U.S. President Donald Trump and his ‘war council’–led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo–have amplified their aggression against China.
Subjects Archives: Financialization
A victory for students and parents: SPLC, allies win case blocking DeVos from diverting COVID-19 relief funds away from public schools
A federal court has sent a clear message to U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: You cannot use a national crisis as an excuse to advance your education privatization agenda by siphoning desperately needed COVID-19 relief money away from public schools.
Times remain hard, especially for low-wage workers
The current economic crisis has hit workers hard. Unemployment rates remain high, with total weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits continuing to grow.
Chart of the day
The number of continued claims for unemployment compensation, while below its peak, rose from the previous week and was more than 29 million American workers—a figure that includes workers receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
Mainstream macroeconomics—pandemic edition
Right now, the United States is mired in an economic depression, the Pandemic Depression, not dissimilar to what happened in the 1930s and again after the crash of 2007-08.
The stage is set for a Venezuela October surprise
Aggression against Venezuela from the U.S. has intensified in recent weeks and all signs are pointing towards an escalation ahead of elections in the U.S. and Venezuela.
‘What stage of capitalism is this?’ Hedge fund $3 billion richer thanks to wager on wildfire insurance claims
With over 100,000 people displaced by wildfires raging across California, Baupost Group collected more than $3 billion in July after betting on insurance claims against embattled utility company PG&E.
Billionaires—pandemic edition
2019 was a very good year for the world’s wealthiest individuals. The normal workings of global capitalism created both more billionaires and more combined wealth owned by those billionaires.
“A disturbing milestone”: America’s top 12 plutocrats now own $1 Trillion in wealth
New figures from the Institute for Policy Studies show that, despite a pandemic that has stunted the economy for months, America’s billionaire class is becoming richer than ever, adding nearly $700 billion to their fortune since the nationwide lockdown in March.
To the victor belong the spoils
The phrase, which was used in the early nineteenth century to describe the the spoils system of appointing government workers, accurately describes the American economy today.* And it’s pretty clear who the victor is, and it’s not the working-class. Instead, a small group at the top have come out as the victor—and that’s been true […]
Anti-laundering bill targeting shell companies stalled in Senate as big banks caught cooking books
The Anti-Money Laundering Act would expose the owners of shell companies now sits alone on a shelf in the U.S. Senate while the Federal Reserve shrugs its shoulders in the face of blatant manipulation by the too-big-to-fail banks.
Trade and tensions between the U.S. and China
The Donald Trump administration uses every mechanism to cut China out of the global supply chain, but nothing seems to be working as a resolute China is unwilling to back down and dismantle its technological gains.
Chart of the day
All told, 54.1 million American workers have filed initial unemployment claims during the past nineteen weeks.
White House brands teachers “essential workers” to force reopening of schools
The comparison between teachers and meatpacking workers is highly significant and must be taken as a sharp warning by teachers and all education workers.
An inside look at Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution on its 41st anniversary
The Grayzone reports from inside Nicaragua’s capital on the 41st anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, covering a speech by President Daniel Ortega, showing how the leftist government has responded to the coronavirus pandemic, and surveying the rising tide of U.S. and corporate media disinformation.
Leftist leaders call for cancellation of debts owed by developing countries
A statement signed by former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and Indian Kerala State’s finance minister Thomas Isaac, among others, highlights the inadequacy of the measures announced recently by the G20 and IMF to postpone debt repayment.
Some are in super-yachts and others are clinging to drifting debris
COVID-19 has exposed the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all, the fiction that unpaid care work isn’t work, the delusion that we live in a post-racist world. We are all floating on the same sea, but some are in super-yachts and others clinging to drifting debris.
As Trump threatens secret police deployment nationwide, Democrats debate expanding surveillance powers and new money for DHS
The rogue deployment of secret federal police forces in Portland, Oregon, has added a new complication to negotiations over reauthorizing the Trump administration’s vast surveillance powers and appropriating new money for the Department of Homeland Security.
Divergent recoveries—pandemic edition
The existing alphabet soup of possible recoveries—V, U, W, and so on (which I discussed back in April)—is clearly inadequate to describe what has been taking place in the United States in recent months.
Defunding police and challenging militarism, a necessary response to their “battle space”
The excessive use of force and killings of unarmed Black Americans by police has fueled a popular movement for slashing police budgets, reimagining policing, and directing freed funds to community-based programs that provide medical and mental health care, housing, and employment support to those in need. This is a long overdue development.
