In the News
Stock-Linked Executive Pay and Buybacks: a Destructive Combo
A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies finds that half of the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median worker wage revised their pay rules in 2020,…
Five new books on how COVID-19 is reshaping the world – from the personal to the political
Many authors I interviewed this year spoke about what a strange, surreal task it is to digest the COVID-19 crisis in real time – and reflect this new reality in writing. Camilla…
Tax billionaires’ pandemic profits
As Democrats begin the push to invest $3.5 trillion to combat climate change, expand Medicare, ensure child care for working families and more, the age-old question is being repeated in…
One chart shows how poor even the top 1% is compared to billionaires – and how far behind the average American is
The gap between normal Americans and the wealthy shouldn’t surprise anyone – but just look at this chart and the mind reels. It can still be surprising to visualize the…
Sanders Vows to Tax Billionaires Who Grew 62% Richer During Pandemic
The collective fortune of billionaires in the United States has ballooned by nearly two-thirds during the coronavirus pandemic, and almost none of the $1.8 trillion gained by a few hundred of the nation’s…
Why Americans hate and fear the poor: Joanne Samuel Goldblum on the price of inequality
It is expensive to be poor in America. These costs are both small and large. Together they accumulate into a sum that is almost insurmountable. For example, people in poor and…
Media Rediscover Afghan Women Only When US Leaves
Just as US corporate news media “discovered” Afghan women’s rights only when the US was angling for invasion, their since-forgotten interest returned with a vengeance as US troops exited the…
More Charities Express Opposition to Legislation Reining In Donor-Advised Funds
Are donor-advised funds (DAFs) “warehouses” where money is “parked” instead of distributed to charities that could put it to work? Or are DAFs “greenhouses” where donor funds grow before being…
As Subsidies Roll in, the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Winning Efforts to Cast Blue Hydrogen as a ‘Clean’ Fuel
As global efforts to ramp up the hydrogen industry gain support with big government subsidies, new research casts increasing doubt on the climate credentials of the main recipient of that support, so-called…
Fighting for the Future of Clean Water
Gold mining has been a lucrative business for many generations. Today, it’s still a booming industry with global mining companies expanding into new markets each year. This week – we…
This isn’t the first time a pandemic has made the rich even richer
Between layoffs, furloughs, closures and sick leave, pandemics stretch the average person’s finances to the limit. Yet, there are always those who profit by disaster. … Read the full article…
What Does A $3.5 Trillion Budget Bill Bring To The U.S.?
Called by some “the most consequential budget legislation since the New Deal”, the landmark $3.5 trillion budget proposal to be discussed by Congress on their return promises free community college,…
Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan
As the Taliban consolidates its position after taking over in Afghanistan, a major effort continues at the Kabul airport to get thousands of evacuees to safety before an end of…
More Firefighters, Fewer Prisons
California Correctional Center, a prison in the small Northern California town of Susanville, is scheduled to close in June 2022. Local officials are fighting the closure tooth and nail. A…
Phyllis Bennis and Matthew Hoh on Afghanistan Withdrawal
This week on CounterSpin: US news media are full of armchair generals who talk about weapons of war like they’re Hot Wheels, and have lots of thoughts about how “we coulda got ’em”…
$1 billion in DAF grants went to other DAFs, not charities, in 2019
More than $1 billion in grants awarded from donor-advised funds in 2019 went to other commercial DAF accounts, not charities, a report from the Institute for Policy Studies‘ Charity Reform Initiative…
Afghan-Led Coalition Gives Biden Admin a Blueprint to ‘Prevent Further Harm’ to People of Afghanistan
A coalition of more than 60 progressive advocacy organizations, led by Afghans For a Better Tomorrow, on Thursday released a letter detailing what the Biden administration can do “to save Afghan lives and…
Our effort to admit Afghan refugees will have broad support. With one exception.
In part because of terrible planning by the Biden administration, the withdrawal from Afghanistan is creating a humanitarian crisis, in the form of thousands and thousands of desperate refugees left stranded in…
The shame of homelessness
Our society tries to shame homelessness, when it is really the shame of our society. The Transcript’s reporting on the closure of the downtown mutual aid fridge showed how far…
American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one
Last week, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan thinktank, released a report on the increasing pay gap between chief executives and workers. This research tells a familiar story with updated…
Biden doubles down on withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
President Joe Biden declared Monday he would not back down on his withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Republicans, fearful that he or future presidents might just be serious about…
Transcript: The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
O`DONNELL: Well, what could become one of America`s enduring lies to itself about Afghanistan is being given birth on live TV these days. Last night on this network, an unnamed…
Rather than focus on how the U.S. got out of Afghanistan, focus on how it got in
While politicians and pundits debate “who lost Afghanistan,” that question will likely seem very distant from many Americans’ lives. Indeed, more than two-thirds supported the decision to withdraw. If anything, most…
Did America Betray Afghanistan?
President Biden’s rationale for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan has long been simple: No progress was going to be made that hadn’t been made already, and after losing 20 years, $2…
Billionaires have profiteered $5.5 trillion during the COVID crisis
Billionaires have profiteered $5.5 trillion during the COVID crisis. We should tax this windfall, says inequality researcher Omar Ocampo, to fund vaccines for all. Listen to the full interview at…
Why the Billionaires Should Vaccinate the World
If we don’t vaccinate the world, more variants will arise. During the pandemic, billionaires saw their wealth rise at the fastest rate ever, by $5 trillion – in 18 months.…
Six New Efforts to Get Philanthropists to Open Up Their Wallets
Over the last year and a half, every month it’s felt like there’s been a new effort to force, or at least encourage, philanthropists to open their wallets a bit…
Looking back at Canada’s war in Afghanistan
Canadian Embassy officials in Kabul, Afghanistan were evacuated on August 15 as Taliban forces entered the capital city and took control of the Presidential Palace. The Taliban (Pashto for students) was…
Flawed From the Start, Critics Say Afghan War’s Bitter End for US Was ‘Inevitable’
As the Taliban on Friday made further gains in control over territory—uprooting thousands of Afghan civilians—longtime critics of the Afghanistan war say the current situation is an “inevitable” outcome of…
One-off tax on $5.5 trillion Covid profits of world’s richest would pay for world to be vaccinated and give unemployed $20k
The combined wealth of the world’s billionaires spiked to more than $13.5 trillion since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, a gain of more than $5.5 trillion since the…
