#1683 Oligarchy Unmasked: President Musk, the crackup of capitalism, and the MAGA meltdown
Air Date: 1-15-2025
Elon Musk is leading the way for his class of tech broligarchs anxious to take over the MAGA movement and shape it to their own ends of deregulation, tax cuts, and lucrative government contracts. The disappointment that is inevitable for the MAGA populists is coming even faster than expected.
Read more#1680 The US puts the Hell in Health Care: For-profit insurance, Pharma, and the hatred and conspiracies they breed
Air Date: 1-4-2025
The murder of a health insurance CEO being met with widespread approval and the risk of going backward on life-saving vaccines pretty much sums up the current state of our approach to health care in this country.
Read more#1554 Destroying Education and Democracy for Fun and Profit (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 4–19-2023
Today, we take a look at the history and present of the interconnected movements to privatize education and dismantle democracy.
Read more#1566 Wrestling with Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 6–13-2023
Today, we take a look at the struggle to act ethically, at least by our own measure if there's not a universally agreed standard to compare with, relating to the purchase of both the necessities of life we all need as well as the more luxury items that get added on top.
Read more#1677 Dems Can't Have Their Billionaires and Beat Them Too: The politics of anti-elitism
Air Date: 12-17-2024
Changing the direction of a political party doesn't happen overnight and it usually takes a major disrupting event to shake it out of its well-wore groove. The loss of the Harris campaign to Trump and the evident desperation people have for a new economics that works for people might finally be enough to put Democrats on track to a more full-throated support of economic populism.
Read more#1669 Private Equity: The worst of capitalism, amplified
Air Date: 11-12-2024
It's easy enough to look into one industry at a time to see what's going wrong, but today we're looking at what is so often lurking in the background of higher prices, lower quality goods and services, and, ultimately, many failing businesses: Private Equity.
Read more#1543 Capitalism doesn't live up to the hype (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 2–14-2023
Today, we take a look at some origins, alternatives and misunderstandings of capitalism from the Dutch East India Company, to Adam Smith and up through the planned obsolescence and marketing that have tricked us all into working far harder than necessary while failing to make us happy.
Read more#1491 Mismanaging Capitalism Can Lead to Fascism (Inflation and the Working Class) (Throwback)
Original Air Date: 5–27-2022
Today we take a look at the disruptions to society that can unfold in times of economic distress such as high inflation, price gouging, wage stagnation and income inequality as well as some policy ideas for turning things around.
Read more#1645 J.D. Vance, Faux Republican Economic Populism And The Real Pro-Worker Policies We Need
Air Date: 7-30-2024
The Republican Party is making it sound like they're trying to transform themselves into the party of working people. There's a mountain of evidence suggesting that you shouldn't believe them but there's also plenty of reason to sit up and take notice of the situation.
Read more#1641 Green Energy and Public Transport: Feeling blue and seeing red about the inevitable messiness of the effort to transition to a low-carbon economy
Air Date: 7-12-2024
From solar scams to controversial congestion pricing and the smart grid that's needed to connect it all, we look at the messy and difficult path to a low-carbon future.
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