Finance and the Economy

Returning Bankruptcy Protections Is Critical For Solving Student Debt

March 21, 2022 Alan Collinge, Student Loan Justice. Create! Bankruptcy, Education, Finance and the Economy, Student Loans

During the 1700’s, American colonists- including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris, and others- were being treated horribly under debt- typically to British banks, trading companies, and other investors. In fact, the issue of debt was so concerning to the nation’s Founders, that that in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, they call for uniform bankruptcy laws ahead of the power to raise an army, declare war, and coin currency. Congress, however, began chipping this protection away, uniquely, from student loans beginning in 1976 and continuing through 2005. Today, both federal and private student loans are essentially impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.

What Does A Just Food Future Look Like?

March 21, 2022 Elena Seeley, Food Tank. Create! Agroecology, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture

During a recent event at SXSW organized by Food Tank, Huston-Tillotson University, Oatly, and others, food system scholars and activists discussed the intersection of food, culture, and economics. Cortlin Harrison, a barista at the first unionized Starbucks in Buffalo, New York and a member of Starbucks Workers United highlighted some of the deep inequities perpetuated by food corporations. “We were seeing partners who can’t afford their rent, partners struggling with food insecurity,” Harrison says. “Meanwhile we’re seeing the corporate elite make billions of dollars in profit,” Panelists also pointed to many challenges on the farm. Sue Beckwith, Executive Director of the Texas Center for Local Food notes, “Black farmers and ranchers are losing heritage land to predatory developers every single day.”

Communities Should Not Pay Amazon

March 19, 2022 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. Educate! Amazon, Capitalism, Finance and the Economy, Taxes

It’s meaningful that Amazon‘s head, Jeff Bezos, also owns the Washington Post, and that the paper sometimes needs to be reminded to disclose that relationship to readers, as they run stories like “Jeff Bezos Blasts Into Space on Own Rocket: ‘Best Day Ever!’”—buttressed by op-eds like “The Billionaires’ Space Efforts May Seem Tone-Deaf, but They’re Important Milestones.” The difficult reality is that Bezos doesn’t need to outright own a news outlet to get coverage that undergirds his worldview that, yes, it makes sense for a man to launch himself into space while some of his employees rely on public assistance to feed themselves, and face every underhanded obstacle if they try to organize, and for a company that contains those contradictions to be labeled a wild economic success.

The Man Who Turned America’s Economy Into A Literal Casino

March 19, 2022 Robert Scheer, Scheer Post. Educate! Capitalism, Congress, Economic crisis, Finance and the Economy

To anyone paying attention, the American economy sure feels a lot like a casino. The stock market has become increasingly gamified, and the consequences are felt by all of us, every day—even those of us who aren’t even invited to play. There’s actually a term for our financial system that uses these words: casino capitalism. What many don’t know, however, is that behind this new form of capitalism is a flesh-and-bones man with a certain sort of gambling addiction. His name is Bill Gross, and his is the story that Mary Childs, co-host of NPR’s “Planet Money” podcast, tells so compellingly in her book, “The Bond King.” Titled after the investment banker’s moniker, Childs’ book explains how Gross remade the bond market into a gambler’s paradise, and went on not only to found the investment firm Pimco, but to rig the entire U.S. economy in his favor.

Progressives Hand Biden List Of 55 Executive Actions

March 18, 2022 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Resist! Climate Change, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Joe Biden, Student Loans

The CPC's new list of executive order recommendations is broad in scope, aiming to address a variety of pressing issues including sky-high drug prices, the worsening climate emergency, the coronavirus pandemic, mounting student loan debt, and a rigged tax system—priorities that Biden vowed to tackle on the campaign trail in 2020. While Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the CPC chair, has said she would prefer ambitious legislation such as the Build Back Better package to more limited executive orders, that bill is dead in the Senate due to opposition from Republicans and corporate-backed Democrats such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), leaving the president with few other options to advance his popular agenda.

How To Fix America’s Roundabout System For Taxing Our Richest

March 17, 2022 Bob Lord, Inequality.org. Create! Finance and the Economy, Tax the rich, Taxes

Would you walk around the block to get to your next-door neighbor’s house? Of course not. Yet America’s system for taxing the ultra-rich, especially billionaires, works that same exact roundabout way. For most of us, different taxes function in different manners. Sales taxes, for example, impact our spending decisions. Income taxes affect everything from how much we save and how many hours we work to when we retire. Property taxes influence the choices we make for where we live. But these taxes don’t work that way for the ultra-rich. These deepest of pockets can essentially make decisions on spending, work, and retirement without regard

New Reform Bill Reinforces Authority For Postal Banking

March 12, 2022 David Dayen, The American Prospect. Create! Congress, Finance and the Economy, Postal Banking, US Postal Service

A postal reform bill that passed Congress this week could offer another opportunity to install a postal banking system in the United States, according to a review by the Prospect. While the $107 billion in savings from ending the Postal Service’s prefunding of retirement benefits and moving postal retirees onto Medicare has received most of the headlines, Section 103 of the bill, subsection 3704, restates USPS authority to partner to “provide property and nonpostal services” to federal government agencies, as long as whatever results raises revenue for the Postal Service. This would appear to supersede one aspect of a ban on non-postal products from the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, and could pave the way to providing services that mirror a bank account for any American who wants one.

