It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown – Too Big to Exist – 10.14.15

Nature limits all systems — nothing grows forever. Economic systems built around growth, like ours, are no different. Ellen revisits that topic with bio-mimicist Jamie Brown-Hansen about what scientific inquiry into natural systems teaches regarding sustainable economic systems that last for eras rather than just decades. The theme is picked up by Bernie Sanders as he reflects on the precarious nature of our national economy while Matt Stannard considers what’s not being addressed on the topic by the presidential candidates. And co-host Walt McRee talks with New Hampshire State Representative Valerie Fraser about the movement underway there to create a public State bank.

Dear Janet Yellen, Here Is All You Need To Know About The US Economy: True Unemployment Is Over 12%

One of the great mysteries surrounding the US economy is the seemingly inexplicable discrepancy between the plunging unemployment rate on one hand, which at 5.1% in August was the lowest since April of 2008 – a data point which on the surface would suggest virtually no slack in the labor force –  and the crawling pace of growth of the …

Economic Update – Precarious Work = Capitalism’s Inefficiency – 09.13.15

Updates on economics of refugees, Ford buys French political wife, LAs homeless, Labor Day history, Seattle Teachers strike, and Japan’s jobs ever more precarious. Response to listeners on why rising wages need NOT mean rising prices. Interview with Dr. Harriet Fraad, mental health counselor, on the psychological pains, personal suffering, and huge social costs of imposing uncertainty and precarity on job security, hours and days of work, benefits, and wages.

Bill Quigley – Ten Troubling Numbers Labor Day 2015

5.1. The official unemployment rate is 5.1 percent, or 8 million people, according to the US Department of Labor.  However, this widely reported “official” number overlooks the millions of people unemployed for more than a year nor does it count those who are working part-time and looking for full-time work.  The Department of Labor monthly report which includes people working …

John Scales Avery – Child Labour and Slavery

In the early 19th century, industrial society began to be governed by new rules: Traditions were forgotten and replaced by purely economic laws. Labor was viewed as a commodity, like coal or grain, and wages were paid according to the laws of supply and demand, without regard for the needs of the workers. Wages fell to starvation levels, hours of …

Jeb Bush Proves He Has No Clue About US Economics Op-Ed by Naji Dahi

Jeb Bush, one of the leading Republican candidates for the presidency, is in the news again—and not in a good way. During a meeting with the editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader, he reportedlysaid the following: “My aspiration for the country — and I believe we can achieve it — is 4 percent growth as far as the eye …

Karl Marx Was Right By Chris Hedges

On Saturday at the Left Forumin New York City, Chris Hedges joined professors Richard WolffandGail Dinesto discuss why Karl Marx is essential at a time when global capitalism is collapsing. These are the remarks Hedges made to open the discussion. Karl Marx exposed the peculiar dynamics of capitalism, or what he called “the bourgeois mode of production.” He foresaw that capitalism had …

LOW WAGES COST TAXPAYERS $153 BILLION A YEAR

Persistent low wages cost US taxpayers approximately $153 billion every year in public support to working families, according to a new report that details, for the first time, the state-by-state costs. Following decades of wage cuts and health benefits rollbacks, more than half of all state and federal spending on public assistance programs (56 percent) now goes to working families, …