I see that fans of privatizing Social Security have moved away from touting the policy of murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile. The buzzword is now “Galveston.” In the late 1970s, county employees in Galveston, Tex., made an unusual and risky decision that they thought would help secure their financial future. They took advantage of [...]

Buried in with today’s news was this story about one of our secret wars, this time in Somalia. It appears that now we’re using African proxies to fight Al Shabab there. Richard Rouget, a gun for hire over two decades of bloody African conflict, is the unlikely face of the American campaign against militants in [...]

Since the 2010 election, conservative legislatures in practically every state have almost immediately plunked down a spate of bills with a very unified focus, attacking unions, Planned Parenthood, and cherished social programs. If you have wondered about the shelf where all this legislation sits and waits for conservatives to marshal their numbers, it’s located at [...]

European finance ministers agreed to extend more money to Greece yesterday, after the Greeks fulfilled their end of the bargain by passing a severe austerity and privatization package amid mass protests. The finance ministers extended the 8.7 billion euro ($12.6 billion) loan, which added to the 3.3 billion euro loan from the IMF will get [...]

The Greek Parliament passed a second round of austerity measures today, amid mass protests outside the Parliament building. The protests include extending taxes to minimum wage workers, cutting government employee salaries, along with other spending cuts. The ruling Greek Socialists voted virtually en masse for the measure, securing a 155-138 vote. Just one Socialist, Panayiotis [...]

The news that French banks will agree to a debt rollover plan for Greece is a but less crucial than at first surmised. French banks don’t actually own a substantial amount of Greek debt. The European Central Bank, the EU and the IMF own about 30%, and they’ve been far less receptive to the rollover [...]

One of the more revealing elements of the Greek bailout discussions is not that the IMF and European finance ministers want another round of austerity from Greece before providing funding, and not even that banks are being urged to take haircuts or engage in restructuring to accommodate the Greeks. It’s that other element – privatization [...]

The Greek cabinet approved the austerity budget that the EU has laid down as a condition for more bailout funds to pay off creditors. This sets the stage for a vote in Parliament next week. Earlier, the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a vote of confidence by a 155-143 vote with his Socialist Party [...]

Yesterday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a no-confidence vote without one defection from his Socialist party colleagues. As soon as today (though probably next week), they plan to pass an austerity, tax and privatization package that will secure them 12 billion euros in needed funding to pay off debt, which should be able to [...]

Observers expect a vote of confidence today for Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, a first step on the road to winning bailout money from European finance ministers. In order to get the full amount, Greece must impose another round of austerity measures and privatize multiple government assets. As a carrot for the vote of confidence, [...]

For weeks, the European Union and Greece have discussed a debt deal that would allow Greece to restructure its debt in exchange for multiple interventions in its political structure. But with resistance on all sides, these plans have been shelved for the time being. This is a deliberate dare to the Greek government to meet [...]