Economic Update

Economic Update - How People Change Economies - 11.19.17

Updates on Maine's progressive economic changes, US Senate documents how the very rich abuse the estate tax, Nestle profits as nearby Flint's water still polluted, poverty and 'social exclusion' in Greece and Europe, Trump/GOP cuts health programs, US profits rise as wage share falls. Major discussions: (1) economics of migration and (2) economics of coalitions between labor unions and worker coops.

Economic Update - Socialism: Past, Present, Future - 11.12.17

"Updates on critique of Uber and gig economy; WI Sen Johnson endorses inequality; Norway to pay male and female athletes same; corporations buy back their own shares; deaths of overworked Japanese; 10% NY school kids homeless; and majority of major US corporations already pay much below official 35% tax rate. Major discussion of changing economics of socialism.

Economic Update - Morality and Economics - 11.05.17

Updates on mostly low-paid service jobs in US future, Senate deregulates banks, college spending per student reinforces income inequality, US loneliness a factor in illnesses and premature death, Univ of Chicago grad students unionize, Brazilian civil and religious authorities push almost-rotten food for the poor, and costs of pollution. Interview Dr. Harriet Fraad on psychology and economics of sex work industry.

Economic Update - How Economies Change - 10.29.17

Updates on privatized probation, New Zealand rejects austerity, electricity cutoffs refute "recovery," declining medical insurance, neo-liberalism attacked, rich funders of fake 'public interest groups.' Interview two professors (Umberto Lorenzo and Richard McIntyre) on Cuba's socialist economy changing toward worker coops.

Economic Update - Success of New York Worker Coops - 10.22.17

Updates on economic costs/benefits of refugees, rise of BRICS nations in world economy (vs US decline), closing and privatization of US public libraries, size of slavery and forced child labor in world economy now, and how the "gig" economy is just another effort to profit by lengthening the working day. Major discussion: what the historical transition to capitalism suggests about transition from capitalism to a worker-coop-based economic system.

Economic Update - Economics, Psychology and Mass Murder - 10.08.17

"Updates on Trump/GOP tax plan, Americans having "trouble paying bills," post-1989 Russia more unequal than USSR, Eastern now colony of Western Europe, targeting finance vs entire system, closing rural US hospitals, Puerto Rico as US colony. Interview Dr. Harriet Fraad on economics, psychology and mass murders." 

Economic Update - Strikes and the Labor Movement Today - 10.01.17

Updates on closing 6,400 retail stores in 2017, decline in US housing starts, 800 major corporations oppose Trump on DACA, US child poverty rates, US to rely on banks' "self-reporting" of their misdeeds, and significance of California Disclose Act. Interview investigative journalist Bob Hennelly on Local 3 strike in New York and its importance to the US labor movement today.

Economic Update - Capitalism, Revolution, and Socialism - 09.24.17

Updates on major capitalist failures, buying senators on health care, opioid addiction's effects on insurance and on labor force participation, price gouging in emergencies, and US income inequality. Major discussion on 100th anniversary of Russian Revolution in 1917: lessons of USSR economic history for 21st century socialism.

Economic Update - Corporate Capitalism in Decline - 09.17.17

Updates on capitalism and hurricanes, the business of drug addiction and overdose, with poverty, hookworm too returns to America, and the economics of elite universities' tax avoidance.

Interview with Chris Hedges on a declining, decaying capitalism.

Economic Update - A Tale of Two Crises: 1929 and 2008 - 09.03.17

Updates on US working conditions 2017, looming US recession and plans for negative interest rates, schools raise funds by shaming poor school children, and the economics of fascism. Major discussion: why FDR's New Deal (successful trickle up economics) was not repeated after 2008 (unsuccessful trickle down economics). Consequences of post-1945 destruction of coalition that produced New Deal.