Jeanne Lazarus : Les monnaies à travers les âges

Revue de Bruno Théret, La monnaie dévoilée par ses crises, Éditions de l’EHESS, 2007, 2 volumes, 29 et 23 €, à la Vie des Idées (18.06.2008) :

« L’étude de la monnaie est, par excellence, le domaine de l’économie dans lequel la complexité est utilisée pour déguiser la vérité et non pour la révéler » : l’ouvrage collectif La monnaie dévoilée par ses crises, dirigé par Bruno Théret, qui réunit 17 économistes et 5 historiens, dément cette sentence de John Galbraith.

Cette fresque des crises monétaires à travers l’histoire et la géographie est issue du séminaire « crises monétaires d’hier et d’aujourd’hui », qui s’est tenu de 1999 à 2004, réunissant anthropologues, historiens et économistes. Elle poursuit les réflexions sur la monnaie entamées depuis plus de vingt ans par André Orléan et Michel Aglietta à travers trois ouvrages : La violence de la monnaie (1982), La monnaie entre violence et confiance (2002) et l’ouvrage collectif qu’ils ont dirigé en 1998 : La monnaie souveraine.

Pour les chercheurs, les crises monétaires sont des moments particulièrement féconds au cours desquels « les mécanismes monétaires se délitent et le fonctionnement routinier de la monnaie est remis en question ». Elles permettent d’ouvrir la « boîte noire » de la monnaie. Les auteurs s’inscrivent ici dans une tradition de recherche sur le dévoilement de la nature sociale de la monnaie, notamment développée en 1934 par le sociologue François Simiand, dans son article « La monnaie, réalité sociale ». L’originalité de l’approche ici présentée est de chercher cette nature sociale au cœur même du fonctionnement de l’économie capitaliste. En s’attaquant aux crises monétaires, les auteurs s’attaquent à un champ des plus établis de la théorie économique, espace de débats houleux depuis des décennies entre les tenants de la « théorie du voile » – c’est-à-dire les économistes qui soutiennent que la monnaie est un voile masquant l’économie réelle – et les théorie de Keynes qui prennent en compte des éléments psychologiques dans ses réflexions sur la monnaie.

Philippe Pons : La France redécouvre le Japon

Transcrit du Monde (10.04.2008) :

En apparence, le moment n'est pas le plus opportun pour la visite au Japon du premier ministre, François Fillon - la première en dix ans d'un chef de gouvernement français. Son homologue Yasuo Fukuda est paralysé, sa popularité au plus bas et le moral des entrepreneurs décline. La morosité de la situation de la seconde puissance économique du monde a été récemment épinglée par The Economist avec un titre, "Japain", stigmatisant un "Japon qui ne s'en sort pas". Au-delà de la conjoncture difficile de l'Archipel, la visite que M. Fillon devait commencer jeudi 10 avril peut être le signe que le charme des visites d'hommes politiques à Pékin s'épuise et qu'il convient de se réintéresser à des "valeurs sûres" : le Japon ou la Corée du Sud (9^e économie du monde).

Continue reading "Philippe Pons : La France redécouvre le Japon"

WSJ : Tax-Happy Fukuda

From "Review and Outlook" at WSJ.com (31.01.2008) :

For its part, the Fukuda government has supported extending both tax cuts, but with caps: 1 million yen for dividend income and 5 million yen for capital gains. Anything else, the government says, would only benefit "the rich." But that kind of thinking is self-reinforcing. If dividend taxes are high, companies will opt to keep cash on their balance sheets and Japanese investors, of whatever income level, seeing low-yielding stocks, will put their money elsewhere. Equally, if investors are heavily taxed on stock gains, they'll put their savings into other assets.

Taxes are already high in Japan, especially as other Asian countries cut their levies to attract investment. Japan's national corporate tax rate is 30%, and with local taxes added on, it's closer to 40%. Top effective rates for personal income tax can brush 50%.

