The inflation debate and The inflation conundrum (tags)
If inflation is the result of a distributional conflict, it can be deliberately stopped by governments. Governments could skim off the higher profits through a tax in order to subsidize energy costs for consumers. Governments could also raise taxes (on the rich).
In the Trap of NATO and The Collapse of US Hegemony (tags)
Even before the outbreak of the global Covid pandemic, it was widely recognized that U.S. hegemony was in irreversible decline. In August 2021, the Taliban captured Kabul as U.S. forces withdrew. Only about six months later, war broke out between Russia and Ukraine.
Top Economist: As Pandemic Recedes, a Chance to Rethink Unemployment (tags)
The Chamber of Commerce, for example, has pushed the U.S. to stop expanded unemployment insurance benefits so that people will be forced to return to low-wage jobs. Some Republican-dominated states have jumped on board with this idea.
Is the Financial Crash 2.0 Coming? (tags)
Market ideology has been on the advance since the 1980s. Only a few voices warned of the risks and instability of the liberalized financial markets. After they profited from the generous bailout packages, the banks began to speculate against the most indebted countries.
Growing Inequality Harms the Political Economy (tags)
Neoliberalism and finance market capitalism encourage creating money out of thin air, exploding inequality, precarious work and environmental destruction. Wages are not only a cost factor but an important demand factor leading to either investments or social blight.
Philippines' Bernie Sanders: A Conversation with Walden Bello (tags)
Without a doubt, Sanders has captured the imagination of people, especially the millennials, around the world.
Bernie Sanders' Socialist America (tags)
Bernie believes there has been a corporate takeover of American democracy, and this is where he returns to the idea of political revolution. In nearly every speech he makes this clarion call, ...neither he nor any other politician can make the necessary changes alone.
Economic Crises as Sicknesses and Catastrophes (tags)
The 2008 financial crisis is often wrongly described as a "state debt crisis" where cause and effect are inverted and economists and the market are released from responsibility. Sickness and catastrophe metaphors dominate discussion
Capitalism is the Problem (tags)
Prosperity in large part is based on the ecological and social exploitation of poor countries in Africa and Asia. Today 20% of humanity consume 80% of global resources. The poor are played off against each other while the richest hide billions in tax havens.
$1.5 Quadrillion Time Bomb (tags)
finance
Austerity Urbanism, 28 pp (tags)
Without the social contract (Roussieu), we become wolves to each other (Hobbes).
Hypocritical and Hippocratic Economic Policy in Europe (tags)
The crisis is multilayered-a bank crisis, a crisis of wealth distribution and a misallocation of capital between long-term real investments and virtual financial investments.. The frugal Schwabian housewife is not a suitable model.
Our Triple Jobs Problem (tags)
First, even as unemployment has inched down, the economy has created barely enough jobs to match population growth. Second, this enormous labor-market “slack” has stifled workers’ bargaining power and kept wages low. Third, policies over 30 years have undermined workers
Corporate Taxes in America (tags)
taxes
Bracing for An Eventual Day of Reckoning (tags)
markets
A Big Victory For Oregon’s Biggest Union (tags)
After years of painful backsliding, the state workers of Oregon’s largest union, SEIU 503, recently stood firm and scored a big win in their contract negotiations against the state’s anti-union Democratic governor, John Kitzhaber.
Obama's Way: Waging Financial War on Humanity (tags)
Obama
VIDEO: Durviving the New American Economy, 56min (tags)
Bill Moyers interviewed two Milwaukee families struggling against a downhill economy in a changing city. Deindustrialization isn't a law of nature like falling rain but a political decision. After deindustrialization, state jobs were a way to middle class life.
Quantitative Crisis: Bernanke’s “Stimulus” For The 1% (tags)
When I heard that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last week that it was too soon for the Fed to end its extraordinary stimulus programs, I did a double take.
Opposition Grows Fierce to Austerity Cuts in Portland (tags)
On April 11 over 400 people packed the third public Portland Budget Hearing, which was organized by the City of Portland and which left many spilling out beyond the room where the hearing took place. More importantly, for the City Council there was an unexpected critical outpouring from the vast majority who attended. For the first time, the City Council and Mayor Charlie Hales began to lose control over their attempts to sell austerity.
Detroit Citizen’s Prepare to Fight Their Corporate Master (tags)
Fresh from shoving his “Right to Work for Less” legislation down the throats of Michigan’s workers, Governor Rick Snyder has grown bolder in pursuing a corporate agenda. He has now appointed Kevyn Orr of Jones Day law firm to act as an Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) of Detroit.
Back to Full Employment (tags)
Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is co-author of A Measure of Fairness.
