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On the morning of 5 July 1948, a new era in British history began. At hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ surgeries across the country, the National Health Service (NHS) opened its doors for the first time. It was not the first universal healthcare system in the world—Germany’s compulsory insurance dated back to the 1880s, the Soviet Union had state provision, and New Zealand’s Social Security Act of 1938 had already taken major steps toward universal coverage. But the NHS was the first comprehensive, universal, tax-funded system free at the point of use on a national scale.
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Piers Blofeld’s book, Master of Lies, reexamines Anthony Blunt’s role as a prominent Cambridge spy, revealing his significant impact on the Cold War. Contrary to perceptions of Blunt as a minor figure, he was a master of disinformation whose actions resulted in substantial Allied casualties and shaped post-war Europe.
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Five prime ministers in eight years. Six chancellors. Four Conservative leaders, a Labour landslide that felt less like a dawn than a pause, and now Keir Starmer, standing in the Downing Street rose garden, speaking of “national renewal” in the same syntax as a man trying to soothe a burns victim with a damp flannel
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The Neocons Admit Defeat – How Robert Kagan’s Atlantic Article Marks the End of the American Century Robert Kagan, a leading architect of the Project for a New American Century, has declared that the Iran war is a catastrophe and that America has effectively lost. What does it mean when the hawks themselves give up? What does it mean for a project of US imperialism when the people who designed that project publicly declare that it has failed? It means two things. Firstly, curtains for the project in question. Secondly, the prospects for American empire are now extremely grim –…
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On December 16, 2008, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) did something it had never done before. It cut the federal funds rate—the benchmark interest rate that influences all other borrowing costs in the American economy—to a range of 0 to 0.25% . For all practical purposes, the Fed had pushed rates to zero. The central bank had reached the “zero lower bound,” the point at which conventional monetary policy could not push rates any lower. But the economy was still in free fall. Unemployment was rising. Banks were not lending. The housing market was collapsing. The Fed had used…
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The Great Recession of 2007-2009 was a financial and economic upheaval unlike any other, with stock market crashes wiping out $16 trillion in household wealth. Job losses soared, with 8.7 million Americans unemployed between 2007 and 2009, creating a prolonged labor market crisis.
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The 2008 financial crisis was a global catastrophe, beginning with Lehman Brothers’ collapse and rapidly spreading across the globe. European banks were heavily exposed to US subprime mortgages, leading to a domino effect that triggered nationalizations and collapses in countries like Iceland and the UK. The crisis shattered global trade, industrial production, and economies worldwide, highlighting the interconnectedness of financial systems.
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It has become common in the UK to talk about austerity as if it is a thing of the past – something that happened between 2010 and 2024, now supposedly over. This is completely wide of the mark. The Labour government has made some token inroads into rolling back austerity. The vote to end the two‑child benefit cap – a policy that punished poor families for having more than two children – is one example. And as the Green Party has surged on the left, Labour has suddenly realised that doing some vaguely socially democratic things might be an idea…
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The September 2008 meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was a turning point as leaders decided against bailing out Lehman Brothers, setting off a chain reaction in the financial crisis.
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Warren Buffett’s 2003 warning about derivatives as ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’ was ignored as they fueled a complex and lucrative financial system. By 2007, the $596 trillion OTC derivatives market was dominated by CDS, with AIG’s risky $527 billion exposure leading to a 2008 collapse.