Debt, it seems, is an idea with currency. Cities, states, nations and individuals are indebted, with creditors at the door, demanding repayment. This year, the US Federal Reserve even had David Graeber…
Burdened by expectation: Barack Obama prepares to leave the White House aboard Marine One last weekend.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
On November 6, US voters will make a choice between two very different candidates with very different visions, policies and approaches. Well, that is the official version, at least. The reality is rather…
The Occupy movement highlighted income disparity across the world.
AAP/Dean Lewins
The Occupy movement in the US has brought into sharp focus the level of income inequality that exists in society. For example, in 2009 the top 10% of households in the US had an income that was about 11.5…
Indoctrination is one of the key forces at play in any society.
flickr/lets.book
Despite its association with totalitarian societies of the left and right, indoctrination is also a common feature of societies that describe themselves as free: those where the coercive powers of the…
Billionaire Clive Palmer: how much of his fabulous wealth is due to government policy?
AAP
Over the last year or so, the Occupy movement has garnered wide attention, with people of all backgrounds gathering to protest the deteriorating social conditions. However, these grievances have been running…
Occupy protestors have a right to protest; police powers to move them on from public spaces should be questioned.
RynChristophe/Youtube
When police removed a young woman’s “tent dress” this week at the Occupy Melbourne encampment, it was yet another controversial interaction between protesters and authorities. As shown in the Occupy movement…
Dean Newlan talks to Simon McKeon about corporate governance in Australia.
Supplied
Welcome to the latest in our In Conversation series, between Australian of the Year Simon McKeon, and Fellow at the Centre for Accounting and Industry Partnerships, Department of Accounting, University…
The rediscovery of inequality is one of the more startling realisations of the post-global financial crisis, post-globalisation world. A Berkeley University professor Emmanuel Saez with colleagues has…
Mass social movements, like the one in East Germany in 1989-91, don’t usually start out with clear goals.
AAP
Those who call for the Occupy movement to have a coherent set of demands at its birth ignore the history of social and protest movements. Often, the coherence to the programs of protest movements is only…
The Occupy movement: different agendas, but united by the right to civil disobedience.
The “Occupy” movement has swept the world in the last five weeks, as seems appropriate in this year of demonstrations by people tired of a clapped-out status quo. Of course, the Occupy movement is quite…