(June 14, 2010) – U.S. President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers on Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid “massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters” and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

This statement leaves us pondering yet again: Are the huge stimulus packages intended …

(June 2010) – It is said that even though the Mayan culture was highly developed in many respects, its inability to make proper use of the wheel brought it to a grinding halt. The picture here shows young men re-enacting an ancient Mayan ball game where the goal was a ring placed high on the wall. Why the Mayans didn’t …

(July 2011) – Four years ago few policy-makers seemed to have the idea that the world was entering into years if not decades of a financial catastrophe. The same professionals have since been doing their best to assure us that a crunch and a crisis are things of the past. We have seen the bottom — they have informed us …

(28 May, 2011) – While Princeton professor Paul Krugman and his opponents are arguing whether severe austerities or hyper-spending is the way out of the present economic morass, the fact remains that the issue is not about quantity but quality. The fatal fault line that threatens to swallow the world runs deep within the financial system itself. The Mother of …