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Hell in a Very Small Place
Hell: the creditor of last resort Note: While I was writing this I thought about many things I experienced and read. Then as I was posting this the title of a book I read many years ago came to mind. Bernard Fall’s Hell in a Very Small Place. Fall was and remained a sympathizer with […]
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Unbecoming American: Risky Business
Risk and fraudulent mutuality Thirty years ago, having just successfully completed a international congress on environmental consciousness and mass media which I had organized on behalf of the Deutsche Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, a legacy of an early German pharmaceutical magnate, the inventor of the mouthwash Odol; I was asked to prepare the framework for a subsequent […]
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Tackling California’s Budget Crisis: Raise Taxes, Cut Programs, or Form a Bank?
In 2022, the state of California celebrated a record budget surplus of $97.5 billion. Two years later, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, this surplus has plummeted to a record budget deficit of $73 billion. Balancing the budget will be challenging. Unlike the federal government, the state cannot just drive up debt and roll it […]
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Tyranny by the Numbers: The Government Wants Your Money Any Way It Can Get It
The government wants your money. It will beg, steal or borrow if necessary, but it wants your money any way it can get it. This is what comes of those $1.2 trillion spending bills: someone’s got to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity, and that “someone” is the U.S. taxpayer. The government’s schemes […]
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Is There an Answer to Inflation?
Inflation is a scourge on those cursed with living under the capitalist order. It especially punishes those least able to weather the pain of constantly falling behind rising prices and expanding debt. Inflation harms nearly all working people whose income growth trails the rise in prices, including those with union contracts that bridge periods of […]
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The Public Bank That Wasn’t: New Jersey’s Excursion into Public Banking
In 2017, Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive, made the establishment of a public, state-owned bank a centerpiece issue during his run for New Jersey governor. He regularly championed public banking in speeches, town halls and campaign commercials. He won the race, and the nation’s second state-owned bank following the stellar model of the Bank […]
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The Washington Post Bashes Xi Jinping
In the age of disinformation and artificial information, Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post (WaPo) manages to have some credibility. After its February 22 editorial, “Mr. Xi is tanking China’s economy,” Jeff Bezos would be wise to sell the newspaper. If those who lead the Editorial Board make childish mistakes and recite obvious falsehoods, can anyone believe […]
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Defusing the Derivatives Time Bomb: Some Proposed Solutions
The “protected class” is granted “safe harbor” only because their bets are so risky that to let them fail could crash the economy. But why let them bet at all? This is a sequel to a January 15 article titled “Casino Capitalism and the Derivatives Market: Time for Another ‘Lehman Moment’?”, discussing the threat of […]
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It’s Not Personal… Just Business!
Just watched a 2020 documentary entitled Dirty Money that covered a slew of scams perpetrated on American consumers. The segment on Scott Tucker really got my goat. Here’s a bit of a background on this character and his disgusting shenanigans: In 1991, Tucker was convicted for his illegal activities, including mail fraud, associated with a […]
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