More Austerity Cuts Coming to the States (tags)
The Great Recession has quietly devastated public services on a state-by-state basis, with Republican and Democratic governors taking turns leading the charge. Public education has been decimated, as well as health care, welfare, and the wages and benefits of public sector workers. The public sector itself is being smashed. Since the recession began, states have made combined austerity cuts of at least $337 billion, according to the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities
U.S. Cannot Tell Iran to Abandon its Nuclear Program (tags)
Interview conducted by Iranian journalist Kourosh Ziabari with Mark Vorpahl
Austerity — the 1%’s Global Battle Cry (tags)
Whether we are left with the Fiscal Cliff or a Grand Bargain, workers in the U.S. face massive cuts to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance, Food Stamp assistance and other needed social safety nets. This is an example of “austerity” which has largely been pursued in the U.S. until now, on a statewide and local level.
Why Chavez Won BIG! A Comparison Between the Presidential Elections in the U.S. and Venezu (tags)
U.S. workers and those who are unemployed are frequently told that the current presidential elections are among the most important in this country’s history. With continuing high unemployment and underemployment, declining wages, and looming massive cuts to social programs that help workers, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, we are at a grave point regarding the direction of this country. However, the policies of both presidential candidates and their parties have perpetuated the devastating effects of the Great Recession for workers. Wall Street, the banks, the corporations, and the wealthy have been the beneficiaries of these policies while the only thing workers have received has been more sacrifices.
class war
On Friday, July 6, President Obama signed into law a bill that would renew transportation programs and extend low interest rates on student loans for one year. While this minimal gesture resulted in, no doubt, sighs of relief from those burdened by student debt, tucked away within the bill's pages was a little-noticed proposal to further erode the funding of workers' pensions. The bill was a brilliant sleight of hand where what it appeared to be giving with one hand distracted the public from what it was taking away with the other.
BTL:Congress Targets Food Stamp Program for Deep Cuts (tags)
Interview with Ellen Vollinger, food stamp/legal director with Food Research and Action Center, conducted by Scott Harris
Scoundrel Media Support for Obama (tags)
Obama
America's Great Divide Between Rich and Poor (tags)
class war
Grim 2012 Economic Outlook (tags)
class war
100 Mayors Oppose Keystone XL Pipeline (tags)
20% of the earth's people are using up 80% of the earth's resources. Time for resource-sparing lifestyles and work sharing! Will the US make the transition from empire to republic and from excess to access? Like capitalism, the Keystone XL pipeline is full of contradictions.
BTL:North Dakota's State-Owned Bank a Viable Alternative Model to For-profit Banking Syste (tags)
Interview with Ellen Brown, president of the Public Banking Institute, conducted by Scott Harris
Occupation Date Set for October 1 (tags)
This is an excerpt from the linked article at LA Activist.
The Labor Movement in Portland, Oregon, Takes a Step Forward (tags)
On only the second sunny weekend of the year in Portland, Oregon, 60 plus labor activists decided to spend their Saturday at the Electricians union hall (IBEW Local 48), at the United Labor Strategy Meeting ? an event unlike any other happening in the country. What made the meeting unique was both its perspective and the diversity of unions that participated.
Working America's Dismal State (tags)
depression
Tax Day Protests on April 18th! (tags)
Several groups are planning different Tax Day (April 18th) protests against austerity, tax loopholes for the rich, and the banksters.
An Expansion of Terms Used in the Coffee Party Article by RP (tags)
I apologize for the weak structure in this article. I was hoping to write something that explained some of the material in the story, but ended up going a bit afield with the information. This article attempts to be neutral and nonpartisan, or at least not shrill, and avoids too much analysis. The nature of the Great Recession is difficult to sum up in a few pages, because it's a failure of a complex system with many parts, and many related behaviors, that led to the near-collapse of capitalism.
The UK's Progressive Tea Party (tags)
In the UK, the Great Recession inspired ordinary people to take on corporate tax evaders-with enormous success. Can the same model work in the U.S.?
Economists Rediscover the Distrribution Question (tags)
Higher taxes for the rich-traditionally a horror to liberal economists-appear in a new light as state transfers to poorer sectors. Those richer than 95% pocket around 20% of the total income. It was less than half as much at the end of the 70s.
IMF Working Paper: "Inequality, Leverage and Crises" (tags)
"A financial crisis can reduce leverage if it is very large and not accompanied by a real contraction. But restoration of the lower income group's bargaining power is more effective."
Waging War on American Workers (tags)
targeting the middle class
The Attack of Corporations and the Rich on the Rest of Society (tags)
In the last decades, wealth has concentrated in a few hands. The increasing inequality does not offend us; this inequality is the result of an active policy. The rich prevail; they are subsidized and relieved from contributions to the social infrastructure while social benefits are cut.
