Is the Developing World Abandoning Iran?
July 6, 2012 by Richard Javad Heydarian
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on a state visit to Ecuador. Photo by Miguel Ángel Romero
In a recent interview, the eminent geo-strategist Ian Bremmer suggested that a “nuclear-armed Iran” is inevitable because, in an emerging “G-Zero World” where no single bloc of countries can dominate international affairs, the emerging powers can frustrate the West’s efforts to thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. There are basically two underlying assumptions to his argument: first, that the rising powers have the will and the capacity to ameliorate Iran’s growing isolation; and second, that Iran is willing to push its nuclear frontiers at any cost.
However, recent years give lie to these assumptions. Not only are many emerging powers beginning to distance themselves from Iran, but also Tehran itself — facing the prospect of an economic meltdown — is beginning to reexamine its nuclear calculus.
Meet the City Bankster: The Decline of Barclays
July 6, 2012 by Binoy Kampmark
There is a putrescence coming from the banks of what Londoners term ‘The City’, an intense odour of disgust suggesting old tricks from the seasoned and the crooked.
The resignation this week of Barclay’s CEO Bob Diamond should not have been the bombshell it became but even after years of banking mismanagement, the public has yet to be desensitised to the antics of the bankster. The former Barclays chief executive, who quit on Tuesday under pressure from the Bank of England and the financial regulator, more or less conceded that Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, had been manipulated by the bank with frequency.
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