Inequality

By Nomi Prins | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Sometimes things only make sense when seen through a magnifying lens. As it happens, I’m thinking about reality, the very American and global reality clearly repeating itself as 2021 begins. We all know, of course, that we’re living through a once-in-a-century-style pandemic; that millions of people […]

Donald Trump

Biden to invoke Defense Production Act for Vaccine manufacture. Trump? Playing Golf at Mar-a-Lago

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Will Feuer at CNBC reports that Joe Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up the manufacture of more doses of the coronavirus vaccine. You may ask yourself, why has this not already been done? Trump said on December 9 that he “might” invoke the Korea War-era act, […]

African-Americans

How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men

ProPublica

By Akilah Johnson and Nina Martin | – ( ProPublica ) – The Rev. Dr. Kejuane Artez Bates was a big man with big responsibilities. The arrival of the novel coronavirus in Vidalia, Louisiana, was another burden on a body already breaking under the load. Bates was in his 10th year with the Vidalia Police […]

Debt

Austerity Terrors: Congress Stimulus Package Finally Passes – but it is Too Little, Too Late

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – 900 billion dollars is a big amount, Apparently one trillion is a whole order of magnitude greater. Or at least the number is so terrifying that politicians bend heaven and earth to avoid being connected with trillion dollar expenditures. And this allergic reaction is bipartisan. In the […]

Donald Trump

Pandemic Failure, Vaccine Success Indict American Monopoly Capitalism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The contrast between the unprecedented failure of the United States to deal successfully with the coronavirus pandemic, and the success of pharmaceutical companies in coming up with effective vaccines in record time is bittersweet. The reason for the difference is that no one could make any money on mitigating the […]

Employment

A Tsunami of Evictions: Pandemic Housing Markets are about to be hammered, even Middle Class is Endangered

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Twelve million unemployed people are set to lose all their benefits at the end of December. And about 19 million people are currently unable to pay their rent, with the CDC’s moratorium on evictions set to expire on New Year’s Day. Mainstream media persist in speaking of […]

Debt

The Great American Moonshot: Now we Need a Vaccine for Poverty, Inequality and Racism

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Martin Luther King, Jr., offered this all-too-relevant comment on his moment in his 1967 speech “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”: “The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the […]

Inequality

McConnell was holding up Stimulus over Shielding Businesses from Coronavirus Liability — A Very Bad Idea

The Conversation

By Timothy D. Lytton | – Congress may be close to a deal on another coronavirus bailout, but Senate Republican demands for liability protections for businesses remain a major obstacle. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has long warned of an “avalanche” of lawsuits that will stymie economic recovery efforts if Congress does not grant companies […]

Donald Trump

Where’s the Second Relief Act? The US Safety Net is working, but there are Capitalists who don’t Want it to

John Buell

Why can’t our political leaders learn to live with success? In an era marked by cynicism about politics both parties managed to enact an initial COVID-19 relief package that if anything exceeded expectations. Last June Jason DeParle, summarized academic research on this act by quoting Columbia University’s Zachary Parolin: “Right now, the safety net is […]