Economy

By Charlie Simmons | – ( Otherwords.org) – Last year, the biggest fossil fuel companies paid zero dollars in taxes — and actually received billions in rebates. By Charlie Simmons | October 16, 2019 Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who sparked student protests across the globe, had this to tell the UN General […]

Health

In the Billionaires’ America, Inequality Is Literally Killing Us

Sam Pizzigati

( Otherwords.org) – Again and again, studies show that the richer wealthy Americans become, the shorter the rest of us live. What do the folks at the U.S. Census Bureau do between the census they run every 10 years? All sorts of annual surveys, on everything from housing costs to retail sales. The most depressing […]

Climate Change

Could Climate Crisis’ Extreme Weather Threaten American Prosperity?

The Conversation

By Gary W. Yohe | – Scientists say climate change is causing powerful hurricanes like Dorian to increasingly stall over coastal areas, which leads to heavy flooding. Officials in the Bahamas feared “unprecedented” devastation after Dorian hovered over the islands for two days, pummeling it with rain. But beyond more intense and slow-moving hurricanes, the […]

Featured

On Labor Day, US Workers are 1/3 poorer than in 2003 & Top 1% is 2x Richer

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Labor Day, American workers have little to celebrate. That’s alright. The September Labor Day, while initially proposed by some workers in the 1880s, was backed by conservative President Grover Cleveland over May 1, which he associated with radicalism (i.e. with workers who would demand their rights). So it really […]

Investment

Trump’s Economic Sanctions: War by Another Name

H. Patricia Hynes

(Informed Comment) – In early 2019, the White House threatened to invade Venezuela, take down the government and replace it with their choice of president and political party. Though no missiles have been fired and no bombs dropped on the country, our government is waging a war by other means, namely criminal economic sanctions, to […]

China

China: How the Republican Imperial Presidency Led to Trump’s Trade National Socialism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump has put US companies on alert that he might force them to withdraw from China, where they have $256 billion invested. He says he is given this power by the 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. The Republican Party has spent over a century […]

Banking

‘Slowbalization’: Is the Slowing Global Economy a Boon or Bane?

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – Some economists worry the world has passed “peak globalization.” But that could be good for the planet. By John Feffer, August 14, 2019. Print South Korea is now a rule-abiding participant in the global economy. If North Korea traded its nuclear weapons program for a peace treaty, security guarantees, […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Conspiracy Theories Hide the Real Plot, of Corporations against our Health

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump came to power in part because of weird conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, and he is still at it. This pollution of our information system with ridiculous charges against the Clintons, or the Obamas, or any number of other bêtes noires, is a form of misdirection, a technique used […]

Donald Trump

Racist Billionaires, Patriotic Socialists, Climate Emergency and the Fate of America

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – As I turn 75, there’s no simpler way to put it than this: I’m an old man on a new planet — and, in case it isn’t instantly obvious, that’s not good news on either score. I still have a memory of being a camp counselor in upstate New York more […]