In the News
Why Wall Street’s fat bonuses may hit a snag in 2019
Wall Street professionals are on track for larger bonuses this year, but it may not last. Financial firms will award year-end bonuses of up to 20% larger this year versus…
Canada Marijuana Legalization Puts Spotlight on Latin American Drug Policy
Recreational marijuana in Canada is now officially legal, and while the change is unlikely to have a significant impact on Latin America’s black market, it could trigger a shift towards…
It’s time to break up wealth dynasties in the U.S.
Here’s an often-cited fact about wealth disparity in the United States: The top 1% of the country owns more wealth than the bottom 90% does combined. But let’s put some faces to…
A New Economic Model for the South: Ditch Corporate Welfare and Fund Agricultural Co-ops
A set of statistics from a new report provides a window into how misplaced economic priorities perpetuate poverty in the rural South. Since opening a plant in Canton, Mississippi 15…
Advancing Racial Equity With State Tax Policy
States and localities could do more to help undo the harmful legacies of past racism and the damage caused by continuing racial bias and discrimination. If state budget and tax…
Voting Rights Aren’t Just a Black Issue: They Affect Poor People of All Races
On November 1, a few days before the midterm elections, Reverend William Barber II took the stage at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. He was…
Battle for Hodeidah: More than 40 Houthis killed in 24 hours
At least 43 Houthis have been killed in Yemen’s flashpoint city of Hodeidah over the past 24 hours as pro-government forces close in on rebel-held areas in the east of…
The Rising Crisis in Gaza and a Potential Ceasefire
Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, joined Al Jazeera to discuss the recent Israeli special forces operation inside the Gaza Strip that…
Phyllis Bennis Discusses News That 6 Palestinians Were Killed by Israeli Fire in Southern Gaza
Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, joined Al Jazeera to discuss the latest news from the Israel-Palestine conflict, including news that 6…
WATCH: Peace Congress, Veterans for Peace Seek to End U.S. Wars at Home and Abroad
The No Trump Military Parade coalition of 250 organizations held a Peace Congress in Washington, D.C., on Saturday in place of the Trump military parade, which they helped to stop. On Sunday,…
Negin Owliaei on 2018 Midterm Ballot Initiatives
Negin Owliaei, inequality editor and researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies, joins CounterSpin to discuss major ballot initiative victories in the 2018 midterms.
Red state voters just overwhelmingly supported a minimum wage hike
On Tuesday, Arkansas voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 5, a ballot measure that will raise the state’s minimum wage from $8.50 to $11 by 2021. The vote is expected to raise…
Voters Overwhelmingly Choose To Raise Wages in Two Red States
On Tuesday, Arkansas voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 5, a ballot measure that will raise the state’s minimum wage from $8.50 to $11 by 2021. The vote is expected to raise…
What is to be done about the US plutocrats?
The recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies underscores the role of inherited wealth in the growth of social inequality in the United States. The report, titled, “Billionaire Bonanza:…
Who really benefits from a strong US economy?
President Donald Trump often takes credit for the strong national economy. On his watch, wages are up, unemployment is down, and the poverty rate has continued a four-year decline. Last summer, the…
Minimum wage expansion, abortion restrictions among ballot initiatives for Tuesday
Beyond electing governors, members of the Senate and House, in 37 states, voters will decide on 155 statewide ballot measures. Those measures range from displaying the ten commandments on state…
Billionaires Are Raging and the Minimum Wage Is on the Ballot
It’s never been a bad time to be a billionaire in America, but the .01 percent are having a particularly good year. If you’re part of that vaunted club, your tax bill…
The process of tariff exemptions
How does the Commerce Department decide which companies are exempt from tariffs and which ones aren’t? We obtained some documents that offer a glimpse behind the curtain. And speaking of…
What is to be done about the plutocrats?
A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, made public Tuesday, underscores the role of inherited wealth in the growth of social inequality in the United States. The report,…
Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 Is Just More of the Same
When President Trump announced his grand plan for a new and improved NAFTA, he seemed most proud of the new name—replacing NAFTA with the more awkward-sounding United States-Mexico Canada-Agreement (USMCA).…
The Art of No Mideast Deal
Whatever happened to President Trump’s “Deal of the Century”—his promise to forge an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians bringing a 70-year conflict to a close? We now have two answers.…
Smoke and minstrels can’t hide wealth gap
Black and white wealth gap, not the employment numbers, is the real problem. It’s true what President Donald Trump said in May. The 5.9 percent unemployment rate was indeed the…
Black Leftists Lead Call to Dismantle AFRICOM
Members of a Black anti-imperialist collective say people of African descent have been misinformed about the true nature of the United States’ seemingly benevolent military presence in the motherland, currently…
Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Rule of Pampered Princelings
“BORING.” That was Donald Trump’s instant verdict on the New York Times’s blockbuster investigation into the rampant tax fraud and nepotism that undergirds his fortune. Sarah Huckabee Sanders heartily concurred, informing the White…
Washington keeps failing to rein in banker pay
Ten years ago, Wall Street crashed the economy after some bankers committed massive fraud so they could pocket billions in bonuses. Since then, here’s the number of senior bankers imprisoned…
Bolsonaro Brings Brazil to the Brink
James Early, Former Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution, and board member of the Institute for Policy Studies joins the show to talk about Brazil’s General Elections…
A Mixed, Muddled Bag: Trump’s USMCA Trade Pact May Help Labor, But Will Hurt the Environment
Long after Donald Trump ceases to be President, the newly renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement may be harming the environment. As Ben Beachy of the Sierra Club describes it,…
Radical Black organization calls on U.S. government to shut down U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM)
Oct. 1, 2018 – The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has launched U.S. Out of Africa!: Shut Down AFRICOM, a campaign designed to end the U.S. invasion and occupation of Africa.…
On Brett Kavanaugh, Sexual Abuse And Domestic Workers
When Professor Anita Hill courageously testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, I was ten years old. Though I could not possibly comprehend all of the political…
The U.S. Defense Department Is Losing the Battle Against Climate Change
A rock seawall protecting the Air Force’s Cape Lisburne Long Range Radar Station on the North East Alaska coast is under increasing duress from extreme weather patterns affecting Arctic sea…
