South African Workers Pay the Price for Cheap Chinese Imports
[China’s] investment is proving to be a double-edged sword because South Africa’s once successful textile sector is now struggling to cope with cheap Chinese imports flooding their market.
South African workers pay the price for cheap Chinese imports – CNN.com.
Are Folks in the US Capitalists?
Watch Thom Hartmann discuss Capitalism with Marxian economist Richard Wolff.
Interview starts at about 1 minute.
Gingrich Defends Calling Barack Obama “Food Stamp President”
One last point: The number of food stamp beneficiaries had started to head upward under Bush, partly because of more aggressive efforts to get eligible Americans to apply for benefits, and partly because of changes in the rules that had the effect of broadening eligibility. The experts we spoke to agreed that both policies began under Bush but were retained by Obama.
Article: PolitiFact | Newt Gingrich defends calling Barack Obama “food stamp president”
Buffett and Gates on Why the Wealthy Need to Pay More Taxes
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates discuss why a flat tax would be a mistake, how taxes on the wealthiest Americans are too low, and how the tax system has been tipped totally in favor of the wealthy. From a 2005 program on Nebraska public television.
Why does the GOP hate taxes so much?
The bottom line, he says, is that these theories were tested, and recently. “In the 1990s, we raised taxes, particularly on the rich. And a lot of these people were saying our tax increases were going to kill the economy. But remember what actually happened? We got rid of our deficits and the economy grew really robustly for 10 years. And what if it happened again? We might get rid of our deficits and the economy would grow really robustly for another 10 years. Maybe it’s good for the economy to actually get the deficit under control.”
Article: Why does the GOP hate taxes so much? – Ezra Klein – The Washington Post.
Its Time to Break Up AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and the Rest of the Telecoms
Today’s telecoms provide overpriced and inferior service, and are systematically overcharging the hapless American consumer.
Alternet Article: Its Time to Break Up AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and the Rest of the Telecoms.
A top telecommunications regulator who voted to approve Comcast Corp’s takeover of NBCUniversal in January is leaving to join the company as a lobbyist.
No conflict of interest here. Couldn’t be. No way, Jose.
Income Inequality in US Worse than Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Ethiopia
Income inequality in the United States is actually higher than at any other time in modern history since the Great Depression. There is also a tremendous amount of inequality even in life expectancy, with the American Human Development Index reporting in 2010 that there is now a 6 year gap in average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England.
hinkProgress » GRAPH: Income Inequality In U.S. Worse Than Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Ethiopia.
US Overestimates Job Growth
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in March that the economy produced 192,00 new jobs, so the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9%. This was reported everywhere by corporate media claiming that this is a turning point in the U.S. economy and a sign that our economy is becoming self-sustaining. According to Shadowstats.com, there is no sign of an increase in employment rates and the opposite is actually occurring. John Williams from Shadowstats.com, states that the government overestimates job growth by 230,000 jobs a month, so the unemployment statistics are very misleading. One reason for the misleading unemployment statistics is due to the Birth Death Model, which has to do with the birth and death of companies. The Birth Death model overestimates the number of jobs created when a new company is started, but doesn’t subtract the number of employees that lose their jobs when a company goes out of business. There have been multiple stories in independent news media that have reported on the increase of job loss and higher unemployment rates. Shadowstats.com states that the true unemployment rate is 22.1% if the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated unemployment rates the same as they did in 1994.
Also see Flying Blind.
50-cent drop in gas prices?
Supply and Demand in action:
Economics @ ITT 
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