Ilargi: Sucking Spoilt Milk From A Bloated Dead Sow
Ilargi describes why the US is not a democracy, it is not the supreme leader of the world, and the American economy is not in recovery.
Read more...Category Archives: The destruction of the middle class
Ridiculing Concerns About TPP Tyranny
Yes, Virginia, the TPP is at least as bad as its critics say it is.
Read more...Why Syriza Failed
Syriza has failed because it does not believe in governing along the lines of what it promised unless it is easy to do so.
Read more...The 23 Count Indictment of the TPP
This post will serve to remind you: call your Representative (contact info here) and Senators (contact info here) today and tell them in no uncertain terms that you expect them to vote against Fast Track authority.
Read more...Quantitative Easing and The Great Recession: Who Wins? Who Loses?
The Federal Reserve (“the Fed”), the central bank of the United States, is at the center of a big political fight, once again.
Read more...How the Federal Reserve Is Destroying Your Economic Future
How Fed policies exacerbate inequality and dampen growth.
Read more...Gaius Publius: Hillary Clinton, Progressives & the Uphill Climb
Aversion to Hillary Clinton among bona fide progressives is far more acute than Democratic party loyalists recognize.
Read more...Ilargi: The American Consumer Will Never Be Back
I don’t see a time in the future when American consumers will start spending again at a rate near that required for economic recovery.
Read more...Amazon Requires Badly-Paid Warehouse Temps to Sign 18-Month Non-Competes
Time to boycott Amazon. The Verge has broken an important story on how far Amazon has gone in its relentless efforts to crush workers.
Read more...Gaius Publius: Ron Wyden, Progressives and the TPP
Are progressives willing to attack Ron Wyden on TPP?
Read more...What Happened to the “Feel Good” Economy?
Even though this video is from December (hat tip Philip Pilkington), it gives an informative and nuanced explanation of the rise in income inequality and consumer debt levels, and how they play into our unimpressive “recovery”. The interview of Steve Fazzari and Barry Cynamon by Marshall Auerback discusses how the rise of inequality has many drivers, but the biggest appears to be financialization which is so pervasive and well-protected politically as to make it hard to roll back. It also put focus on key metrics that often get lost in conventional coverage. For instance, inflation and productivity adjusted wages would now need to be over $20 to match the levels of the 1960s.
Read more...Michael Hudson: Quantitative Easing for Whom?
Michael Hudson recaps the theory, or perhaps more accurately, political justifications for quantitative easing, as opposed to how it works in practice.
Read more...Obama Administration Makes Unverifiable Claim of 545,000 IT Job Openings; H-1B Visa Boosting Likely Culprit
Two stories on Slashdot say a great deal about the reality of the labor market versus the official hype. It’s noteworthy that the comments, which are typically fractious at Slashdot, line up almost uniformly on the “employers are looking for insanely specific and often unrealistic experience.” And why might that be? In the case of tech in particular, to justify bringing in more H-1B visa candidates.
Read more...Doug Smith: Dear Stephanie – Uh, That Thing About McDonald’s Workers That’s Missing
On the curious way a New York Times story on McDonald’s efforts at transformation said almost nothing about McDonald’s workers.
Read more...Troika Tightening the Noose on Greece as Government Cash Crunch Worsens
The Troika and Eurogroup look to be working towards the Greek government to start having similar thoughts. However, given the high level of popular support for Syriza, and press reports that Greek citizens fully expect that the new government to at best only be able to deliver on a small portion of its campaign promises, the end game for Greece is looking more and more likely to be a failed state rather than a more neoliberal-friendly government.
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