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Economic insecurity

Explosive Growth Of Prediction Markets: A Symptom Of A Sick Economy

Prediction markets are booming, and the mainstream media has been aflutter with breathless hype and valuations, boosting ​“one of the fastest growing [markets] in finance,” according to Fortune. ​“We’re at the beginning of a prediction markets supercycle that could drive trillions in annual volume over time,” Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, announced during the company’s quarterly earnings call in February, according to Forbes. Robinhood, an electronic trading platform catered to everyday users, got in on the prediction markets game in 2024. 

Military Families Say They’re Getting Short-Changed

On April 21, nearly two months into the Iran war, the Pentagon unveiled a $1.5 trillion budget request that promised to bolster services for members of the military and their families.  The proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins in September includes $90 million in additional funding specifically for the design of military child development centers and barracks, as well as pay increases ranging from 5% to 7% for service members.  “With this funding request, we directly invest in our people, recognizing and respecting our warfighters, their families and the daily sacrifices they both make for our nation,” said Lt. Gen. Steven P. Whitney

Mothers Are Stretching Every Dollar

Sherrah Hill, a mother of six, didn’t think a simple promise to her kids — that she would buy them ice cream with toppings to celebrate their good grades — could stress her out so much. But then she stood in one of the aisles of her local grocery store in South Florida, staring at a package of sprinkles priced at $8. “Inside, I was dying because I was like, ‘How do I tell my kids that I can’t afford to get sprinkles for their ice cream?’” Hill said. These are the realities that some mothers are facing as they grapple with the rising cost of many things in their lives, including consumer goods, food and the average price of gas.

America Didn’t Have A Boom This Black Friday

Black Friday set another record this year. Reporters treated it as proof that Americans still have strength in their wallets and that the economy has life in it. The president called it the “Trump Bump.” The headlines bragged about an eleven point eight billion dollar day and analysts lined up to praise the numbers. None of it holds up once you look at how people paid for those purchases and how much strain sits underneath those sales. A record weekend in a hollowed out economy is not a sign of confidence. It is a sign of how far people will push themselves to give their kids one normal holiday in a year that left them with nothing extra. The record spending didn’t come from rising wages or cash that families finally had on hand.

Pizza Goeth Before A Fall?

While economists, politicians and pundits sift daily through a mountain of data—from unemployment rates to gross domestic product, inflation to bank lending rates—one overlooked economic indicator points unambiguously to a deep and imminent economic downturn: Pizza. In its February 24th earnings call with the financial press, Domino’s Pizza CEO Russell Weiner reported a 3.2 percent spike in carryout orders during the previous quarter, combined with a 1.4 percent decrease in deliveries. Weiner attributed this change in consumer behavior to “macro and competitive pressures,” or, in layman’s terms, households in the U.S. increasingly can’t afford delivery fees and driver gratuities that can easily add $10 to the price of a pizza.

The White Settlers’ Bizarre Economic Strategy Of Terrorizing Black People

That jurors on Monday exonerated an ex-Marine for strangling an African American panhandler who was in mental distress while aboard a New York city subway car was not entirely shocking but does signal to many Blacks a sharp escalation of whites’ historic campaign of racial terror. Daniel Penny, who is white, was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for applying a chokehold to the neck of 30-year-old Jordan Neely, a slightly built homeless man who had done nothing more than shout at passengers aboard an uptown F subway train on May 1, 2023.

Ni Una Menos Is ‘Building A New Generation Of Militancy’

The rise of Ni Una Menos marks a before and after in the history of Argentine. The movement against sexist violence, established in 2015, changed the history of Argentine feminism and showed the rise of the transfeminist masses as a political subject. In nearly 10 years of struggle, the movement shone a spotlight on all forms of violence against women and dissident subjectivities through protesters’ bodies occupying the streets, marching and organizing assemblies in working-class neighborhoods and universities. It has named femicides in plain language and made them impossible to sweep under the rug.

Wokeness Kills Class Politics And Empowers Empire

Oftentimes the idea of “wokeness” or “woke” ideology, whether calling it as such or acknowledging its existence, can be thought of as coinage of the right wing. Christian Parenti, professor at John Jay College, journalist and author, joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to make the case that what he and many others define as “woke” is actually a weapon used to further suppress marginalized people, prevent the awareness of class politics and class struggle and further divide the working class. “What a lot of the story comes down to,” Parenti tells Hedges, “[is] detaching class struggle from cultural struggles.

