A French diplomat competing to be the world’s top health official says a tiny international tax can help fill the World Health Organization’s coffers, a proposal aimed at bringing order to the U.N. agency’s fragmented budget. Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy told journalists at the Foreign Ministry in Paris that “micropayments” tacked on to as-yet-undetermined international business operations could support WHO’s budget. …
Gerald Friedmand – Why Liberal Economists Dish Out Dispair
The ferocious reaction to my assessment that Senator Bernie Sanders’ economic and health care proposals could create long-term economic growth shows how mainstream economists who view themselves as politically liberal in America have abandoned progressive politics to embrace a political economy of despair. Rationalizing personal disappointment and embracing market-centric economic theories according to which government can do little more than fuss around the edges, …
People who admire Renaissance paintings ‘see stress hormone levels drop by 60 per cent’
Experts studied 100 people during a visit to Italy’s Basilica of Vicoforte The famous artwork had a beneficial effect on 90 per cent of participants Saliva tests showed that cortisol levels had reduced by more than half From Modigliani to Hockney, art has long been admired for its contribution to culture. But researchers are now claiming that a creative’s craft …
ELLEN ENGELSTAD – A Norwegian view: are things really so bad outside the EU?
In Norway it’s the elites that wants to join the European Union, while a popular union of farmers, fishermen, workers and urban leftists won the referendum in 1994 that kept the country out. It’s not difficult to spot why.When the British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen that ‘Outside the EU we would have no say, this …
Siobhan Fenton – Antibiotics will stop working at a ‘terrible human cost’, major report warns
Urgent action is needed to control the use of antibiotics before they cease to work, leaving a number of major conditions untreatable and causing “terrible human and economic cost”, a major study has warned. Resistance to antibiotics is growing at such an alarming rate that they risk losing effectiveness entirely meaning medical procedures such as caesarean sections, joint replacements and …
Cable Customers Beware: This Mega-Merger Just Created a ‘Price-Gouging’ Monster
The maligned merger between Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks is complete, which means the three companies have now become the country’s second-largest cable provider, despite months of warnings from consumer and open internet advocates who assailed it as the creation of a ‘price-gouging’ monster. Charter ultimately paid $55 million to purchase Time Warner Cable and $10.4 billion for …
Marcia Angell – How to provide Medicare for all
Obamacare, aka the Affordable Care Act, became law six years ago. The intention was to ensure that nearly all Americans have health insurance, while controlling costs. How did that work out? When the law was enacted, about 16 percent of Americans were uninsured. That has dropped to 10 percent. So instead of 50 million uninsured Americans, there are now about …
Nicholas C. Arguimbau – Global Warming Accelerates
The participants at the Paris climate change conference saw themselves produce “an agreement hailed as ‘historic, durable and ambitious’”and “the world’s greatest diplomatic success,” according to the UK Guardian on Dec. 15, 2015. The president of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, “A great tide has turned. Finally the world stands united against the central environmental challenge of our time.” They were still …
Matthew Harwood and Jay Stanley – Power Loves the Dark
Can’t you see the writing on the touchscreen? A techno-utopia is upon us. We’ve gone from smartphones at the turn of the twenty-first century to smart fridges and smart cars. The revolutionary changes to our everyday life will no doubt keep barreling along. By 2018, so predictsGartner, an information technology research and advisory company, more than three million employees will work …
SCOTT MCLARTY – About That Post-Bernie Movement
Now that it’s almost inevitable Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination, the talk is turning to what will come out of Bernie Sanders’ campaign after the Democratic National Convention. Enthusiasm is growing for a post-Sanders movement. Khwaja Khusro Tariq writes “if one accepts that Hillary is the most likely Democratic nominee for president does that mean we pack it up and …









