Richard Branson's Virgin Healthcare has paid no tax on £2billion NHS deals
26 January 2020 | MirrorVirgin Healthcare has been exposed as a ‘parasite’ on the NHS as a campaigner slams the firm as it's revealed it paid no corporation tax.
Articles: economy
this page last updated: Monday 2 March 2020
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World's richest 2,000 people hold more than poorest 4.6 billion combined: Oxfam
20 January 2020 | ReutersThe world’s richest 2,153 people controlled more money than the poorest 4.6 billion combined in 2019, while unpaid or underpaid work by women and girls adds three times more to the global economy each year than the technology industry, Oxfam said on Monday.
Most people think capitalism ‘doing more harm than good’, says global survey ahead of Davos summit
20 January 2020 | IndependentThe majority of people now believe that capitalism is doing more harm than good, as trust in global and national institutions has collapsed, according to a new survey.
Betfred owner linked to firm that advises people struggling with high debt
17 January 2020 | GuardianCampaigners raise fresh concerns about Done family business after Guardian reveals interest in gambling addiction counselling. Betfred owners make millions from treating gambling addicts.
Trump Tax Cut Hands $32 Billion Windfall to America’s Top Banks
16 January 2020 | BloombergSavings for the top six U.S. banks from President Donald Trump’s signature tax overhaul accelerated last year, now topping $32 billion as the lenders curbed new borrowing, pared jobs and ramped up payouts to shareholders.
Auto plant closures tied to surge in opioid overdose deaths
31 December 2019 | ReutersOpioid overdose deaths have spiked in the wake of automotive assembly plant closures across the U.S. South and Midwest, a new study suggests.
Watchdog investigates Bank of England security breach
19 December 2019 | GuardianThe UK’s financial watchdog has launched an investigation into a security breach at the Bank of England that allowed hedge funds early access to an audio feed of Mark Carney’s market-moving press conferences.
How Britain voted in the 2019 general election
17 December 2019 | YouGovYouGov has conducted the largest survey yet on last week’s general election, interviewing over 40,000 British adults to discover patterns across demographics: age, gender, class, education and previous votes.
Two ex-Serco bosses charged with fraud over alleged tagging scandal
16 December 2019 | BBC NewsTwo former executives at the private security company Serco have been charged over an alleged scandal involving the electronic tagging of criminals.
Crossrail hired security firm to monitor trade unionists
29 July 2019 | GuardianSenior managers at Crossrail, the huge publicly funded rail project in London, hired a corporate security company to monitor trade unionists who were campaigning against blacklisting across the construction industry, previously secret documents reveal.
‘Carillion ruined my life by blacklisting me for raising health and safety concerns’
22 January 2018 | MetroThe demise of Carillion has been bittersweet for Dave Smith, who was a victim of the construction giant’s illegal blacklisting operation.
Modern Slavery Act gives UK companies a free pass to profit from slavery overseas
18 October 2016 | GuardianWe need new laws that hold business accountable for conditions of slavery when they operate overseas and allow victims to seek compensation.
Austerity, not immigration, to blame for inequality underlying Brexit vote, argues Oxford professor
8 July 2016 | Independent‘Almost all other European countries tax more effectively, spend more on health, and do not tolerate our degree of economic inequality’.
You’re witnessing the death of neoliberalism — from within
31 May 2016 | GuardianIMF economists have published a remarkable paper admitting that the ideology was oversold.
Construction firms apologise in court over blacklist
11 May 2016 | GuardianVictims chant ‘no justice, no peace’ after firms agree out-of-court settlements understood to total about £75m.
Welsh Town Leads a British Revolt Against the Tax System and Corporations
21 February 2016 | New York TimesMr Lewis said he paid the 21 percent corporate tax rate on his profits last year, equivalent to £31,000. By contrast, Facebook — which is based in the United States but does business in Britain and is therefore subject to British taxes — paid just £4,327 in corporate tax in 2014, or about one-seventh of what Mr Lewis paid.
Richest 62 people as wealthy as half of world's population, says Oxfam
18 January 2016 | GuardianCharity says only higher wages, crackdown on tax dodging and higher investment in public services can stop divide widening.
Why is Leon Trotsky relevant today?
18 August 2015 | Socialist WorkerOn the 75th anniversary of the assassination of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, Sue Caldwell asks if his ideas can help activists fighting for another world today.
More Dutch cities may join in ‘basic income’ experiment
5 August 2015 | DutchNewsOther Dutch cities may join Utrecht in experimenting with a ‘basic income’ to replace the current complicated system of taxes, social security benefits and top-up benefits, the Financieele Dagblad says on Wednesday.
