Banking

(Inequality.org) – America’s dirtiest three-letter word may now be “CEO,” and our ongoing economic meltdown is only making that tag even dirtier. Chef executives the nation over have spent this past spring scheming to keep their pockets stuffed while their workers suffer wage cuts, layoffs, and even death by Covid-19. Not all CEOs, of course. […]

Banking

Once the “Paris of the Middle East,” Lebanon’s Financial and Health Crises are Tearing it Apart

Jamal Dillman-Hasso

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Lebanon may have survived its bubbles and wars decades ago, but the combination of economic crisis and the coronavirus may have put it in a serious position once again. During the pandemic, Lebanon’s once-vibrant tourist industry is moribund (some two million visited the country of four million in 2019), and […]

Banking

The Great Depression, Coronavirus Style: Crashes, Then and Now

Nomi Prins

(Tomdispatch.com) – Many economists believe that a recession is already underway. So do millions of Americans struggling with bills and job losses. While the ghosts of the 2008 financial crisis that sent inequality soaring to new heights in this country are still with us, it’s become abundantly clear that the economic disaster brought on by […]

Banking

Is Mitch McConnell Blocking further Congressional Aid to States on Behalf of Vulture Funds and Corporations with Impunity?

John Buell

Has the Senate Majority Leader lost his faith in the wisdom and predictability of markets? Crude partisanship may underlie his reluctance to enact further Covid Depression relief assistance, but the reason given was extraordinary. The Senator professed a desire to wait for the effects of the first relief package to become apparent. “I think we […]

Banking

When Renters and Homeowners and Small Businesses need a Bailout, the Fed gives it to Big Corporations

Tomdispatch

By Nomi Prins | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – To say that these are unprecedented times would be the understatement of the century. Even as the United States became the latest target of Hurricane COVID-19, in “hot spots” around the globe a continuing frenzy of health concerns represented yet another drop down the economic rabbit […]

Banking

The US Tax System is a vast Ponzi Scheme that only Benefits the Wealthy

F. Douglas Stephenson

( Gainesville Sun ) – There are no easy answers to financing U.S. health insurance, mental health care, social services, public health and other services for nearly 330 million individuals. The USA is a very large country and financing services must be tailored to this reality. Accordingly, funding government programs requires us to muster the […]

Banking

What’s the Point of Bailing out Hurting CEOs if they Just use Funds to Buy Back Stock & Feather their Nests?

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Occasionally President Trump likes to play defender of the common man. The frequent attacks on NAFTA and the promise to replace it with a better trade deal are one instance. Recently the effort to build a bipartisan stimulus response to the deepening economic losses occasioned by the […]

Banking

Bernie Sanders and the Poor Little Rich Boys: Why Billionaire Financiers are Bullying the Democratic Party

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Quiet concerns about a possible Sanders victory became a loud and agitated freakout after the Senator’s resounding victory in Nevada. The anguish came from the financial hub of the centrist Democratic establishment. In an incoherent rant, for which he later apologized, Chris Matthews drew a confused and […]

Banking

Is the Fed’s Agenda a Threat to Trump’s Reelection?

John Buell

(Special to Informed Comment) – President Trump recently reported on another one of those perfect conversations. Jerome Powell and he purportedly talked about interest rates and the importance of keeping them low to maintain a booming economy. Powell of course reported on no such conversation. In any case, however, the imagined conversation highlighted such issues […]