Economy

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment) – Private equity has succeeded in depicting itself as part of the productive economy of health care services. even as it is increasingly being recognized as being parasitic. The essence of this toxic parasitism is not only to drain the host’s nourishment, but also to dull the host’s brain […]

Inequality

Inequality Kills. But We Can Stop the Killing

Sam Pizzigati

( Inequality.org ) – Over a half-century ago, back in the mid-1960s, books about poverty abounded. But publishers paid relatively little attention to wealth’s concentration. A generation earlier, Americans had obsessed about grand private fortunes. By late mid-century, that obsession no longer excited either the media or the public. That would all soon change, particularly […]

Monopolies

Taylor Swift’s Superfans Strike a Blow Against Monopolies

OtherWords

By Bella DeVaan | – ( Otherwords.org ) – After a nightmare ticket sale, monopolies made a powerful enemy. That’s good news for all of us. By Bella DeVaan | November 23, 2022 As the cost of food, travel, and gifts complicate holiday plans across the country, millions of Americans have been awakened to the […]

Climate Crisis

COP27: how the Fossil Fuel Lobby Crowded out Calls for Climate Justice

The Conversation

By Alix Dietzel, University of Bristol | – COP27 has just wrapped up. Despite much excitement over a new fund to address “loss and damage” caused by climate change, there is also anger about perceived backsliding on commitments to lower emissions and phase out fossil fuels. As an academic expert in climate justice who went […]

Climate Crisis

COP27 Climate Summit sparks Action Against Investment Treaties Favoring Fossil Fuel Corporations Over People and Planet

Inequality.org

By Manuel Pérez-Rocha | – ( Inequality.org ) – Regarding the global climate negotiations in Egypt, several countries announced important actions to curb the power of the fossil fuel industry. For decades now, a global web of international investment agreements has given corporations excessive powers to block government policies they don’t like. Through “investor-state dispute […]

Climate Crisis

One Billionaire emits a Million times more CO2 than an Average Person, as Protesters block Private Planes at Amsterdam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Oxfam has a new study, Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people. The Executive Summary says that they concluded that quite apart from the 3,300 or so billionaires, the wealthiest one percent in the world emit twice as much carbon dioxide as the bottom 50%. The top […]

Agriculture

The Saudis depleted their Own Aquifers: now they’re emptying Arizona’s and Getting Sweetheart Deals to do So

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ella Nilsen at CNN has done an excellent deep dive on the shrinking aquifers of the Southwest and how Arizona has allowed a Saudi and a United Arab Emirates company to establish water-hog farms to grow crops to be shipped back to the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is a country […]

Corporations

Coca-Cola, the world’s largest plastic Polluter, is sponsoring COP27. Here’s why that’s a problem

Global Voices

By Sydney Allen | – In a massive feat of irony, Coca-Cola, the world’s largest plastic polluter, is sponsoring COP27, the world’s largest annual environmental conference, which will take place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6–18. While there is plenty to criticize about this year’s COP27 summit (such as Egypt’s human rights abuses […]

Banking

Tackling Inflation By Rewarding the Rich Is a Fool’s Errand

Sonali Kolhatkar

By Sonali Kolhatkar | – ( Otherwords.org ) – British Prime Minister Liz Truss recently resigned after just 45 days in office, disgraced by her own economic prescriptions. There’s a lesson here for the United States, a nation beset by similar economic troubles. The main takeaway? Tackling inflation by rewarding the rich is a fool’s […]