Trade

Wheat is the new gold. As poor countries brace for shortages, it’s boom time for Kansas farmers. “It feels like Christmas in August,” admitted Darrell Hanavan, of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee, noting that the harvest just completed in his state seems to have been the most bountiful for 25 years. The dollar value...
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In 1648 the first modern diplomatic congress established a new political order in Europe, based for the first time on the principle of “national sovereignty.” This principle drew a sharp dividing line between foreign and domestic affairs. Each “national sovereign” was given free rein within the internationally recognized borders of his state. No outsider...
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After decades of uneasy existence as part of Serbia the newly independent state of Kosovo has emerged with its inevitable new anthem and new flag. But there are real political concerns best not forgotten in the ballyhoo and hopes for a brighter future. One man interviewed by the BBC’s Mark Madell described how during...
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Further to our previous posting , this is a follow up on-the-spot analysis of the Chinese effect on the Zambian working class by an African socialist . The recent visit by the Chinese president Hu Jintao was hailed as a great economic milestone in the New Deal administration of MMD (Movement for Multiparty Democracy)...
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Recent events on the world stage, not least the latest meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations, seem to suggest that the noose is fast tightening around the neck of world capitalism. The vociferous pronouncements of the “Green” parties and groups, the massive demonstrations against the wars in the Middle East, the...
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Saturday in Argentina marked the end of the two-day FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) summit. The summit ended with the leaders of 34 nations unable to agree on when to restart talks that will create a trade zone from Alaska to Chile. While supporters for the “free” trade zone think it will...
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From the Western Socialist, #1, 1968 From mythological archives comes the legend of the phoenix, a bird of rare and unseemly attainments. After a lengthy and variegated existence, a pervasive act of its own volition caused it to be consumed in fire, and eventually to rise in callow newness from its ashes. Modern Japan...
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The Road to Serfdom. By Friedrich A. Hayek, University of Chicago Press, 1944 (250 pp.; $2.75). Full Employment in a Free Society. By William H. Beveridge. W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1945. (429pp; $3,75). Both these books are dedicated to the “socialists of all parties.” Hayek wants to discourage them, Beveridge tries...
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