The politicians' support of the gas tax and their thinking on capital gains and dividend taxation represent a shift away from pro-growth policies and toward redistributionary money shuffling. As Mr. Abe's resignation showed, the Koizumi era taught Japanese voters to expect better. Mr. Fukuda may soon learn that lesson.

I'm not sure if "Mr. Fukuda may soon learn that lesson". But Japanese tax snatchers aim at what ?

Interview with Uchihashi Katsuto

From "Japanese Deregulation: Big Corporations are Destroying People’s Lives" at Japan Focus (09.09.2007) :

In the case of Japan, the terms “employment choice” and a “diversity of work patterns” have been used in academia since Sakaiya Taichi described an “age of employment choice” and, more recently, when Yashiro Naohiro, a member of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, captured the desire of the business community for an age of the “diversification of work patterns.”

Even though a “diversity of work” can be achieved only when major corporations fully fulfill their employment responsibilities to provide regular employees with certain rights and guarantees, if employers force workers to labor without these rights, then the “age of employment choice” and the “diversification of work” patterns become unforgivable deceptions. To put it more aptly, such a system becomes nothing more than the “diversification of forced work patterns.”

I call these dominant voices—like those of Mitarai, Sakaiya, and Yashiro—authoritative opinion (kenron).  It exerts control over society and overshadows the opinions of regular people (minron), which is often at odds with authoritative opinion. Those with authority generally define all the terms and conditions of debate concerning social and political issues. As a result, people are easily tricked about labor issues. People often misunderstand the “age of employment choice” to mean freedom to choose their careers and a diversity of values. Another example of how dominant voices determine and define the discussion is the “labor big bang.” Just as the Bill to Encourage Self-Reliance of Handicapped People is actually a Bill for the Destruction of Handicapped People, the Bill for the Protection of Contract Laborers is nothing more than a Bill for the Destruction of Contract Laborers. The language they use is simply fraudulent. Many intellectuals in Japan have sided with authoritative opinion, and they contribute to the aggressive domination of debates about labor issues.

Philippe Pons : Japon,: les inégalités au coeur du débat

Transcrit du Monde (07.09.2007).

Le Japon devient-il moins "japonais" ? Une question qui taraude les sociétés riches lui a longtemps été étrangère : la montée des inégalités sociales. Or celles-ci sont désormais au coeur du débat politique nippon. Couplée à une série de faux pas et à un projet "néonationaliste" de réforme de la Constitution - qui ne semble pas une priorité pour l'opinion -, l'apparente inattention du gouvernement de Shinzo Abe aux préoccupations de beaucoup de Japonais a été une des causes de la défaite du Parti libéral démocrate (PLD) aux élections sénatoriales de juillet. Parmi ces soucis figurent les inégalités sociales.

Continue reading "Philippe Pons : Japon,: les inégalités au coeur du débat"

Entretien avec Amartya Sen

De Télérama (23.06.2007) :

Vous revenez aujourd’hui sur la théorie du « choc des civilisations », qui avait fait grand bruit lors de la sortie de l’article de Samuel Huntington, en 1993. Tout n’a-t-il pas déjà été dit sur le sujet ?

Effectivement, cette thèse a été abondamment commentée et critiquée. J’ai d’abord cru que cette polémique entre intellectuels s’éteindrait rapidement, tant l’idée de départ me paraissait mal pensée, voire stupide. Envisager les relations humaines uniquement en termes civilisationnels est une telle simplification ! Comme si l’on pouvait classer les individus et définir leur identité en fonction d’un seul critère ! Il suffit de prendre l’exemple de l’Inde, définie par Huntington comme appartenant à la civilisation hindoue, alors même que le pays compte plus de musulmans qu’aucun autre pays dans le monde, excepté l’Indonésie et le Pakistan. C’est oublier par exemple qu’à Bollywood, ce haut lieu de la culture de masse en Inde, un grand nombre d’artistes sont musulmans. Ce qui ne les empêche pas d’être adulés par une population à 80 % hindoue.

