I learnt of an interesting  coop recently: the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, responsible for clearing and settling most US securities (i.e shares & derivatives). At the heart of global neoliberalism is this user-owned coop, which holds some $40 trillion in securities, running a service the entire economy depends on. I’d been surprised enough to learn that Slaughter & May,...

"Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation" Dennis Leigh So despite (or because of) a cultural renaissance of knowledge and skills sharing, empowering new production models, tools and methods of quite historic proportions, we face a collapse of the banking infrastructure, and the fundamentals of economic orthadoxy. The Obama administration's 'Buy Amer...

"Investors fleeing Wall Street's mortgage-related strife plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into grain futures, driving prices up even more." Washington Post So its official. The UN anounced Monday that food speculators were mostly to blame for the recent surge in food prices. Agrofuels and changes to diet no-doubt have a part to play, but as Vietnam moved to stop pan...

"Cotton growers have been among the most vocal critics, having witnessed a baffling surge in prices over a few days in March. In one day, the price of cotton jumped 15 per cent despite reports showing cotton supplies were at near record highs." Forgive me for this brief tangent from the world of film and pixels, but I've been compelled to pull myself away from an engrossin...

  Part horror movie, part critique of the American government’s stance on the environment since the 80s, Al Gore’s lecture on global warming is riveting, and, towards the end, unexpectedly optimistic. He has been aware of the dangers of the trend since his university tutor introduced the idea to his class – way back in the mid-60s. In the film, Gore expresses asto...