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November 5, 2013
from truthdig:
Pay No Attention to That Imperialist Behind the Curtain
Posted on Nov 4, 2013
By Robert Scheer
What John Kerry did this week in Egypt and Saudi Arabia is nothing short of despicable. He, and the president who appointed him, managed to honor both a vicious military dictatorship and a totalitarian medieval monarchy as examples of progress toward a more democratic Middle East, as if neither stood in contradiction to professed U.S. objectives for the region.
“Egyptians Following Right Path, Kerry Says,” read the New York Times headline Sunday trumpeting the secretary of state’s homage to ruthless military dictators who the very next day were scheduled to stage a show trial of Egypt’s first democratically elected president.
This was all part of a “road map” to democracy “being carried out to the best of our perception,” Kerry intoned, apparently embracing the calumny that the destruction of representative government in Egypt was always the American plan.
Kerry’s perception did not extend to the court farce the next day when Egypt’s duly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, held incommunicado for four months and denied access to his lawyers, was put on trial on accusations of causing violence among protesters in the streets, violence that paled in comparison to the deliberate killing of civilians by an Egyptian military trained and financed by the government Kerry represents. ...........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/pay_no_attention_to_that_imperialist_behind_the_curtain_20131104
Robert Scheer: Pay No Attention to That Imperialist Behind the Curtain
from truthdig:
Pay No Attention to That Imperialist Behind the Curtain
Posted on Nov 4, 2013
By Robert Scheer
What John Kerry did this week in Egypt and Saudi Arabia is nothing short of despicable. He, and the president who appointed him, managed to honor both a vicious military dictatorship and a totalitarian medieval monarchy as examples of progress toward a more democratic Middle East, as if neither stood in contradiction to professed U.S. objectives for the region.
“Egyptians Following Right Path, Kerry Says,” read the New York Times headline Sunday trumpeting the secretary of state’s homage to ruthless military dictators who the very next day were scheduled to stage a show trial of Egypt’s first democratically elected president.
This was all part of a “road map” to democracy “being carried out to the best of our perception,” Kerry intoned, apparently embracing the calumny that the destruction of representative government in Egypt was always the American plan.
Kerry’s perception did not extend to the court farce the next day when Egypt’s duly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, held incommunicado for four months and denied access to his lawyers, was put on trial on accusations of causing violence among protesters in the streets, violence that paled in comparison to the deliberate killing of civilians by an Egyptian military trained and financed by the government Kerry represents. ...........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/pay_no_attention_to_that_imperialist_behind_the_curtain_20131104
November 5, 2013
from Consortium News:
Blaming the Poor for Poverty
November 1, 2013
By Lawrence Davidson
Most of the poverty in the United States is artificially manufactured. It is poverty created in the pursuit of “free market ideals,” expressed in recent times by the imposition of neoliberal economic policies – the sort of policies that cut taxes on the wealthy, do away with fiscal and other business regulations, shred the social safety net, and erode middle-class stability – all while singing the praises of self-reliance and individual responsibility.
As a result we have done very well in making the rich richer and the poor both poorer and more numerous.
How many poor people are there in the United States? According to Current Population Survey (CPS), which puts out the government’s official figures, as of 2012 about 15 percent of the population, or some 46.5 million people, were living in poverty. The rate for children under 18 comes in higher, at about 21.8 percent.
The U.S. government measures poverty in monetary terms. In 2012 poverty was defined as yearly total income of $23,050 or less for a family of four. The figure is adjusted for individuals or other size families. Then there is the depressing fact that “most Americans (58.5 percent) will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between the ages of 25 and 75.” ........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/11/01/blaming-the-poor-for-poverty/
Blaming the Poor for Poverty
from Consortium News:
Blaming the Poor for Poverty
November 1, 2013
Unrestrained free markets destroy the middle class, push working people down the economic ladder and concentrate wealth at the top. But promoters of this hyper-capitalism, who dominate the U.S. media debate, simply blame the poor for poverty, as Lawrence Davidson explains.
