by
Editors
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last modified
Feb 19, 2013 09:28 PM
Contributors:
Faiz Ahmed, Jeff BB, Graham H. Cox, R. Dubois
"The government began implementing the plan on Monday, with 3,000 soldiers patrolling four key areas of Caracas. From next Monday, the plan will be extended to Lara, Zulia, and Carabobo states, and in a third phase, will integrate a further 10,000 soldiers, 9,000 National Bolivarian Police, and 1,500 People’s Guards. The plan is part of the Full Life Mission, which the government launched mid last year."
The link address is:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9340
"Statistics Canada reported today that inflation collapsed to just 0.4% in April. The Bank of Canada’s core inflation rate, which excludes volatile items, fell to 1.1%.
Continued low inflation does not provide a rationale to raise interest rates. Perhaps for that reason, Canadian monetary hawks have shifted their rationale for higher interest rates."
The link address is:
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2013/05/17/inflation-collapse-confounds-monetary-hawks/
"Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank today during demonstrations to mark 65 years since the Nakba, or catastrophe, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their villages.
Israeli forces fired tear gas at protesters outside a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Hebron and at a prison near Ramallah, leaving several Palestinians injured.
Families of Palestinian prisoners and thousands of activists rallied in front of the UN building in Ramallah. "
The link address is:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/132921
"As a Crown corporation, ISC is exempt from both taxes. A privatized ISC with $20 million of profit would pay $2 million of provincial corporate tax and $3 million of federal corporate tax, leaving after-tax profits of $15 million. Of that, 60 per cent, or $9 million, would go to private shareholders.
Between that and federal corporate tax, Saskatchewan would lose $12 million of annual revenue."
The link address is:
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2013/05/16/dont-privatize-isc/
"If we are to win the argument for an energy revolution, we first need to win the public over to the outcomes we want to achieve – a decarbonised energy system that works in the public interest, that is affordable and reliable. I guess you could see these as a set of first principles for the 21st century energy challenge. I would suggest they could also help address the need to break out of the relatively minor role trade unions have been ascribed in the current debate, that caricatures us as politically backward, more interested in means than ends and only speaking for narrow sectional interests. Of course everyone on our side knows this is unfair, but you can see how we got here and why it is so important that we move on."
The link address is:
http://energydemocracyinitiative.org/public-ownership-and-a-new-clean-and-affordable-energy-system-a-uk-historical-perspective
"The Spanish fashion brand Zara is outsourcing its production in Argentina to clandestine sweatshops employing immigrants under slave-like conditions.
Zara is responsible for the same illegal and inhuman methods of exploitation in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where it was fined millions for the same offence it has been accused of in eleven other countries."
The link address is:
http://www.equaltimes.org/news/zara-uses-slave-labour-in-argentina
by
Faiz Ahmed
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last modified
May 15, 2013 12:38 PM
"Iceland avoided a public health disaster even though it experienced, in 2008, the largest banking crisis in history, relative to the size of its economy. After three main commercial banks failed, total debt soared, unemployment increased ninefold, and the value of its currency, the krona, collapsed. Iceland became the first European country to seek an I.M.F. bailout since 1976. But instead of bailing out the banks and slashing budgets, as the I.M.F. demanded, Iceland’s politicians took a radical step: they put austerity to a vote. In two referendums, in 2010 and 2011, Icelanders voted overwhelmingly to pay off foreign creditors gradually, rather than all at once through austerity. Iceland’s economy has largely recovered, while Greece’s teeters on collapse."
The link address is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/opinion/how-austerity-kills.html?src=recg
"In answer to the question about cost-effectiveness, David MacDonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), says government will end up paying more for programs that it would have funded 10 years ago just because they were good ideas.
In one news story, MacDonald remarked: “Now they run them through this bond system whereby some private financier makes 10 to 20 per cent on their investment rather than government evaluating a good idea and saying, ‘Let’s fund that.’”"
The link address is:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1129453-will-social-impact-bonds-leave-government-off-hook
"Here is some news that the conservative critics of Venezuela's leftist government will not publicize. The Chavistas announced that a new labour law, part of which will grant recognition to non-salaried work traditionally done by women, will come into effect this week. Full-time mothers will now be able to collect a pension."
The link address is:
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/05/venezuelas-new-labour-law-best-mothers-day-gift
"Even though Human Resources Minister Diane Finley must have known that all the talk about so much fraud was greatly exaggerated, she still pushed the point in the House: “There’s still hundreds of millions of dollars of potential fraud out there,” she said. “The key is to . . . root out the fraud that’s within the system so that EI remains affordable for those who play by the rules.”
Some business journalists are bothered that seasonal workers in the Atlantic provinces pay small amounts into EI but receive considerably more in return when there’s no work. "
The link address is:
http://nickfillmore.blogspot.ca/2013/05/business-journalists-go-on-attack.html
"According to Hadley, it now takes an average of 15 years to get on full-time at the LCBO, despite the fact the LCBO pulls in profits of more than $5 million per day. Meanwhile, he said erratic work schedules and varying numbers of hours per week make it difficult for part-timers to secure a second job to make ends meet.
"I can't really speak for the rest of the civil service, but there's not too much that's civil about this service," he said. "
The link address is:
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/2875335-lcbo-poised-to-strike-over-quality-of-jobs/
by
Faiz Ahmed
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last modified
May 14, 2013 07:10 PM
"[Human Rights Watch] said Abu Sakkar had been filmed before, firing rockets into Shia areas of Lebanon and posing with the bodies of guerrillas from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement killed fighting alongside Syrian government forces."
The link address is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22519770
"However, there are actually no proposed special service innovations for the work supported by the SIBs. Whether it is reducing recidivism, increasing job retention, or preventing homelessness, each service is described as applying effective methods considered current best practices in their field—all publicly known.
Will SIB-financed services produce improved outcomes through the enhanced discipline that’s derived from their participation in the SIB process, with its mandate to pay only for results? It’s an aspiration, to be sure, but there is no evidence to back it up. This high-stakes carrot-and-stick approach is not unlike the expectations inherent to the “No Child Left Behind” education legislation, which had its own heavyweight marketing promotion before dismal unintended consequences set in, including cheating scandals by pressured school administrators throughout the United States."
The link address is:
http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/22149-flaws-in-the-social-impact-bond-craze.html
"Venezuela's new Labour Law for Workers (Lottt) came into effect this week, guaranteeing shorter working hours, longer maternity leave and pensions for all Venezuelans.
Described by the Venezuelan government as the “most advanced labour law in the world”, the Lottt reduces the working week from 44 hours to 40, and requires that employers provide two consecutive days a week off."
The link address is:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/9202
