Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, Looting the Lives of the Poor Posted by Barbara Ehrenreich at 8:01am, May 17, 2012. Gordon Gekko, the infamously cutthroat capitalist and lead character in Oliver Stone‘s Wall Street, captured the heady years of the 1980s with a single, indelible line: Greed is good. Today, it is Edward Conard, a friend and [...]
Hedges: How Our Demented Capitalist System Made America Insane When civilizations start to die they go insane. Let the ice sheets in the Arctic melt. Let the temperatures rise. Let the air, soil and water be poisoned. Let the forests die. May 14, 2012 | Unfortunately for the author of this piece Marxism is still an [...]
(Image: City Lights Publishers) Capitalism Is Taboo in America Tuesday, 15 May 2012 10:45By Richard D Wolff, City Lights Publishers | Book Excerpt (Image: City Lights Publishers)Receive a copy of economist Richard D. Wolff‘s new collection of interviews with David Barsamian: “Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism.” This framework for further anti-corporate organizing is yours with a minimum donation of [...]
JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon called the mistakes ‘egregious’. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA It would be funny if it were not tragic. Here is a loss of $2 billion being described on the BBC as a tiny part of $300 billion in assets. Just think for a moment just what could be done with $3 [...]
Capitalism in the Second Decade of the 21st Century: From the “Golden” to the Dark Ages of Capitalism By James Petras May 09, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — The economic, political and social outlook for the second decade of the 21st century is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even [...]
Protests in Egypt last year toppled a regime which provided little for its people [Reuters] London, United Kingdom - In their recent book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson set out to do away with some of the myths that still bedevil development economics. In a wide-ranging historical [...]
Hungary: Revoke Law Criminalizing Homeless Fines, Imprisonment are Abusive and Counterproductive APRIL 16, 2012 RELATED MATERIALS: Hungary: Revoke Denial of Pride March Route Hungary’s Downward Slide on Rights Requires Stronger EU Action It defies logic to punish the poorest people in society just because they live on the streets. [...]
Debt Crisis Plotted to Deliver the Euro to the IMF? April 13, 2012The DestructionistLeave a commentGo to comments The Daily Bell Friday, April 13, 2012 Spanish bailout ‘impossible’ for eurozone, says prime minister Mariano Rajoy … The eurozone is not equipped to bail out Spain, the country’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy has admitted, as global traders [...]
Photo Credit: shutterstock Crisis to Suicide: How Many Have to Die Before We Kill the False Religion of Austerity? The rate of people taking their own lives is soaring in Europe at such a clip that the trend has given birth to a new media term: “Suicide by economic crisis.” April 16, 2012 | LIKE THIS [...]
(Image: Flickr by IronRodArt) Five Reasons Why The Very Rich Have NOT Earned Their Money by Paul Buchheit The wealthiest Americans believe they’ve earned their money through hard work and innovation, and that they’re the most productive members of society. For the most part they’re wrong. As the facts below will show, they’re not nearly [...]
Deborah James. (Photo: Other Worlds)”Rather than having these people inside the Beltway be the experts on the issue… we ask: How can we empower the people who are actually affected by the issues to be the spokespeople?” – Deborah James Rewriting the Rules of the Global Economy – Creating Economics That Improve People’s [...]
Electoral posters in Seville, Andalucia, March 2012. Brussels and international bond markets are becoming increasingly worried about Spain’s indebted regions. Photograph: Marcelo Del Pozo/REUTERS Further proof that austerity is just a word. What is really happening is that the so called global economy is just the same as any domestic economy. That is it is [...]
Photo Credit: shutterstock 3 Corporate Myths that Threaten the Wealth of the Nation It’s time to restore corporate power to the people by blasting through the myths about how corporations should be run, and for whom. April 5, 2012 | LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on [...]
Stock market panic selling led to shares falling across the world with the FTSE100 down 128 points. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian European stock markets rocked by panic selling as debt crisis reignites Investors demanding high premiums for holding Italian and Spanish bonds as fears of double-dip recession grow Heather Stewart, Larry Elliott and Giles Tremlett in Madrid [...]
The European Central Bank’s offices in Frankfurt. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP Portugal’s domestic banks tap ECB for record amounts of funding Bank of Portugal says domestic banks’ use of European Central Bank’s facilities rose to a record €56.3bn in March Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 April 2012 16.12 BST Article history The reliance of eurozone banks on [...]
“To Undo the Folded Lie” Resisting Palliatives in an Age of Oligarchic Excess and Anthropocene Age Devastation By Phil Rockstroh April 09, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — Wall Street is again flush with the electronic facsimile of the stuff once known as money. But this is a Botox Recovery: A superficial [...]
