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The invisible hand of monopolies

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The invisible hand of monopolies


By BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat.com
The law of classical economics dictates that when demand exceeds supply, prices go up and dampens demand until it reaches equilibrium with the supply. On the other hand, when demand is low and supply exceeds it, prices would go down until demand increases and achieves equilibrium with supply. This is called the invisible hand of the market. This is the logic of neoclassical or neoliberal economics, thus, the push for limiting government intervention in the economy through deregulation, liberalization and privatization.

However, stagflation hit the world economy in the 1970s and this baffled economists. Stagflation, or stagnation coupled with inflation, should not have occurred because in a stagnant economy, unemployment is high and demand is low so why do prices increase? The response of economists and governments of advanced capitalist countries is to push for more deregulation, liberalization and privatization plus controlling inflation through raising or lowering interest rates. But still, this did not solve the problem of rising prices even during these times when the world is suffering from a Great Recession, which progressives say is more aptly described as a Great Depression comparable to what the world experienced in 1929.

So what is wrong with the world economy?.... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/02/27/the-invisible-hand-of-monopolies/

A dose of their own medicine EDITORIAL 03/11/2012

A dose of their own medicine

EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
03/11/2012
Not only are Noynoy and his allies complaining about Chief Justice Renato Corona’s personal visits to media outfits to make his defense against the muckraking operations launched against him but are now appear to be shaking in their boots as Corona starts to lay down his cards on the table.

The whole frontline team of Noynoy in the Senate is being exposed one by one as key parts of the oust-Corona crusade and what is emerging is that it has nothing to do with cleaning up the judiciary but more to control the Supreme Court (SC) by appointing a Noynoy-favored justice in it. And this appears important, as it has also been shown that Noynoy did try to lobby for the passage of his Truth Commission with the Chief Justice, who rebuffed him, which then made Noynoy see red, and start his campaign to oust Corona.

Corona had confirmed the long talked about term-sharing agreement with Senior Justice Antonio Carpio during his media swings and many more underhanded moves of Noynoy and his allies..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120311com1.html

FBI wouldn’t exclude extrajudicial killings in the US

FBI wouldn’t exclude extrajudicial killings in the US


United States Attorney General Eric Holder recently explained how the president can order the assassination of his own citizens abroad. But did his rationalization justify executions within the US? Apparently, the FBI wouldn’t exclude it.

Responding to a congressional inquiry this week on the rationale of assassinating Americans, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller affirmed that he himself isn’t too clear on the what Holder explained.

The attorney general addressed an audience at Northwestern University in Chicago this week with an explanation for US President Barack Obama’s killing of three American citizens overseas last year..... MORE
SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/fbi-mueller-assassination-holder-193/

Syrian stalemate hampers Annan peace talks (w/ Video)



Syrian stalemate hampers Annan peace talks


The UN delegation led by Kofi Annan is holding its second round of talks with Syrian President Assad. But with both the opposition and the regime flatly refusing to open dialogue until violence has ended, the likelihood of progress seems slim.

Former UN chief Kofi Annan’s first round of talks failed to reach any tangible resolution on the conflict. President Assad made it clear on Saturday that negotiations would not be open while “armed terrorist groups were still operating in the country.”.... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/un-annan-ceasefire-talks-293/

Quake enigma: The more it shakes, the less it shows

Quake enigma: The more it shakes, the less it shows


The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan’s east coast exactly one year ago were not supposed to happen. At least if seismic hazard maps are not cheating. But can modern science really predict such disasters?

­As Joel Achenbach noted quite rightly in his Washington Post article, Earth paid no heed to scientific orthodoxy. And while geologists were theorizing, a massive slab of our planet’s crust moved 55 meters (180 feet) eastwards. It lifted the ocean bed almost 5 meters up (15 feet), and that brought all the might of the waters of the Pacific upon Japan’s eastern coast..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/earthquake-maps-tsunami-japan-279/

‘So this is what dying is like’: Japan remembers disaster (w/ Video)



‘So this is what dying is like’: Japan remembers disaster

A year ago to the day, Japan was hit by a 9.0 earthquake and a resulting tsunami that led to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Thousands lost their lives but the question is: if it all happened again, would things turn out any differently?

Sixteen thousand candles: one for each victim of the disaster. With the names of the dead etched on them, all were lit at a Buddhist memorial service in Osaka on Saturday.

Five hundred bodies remain unidentified. More than 3,000 are still missing..... MORE

SourceRT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/japan-tsunami-fukushima-anniversary-277/

Just thinking VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 03/11/2012

Just thinking

VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
03/11/2012
The ongoing impeachment trial has been receiving not only national interest and attention but also various perceptions on the part of Filipinos as to its cause (How come?) as well as its nature (What?) and finality (Why?).

How come there is such a distinct and even unfamiliar process altogether financed by public funds? What does it mean for the people who have been long in need and waiting for a better life? Why is it undertaken to judge on but one person when graft and corruption are still a composite living institutional practice in the different agencies of government?

There can be many answers to the many questions thus raised about the more and more interesting impeachment process. Both the questions thereon and the answers thereto can be as the varied different groups of individuals who respond thereto — depending on such factors as the following: The political loyalties of those playing a direct active role therein..... MORE
SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120311com7.html

Statistics on various crimes against women alarming – CWR

Statistics on various crimes against women alarming – CWR


“Sins against Filipino women are being committed on a daily basis.”
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) said that despite the existence and supposed enforcement of 37 Philippine laws, executive orders, resolutions that are supposed to protect and serve the welfare and development of women, violence against them continues.

The group defines violence against women as “an act or series of acts that involves coercion, intimidation, threat, and/or deception. It causes physical, sexual or psychological harm. The CWR also explained that violence against women also includes the neglect of women’s interests, needs, and welfare.

