John Maynard Keynes argued that one of the main reasons why capitalist economies are so unstable is because they are driven by investments that are essentially bets on an uncertain future. The present moment is one of peculiar uncertainty even by these standards.
"No more cliques, no more factions, no more soap opera," announced David Miliband in what proved to be his swansong at the Labour Party conference.
Vince Cable's assault on "spivs and gamblers" in the City may have won him a standing ovation at the Lib Dem conference, but it has caused outrage at the Daily Mail and in the Confederation of British Industry. Is it time for Marxists to welcome Comrade Cable to our ranks?
SPECULATION ABOUT the prospect of a double-dip recession has become almost obsessive in the financial markets. The US central bank, the Federal Reserve Board, is worried that the American economy might slip back into slump.
THREE YEARS ago this week the global financial crisis began. Back then it was called the "credit crunch" and seemed a bit quaint and obscure.
"The corollary of the big society is the smaller state. If you talk about the small state, people think you’re Attila the Hun. If you talk about the big society, people think you’re Mother Teresa."
In April 1951 US president Harry Truman sacked general of the army Douglas MacArthur, commander of the United Nations (UN) forces in Korea.
Remember all that stuff about how, in the era of globalisation, footloose capital can go where it likes and do what it likes? Apparently governments would elbow each other aside in their eagerness to do its will. Somehow I don’t think this is how it feels to Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP.
We live, we are constantly told, in a liberal pluralist society. Unlike the totalitarian states of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, information and ideas aren’t monolithically controlled from above in these societies.
The price of the so-called "rescue" of Greece is massive austerity for working people. This is coming up against resistance from the most militant working class in Europe.
In the full glare of publicity the three main parties jostle and manoeuvre over power. But, in the background, there is a much more fundamental assertion of power.
This general election has been the one most dominated by immigration since 1979. Consider the two most important incidents of the past week.
