William J. Astore: The American Military Uncontained, Chaos Spread, Casualties Inflicted, Missions Unaccomplished
An important, sobering description of how US military overreach became institutionalized.
Read more...Category Archives: Privatization
Notes for an Elite Playbook: The Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone
Accounting Control Fraud is one play in the elite playbook; this post argues that Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones are another.
Read more...Control Fraud and For-Profit “Universities” (Et Tu, Bill Clinton?)
Bill Black’s formula for accounting control fraud applied to for-profit universities like Corinthian and Laureate, with a swipe at Laureate’s Honorary Chancellor, Bill Clinton.
Read more...Immigrant Bed Mandate Ensures Guaranteed Profit for For-Profit Prison System
By David Dayen, a lapsed blogger. Follow him on Twitter @ddayen I remember a conversation several years ago in which a Democratic staffer told me that the fastest-growing airline in the United States was the private collection of planes that delivered undocumented immigrants across the country. The reason had to do with the fact that […]
Read more...J.D. Alt: A Push-Pull Model for Cooperative Markets Financed by Sovereign Spending
This model of allocating new fiat dollars to specific collective purposes could be applicable to many sovereign spending situations.
Read more...Epic Fail for the Postal Service: The Wrong Model and the Wrong Board
How the managers of the Postal Service, in conjunction with politicians, have worked to undermine the effectiveness of a public infrastructure that is capable of producing broad economic and social benefits.
Read more...Tom Engelhardt: The New American Order: 1% Elections, The Privatization of the State, a Fourth Branch of Government, and the Demobilization of “We the People”
Based on developments in our post-9/11 world, we could be watching the birth of a new American political system and way of governing for which, as yet, we have no name.
Read more...Latest Greece Talks End in Confusion, Dissent
It’s hard to fathom Greece’s approach to its dealings with its oppressors, um, creditors.
Read more...Who Owns the Post Office?
This article describes how the creation of a misguided corporatized governance structure and undermining of public-interest-related objectives undermined the Post Office. The very fact that offices are being shuttered in rural areas that depend on the Post Office as a local anchor, leading to the death of communities, shows how far the modern Post Office deviates from its founders’ objectives.
Read more...John Helmer: IMF Loan to Ukraine Props Up Failing Banks, Enriches Oligarchs
One reason for our continued coverage of the IMF generosity to Ukraine isn’t simply to demonstrate how the institution is bending its rules to support US adventurism. It’s also to highlight the striking contrast with the treatment of Greece. While Greece has a class of oligarchs that specialize in tax-evasion, Ukraine is widely recognized as a spectacularly corrupt country, to the degree that it makes Greece look like a paragon of virtue.
Read more...Can One Union Save the Beleaguered U.S. Postal Service?
The attack on the U.S. Postal Service is based on ideology and punitive, misleading accounting. It’s not too late to save it.
Read more...Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Forced Into Historic Runoff
This Real News Network interview describes why the coming mayoral runoff in Chicago is in many ways a referendum on failed neoliberal policies, such as privatizing schools. The very fact that this race is taking place at all reveals an unexpectedly large degree of popular discontent with misrule by what passes for our elites
Read more...The Alternative in Greece
Let us begin with what should be indisputable: the Eurogroup agreement that the Greek government was dragged into on Friday amounts to a headlong retreat.
Read more...Negotiation Breakdown Exposes Widening Rift Between Germany and Greece
The negotiations between Greece and the Eurogroup are on a worse trajectory than conventional wisdom would have you believe.
Read more...Fog of Negotiations: Greece and Germany Make Friendlier Noises, Restart Talks, But Press Reports Diverge
After a collapse of negotiations over whether and how to resolve Syriza’s demands for a new deal with the Eurozone with the insistence of its counterparties that the new government adhere to the terms of its existing deal, technical discussions are set to resume Friday. The drop-dead date is Monday, since any extension or modification of the current so-called bailout needs to happen by February 28, when it expires. The lead time is necessary because the Germany Bundestag and the Finnish Parliament must approve any new or extended deal. But what is the real state of play?
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