By Lawrence Davidson
Most of the poverty in the United States is artificially manufactured. It is poverty created in the pursuit of “free market ideals,” expressed in recent times by the imposition of neoliberal economic policies – the sort of policies that cut taxes on the wealthy, do away with fiscal and other business regulations, shred the social safety net, and erode middle-class stability – all while singing the praises of self-reliance and individual responsibility.
As a result we have done very well in making the rich richer and the poor both poorer and more numerous.
How many poor people are there in the United States? According to Current Population Survey (CPS), which puts out the government’s official figures, as of 2012 about 15 percent of the population, or some 46.5 million people, were living in poverty. The rate for children under 18 comes in higher, at about 21.8 percent.
The U.S. government measures poverty in monetary terms. In 2012 poverty was defined as yearly total income of $23,050 or less for a family of four. The figure is adjusted for individuals or other size families. Then there is the depressing fact that “most Americans (58.5 percent) will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between the ages of 25 and 75.” ........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/11/01/blaming-the-poor-for-poverty/
November 5, 2013
John Bolton is reiterating his calls for Israel to unleash a military strike against Iran, saying he doesn't "think Israel has much time" to make that "fateful decision" and that ultimately it should "have done this years ago."
The former U.N. Ambassador and current senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute made the comments in a WABC radio interview Sunday with the Israel-based Aaron Klein.
Bolton slammed the Obama administration's policies towards what he called "Iran's nuclear weapons program" as "utterly feckless," and criticized the negotiations the U.S. has undertaken with Iran because they "will lead to a diplomatic victory for Iran." ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/04-2
John Bolton needs his war fix......right now !!!!!
John Bolton is reiterating his calls for Israel to unleash a military strike against Iran, saying he doesn't "think Israel has much time" to make that "fateful decision" and that ultimately it should "have done this years ago."
The former U.N. Ambassador and current senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute made the comments in a WABC radio interview Sunday with the Israel-based Aaron Klein.
Bolton slammed the Obama administration's policies towards what he called "Iran's nuclear weapons program" as "utterly feckless," and criticized the negotiations the U.S. has undertaken with Iran because they "will lead to a diplomatic victory for Iran." ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/04-2
November 5, 2013
via truthdig:
The Real Right-Wing Revolution Is Happening at the State Level
Posted on Nov 4, 2013
A wave of tea party-driven Republican political victories at the state level has spawned broad and draconian cuts in worker rights, workplace protections, and wages as part of a concerted effort by the business lobby to use public policy initiatives to shore up its own profits, a new report has found.
The attacks on public employees and their unions have been well chronicled—hello, Wisconsin. But as The Washington Post points out at its Wonkblog, less attention has been paid to the assaults on nonunion private-sector workers, those very people the right wing says it’s trying to protect as it scraps “closed shop” labor laws in places such as Michigan and Indiana. And even less attention has been paid to how coordinated these attacks have been.
The EPI report spells out how the tea party-backed state legislative leaders have thrown private-sector workers under the Big Business bus. Laws have been enacted cutting workers’ sick leave, removing overtime and workplace safety protections, and making it harder to sue for workplace discrimination, among others. They also have killed “project labor agreements,” or PLAs, used on massive construction projects to streamline the contracting process and provide the same protections for all workers involved in the project. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_real_right-wing_revolution_is_happening_at_the_state_level
The Real Right-Wing Revolution Is Happening at the State Level
via truthdig:
The Real Right-Wing Revolution Is Happening at the State Level
Posted on Nov 4, 2013
A wave of tea party-driven Republican political victories at the state level has spawned broad and draconian cuts in worker rights, workplace protections, and wages as part of a concerted effort by the business lobby to use public policy initiatives to shore up its own profits, a new report has found.