Gareth Evans, former attorney-general and foreign minister in Australia. Photo Credit: London School of Economics Library/Wikimedia Commons Despite being ‘idolised’ as some sort of peace advocate Gareth Evans was a long way from anything like that description. The Australian support for the murderer Suharto is a matter of national disgrace, the stealing or at least [...]
. Limits to Growth: 1972 ‘Collapse’ Prediction Still on Track – Common Dreams staff A renowned Australian research scientist has expressed concern over a possible “global economic collapse” that may occur in 2030 if humans fail to check expansion and preserve the world’s already diminishing resources Physicist Graham Turner says the 1972 MIT study [...]
Become a Fan (34 fans) — Page 1 of 2 page(s) opednews.com This article cross-posted from Consortium News Occupy protesters in a sit-down protest in solidarity with a general strike in Spain. (Photo from OccupyWallSt.org) By Phil Rockstroh (about the author) Although I have resided in New York City for many years, I was born in the Deep [...]
‘Big Government‘ Isn’t the Problem, Big Money Is By Robert Reich link http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30903.htm March 23, 2012 “The Nation” — Conservatives love to rail against “big government.” But the surge of cynicism engulfing the nation isn’t about government’s size. It flows from a growing perception that government doesn’t work for average people but [...]
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., holds up a copy of his budget plan entitled “The Path to Prosperity,” Tuesday, March 20, 2012, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press) Paul Ryan’s “Focus on Dignity” is a Spectacle of Greed and Cruelty by Greg Kaufmann “Promoting the natural [...]
Illustration by Victor Juhasz Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail The bank has defrauded everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed. So why does the government keep bailing it out? By MATT TAIBBI March 14, 2012 10:55 AM ET At least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail [...]
Ireland’s central bank governor, Patrick Honohan, is expected to ask for permission to delay a debt payment. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA Ireland ended last year in recession, according to figures released on Thursday, dealing a blow to the policy of economic austerity being forced on struggling eurozone countries by the European commission and the IMF. A dip [...]
Failure To Recover: The Banks Are Made of Marble, Wall Street’s Full of Crap by Abby Zimet Rep. Darrell Issa, who famously led a hearing on contraception that excluded the people – ie: women – affected, did it again in Brooklyn with a hearing on foreclosures that featured the testimony of bankers, but not homeowners, for which [...]
Photo Credit: Shutterstock How America‘s Obsession With Money Deadens Us In a society that worships “one market under God,” we are forced to be somewhat money-centric in order to survive. At what cost? March 18, 2012 | A preoccupation with money is nothing new in our culture, but have Americans become even more “money-centric,” and does [...]
Photo Credit: Shutterstock The Public Trial of Goldman Sachs The public reaction over this week’s Goldman Sachs revelations speaks volumes of the firm’s power and the public rage over its ethical lapses. March 14, 2012 | Goldman Sachs is having a bad PR moment. Very bad. And you can bet that the investment banking giant is [...]
Barbara Ehrenreich: How I Discovered the Truth About Poverty Prevailing attitudes towards poverty blame the victim. Here’s why that’s so wrong. March 15, 2012 The capitalist system lives and feeds on lies in order to convince people how it and the allied sham democratic system it associates with are good for them. Myth after myth [...]
A woman pushes a pram in front of graffiti in Porto announcing Thursday’s general strike in Portugal. Photograph: Jose Coelho/EPA Portuguese death rate rise linked to pain of austerity programme Portugal’s health service is being forced into sweeping cuts as last May’s EU/IMF bailout terms begin to bite Giles Tremlett in Lisbon guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 March 2012 [...]
Goldman Sachs: Making Money by Stealing It By Stephen Lendman - Posted on 17 March 2012 Goldman Sachs: Making Money by Stealing It by Stephen Lendman Money power in private hands and democracy can’t co-exist. Wall Street crooks transformed America into an unprecedented money making racket. Goldman symbolizes master of [...]
Corporate Malfeasance – And Why It Corrupts By John Perkins malfeasance n. intentionally doing something either legally or morally wrong which one had no right to do. It always involves dishonesty, illegality, or knowingly exceeding authority for improper reasons. Malfeasance – Synonyms: MISCONDUCT, MISBEHAVIOR, MISDOING, WRONGDOING http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malfeasance March 16, 2012 “Information Clearing [...]
Karl Marx argued that in any society, those in charge have the power to propagandise their worldview [GALLO/GETTY] New Haven, CT - Karl Marx never visited the United States, but he nevertheless understood the country, because he understood capitalism. As you know, there’s no American ideology that’s mightier than capitalism. Equality, justice and the rule of [...]
In the Middle of the Bank, Our House by Abby Zimet link to video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jUzMLu4K_2o As a prologue to a March 15 action against bank foreclosures, a crew of Occupiers movedinto a Bank of America lobby carting their couch, coffee table and potted plant. More. “Bank of America took our homes, so we thought we’d move in here.” Related articles [...]
