Some may wonder why I cheered when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel announced that the president plans to cut the deficit, because he "does not want to keep on adding to the debt."

It's no secret that conservative economists believe that the way to cut the...

In William Hogarth's famous engraving of 1721, the world of finance, corrupted by the phantom of the South Sea Bubble, is cruelly satirised. To represent market cheerleaders, a goat sits astride a spinning carousel and asks: 'who will ride?" Lured by this charlatan, investors crowd on to the shaky, but...

Could it be that all those 'top stories' in the media are just for the top people?

The media -- with the Huffington Post an honorable exception -- appears to have a blind spot for the suffering of Joe, the now chronically unemployed plumber, and an equal disregard for Josephine,...

Today the Summit of world leaders -- the G20 -- ended in a spirit of good cheer. World leaders are united, they're confident and they're looking forward. They have looked closely at the system that crashed, and decided simply to reboot it. It appears we have all been fooled: there...

By Ann Pettifor and Maz Kessler, Advocacy International.

President Clinton was on Larry King the other night, reminding us with typical directness that people die simply because they can't get medicine. This is particularly true for poor women and their newborn babies.

Women - mothers -...

"The wages of men should be recognized in the social order as more important than the wages of money...." Abraham Lincoln

The leaders of the world are about to gather in New York and Pittsburgh to address the catastrophic failure of the global economy at a time when...

Make no mistake about it. We are in the middle of a monumental political conflict -- with very high stakes. On one side: politicians, regulators and pundits, battling for the interests of middle-class Americans.

On the other: the banks and finance sector.

On the one side:...

California's economy is in free fall. This appears to be of little concern to Governor Schwarzenegger, who instead prefers to focus his energy, attention and political capital on the ballooning state budget. So much time has he -- the economy seems not to require his attention -- that he regularly...

As a banker noted recently, there is no constituency for pessimism. Americans, he suggested, believe in optimism as a human right. This bright buoyancy is one of this nation's greatest strengths, lapped up by jaded Europeans.

But it was optimism that also enabled Americans to max out on...

In my last post, I argued that the United States is now a bank-owned state. As if to prove my point, the banks used their power over 12 Democratic members of the Senate to defeat Senator Durbin's "Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy" amendment. And they financed...

The Obama administration said no to downsizing and re-structuring the banks. They balked at firing incompetent CEOs. Under attack from Republicans and Wall Street they held back on controlling financial institutions that, post bail-out, are in reality 'State-Owned Banks'.

As a result, the US administration has itself been hijacked,...

We will not know for six months or even for six years whether or not this G20 Summit has been a success. But what we can be sure of is this: it will not create a 'new world order.' Indeed I believe it could be worse. I am willing to...

President Obama and his wife Michelle arrived in London on a sunny, but tense 'financial fools day'. They're staying just across the road from my apartment -- at Winfield House, the Ambassador's home in Regent's Park. Built for heiress Barbara Hutton, it "oozes English country-house charm as seen through the...

The President and the Prime Minister have been scuppered by a 'King.'

Last week, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, an unelected and unaccountable public servant, intervened in the global political process set in train by the G20.

By doing so, he scuppered plans laid by...

As I'm sure he expected, President Lula's "blue-eyed Banker" statement caused an international uproar. But Lula's point was beautifully illustrated last week when the CEOs of the major U.S. banks - 'Yesterday's Men' - emerged from the White House after being "wooed" by the Administration.

President Obama is in danger of making the same mistake Nelson Mandela made. Like Mandela he is abrogating power to shape a vision for the recovery of the US economy, and handing over the baton of leadership to Wall St. and lesser mortals.

Arianna is right, these mortals...

On March 15th, Governor Bernanke gave an unprecedented interview to CBS. In it he lit a fuse of 'anger' against AIG. And then he retreated from the fray. Surprisingly, he is not a target of public anger. Instead that anger is aimed at the president.

This is an extraordinary...

Once a-ponzi time, millions worshiped at the feet of the Wizards of Finance. These Wizards preached an economic religion that promised security and an abundance of riches from the 'Emerald City' -- Wall St.

Investors following this religion were led to believe that they could make capital gains effortlessly...

Somali Pirates were condemned when they hijacked tankers, took sailors hostage and demanded million-dollar ransoms. But their demands were a drop in the bucket compared to the ransoms demanded by Wall Street.

And the Somalis were kinder to their hostages than Wall Street is to millions of unemployed Americans....

There is no doubt about it. Barack Obama is an effective and inspiring president. His address to the Joint Session of Congress this week cheered all those who heard it.

His courtesy and respect for colleagues -- regardless of political affiliation or status is refreshing and will no doubt...