The attacks on public employees and their unions have been well chronicled—hello, Wisconsin. But as The Washington Post points out at its Wonkblog, less attention has been paid to the assaults on nonunion private-sector workers, those very people the right wing says it’s trying to protect as it scraps “closed shop” labor laws in places such as Michigan and Indiana. And even less attention has been paid to how coordinated these attacks have been.
So what should people draw from these actions? What extends across specific states to a general, nationwide, ideological agenda?
First, this isn’t just about public-sector workers, a subject that has long sparked political battles. These recent efforts are actually focused just as much, if not much more, on private-sector workers who aren’t in a union. Efforts to roll back everything from minimum wage laws to unemployment insurance affects everyone who works for a wage, and this is where the coordination across states has been particularly intense.
It’s also not just a matter of tighter state budgets. This is crucial to understanding the situation. For instance: 2011 saw the largest one-year decline in the number of state-level public-sector workers since records start in 1955. But the Republican-governed states that were most aggressive in laying off state workers had some of the smallest budget deficits.
The EPI report spells out how the tea party-backed state legislative leaders have thrown private-sector workers under the Big Business bus. Laws have been enacted cutting workers’ sick leave, removing overtime and workplace safety protections, and making it harder to sue for workplace discrimination, among others. They also have killed “project labor agreements,” or PLAs, used on massive construction projects to streamline the contracting process and provide the same protections for all workers involved in the project. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_real_right-wing_revolution_is_happening_at_the_state_level
November 5, 2013
The Superrich Don't Need Our Middle Class Infrastructure
Monday, 04 November 2013 15:36
By The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program| Op-Ed
America is falling apart - and this nation's super-rich are to blame.
There was once a time in America when the super-rich needed you, and me, and working-class Americans to be successful.
........(snip)........
But times have changed, and the super-rich of the 21st century no longer think that you and I are needed for their continued success.
And in some ways, they have given up on America, period.
As Paul Buchheit brilliantly points out over at AlterNet, "As they accumulate more and more wealth, the very rich have less need for society. At the same time, they've convinced themselves that they made it on their own, and that contributing to societal needs is unfair to them. There is ample evidence that this small group of takers is giving up on the country that made it possible for them to build huge fortune." .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19814-the-super-rich-dont-need-our-middle-class-infrastructure
The Superrich Don't Need Our Middle Class Infrastructure
The Superrich Don't Need Our Middle Class Infrastructure
Monday, 04 November 2013 15:36
By The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program| Op-Ed
America is falling apart - and this nation's super-rich are to blame.
There was once a time in America when the super-rich needed you, and me, and working-class Americans to be successful.
........(snip)........
But times have changed, and the super-rich of the 21st century no longer think that you and I are needed for their continued success.
And in some ways, they have given up on America, period.
As Paul Buchheit brilliantly points out over at AlterNet, "As they accumulate more and more wealth, the very rich have less need for society. At the same time, they've convinced themselves that they made it on their own, and that contributing to societal needs is unfair to them. There is ample evidence that this small group of takers is giving up on the country that made it possible for them to build huge fortune." .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19814-the-super-rich-dont-need-our-middle-class-infrastructure
November 4, 2013
from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:
Are Heartless People Simply Born That Way?
November 2, 2013
By Sam Pizzigati
Scrooge has come early this year. We’re kicking our Tiny Tims. This holiday season, kids in America’s poorest families are going to have less to eat.
November 1 brought $5 billion in new cuts to the nation’s food stamp program, now officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Poor families will lose on average 7 percent of their food aid, calculates the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A mother with two kids will lose $319 over the rest of the current federal fiscal year. The cuts could cost some families a week’s worth of meals a month, says the chief at America’s largest food bank.
More cuts are looming. A U.S. House of Representatives majority is demanding an additional $39 billion in “savings” over the next decade. Ohio and a host of other states, in the meantime, are moving to limit food stamp eligibility. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/are-heartless-people-simply-born-that-way/#sthash.s8VTsOT1.dpuf
Are Heartless People Simply Born That Way?
from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:
Are Heartless People Simply Born That Way?
