Diálogo Plural

General Pierre de Villiers with President Emmanuel Macron. Image: AFP in The Daily Telegraph France's President, Emmanuel Macron started a very public spat last week with General Pierre De Villiers, Chief of Staff of the Republic's armed forces over this body's proposed budgetary cuts. In what appears to be the first of many confrontations with a president who was elected on a mandate to rein in public spending, Gen. De Villiers resigned over what he argued was his "inability to guarantee France security" with new tight budgetary measures. Here's the note as published by Michael Stothard in FT.  In any case, we have not heard the last word on this subject.  Nicholas Vinocur of Politico Europe wrote on the very bitter aftermath , that Christophe Castaner, Macron's presidential aide, accused the general of 'disloyal communication', particularly after publishing this Facebook post , aptly titled 'Départ', on the eve of his exit (r...

En este artículo sobre la fatiga del modelo económico en el que se sostiene Puerto Rico se mencionó un aspecto importante. El mismo apunta a las maneras en que los administradores del Estado formulan la acción que supone el ejercicio de poder. Sin embargo, el comentario más acertado los esboza Joaquín Villamil de la Firma Estudios  Técnicos, Inc. "Los fondos federales mitigaron las consecuencias de una economía que perdió su capacidad de crecer”, dijo Villamil al señalar que, entre las muchas correcciones que necesita el país, Puerto Rico debe revertir su costumbre de formular política pública sin analizarlas desde la perspectiva económica." Es probablemente sabio tomar en cuenta el señalamiento. Ciertamente, sería sabio del nuevo equipo económico del gobernador electo agenciar una política pública ponderada sobre la rúbrica económica.  Después de todo, el arte de lo posible es, en ocasiones, contingente a la afluencia y a la capacidad del Estado de manejar sus di...

This is what we have allowed successive governments to do to us: bring us to the brink of financial debacle. We are up to a point where government is running out of options fast and the draconian measures meant to reduce public spending are not enough. Even an increase in taxes (assuming Puerto Rico's treasury is able to collect taxes efficiently) might not curb our public debt's downward spiral. See the article linked below from Reuters , Analysis: Puerto Rico bets on American tourists to repay debt Our government's brilliant solution: tourism. We'll deposit our hopes, not on diversifying our economy, not on outside and local investment, not on promoting small, middle and cooperative enterprises (see here ), not on creating a thriving entrepreneurial class, not on improving the conditions of the Middle Class, but on American tourists. And while tourism in itself is not a bad thing, take a look a what type the government is trying to promote: high-end tourism bas...

It is most certainly a possibility. It might possibly yield unexpected positive results. But to consider this at a time when Greek voters have spoken in the ballots, that, what does that say about "democracy" in the cradle of δημοκρατία? Check the linked article below... Euro Officials Begin to Weigh Greek Exit Resiliency is the code word for this article. Nevertheless, European institutions are drawing up scenarios for Greece's Euro exit. There is little consideration about softening the dacronian measures that are affecting Greeks' livelihood and social stability for the past two and a half years. No willingness to reflect on the democratic exercise that the Greeks performed and what it means.  If, then, there is more resiliency in the Eurozone, why insist on the rigidity of the measures? Why not accommodate Greece? Why allow the markets and capital to be tyrannical in the face of human plight? Where is the State, where are the institutions? ©Steve Bell 2012...

Here's a quote from David Miliband: David Miliband on Ed: "He's going to lead the party in the way he sees fit. He's going to lead it with conviction and purpose." Indeed! That is all good.  But, can he win?  Because according to Dan Hodges in The New Statesman  this is tantamount to political suicide .  I can understand and respect Labour re-appraising its roots, especially after Tony Blair and his entourage made sure through his mediated discourse to alienate just about everyone with his "New" Labour political discourse, but I also want Labour to win.  If Miliband, instead of engaging a precarious balance that would rally the diverse coalition of forces that support this Party, is appealing to just his base, I fear that we're going to see conservatives and liberal democrats peddling their dysfunctional policy for the long term. Opposition politics as process and practice is in itself complicated.  If handled poorly it can result in bitter...

This was quoted by Mother Jones in a written piece titled ' What should Obama do ' by Kevin Drum . Michael Tomasky: "In [Alan] Brinkley’s words, Obama’s presidency 'is failing, and in danger of collapsing.' Lacerating battles await him on the budget (surprise: the debt deal didn’t solve everything!). The economy is grounded. Obama needs to quit trying to transform politics and just focus on winning fights on behalf of a careworn middle class. Otherwise, politics is going to transform him into a nicely intentioned one-term president."  Fairly warned, one might say. But is it too late?

Surviving the confidence vote is one thing, it is but a small part of the political process. The other one is in Habermas' beloved public sphere where Greeks hammer out other possibilities besides total compliance with rules imposed elsewhere... Papandreou survives confidence vote on handling of Greece debt crisis | World news | guardian.co.uk But that is the problem isn't it? Succesive Greek governments deceived the European Union and the Greek people into believing that their public finances were sufficiently sound to insert the country into the Eurozone, hiding sovereign debt and public deficits that, left unattended, spiralled out of control beyond manageability.  And the political (and the economic space) narrowed leaving out possibilities.  Truly sad, even more so when a centre-left government is in charge. It is interesting though how New Democracy (the Greek right) is simply calling for elections.  I wonder if they have thought of something the rest of us o...