Puis il y a eu le 11 Septembre et le début de la « guerre contre le terrorisme ». Et, de façon explicite ou implicite, les idées de Huntington ont quitté la seule sphère intellectuelle pour gagner le cœur même de la politique internationale actuelle. Elles n’ont pas perdu de leur stupidité mais leur pouvoir de nuisance, lui, n’a jamais été aussi fort.

Jacoby : Infantile Liberalism

Russell Jacoby reviews Benjamin Barber, Consumed (Norton), at The Nation (21.05.2007) :

In the last section of the book Barber sketches out "a moderate and democratic way" to resist consumer capitalism. He wants to restore capitalism to "its primary role" as an efficient producer and to uphold the "democratic public" as the regulator of "our plural life worlds." But the weakness of his ideas shows through his PowerPoint presentations. He locates three types of consumer resistance and subversion: "I will discuss them under the rubrics cultural creolization, cultural carnivalization and cultural jamming." By creolization, he means the effort to turn market brands against the market, where commodification serves heretical groups or movements, like Hasidic rock, in which ultra-orthodox Gad Elbaz sets pious lyrics to throbbing rhythms. By "jamming" Barber means tactics derived mainly from Kalle Lasn, founder of Adbusters magazine. In Lasn's words, the jammers paint their "own bike lanes, reclaim streets, 'skull' Calvin Klein ads, and paste GREASE stickers on tables and trays at McDonald's restaurants."

The last Leninists may scoff at such stuff: What does this have to do with overcoming capitalism? This would be unfair. In an airless political universe, any sparks should be appreciated. However, it wouldn't be unfair to wonder at the sharp limits of this cultural subversion, about which Barber is well aware. As soon as he introduces his forms of cultural resistance, he notes how easily they get incorporated into the market. A coffee chain in India that challenges Starbucks--to Barber, inexplicably, an example of creolization--looks very much like an Indian Starbucks. The Adbuster jammers have launched their own brand of athletic sneakers, which takes on Nike. The "Unswoosher" not only is union-made and "earthly friendly" but comes with a red "sweet spot" on the toe "for kicking corporate ass." Nice, but isn't this just another hip brand, as subversive as Ben and Jerry's or Whole Foods?

Staffan Granér : Hernando de Soto and the mystification of capital

From Eurozine (19.01.2007) :

In a critique of Hernando de Soto's bestselling The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, Staffan Granér finds de Soto's methods unreliable and his theories over-simplified. De Soto claims that if "dead capital" were legalized, it would elevate the poor out of poverty. In reality, de Soto's formalization of the economy aims to protect rights of ownership and ease the way for free market transactions, not to create regulations and a social safety net. "By maintaining that poverty can be solved simply by giving all of the poor formal rights of ownership", says Granér, "de Soto pulls a mystifying veil over what are in fact real social discrepancies."

Science, democracy, and the global market

By Josep Lluís Barona at Eurozine (16.01.2007) :

The State is being replaced as regulating agent of public policy by free market forces and private bodies. Controversial areas of the technology sector are resolved by external experts who are often professionals or private entities; media manipulation has become a key element in the control of information about the products of science and technology. The health industry sells technology as the main solution to health problems that could be better addressed by reforms in public health; at the same time, defence expenditure eats into science and technology budgets.

A bit longer article, it's worn me down.for I'm busy working this week. Am I typing or sleeping? or both?

Beyond Liberal Globalization: A Better or Worse World?

By Samir Amin at Monthly Review (December 2006) :

The present is characterized by the deployment of a U.S. hegemonic plan on a global scale. This is currently the only plan to occupy the entire world scene. There is no longer any counter plan that aims to limit the area subjected to U.S. control, as was the case at the time of bipolarity (1945–90); beyond the ambiguity of its origin, the European project has entered a phase of self-effacement; the countries of the South (the non-aligned countries in the Group of 77) whose ambition during the Bandung period (1955–75) was to put up a common front to Western imperialism have given up; and China itself, which is going its own way, has barely the ambition to protect its national plan (which is itself ambiguous) and does not present itself as an active partner in the global system.

