for global economic growth this year and next. This isn’t primarily because of the uncertainty caused by the standoff between Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress in the United States, writes Alex Callinicos
Once again the United States is shutting down government services because of a confrontation between president Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress.
THE G20 summit has been dominated by the divisions among the Great Powers over Syria. The line-up has been predictable. A joint statement signed by the US, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey called for “a strong international response” to Bashar al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.
David Cameron’s defeat in the House of Commons last week has left the policy of using Western military power for “humanitarian” purposes in tatters.
Whatever the extract truth about the chemical weapons attack east of Damascus on Wednesday of last week, it seems to have been on a huge scale, writes Alex Callinicos