How Liberal Elites Fail To Understand Economic Anxiety

There is an ideological tendency among some liberal economists today that wants us to believe that Bidenomics has been the best thing since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. A key advocate of this belief is economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. On September 7th, 2023, Krugman published an article titled “I’m OK, But Things Are Terrible” in which he claimed there is a disconnect between actual economic conditions and perceptions about the economy: “[t]he strange thing is that these bad ratings are persisting even as the economy, by any normal measure, has been doing extremely well.” Krugman and others who are fans of Bidenomics find it odd that when workers are asked about “the economy” their views are generally negative.

Data On Economic Insecurity Among Amazon Warehouse Workers

Today, the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) released a new report detailing the results of a survey of 1,484 Amazon workers across 451 facilities in 42 states—the largest nationwide study of Amazon workers to date. The report shows that roughly half of Amazon’s frontline warehouse workers are struggling with food and housing insecurity and being able to pay their bills, with one-third relying on different kinds of public assistance programs. “This research indicates just how far the goalposts have shifted. It used to be the case that big, leading firms in the economy provided a path to the middle class and relative economic security,” said Dr. Sanjay Pinto.

I’ve Been Unhoused; It Could Happen To You, So Let’s Stop Criminalizing It

For a period in 2005, I was one of the more than 740,000 people who were experiencing homelessness at that time in the U.S. On an eastern section of Sunset Boulevard where tourists never venture, there’s the Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic — less chic than it sounds. Still, they had services ranging from medical care to showers, and for those seeking the latter, they’d give away those little test packets of shampoo and conditioner that used to come in magazines and in the mail. Herbal Essences was a favorite. After a quick rinse and a change of clothes, I could walk out of the clinic being treated like a real person until some indication of my situation betrayed me.

New Round Of Universal Health Coverage Policies Lies Ahead

During this week’s session of the Executive Board (EB) of the World Health Organization (WHO), Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has been one of the topics in the spotlight. The original purpose of introducing the concept was to increase access to healthcare and financial protection from health expenditure. However, as Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus presented a thematic report to EB members, it became evident — yet again — that UHC-based policies are failing in achieving these goals. Instead of continuing a consistent upward trend, access to care has stagnated since 2019. Financial protection, on the other hand, has worsened.

More Austerity In 2023 Will Fuel Protests

This week world leaders meet in Davos to discuss cooperation to address multiple crises, from COVID-19 and escalating inflation to slowing economic growth, debt distress and climate shocks. Only three months earlier, finance ministers had gathered in Washington DC for the same reason. The mood was grim. The need for ambitious actions could not be greater; however, there were no agreements, evidencing the fragility of multilateralism and international cooperation. Worse, policy makers -advised by the International Monetary Fund- are resorting to old, failed and regressive policies, such as austerity (now called “fiscal restraint” or “fiscal consolidation”), instead of much needed corporate/wealth taxation and debt reduction initiatives, to ensure an equitable recovery for all. A recent global report alerts of the dangers of a post-pandemic wave of austerity, far more premature and severe than the one that followed the global financial crisis a decade ago.

2022 Saw Historic Strikes In The United Kingdom

Even as 2022 is drawing to a close, the strike wave that swept the UK this year, with hundreds of thousands of workers in the public and private sector downing tools to fight for better conditions, is showing no signs of slowing down. On Saturday, December 31, over 1,000 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) who are working on contract as cleaners in the railways are set to walkout in the first national strike of its kind. Workers at private companies including Atalian Servest, Churchill, and Mitie are fighting for a £15 ($18.04) per hour wage, company sick pay, good pensions, and “decent holidays.” They will join ISS cleaners on Docklands Light Railway (DLR), who will enter their second day on strike on Saturday over issues including over pay, working conditions, and imposed rosters.

Thousands March In Morocco To Protest Worsening Economy

Thousands of people gathered at the Bab Al-Ahad Square in Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday, December 4, as part of a national march against “high prices, political repression, and social oppression.” The action was organized by the Moroccan Social Front (FSM), a coalition of left-wing political parties and trade unions, with support from leading human rights groups as well as various political, civil society, and sectoral organizations and unions. “We came to protest a government that embodies the marriage between money and power and supports monopoly capitalism,” declared Younes Ferachine, a coordinator at FSM. As the march proceeded through the capital, protestors chanted,“The people want lower prices… The people want to eliminate despotism and corruption.”
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