People Party vs. Money Party: Who's Who Among the Democrats

By David Sirota at AlterNet (04.12.2006).

Is it important to classify lawmakers according to the people/money distinction even in Japan? Anybody already tried it?

Gangster Capitalism And The Third Maroon War

By John Maxwell at Black Agenda Report/Counter Currents (04.12.2006).

The World's Mastermind: The Hidden Face of Globalization

By Adrian Salbuchi at Global Research (02.12.2006). A summary.

Has Milton's legacy really freed man?

By Luis Cabral at Mercator.net (30.11.2006) :

The first point of my analogy is that, in addition to the absence of external coercion, true freedom requires some level of self-determination, self-mastery (which I, alas, lack when it comes to piano playing). Without that basic self-mastery, I can randomly hit white and black keys, but I will not be playing the piano. I can say that I’m acting freely, but this would be freedom of a rather poor grade.

The second point of my analogy is that freedom cannot be separated from a good that it is aimed at. Ultimately, true freedom must be directed to what is good and what is true. In fact, the relation between freedom and truth is at the centre of one of the great intellectual debates of our day. Is moral relativism a necessary implication of freedom? Many libertarians would agree. On the opposite side are those who fear the effects of a “dictatorship of relativism” -- by insisting on the principle that “if you don’t harm others than anything goes” we risk losing our moral purpose altogether.

Milton Friedman has left us, but the debate carries on.

Ecofrictions Japon : croissance ou égalité ?

Par Philippe Pons au Monde (30.11.2006).

Continue reading "Ecofrictions Japon : croissance ou égalité ?"

Denationalized states and global assemblages

Magnus Wennerhag interviews Saskia Sassen at Eurozine (20.11.2006) :

Magnus Wennerhag: Today, there is an obvious difference between the rhetoric of liberalism – that is, liberalism as political ideology – and the actual workings of the state in liberal-democratic polities. From an historical perspective, how should we understand this difference?

Saskia Sassen: I would distinguish two issues. One is that historically, liberalism is deeply grounded in a particular combination of circumstances. Most important is the struggle by merchants and manufacturers to gain liberties vis-à-vis the Crown and the aristocracy, and the use of the market as the institutional setting that both gave force and legitimacy to that claim. Seen this way, why should liberalism not have decayed? What rescued liberalism was Keynesianism, the extension of a socially empowering project to the whole of society. This is the crisis today: Keynesianism has been attacked by new types of actors, including segments of the political elite. What is happening today is on the one hand a decay (objectively speaking) of liberalism even as an ideology – being replaced with neoliberalism, attacks on the welfare state, etc – and, on the other hand, a decay of the structural conditions within which Keynesian liberalism could function. So the struggle today has been renamed: one key term is democratic participation and representation, and those who use this language will rarely invoke liberalism. When we praise liberalism, it is often a situated defense: as against neoliberalism, as against fundamentalisms and despotisms – this is not necessarily invoking historical liberalism, which at its origins was defending the rights of an emerging class of property owners, but the best aspects of a doctrine that had to do with the fight against the despotism of Crown and nobility.

Burden Sharing, Security and Equity in the Straits of Malacca

By Nazery Khalid at Japan Focus (17.11.2006).

Japan's New Miracle Economy: Neoliberalism and the Poverty of Wealth

By Ronald Dore at Japan Focus (09.11.2006) :

More striking is the new voice concerned with growing poverty. Books on income distribution, social mobility, the withering of aspiration, pour off the press at the rate of one a week, all deploring the new "divided society." That 28 percent of children in Osaka and 24 percent in Tokyo qualify for free school meals and textbooks has become one of the most quoted statistics. The wage figures I quoted above were those for the labor aristocracy in the big firms. In smaller firms employing half the labor force, wages fell by 10, not 6 percent.

