Debt

The US Is Borrowing Its Way To Fascism

September 13, 2020 Richard D. Wolff, Information Clearinghouse. Educate! Capitalism, Corporatism, Debt, Fascism

Viewing the GOP convention seemed a little like binge-watching the last several years’ parade of none-too-subtle signs of incipient fascism. We saw extreme nationalism, scapegoating immigrants and foreigners in general, white supremacy, “strong (narcissistic)-man” government, aggressive foreign policies, and hysterical red-baiting. Those signs reflect how capitalism’s deepening crisis undermines both the centre-left (Democrat) and centre-right (GOP) and shifts politics further right and further left. Trump represents the anti-centre right, Bernie Sanders the anti-centre left.

Mexico: Revolt Demands Access To Water Allotted To US

August 6, 2020 It's Going Down, Earth First! Resist! Debt, Mexico, United States, Water

Since Wednesday July 29, self-organized protests by campesinos and community members have kicked off in the municipality of Rosales in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. These coordinated actions have been directed against government buildings and other representations of the Mexican state, like CONAGUA (Mexico’s National Water Commission). They are an expression of the refusal by the local population to be denied water from the “Las Virgenes” dam so that the Mexican state can cover a debt it has with the United States.

Fed Guarantees Unproductive Debt And Perilous Speculation

July 30, 2020 Ralph Nader, Nader.org. Educate! Debt, Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Recession

The Federal Reserve Board – our unaccountable Central Bank – needs more citizen and Congressional supervision. Fees from financial institutions fund its operations, not Congressional appropriations. It is as secret as it wants to be and that’s plenty. (See Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country by William Greider). Plus, the Fed can print money at will. In the past several years it has “produced” trillions of dollars that juiced the stock market’s speculation. Fed Chairman, Jerome H. Powell, has chosen to instill “confidence” in the stock markets and credit markets by injecting trillions of dollars into the financial system to reassure the Wall Street speculators that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t crash the money markets into chaos and bankruptcies. But Powell, the Fed and the bankers who dominate the Fed and its regional branches have set the stage for this constant bailout of reckless bubbles and debt binges.

Without Federal Aid To State And Local Governments, Millions Will Lose Their Jobs

July 28, 2020 Josh Bivens and David Cooper, Economic Policy Institute. Educate! Austerity, Debt, Recession, State budgets

Because a weakening economy undercuts state and local tax revenues, and because states operate under balanced budget constraints, the coming months will see intense downward pressure on state and local spending. Reductions in this spending will in turn significantly slow recovery from the current economic crisis. This is not an abstract concern—the historically slow recovery in state and local spending following the Great Recession by itself delayed a recovery in unemployment to pre-crisis levels by four full years.

The University Community As A Microcosm Of The National Economy

July 4, 2020 Harry Targ, Diary of a Heartland Radical. Educate! College, COVID-19, Debt, Modern Monetary Theory

In sum, MMT suggests that the printing of money can be calibrated to the fulfillment of short and long term needs. Money could and should be provided for health care for all, support for education (K through university), structural renovation, transitioning away from fossil fuels, the creation of jobs for all and universal basic income programs, and support for a Green New Deal. These programs were vitally needed before the pandemic and are even more essential since its onset. Of course, cutting military spending, pork-barrel legislation, and creating a progressive tax system helps. But the human needs articulated by progressives should be defended. And doing so requires a realistic assessment of the causes and consequences of the national debt. History has shown that the idea of “the debt” has been an ideological tool used to challenge the creation of a just society.

Debt Strike Needed As Debt Collectors Keep Coming After Millions Of People

June 9, 2020 By Paul Kiel and Jeff Ernsthausen, ProPublica. Educate! COVID-19, Debt, Debt Strike, Healthcare costs, Recession

Over the past couple decades, Capital One, Lugo’s pursuer, helped lead the way in transforming the nation’s local courts into collection machines. As recently as the 1990s, these courts conformed to the picture most people have in their heads, primarily working as a venue where a judge resolved disputes between two sides represented by a lawyer. Now the most common type of case is debt collection, a recent Pew Charitable Trusts report found. Lining up against debtors who are almost never represented by an attorney, debt collection companies win millions of court judgments each year, which then allow them to seize debtors’ wages for years into the future. An old unpaid bill will fall off a credit report after seven years, but a court judgment can haunt someone forever.

Capitalism’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’

May 30, 2020 Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead, Occupy.com. Educate! Capitalism, COVID-19, Debt, Recession

At a time when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, maintaining comfortable living standards for the majority requires reliance on abundant borrowing. Too much lending, as we saw in the financial crisis of 2008 with the collapse of global investment banks like Lehman Brothers, can have devastating impacts on everyday people. Nevertheless, somehow lending is now described as “the answer to capitalism’s dirty little secret.” That dirty little secret is coming back to haunt us amid the current crisis where lending is being treated as an immediate "solution" to help businesses and economies weather the financial storm. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the global economy on to a cliff edge, even as there were encouraging signs of an economic recovery from the 2008 banking collapse.