November 2, 2013
People who cut food stamps — and gut child labor laws — most all had empathy when they came into the world. So what squeezed the empathy out? Analysts are pointing to inequality.
By Sam Pizzigati
Scrooge has come early this year. We’re kicking our Tiny Tims. This holiday season, kids in America’s poorest families are going to have less to eat.
November 1 brought $5 billion in new cuts to the nation’s food stamp program, now officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Poor families will lose on average 7 percent of their food aid, calculates the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A mother with two kids will lose $319 over the rest of the current federal fiscal year. The cuts could cost some families a week’s worth of meals a month, says the chief at America’s largest food bank.
More cuts are looming. A U.S. House of Representatives majority is demanding an additional $39 billion in “savings” over the next decade. Ohio and a host of other states, in the meantime, are moving to limit food stamp eligibility. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/are-heartless-people-simply-born-that-way/#sthash.s8VTsOT1.dpuf
November 4, 2013
from TomDispatch:
Ramblin' Man
John Kerry is a Figure of His Times (and That's Not a Good Thing)
By Peter Van Buren
In the 1960s, John Kerry was distinctly a man of his times. Kennedy-esque, he went from Yale to Vietnam to fight in a lost war. When popular sentiments on that war shifted, he became one of the more poignant voices raised in protest by antiwar veterans. Now, skip past his time as a congressman, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, senator, and presidential candidate (Swift Boated out of the race by the Republican right). Four decades after his Vietnam experience, he has achieved what will undoubtedly be the highest post of his lifetime: secretary of state. And he’s looked like a bumbler first class. Has he also been -- once again -- a true man of his time, of a moment in which American foreign policy, as well as its claim to global moral and diplomatic leadership, is in remarkable disarray?
In his nine months in office, Kerry's State Department has one striking accomplishment to its name. It has achieved a new level of media savvy in promoting itself and plugging its highest official as a rock star, a world leader in his own right (complete with photo-ops and sophisticated image-making). In the meantime, the secretary of state has been stumbling and bloviating from one crisis to the next, one debacle to another, surrounded by the well-crafted imagery of diplomatic effectiveness. He and his errant statements have become global punch lines, but is he truly to blame for his performance?
If statistics were diplomacy, Kerry would already be a raging success. At the State Department, his global travels are now proudly tracked by the mile, by minutes flown, and by countries visited. State even has a near-real-time ticker page set up at its website with his ever-changing data. In only nine months in office, Kerry has racked up 222,512 miles and a staggering 482.39 hours in the air (or nearly three weeks total). The numbers will be going up as Kerry is currently taking a 10-day trip to deal with another NSA crisis, in Poland this time, as well as the usual hijinks in the Middle East. His predecessor, Hillary Clinton, set a number of diplomatic travel records. In fact, she spent literally a full year, one quarter of her four years in office, hopscotching the globe. By comparison, Cold War Secretary of State George Schultz managed less than a year of travel time in his six years in office.
........(snip)........
As for Kerry’s nine-month performance review, here goes: he often seems unsure and distracted, projecting a sense that he might prefer to be anywhere else than wherever he is. In addition, he’s displayed a policy-crippling lack of information, remarkably little poise, and strikingly bad word choice, while regularly voicing surprising new positions on old issues. The logical conclusion might be to call for his instant resignation before more damage is done. (God help us, some Democratic voters may actually find themselves secretly wondering whether the country dodged a bullet in 2004 when George W. Bush won his dismal second term in office.) ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175767/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_america%27s_top_diplomat_is_lost_in_space/#more
Ramblin' Man: John Kerry is a Figure of His Times (and That's Not a Good Thing)
from TomDispatch:
Ramblin' Man
John Kerry is a Figure of His Times (and That's Not a Good Thing)
By Peter Van Buren
In the 1960s, John Kerry was distinctly a man of his times. Kennedy-esque, he went from Yale to Vietnam to fight in a lost war. When popular sentiments on that war shifted, he became one of the more poignant voices raised in protest by antiwar veterans. Now, skip past his time as a congressman, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, senator, and presidential candidate (Swift Boated out of the race by the Republican right). Four decades after his Vietnam experience, he has achieved what will undoubtedly be the highest post of his lifetime: secretary of state. And he’s looked like a bumbler first class. Has he also been -- once again -- a true man of his time, of a moment in which American foreign policy, as well as its claim to global moral and diplomatic leadership, is in remarkable disarray?
