Plutocracy

Lest we Forget: Trump’s and Billionaires’ Covid Profiteering, Debasing Science and Death on the scale of the Civil War

By Nina Burleigh | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Now that we’re all unmasking and the economy seems set to roar into the 2020s, what will we remember about how disastrously, how malignantly, the Trump administration behaved as the pandemic took hold? And will anyone be held to account for it? The instinct to forget pandemics, […]

Inequality

Biden’s modest corporate tax increases to fund public infrastructure projects are wildly popular — except among CEOs

Jim Hightower

By Jim Hightower ( Otherwords.org) – “Outrageous,” screeched the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It doesn’t feel fair,” whimpered a top corporate executive. The wailing by those who run corporate America is not for the plight of the workaday families who’ve seen their incomes stagnate and even plummet to zero during the pandemic. Rather, this chorus […]

Employment

On How there is no Restaurant Worker Shortage, only a Shortage of Safe Jobs with Adequate Pay

John Buell

From the earliest days of the Pandemic relief initiatives business lobbies and conservative pundits have griped about the $600 Federal Unemployment Insurance supplement. They complained that combined state and federal programs would give many employed workers more income than they received in their current jobs. Workers would have an incentive to stay home to sit […]

Banking

Let Lebanon be Lebanon: Paris should Stop Threatening Beirut with EU Sanctions

John Hickman

John Hickman “Governing Lebanon is surely more daunting than governing France.”[1] That pearl of wisdom in an essay defending consociational democracy by University of Pennsylvania political scientist Brendan O’Leary has never been more accurate. A delicate balance of domestic interests with institutional vetoes at the best of times, Lebanese politics has been stalemated for months […]

Plutocracy

How global tax dodging costs lives: new research shows a direct link to increased death rates

The Conversation

By Bernadette O’Hare and Stephen Hall | – Tax abuse is an expensive business. According to a recent report by the Tax Justice Network, avoiding or evading tax deprives governments across the world of around US$427 billion (£302 billion) every year. This is money that could otherwise be spent on things like clean water, sanitation, […]

Employment

Congress needs to pass Labor Laws Protecting Union Drives and right to Strike

OtherWords

By Rebekah Entralgo | – ( Otherwords.org) – Following one of the most high-profile union votes in history, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama ultimately rejected efforts to form a union. But for labor advocates, this fight is far from over. “The Amazon workers who voted for a union in Bessemer are already […]

Epidemics

Pfizer and Big Pharma need to waive Patents on Covid-19 Vaccine to Save the World

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – It is a familiar story. A Pharma giant sells life- saving vaccine , which costs no more than 7 dollars a dose, to most nations at almost 20 dollars per shot. Knowing that unseemly profits in the midst of a global pandemic may elicit outrage and perhaps […]

Inequality

Just how Bold is Biden’s Plan to Pay for Infrastructure by Making Rich Pay their Fair Share?

Sam Pizzigati

( Inequality.org) – President Joe Biden has made no secret of his admiration for Franklin D. Roosevelt. He’s even given a painted portrait of FDR the most prominent place of honor in the White House Oval Office. A bit more significantly, Biden has just announced the most ambitious gameplan — since FDR’s New Deal — […]

Investment

Don’t Let Wall Street Get Rich Speculating on our Water

Jim Hightower

( Otherwords.org ) – Shameless speculators are trying to privatize and commoditize the water all humans need to live. By Jim Hightower | April 28, 2021 Oh great — here comes a new stealth attack on the fragile, life-sustaining natural resources of Planet Earth. This latest assault by Wall Street alchemists would redefine one of […]