By Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog, cross-posted with PressTV (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog (cross-posted with PressTV) (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog The principle is the same as when the French loaned money to North African beys in the 19th century: barring your perfect money management and zero outside shocks, foreign capital aims to ultimately control all your natural resources, capital and labor market for as long as possible. Hey, bey? Did you think they’d be glad you repaid your loan? Don’t you know that
By Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the upcoming ‘Socialism’s Ignored
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog Of course, developing countries were not hurt by the subprime crisis because they were not involved – the idiocy, usury, malfeasance and willful blindness which caused the subprime housing and banking crises were purely a Western invention. This is why in the first years after 2009 developing markets produced stable growth – remember in 2010 when Brazil had “arrived”? Those days seem long
By Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog (cross-posted with Press-TV) (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the
by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog I have spoken with many in France’s huge expatriate Lebanese community – and from all groups – and not a single person has ever claimed that Iran was the power behind the scenes in Lebanon. Without fail I was told that this title belongs to France. It shouldn’t be surprising: France completely devised modern Lebanon. Many Lebanese don’t like to be reminded of
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog Because they are so ensconsed in their little bubble and because they profit so much from maintaining the status quo, Western mainstream media pundits don’t – or perhaps can’t – admit how Quantitative Easing policies have so quickly and so radically changed the financial system of the West and their satellites. I imagine that most everyone reading this is already aware of what
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog It’s not that the West’s central bankers are infallible – the similarity is that they cannot be held accountable. After all – who can call God to account for His decisions? Like God, when things succeed it is They (central bankers) who deserve all the credit – when things fail it’s because we failed to properly follow Their policies. And like God, they
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog The Yellow Vests forced the French government to not present an austerity-laden annual budget for the first time in a decade. You should be saying, “Wow, that is a historic achievement.” Please be clear: this is joyous, uplifting, pro-democracy, once-in-a-decade good news! An end to austerity is why France elected Francois Hollande in 2012, whose slogan was, “The change is now” – the
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog It’s a question which needs be asked, but we can’t wait for the French media to answer it because they have almost totally stopped reporting on the anti-government movement for several months. The first poll on the Yellow Vests since late March (“!”, and then “?”) finally came out two weeks ago. It was so eagerly gobbled up by a French media hungry
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog September 21 (hello autumn) was the worst day of violence in Paris since May 1st. That day is best remembered for when “centrist” politicians and citizens were enraged that Yellow Vest/union/old lady demonstrators would dare to seek refuge in a hospital rather than stand there and get tear gassed prior to getting charged and beaten by cops. President Emmanuel Macron knew a black
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog (cross-posted with PressTV) There are many pieces of nonsense about Iran which are fervently believed in the West but which have zero credibility inside Iran. “Millionaire Mullahs” is a concept which has captivated the Western imagination, even though it has no basis in reality. The idea of “Millionaire Mullahs” was conceived in 2003 by the uber-capitalist magazine Forbes. What’s worse, it was created
by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog (cross-posted with PressTV by permission) (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea, and elsewhere. He is the author of “I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China.”) At a
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog Today I was flying back to New York from San Francisco on the “Job Creator’s Red Eye”, when I read a New York Times headline and sub-headline worthy of American feminism: “The Ridiculous Fantasy of a ‘No Drama’ Relationship: Online, that’s what men say they want from women. Do they know nothing about life?” It’s funny, because as I was reading this article
by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker blog (cross-posted with PressTV by permission) (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea, and elsewhere. He is the author of “I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China.”) Christine Lagarde
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog I’m not a huge Pink Floyd fan, but everyone else in the West apparently is – the album The Dark Side of the Moon spent 33 years (1,716 weeks) on the top-sellers charts. A lot of their early stuff is just noise, but they have enough of a blues foundation to get both really heavy and pretty funky often enough for such a
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog (cross-posted with PressTV by permission) (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for PressTV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of “I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China”.) Reza Pahlavi, the
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog cross posted by permission with PressTV (Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for PressTV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of “I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China”.) Last month
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog I am not at liberty to divulge my source, but since The New York Times has no problem mongering war based on anonymous sources, I have decided to release a leak I received: This is the unedited version of a recent column published by The New York Times which was written by a member of the ongoing anti-China protests in Hong Kong. The
