Economy

By Tom Engelhardt | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – The one thing you could say about empires is that, at or near their height, they have always represented a principle of order as well as domination. So here’s the confounding thing about the American version of empire in the years when this country was often […]

Investment

If he wins: The Coming Trump Market Crash and Great Recession

contributors

By Simon Johnson | (Project Syndicate) | – – WASHINGTON, DC – With the United States’ presidential election on November 8, and a series of elections and other political decisions fast approaching in Europe, now is a good time to ask whether the global economy is in good enough shape to withstand another major negative […]

Banking

Why couldn’t the Corporate Old Boys’ Network Stop Trump?

contributors

By Johan Chu & Jerry Davis | (The Conversation) | – – If corporate money controls our politics, as Bernie Sanders and others have claimed, then how did the Republican Party – the reputed party of business – manage to nominate a candidate whom almost no one in Big Business supports? And why have so […]

Employment

Can America’s Middle Class make a Comeback?

contributors

By Munir Moon | (Informed Comment) | – – The middle class is getting crushed. But there is hope. The most common argument about the middle class destruction is the declining or stagnant income, which is true. However, the main culprits are the costs of healthcare, education, and housing that have increased at a much […]

Democratic Party

The Vanity of the Billionaires: Circuses and no Bread

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Rome was a republic until between 40 and 27 BCE, when the generals overthrew it. Military dictator Gaius Octavius put the nail in the coffin when he made himself Augustus Caesar on the latter date. The later satirist Juvenal, to whom we owe the phrase ‘bread […]

Censors

Journalist Amy Goodman to Surrender and Fight Dakota Charges

contributors

By TeleSur | – – Update: North Dakota prosecutor changes charge against Amy Goodman to ‘rioting.’ The Democracy Now! host said the charge is a “direct attack” on freedom of the press. Journalist Amy Goodman says she will turn herself in next week to authorities to fight the charge of trespassing after filming a vicious […]

Development

Can Saudi Arabia Survive its Economic ‘Shock Therapy’?

contributors

By Nasser Saidi | (Project Syndicate) | – – BEIRUT – Saudi Arabia has long relied on oil to fuel its economic growth and development. Last year, oil accounted for about three-quarters of the Kingdom’s total export revenues and around 90% of government revenue. But the recent collapse in oil prices highlighted what should long […]

Dissent

Shadows of Plutocracy darken over our Democracy in this Election

contributors

By Bill Moyers | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Sixty-six years ago this summer, on my 16th birthday, I went to work for the daily newspaper in the small East Texas town of Marshall where I grew up. It was a good place to be a cub reporter — small enough to navigate but […]

Democratic Party

Sanders: Aetna’s Obamacare threat shows what Corporate Control Looks Like

contributors

By Nika Knight, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – Aetna threatened federal government with withdrawal from Affordable Care Act if controversial merger didn’t go through, new reporting reveals Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini bluntly told the Justice Department in July that the healthcare behemoth would drop out of the Affordable Care Act exchanges if its […]