Michael Hudson: Oligarchs Will Never Cancel Debts We Owe Them
Michael Hudson sent this short video which explains the history of debt jubilees and the role of private debt in the rise of oligarchies.
Read more...Category Archives: The destruction of the middle class
U.S. Student Homelessness Up 10% Since Last Year
On Bill Moyers last week, Henry Giroux talked about how our political system is willing to throw young people on the trash heap, and indifference to rising homelessness among students is an ugly example.
Read more...How Wall Street Has Turned Housing Into a Dangerous Get-Rich-Quick Scheme — Again
Over the last year and a half, Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms have quietly amassed an unprecedented rental empire, snapping up Queen Anne Victorians in Atlanta, brick-faced bungalows in Chicago, Spanish revivals in Phoenix
Read more...Identity Politics and the Stoking of Generational Warfare
I have to confess I find stereotyping annoying, and in almost all cases, it’s a poor substitute for more careful analysis and characterization. Yet it is marvelously effective in politics, as Karl Rove proved.
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: The Emerald Isle Remains in Chains
A conversation with Phil Pilkington on Europe’s disgraceful triumphalism regarding Ireland’s ‘exit’ from its ‘bailout’
Read more...The Skunk Party Manifesto
The best political system that money can buy is doing a great job for its customers and a lousy job for the rest of us.
Read more...Jackie Calmes’ “Dirty Secret” About the Opponents of Austerity is That They are Correct
When we pull away the camouflage that New York Times reporter Calmes deploys to obscure matters, the “dirty secret” that emerges is that key members of both parties realize that the purported “Grand Bargain” actually represents a self-destructive Grand Betrayal that should be opposed.
Read more...Welfare Queen Walmart Has Thanksgiving Food Drive for its Own Needy Employees
Prima facie evidence of the need to boycott Walmart (as if more were necessary)
Read more...Chronicles of a European Winter: “There is a Difference Between Saying Greeks Should Live With Less and Saying Greeks Should Live With Nothing”
This is the first segment of an ongoing project, Eurowinter, to record the human toll of austerity policies in Europe. It focuses on the suffering Greece, as told by Greeks themselves.
Read more...Michael Olenick: Comprehensive Review of ObamaCare Plans Reveals Not Only High Cost for Atrocious Coverage, but Also Apparent Violations of ACA Requirements
After five weeks healthcare.gov presented insurance policies for my family to purchase. No wonder the website was dark for so long: the plans are expensive, atrocious, and the insurance companies look like they are cheating.
Read more...Student Debt is Crushing the Economic Future of the Young
If a bad job market wasn’t damaging enough, the cost of paying off student loans does much more harm to the long-term prospects of young people than is commonly realized.
Read more...Obama Wants to Cut Social Security
Yves here. The headline is hardly news, at least if you’ve been paying attention, but this post does a great job of debunking arguments against Social Security, particularly ones designed to stoke generational warfare.
Read more...Ilargi: Sometimes Humor Is The Best Way To Tell A Tragic Story
Yves here. This article is a portrait of official denial, which is then dutifully taken up and amplified by the media (well, not universally, but widely, as Ilargi’s post also demonstrates). It corroborates one of my pet theories: that we are at the end of an economic paradigm. The powers that be lack the will and imagination to do anything other than patch it up and put it back into operation. That simply assures more frequent breakdowns until the system is beyond repair.
Read more...Your Humble Blogger Discusses the Pending Trade Deals and JP Morgan on Le Show!
I really enjoy speaking with Harry Shearer, both for his engaging manner and his thorough preparation. I also hope you’ll see fit to circulate this interview, since the more attention we can bring to this plan to legalize corporate pillage, the better.
Read more...Gaius Publius: The Rich – “A Class of People for Whom Humans are Disposable”
I want to give you a picture of our rulers, our betters. You may think of them as far-seeing modernists (Eric Schmidt, stand up please) or vaguely boorish (Mr. Trump? Mr. Adelson?). But even the lowest of your visions of them would, in the main, be generous.
Their depravity and psychopathology is worse than your worst imaginings.
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