Debt

The U.S. Is In Debt To Central America

August 6, 2019 César Chelala, Informationclearinghouse.info Educate! Central America, Debt, History, Latin America, US Imperialism

August 01, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - At the beginning of the 1980s, during a meeting in New York with then ex-President Jimmy Carter, I accompanied Argentine Nobel Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel as his translator. At that time, wars were ravaging the Central American countries. I remember vividly how at one point Carter asked Pérez Esquivel, “And what do you think, Adolfo, that the U.S. should be doing in Central America?” Such a direct and honest question by a former U.S. president would be unthinkable today.

Puerto Ricans’ Revolt Is Deeper Than The Governor’s Chats

July 23, 2019 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Corruption, Debt, Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico

Puerto Ricans have suffered over the past several years from deep debt, a faltering economy and the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Struggling to hold on, the final straw came when hundreds of chats between the Governor and other officials were published showing their blatant disregard for the living and the thousands who died after Maria. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have mobilized to demand the Governor's resignation. We speak with Natasha Bannan, a lawyer who lives in Puerto Rico and is active in the protests about the corruption and subversion of democracy behind this mass uprising, what the people want and how activists can support Puerto Ricans.

Low-Wage Workers Being Sued For Medical Bills By Nonprofit Hospital That Employs Them

June 30, 2019 Wendi C. Thomas, MLK50, Pro Publica. Educate! Debt, Healthcare, Low wages, Medical Bills

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — This year, a Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare housekeeper left her job just three hours into her shift and caught a bus to Shelby County General Sessions Court. Wearing her black and gray uniform, she had a different kind of appointment with her employer: The hospital was suing her for unpaid medical bills. In 2017, the nonprofit hospital system based in Memphis sued the woman for the cost of hospital stays to treat chronic abdominal pain she experienced before the hospital hired her. She now owes Methodist more than $23,000, including around $5,800 in attorney’s fees. It’s surreal, she said, to be sued by the organization that pays her $12.25 an hour. “You know how much you pay me. And the money you’re paying, I can’t live on,” said the housekeeper, who asked that her name not be used for fear that the hospital would fire her for talking to a reporter.

The Bankers’ ‘Power Revolution’: How the Government Got Shackled by Debt

June 2, 2019 Ellen Brown, Web of Debt. Educate! Debt, New Economy, Public Banks

US debt is unnecessary. has been financially sovereign ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the dollar off the gold standard domestically in 1933. This was recognized by Beardsley Ruml, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in a 1945 presentation before the American Bar Association titled “Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete.” “The necessity for government to tax in order to maintain both its independence and its solvency is true for state and local governments,” he said, “but it is not true for a national government.” The government was now at liberty to spend as needed to meet its budget, drawing on credit issued by its own central bank. It could do this until price inflation indicated a weakened purchasing power of the currency.

Why Thousands Are Getting Hit With Unexpected Medical Bills

June 1, 2019 Simon F. Haeder, Theconversation.com Educate! Debt, Health Care, Insurance

Hardly a week goes by without another story in the media covering a family somewhere in America dealing with an outrageous medical bill. Yet, in more and more cases, these families don’t have junk insurance, or lack coverage altogether. Indeed, they have what Americans would consider decent coverage, either through their employer or an Affordable Care Act marketplace. They also followed, or so they thought, the rules of their insurance policy requiring them to seek care inside their provider network. Yet, they are slapped with surprise bills, and often threatened by bankruptcy.

Evaluate War’s True Costs, Including Massive Debt

April 26, 2019 Ed Flaherty, Vcnv.org Educate! Debt, Wars and Militarism

Have we become a welfare state for the military-industrial complex? In August, 2018, Congress passed the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with overwhelming bi-partisan support. It authorized a whopping $717 BILLION in military expenditures, a $98 Billion increase over the 2017 NDAA. Only ten senators voted against this bill, and neither of Iowa’s two senators was among the ten. Why is this important? First, and most easily understood, is that the FY 2019 military budget translates into about $2,200 per person in the United States. Repeat, $2,200 per person. Of course, that is not proportionally reflected in the taxes that we pay.

Lesson From History: How Bronze Age Rulers Simply Canceled Debts

April 18, 2019 By Michael Hudson, Evonomics.com Strategize! Debt, History, New Economy

There has been an explosion of discussion about whether to cancel student debts. Critics of the idea point out that wealthy people would be the main gainers, posing moral hazard. The debate has has quickly slipped into a discussion of modern economies and whether it was moral to cancel the debts of people who are in arrears, when some people have struggled to keep current on their payments.” Bankers and bondholders love this argument, because it says, “Don’t cancel debts. Make everyone pay, or someone will get a free ride.”