How The White House Could Wipe Out Federal Student Loan Debt

March 12, 2022 Josh Axelrod, The American Independent. Create! Education, Finance and the Economy, Joe Biden, Student Debt, Student Loans

Last week, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain hinted that President Joe Biden may soon take action on the nation's $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Biden has several options at his disposal to aid the nation's 43 million student loan borrowers, experts told the American Independent Foundation. "The president is going to look at what we should do on student debt before the pause expires, or he'll extend the pause," Klain said on the podcast Pod Save America last Thursday. "Right now, people aren't having to pay on their loans, and so I think dealing with the executive branch question, what we should do about that, what his powers are, how much we should do on that, that's something we're going to deal with later on," Klain added.

‘Reckoning’ With The Economic Marginalization Of Native Americans

March 11, 2022 Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Counter Punch. Educate! Class Struggle, Finance and the Economy, Indigenous Peoples, wealth inequality

Over the last two years, there has been much discussion of a national “reckoning” on race. There can be no complete reckoning without strong analysis and substantive action to address the economic marginalization of Native Americans in 21st century America. Through years of intentional governmental policies that took away their lands and resources, American Indians have been separated from the wealth and assets that were rightfully theirs. Today, we see a consistent lack of information on Native Americans and their socioeconomic issues.

US Sanctions: An Act Of War Against Workers

March 10, 2022 G. Dunkel, Workers World. Educate! Class Struggle, Finance and the Economy, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Worker Rights and Jobs

Mass media in the United States and throughout the countries of Western Europe are exhaustively and intensely depicting the suffering of the Ukrainian people as Ukraine confronts the Russian army. It is the U.S. and its NATO proxy who have now broadened the war being fought in Ukraine. What the media is not covering is the impact of this war on the working and poor people inside Russia. In an alliance with the most economically powerful capitalist governments and their central banks, the U.S. has managed to cut the Russian economy off from many of the world’s financial arteries. According to the conservative weekly The Economist, “No major economy in the modern world has ever been hit so hard by such weapons.”

Lebanon’s Economic Collapse

March 10, 2022 Yusra Bitar, Post Growth Institute. Create! Democracy, Finance and the Economy, Green Economy, Lebanon

A friend in Beirut asked me teasingly as we walked the darkened streets, “Are you happy now? You wanted degrowth and you’re getting it.” He was referencing the economic crisis and recession Lebanon is experiencing — although he knows very well the stark difference between this deep recession and degrowth. Recession happens when growth dependent economies stop growing, i.e., GDP goes into the negative. This typically ends up in the loss of jobs, economic uncertainty, and sometimes austerity measures with long-term impacts. Degrowth, on the other hand, is an intentional shift in economic activity, revolving around a rethinking of measures of progress and what gets to grow and why. Its policy-making revolves around the wellbeing of people and planet.

The American Empire Self-Destructs

March 9, 2022 Michael Hudson, Counter Punch. Educate! De-dollarization, Finance and the Economy, NATO, US Imperialism

The basic assumption of economic and diplomatic forecasting is that every country will act in its own self-interest. Such reasoning is of no help in today’s world. Observers across the political spectrum are using phrases like “shooting themselves in their own foot” to describe U.S. diplomatic confrontation with Russia and allies alike. But nobody thought that The American Empire would self-destruct this fast. For more than a generation the most prominent U.S. diplomats have warned about what they thought would represent the ultimate external threat: an alliance of Russia and China dominating Eurasia. America’s economic sanctions and military confrontation have driven these two countries together, and are driving other countries into their emerging Eurasian orbit.

A New Law Promised Debt Relief For Black Farmers

March 4, 2022 April Simpson , In These Times. Educate! Black Farmers, Farmers, Finance and the Economy, USDA

After amassing more than $100,000 in debt over more than two decades of farming, a Georgia-based farmer named Denver got welcome news last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers like him would be eligible for a new debt relief program. USDA would pay off certain loans and give him a little extra for tax liabilities. Denver did not receive a payment. But almost a year later, he received another letter: A notice that USDA intends to take legal action to collect the money he owes the agency. Denver asked the Center for Public Integrity not to use his last name out of fear of retaliation. “We know that institutional discrimination is systemic within USDA,” said Tracy Lloyd McCurty, executive director of the Black Belt Justice Center.

Some Economic Consequences Of The War In Ukraine

March 2, 2022 Jack Rasmus, Counter Punch. Educate! European Union (EU), Finance and the Economy, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine

The global capitalist economy today is highly integrated: In the flow of real goods and services; in money capital flows between financial markets; in currency relative exchange rates; and in banking systems and interest rates—to name but the most obvious. The Ukraine war’s economic consequences will impact all the three economies—Russia’s, Europe’s and America’s. The impacts may be relatively different qualitatively and quantitatively. But actions taken against one have their inevitable economic reverberations on all. Inflation due to escalating oil and commodity price inflation will negatively impact all. Central bank policy responses will be weaker across the board. Slower economic growth will result as goods and services flows are interrupted and global supply chain problems continue and perhaps even worsen.

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