Economics
SPECULATING ON THE EU VOTE
Last week the British voted to leave the European Union. The next day stock markets all over the world declined precipitously. The DOW in this country dropped 610 points in one day. According to Reuters news agency, global stock markets “lost” $2 trillion in value the day after the vote. Why did this happen? What does it mean?
Wild fluctuations like this often occur with stock markets. The news media, pundits, and investment hucksters, of course, always have explanations. The usual spin is that “investors” have lost confidence, or they are “taking profits,” ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XV: AN EMPIRE IN DECLINE
There is a life cycle to empire - a historical evolution in the birth, maintenance, and loss of world preeminence. Conceived brutally through conquest, or peacefully as in the transfer of power from Great Britain to America after the first and second world wars, the birth of a new empire is always led by the relocation of major centers of knowledge in science, technology and engineering. This is so because the long term outcome of leadership in these fields is a genuine increase in human wealth — in the ability to sustain ever more humans with an ever rising standard ...
WHAT IS THE KEY TO WISCONSIN’S ECONOMIC SUCCESS?
The July 7, 2016, Price County Review described Governor Walker’s June 29 visit to Phillips as a blitz. He flew in, was ushered to the Municipal Building by law enforcement and security personnel for an invitation-only listening session for 20-30 people and a brief interview by local media, was escorted to United Pride Dairy near Phillips to announce $3.2 million in Youth Apprenticeship (YA) state grants, then was escorted back to the airport and flew away.
During his announcement, Walker noted “The key to Wisconsin’s future success rests in our ability to provide ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XIV: THE FRIGHTENING PHILANTHROPIST
“Philanthropy, is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice that make philanthropy necessary.” - - Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Philanthropy in the United States is not just the voluntary activity of a donor. Philanthropy in general, including the work of foundations, is generously tax-subsidized. The assets transferred to a foundation by a donor are left untaxed in two respects: the donor makes the donation more or less tax-free, diminishing the tax burden she would face in the absence of the ...
The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness and the Rise of Scott Walker
The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness and the Rise of Scott Walker by UW-Madison Professor, Katherine Cramer Part 2
In Part 1, I summarized three themes people in the 39 rural groups spoke about: The role and size of government, taxes, and the animosity toward public sector employees. In Part 2, I will continue with the concerns of the rural people who were interviewed.
1. The need for good paying jobs. “[It’s a great place to live] if you like poverty.” Many people work two or more jobs while living in poverty. The mine was a contentious issue. ...
WEALTH AND MONEY, PART XIII: THE ROBBER BARON THEFT OF TECHNOLOGY
The investment - - and the enablement - - began 3.6 million years ago in Tanzania when two early humans stood upright and left the “Laetoli Footprints” in the wet volcanic ash. We do not know what these humans knew, but they had mastered enough of their environment to survive, because we are here today. We owe them a great debt.
A million years passed. Hammerstones and sharp stone cutting flakes were in use. Another million years passed and handaxes arrived. Hearths appeared 790,000 years ago. Humans had learned to control fire. Two hundred thousand years ago ...
THE PANAMA PAPERS
The leaker behind the recent Panama Papers scandal revealed thousands of shell companies the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca used to hide assets for 14,000-plus wealthy individuals and corporations. Of note: Not many Americans were listed in the leak.
In “Panama of the North,” Susan Harley of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division indicates the reason few Americans were listed: The US is already well-established as a tax haven. Most states, like Nevada, require less information to start a company than to get a library card, a driver’s license, or even a ...
FINALLY…A BREAK FOR WORKING PEOPLE
Near the turn of the century and into the 1930’s, in order to feed your family and put a roof over your head, workers had to endure six day workweeks, twelve hour work days and marginal time with their families. After decades of mistreatment, workers had enough. They formed unions and asserted their rights and dignity in the workplace. But the struggle for fairness and equality in the workplace did not end there and also continues to this day.
In 1938 labor unions were instrumental in getting Congress to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act which introduced the forty-h...
AUSTERITY IS THE ENDGAME
Austerity is the endgame, the final subjugation. It is the offspring of Ronald Reagan’s corrupt ideology that “government is the problem” and Bill Clinton’s corrupt deregulation of Wall Street - - the unholy marriage of neocon and neolib. It is the weapon of the oligarchy, the instrument of bondage and control.
We are in a rigged game, a game designed to transfer money upward while blaming all things public for our impoverishment, a game designed to starve government of the people while sparing nothing for government of the corporation. It is a game that ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XII: THE UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME
“We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for ...