Class Struggle

The Chart That Explains Everything

Why is the economy barely growing after seven years of zero rates and easy money? Why are wages and incomes sagging when stock and bond prices have gone through the roof? Why are stocks experiencing such extreme volatility when the Fed increased rates by a mere quarter of a percent?

Cameron’s ‘Social Cleansing’ Of Britain

Thousands fear being forced out as 73 landlord MPs vote down motion to ensure housing is ‘fit for humans’ MULTIMILLIONAIRE PM David Cameron was accused of “social cleansing” yesterday after threatening to bulldoze thousands of working families’ homes without guarantee of replacement and denying millions the right to live somewhere “fit for humans.” In a panicked response to the housing […]

How Debt Conquered America

Soon after Columbus launched his business enterprise on the pristine beaches of the New World, each native discovered there above the age of puberty was required to remit a “hawk’s bell’s worth” of gold dust to the Spaniards every two weeks. The hands of all those failing to do so were cut off and strung about their necks – so that they bled to death, thus motivating the compliance of others.

Don’t Rely on Amnesty to Judge Amnesty Law in Venezuela

NGOs like Amnesty end up providing a kind of “idea laundering” for the U.S. government and its allies. Many years ago, that’s how Canadian writer Linda McQuaig described the function of corporate funded think tanks in debates about domestic policy. Not everybody will be happy to believe what the U.S. government or corporate journalists say. It’s useful to have “independent”, and preferably liberal, organizations like Amnesty promote the required assumptions and deceit.

IMF’s Rogues Gallery: Crooks, Rapists and Swindlers

The IMF is the leading international monetary agency whose public purpose is to maintain the stability of the global financial system through loans linked to proposals designed to enhance economic recovery and growth. In fact, the IMF has been under the control of the US and Western European states and its policies have been designed to further the expansion, domination and profits […]

What If Jesus Had Been Born 2,000 Years Later in the American Police State?

“Two thousand years later … the memory of the revolutionary zealot who walked across Galilee gathering an army of disciples with the goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth, the magnetic preacher who defied the authority of the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem, the radical Jewish nationalist who challenged the Roman occupation and lost, has been almost completely lost to history.”

A Crisis Worse than ISIS? Bail-Ins Begin

For some inexplicable reason, the hard-earned money you deposit in the bank is not considered “security” or “collateral.” It is just a loan to the bank, and you must stand in line along with the other creditors in hopes of getting it back. State and local governments must also stand in line, although their deposits are considered “secured,” since they remain junior to the derivative claims with “super-priority.”

How Slaves Built American Capitalism

In the abstract, capitalism and slavery are fundamentally counterposed systems. One is based on free labor, and the other, on forced labor. However, in practice, Capitalism itself would have been impossible without slavery.

In the United States, scholars have demonstrated that profit wasn’t made just from Southerners selling the cotton that slaves picked or the cane they cut. Slavery was central to the establishment of the industries that today dominate the U.S. economy: real estate, insurance and finance.

OECD finds UK pensions amongst lowest in world

British state pensions are among the lowest in the world, paying out a mere 38 percent of what the recipient earned when working, according to the Organisation for Development and Cooperation (OECD).

The OECD report, Pensions at a Glance, makes a comparative study of pensions in 34 countries. Only in Chile and Mexico was the replacement income as a proportion of average earnings lower than in the UK. The figure of 38 percent compares with 90 percent in the Netherlands and 80 percent in Spain and Italy.