It’s been about a week since Istanbul’s Taksim Square rose up, and the “Occupy Gezi” movement has since exploded across several Turkish cities, taking various forms: environmentalist sit-in, pro-democracy rally, street festival, and urban riot. [Last] week, it went on strike. Several unions are leading a work stoppage affecting some 240,000 workers. What shape the movement will take next is an open question.

Everyone’s favorite agribusiness monopoly is having problems in Europe. Unlike in America where the company can bribe its way to legal immunity Europe has something America had many years ago – the rule of law and democratic accountability. Unfortunately for Monsanto this means when farmers and consumers object to more frankenfood they have to give up, at least for now.

France and eight other countries, including the United States, are escalating an intervention in the African country of Mali. The offensive, according to French authorities, is being mounted to target Islamic extremists or al Qaeda-linked rebels who have “grabbed more territory in Mali, inching closer to the capital.”

The European and U.S. problem is not only the year-after-year reality of high unemployment and slow or negative growth, it’s that results be damned most of us ‘still’ believe in austerity. The masters have reason to believe and even love austerity, because they get rich off moving wealth from the middle to the top, but dammit most of us chumps believe too

Markets in Italy are freaking out today, mainly because of the pronouncement of one man, Silvio Berlusconi. The former Prime Minister plans to run for office yet another time, and Mario Monti, the current caretaker leader, has resigned, setting up new elections probably in February.

While debating how much austerity outside of the magic no-budgetary-impact spending on the Pentagonto enact, the United States could take a lesson from, well, from the rest of the developed world. The relative lack of austerity in the US compared to Britain and the rest of Europe led to better economic performance (and it’s important to say “relative,” because US fiscal policy turned negative for growth at the federal level in 2010, and at the state and local level it’s been full-speed ahead for austerity since 2008).

Greece’s international creditors have delivered a minor lifeline to the ruined country, extending the deadline for when they must meet EU budget targets by two years. However, at the same time, the Eurozone finance ministers delayed the releast of a new tranche of bailout funds from Greece, worth 31.5 billion euro.

The EU wrapped up its summit, and the major policy announcement was an agreement for a single Eurozone bank regulator, a step on the road to common depository insurance. This is a couple years off, and leaders announced that no country would be able to get bailout funds for its banks until the regulator was in place, which could pressure Spain into tapping that bailout fund for its government operations, if they’re on the hook for rescuing their own banks in the near term. In addition, Germany and France appear divided over the next steps on fiscal integration, with Germany emphasizing budget discipline and France warning against recession.

Well, look who may be putting an end to Germany’s austerity fantasies.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 has been awarded to the European Union, in what the Nobel Committee describes as a kind of lifetime achievement award for keeping Europe mostly out of war with one another since 1945.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 is to be awarded to the European Union (EU). The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.”