In his nine months in office, Kerry's State Department has one striking accomplishment to its name. It has achieved a new level of media savvy in promoting itself and plugging its highest official as a rock star, a world leader in his own right (complete with photo-ops and sophisticated image-making). In the meantime, the secretary of state has been stumbling and bloviating from one crisis to the next, one debacle to another, surrounded by the well-crafted imagery of diplomatic effectiveness. He and his errant statements have become global punch lines, but is he truly to blame for his performance?
If statistics were diplomacy, Kerry would already be a raging success. At the State Department, his global travels are now proudly tracked by the mile, by minutes flown, and by countries visited. State even has a near-real-time ticker page set up at its website with his ever-changing data. In only nine months in office, Kerry has racked up 222,512 miles and a staggering 482.39 hours in the air (or nearly three weeks total). The numbers will be going up as Kerry is currently taking a 10-day trip to deal with another NSA crisis, in Poland this time, as well as the usual hijinks in the Middle East. His predecessor, Hillary Clinton, set a number of diplomatic travel records. In fact, she spent literally a full year, one quarter of her four years in office, hopscotching the globe. By comparison, Cold War Secretary of State George Schultz managed less than a year of travel time in his six years in office.
........(snip)........
As for Kerry’s nine-month performance review, here goes: he often seems unsure and distracted, projecting a sense that he might prefer to be anywhere else than wherever he is. In addition, he’s displayed a policy-crippling lack of information, remarkably little poise, and strikingly bad word choice, while regularly voicing surprising new positions on old issues. The logical conclusion might be to call for his instant resignation before more damage is done. (God help us, some Democratic voters may actually find themselves secretly wondering whether the country dodged a bullet in 2004 when George W. Bush won his dismal second term in office.) ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175767/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_america%27s_top_diplomat_is_lost_in_space/#more
November 4, 2013
from truthdig:
By Bill Blum
The National Security Agency has pissed off the world, and the world is fighting back.
From the demonstrators who gathered on Capitol Hill on Oct. 26 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has dispatched a high-level protest delegation to the White House to the bipartisan group of senators and representatives who have introduced the USA Freedom Act to revamp the NSA, a global movement is gathering to stop the spy agency’s abuses.
For better or worse, the Supreme Court is also being asked—yet again—to join the fight. Last term, the court dismissed a lawsuit filed against the NSA by Amnesty International and other organizations over the alleged interception of emails, reasoning that none of the plaintiffs could prove their emails in fact had been seized and, therefore, that none had suffered the actual legal harm needed to satisfy the court’s strained definition of the “standing” required to prosecute a federal case (Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l).
In the coming weeks, in a vitally important and highly innovative case that has received surprisingly little media attention, the court will rule on the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss a new petition filed by the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, which seeks to halt the NSA’s practice of collecting telephone activity records—the so-called metadata showing the numbers dialed, together with the dates and duration of calls—for virtually every American who uses a phone. Given the incredibly broad sweep of the metadata program, a substantive court ruling could have a lasting impact not only on the NSA’s future as a covert agency but on the future of privacy protections worldwide. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_nsa_has_pissed_off_the_entire_world_will_the_supreme_court_intervene_20
The NSA Has Pissed Off the Entire World—Will the Supreme Court Intervene?
from truthdig:
By Bill Blum
The National Security Agency has pissed off the world, and the world is fighting back.
