Poverty

Will DC’s Neoliberal Model of Drug Costing Finally Kill Us All? Why is there even a debate on whether any Coronavirus Vaccine Should be Free?

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Why is there even a question as to whether any Cov19 vaccine or diagnostic test kit should be free? Vaccines and diagnostic tests are essential components of any public health program, not merely conveniences to an isolated individual. When symptomatic patients are tested for a disease, indispensable […]

Bashar al-Assad

With a Million Fresh Refugees and a 9-Year Civil War, Can Impoverished Syrians Survive?

Stasa Salacanin

( Middle East Monitor ) – A devastating civil war and international sanctions have destroyed Syria’s economy, leaving it with a GDP that is a third of what it was in 2010. The monetary crisis and depreciation of the currency is the latest chapter of the country’s economic meltdown. Despite the lack of accurate statistics, […]

Inequality

Filthy Rich: How America’s Unprecedented Inequality is Literally Killing Us

H. Patricia Hynes

“The 500 richest people in the world…gained a combined $1.2 trillion in wealth in 2019, further exacerbating inequities that have not been seen since the late 1920s…Eight of the 10 richest people in the world are from the U.S.” – Bloomberg, 12/27/2019 Greenfield, Ma. (Special to Informed Comment) – Why, in the richest of countries […]

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 […]

Neoliberalism

How Neoliberalism & Privatization are Driving our Crises, from Guatemala to Moscow

John Buell

To the corporate media, history goes back only as far as yesterday. Thus the media portray the chaos and violence in Central America as though this is just a case of stuff happens. Or all of a sudden millions decided to come north in search of a better life. And these exculpatory views survived even […]

Inequality

The Reality for the Middle Classes behind the supposedly “Surging” U.S. Economy

Inequality.org

By Sarah Anderson | – A tiny uptick in wages won’t do much to help Americans squeezed by debt and facing rising prices for medicine, child care, housing, and other essentials. Recent economic reports have President Donald Trump crowing. The big headline numbers do sound encouraging. The unemployment rate is down to 3.6%, the lowest […]

Employment

80% of Workers live Paycheck to Paycheck, and Federal ones are no Different

Chuck Collins

(Otherwords.org) – Unemployment is low, but federal employees are lining up at food banks. They aren’t alone. As the government shutdown drags on, the image of federal workers lining up at food pantries has dramatized just how many workers live financially close to the edge. By one estimate, almost 80 percent of U.S. workers live […]

Donald Trump

Could Trump’s Gov’t Shutdown send US Economy into Tailspin?

AFP

By Douglas Gillison | – Washington, DC (AFP) – The US government shutdown on Saturday became the longest in history and is taking a growing bite out of the world’s largest economy with each passing day, economists say. While most of the 21 “lapses” in government spending since 1976 left barely a scratch on economic […]

National Security State

For 40 Million US Working Poor, Trillion-Dollar Foreign Military Adventures Don’t Bring Security

Rajan Menon

(TomDispatch) – So effectively has the Beltway establishment captured the concept of national security that, for most of us, it automatically conjures up images of terrorist groups, cyber warriors, or “rogue states.” To ward off such foes, the United States maintains a historically unprecedented constellation of military bases abroad and, since 9/11, has waged wars […]