Economy

( Tomdispatch.com) – Every April, as income-tax returns come due, I think about the day 30 years ago when I opened my rented mailbox and saw a business card resting inside. Its first line read, innocently enough, “United States Treasury.” It was the second line — “Internal Revenue Service” — that took my breath away. […]

Inequality

It Goes up but Never Comes Down: What Would It Take to Reduce US Military Spending?

William J. Astore

( Tomdispatch.com) – I have a question for you: What would it take in today’s world for America’s military spending to go down? Here’s one admittedly farfetched scenario: Vladimir Putin loses his grip on power and Russia retrenches militarily while reaching out to normalize relations with the West. At the same time, China prudently decides […]

Corporations

The billion dollar deal that made Google and Amazon partners in the Israeli occupation of Palestine

Ramzy Baroud

( Middle East Monitor ) – “We are anonymous because we fear retaliation.” This text was part of a letter signed by 500 Google employees last October, in which they decried their company’s direct support for the Israeli government and military. In their letter, the signatories protested a $1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon Web […]

Climate Crisis

SEC proposes far-reaching climate disclosure rules for companies – here’s where the rules may be vulnerable to legal challenges

The Conversation

By Daniel E. Walters, Penn State; and William M. Manson, Penn State | – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released its long-awaited proposal to require companies to disclose their climate risks to investors, and it’s arguably the most significant action on climate change yet under the Biden administration. SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee called […]

Climate Crisis

From Drought to Deluge: Those Who Contribute the Least to the Climate Crisis Suffer the Most

Tomdispatch

By Jane Braxton Little | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Greenville, CA — Snow began falling on December 24th, big fluffy flakes that made lace on mittens before melting. Within hours it had coated the ashes, the brick chimneys that the flames had left behind, and the jagged remains of roofs strewn across my burned-out […]

Inequality

Cracking Down on Russian Oligarchs Means Cracking Down on U.S. Tax Havens

OtherWords

By Chuck Collins | – As part of the sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its European partners are cracking down on Russian oligarchs. They’re freezing assets and tracking the yachts, private jets, and luxury real estate holdings of these Russian billionaires. “I say to the Russian oligarchs and […]

Climate Crisis

Plutocrats Fiddling as the World Burns with Global Heating and Nuclear Tensions

Tom Engelhardt

He’s our very own emperor from hell, an updated version of Nero who, in legend, burned down Rome on a whim, though ours prefers drowning Washington. Why, just the other day, Donald Trump — and you knew perfectly well who I meant — bent the ears of 250 top Republican donors for 84 minutes. Among […]

Banking

Top 7 Ways Iran evaded US Sanctions that Putin could Follow

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The sorts of sanctions and boycotts the United States and its allies are placing on Russia resemble those applied by Washington to Iran off and on in the past decade, though so far the measures in place against Tehran are still far more severe than what has been done to […]

Economy

This isn’t the First Oil Price Shock, but it is the Most Complex in Modern History

The Conversation

By Scott L. Montgomery, University of Washington | – The world is in the grip of an oil price shock. In just a few months, prices have risen from US$65 a barrel to over $130, causing fuel costs to surge, inflationary pressure to rise and consumer tempers to flare. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, […]