United States of America (USA)

Covid 2021: more calamity ahead?

16 November 2020 - by Michael Roberts

The news that a COVID-19 vaccine could well be available by the start of 2021 sent the stock markets of the world shooting up to new record levels. However, the rally was quickly tempered by the rocketing rise in COVID-19 infections as the (...)
El pueblo estadounidense depone a Trump

10 de noviembre de 2020 - por Dan La Botz

En la elección más importante desde hace varias décadas en EE UU, el pueblo estadounidense votó el 3 de noviembre a favor de deponer de la presidencia al Republicano autoritario Donald Trump, pues la mayoría dio su voto al Demócrata Joseph Biden. (...)
The American People Turn Trump Out of Office

10 November 2020 - by Dan La Botz

In the most important American election in decades, the American people voted on November 3 to remove the authoritarian Republican Donald Trump from the presidency, a majority voting instead for Democrat Joseph Biden. While the electorate was (...)
The US economy – some facts

4 November 2020 - by Michael Roberts

As we await the result of the US presidential election, here are some facts about the US economy within a world context. Share of world GDP In 1980, it looked like this: The US had more than twice of the share of global GDP than Japan, and (...)
President Trump’s man elected to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

17 September 2020 - by Ariela Ruiz Caro

Failures in the region’s coordination have allowed President Trump’s candidate to easily win the election of the IDB presidency despite the violation of the institution’s rules. In an expeditious process, on September 12, Mauricio Claver-Carone (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 24)

From Paul Wolfowitz (2005-2007) to David Malpass (2019-...): the US President’s men control the World Bank

14 September 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few major allied powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
David Graeber discusses Strike the Debt and Detroit

3 September 2020 - by CADTM, David Graeber, Jonas Nunes de Carvalho

David Graeber passed away in Venice on September 2, 2020 at the age of 59. The CADTM gives homage to the memory and work of David Graeber, in particular his book, DEBT, THE FIRST 5000 YEARS published in 2013, and his action in support of the (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 22)

The Meltzer Commission on the IFI at the US Congress in 2000

1 September 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMFare 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
United States of America: Socialism for Big Capital and wild capitalism for the poor

10 July 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

While the US has been set ablaze since the end of May 2020 by a multitude of major antiracist demonstrations [1] and the ordinary working people of the world’s top power remain hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic (as of 9 July 2020, in the United (...)
A boot is crushing the neck of American democracy

2 June 2020 - by Cornel West

Here we go again. Another black person killed by the US police. Another wave of multiracial resistance. Another cycle of race talk on the corporate media. Another display of diversity with neoliberal leaders, and another white backlash soon to (...)
The scarring

4 May 2020 - by Michael Roberts

Optimism reigns in global stock markets, particularly in the US. After falling around 30% when the lockdowns to contain COVID-19 virus pandemic were imposed, the US stock market has jumped back 30% in April. Why? Well, for two reasons. The (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 9)

Domination of the United States on the World Bank

2 April 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
When the Bernie Sander’s mass movement becomes the establishment’s “worst nightmare”

17 February 2020 - by Yorgos Mitralias

Now that the most sceptical and doubting are finally beginning to realise that Bernie Sanders is a real contender for the US Presidency, it is time to take a closer look at the reasons why his candidature is so unprecedented, historical and (...)
A profits recession?

22 July 2019 - by Michael Roberts

This week, we get the first US company reports on earnings for the second quarter of 2019. And it looks as though there will be the first back-to-back drop in overall earnings since the mini-recession of 2016. S&P 500 companies are (...)
As President, Bernie Should Cancel All Student Debt

24 June 2019 - by Ben Beckett

The billions of dollars in student loan debt are an economic and moral crisis. Bernie Sanders should promise to wipe it all out. In the United States, education is supposed to be an equalizer, and higher education in particular is key to (...)
Boom and then bust?

30 April 2019 - by Michael Roberts

Last March, [I posted that the global economy seemed to be in a fantasy world->https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/the-fantasy-world-of-the-long-depression where stock markets hit new highs but output of goods and services, (...)
From the individual “me too” to the collective “us too”

#MeToo: A movement for women workers too!

8 March 2019 - by Sonia Mitralias

It has been more than two years since the emergence of the Me Too movement that unveiled the enormous extent of sexual harassment in the workplace and gender-based sexual violence around the world! Not at all ephemeral, this movement does not (...)
Economic crisis and global disorder – An increasingly chaotic globalization

9 January 2019 - by Michel Husson

Ten years after the bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers, more and more analyses are being produced centring on two questions: how did it happen? Can it happen again? But they are almost all centred on the workings of finance, past or future. The (...)
Corporate debt – the IMF gets worried

20 November 2018 - by Michael Roberts

The IMF does not pull any punches in [its latest post on the IMF blog->https://blogs.imf.org/2018/11/15/sounding-the-alarm-on-leveraged-lending. It is really worried that so-called ‘leveraged loans’ are reaching dangerous levels globally. These (...)
The Next Crash

17 September 2018 - by Robert Reich

Trump and his Republican enablers are now reversing regulations put in place to stop Wall Street’s excessively risky lending September 15 will mark the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and near meltdown of Wall Street, (...)
China vs the US: The new imperial scramble for Africa and global rivalries

4 June 2018 - by Lee Wengraf

Lee Wengraf writes that the rush for profits, economic volatility and militarization across Africa promises only instability, rising exploitation and violence. Since the start of the new millennium, sub-Saharan African economies have undergone (...)
USA: Where the Debt Slaves Are the Most Vulnerable

24 May 2018 - by Wolf Richter

I’m shedding a different light on consumer debt. This type of chart is trotted out constantly these days to show that American households are in fabulous shape when it comes to their ability to service their [blistering record (...)
Imperialism and Dependency: Similarities and Differences with the Marini era

8 May 2018 - by Claudio Katz, Richard Fidler

The main theorist of dependency anticipated trends of neoliberal globalization. He analyzed productive globalization, the centrality of exploitation and the relative weight of surplus value transfers. But the employment crisis exceeds what was (...)
Women across the globe are planning to strike on March 8. Here’s why

3 March 2018 - by Cinzia Arruzza , Tithi Bhattacharya, Sarah Jaffe

We’re now into the second year of the Trump administration, and the last year has been filled with ups and downs, important victories, successful holding campaigns, and painful defeats. We’ve learned a lot, but there is always more to learn, more (...)
The Macroeconomic Effects of Student Debt Cancellation

12 February 2018 - by Scott Fullwiler, Stephanie Kelton, Catherine Ruetschlin, Marshall Steinbaum

Executive Summary More than 44 million Americans are caught in a student debt trap. Collectively, they owe nearly $1.4 trillion on outstanding student loan debt. Research shows that this level of debt hurts the US economy in a variety of ways, (...)