Victims of political repression
Listing what it said were “sins” being committed against Filipino women on a daily basis, the CWR said the Benigno Aquino III administration has yet to prove that it is genuinely pro-women. It also said the armed forces of the government are using violence against women as a means of political repression.

From July 2010 to December 2011, six women fell victim to extra-judicial killings that were politically-motivated. There are currently 35 women political prisoners in different jails in the country. Detained women are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and torture as seen in the cases of former political detainee and now Selda secretary general Angie Ipong and the women belonging to the Morong 43.

Out of the government’s 23 women detainees, 16 reported being subjected to torture.

Apart from the serious implications of political repression, counted among the more serious violations being perpetrated against women is the act of rape. Based on data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Women’s Crisis and Child Protection Center (WCCPC) , there were 14,201 recorded cases of rape (76.56 percent of all crimes committed against women of a sexual nature), attempted rape (18.68 percent) and incestuous rape (5.74 percent) from January 2000 to August 2011..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/03/09/statistics-on-various-crimes-against-women-alarming-%E2%80%93-cwr/

Groups investigate militarization reports at Hacienda Luisita 03/11/2012

Groups investigate militarization reports at Hacienda Luisita

03/11/2012
Possible military abuse had reared its ugly head anew at Hacienda Luisita, which is owned by President Aquino’s relatives and subject of a Supreme Court order for land distribution, as representatives of cause-oriented groups went to the vast Cojuangco-Aquino estate to conduct a fact-finding mission on the situation of its farm workers amid reports of militarization and harassment by military and private security groups.

The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) said in a statement that the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, Karapatan, Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, Luisita Peasants’ and Peoples’ Alliance, and other organizations will join the fact-finding mission that covers the barangays (villages) of Balete, Mapalacsiao, Lourdes, Cutcut and Asturias in Tarlac City; Motrico and Bantog in La Paz; and Mabilog, Pando, and Parang all in Concepcion..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120311hed2.html

Defense to focus on hands behind Corona impeach 03/11/2012

DEFECTS OF HOUSE COMPLAINT ALSO IN AGENDA

Defense to focus on hands behind Corona impeach

03/11/2012
The lawyers of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday bared their defense strategy focusing on unmasking the forces behind the effort at the House of Representatives to ram through the impeachment complaint and the defects of the charges against Corona after it failed to go through the proper legislative procedures.

In contrast to the prosecution panel’s amateurish performance at the impeachment trial, the defense lawyers promised a clear-cut and structured defense presentation at the resumption of the impeachment trial tomorrow.

“We will show on the first day that there were invisible hands moving to have the impeachment complaint immediately filed at the Senate. Next, we will prove our initial comments about the verified complaint not going through the proper process at the House,” defense spokesman Rico Quicho said..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120311hed1.html

UPLB slay case solved with arrest of 3rd suspect By Gina Peralta-Elorde and Efren B. Chavez 03/11/2012

UPLB slay case solved with arrest of 3rd suspect

By Gina Peralta-Elorde and Efren B. Chavez 03/11/2012


Task Force Penaranda yesterday announced that the killing of University of the Philippines Los Baos (UPLB) agriculture student Ray Bernard Pearanda was considered solved following the arrest of the third suspect during a police pursuit operation against him in Bicol region.

Police Regional Office 4 Dir. James Andres Melad said the task force teams have captured Carl Dactil de Guzman, 27, the third and last suspect in the murder of Pearanda.

De Guzman was apprehended in Barangay Tagas, Daraga, Albay before 2 p.m. on Friday following hot pursuit operations. He said de Guzman went into hiding in his relatives home there..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120311nat1.html

Pope sends condolences on death of Cardinal Sanchez 03/11/2012

Pope sends condolences on death of Cardinal Sanchez

03/11/2012
Pope Benedict XVI has conveyed his condolences on the death of Cardinal Jose Sanchez in a telegram sent to Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, archbishop emeritus of Cebu.

According to the Vatican’s Information Service, the text of the pope’s telegram gratefully recalls “the late cardinal’s dedicated service to the Lord as a priest and bishop in his native country, as well as our service together in the Roman Curia during the pontificate of Blessed John Paul II.”

The Holy Father commends Cardinal Sanchez’s “noble soul” to the Lord and prays “that his witness will inspire others to dedicate their lives to the service of the Lord and His Holy Church, especially in the priesthood.”.... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120311nat2.html

Former NBI chief asks DoJ: Defer proceedings against me By Benjamin B. Pulta 03/11/2012

Former NBI chief asks DoJ: Defer proceedings against me

By Benjamin B. Pulta 03/11/2012

Former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Magtanggol Gatdula has asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to defer its proceedings against him, citing the pending case before the courts he filed against his persecutors.

In a petition, Gatdula through his lawyer Abraham Espejo asked the DoJ to “suspend (the) proceedings” against him.

Gatdula had been accused of abduction and extortion by a Japanese woman, Noriyo Ohara, who claimed NBI operatives demanded P6 million from her for her protection.

Gatdula who denied Ohara’s claim pointed out that the DoJ proceedings should be set aside in the meantime..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120311met1.html

Palace mouthpiece says call for increase in workers’ pay ‘premature’ 03/11/2012

Palace mouthpiece says call for increase in workers’ pay ‘premature’

03/11/2012
A top Palace official yesterday described the call for the government to consider increasing the salaries of the Filipino workers as “premature.”

Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said in a radio briefing that aside from being premature, petitions for wage adjustments should not be directed to Malacañang but to the regional wage boards.

She added the regional wage boards should discuss calls from some groups for a wage hike to help workers cope with rising costs of living.

“It (the call for a wage hike) is something that should be entertained by the regional wage board,” Valte said on government-run radio station..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120311met2.html

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