The Generosity Of Agriculture

May 19, 2020 By Kerry Hoffschneider, Indianz. Create! Debt, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Meatpackers

The generosity of agriculture and the potential for farmers, ranchers and all people to act in more selfless fashions can be found amongst the chaos of the times if one looks for it closely enough, said Zach Ducheneaux, Executive Director of the Intertribal Ag Council (IAC). Ducheneaux, who works with his family on their fourth-generation ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in north central South Dakota, has experienced the challenges and successes of the current food system in this nation firsthand. He took the time to tell an important story to help inspire more goodwill and problem solving in the wake of tumultuous times. “Even in these times of uncertainty, collapsing markets and few signs of hope on the horizon – farmers, ranchers, some government officials, nonprofits and Tribal Nations are thinking of ways to serve others first,” Ducheneaux began.

A Universal Basic Income Is Essential And Will Work

April 20, 2020 Ellen Brown, The Web of Debt Blog. Create! Debt, Federal Reserve, New Economy, Recession, Universal Basic Income

According to an April 6 article on CNBC.com, Spain is slated to become the first country in Europe to introduce a universal basic income (UBI) on a long-term basis. Spain’s Minister for Economic Affairs has announced plans to roll out a UBI “as soon as possible,” with the goal of providing a nationwide basic wage that supports citizens “forever.” Guy Standing, a research professor at the University of London, told CNBC that there was no prospect of a global economic revival without a universal basic income. “It’s almost a no-brainer,” he said. “We are going to have some sort of basic income system sooner or later ….” “Where will the government find the money?” is no longer a valid objection to providing an economic safety net for the people.

Public Banking Would Help Speed Economic Recovery

April 18, 2020 Isaiah Poole and Rick Girling, The Hill. Create! COVID-19, Debt, Public Banking, Recession

At least 90 percent of the nation’s cities are facing a budget crisis because of the economic shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a mid-April report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities. Because municipal governments cannot run deficits, they will have to respond by cutting staff and programs, which will worsen the economic conditions of the cities they serve. If cities had public banks, they would be much better equipped to deal with these budget shortfalls and maintain the services and staff most vital to their economic recovery. That’s why state and local political leaders should use emergency powers to rapidly create public banks that can serve as key engines of a just and sustainable economic recovery. Public banks are new to most of us in America, but they have been a proven institution globally for the past few hundred years.

Over 30% Of US Renters Didn’t Pay April Apartment Rent

April 14, 2020 Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge. Educate! COVID-19, Debt, Recession, Rent Strike

Landlords across the country have been left in the lurch after nearly one-third of apartment renters in the US didn't pay any of their April rent during the first week of the month, according to new data from the National Multifamily Housing Council to be released Wednesday. The shocking figure comes as 10 million new unemployment claims were filed in the past three weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the report cited by the Wall Street Journal, just 69% of tenants paid any rent between April 1 and 5 vs. 81% the same week in March and 82% in April 2019. The count includes renters who only made partial payments. Many renters who haven’t yet paid may still pay later this month, NMHC said, and an uptick in paperless payments over the weekend may not be reflected in this initial count.

No Turning Back After Central Bankers’ ‘Seismic Stimulus Shift’

April 7, 2020 Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi, Reuters. Create! Central Bank, Debt, Federal Reserve, Global Recession

The tools used by the Federal Reserve and the central banks in the euro zone and Japan differ slightly but they mostly involve new, massive purchases of financial assets and cheap credit for banks and companies. At their core, they all revolve around one concept: gobbling up private and public debt, which has been growing for a long time and is bound to explode as the pandemic hampers borrowers’ ability to pay and bumps up government spending. Each central bank, albeit to varying degrees, is still paying lip service to the notions of independence from politics, a foundation of central banking since the 1980s. But as they hoover up a growing share of their country’s public and private debt, “coordination” between fiscal and monetary authorities has become the new mantra among policymakers.

Ten Signs The US Is Heading For A Depression

April 6, 2020 Mike Whitney, The Unz Review. Educate! Debt, Depression, Food Insecurity, Unemployment

Thursday’s jobless claims leave no doubt that the country is in the grips of another severe recession. More than 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the last week. That number exceeds the gloomiest prediction of more than 40 economists and pushes the two-week total to an eye-watering 10 million claims. According to CNBC: “Those at the lower end of the wage scale have been especially hard-hit during a crisis that has seen businesses either cut staff outright or at best freeze any new hiring until there’s more visibility about how efforts to contain the coronavirus will work. “We’ve lived through the recession and 9/11. What we’re seeing with this decline is actually worse than both of those events,” said Irina Novoselsky, CEO of online jobs marketplace CareerBuilder.” (CNBC) According to New York Magazine: “Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louisprojected Monday that job losses from the coronavirus recession would reach 47 million and push America’s unemployment rate to 32.1 percent — more than 7 points higher than its Great Depression–era peak.”

Midwest Farmers Face Suicide Crisis

March 15, 2020 By Katie Wedell, Lucille Sherman and Sky Chadde, USA TODAY Network. Educate! Debt, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, suicide

One by one, the three men from the same close-knit community took their own lives. Their deaths spanned a two-year stretch starting in mid-2015 and shook the village of Georgetown, Ohio, about 40 miles southeast of Cincinnati. All of the men were in their 50s and 60s. All were farmers. Heather Utter, whose husband’s cousin was the third to die by suicide, worries that her father could be next. The longtime dairy farmer, who for years struggled to keep his operation afloat, sold the last of his cows in January amid his declining health and dwindling finances. The decision crushed him. “He’s done nothing but milk cows all his life,” said Utter, whose father declined to be interviewed. “It was a big decision, a sad decision. But at what point do you say enough is enough?”

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