Democracy

German High Court Blows Up Euro, Says ‘Oh Wait,’ Abdicates

The ECB’s money-printing and bond-buying promise, lovingly dubbed Outright Monetary Transactions, became the bailing wire and duct tape that has kept the Eurozone together to this day. Turns out, it’s illegal under the EU treaties and unconstitutional in Germany.

Impunity and Excess, Desperation and Violence: Two Worlds Collide in Spain

By Don Quijones: Normally these two worlds co-exist relatively peaceably, barely cognizant of the other’s existence. Every now and then, their paths may intersect, only to quickly decouple. But this week they suffered a head-on clash.

The Suddenly Invisible And Silent President Of Argentina

By Adrian Bono, Argentina, The Bubble: The last time President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was seen in public was December 10th – dancing at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the return of democracy, while a wave of looting tore through many provinces that left ten people dead and frayed the very fabric of society.

Death By A Thousand Cuts: The Silent Assassination Of European Democracy

By Don Quijones: The EU is riddled with fatal flaws and defects, including the single currency. However, by far the greatest — and certainly most dangerous — structural flaw is its gaping democratic deficit.

Freedom Or Subjugation? It’s (Not) Your Choice

By Don Quijones: While many Spaniards may spit bile and venom at the merest suggestion of Catalonian autonomy, they would do well to ask themselves what happened to their own national sovereignty. How is it, for example, that Spain is taking orders on virtually all economic matters from men in black dispatched from Brussels and Frankfurt?

EU Citizenship Goes On Sale, Price War Breaks Out

The huddled masses yearning to breathe free in the EU drown by the boatload in the Mediterranean. They languish in detention centers in Greece and elsewhere. They’re maligned, hounded, sometimes killed. But it’s getting cheaper and easier for the rich.

Coming Soon: Corporate Tools To Hollow Out National Sovereignty

Now “trade agreements” are negotiated behind sealed doors, without public oversight, beyond the reach of Congress. The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is secret, but some sections were leaked. It deals with trade only on the margins. Corporate interests dominate. It mocks democracy, establishes kangaroo courts, and taxpayers are on the hook.

The Global Corporatocracy is Almost Fully Operational

By Don Quijones: 58% of the world’s biggest 150 economic entities aren’t countries but corporations. Royal Dutch Shell’s revenues exceed the GDPs of 171 countries, making it the 26th largest economic entity in the world. And the balance of power is shifting rapidly.

OMG, Those “Who Truly Rule The World”

Most powerful person in the world? Putin! Sez Forbes. At least, it wasn’t Merkel, who has been throwing her weight around when she found out that her Handy had been bugged by the NSA, just like our cellphones. We have to take it; she gets to make a big stink and gripe to Obama on the (bugged) phone.

Republicans Are Losing The Debt-Ceiling Publicity War

The fight over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling, carried out in the media with maximum intensity, barrages of sound bites, folksy sounding talking heads, and a good portion of twisted logic, has cost both parties dearly. But it has hammered the GOP. A chart with an ugly plunge.