Socialism Means Abolishing the Distinction Between Bosses and Employees
27 June 2015 | TruthoutRegulated private capitalism. State capitalism. Socialism. These three systems are entirely different from each other. We need to understand the differences between them to move beyond today's dysfunctional economies. With confidence waning in whether modern private capitalism can truly be fixed, the debate shifts to a choice between two systemic alternatives that we must learn to keep straight: state capitalism and socialism.
Debt controls you
8 June 2015 | AdbustersWhy do you accept being treated like an inmate?
“We are in a revolutionary moment”: Chris Hedges explains why an uprising is coming — and soon
4 June 2015 | SalonThe status quo is doomed but whether the future will be progressive or reactionary is uncertain, Hedges tells Salon.
Corporate Tax Dodging Cheats Africa Out of 6 Billion Dollars, Says Oxfam
2 June 2015 | Inter Press ServiceG7-based companies and investors cheated Africa out of an estimated six billion dollars in a year through just one form of tax dodging, according to a new Oxfam report ‘Money talks: Africa at the G7’.
OECD report: Global social inequality hits new record
23 May 2015 | World Socialist Web SiteIncome inequality in many developed countries has reached an all-time high, according to a report released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report also notes that growth of social inequality has been accompanied by the growth of part-time and contingent labor, particularly for younger workers.
Chris Hedges: ‘The system of global capitalism is breaking down’
22 May 2015 | Globe and MailIt is no longer able to expand the way it did in the past. It has consolidated wealth into the hands of a tiny, global, oligarchic elite.
The Pathology of the Rich White Family
17 May 2015 | TruthdigThe pathology of the rich white family is the most dangerous pathology in America.
Sony Emails Show Industry Execs Pushing for Trade Deal
17 April 2015 | The InterceptBroadcast media has not devoted much air time to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, an agreement that will greatly impact 40 percent of the global economy. But hacked emails from Sony reveal that media industry executives have been engaged in active discussions about the agreement behind closed doors.
The End of the American Middle Class?
1 April 2015 | Huffington PostAre we destined to be techno-serfs serving a ruling elite of information oligopolies?
Death, drugs, and HSBC — Fraudulent blood money makes the world go round
2 March 2015 | Nafeez AhmedRecent reporting on illegal tax evasion by the world’s second largest bank, HSBC, opens a window onto the pivotal role of Western banks in facilitating organised crime, drug-trafficking and Islamist terrorism. Governments know this, but they are powerless to act, not just because they’ve been bought by the banks: but because criminal and terror financing is integral to global capitalism. Now one whistleblower who uncovered an estimated billion pounds worth of HSBC fraud in Britain, suppressed by the British media, is preparing a prosecution that could blow wide open the true scale of criminal corruption in the world’s finance capital.
PwC promoted tax avoidance ‘on industrial scale’, say MPs
6 February 2015 | BBC NewsAccountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been accused of promoting tax avoidance “on an industrial scale”, in a report by MPs.
Your Brand Neurosis
5 February 2015 | AdbustersSay the word “brand” and many think of the logotype of some multinational corporation, advertising or the conspicuous marketing of consumer goods — something of relative importance in our own lives. The reality is different: brands and the discourse of branding affect everyone living in a consumer society and every single part of our lives.
As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes
23 January 2015 | GuardianHedge fund managers are preparing getaways by buying airstrips and farms in remote areas, former hedge fund partner tells Davos during session on inequality.
Inequality hurts economic growth, finds OECD research
9 December 2014 | OECDReducing income inequality would boost economic growth, according to new OECD analysis. This work finds that countries where income inequality is decreasing grow faster than those with rising inequality.
Labour received £600,000 of advice from PwC to help form tax policy
12 November 2014 | GuardianThe Labour front bench has accepted over £600,000 of research help from the multinational accountancy company PricewaterhouseCoopers to help form policy on tax, business and welfare, analysis by the Guardian reveals.
Richest 1% of people own nearly half of global wealth, says report
14 October 2014 | GuardianThe richest 1% of the world’s population are getting wealthier, owning more than 48% of global wealth, according to a report published on Tuesday which warned growing inequality could be a trigger for recession.
Cut benefits? Yes, let’s start with our £85bn corporate welfare handout
6 October 2014 | GuardianBillions of pounds of British public money has gone to business, with Disney getting £170m. They really are taking the Mickey.
Libertarian communism: an introduction
13 May 2014 | libcom.orgA short introduction to what we at libcom.org refer to as communism or libertarian communism, what it is and why we think it is a good idea.