Yet, there is no effective political force to organize the backlash and mobilize sentiment among the electorate at large. Until that happens, investors can relax. The Abe Cabinet will continue to promote the conversion of Japan to Anglo-Saxon capitalism.

World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices

By Peter Bosshard at FPIC (06.10.2006) :

To the bankers and government officials who descended on the city state for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in September, Singapore may have looked like the perfect model of a globalized consumer society. Tellingly, for the first time, the annual meetings took place inside a giant shopping mall. Corporate logos dominated the venue, shoppers went happily about fulfilling their consumer duties, and the delegates were shrouded in a constant cloud of Muzak.

Mystery : How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World

By Michael Parenti at ZNet (28.09.2006).

Hunger in Gaza

By Massoud A. Derhally at ITP (01.10.2006) :

The Palestinian economy is crumbling. The standard of living in the West Bank and Gaza strip has incrementally worsened since the coming of Hamas to office last March after winning a landslide victory in January 2006 against the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen).

The economy was already feeling the crunch as a result of a five-year intifada that highlighted the inefficiencies of the government and illustrated how dependent the Palestinians were on external help in addition to being at the mercy of Israeli decisions to keep border crossings closed or open to international traffic.

The Palestinian Authority’s financial condition a year ago was in tatters with a US$69m deficit in its budget for the month of January 2006 alone, relying on aid from the European Union, the World Bank, and the US, in addition to other countries and organisations that contribute just over US$1bn annually.

North Korea and the International Politics of Famine

By John Feffer at Japan Focus (26.09.2006) :

Access to food is a basic human right. For several decades, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) prided itself on meeting the food needs of its population, although it has little arable land. Like many socialist countries, North Korea emphasized this success—along with high literacy rates, an equitable health care system, and guaranteed jobs for all—as proof that it upheld human rights, that its record in fact exceeded that of Western countries. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, a deteriorating economy and a steep rise in the cost of energy, followed in mid-decade by a series of natural disasters, undercut North Korea's capacity to feed its population. The public distribution system collapsed, and famine ensued.1 Pyongyang appealed to its neighbors and then the world at large for help.

Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll

By Jeff Kingston at The Japan Times (24.09.2006) :

Elvis impersonator? Japan's Thatcher? Faction buster? Nah, as the curtain falls on the Koizumi show, he will be remembered above all for his missed opportunities and self-indulgent gestures at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo -- that, and steamrollering the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 into oblivion.

Stiglitz : « Le libre marché ne fonctionne pas »

Interview with Joseph Stiglitz at Le Web de l'Humanité (22.09.2006) :

Pourquoi écrire un nouveau livre sur le thème de la mondialisation ? Y a-t-il eu des changements depuis votre dernier ouvrage ?

Joseph E. Stiglitz. Beaucoup de choses ont évolué, comme le nouveau rôle de l’Inde et de la Chine. 2,4 milliards d’habitants se sont intégrés à l’économie mondiale. L’impact est énorme. La perception de la mondialisation a aussi changé. Aujourd’hui, même le FMI reconnaît l’instabilité créée par les marchés de capitaux même si sa politique ne change pas. S’ils reconnaissent, depuis les négociations de l’OMC en 2001 à Doha, que les cycles commerciaux précédents ont nui au développement, les cycles suivants ont toutefois été des échecs. Le commerce international doit changer d’orientation car il est injuste et ne fonctionne pas.

Japan's hordes of hoarders still look to their navel nest eggs

By Roger Pulvers at The Japan Times (24.09.2006). On a properly Japanese custum (!), "hesokurigane" (bellybutton  money).

Poursuivre l'aventure du commerce mondial, c'est impératif

Par Rodrigo de Rato et Paul Wolfowitz au Figaro (18.09.2006).