The Widening Wealth Divide, and Why We Need a Surtax on the Super Wealthy by Robert Reich Let Santorum and Romney duke it out for who will cut taxes on the wealthy the most and shred the public services everyone else depends on. The rest of us ought to be having [...]
The Financial Crisis as A Global CrimeBy Danny Schechter March 12, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — Journalists for the most part report what they know and hope that someone pays attention. With so many media outlets, brands, bloggers and sloggers out there, it is rare for challenging ideas to touch a [...]
During the 1990s, the IMF used a ‘one-size-fits-all’ plan for countries in economic crisis [GALLO/GETTY] Boston, MA - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) started operations 65 years ago this month. The global financial crisis has triggered some constructive new thinking and policy at the IMF – though the institution has continued some of its more concerning policies as [...]
All class states are born in generic despotism and corruption Submitted by Socialchange on Sat, 03/10/2012 – 9:51am. The history of class civilizations and class Empire is based on the inverted totalitarian principle, Orwellian despotic principle, where class tyranny is cloaked as fake social unity, Paternalism, that degenerates over time, from class republics [...]
Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine Nightmare and insanity are akin: mysterious and involuntary states that skew and distort objective reality. One wakens from nightmare; from insanity there is no awakening. Whether Americans live in the one state or the other is the paramount question of [...]
Beware The ‘Student Debt Bomb’, says New Report – Common Dreams staff The amount of student borrowing crossed the $100 billion threshold for the first time in 2010 and total outstanding loans exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2011, according to a new report. The report titled, The Student Loan “Debt Bomb”: [...]
Photo Credit: ShutterStock.com Why the American Empire Was Destined to Collapse Author and social critic Morris Berman says the fact that we’re a nation of hustlers lies at the root of our decline. March 7, 2012 | Several years after the Wall Street-ignited crisis began, the nation’s top bank CEOs (who far out-accumulated their [...]
How often do you see the word “intervention’ these days. It must be almost daily and always seems to refer to something being done by one country to ‘help’ another. In practice it is far more motivated by by advantage than any sense of charity or assistance. First you [...]
In the United Kingdom, organised labour groups boast over six million members [EPA] London, United Kingdom - Organised labour is by far the biggest social movement in Britain, with more than six million members. But, as the author and journalist Owen Jones noted last week, “the political and media establishment treat them as though they have [...]
Polls show Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande far ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy [GALLO/GETTY] It would be at least interesting to see Emperor Sarkozy and Fourth Reich Disciplinarian together with Lagarde depart for other pastures. All three see the European solution as one of strangling the working person, raiding their general fund and then the final [...]
Another Obama Fleecing The Foreclosure-to-Rental Boondoggle by MIKE WHITNEY “The national housing market took a hit in the latter half of 2011, falling to new lows not seen since the housing crisis began six years ago, according to data out Tuesday by S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices……The index is down 33.6 percent from its peak in mid-2006.” – Washington [...]
What’s Really Pushing Up the Price of Gas? by MIKE WHITNEY Is the Fed’s “Easy Money” policy pushing up the price of gas? The editors of the Wall Street Journal seem to think so. Here’s how they summed it up in an article last week: “Oil is traded in dollars, and its price [...]
Students and riot police clash during education protest in Barcelona. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images Now remember girls and boys just because we stuffed up does not mean you can think about it and run amok. Remember while we were stuffing up we built easily enough gaols for all you radical, heathen commie lot. By the [...]
Corseted Minds: Does Fear of Irrelevance Send Conservative Men Fleeing to the Victorian Age? If you focus on the utilitarian value of human beings, you may find yourself at some point nervously glancing in the mirror. February 28, 2012 | In the last 50 years, American women have finally been able to reliably earn a living, [...]
Just Say No To Corporate Greed: The Case Of Iceland By Ellen Russell February 28, 2012 “Rabble” – – Capitalism is looking pretty mean these days. No amount of profit is enough, and no level of collateral damage to get that profit is unreasonable. And when capitalism on steroids runs amok, [...]
Our Very Own Oscar Night in Rimini By Michael HudsonFebruary 27, 2011 “Counterpunch” — I have just returned from Rimini, Italy, where I experienced one of the most amazing spectacles of my academic life. Four of us associated with the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) were invited to lecture for three days on Modern Monetary [...]
Domestic duties: The use of unemployed people as cleaners supplied by a government contractor has been uncovered by the Guardian through a freedom of information request. Photograph: Rex Features/Frederic Sierakowski Jobseekers forced to clean private homes and offices for nothing Concern over unpaid workers taking overtime from staff as some placements last more than a [...]
AFP photo It can not be stressed enough that the Greek bailout is really about getting present investors some return on their money. It is not a loan to tide over the Greek economy while they look to carry on helping their own people. The ultimate price to be paid is for Greeks to become [...]