From the demonstrators who gathered on Capitol Hill on Oct. 26 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has dispatched a high-level protest delegation to the White House to the bipartisan group of senators and representatives who have introduced the USA Freedom Act to revamp the NSA, a global movement is gathering to stop the spy agency’s abuses.
For better or worse, the Supreme Court is also being asked—yet again—to join the fight. Last term, the court dismissed a lawsuit filed against the NSA by Amnesty International and other organizations over the alleged interception of emails, reasoning that none of the plaintiffs could prove their emails in fact had been seized and, therefore, that none had suffered the actual legal harm needed to satisfy the court’s strained definition of the “standing” required to prosecute a federal case (Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l).
In the coming weeks, in a vitally important and highly innovative case that has received surprisingly little media attention, the court will rule on the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss a new petition filed by the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, which seeks to halt the NSA’s practice of collecting telephone activity records—the so-called metadata showing the numbers dialed, together with the dates and duration of calls—for virtually every American who uses a phone. Given the incredibly broad sweep of the metadata program, a substantive court ruling could have a lasting impact not only on the NSA’s future as a covert agency but on the future of privacy protections worldwide. .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_nsa_has_pissed_off_the_entire_world_will_the_supreme_court_intervene_20
November 4, 2013
Listen: http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-banks-and-austerity
by Richard Wolff.
Published on November 3, 2013
Updates on Goldman Sachs charity/PR, bank scandals, housing "recovery" exposed, suicides rise in Kansas, and Benedictine Nun leads new anti-austerity party in Catalonia. Major discussions of public banking (as in North Dakota) and the basic analysis of continuing "austerity" policies around the world. Response to questions on nature, impact, and injustice of US property taxes.
Professor Richard Wolff's Economic Update: Banks and Austerity (audio link)
Listen: http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-banks-and-austerity
by Richard Wolff.
Published on November 3, 2013
Updates on Goldman Sachs charity/PR, bank scandals, housing "recovery" exposed, suicides rise in Kansas, and Benedictine Nun leads new anti-austerity party in Catalonia. Major discussions of public banking (as in North Dakota) and the basic analysis of continuing "austerity" policies around the world. Response to questions on nature, impact, and injustice of US property taxes.
November 3, 2013
Beyond the economic consequences of continuing withdrawal, the political effects will likely be more pronounced and visible. The old political compromise will no longer be honored. Capitalists withdrawing from the old centers need not and will not pay rising real wages there. Indeed, they have not done so for several decades. For a while, household and government debt increases postponed the effects of those stagnant or falling real wages. Because the credit bubble built on that debt burst in 2007, north America, western Europe, and Japan now face the full force of a withdrawing capitalism without the debt cushion. That means fewer and/or poorer jobs at shrinking pay levels with fewer benefits and reduced government-provided services. Will workers accept a capitalism that preserves all the power and income ceded to capitalists while ending the workers’ compensation of rising real wages? ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/us-political-dysfunction-and-capitalism%E2%80%99s-withdrawal
....................
Corporate rule hurts the US more than shutdown
....................
Most Republicans and Democrats facilitated the process by endlessly promoting "free trade" and arguing that any constraints on free enterprises' relocations were unthinkable, inefficient and other synonyms for "really bad". As more and more jobs left the US, and formerly prosperous cities and states entered long-term declines, the two parties blamed their favorite targets: one another.
The idea that capitalism and capitalists were the problem was something neither Democrats or Republicans allow into their debates and talking-points. Yet, it was precisely capitalists' profit-driven, self-interested decisions to move that have caused our economic problems. And so they remain. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/22/republicans-democrats-bipartisan-consensus-capitalism
....................
Listen (audio): http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-economic-decline-mounts
by Richard Wolff.
Published on July 6, 2013
Updates on political economy of "internships," Philadelphia public schools disaster, Obama criticized by South African unions. Major discussions of social costs of financial crises, "quantitative easing" policies, and the contradictions of capitalism (part 1). Response to question on workers self-directed enterprises as means for transition beyond capitalism.
