Skip to main content
Tag

Economy

Assembly line workers put final touches on 2018 Ford Expedition SUV at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Ky

African-Americans and the driving forces in the American auto industry

By Editors' Choice

By Herb Boyd — When Africans were forcibly brought to America, they worked at the points of production. And whether as a multitude of enslaved workers on small farms, large plantations, in mines or elsewhere, black laborers were vital cogs in creating wealth for their owners. On a national scale, enslaved black laborers provided a workforce vital for the development of the American republic by bringing wage-free economic success and…

Read More
Military Recruitment

The student debt crisis is fueling the poverty draft

By Commentaries/Opinions

With the cost of higher education skyrocketing, many young Americans from economically struggling communities across the South and elsewhere have turned to the military as a solution for student debt. By Benjamin Barber, Facing South — Earlier this month, after a United States drone strike in Iraq killed 10 Iranian military leaders including the country’s top security and intelligence commander, elevated tensions between the U.S. and Iran raised alarms about…

Read More
Sen. Elizabeth Warren

2020 will be a litmus test for capitalism

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Rana Foroohar, The Washington Post — The two most interesting questions in politics at the moment are whether Elizabeth Warren will be the Democratic candidate in 2020 and whether President Trump will still be around to duke it out with her. Neither is certain, of course, but Warren’s ascendance already guarantees that the 2020 election will come down, as elections often do, to a fight between old and new. Or, in this case,…

Read More
A job fair in Washington DC in August. In April 2019, when the overall unemployment rate was 3.6%, the white unemployment rate was 3.1% while the black unemployment rate was 6.7%.

Hollow boom: why black Americans feel left out of US’s robust economy

By Commentaries/Opinions

Unemployment rate tells a different story about the economy when race is considered, even when job numbers are strong. By Lauren Aratani, The Guardian — What I’ve done for African Americans in two and a half years, no president has been able to do anything like it,” Donald Trump boasted in August, the latest in a series of statements in which he has claimed to be the best president for…

Read More
Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s Biggest Mistake

By Commentaries/Opinions

It rhymes with ‘schneo-liberalism.’ It was an economic disaster and a political dead end. It was an economic disaster and a political dead end. In the early days of his presidency, Barack Obama had the power to overhaul the economy, but instead he focused on smaller, less effective fixes. By Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times — In 2009, Barack Obama was the most powerful newly elected American president in a generation. Democrats controlled the House and, for about five months in the second half of the year, they enjoyed a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority in the Senate. For the first six months of his presidency, Obama had…

Read More
Trump’s Trade War and the Emerging Corporatist-Fascist State

Trump’s Trade War and the Emerging Corporatist-Fascist State

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Anthony DiMaggio, Counter Punch — President Donald Trump’s fit over China speaks to the rise of neofascism in American politics, at a time when neither Congress nor the courts are showing any interest in rolling back presidential power. Trump’s unique brand of neofascism first emerged in the form of his attempt to crack down on journalistic critics for “treason,” and via the onset of his white ethno-nationalist, which he declared via…

Read More