US Manufacturing PMI Tumbles To 22 Month Low: “Lack Of Growth” And Deflation Blamed

Not even the seasonally-adjusted sentiment surveys can give a glimmer of hope any more. A few weeks after the July ISM manufacturing report printed at the lowest since March, moments ago the Markit mfg PMI index was released, printing at justt 52.9, below the expected 53.8, and down from last month’s 53.8. This was the lowest level since October 2013 …

This Can’t Be Happening – 08.05.15

Today on “This Can’t Be Happening!” journalist Alfredo Lopez talks with colleague and host Dave Lindorff about two stories that intimately concern him. The first is a fierce attack by anti-abortion forces, most likely by hired experts located in Russia or China, on a progressive web-hosting service Lopez helped found, MayFirst.org. Lopez then talks about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico, arguably as bad or worse than the crisis in Greece, but far harder to combat because of the island’s colonial status under US domination.

Thanks to Wall Street, America Has Growing Greek-Like Debt Bombs By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

From the $1.2 trillion instudent debt now on the backs of U.S. college students, a growing number of whom are turning to prostitution to keep up, to teetering Puerto Rico, the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama in 2011, Detroit’s bankruptcy in 2013, Wall Street was on hand to grease the skids or set the train wreck in motion.Greece has two things in …

Wall Street Front Group Pleads for Government Help in New York Times OpEd By Pam Martens and Russ Martens

If you live outside of New York City, you’ve never heard of the Partnership for New York City. Even if you live inside New York City, unless you’re part of the black tie cocktail circuit, you’ve still never heard of the group. So when the New York Times gave a chunk of its opinion pages on Monday to Wylde as …

Ignoring Reality, Subverting Morality: GMOs and the Neoliberal Apologists By Colin Todhunter

Monsanto is often called one of the most ‘evil’ companies on the planet. It has a history of knowingly contaminating the environment and food with various poisons, cover ups and criminality (see this, outlining the company’s appalling history). In recent times, there has been much focus on its promotion and patenting of GMOs, the deleterious impacts of its glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup and how …

Retiring Cisco CEO delivers dire prediction: 40% of companies will be dead in 10 years JULIE BORT

Cisco’s giant customer conference, Cisco Live, began Monday in San Diego and was the last time outgoing CEO John Chambers would impart his vision in a keynote speech. And was it ever a speech, filled with fire-and-brimstone predictions. The upshot: Chambers, Cisco’s CEO of 20 years, says more than one-third of businesses today will not survive the next 10 years. The only …

Is US Trade Rep a Wall Street Crony? Groups Demand Transparency. – Deirdre Fulton

Noting deep ties between the country’s top trade negotiator and Wall Street banks, ten groups representing millions of Americans are calling on the White House to make public all communications between U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and the massive financial institutions that stand to benefit from proposed trade deals. In a letter (pdf) addressed to Froman—lead champion of President Barack Obama’s corporate-friendly …

When Is a Felony Not a Felony? When You Are a Bank – Alexis Goldstein

Good news, America: We can now get guilty pleas from banks! Bad news, America: That’s only because guilty pleas from banks are now absolutely meaningless. Last week, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays, and Royal Bank of Scotland pled guilty to felony charges of conspiring to manipulate currency prices, and UBS pled guilty to manipulating benchmark interest rates. Regulators and prosecutors found …

Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy – BRENDAN JAMES

A new study from Princeton spells bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists. Asking “[w]ho really rules?” researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page argue that over the past few decades America’s political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power. Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from …

Latest Guilty Pleas Prove Big Bank Criminality ‘Rampant,’ But Jail Time Non-Existent – Deirdre Fulton

In the wake of Wednesday’s announcement that five global financial institutions have agreed to plead guilty to multiple crimes and pay about $5.6 billion in penalties for manipulating foreign currencies and interest rates, corporate watchdogs are reiterating the call to ‘break up the banks’ in light of their ongoing malfeasance. As with other recent settlements, Wednesday’s news provides further evidence to …