.....................
Richard Wolff - Intro to Marxian Economics (Session One)
.....................
A socialism for the 21st century must include and stress the importance of micro-level social transformation at the base of society in the workplace. Ending exploitation in workplaces is that transformation. Instead of workers producing surpluses for others to appropriate and distribute, they must now do that for themselves collectively. They must become their own board of directors. Ending workplace exploitation means that non-workers, whether private individuals or state officials, can no longer appropriate or distribute workers' surpluses. As "producer cooperatives" or "democratized enterprises" (among other names), such transformed workplaces represent a priority goal of a new socialism. That socialism stresses the micro-level transformation of society - the end of exploitation wherever people work - as the necessary companion or counterpart to the traditional macro-focus on property ownership and distribution mechanisms. The macro and micro components of socialism would both become equally necessary, conditions of each other's existence, mutually reinforcing as well as mutually dependent. Neither will be viewed or treated by policy as determinant of the other. Both will shape one another much as they both shape and are shaped by the larger social and natural contexts. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/socialism-21st-century
....................
&feature=player_embedded
On Economic Update with Professor Richard Wolff, Wolff and guests will discuss the current state of the economy, both locally and globally in relation to the economic crisis.
Wolff will focus on wages, jobs, taxes, and debts - and on interest rates, prices, and profits. We aim to explain why certain economic changes are happening and other changes get postponed or blocked and we will explore alternative ways to organize enterprises, markets, and government policies. Economic Update is a weekly show for people who want to understand and change not only their own financial situation but also the larger economy we all depend on.
....................
To cut Social Security payments now punishes the people already most afflicted by the capitalist crisis that they did not cause. The richest Americans and the large financial and other corporations are the least affected by cutting Social Security, yet they push the hardest for those cuts. The rich and the corporations gained the most over the last 30 years, bear much responsibility for the crisis, and got big bailouts exclusively for themselves. The rich and the corporations saved billions as working people overfunded Social Security with their excess payroll taxes over decades.
The abuse of Social Security, already decades old, reaches a new level of injustice with the impending cuts in payouts to eligible beneficiaries. Alongside unemployment, home foreclosures, reduced job benefits and security, falling real wages, and rising indebtedness, the assault on Social Security further squeezes the mass of Americans for the benefit of the few at the top. This reality trumps words of concern for "the middle class" pouring from Republicans and Democrats, Boehner and Obama. Politically, pressures keep building. Social Security may prove to be an explosive spark. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/social-securitys-explosive-injustices
....................
Listen (audio): http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-social-turmoil-coming
by Richard Wolff and Chris Hedges.
Published on April 12, 2013
Updates on CEO pay, the assault on social security, Maggie Thatcher, and "job creation." Interview with Chris Hedges on deepening social crisis, divisions, and turmoil coming. Response to listeners: on French socialists, hidden money, and workers coops paying taxes.
....................
The Economic Crisis and Globalization - Part 1: The Economic Crisis, An Overview
Hungry Like the Wolff: A compilation of items from Richard Wolff, an economist who "gets it"
Beyond the economic consequences of continuing withdrawal, the political effects will likely be more pronounced and visible. The old political compromise will no longer be honored. Capitalists withdrawing from the old centers need not and will not pay rising real wages there. Indeed, they have not done so for several decades. For a while, household and government debt increases postponed the effects of those stagnant or falling real wages. Because the credit bubble built on that debt burst in 2007, north America, western Europe, and Japan now face the full force of a withdrawing capitalism without the debt cushion. That means fewer and/or poorer jobs at shrinking pay levels with fewer benefits and reduced government-provided services. Will workers accept a capitalism that preserves all the power and income ceded to capitalists while ending the workers’ compensation of rising real wages? ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/us-political-dysfunction-and-capitalism%E2%80%99s-withdrawal
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Corporate rule hurts the US more than shutdown
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Most Republicans and Democrats facilitated the process by endlessly promoting "free trade" and arguing that any constraints on free enterprises' relocations were unthinkable, inefficient and other synonyms for "really bad". As more and more jobs left the US, and formerly prosperous cities and states entered long-term declines, the two parties blamed their favorite targets: one another.
