Neoliberalism

American Nervous Breakdown: Super-Spreader Trump and His Deranged Cult Infect Us All with their Toxic Lunacy

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – While the plague rages, the economy crashes, and millions of jobless Americans just lost unemployment benefits, President Trump and his slavish cult descend further into madness. Their mental aberrations are acted out as reactionary behavior that embraces racism, fascism, the confederacy, and a delusionary denial of the pandemic. As […]

Employment

Political Suicide: GOP Senators holding up Stimulus are Retarding Recovery in Election Year

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Be thankful for small favors. When the Covid-19 depression hit like a brick, almost no one advocated austerity as a cure. For the first time since Richard Nixon proclaimed that we are all Keynesians, budget deficits and a burgeoning national debt were accepted as crucial to mitigate […]

Donald Trump

How Trump broke America: Economy plummets historic 33%, Covid Deaths at 1500/ day, and 40 mn could lose Homes

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s refusal last winter to pull out all the stops to mount an effective national coronavirus response has broken the legs of America. On Wednesday, over 1500 coronavirus deaths were reported nationwide, a tally not seen since May. Over 150,000 Americans have died of the disease, and the prospect is […]

Epidemics

Taxpayers are Funding Coronavirus Vaccines, but Big Pharma will Profit

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The business press is full of stories about the race for a Covid—19 vaccine. The corporations that succeed in cracking the biological mystery stand to make billions, and the success of the vaccine will likely “open up” the economy. What receives less attention, however, is the question […]

Employment

Amid Pandemic and BLM Protests, Why Minimum Wage Must be Defended and Expanded

John Buell

You can’t fault them for lack of effort. Having lost a series of political, legislative, and legal battles to defeat minimum wage increases in cities and states all across the nation, business lobbies are turning to an innovative strategy.. Covid-19 leaves businesses so burdened as to be unable to meet the costs entailed by a […]

Banking

Also, Defund the CEOs

Sam Pizzigati

(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. […]

Democratic Socialism

What Corporations Fear: Best Recovery from Covid-19 Depression is Universal Income and Federal School Funding

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – I am betting that before November 2020 Congress will pass and the President will sign another major relief package. More interesting will be the debate on the measure. That debate already says a lot about the underlying anxieties that grip both parties and their aspirations for the […]

Employment

Organizing the Rich or the Poor? Which America Will Be Ours After the Pandemic?

Tomdispatch

By Liz Theoharis | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – In the summer of 1995, when I was 18, I started visiting Tent City, a temporary encampment in an abandoned lot in northeast Philadelphia. About 40 families had taken up residence in tents, shacks, and other makeshift structures. Among them were people of various races, ages, […]

Epidemics

Ever Spiralling Inequality in America, not Trump, Caused our Crisis; but He’s making it Worse

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Class of 2020, wherever you are, I had planned to address you on this graduation day. But how can I? Yes, I know that former President Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Tom Hanks all took part in elaborate online graduation ceremonies, offering commentary, advice, and encouragement in our now campus-less world, but […]