Australia: Basic income is a human right

Published on green left Weekly GLW, by Daniel Elliot, Aug 21, 2015.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not a new idea. But it is an idea whose time has come. It is one of the simplest, most obvious pieces of social policy imaginable: every member of a society, with no exceptions, is entitled to enough money to live on.   Continuer la lecture de « Australia: Basic income is a human right »

Puerto Rico: a US debt colony hounded by hedge funds

Published on ZNet (first on Roarmag.org), by Jérôme Roos, Aug 22, 2015.

On August 1, Puerto Rico defaulted on part of its enormous $72 billion debt, paying back only $628,000 on a $58 million loan that was due at the start of the month. The default, which marks the most serious credit event in US state and municipal bond markets since the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, has led many to draw obvious comparisons to Greece – and understandably so.   Continuer la lecture de « Puerto Rico: a US debt colony hounded by hedge funds »

some ideas about what is Socialism – part 2

Related Links:

  • Richard Wolff on Bernie Sanders and Socialism, 25.49 min, uploaded by GRITtv, July 14, 2015 … This week: On Sanders and Socialism. Is socialism still an American taboo? Not so much, says professor Richard Wolff; nor was it in the past, says Nation columnist John Nichols. Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University in New York City. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books, including his most recent; Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown 2010- 2014, and he hosts the weekly Economic Update podcast. John Nichols’ many books include The « S » Word: A Short History of an American Tradition … Socialism, and, most recently, Dollarocracy: How the Money-and-Media-Election Complex is Destroying America. This episode also features an commentary from Laura on renaming capitalism;   Continuer la lecture de « some ideas about what is Socialism – part 2 »

It Starts: Broad Retaliation Against China in Currency War

Published on Wolf Street, by Wolf Richter, Aug 20, 2015.

The biggest global “tail risk” is China’s deteriorating economy and an emerging market debt crisis, according to BofA Merrill Lynch’s monthly poll of fund managers. And 48% of them were expecting the Fed to raise rates, despite languid growth and low inflation expectations. Continuer la lecture de « It Starts: Broad Retaliation Against China in Currency War »