Plutocracy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Late last month, President Biden signed a bill that clears the way for $858 billion in Pentagon spending and nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy in 2023. That’s far more than Washington anted up for military purposes at the height of the Korean or Vietnam wars or even during […]

Featured

Billionaires Gobbled up 2/3s of New Wealth at $2.7 bn/ day, as 800 million go to bed Hungry: Oxfam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Oxfam , the British charity, has released a new report finding that the global problem of wealth inequality is growing ever more threatening. Of all the new wealth the entire human race has produced in the past two years, the richest 1% gobbled up 66% of it. The less-rich 99% […]

Apartheid

Criticizing Israel: Letter to the President of Harvard University regarding Kenneth Roth

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | Lawrence S. Bacow President, Harvard University president@harvard.edu Dear President Bacow: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about the July 2022 decision […]

Food Insecurity

Housing Unaffordable for Half of US Renters

Human Rights Watch

By Matt McConnell | Researcher, Economic Justice and Rights Division | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – New survey data released recently by the United States Census Bureau found that housing payments for about half of all US renters were unaffordable in 2021 under guidelines set by the US Department of Housing and Urban […]

Drugs

Big Pharma spent more on Stock Buybacks and Dividends than on Research and Development even during COVID

F. Douglas Stephenson

Gainesville, Florida (Special to Informed Comment) – The 14 largest publicly-traded pharmaceutical companies spent $747 billion on stock buybacks and dividends from 2012 through 2021 — substantially more than the $660 billion they spent on research and development. So argue economists William Lazonick, professor emeritus of economics at University of Massachusetts, and Öner Tulum, a […]

Corporations

Southwest’s Meltdown: Stock Buybacks, High Exec Pay, and Neglected Software Upgrades

Sam Pizzigati

() Inequality.org) – For America’s rich and powerful, the new year is beginning in a most inauspicious fashion. Millions of Americans are once again fuming at the greed and grasping of our deepest pockets. That fuming — from would-be passengers of Southwest Airlines and their families — filled airports throughout this past holiday week. For […]

Debt

Is the Russian Economy headed for Collapse?

The Conversation

By Eric Werker, Simon Fraser University | – (The Conversation) – To justify invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has painted Russia as a hegemonic power re-asserting its rightful claim to imperial greatness. Yet even before the invasion, Russia’s economic capabilities were hardly capable of sustaining an empire. Now, with foreign sanctions presiding over a plummeting Russian […]

Climate Crisis

Secret Files reveal how UN Climate Advisers ‘greenwashed’ for BP

Open Democracy

By Lucas Amin and Ben Webster | – ( OpenDemocracy.net) – The PR firm advising the UN on climate change campaigns has been accused by US lawmakers of helping BP “greenwash” its fossil fuel investments, openDemocracy can reveal. Internal BP documents released to the US House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee and published last […]

Inequality

The Top 10 Inequality Victories of 2022

Inequality.org

By Sarah Anderson | Inegality.org | – Congratulations to everyone who worked to move the country and the world towards greater equity in 2022. Herewith are 10 of the most inspiring economic inequality victories of the year. 1. The Union Boom No question. The union organizing surge has been this year’s top story. Petitions for […]