Finance and the Economy

Debtors’ Unions: Indebtedness As A Source Of Collective Power

August 21, 2021 In These Times. Organize! Debt, Debtor Union, Finance and the Economy, Solidarity

That’s the idea. In 2019, more than three quarters of U.S. households were holding some type of debt. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, 1 in 4 adults are now struggling to pay household bills. But debt in U.S. culture is typically treated as an individual liability or a personal failure. The idea of a debtors’ union turns that experience on its head — reframing indebtedness as a shared problem and a source of collective power. Think of a saying attributed to 20th-century industrialist J. Paul Getty: “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” Toppling the financial architecture of late capitalism is indeed a tall order. The most prominent organization of its kind, the Debt Collective, organizes on several fronts.

Billions In Rent Assistance Money Withheld From Millions Facing Eviction

August 19, 2021 Chase Lawrence, WSWS. Educate! Evictions, Finance and the Economy, Housing, Pandemic

Out of the $46.5 billion in funding provided for rental assistance under two bailouts enacted in December 2020 and March 2021, the vast majority has not been distributed, with only an estimated $3 billion of the funds being distributed as of August 3 according to CNBC, while millions are at risk of eviction or foreclosure. According to the Eviction Lab, in the six states and 31 cities tracked by it, 480, 456 evictions have taken place during the pandemic. In just those areas alone, 6,108 evictions were filed in the last week. This is in spite of the announcement on August 3 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the extension of the eviction moratorium to October 3 for counties “experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission levels.”

Global Temperature Has Risen Under 40 Years Of Neoliberalism

August 17, 2021 C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout. Educate! Capitalism, climate crisis, Finance and the Economy, Neoliberalism

Since the advent of neoliberalism 40 years ago, societies virtually all over the world have undergone profound economic, social and political transformations. At its most basic function, neoliberalism represents the rise of a market-dominated world economic regime and the concomitant decline of the social state. Yet, the truth of the matter is that neoliberalism cannot survive without the state, as leading progressive economist Robert Pollin argues in the interview that follows. However, what is unclear is whether neoliberalism represents a new stage of capitalism that engenders new forms of politics, and, equally important, what comes after neoliberalism. Pollin tackles both of these questions in light of the political implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, as most governments have implemented a wide range of monetary and fiscal measures in order to address economic hardships and stave off a recession.

$15 Wage Becoming New Average In Some Industries

August 11, 2021 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Minimum Wage, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

New data show that, as wages have risen across much of the economy, the average pay for restaurant and supermarket workers has risen above $15 an hour for the first time, reports The Washington Post. The milestone marks a win for both workers and, potentially, the Fight for $15 movement. Employers struggling to fill low-wage positions as businesses reopened over the past year have blamed their problem on a so-called worker shortage. But in reality, economists say, it’s more likely that there was a wage shortage as workers were unwilling to do a job that is more dangerous during the pandemic for the same wage as before COVID-19 was raging through the country. Now, it seems, employers are responding, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by The Washington Post.

US Eviction Catastrophe And Cynical Democrat Photo Ops

August 9, 2021 Max Blumenthal, Moderate Rebels. Resistance Report Democratic Party, Evictions, Finance and the Economy, Housing

Max Blumenthal discusses his reporting at the US Capitol on the protests demanding an eviction moratorium, the huge impending economic crisis, the opportunism of the Squad, and how Democratic Party warmongers like Adam Schiff cynically exploited it to do a photo op.

Rather Than Pay Fairer Wages, Businesses Look To Prisons

August 7, 2021 Eddie Conway, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Finance and the Economy, Jobs, Prison, Prison Labor

For months, business owners and corporate media pundits in the US have complained about a “labor shortage,” claiming that businesses are struggling to find new employees because “no one wants to work.” Rather than enticing applicants with more competitive wages and stronger benefits and protections, though, many businesses are opting to exploit prison slave labor.

Juan Guaidó Paid UK Legal Fees With Looted Venezuelan Money

August 7, 2021 John McEvoy, The Canary. Educate! Finance and the Economy, United Kingdom (UK), Venezuela

Court documents show that Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó‘s UK legal costs were paid with money appropriated from the Central Bank of Venezuela. As part of a legal effort to access roughly US$2bn of Venezuelan gold held in the Bank of England, Guaidó’s legal team drew on hundreds of thousands of dollars – if not millions – originally seized from the Central Bank of Venezuela in the US. Guaidó’s attempt to seize Central Bank of Venezuela assets in the UK, in other words, has been financed by money previously seized from the Central Bank of Venezuela.

