THERE’S A SMALL CHANCE THAT FURTHER AUDIT OF THE VENEZUELAN ELECTION WILL OVERTURN THE RESULS OF THAT ELECTION. How small? One in 25,000 trillion, according to a statistical analysis of election boxes already audited, the likelihood that audits of the remainder could reverse the “populist” outcome that continues the policies of Hugo Chavez. So [...]
HANDCUFFING KIDS FOR NO REASON. This is the allegation of two whistle-blowing police officers against the practices of the New York Police Department in a class action suit against the city charging racial profiling. They claim that their supervisors maintained quotas of the number of arrests and summonses they were expected to execute in [...]
GLOBAL WATER CRISIS GETS SCANT MEDIA OR POLITICAL ATTENTION…AND THAT CAN LITERALLY BE DEADLY. Long thought of as solely and environmental issue, access to clean water can no longer be stereotyped as the domain of “tree hugging” activists. With a shrinking supply, climate change and rampant pollution affecting this quite invaluable resource, water is [...]
An aggressive austerity agenda that has gripped Europe’s economy in a burgeoning malaise for nearly five years has come to an unexpected head in the tiny island nation of Cyprus. The latest fiscal catastrophe to develop across the pond has thrown global markets into turmoil and raised questions of how far Europeans are willing to [...]
THE UNITED CASTES OF AMERICA. Upward economic mobility and the basic premise of the “American Dream” have been been eradicated, argues economist Joseph Stiglitz. Decades of regressive economic and social policies — policies wholly accepted and perpetuated by the current presidential administration — have severed a large and growing segment of the country from [...]
The next Treasury secretary of the United States will be a long-time close confidante of President Obama, a man described as a “Washington insider” and veteran of the financial industry adept at cutting backroom deals, and an economic disciple of the men and ideologies that many blame for the deregulation of the nation;s financial markets [...]
GOOD TIMES ROLL ON WITH THE U.S. ASIA-PACIFIC “PIVOT.” The 2011 decision to increase sales of arms to U.S. allies in the region to counter growing Chinese influence in the area is providing a bonanza of opportunities for the military-industrial complex. As a Reuters report puts it, “Fears resulting from China’s growing military spending [...]
Will a “grand bargain” to avert the ostensible calamity of going over the “fiscal cliff” forge a legislative accord on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans? Progressives are increasingly worried about President Obama’s use of Social Security as a bargaining chip with an increasingly rancorous Congress. Not much more than a month since Election Day, [...]
Escalating inequality in the American economy and its most recent “turnaround” has led to a disturbing juxtaposition of record corporate profits and soaring executive pay while wages for average workers hit record lows as a percentage of the nation’s economic output. It’s the ultimate repudiation of “trickle down” economics that busts the myth of business [...]
“IT DOESN’T MATTER WHETHER A CAT IS BLACK OR WHITE PROVIDED IT CATCHES MICE.” This statement, attributed to former Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping, reflects the pragmatic combination of private enterprise capitalism and state-controlled communism that set China on its continuing course of rapid economic development. Now, as Ronald Reagan might say about the [...]
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