Can local currencies help advance global sustainability? Local financial systems that put people and the environment at their heart are welcome, but can these new models be truly scaled? Local currencies can encourage shoppers to buy local, purchasing their goods at nearby shops and markets … By definition, they can be exchanged for goods only in a limited region. So why participate? The cor...Read More
On January 24, 2013, state-owned company Kazatomprom announced that the uranium production in the Republic of Kazakhstan amounted to 20.9 ktU in 2012 (excluding data from the Stepnogorsk mining and processing facility).This means that Kazakhstan remained the world's largest uranium producer in 2012 with approximately 37% of global uranium production volume (55.7 ktU, according to Kazatomprom's pre...Read More
Annual income of richest 100 people enough to end global poverty four times over … Leaders must aim to bring down global inequality at least to 1990 levels … An explosion in extreme wealth and income is exacerbating inequality and hindering the world's ability to tackle poverty, Oxfam warned today in a briefing published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We can no l...Read More
Cantons begin to see downside of low tax rates … For years they fought to offer the lowest tax rates but now some cantons in central Switzerland are questioning the wisdom of this rampant tax competition as the population boom that came with it weighs more heavily on local resources. The paradise that is central Switzerland is as much natural as it is fiscal: glassy lakes, snowy peaks, untou...Read More
Annual income of richest 100 people enough to end global poverty four times over … Leaders must aim to bring down global inequality at least to 1990 levels … An explosion in extreme wealth and income is exacerbating inequality and hindering the world's ability to tackle poverty, Oxfam warned today in a briefing published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We can no l...Read More
Cantons begin to see downside of low tax rates … For years they fought to offer the lowest tax rates but now some cantons in central Switzerland are questioning the wisdom of this rampant tax competition as the population boom that came with it weighs more heavily on local resources. The paradise that is central Switzerland is as much natural as it is fiscal: glassy lakes, snowy peaks, untou...Read More
Keystone pipeline decision to languish until mid-June-US source The Obama administration's decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will not be made until at least June, a U.S. official said, which would delay the project for months and frustrate backers of Canada's oil sands. "We're talking the beginning of summer at the earliest," said the source, who did not want to be ide...Read More
Commentary … The Age of Neo-Feudalism: A Government of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Corporations … The pomp and circumstance of the presidential inauguration has died down. Members of Congress have taken their seats on Capitol Hill, and Barack Obama has reclaimed his seat in the White House. The circus of the presidential election has become a faint memory. The long months of deb...Read More
Keystone pipeline decision to languish until mid-June-US source The Obama administration's decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will not be made until at least June, a U.S. official said, which would delay the project for months and frustrate backers of Canada's oil sands. "We're talking the beginning of summer at the earliest," said the source, who did not want to be ide...Read More
Commentary … The Age of Neo-Feudalism: A Government of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Corporations … The pomp and circumstance of the presidential inauguration has died down. Members of Congress have taken their seats on Capitol Hill, and Barack Obama has reclaimed his seat in the White House. The circus of the presidential election has become a faint memory. The long months of deb...Read More
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds the nation is increasingly distrustful of the federal government: 73 percent don't have faith that lawmakers – members of Congress in particular – will do the right thing. Judy Woodruff asks Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, for more details and historical context. – PBS NewshourDominant Social Theme: This has bee...Read More
Global Leadership Vacuum: Europe Incapable, America Unwilling … The Exhausted Nation … US Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Germany this week in an effort to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties. Global politics have come to a standstill in recent years, with the United States unwilling to show leadership and Europe and other major powers unable to fill the vacuum … Biden might stil...Read More
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds the nation is increasingly distrustful of the federal government: 73 percent don't have faith that lawmakers – members of Congress in particular – will do the right thing. Judy Woodruff asks Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, for more details and historical context. – PBS NewshourDominant Social Theme: This has bee...Read More
Global Leadership Vacuum: Europe Incapable, America Unwilling … The Exhausted Nation … US Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Germany this week in an effort to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties. Global politics have come to a standstill in recent years, with the United States unwilling to show leadership and Europe and other major powers unable to fill the vacuum … Biden might stil...Read More
The Rise Of America's Lunatic Fringe … Anyone who spends any amount of time on the internet has seen them. They are the moonbats, the wingnuts, the whackjobs, the Conspiratorialists. They are America's new Lunatic Fringe, and their numbers are growing. While the rise of the internet fed a segment of society that has always existed, as the cyberworld has become an increasingly importa...Read More
Billions In Blood Money Enjoyed by War Criminals' Families … While you might not see them on Forbes' list of wealthy people, criminals and their beneficiaries are some of the richest people on the planet. For example, Bloomberg alleges that the heirs of a prominent Nazi are billionaires who own half of BMW who are also closely connected with Daimler. Four of the heirs are worth $1.2...Read More
The Rise Of America's Lunatic Fringe … Anyone who spends any amount of time on the internet has seen them. They are the moonbats, the wingnuts, the whackjobs, the Conspiratorialists. They are America's new Lunatic Fringe, and their numbers are growing. While the rise of the internet fed a segment of society that has always existed, as the cyberworld has become an increasingly importa...Read More
Billions In Blood Money Enjoyed by War Criminals' Families … While you might not see them on Forbes' list of wealthy people, criminals and their beneficiaries are some of the richest people on the planet. For example, Bloomberg alleges that the heirs of a prominent Nazi are billionaires who own half of BMW who are also closely connected with Daimler. Four of the heirs are worth $1.2...Read More
Senators Call Out Attorney General For Treating Banks Like They Are "Too Big To Jail" Like many Americans, Senators Charles Grassley (Iowa) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) think federal investigators have given banks a mere slap on the wrists for their part in the economic collapse and other misdeeds. So in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the pair wonder if banks are being viewed...Read More
Bill Gates: The world can defeat polio … Glance at the latest figures for polio incidence and it would appear that the world is within touching distance of eradicating the disease. Last year there were just 205 cases of naturally occurring poliovirus compared with 650 cases in 2011 and a staggering 350,000 a quarter of a century ago. There are now three countries – Pakistan, Afghanista...Read More