Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents

Wealth of US Billionaires Hits $5.5 Trillion—Up 88% Since Pandemic Hit

Even though the rich are predictably getting richer even in the Covid era, the picture is worse when you look at billionaires.

Experts: Negotiating Big Pharma’s Prices Won’t Stifle Innovation—They Don’t Use the Money to Innovate!

Physician-scientist Fred Ledley and economist William Lazonick debunk Big Pharma arguments against Medicare drug price negotiation

How Effective Is International Aid and Assistance? The Rise of Debt Traps

Special interests and the lack of a unified vision facilitate corruption. Rising debt levels in the developing world suggest a tipping point.

Young Voters, Victims of Neoliberalism, Pessimistic About the Future, Sour on Politics…As Officials Tell Them to Eat Statistics

A Wall Street Journal article about dispirited young voters reveals more than it intended to.

Global Warming Is Still Accelerating, in Three Graphs

While you were busy watching the wars, national elections or other distractions du jour, global warming keeps marching on.

Financial Crises and Tax Havens

Tax havens not only facilitate tax evasion and corruption in ‘normal times’, they also harbour funds during economic crises, slowing down recovery.

Michael Hudson: Marxism, Economic Parasites, and Debt Cancellation

Michael Hudson in a bracing talk, including history of crises, the role of debt, and how ancient Greek and Roman law promoted inequality

Apple’s Exclusionary App Store Scheme: Will the EU Tolerate Gaming of the Digital Markets Act?

Will the EU see through and act against Apple’s self-serving, Digital-Markets-Act-evading new app store scheme?

Book Review: Malcolm Harris’ “Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World”

The Silicon Valley citadel of capitalism is built on eugenics, bombs, and hatred of the working class, and it’s destroying the world.

The Reality of Bidenomics: How Good Was Biden for the Economy?

A thorough takedown of the aggressively-sold falsehood that economic performance under Biden is good but the poors are too stupid to get it.

“Growing Inflation Pains: How Democrats Must Go on Offense on the Economy”

Corporate greedflation is squeezing household budgets and distorting the economy. But is tacit support for it really a one-party affair?

Our Loss of Science in the 21st Century and How to Get It Back

KLG looks at how science has lost stature, and how that affects scientists and the current practice of science.

The Government’s Deliberate Policy of Prejudicing the Poorest in Our Society Is Imposing Destitution on Millions

UK and US policy are mean to the poor, even though that stinginess costs all of us.