Continue reading "Poursuivre l'aventure du commerce mondial, c'est impératif"

Roman Abramovich's Chukotka project

By Zygmunt Dzieciolowski at OpenDemocracy (14.09.2006) :

Russia's far east is the site of an experiment in government and social development led by Roman Abramovich, billionaire businessman and owner of Chelsea football club. Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, who has tracked the Chukotka story for six years, uses his unique access to the region to send this progress report.

Progress or Regress?

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Donkey O.D. (15.09.2006).

Neo-con favorite declares World War III

By Jim Lobe at IPS/Asia Times (14.09.2006) :

Two years before the 2008 presidential election, Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, is trying desperately to grab the national spotlight by declaring he'd be a lot tougher than George W Bush in prosecuting what he calls "World War III".

Organizing Wal-Mart: The Chinese Trade Union at a Crossroads

By Anita Chan at Japan Focus (08.09.2006) :

Surprise, surprise, it is the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the trade union notorious throughout the world for being “useless”, that has taken on Wal-Mart and succeeded in setting up workplace union branches at twenty-two Wal-Mart supercenters in China within four weeks. This has attracted the attention of the Chinese media, all major US newspapers, and the China Labor Bulletin (CLB). CLB is the Hong Kong-based labor NGO headed by Han Dongfang, the worker who emerged for a few weeks during the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement as a labor leader of the Beijing Workers Autonomous Federation. I was invited by Japan Focus to comment on the significance of the union’s action and the CLB report.

Japan and China: The Next Fifty Years

By Valcav Smil at Japan Focus (05.09.2006). Excerpt from his forthcoming book, Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next 50 Years, MIT Press.

Health Policy Malpractice

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (05.09.2006).

The Big Disconnect

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (01.09.2006).

Broken Promises

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (28.08.2006).

Housing Gets Ugly

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/MB Civic (25.08.2006).

Asia's Coming Water Wars

By Chietigj Bajpaee at Japan Focus (23.08.2006).

Tokyo looks Down Under

By Purnendra Jain at Asia Times (22.08.2006). On the new phase of Japan-Australia relationship in Asia.

Le Liban en route vers une dette illégitime

By Eric Toussaint & Damien Millet at Altermonde-levillage (18.08.2006).

Wages, Wealth and Politics

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/MB Civic (18.08.2006).

Rich nations under fire on pledges to fight poverty

By Alan Beattie at Financial Times (13.08.2006).

Continue reading "Rich nations under fire on pledges to fight poverty"

Intimations of Recession

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/MB Civic (07.08.2006).

Making Sense of the Korean Crisis

Stephen R. Shalom & Mark Selden's intervew with Gavan McCormack at Japan Focus (n.d.).

World trade talks collapse

By Richard Waddington & William Schomberg at Reuters.com (24.07.2006).

The High Cost of Being Poor

By Barbara Ehrenreich at AlterNet (21.07.2006).

Study Documents ‘Ghetto Tax’ Being Paid by the Urban Poor

By Erik Echholm at The NY Times (19.07.2006).

他人事ではない。日本の貧困層だって、もっと負担がかかってくるにちがいない。

Don't Forget the Costs of Iraq War: Now Beyond $432 Billion

At The Washington Note (18.07.2006).

このほかに、日本のお金もイラク戦争に流れ込んでいる、ダヨネ？　ことによったら、イスラエルにも流れ込んでいる、ダヨネ？

March of Folly

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (17.07.2006).

Left Behind Economics

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (14.07.2006).

Israeli strike on Gaza power plant will cost US

By Adam Entous at Reuters/Yahoo! News (01.07.2006) :

Israel's bombing of Gaza's main power plant could end up costing its closest ally, the U.S. government, because it partially insured the project for up to $48 million, officials involved in the project said on Saturday.

U.S. officials would not say whether Washington would ask Israel for reimbursement.

Israel bombed the power plant on Wednesday at the start of an offensive to try to get Palestinian militants to free a captured soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit.

