Monthly Archives

June 2019

Moral cowardice and intellectual corruption are the natural concomitants of unchallenged privilege.

Noam Chomsky

Modern macroeconomists “solve” the problem [of market imbalance] by assuming it away: the standard models assume that somehow the economy is in equilibrium, with demand for labour and goods somehow just equalling supply. That we achieve this beautiful equilibrium is, like the belief in market efficiency itself, a matter of deep religious conviction, and the path we take to get there a matter of mystical revelation. If a problem crops up in this all-encompassing theory – if there is unemployment, for example – the response is simple: blame the victim, meaning workers, for demanding too-high wages, or migrants, for flooding the job market. If only wages were sufficiently flexible, the theory goes, or borders sufficiently forbidding, the economy would always be at full employment.

Joseph Stiglitz

Genocide is not just a murderous madness: it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics – one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis.

Michael Ignatieff

Politics isn’t about left versus right; it’s about top versus bottom.

Jim Hightower

Nobody wants to live in a country where, despite a strong economy, families are homeless, where our environment is being rapidly degraded and people with mental health issues do not receive the support they need.

Jacinda Ardern