Crisis

Kissinger has been elevated to a visionary for his views on the war in Ukraine. But those views are outdated and dangerous and reflect a Cold War mindset that is no longer relevant in the 21st century, argues Ramzy Baroud.

The post Prophets of Doom: Henry Kissinger and the ‘Intellectual’ Decline of the West appeared first on MintPress News.

by Gary Gardner

Experts have warned for decades of potential water scarcity in many regions, but over the past decade the warnings have nearly morphed into large-scale catastrophes. In 2014, water in reservoirs supplying Sao Paulo, Brazil dropped to just five percent of capacity, and residents found themselves on the threshold of severe shortages. In 2017, the mayor of Cape Town warned residents of the impending arrival of “Day Zero,” when critically low reservoir levels would trigger a shutoff of city taps and lead to queues of residents waiting for water at standpipes.

The post Whose Taps Will Go Dry First? appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

"Despite an assault on human rights and the rule of law in many countries," human rights defenders "showed remarkable courage and persistence in advocating for more democratic, just, and inclusive societies."

The post ‘Grim Milestone’: Over 400 Human Rights Defenders Murdered Worldwide Last Year appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Capitalism has its capacity to reinvent itself and not only survive the many crises it has caused but transform itself into more aggressive forms over the years. This has prompted many authors to query the possibility of its collapse and at what point this event may occur. More importantly, how will this system of appropriation and accumulation that the world has got used to finally unravel? It is a timely question when the availability, accessibility and affordability of basic and essential human needs such as staple foods are being impacted by the dilapidated state of governments, economy, and ecology under the capitalist system. One explanation offered by William I. Robinson has come at a time when the world is at an intersection of many crises on multiple fronts: health, environment, economy, and escalating geopolitical tensions. Robinsons’ latest book Can Global Capitalism Endure? was published in 2022 by Clarity Press as the world just experienced the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ripple effects of war between Ukraine and Russia and the escalating wrath of climate change.

The term “late capitalism” seems to be everywhere as a trending meme – often used as a kind of shorthand to illustrate the absurdities of certain free market economies. On Twitter, you will find the hashtags #latecapitalism (English), #tardocapitalismo (Italian), #capitalismotardio (Spanish), and #spätkapitalismus (German), among others. Typically, they satirise notions such as the idea of endless growth. The term also pops up in a wide range of academic articles and books. There are, for instance, discussions around the populist rise in late capitalism, the increase in financial-related investments in late capitalism, migration conditions in late capitalism, and so on. But what are the origins of this term? And what, exactly, does it mean?

The post We live in a time of ‘late capitalism’. But what does that mean? appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).