Global Depression and Regional Wars: The United States, Latin America and the Middle East [Paperback]

James Petras (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 093286368X | ISBN-13: 978-0932863683

These extraordinary times unprecedented in modern history are marked by a worldwide depression and regional wars involving all the major imperial powers. This book exposes the roots of the crisis in the unsustainability of the United States military-driven empire building based on a volatile speculative economy, and influenced by Zionist policy makers committed to the colonialist state of Israel. It offers a critical study of the collapse of the empire and a profound indictment of the respectable and prestigious personalities either responsible for the debacle, or for its continuance, such as: · Bernard Madoff, the mega-Wall Street swindler and former President of the powerful NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations), who is emblematic of the rise and decay of the US financial empire. · President Barack Obama, who promised peace and change, whose election was symptomatic of profound popular disenchantment with endless military-Zionist driven empire building, and who upon election has escalated the war in Afghanistan and carried on with massive bailouts for Wall Street. Petras provides clear insight into how the ramifications of the world depression and regional wars that originated in Washington and on Wall Street are extending throughout the world, provoking popular challenges especially in Latin America, while reinforcing the belligerency and increasingly fascistic nature of the state of Israel. He demonstrates how unending wars and a deepening capitalist depression have demolished the ideology of free market neo-liberalism and forced to the forefront the need for structural changes. He points out how the collapse of the capitalist free market and the need for large-scale, long-term interventions by the state have once again raised the question of whose interests states are presently promoting, and whose interests in actuality they should serve. Both in the United States and Latin America, center-left regimes are proposing economic reforms to try to save the capitalist system. However the deepening crisis is raising the prospect of mass support for 21st Century socialism, which focuses on public investment, ownership and control.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, Temps Moderne, Le Monde Diplomatique.

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: Clarity Pr (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093286368X
• ISBN-13: 978-0932863683
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,885,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars President Barack Obama is a militarist January 26, 2010

By Mr.

Format:Paperback

President Barack Obama is a militarist by definition. 4% greater then even militarist president Bush. This is just one of the many fascinating and important points in this important book. Obama and Bush are the same. Also if you thought the elite would stop the thousand year wars because they would run out of money......you were wrong.