Updates on Gerard Depardieu’s individual tax evasion, corporate tax evasion via profit repatriation, worst CEOs of 2012, and phony DC “debt-ceiling” theatrics. Discussion of Swiss bank crimes, Keynesian vs Marxian economics, political turmoil in 2013, and criticism of markets. Response to question on new capital gains taxes. On Economic Update …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.9MB) | Embed
Despite its pathetic propaganda encouraging us to practice doublethink, the Federal Reserve freely admits that it is privately owned, is a monopoly empowered by Congress, and that it operates independently from — above? — Congress and the president. Yet it pays its private undisclosed shareholders/owners huge rewards . . that …
They don’t call it the “cliff” for nothing. It’s the fiscal spot where a nation’s representatives can gather and cry doom. It’s the place — if Washington is to be believed — where, with a single leap into the Abyss of Sequestration, those representatives can end it all for …
Why low interest rates are a blight on people’s savings and totally unnecessary. They are setting the world up for chaos. Artificially ‘managed’ interest rates are the antithesis of what capitalism is all about. Lending and borrowing money is a market function. The government has no business getting involved. The …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.9MB) | Embed
During the second half of the 20th century the United States was an opportunity society. The ladders of upward mobility were plentiful, and the middle class expanded. Incomes rose, and ordinary people were able to achieve old-age security. In the 21st century the opportunity society has disappeared. Middle class jobs …
Here is an open letter that Barack Obama should write to Mitt Romney – pronto Dear Mr. Romney: Not a day goes by without you blaming me for every slumping or stagnant economic indicator. Unemployment, increases in the number of food stamp recipients, government borrowing, and spending, home foreclosures, economic …
It’s difficult to puzzle out what Bernanke thinks he is accomplishing with QE3. The level of bond buying, as various commentators have pointed out, is much lower than in the earlier QE programs. And pulling out bigger guns in the past was not terribly productive. As we wrote in April …
Don’t you just love the bankers? The worse things get, the more money they make. We’re going through a period where interest rates on mortgages are at all-time low, which is good news for folks who are in a position to buy a home, but it turns out to be …
My guest is Dean Baker, a macroeconomist and Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is also a long-time contributor to OpEdNews, with 99 articles so far. Welcome to OpEdNews, Dean. I’d like to discuss your latest piece, The CEO Plan to Steal Your …
Since 2008, Western nations have force-fed their people austerity poison. Decline replaces prosperity. Millions suffer. Living standards deteriorate. Societies become no longer fit to live in. Neoliberal and imperial priorities let essential public needs go begging. How much more people will take before erupting remains to be seen. The longer …
The UK Conservative/Liberal Democrat government this week announced the terms of a review into the deepening London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) crisis. The review was commissioned by Chancellor George Osborne, and will be led by Martin Wheatley, managing director of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and chief executive-designate of the …
Economic/financial systems dependent on wars and predation eventually self-destruct. Western capitalism is no exception. Money power runs things. War profiteering is policy. Ordinary people have no say. Exploiting them for profit is prioritized. Divisions between rich and poor grow. By some measures they’re unprecedented. Money power in private hands and …
Avenues of escape are being cut off one-by-one for Greece and Spain. The moment-of-truth could arise at any time. The concept of luck. Is it real or just an excuse? Jack’s report on yesterday’s Meet-Up in New Brunswick. Two new books: one recommended, one NOT recommended! More on the individual …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.6MB) | Embed
A generation of markets is dying and the era of the Middleman is coming to an end. The ‘Bezzle’ – as J K Galbraith described financial misbehaviour in a boom, revealed by a bust – is now coming to light. We now see a wave of popular rage against the …
According to news reports, UK banks fixed the London interbank borrowing rate (Libor) with the complicity of the Bank of England (UK central bank) at a low rate in order to obtain a cheap borrowing cost. The way this scandal is playing out is that the banks benefitted from borrowing …