China Eradicates Absolute Poverty While Billionaires Go For A Joyride To Space

August 6, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. Educate! China, COVID-19, Finance and the Economy, Worker Rights and Jobs

Confounding news comes from the flagship World Economic Outlook report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The report highlights many of the pressing issues facing our planet: disruptions in the global supply chain, rising shipping costs, shortages of intermediate goods, rising commodity prices, and inflationary pressures in many economies. Global growth rates are expected to touch 6% in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022, driven by higher global government debt. According to the report, this debt ‘reached an unprecedented level of close to 100% of the global GDP in 2020 and is projected to remain around that level in 2021 and 2022’. Developing countries’ external debt will remain high, with little expectation of relief.

Collapsing Federal Corporate Crime Enforcement

August 3, 2021 Ralph Nader, Counter Punch. Educate! Corporate crime, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Finance and the Economy

Despite constant exposés in the mainstream media – still only reporting the tip of the iceberg – neither members of Congress nor presidents from the Republican and Democratic parties have raised the banner of tough “law and order” to counter rampaging corporate crime. Proposals to bring the laws up to date in their penalties and coverage to deter corporate lawbreaking are never a priority for Congress. When was the last time you heard a politician demand “corporate reform”?

Dear Congress: Say No To Water Privatization

July 31, 2021 In These Times. Resist! Environment, Finance and the Economy, Water

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sanders, and House Budget Committee Chairman Yarmuth: "We, the undersigned 218 organizations, oppose the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework that promotes privatization, and we urge you to reject it and water privatization in all its forms and fight for a bold, uncompromising infrastructure package that provides real federal funding at the level our communities urgently need."

Wealthy Americans Targeted By US In Panama Tax-Fraud Probe

July 30, 2021 David Voreacos And Neil Weinberg, Boston Globe. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Finance and the Economy, IRS, Panama

The Internal Revenue Service can now get information about electronic fund transfers and courier deliveries between the firm, Panama Offshore Legal Services, and its US clients, the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday. The IRS seeks to identify clients who used the law firm to “create or control foreign assets and entities” to evade taxes, the department said.

The Incalculable Cost Of Cheap Chicken

July 29, 2021 Tina Vasquez, Scalawag. Educate! Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Human Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

The average American consumes more than 100 pounds of chicken meat annually—or 8 billion chickens a year, nationwide. It should come as no surprise then that as the pandemic unfurled across the United States a year ago, poultry disappeared from store shelves as panic-stricken Americans hoarded food in response to reported shortages. While Americans turned to cooking during unprecedented times, there was a human cost for this comfort. What happens to workers inside poultry plants, where the chickens Americans cook for dinner are slaughtered, processed, and packaged, by and large goes unseen by consumers. The everyday dangers of food production and processing rarely make headlines—until a deadly virus spreads or a tragic accident claims workers' lives.

ALEC Meeting Queues Up The GOP’s Culture Wars

July 29, 2021 David Armiak, Exposed CMD. Educate! ALEC, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Media

While Trump is no longer in office, ALEC members still wearing their MAGA hats can participate in Trump-themed trainings such as, “Achieving and Using Political Power: How You Implement an America First Agenda,” and “Writing the History of the Future: Messaging Strategies to Reclaim States’ Power & American Exceptionalism.” The Annual Meeting kicked off on Monday with an “exclusive, invitation-only academy” for state lawmakers with the dark money voter suppression group the Honest Elections Project, where ALEC politicians were “to discuss the implementation of new election legislation” with three secretaries of state, among other “fun and educational” events, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reported.

Activists Challenge Subsidies For Weapons Maker

July 29, 2021 Taylor Barnes, World Beyond War. Resist! Finance and the Economy, Green Jobs, Wars and Militarism, Weapons Maker

On a warm Saturday morning in May, a group of demonstrators gathered in a public square in Asheville, North Carolina, for the kind of protest lawmakers don’t usually foresee when they haggle for a share of the United States’ massive military budget to be spent in their home districts. The environmentalists, anti-war veterans, and economic justice advocates go by the name Reject Raytheon AVL, a reference to Massachusetts-based Raytheon Technologies, the world’s second-largest weapons maker. A division of the company, Pratt & Whitney, is building a new engine parts plant in their city, and the protesters oppose the millions of dollars in subsidies their county and state governments have committed to Raytheon, arguing the money should instead support green jobs.

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