(OpEdNews) – Our trade deficit with China just hit a new record: $42.2 billion in October, up from $40.3 billion in September. The goods deficit with China rose to $29.5 billion in October, up from $29.1 billion in September. This is the largest single monthly goods deficit with China in U.S. history. Read the rest of this entry »

(RealNews) – Greg Palast: When billionaires break the law, they get the law changed Read the rest of this entry »

Related Story: Right Wing Billionaires Push Israel’s Agenda in 2012 Elections

(RealNews) – Despite GOP attacks on Obama’s Israel positions, his record of appeasing both Netanyahu’s Likud government and the Israel lobby has earned him the support of most American Zionists, and a few key friends in high places. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: Elena Kagan has been sworn in; airport body scanners take center stage in national political debate; Fidel Castro gave a stern nuclear warning; Billionaires are signing agreements to donate half of their fortunes; and more. Alex also covers the latest news and takes your calls. Read the rest of this entry »

(InfoClearingHouse) – 20+ African countries are selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture on a shocking scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era. Read the rest of this entry »

(OpEdNews) – I once wrote an article about former President George W. Bush saying that he was a perfect Manchurian candidate. That is, if his missing year when he was supposed to have been flying fighter jets with the Texas Air National Guard was actually spent in the former Soviet Union being reprogrammed as a covert KGB agent whose job it was to go back to America, win election to the White House, and proceed to destroy the US, he couldn’t have done a better job than he actually did. Read the rest of this entry »

(WashingtonsBlog) – A new report by University of California, Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez concludes that income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: The average house price in the UK is above £150,000. The average wage is around £25,000 a year. For people to attain “middle class” status by actually owning their own “average” home and not being mired in mortgage debt, it would take them over 30 years – and that’s if they were able to save 20% of their income each year, before tax. These people cannot be considered “middle class” – by every reasonable measure they are poor. Read the rest of this entry »

Just as the Bush regime’s wars have been used to pour billions of dollars into the pockets of its military-security donor base, the Paulson bailout looks like a Bush regime scheme to incur $700 billion in new public debt in order to transfer the money into the coffers of its financial donor base. The US taxpayers will be left with the interest payments in perpetuity (or inflation if the Fed monetizes the debt), and the number of Wall Street billionaires will grow. As for the US and European governments’ purchases of bank shares, that is just a cover for funneling public money into private hands. Read the rest of this entry »

On Thursday morning, September 18, 2008 a tragedy almost befell the 450 billionaires and 3,000,000 millionaires that live in the United States. The billionaires were on their way to becoming millionaires and the millionaires were about to leave the club. Luckily, Hank Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary, felt their pain. His $700 million portfolio was probably taking a bit of a haircut too. There are 305 million people living in the United States. The net worth of all the households in the U.S. as of June 30, 2008 was $56 trillion. The 450 billionaires have a net worth of approximately $1 trillion and the 3,000,000 millionaires have a net worth of approximately $11 trillion. So, 1% of the population currently owns 21% of the net worth in this country. Many of these billionaires and millionaires have accumulated their wealth by managing other people’s money. The customers never have the yachts. The money managers have the yachts. The 1% ruling elite are deciding the fate of your grandchildren in Washington D.C. this week out of public view. The ruling elite have the most to lose. Whose best interest do you think they are looking out for? Read the rest of this entry »