This Bill Moyers segment provides an in-depth discussion of race. Lopez focuses on how both parties use what he calls the racial dog whistle to mobilize voters.
Read more...The credit card industry gets short shrift when it comes to history.
Read more...This clip may seem a bit far afield, but we at NC are fans of good examples of rhetoric, particularly since you see them so seldom in the US.
Read more...Earlier this week, the Nikkei Asian Review published At odds with US, Japan reaches out to other TPP partners. The title would lead you to believe Japan is working with other countries to strengthen opposition to the toxic, mislabeled trade deal known as the TransPacific Partnership.
The text of the article suggests otherwise, that Japan’s prime minister Abe will feel compelled to offer some concessions when Obama visits next month. On the surface, that would represent a significant shift.
Read more...Yves here. A tongue-in-cheek article in the Financial Times, Putin putting Europe in its place, written from Putin’s viewpoint, concluded:
Read more...“As to your plans for emergency economic aid for Ukraine, this is an excellent plan. They could use the money and I’d rather not shell out myself. Incidentally, to save time why not make the cheques payable to Gazprom?”
Why Obama’s budget is yet another economic policy failure.
Read more...Whenever a scandal of sufficient magnitude arises at a bank, it’s standard practice to hire an “independent” third party to conduct an investigation and give a report to senior management and the board. But now even bank friendly regulators are starting to suspect that banks are hiring attorneys do to this work, not to come clean, but to facilitate a cover-up.
Read more...Yves here. The writing is delicious. But one thing that is frustrating (and of course quite deliberate) in reading the Western media account of the standoff in Ukraine is that they airbrush out how the West stoked this conflict and can hardly be surprised that Putin finally felt compelled to respond.
Read more...One thing we’ve discussed repeatedly is that the activities of large banks, as presently constituted, are purely extractive. And to add insult to injury, GDP calculations exaggerate what in the way of value they arguably do add.
Read more...Yves here. Among other things, this post shows what passes for analysis among elite technocrats.
Read more...Yves here. It’s remarkable how much of London has turned into a ghost town thanks to the influx of serious foreign money. When I worked for a few months in London, in 1984, it was Mayfair that was the destination for Saudi money, and it clearly had far too little in the way of street […]
Read more...In late February, Bloomberg stated that the SEC is “considering” forgiving decades of private equity firms acting as unregistered broker-dealers and possibly legalizing the practice going forward. In case you think this is not a big deal, as we explain later in the post, the SEC is in fact vigilant about enforcing these regulations, so this would be an unprecedented waiver of liability. But richer-than-Croesus private equity firms are special, right?
Read more...Yves here. Teach for America is a classic example of a ploy used by wealthy right-wing interests: find reputable, well-liked left-leaning organizations that are having financial troubles, rescue them, and turn their agenda to one more to their new patrons’ liking.
Read more...All that money… All that talent… And we can’t answer simple, basic questions about enrollment.
Read more...The Obama administration’s decision came as a surprise because the Affordable Care Act is clear: Federal subsidies are available only to people who enroll in a “qualified health plan” through an exchange.
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