“Earth-Shattering” Book Argues That Ancients Routinely Did What Our Government Should Do: Give Debtors A Clean Slate

March 6, 2019 Staff, Publicbankinginstitute.org Create! Debt, History, New Economy

Michael Hudson, one of the few economists who accurately predicted the Great Recession, has written a book — …and Forgive Them Their Debts — that caused John Siman to remark in Naked Capitalism: “To grasp his central argument is so alien to our modern way of thinking … that Hudson quite matter-of-factly agreed with me that the book is … ‘earth-shattering’ in both intent and effect.” Hudson’s central argument is that, again and again, century after century, forgiveness of debts had been a necessary cornerstone of successful civilizations.

Single Mother And Healthcare Worker Jailed For Three Days In Indiana Over Unpaid Ambulance Bill

March 5, 2019 George Marlowe, Wsws.org Educate! Criminalization, Debt

Melissa Latronica is a 30-year-old healthcare worker and single mother of three who lives in La Porte, Indiana, 65 miles southeast of Chicago. On February 11, Melissa was pulled over by police in a traffic stop. She was then arrested and jailed for three days over an unpaid ambulance bill. “I was on my way to turn in some important paperwork that would let me keep my home,” she told the World Socialist Web Site. She was heading to a county agency in nearby Valparaiso, Indiana.

Two-Thirds Of Bankruptcy Still Caused By Medical Illness And Medical Bills

February 8, 2019 Staff, Pnhp.org Educate! Bankruptcy, Debt, Health Care, Health Insurance

Medical problems contributed to 66.5% of all bankruptcies, a figure that is virtually unchanged since before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a study published yesterday as an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health. The findings indicate that 530,000 families suffer bankruptcies each year that are linked to illness or medical bills. The study, carried out by a team of two doctors, two lawyers, and a sociologist from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), surveyed a random sample of 910 Americans who filed for personal bankruptcy between 2013 and 2016, and abstracted the court records of their bankruptcy filings.

Russia And China Continue Dumping US Treasuries

February 2, 2019 Staff, Rt.com Educate! China, Currency, Debt, Russia, Treasury

The latest US Treasury Department data shows that foreign investors slashed their holdings of American debt in November by $105 billion, from a year earlier, to $6.2 trillion. China, the largest foreign holder of US debt, slashed its holdings for a sixth straight month in November. Beijing had $1.12 trillion in US Treasuries, down from $1.138 trillion in October. The decline brought China’s Treasury holdings to the lowest level since May 2017, the data showed.

US Student Loan Debt Hits Record $1.46 Trillion. Funny, That’s More Than GOP’s Corporate-Friendly Tax Giveaway

December 29, 2018 Jon Queally, Commondreams.org Create! Debt, Student Loans

It's been almost a year since the Republican Party and President Donald Trump delivered their behemoth giveaway to the nation's corporations and wealthiest individuals by passing a $1.5 trillion controversial tax bill that will ultimately blow a $5 trillion hole—or larger—in the nation's budget. On Monday morning, Bloomberg reported that the amount of U.S. student loan debt has more than doubled since 2009 and now sits at a record $1.47 trillion. That's interesting. Those numbers are very similar in size. Meanwhile, also on Monday morning, Forbes noted how—due to the fraudulent practices of for-profit colleges and under orders from a federal court...

Breaking The Chains Of Debt: Lessons From Babylonia For Today’s Student Crisis

November 29, 2018 By Michael Hudson, Inequality.org Educate! Debt, History, Inequality

Today, the wealthy depict inequality in glowing colors as a byproduct of economies pulling ahead, “creating wealth” by innovations that add to prosperity. This view is unprecedented in history. From antiquity to quite recently, personal accumulation of large amounts of wealth was frowned upon, because it usually was achieved at the expense of others. One party’s gain often tended to be at the expense of others, polarizing communities by pushing many below poverty levels. The most corrosive method of gaining personal wealth, from the ancient world to today, is interest-bearing debt that mounts up with compound interest.

US Judge Authorizes Seizure Of Citgo For Debt Of Venezuela

August 11, 2018 Staff, Archyworldys.com Educate! Courts, Debt, Venezuela

A US federal judge authorized the seizure of Citgo Petroleum Corp., the subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, to satisfy a debt of the Venezuelan government, reports the Wall Street Journal. The ruling could trigger a dispute between Venezuela's many unpaid creditors to wrest control of their only visibly unalienable US asset, the report said. Judge Leonard P. Stark of the United States District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, issued the ruling Thursday. However, his complete opinion, which could include conditions or impose more legal obstacles, was sealed. A redacted version is expected to be available at a later date, say journalists Andrew Scurria and Julie Wernau, who report the news. The ruling increases the likelihood that the Venezuelan state oil company will lose control of a valuable foreign asset in the midst of the country's economic and political crisis, although the decision could be appealed to a higher federal court, it said.

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