Economic Issues
Economic Issues
There Is Enough to Go Around. But Not the Way We’ve Been Doing It
The earth itself is today paying the price for the 20th century fossil fuel bonanza. Now instead of continuing to have all humanity in service to that powerful sector, it’s time to pay the climate and colonization debt. When George
Must We Do the Cold War Again?
It’s so easy for the national security state to just paint the same old picture for Americans: Russia and China are military threats. But in truth they are not. They are rising economically in large part because we have wasted
Decolonize Philanthropy: What Does That Mean?
Philanthropies came into being to launder a plutocrat’s reputation. It’s become an industry today whose goal is preserving great wealth and maintaining dominance and control. According to our guest Edgar Villanueva, philanthropy has to be more than a wealth building
The Biggest, Most Inhuman Power in America: Amazon
The dehumanized Amazon warehouse as pictured in the movie Nomadland is more benign than reality. There is an “existential bleakness” where every instant is being watched, humans serve robots, and one can be fired by algorithm. In his powerful new
After Rich Trumka: Now What for Labor?
You may not have heard of Rich Trumka who passed away suddenly August 5th. From working in the mines of Pennsylvania he served as president of the AFL-CIO from 2009 to 2021. Our guest today is once and future president
How the Wealth Defense Industry Poisons Democracy
As our guest Chuck Collins explains, it’s like one person orders expensive wine for a dinner crowd and sneaks out without paying. His new book is titled The Wealth Hoarders; How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. What he calls
Poverty: Change the Structure of the Game
Despite the myths, there is less opportunity to climb the ladder out of poverty in America than in other modern nations. Did you know a majority of Americans will experience poverty in their lifetimes? And that childhood poverty costs us
Broke In America: Policies Not People Are To Blame
When one thinks of people in poverty, what judgements come up? Did you know that the vast majority are working often two or three jobs? When you go to a bank or a mortgage, do they ask you how much
Occupy Wall St. 2011 Was Just The Start
From its birth in one block in New York City to more than a thousand town squares, the conversation began ten years ago. It was the first social media driven movement and as Heather McKee Hurwitz writes in her new
The UK’s Jeremy Corbyn: What Now?
Smeared and driven from leadership of the British Labour Party. Relentlessly attacked by the uniquely powerful British tabloid media, our guest today Matt Sarb-Cousin argues there’s never been a leader like Jeremy Corbyn. Except perhaps America’s own Bernie Sanders. Trump
The Push Biden’s Going to Need
Ousting Trump is not enough. Getting back to the normalcy of tremendous economic injustice is not enough. With unprecedented wealth owned by a very few, close to 50% of Americans are at the edge of real poverty. Guest is Reverend
4 Day Work Week: Beneficial Effect of Covid?
With the pandemic throwing everything up in the air, there are new opportunities for us to shape the way it all lands. Going back to the old “normal” is not the only option. On this show Joe Ryle a leader
Thomas Frank’s New Book On Elitist Anti-Populism: “The People, NO”
The parties have flipped: It used to be that Republicans were for Wall Street, Democrats were for Main Street. Now the Democrats are seen as the party of the elitists, Republicans are for the common people. On this show Thomas
Can Democrats Address What Fuels Angry Populism?
Populism is a legitimate form of anger at perceived elites dismissing everyday people. There are indeed real reasons for today’s populist anger. On this show Rutgers Law School professor Dennis M.Patterson explains why we need to take populism seriously. It
A New CCC to Save the Planet?
FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps achieved remarkable success in so many areas: Creating meaningful work for young men in a time of mass unemployment, planting forests, conserving our natural resources. It ended with the start of World War II. Perhaps now
Which America Will Be Ours After the Pandemic?
Is this possibly a time of reckoning? As with all significant change, those in most pain today are once again leading. With Covid 19 further squeezing already low income people, many are in desperation just to survive. America has been
Thirties Historian: This is Not Depression 2.0
Both the Great Depression and today’s recession started off in a time of great economic inequality. Both economic calamities brought to the surface systemic inadequacies. Perhaps the most recognized authority on the history of the Great Depression, Stanford history professor
When Political Parties Lose the Consent of the Governed: The Civil War and Donald Trump
Why did so many Obama voters go for Trump in 2016? What happens when party elites don’t know how to react to changes of popular opinion at the ground level? While they may try to do both: keep the elite
Inequality in The Trump Era: More of The Same But With Cruelty
“The Trump administration didn’t invent the policies that redistribute wealth and income to the top, but it has doubled down on them in characteristically cruel and petty ways,” according to today’s guest Colin Gordon, history professor at the University of
From The Bottom Up: Real Change, Right and Left
Populism is defined as “a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.” We never hear of the grassroots Tea Party any more because they won. The took
21st Century Tech Trusts: 1984 on Steroids
With much of state and federal government in their pockets, the interface between the tech trusts and the infrastructure enables concentration and nearly unimaginable control by the tech giants. As a result they are able to over-charge customers between $40