Economic Update – Capitalism’s Endless Costs – 07.26.15

Updates on Coke vs Pepsi war, price gouging on cancer drugs, Corwyn good for UK Labor Party, and new Pope’s strong anti-capitalist speeches. We respond to listeners’ questions on guaranteed basic income and on why public employees are not an economic negative. Major attention is given to supporting countries that refuse to pay certain govt debts and especially to Greece in a review of is dramatic recent struggles.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown – We’re All Greeks Now – 07.22.15

It isn’t just the Greeks, or the Cypriots, or the Irish, or the Icelanders suffering the price of financial terrorism – the extractive demands of global central banks on display in Greece are actively draining the marrow of impoverished communities the world over. Ellen speaks with author and expert Stephen Lendman about the financial powers forcibly overruling Greek democracy, and their intentions to do so everywhere. Co-host Walt McRee speaks with an official of one California county government pushing back against convicted bank felons, and later discusses new human evolutionary awareness about our relationship with money with philosopher Robert Bows. And Matt Stannard discusses our myths about “the Great American Entrepreneur” on the Public Banking Report.

Economic Update – Capitalism and its Others – 07.19.15

Today’s program focuses on two alternatives to capitalism. The first is an alternative to how capitalism organizes enterprises in terms of their internal workings and relationships. We examine workers self-directed enterprises: how they work and how they compare to capitalist enterprises. In the program’s second half we look at an alternative to how capitalism organizes the economy as a whole: the socialist tradition that has evolved multiple different forms in the world today. We examine how socialism has evolved, its complex relationship with government, and how socialism compares with capitalism.

Economic Update – Learning from Economic defeats – 07.12.15

Continuing our new format experiment: two in-depth analyses. In the show’s first half: The New Deal was both a victory and a defeat. Both offer crucial lessons for today. In the show’s second half, a critical review of labor’s short and long-run goals, labor’s defensive decline, and a new strategy built on lessons of that decline.

Alternative Visions – China’s Stock Bubble Bursts + Latest Greek Offer to the Troika – 07.11.15

On opposite ends of the world, two major financial instability events continue to emerge: China’s stock markets collapsing and Greece’s possible exit from the Eurozone. Both promise to produce significant contagion effects in the global economy, now already slowing. In the first half of the show, Jack reviews the latest Greek offer to the Troika delivered this past Thursday and compares it to prior Troika and Greek positions. The conclusion is Greece appears to have caved in to Troika concession demands in exchange for a ‘smoke and mirror’ restructuring of the Greek debt. If accepted, Jack argues, it will mean the Syriza government will eventually self-destruct—which has been the objective of the Troika from the very beginning. Traditional Euro social democracy (Greece’s proposals) is no longer acceptable to banker-investor governed Neoliberal Europe. Jack then takes a detailed look at the causes of the current freefall in China’s main stock markets and the possible consequences for China and the global economy. What’s behind the 150% rise in one year and now the collapse. Jack describes China’s latest emergency extreme measures being introduced to stem the fall, by injecting more de facto ‘QE’ money into the markets to stimulate stock buying again and introducing other extreme measures to stop stock selling. Likely potential contagion effects on China’s other markets (housing, local government debt, industrial debt) and its real economy are considered. Will China growth now slow further? What are consequences for the global financial system as contagion continues to spill over to other financial asset markets globally—stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies? Even more than Greece and the Eurozone, China’s markets collapse signal the global economy has moved one step further to another financial crisis event.

Economic Update – Class and Socialism – 07.05.15

We begin our 3-week experiment with a new format: two in-depth analyses, one in each half of the show. We begin by considering the different meanings of class, class analysis and class struggle across human history and why those differences matter so much now. Today’s second half explores how socialism evolved from a basic alternative to capitalism into a state capitalism not so different from private capitalism.

Alternative Visions – Greece’s Challenge to Euro Neoliberalism – 07.04.15

Jack Rasmus explains the northern Europe Neoliberal origins of the current Greek Debt crisis, and why the Troika cannot and will not accept Greece’s proposals which would upset the Euro-wide Neoliberal consensus. Greece’s proposals represent a return to traditional, pre-Neoliberal, European social democracy—which has been replaced with a new Neoliberal regime Europe-wide since 2000 with the creation of the Euro …

Greek Debt Negotiations at 11th Hour – The Troika’s ‘Carrot and Stick’ By: Jack Rasmus

The weekend of June 27-28 marks the likely last comprehensive negotiating session between the Troika and the Greek government before the current extension of the debt agreement between Greece and the Troika formally expires on June 30, 2015.   As final negotiations come down to the wire, the class nature of the bargaining positions of the two parties is becoming …

Economic Update – Pope Questions Capitalism – 06.28.15

Our updates start with victory of alumna, faculty and students over autocratic board of Sweet Briar College in Virginia, then discuss the uniquely awful US record on paid leave for workers and an interesting move by cities (Santa Cruz, CA as example) to disconnect from corrupt big banks. We have fun with why US govt leaving Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York and we celebrate rising UK movement against austerity. Second half of show interviews veteran reporter Bob Hennelly on the Pope’s statement about ecology, environment, and a failing economic system.