Published on Monday, July 13, 2015 by Common Dreams by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer After 31 hours of tense weekend talks—and five years of crippling austerity—Greece and its foreign creditors have struck a deal: an €86 billion bailout that will keep Greece in the Eurozone in exchange for controversial economic reforms that include tax hikes, pension overhauls, and severe budget […]
Published on Monday, July 06, 2015 by Common Dreams by Jon Queally, staff writer Even with a historic political victory in his pocket after seeing his nation vote overwhelmingly against the imposition of further austerity in exchange for a new loan package from foreign creditors on Sunday, Yanis Varoufakis, the outspoken finance minister of Greece’s Syriza-led government, announced his […]
Published on Wednesday, July 01, 2015 by Common Dreams, by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer Days ahead of another round of secret international negotiations, WikiLeaks on Wednesday released what it described as “a modern journalistic holy grail: the secret Core Text for the largest ‘trade deal’ in history.” That deal is the Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA, currently being negotiated […]
Published on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 by Common Dreams, by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer In a win for multinational corporations and the global one percent, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly advanced Fast Track, or Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) —ensuring for all practical purposes the continued rubber-stamping of clandestine trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and TransAtlantic […]
Published on Friday, April 24, 2015 by Common Dreams by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer While corporate watchdogs hailed the record $2.5 billion settlement paid by Deutsche Bank to U.S. and U.K. authorities for its rate-rigging role in the massive LIBOR scandal, some noted that the fine—while large—suggests that some institutions are still considered “too big to jail.” Authorities announced Thursday […]
Published on Thursday, March 26, 2015 by Common Dreams by Sarah Lazare, staff writer Newly leaked classified documents show that the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, if it goes through as written, will dramatically expand the power of corporations to use closed-door tribunals to challenge—and supersede—domestic laws, including environmental, labor, and public health, and other protections. The tribunals, made infamous […]
Published on Tuesday, March 03, 2015 by Common Dreams by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer The Bank of England, one of the oldest banks in the world, has joined the growing ranks of those warning of the financial risk posed by a “carbon bubble,” which will occur if urgently needed climate change regulations render coal, oil, […]
Published on Monday, January 19, 2015 by Common Dreams by Jon Queally, staff writer In less than two years, if current trends continued unchecked, the richest 1% percent of people on the planet will own at least half of the world’s wealth. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Oxfam International, released Monday, which states that the rate […]
Published on Thursday, January 15, 2015 by Common Dreams by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer Fast-tracked international trade deals have led to exploding U.S. trade deficits, soaring food imports into the U.S., increased off-shoring of American jobs, and an “unprecedented rise in income inequality,” according to new data released Thursday by the watchdog group Public Citizen. The report, “Prosperity Undermined” […]
Published on Thursday, January 01, 2015 by Common Dreams by Jon Queally, staff writer Last year, the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization officially declared that 2015 would be celebrated as the International Year of the Soil citing the threat to one of the key ingredients to the planet’s food and farming systems posed by “expanding cities, deforestation, unsustainable […]