Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents

Inequality Kills: Top 1% Lives 15 Years Longer Than the Poorest

Inequality kills, as the death gap between the richest and poorest rises to 15 years in the US.

Randy Wray: Progressives Don’t Let Friends Vote Neocon

If you take a hard look at Clinton’s neocon policies, it’s far from obvious that she’s a less dangerous Presidential pick than Trump.

Michael Hudson: The Wall Street Economy is Draining the Real Economy

How Wall Street is interjecting itself into the economy so that more and more is diverted to pay interest, insurance and rent.

Don Quijones: A Blow to Transatlantic Corpocracy – Support for TTIP Begins to Unravel

Why the TTIP “trade” deal is looking wobbly.

Star Trek or The Matrix? Varoufakis’s Challenge to Neoliberalism

Varoufakis gave a wide-ranging talk on the considerable conflict between neoliberalism and democracy, and why democratic rule produces better results.

Watch Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Phil Gramm Have a Love Fest Over Repeal of Glass Steagall

Watch Bill Clinton heart financiers in 1998 and try to take it back in 2013.

How Bill Gates and His Billionaire Allies Used Their Wealth to Launch Charter Schools in Washington State

The Gates charter school push as a case study in the Trojan Horse of “charitable plutocracy”.

Uber Spends $100 Million to Save its Business Model, But It May Have Just Doomed It

I’ve written before at this august site about how Uber’s business model is to arbitrage state and federal law and replace a monopoly with a different monopoly. They obviously placed a high value on the arbitrage. How high? About $100 million.

Weak Wall Street Pay Reform Proposals May Have Some Unintended Positive Effects

A long-overdue plan to reform Wall Street pay is seriously flawed but could have a positive effect in spite of itself.

How European Union Fiscal Rules Subverted Democracy and Institutionalized Neoliberalism

A good overview of how fiscal rules gave neoliberal ideology and unaccountable bureaucrats the upper hand in the EU.

Robert Reich: Why Is One of Sanders’ Most Important Proposals Being Ignored?

Sanders’ financial transactions tax plan hasn’t gotten the hearing it deserves.

The Rise of the Right Wing Populist: Blame It on the Banks

Contrary to popular belief, the shift to the right is not due to immigration as much as the financial crisis and its aftermath.

Bill Black: Adam Davidson, the 1%’s Lord Haw-Haw, Mangles Economic Theory to Attack Sanders

Adam Davidson makes numerous misrepresentations about economics in a salvo against Bernie Sanders’ economic plans. Does he really not know better, or has he really drunk the orthodox Kool-Aid?