‪Noam Chomsky: Free Market Fantasies: Capitalism In The Real World (1996)

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by Noam Chomsky
http://www.chomsky.info
Delivered at Harvard University, April 13, 1996
Transcription courtesy of William Greene

For those who are interested in the real world, a look at the actual history suggests some adjustment — a modification of free market theory, to what we might call “really existing free market theory.” That is, the one that’s actually applied, not talked about.

And the principle of really existing free market theory is: free markets are fine for you, but not for me. That’s, again, near a universal. So you — whoever you may be — you have to learn responsibility, and be subjected to market discipline, it’s good for your character, it’s tough love, and so on, and so forth. But me, I need the nanny State, to protect me from market discipline, so that I’ll be able to rant and rave about the marvels of the free market, while I’m getting properly subsidized and defended by everyone else, through the nanny State. And also, this has to be risk-free. So I’m perfectly willing to make profits, but I don’t want to take risks. If anything goes wrong, you bail me out.

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via Free Market Fantasies: Capitalism in the Real World, by Noam Chomsky (talk delivered at Harvard University)

John Nichols and Phil Gasper: Return of Socialism

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“In the U. S. the Democrats have become what the Republicans used to be  and the Republicans have become lunatics.”  — Phil Gasper

“There’s only one party in America today, with two wings, the conservative wing, known as Democrats, and the reactionary wing, known as Republicans.” — Gore Vidal

“If you ever hear the term “Think Tank”, run from the room. Assume A) no one is thinking and B) a tank is coming your direction.” — John Nichols

Pakistan in Pieces, Part 2: Punishing Pakistan and Challenging China by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
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June 30, 2011

This is Part 2 of “Pakistan in Pieces.”

Part 1: Imperial Eye on Pakistan

The AfPak War Theatre: Establishing the New Strategy

As Senator Obama became the President-elect Obama, his foreign policy strategy on Afghanistan was already being formed. In 2007, Obama took on veteran geostrategist and Jimmy Carter’s former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski as one of his top foreign policy advisers,[1] and he remained his foreign policy adviser throughout 2008.[2] On Obama’s campaign, he announced that as President, he would scale down the war in Iraq, and focus the “War on Terror” on Afghanistan, promising “to send in about 10,000 more troops and to strike next-door Pakistan, if top terrorists are spotted there.”[3]

Drowning Fish? by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
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www.gregpalast.com
June 30, 2011

July 3 would have been my parents’ 67th Anniversary. 67 years. Maybe it was the triumph of Hope over Reality (still have that Obama 2008 poster?). Or maybe something else, something that those of us who haven’t walked that far down the path can’t imagine.

‪Noam Chomsky: The Clinton Vision – Old Wine, New Bottles (1994)‬‏

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Transcript via http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199606–.htm