Austerity kills: Greek Martyrs and the Economic Hitmen in Michigan

by Scott Creighton Sooner or later, we are all Dimitris Christoulas. Dimitris Christoulas picked a tree in a park in central Athens by the nation’s parliament. It took him 77 years to get to that point, to pick that tree. He sat down next to it, sat in the shady side at 9am in the [...]

List of Dictatorships Aligned with Neoliberal “Free Trade” Economics

by Scott Creighton Neoliberalism = Washington Consensus = IMF austerity measures = economic hitmen = Dictatorships Below is a list of current (2011) dictatorships and authoritarian ruled nations as compiled by the Freedom House. The nation states in RED are openly free market/neoliberal and supported by the United States of America or other neoliberal nations. [...]

The Federal Reserve Cartel: Part I: The Eight Families

(Another must read. Also read the post below by Michael Hudson.) by Dean Henderson, Left Hook Blog The Four Horsemen of Banking (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) own the Four Horsemen of Oil (Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco); in tandem with Deutsche Bank, BNP, Barclays and other European [...]

Replacing Economic Democracy with Financial Oligarchy

(A must read) by Michael Hudson, Information Clearinghouse Soon after the Socialist Party won Greece’s national elections in autumn 2009, it became apparent that the government’s finances were in a shambles. In May 2010, French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the lead in rounding up €120bn ($180 billion) from European governments to subsidize Greece’s unprogressive tax [...]

Corporate Martial Law: Public Schools Auctioned Off to Highest Bidder

by Julianne Hing, AlterNet If you’ve ever wondered whether the solution to a cash-strapped low-performing urban school district’s financial and education woes is the wholesale privatization of the public school system, you’re about to get your answer. Detroit, which is caught up in a state that has turned on its public workers, is auctioning off [...]

Economic Hit-men and the Neoliberalization of America

by Scott Creighton In a continuation of the interview which I posted late last night, Rachel Maddow has on Naomi Klein to talk about the process of disaster capitalism being implemented in Wisconsin and Michigan and all through-out the United States. This is primarily what this website has been about since it’s creation nearly 4 years [...]

Michigan Republicans Use Budget Crisis to Make Outrageous Assault on Democracy

by James Parks, AFL-CIO In an outrageous power grab, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and the Republican-dominated state Senate passed, and sent back to the House, legislation today that allows Snyder to declare a local city to be in a financial emergency and appoint an emergency manager. That manager can, without anyone else’s approval, cancel contracts, including [...]

Michigan Senate passes emergency manager bills

by Chad Selweski, Daily Tribune A day after facing hundreds of rowdy, pro-union protesters that filled the state Capitol, the Senate voted on Wednesday to grant broad new powers to emergency managers who oversee financially struggling cities and schools, including the authority to void union contracts and remove elected officials. The controversial bills are expected [...]