US economic indices and layoff announcements point to protracted slump

By Tom Eley
29 January 2010

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/econ-j29.shtml

A series of worse-than-expected economic reports and job cut announcements this week underscore that, despite official claims of an economic recovery, the prospects for working people in the US are likely to worsen.

Over the past two weeks, a number of major companies have announced layoffs and job cuts for the coming year that together number in the tens of thousands.

The US Labor Department on Thursday released figures on first-time jobless benefit claims for the week ending January 23 that showed only a slight decrease to 470,000 from the 478,000 claims reported the previous week. The consensus among Wall Street economists had been that claims would fall below 450,000.

Liberalism and Wall Street

By Barry Grey
16 January 2010

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/rich-j16.shtml

In an op-ed piece published January 10 entitled “The Other Plot to Wreck America,” New York Times columnist Frank Rich denounces the criminal actions of Wall Street executives and the official cover-up of their operations. He correctly asserts that the havoc created by the bankers poses a threat to the American people “on a more devastating scale than any Al Qaeda attack.”

He writes: “Americans must be told how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin.”

The banks and socialism

14 January 2010

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/pers-j14.shtml

In the midst of the greatest economic and social crisis since the Great Depression, the major US banks are about to announce multimillion-dollar year-end bonuses for their top executives and traders. Bankers are able to resume full tilt their mad pursuit of personal enrichment due to the plundering of the treasury carried out for the sole purpose of bailing out the “financial wizards” whose speculative practices precipitated the crisis.

This is a global phenomenon. In all the major centers of world capitalism, the financial elites are emerging from the economic wreckage stronger and more powerful than ever, and are dictating the terms of their own enrichment to servile governments.

China and ASEAN create free trade bloc

By John Roberts
12 January 2010

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/asea-j12.shtml

A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China came into effect on New Year’s Day, creating the world’s third largest free trade bloc behind the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA). While limited in scope, the agreement is further testimony to the expansion of China’s influence in Asia and internationally at the expense of its rivals, above all the US.

Initially proposed by China, the FTA is the product of eight years of negotiations, with the details only being settled last year when investment rules were sorted out. As of January 1, tariffs have been abolished on more than 7,000 items or 90 percent of the total number for China and the six more economically developed ASEAN members—Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. The four remaining ASEAN nations—Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma—have until 2015 to end tariffs.

Sustainable Consumption: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

By Aron Cramer
Published January 11, 2010

http://greenbiz.com/blog/2010/01/11/sustainable-consumption-idea-whose-time-has-come?page=0%2C0

[Editor's note: This article was authored by BSR, a global business network and consultancy focused on sustainability.]

With climate negotiations reaching an inconclusive end in Copenhagen, the action swings back from national governments and the intergovernmental process to you and me.

For many years, the idea of sustainable consumption has been embraced by NGOs and others, but widely shunned by business.

This is changing fast. Not only that, the signs of growing interest are coming from unlikely locations.

Europe in crisis

11 January 2010

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/pers-j11.shtml

At the start of the last decade, in March 2000, the European Union heads of state announced the Lisbon Strategy. Its aim, by 2010, was to make Europe “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” This would create “the conditions for full employment and the strengthening of regional cohesion in the European Union.”

As the second decade of the 21st century begins, the aspirations set forth in the Portuguese capital have evaporated. Instead of full employment, Europe is gripped by mass unemployment; instead of economic growth, there is stagnation; in place of cohesion, there is discord. Even the common currency, the foundation of the lofty plans of Lisbon, is in acute danger.