TPP Teeters in US Congress
More and more Republicans look to be girding their loins to fight approval of the TPP. And it’s not as if Dems are all that keen either.
Read more...Category Archives: Free markets and their discontents
5 of the Biggest Acts of Corporate Hypocrisy in America
Socialism for the rich is inherently hypocritical….but which forms of corporate truth-distortion are the most brazen?
Read more...Eric Zuesse: Europe Secretly Starts Imposing TTIP “Trade” Deal Despite the Public’s Overwhelming Opposition
The European Union is already secretly imposing provisions from the secret Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaty, even before anyone has signed it, and even before it has been formally approved in any nation.
Read more...Adam Levitin: Fighting for the Middle Class
How the deck is stacked against the middle class, and what it takes to change that.
Read more...Mark Ames: Why Finance is Too Important to Leave to Larry Summers
Mark Ames explains why the left became stupid about finance and why that was a very costly mistake.
Read more...Michael Hudson: The Paradox of Financialized Industrialization
The great question today is whether post-feudal rentier capitalism will stifle industrial capitalism instead of serving it. The aim of finance is not merely to exploit labor, but to conquer and appropriate industry, real estate and government. The result is a financial oligarchy, neither industrial capitalism nor a tendency to evolve into socialism.
Read more...How Much Money Does the 1% Have Hidden in Tax Havens?
UC Berkeley professor Gabriel Zucman is doing pathbreaking work on tax havens. HIs estimates of how much the rich hide in them are eye-popping.
Read more...Michael Perelman: The Essential Handbook for Engineering an Unequal Society
While the thrust of Perelman’s post is no doubt familiar to readers, take note of how simple and few in number are the essential principles for creating a highly unequal society, and how easy it is to describe them them in antiseptic language.
Read more...The UK’s Money Laundering Mess (I)
The Billion Dollar Moldova Bank Scam: gateway to the UK’s money laundering mess
Read more...Harvard Business Review Ranks Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as Most Predatory CEO
A new Harvard Business Review ranking shows Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as being the top predator among CEOs.
Read more...Mark Blyth: “Austerity Cures Nothing”
This is a bracing, no-nonsene talk from economist Mark Blyth of Brown University, who is the author of Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century and Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.
Read more...Don Quijones: Did the European Court of Justice Just Torpedo the Mother of All US Trade Agreements?
A European Court of Justice’s tough ruling on privacy may have tanked a toxic “trade” deal.
Read more...The Financial Sector is Too Big
Has the financial sector become too large, absorbing too many resources, and enhancing instabilities?
Read more...How Likely are Investor Suits Under the TPP?
This post is written from the perspective of Australia, and assesses the risk of Investor-State Dispute Settlement litigation. And one has to wonder how well those cheery assurances of “Nah, the US is never a target of these investor suits” will hold up in practice.
Read more...Right-Wing Urban Outfitters Now Asking Employees to Work for Free
Gawker caught out Urban Outfitters attempting to violate labor laws.
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