I have been a bit mystified by why everyone seems to be celebrating the swedish bank rescue plan of the 90's, since I seemed to distinctively remember it being criticised in Norway for being wasteful and neo-liberal.

So I finally got around to searching for some comparison of the banking crisis in Norway and Sweden, and found this interesting paper prepared by the Norwegian National Bank: Bent Vale, The Norwegian Banking Crisis, Norges Bank Skriftserie 33, 2006

In his article on the 13th Metatone asked whether any large national economy has transitioned into a developed nation status without the use of protectionist measures. The underlying argument is a sound one, although in my view the question should be turned around. In other words: "Can the proponents of market liberalisation point to any advanced industrialised nation that has reached this position through the removal of trade barriers?"

I am horribly adept at procrastinating. The assignement for today was supposed to be to read over the literature for a class on "war and conflict" I am supposed to help out in. Instead, I watched a BBC documentary. (58 minutes)

By critics of president Chavez of Venezuela, the leftist "infatuation" with the man is often turned into an example of the romanticed revolutionary ideal we are supposed to still harbour, as well as a sinister reminder of our willingness to accept totaliarism, often involving veiled or not-so-veiled references to supposed leftist support for everyone from Stalin and Mao to Pol Pot.

After the unprecedented Israeli "victory" in Libanon, there has been increased murmurs about how it has put the Olmert government in an untenable position in Israel. I am sure that a fresh scandal involving Olmert and a luxury "discount" appartment has NO connection at all with the sudden crash in internal support for the government among the Israelis.

Unlike Jerome and several others on this site, I think the Leftist forces in Europe need to start staking out new positions in this rapidly changing world. The Market Liberals are actually correct when they state that the changing economic conditions are going to have to force reforms on us. The problem is that their proposed reforms will crush the power of the strongest equalising force in the world today, the Nation State, and move political and economic power completely into the hands of corporations, with the rise of something close to corporate feudalism as the probable outcome.

Why is this? And how do we fight this, and propose a new, positive way forward? My contention is that there are two broad trends that are going to be the main driving forces in the Western World in the foreseeable future.