Economy

By Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin, March 13, 2020. (Foreign Policy in Focus) – U.S. sanctions have gutted Iran’s economy and health system. In a pandemic, that’s a global public health threat. The COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic is far from the first proof of how intertwined we are as a global community. The climate crisis […]

Epidemics

Will DC’s Neoliberal Model of Drug Costing Finally Kill Us All? Why is there even a debate on whether any Coronavirus Vaccine Should be Free?

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Why is there even a question as to whether any Cov19 vaccine or diagnostic test kit should be free? Vaccines and diagnostic tests are essential components of any public health program, not merely conveniences to an isolated individual. When symptomatic patients are tested for a disease, indispensable […]

Epidemics

Heckuva Job, Pencie! A US ruled for and by the Rich leaves Workers at Risk for Coronavirus

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Is the United States prepared to deal with a public health emergency? At this point such an emergency seems likely, but, even if it were not, the consequence of inaction are catastrophic and must be planned for. Preparation for a national health emergency depends on two variables, […]

Bernie Sanders

The Plutocracy Strikes Back: CNN Compares Bernie Sanders to Coronavirus

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday morning CNN host Michael Smerconish compared Sen. Bernie Sanders to the coronavirus, asking if anything could stop either one. So reports Tommy Christopher at Mediaite. CNN has apologized. Rational National: “CNN Compares Bernie Sanders To The Coronavirus” Smerconish is a lifelong Republican who left the party in 2008 […]

Development

The Coronavirus has sent Stocks Plummeting – Could a Recession be Next?

The Conversation

By Michael Walden | – Fears are growing that the new coronavirus will infect the U.S. economy. U.S stocks are headed for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis; companies including Apple and Walmart have been warning of potential sales losses from COVID-19 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Americans to […]

Democratic Socialism

How Cold War US Corporations Smeared Democratic Socialism

The Conversation

By Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy | – Bernie Sanders has emerged as the Democratic front-runner in the race for the presidential nomination. Yet even some left-leaning pundits and publications are concerned about what they see as Sanders’ potential lack of electability. Sanders is a Democratic Socialist. And the label “socialist” is a political liability in American culture. […]

Banking

Bernie Sanders and the Poor Little Rich Boys: Why Billionaire Financiers are Bullying the Democratic Party

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Quiet concerns about a possible Sanders victory became a loud and agitated freakout after the Senator’s resounding victory in Nevada. The anguish came from the financial hub of the centrist Democratic establishment. In an incoherent rant, for which he later apologized, Chris Matthews drew a confused and […]

Bashar al-Assad

With a Million Fresh Refugees and a 9-Year Civil War, Can Impoverished Syrians Survive?

Stasa Salacanin

( Middle East Monitor ) – A devastating civil war and international sanctions have destroyed Syria’s economy, leaving it with a GDP that is a third of what it was in 2010. The monetary crisis and depreciation of the currency is the latest chapter of the country’s economic meltdown. Despite the lack of accurate statistics, […]

Donald Trump

No Trump ‘Blue Collar Boom’: 1/2 of Americans work Low-Wage Jobs and Manufacturing is in Decline

Peter Certo

(Otherwords.org) – Trump is counting on the working class he’s betraying most aggressively. Can the left get out of affluent suburbia and back to its roots? By Peter Certo | February 5, 2020 There’s an image burned into my brain from childhood: the graffitied train tracks along the intersection of Fifth and Patterson in downtown […]