A Western aid official involved in the matter said Israel's decision to hit the power plant was a surprise in large part "because it was American-owned."

La Banque du Japon au centre des interrogations

By Cécile Prudhomme at Le Monde (24.06.2006).

Continue reading "La Banque du Japon au centre des interrogations"

Les accords bilatéraux, voie royale du libre-échange

By Laurence Caramel at Le Monde (20.06.2006).

Continue reading "Les accords bilatéraux, voie royale du libre-échange"

The Phantom Menace

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Donkey o.d. (15.06.2006).

Japan's Top Banker Owned Stake in Scandal-Hit Fund

By Martin Fackler at The NY Times (15.06.2006).

"Bank of Japan Scandal Last Thing Japan Needs" by William Pesek, Jr. at Bloomberg (16.06.2006).

"Fukui under fire, says policy depends on economy" at Reuters (16.06.2006).

"Fukui says BoJ unaffected by personal scandal" by David Pilling at Financial Times (16.06.2006).

"Fukui snubs opposition call to resign over investment in Murakami fund" by Tetsushi Kajimoto at The Japan Times (16.06.2006).

Chine - Etats-Unis : l'ère de l'interdépendance

At Le Monde (15.06.2006).

Continue reading "Chine - Etats-Unis : l'ère de l'interdépendance"

Secretive Bilderberg over but was world domination discussed?

By Tom Spears at Canada.com (12.06.2006).

Secretive, powerful Bilderberg group meets near Ottawa

By Alexander Panetta at The Globe & Mail (08.06.2006).

"Secretive society's big names include Kissinger, Rockefeller and a queen" at Toronto Star (09.06.2006).

The Delay Principle

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (09.06.2006).

Japan’s Worker Co-operative Movement into the 21st Century

By Bob Marshall at Japan Focus (01.06.2006).

Secretary Paulson, Protect Yourself

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (02.06.2006).

Work longer, pay more: the pensions revolution is here

By James Kirkup at Scotsman (26.05.2006) :

"The message is this: if you want anything more than the basic pension in retirement, the state isn't going to do that any more. You have to do it yourself." — 日本の官僚は、こういう記事に勇気づけられるにちがいない。

Drifting Down the Path to Perdition

An interview with Andrew Bacevich (part 2) at TomDispatch (25.05.2006).

Now Is the Time to Reclaim Rural Japan: Toward Societal Renewal

By Uchihashi Katsuto at Japan Focus (16.05.2006) :

The first problem is an increase in the number of working poor, thanks to the dismantling of labor. We now have laborers whose wages regularly fall short of supporting a basic standard of living, no matter how much they work. In the modern era, maintaining a basic standard of living is fundamental to upholding the human right to a peaceful existence. No matter how desperate the circumstances, the nation must guarantee workers’ livelihood. Under Koizumi, however, the Worker Dispatch Law has been revised, making it possible for temporary workers to be hired even in the manufacturing sector. This “structural reform” virtually completes the disempowerment of workers.

There are currently four groups of workers active in Japan. The first group is regular, permanent workers. The second group is temporary and part-time workers. The third group is the employees of contractors, who may move their charges around three times in a day, loading them into a microbus, having them work the morning here and the afternoon there. Finally, the fourth group of workers is made up of the pseudo-independent self-employed. So, besides having regular workers, we have three types of irregular workers, and remuneration for the latter is not only unequal but languishing somewhere around 40 percent of full salary. Remuneration for irregular workers also routinely fails to include social insurance. In every sense, this is cheap labor power. Japanese companies are treating Japanese workers as disposable goods.

The Billion-dollar Gravestone

By Tom Engelhardt at TomDispatch (16.05.2006).

The “Second Plateau”: Japan’s Economy and Structures of Inequality

Sekai interviews Niwa U'ichiro at Japan Focus (12.05.2006) :

Sekai: First, could you tell us how you see the current state of the Japanese economy? What is your forecast for 2006?