The idea that capitalism and capitalists were the problem was something neither Democrats or Republicans allow into their debates and talking-points. Yet, it was precisely capitalists' profit-driven, self-interested decisions to move that have caused our economic problems. And so they remain. .........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/22/republicans-democrats-bipartisan-consensus-capitalism
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Listen (audio): http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-economic-decline-mounts
by Richard Wolff.
Published on July 6, 2013
Updates on political economy of "internships," Philadelphia public schools disaster, Obama criticized by South African unions. Major discussions of social costs of financial crises, "quantitative easing" policies, and the contradictions of capitalism (part 1). Response to question on workers self-directed enterprises as means for transition beyond capitalism.
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Richard Wolff - Intro to Marxian Economics (Session One)
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A socialism for the 21st century must include and stress the importance of micro-level social transformation at the base of society in the workplace. Ending exploitation in workplaces is that transformation. Instead of workers producing surpluses for others to appropriate and distribute, they must now do that for themselves collectively. They must become their own board of directors. Ending workplace exploitation means that non-workers, whether private individuals or state officials, can no longer appropriate or distribute workers' surpluses. As "producer cooperatives" or "democratized enterprises" (among other names), such transformed workplaces represent a priority goal of a new socialism. That socialism stresses the micro-level transformation of society - the end of exploitation wherever people work - as the necessary companion or counterpart to the traditional macro-focus on property ownership and distribution mechanisms. The macro and micro components of socialism would both become equally necessary, conditions of each other's existence, mutually reinforcing as well as mutually dependent. Neither will be viewed or treated by policy as determinant of the other. Both will shape one another much as they both shape and are shaped by the larger social and natural contexts. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/socialism-21st-century
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On Economic Update with Professor Richard Wolff, Wolff and guests will discuss the current state of the economy, both locally and globally in relation to the economic crisis.
Wolff will focus on wages, jobs, taxes, and debts - and on interest rates, prices, and profits. We aim to explain why certain economic changes are happening and other changes get postponed or blocked and we will explore alternative ways to organize enterprises, markets, and government policies. Economic Update is a weekly show for people who want to understand and change not only their own financial situation but also the larger economy we all depend on.
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To cut Social Security payments now punishes the people already most afflicted by the capitalist crisis that they did not cause. The richest Americans and the large financial and other corporations are the least affected by cutting Social Security, yet they push the hardest for those cuts. The rich and the corporations gained the most over the last 30 years, bear much responsibility for the crisis, and got big bailouts exclusively for themselves. The rich and the corporations saved billions as working people overfunded Social Security with their excess payroll taxes over decades.
The abuse of Social Security, already decades old, reaches a new level of injustice with the impending cuts in payouts to eligible beneficiaries. Alongside unemployment, home foreclosures, reduced job benefits and security, falling real wages, and rising indebtedness, the assault on Social Security further squeezes the mass of Americans for the benefit of the few at the top. This reality trumps words of concern for "the middle class" pouring from Republicans and Democrats, Boehner and Obama. Politically, pressures keep building. Social Security may prove to be an explosive spark. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://rdwolff.com/content/social-securitys-explosive-injustices
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Listen (audio): http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-social-turmoil-coming
by Richard Wolff and Chris Hedges.
Published on April 12, 2013
Updates on CEO pay, the assault on social security, Maggie Thatcher, and "job creation." Interview with Chris Hedges on deepening social crisis, divisions, and turmoil coming. Response to listeners: on French socialists, hidden money, and workers coops paying taxes.
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The Economic Crisis and Globalization - Part 1: The Economic Crisis, An Overview
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