Who's Behind the Deficit Crisis (tags)
From the U.S. to Europe media and politicians are singing the same tune: "budget deficits must be drastically reduced -- by cutting social programs -- so that global bond investors do not threaten the economy." Not since the "war on terror" was announced has government policy been so shrouded in confusion and unanswered questions. In the same way we are not to ask how U.S. foreign policy has angered millions in the Middle East, we must remain equally silent about questioning the recent history behind the current "deficit crisis.”
The Bi-Partisan Attack on Public Workers (tags)
States everywhere across the United States are facing the common enemy of extreme budget deficits. Many states have deficits in the multi-billion dollar realm, as the budget crises dominate the debates for the upcoming gubernatorial elections. In these debates, Republican and Democratic candidates are finding it difficult to disagree on the most essential issues around the budget crises. The most crucial question for any incoming governor must be: how will you resolve the state’s budget crisis? The answer from both parties is a resounding: “Public workers and those who depend on their services will pay for the crisis”!
U.S. Election 2012: Stewart Alexander Says Ben Bernanke Should Resign (tags)
U.S. Socialist Stewart Alexander says, “Bernanke’s speech and response to the U.S. economic crisis has revealed that Chairman Bernanke has failed in his responsibility to the nation and should resign. While providing future guarantees to Wall Street, Bernanke’s message only provided optimistic illusions for the tens of millions of working people that are struggling nationwide.”
If the U.S. economy eventually recovers and current trends continue, U.S. workers won’t be celebrating in the streets. The corporate establishment has made it clear that a “strong recovery” depends on U.S. workers making “great sacrifices” in the areas of wages, health care, pensions, and more ominously, reductions in so-called “entitlement programs” — Social Security, Medicare, and other social services. These plans have been discussed at length in corporate think tanks for years, and only recently has the mainstream media begun a coordinated attack to convince American workers of the “necessity” of adopting these policies. The New York Times speaks for the corporate establishment as a whole when it writes:
Lost Youth Employment in Illinois (tags)
an entire youth generation is being trashed
The death of macho: The era of male dominance is over (tags)
The most enduring legacy of the Great Recession will not be the death of Wall Street. It will not be the death of finance. And it will not be the death of capitalism. These ideas and institutions will live on. What will not survive is macho.
A new leaflet being passed out in Seattle. Spread the word about Obama's REAL ideas about immigration reform while building the movement for full rights for all immigrants, now. And wherever you are, march on May Day, the fighting holiday of the world's workers.
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution (tags)
"In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you."
The Democrats are Coming After Social Security (tags)
It’s official: the Democrats are coming after Social Security and Medicare. How refreshing that all the backroom scheming and political conspiring is finally out in the open. Before, the corporate elite had been having this conversation in private, via right-wing think tanks and business journals. Now, mainstream media is promoting these ideas, including the Democrat’s media mouthpiece — The New York Times. In a three-page editorial, entitled The Truth about the Deficit, The New York Times gives its solution to the country’s debt problems. The main idea is summed up here:
Will Our 'Green Jobs' Dollars Help a Ritzy Car Company Open a Toxic Manufacturing Plant? (tags)
Tesla Motors Inc. is planning to build a "green" electric auto at a toxic dump site at Downey, CA. It has received $465 million from the DOE to build this non-union auto assembly plant where injured IATSE 44 movie workers and SEIU UHW Kaiser workers have been sickened.
End the Fed? Or End the Market Economy? (tags)
When Republican Congressman Ron Paul recently introduced legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, diverse sections of the political spectrum applauded. And rightfully so. The Fed’s role in the still-developing bank bailouts is one of utter secrecy; the total cost of which — as estimated by the bailout’s Special Inspector General, Neil Barofsky — could cost taxpayers $23.7 trillion. The fact that legislation needed to be introduced to raise the question of the whereabouts of these funds points to a larger breakdown in U.S. democracy.
New Study Shows Ten States Face Fiscal Crisis (tags)
Crises in states worsen
What Obama Isn't Telling American Workers (tags)
A lot is happening in the tumultuous realm of global economics. The “Great Recession” has caused tectonic shifts internationally, with outcomes that will dramatically change the lives of millions of people in the U.S. and beyond. And while Obama is acknowledging this fact with repeated references to “a new world order,” he isn’t explaining how this adversely affects working-class Americans.
California Showing No Signs of Economic Recovery (tags)
It is important to note that most of California’s economic woes have less to do with the national recession; California has a leadership problem in Sacramento. Under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger, California’s economy has been suffering a continuous decline. Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature have led California into a sea of red ink and have protected special interested groups over the public’s interest.