March 6, 2016 Two hundred years have passed since president Jefferson wrote this (excerpted) letter. Not only have we not acted to reduce the risk of total collapse of our financial system, it’s far worse than he could have possibly imagined -and there’s no relief in sight. Today our largest … Continue reading
Category Archives: Economy
Job Losses Up 218% in January 2016
February 4, 2016 Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement firm, released its job cuts report for January. Layoffs increased by 218%, the highest since last summer, mostly due to a loss of 16,000 jobs at Wal-Mart, America’s biggest non-government employer, and 4,800 at Macy’s. The low-wage retail sector suffered cuts … Continue reading
OXFAM Inequality 2016
January 18, 2015 According to a new report from OXFAM: • In 2015, just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.6 billion people – the bottom half of humanity. This figure is down from 388 individuals as recently as 2010. • The wealth of the richest 62 people has … Continue reading
Warning About Derivatives
Excerpt from Warren Buffett’s 2002 Letter to Shareholders explaining what derivatives are and why he considers them “financial weapons of mass destruction.” ”Derivatives, in fact, deserve an extensive look, both in respect to the accounting their users employ and to the problems they may pose for both individual … Continue reading
Student Loan Debt
January 13, 2016 Total student loan debt in the United States is increasing at a rate of about $2,853.88 per second and has now passed $1.3 trillion. To access the student loan debt clock and a wealth of information click here.
Source of the U.S. dollar
The U.S. has had a debt-based banking system since 1864. As a result, it is currently impossible to extinguish government debt without simultaneously extinguishing our money supply. The Federal Reserve, established in 1913, is a for-profit corporation owned by private member banks. It has no reserves to back up the … Continue reading
President Obama on Inequality
October 23, 2015 Excerpt of President Obama’s full remarks on mobility and inequality on December 4, 2013. …I believe this is the defining challenge of our time: Making sure our economy works for every working American. It’s why I ran for President. It was at the center of last year’s … Continue reading
Renters’ Crisis 2015
09/21/2015 A report from Harvard’s Joint Center on Housing Studies and Enterprise Community Partners, an affordable-housing nonprofit group, provides further documentation of the growing housing crisis. The number of renters forced to allocate 50% or more of their income for rents is at an all time high, and growing rapidly, … Continue reading
Greek Debt
July 7, 2015 It is in no one’s interest, including the United States, to let Greece collapse. Greece’s creditors might lose most -if not all- of what they’re owed and the Greek people would suffer immensely for an indefinite period of time. The potential social, political, economic and even military … Continue reading
Today’s Housing Crisis
Press Release (excerpt) November 25, 2018 J o i n t C e n t e r f o r H o u s i n g S t u d i e s o f H a r v a r d Uni v e r s i t … Continue reading