Economy

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Whoever wins Tuesday’s election is virtually certain to be confronted by a severe foreclosure and eviction crisis as state and local governments face acute budget shortfalls. These crises interact with each other and in ways that intensify the economic damage they inflict. The harm is also psychological […]

Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s Failed State: America’s Daunting New World and the Coming Election

Karen J. Greenberg

By Karen J. Greenberg | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – These past few months, it’s grown ever harder to recognize life in America. Thanks to Covid-19, basic day-to-day existence has changed in complicated, often confusing ways. Just putting food on the table has become a challenge for many. Getting doctors’ appointments and medical care can take […]

Donald Trump

Trump Touts “Ending the Pandemic” as 1 American Dies every 107 Seconds and Stock Market Nosedives

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bruce Y. Lee of Forbes reports that a couple of days ago, the Trump White House put out a press release listing the administration’s scientific achievements. Number one on the list was “Ending the Pandemic.” The Nazi genocidal maniac Adolf Hitler said, “Die Breite masse eines volkes fällt einer grosse […]

Development

When it Comes to the Pandemic, those he called “Shithole” Countries have run Rings around Trump

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Asked recently what he might do differently in managing the Covid19 pandemic the president responded, “Not much.” Little does he recognize or acknowledge the successes of and lessons to be learned from countries he has contemptuously labeled “shitholes.” What is lost to public health from this scorn […]

Debt

In the Midst of an Epochal American Eviction Crisis, Can we Wait for Congressional Talks?

John Buell

How should progressives stand on the issue of the second Covid relief bill being negotiated between Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin? What can be said is that a generous relief package is badly needed and the case on its behalf is strengthened by an analysis of the first relief package. In terms of pure […]

China

China grows nearly 5%; Will historians look back at Trump’s disastrous Pandemic Response as the Moment Beijing Overtook the US?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even if Trump loses, he can go on screwing up the country for two and a half months thereafter, and it will take years to undo the damage he has done. Pandemics are the sort of thing you want to nip in the bud. If you let them go to […]

Donald Trump

America is Complicit, as Yemen Spirals toward Mass Starvation

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Mark Lowcock of the United Nations gave an impassioned and apocalyptic speech on Thursday warning that 4 million Yemenis who had been receiving aid no longer are, because of a shortfall in donor contributions, and the country could be on the cusp of mass starvation. There already is widespread malnutrition […]

Campaign Finance

Election 2020 sees record $11 billion in campaign spending, mostly from a handful of super-rich donors

The Conversation

By Richard Briffault | – Total spending in the 2020 federal elections is projected to set a new record of almost US$11 billion by November. When adjusted for inflation, that’s over 50% higher than 2016 election spending. This year’s federal election spending – for the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives – is […]

Health Care

Can Trump’s Plan to Steal your Social Security, Medicare be Stopped?

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans promoting the backlash against the federal government seek to return to an earlier, supposedly golden era in American history. By privatizing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while further lowering taxes on the top 1 percent income bracket, […]