Month: January 2016

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World braces for Puerto Rico sovereign debt default

Puerto Rico is scrambling to meet the deadline of midnight tonight—4 January—to make a US$1 billion payment on its US$72 billion national debt. It is unlikely to be able to do so, setting the stage for a US$72 billion default. This is looming as the first financial shock of 2016, and coincides with the knock-on effect of December’s US interest rate rise, the run of bank collapses in Italy, depositor “bail-in” officially coming into effect across the EU as of 1 January, and the expected defaults on potentially trillions of dollars’ worth of junk bonds in the resources sector. All of this underscores the extreme urgency of a full Glass-Steagall separation of real banking from financial speculation, so that everyday citizens and daily economic functions can be protected from the fast-approaching global financial meltdown.
www.cecaust.com.au

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Batting for GM in India: Smears, Misinformation and Depoliticising the Political

In an open letter to the Royal Society (RS), author of the well-researched and fully-referenced book ‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth’ Steven Druker argued that the prestigious scientific institution has misrepresented the case for GMOs and has effectively engaged in a campaign of disinformation and the smearing of credible research that showed firm evidence pointing to health dangers of GM. He notes that the RS has been a partisan defender of GM foods and embraced a proactive policy on their behalf. Druker argues that several individuals holding prominent positions within the RS – and even the Society itself – have issued misleading statements in regard to GM foods that have created significant confusion and illegitimately downplayed their risks.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/18/batting-for-gm-in-india-smears-misinformation-and-depoliticising-the-political/