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In Solidarity
Binu

US Retail Sales Plunge As Layoffs Mount
By Kate Randall
www.countercurrents.org/randall151108.htm
Retail sales in the US fell 2.8 percent in October, the fourth straight monthly decline, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The decline was much worse than the 2.1 percent drop forecast by economists in a Bloomberg News survey

Weeks After Bank Bailout, No Help For Homeowners
By Adrianne Appel
www.countercurrents.org/appel151108.htm
Nearly five weeks after Congress gave the nod to a 700-billion-dollar bailout fund, and as the economy sinks deep into a recession, no definite plan is in sight for struggling U.S. homeowners

Paulson The Bungler
By Mike Whitney
www.countercurrents.org/whitney151108.htm
Henry Paulson’s time at Treasury has been one pratfall after another. Even so, on Tuesday he managed to outdo himself. Paulson held a “surprise” press conference where he announced that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) wouldn’t be used to buy troubled assets after all. Instead, the money will used to bail out insurance giant AIG, provide extra capital for the banks to hoard, and now (this is the new part) give money to “nonbank financial institutions, like insurers and specialty-finance companies” so they can lend to credit-worthy consumers. Isn’t that why we gave money to the banks?

My “Outrage List” Keeps Getting Longer And Longer
By Mike Larson
www.countercurrents.org/larson151108.htm
Someday, we’ll see the depths of the recession’s eyes. Someday, we’ll get to the point where enough companies have failed, enough homes have fallen into foreclosure, enough lenders have gone under, and enough debt has been crunched to get a real bottom in the markets and the economy. Then we’ll be ready for our country to grow in a healthy, sustainable fashion for the long term. But we’re not there yet. And judging from what I’m seeing, my outrage list appears doomed to grow

Unsettling Signs: Buzzwords, Politics And US Elections
By Ramzy Baroud
www.countercurrents.org/baroud151108.htm
The fact that Obama is half African-American or that Biden supposedly grew up in harsh circumstances – or that Palin is a woman and McCain’s airplane was shot down – should be of no essence at all insofar as their policies, decisions and leaderships are concerned. That would be determined by time and experience, although the early signs are hardly promising

A Wanted Man in Burma
By Jeremy R. Hammond
www.countercurrents.org/hammond151108.htm
Writer Antonio Graceffo has become the target of a disinformation campaign by the ruling junta in Burma for opposing the oppressive regime

Saffron Terror
By Praful Bidwai
www.countercurrents.org/bidwai151108.htm
Sadhvi Pragya Thakur’s arrest and the questioning of Hindutva extremists for the Malegaon blasts point to the need for action against majoritarian extremism

Fighting Fascism
By Yoginder Sikand
www.countercurrents.org/sikand151108.htm
Last month, the New Delhi-based human rights’ group Anhad, along with some 90 other organizations, held a two-day national convention on the theme, ‘Countering Fascism: Defending the Idea of India’. It was attended by scores of social activists from various parts of the country. Predictably, it received hardly any mention in the so-called ‘mainstream’ Indian media

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