Niwa: My sense is that the Japanese economy has arrived at a “higher plateau.” There’s been a debate over whether Japan has escaped from the plateau, and I think that Japan has left the low-level plateau it has been on. But this is a result of the jump in energy prices, and the rise in the price of raw materials, driven by China. I have some doubt that the Japanese economy has begun a truly strong recovery. Because of the favorable wind from China, it has escaped the first plateau but it is now stalled on a second, higher plateau. And there are several factors that make me wonder about the direction the Japanese economy is headed.

D for Debacle

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Rozius (15.05.2006).

The Pin Factory Mystery

Paul Krugman reviews David Warsh, Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations, at The NY Times (07.05.2006) | Permalink.

Under fire: US's misguided defense budget

By Jim Lobe at IPS/Asia Times (05.05.2006).

Tokyo's Asian dream

By Purnendra Jain at Asia Times (28.04.2006).

The Rising Sun slowly sets

By Yoel Sano at Asia Times (27.04.2006).

CSI : Trade Deficit

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times (24.04.2006).

Continue reading "CSI : Trade Deficit"

Time to Rethink U.S.-Japan Relationship

At Cato Institute News Release (18.04.2006).

次の PDF ファイルのほうが本編。ざっと目を通しただけだけど、よく調べてある。 "Two Normal Countries : Rethinking the U.S.-Japan Strategic Relations" by Christopher Preble at Cato Institute (PDF). From summary :

A new U.S.-Japan strategic relationship will be crafted over a period of several years, but the process should begin immediately. As a first step, the United States should refrain from interfering in the decisions that the Japanese people may make with respect to their own defense. Washington should remain agnostic on the question of revisions to the Japanese constitution, including the crucial Article 9. Further, while U.S. policymakers might advise the Japanese of the uncertain benefits of acquiring their own nuclear weapons relative to the high costs, the United States should not expect to be able to prevent the Japanese from developing such weapons—nor should it try. Finally, the new strategic partnership should culminate with the removal of U.S forces from Japanese soil. The two countries could negotiate basing agreements for U.S. naval vessels and aircraft, and possibly also some prepositioning of heavy equipment in depots for rapid deployment in the region, but such agreements need not depend on the continuation of a largescale, and effectively permanent, U.S. troop presence. The new alliance between two normal countries— as opposed to one between a patron and a de facto client—will provide a more durable foundation for addressing the most pressing security challenges in East Asia and beyond.

A discussion at Asia Times Forum.

"The War Is Bad for the Economy"

Spiegel interview with Joseph Stiglitz at Spiegel International (05.04.2006).

North of the Border

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/TruthOut (27.03.2006) :

Realistically, we'll need to reduce the inflow of low-skill immigrants. Mainly that means better controls on illegal immigration. But the harsh anti-immigration legislation passed by the House, which has led to huge protests - legislation that would, among other things, make it a criminal act to provide an illegal immigrant with medical care - is simply immoral.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush's plan for a "guest worker" program is clearly designed by and for corporate interests, who'd love to have a low-wage work force that couldn't vote. Not only is it deeply un-American; it does nothing to reduce the adverse effect of immigration on wages. And because guest workers would face the prospect of deportation after a few years, they would have no incentive to become integrated into our society.

The Health Care Crisis and What to Do About It

By Paul Krugman & Robin Wells at The NY Review of Books (23.03.2006 Issue).

George the Unready

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Tennessee Guerilla Women (03.03.2006) :

Iraqi insurgents, hurricanes and low-income Medicare recipients have three things in common. Each has been at the center of a policy disaster. In each case experts warned about the impending disaster. And in each case — well, let's look at what happened.

やっぱりクルーグマンのコラムは、読みたいなぁ。購読するかしないか、ちょっと迷っているところ。

State of Delusion

By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Lettrist (03.02.2006).

It Takes More Than Free Trade to End Poverty

By Joseph Stiglitz at Independent/CommonDreams (03.02.2006).