Amazon’s Thuggish Security Force in Germany Shows State Does Not Have a Monopoly on Violence
One of the canards libertarians like to sell is that the state has a monopoly on violence.
Read more...Category Archives: The destruction of the middle class
NC Crowdsourcing! Whither the Deficit Cliffhanger?
I’m obviously removed from the action, but I’m surprised at the complacency in DC and in the markets over the fact that the sequester is a comin’ soon. Next week Congress is out of session, and the media messaging from both sides at this point lacks the sense of urgency (in particular, front page reports of intense pow-wows) that I’d expect if a deal were to be done by the sequester deadline of early March.
So I have these questions for the NC commentariat:
Read more...Yes, Virginia, the Rich Continue to Get Richer: the Top 1% Got 121% of Income Gains Since 2009
Yes, sports fans, you read that headline correctly. The top 1% has captured all of the income gains since 2009 and then some, roaring ahead while the rest of the population slipped behind.
Read more...Quelle Surprise! New York Times Takes Up Empty Threats by Rich Over Taxes
The New York Times comes in on the side of the whining rich in a piece titled, “Two-Tax Rise Tests Wealthy in California.”
Read more...Reader eBook Bonus: “Capitalism Unmasked”
Please download and enjoy this ebook, which is a joint project of Alternet and Econ4, an organization of heterodox economists promoting social change.
Read more...Lynn Parramore: Obsolete Humans? Why Elites Want You to Fear the Robot
Dystopian technology fantasies are flooding the media, to the delight of the 1 percent.
Read more...Tom Ferguson Saw the Disheartening Future of American Politics 25 Years Ago
Nathan Tankus found this archival video (you are going to get a gas out of the production values…and be patient with the set up, it takes a few minutes for the video to get going).
Read more...Quelle Surprise! IMF Always Prescribes the Same Austerity Hairshirt
A new paper by Mark Weisbrot and Helene Jorgensen of CEPR have managed to unearth a dirty little secret: the IMF doesn’t just prescribe broadly similar policies in its Article IV consultations, it looks like its hands out the same medicine. We’ve used the metaphor of breaking countries on the rack, but cutting them to fit a Procrustean bed might be more apt.
Read more...Wolf Richter: Could 87% of the French Really Want A Strongman To Reestablish Order?
Americans are cynical about politicians. Congressional approval ratings were mired just above single-digit levels in 2012, hitting 10% twice. An expression of utter disdain. But the French—with their economy spiraling deeper into crisis—expressed disdain for their political class, as they call it, in another way: with a desire for authoritarian leadership, a “real leader” who would “reestablish order.”
Read more...Bill Black: Why the World Economic Forum and Goldman Sachs are Capitalism’s Worst Enemies
Bill Black discusses the basis for giving the “Private Eye” award to Goldman at the counter World Economic Forum gathering at Davos .
Read more...All Good Democrats Applaud Republicans Rearranging Battle Lines in Austerity Phony War
As we anticipated, the Republicans have climbed down on making the debt ceiling the key battle line in their plan to impose spending cuts. Good Democrats applauded that move as a sign that Obama had displayed toughness and prevailed.
It’s not quite that simple.
Read more...What are the German Bankers Thinking?
Some readers would probably come up with less polite versions of the question above, but regardless of how one states it, policy in the Eurozone is very much driven by both the needs and the wants of German banks.
Read more...Joe Firestone: The Great Austerity Swindle!
By Joe Firestone, Ph.D., Managing Director, CEO of the Knowledge Management Consortium International (KMCI), and Director of KMCI’s CKIM Certificate program. He has taught political science as the graduate and undergraduate level and blogs regularly at Corrente, Firedoglake and Daily Kos as letsgetitdone. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives
Our Congresspeople, corporate CEOs, tea partiers, most economists, Pete Peterson’s minions, and even our President, tell us that we’re running out of money; and that we can’t keep running huge deficits, and increasing our national debt forever, because eventually, our creditors will just cease lending us our dollars back….
Read more...Republicans Backing Away from Debt Ceiling Brinksmanship, to Hold Line on Sequestration and Budget
A important shift in the Republicans’ negotiating stance over the austerity fight (do we go Dem lite or Republican high test?) was duly noted in the Financial Times a day ago, but a search in Google News (“debt ceiling”) suggests a lot of other commentators have not yet digested its significance, so it seemed worthy of a short recap here.
Read more...Bill Black: German Growth Goes Negative but Merkel’s Press Remains Glowing
By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives
It is good to be Angela Merkel.
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