The Uncompromising Anti-Capitalism of Martin Luther King Jr.
20 January 2014 | Huffington PostIn the thousands of speeches and celebrations on the official Martin Luther King holiday since its inception, there is a crucial fact of his life, activism and thought that no major commemoration has ever celebrated: that King was a strong and uncompromising opponent of American capitalism.
In Capitalist Crisis, Rediscovering Marx
24 April 2012 | Richard WolffThe rise, fall, and return of Marxian analyses.
Do 50p taxpayers have it so bad?
21 March 2012 | Channel 4 News, FactCheckThe debate over the 50p top tax rate has dominated this year’s budget. But have Britain’s high earners really never had it so bad? While it’s difficult to make absolutely fair comparisons, history shows us that the very richest have faced tax rates of up to 98 per cent at several points in postwar history.
Cameron's drive for co-operatives is privatisation in disguise
20 January 2012 | GuardianCo-ops hand power to their members. That's not what the prime minister is offering.
Europe's Debt Crisis Deepens
22 December 2011 | Richard WolffOver the weekend, Fitch — the major rating company that, with its fellow majors, Moody's and Standard and Poor's, dominate the business of assessing the riskiness of debt instruments — took a highly publicized step. It downgraded the credit-worthiness of the sovereign debts of many European countries. What a spectacle!
Lehman Brothers: financially and morally bankrupt
12 December 2011 | GuardianThe lesson of Lehman Brothers' failures of fiduciary duty is that large-scale lending should not be entrusted to private banks.
Occupy Production: A Vision for Democracy at Work
2 December 2011 | TruthoutWorkers' self-directed enterprises are a solution grounded in the histories of both capitalism and socialism.
Rebels on the Street: The Party of Wall Street Meets its Nemesis
28 October 2011 | David HarveyThe Party of Wall Street has ruled unchallenged in the United States for far too long.
How the 1% got richer, while the 99% got poorer
26 October 2011 | GuardianIt's official: wealth inequality accelerated over the past quarter century. The American dream was never a more hollow promise.
Capitalism and Poverty
11 October 2011 | Richard WolffThe US Census Bureau recently reported what most Americans already knew. Poverty is deepening. The gap between rich and poor is growing. Slippage soon into the ranks of the poor now confronts tens of millions of Americans who long thought of themselves as securely “middle class”.
The truth about “Class War” in America
22 September 2011 | TruthoutToday, business and the rich are waging class war yet again to avoid even a small, modest reverse in the huge tax cuts they won in that war over the last half-century.
The truth about ‘class war’ in America
19 September 2011 | GuardianRepublicans claim, in Orwellian fashion, that Obama's millionaire tax is ‘class war’. The reality is that the super-rich won the war.
Damn or fear it, the truth is that it's an insurrection
18 August 2011 | John PilgerBankers loot the Treasury, MPs fiddle their expenses... and then the establishment turns on deprived young people in England’s inner cities and calls them criminals. The August disturbances weren’t riots: they were the revolt of the working class.
Deficits, Debts, and Deepening Crisis
18 August 2011 | Richard WolffNouriel Roubini, famed Professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business asks this month, “Is Capitalism Doomed?” His answer: maybe.
Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets
11 August 2011 | David Harvey“Nihilistic and feral teenagers” the Daily Mail called them: the crazy youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one strategic target to another.
From Economic to Social Crisis: Deficits, Debt, and a Little Class History
25 July 2011 | Richard WolffThroughout its history, capitalism never succeeded in preventing recurring economic cycles or crises. However, they were usually contained within the system. Economic crises usually did not become social crises; the system itself was usually not called into question. Transition to a different system was then an idea kept away from public discussion, a project kept from public action.
The Vote to End Capitalism
July 2011 | David HarveyHow does capitalism get reproduced over time? This question has puzzled political economists from the seventeenth century onwards. Many simple models have been devised to answer this very complex question. While none of them are fully satisfactory, many insights are to be had from studying them and in these times of deep and frustrating troubles it is very important that we do just that.
The great corporate tax swindle
9 May 2011 | GuardianIt's astounding how our politicians have bought in to firms' tax blackmail. But there is an alternative: workplace democracy.
Nice day for a revolution: Why May Day should be a date to stand up and change the system
29 April 2011 | IndependentMay Day is the occasion we celebrate the grand achievements of the workers of the world in making our world a far, far better place to live in. There is, unfortunately, not too much to celebrate these days. The past 30 years are littered with battles and skirmishes that have resulted in defeat after defeat for organised labour.
Prospects for the U.S. Left: Not Bad At All
3 March 2011 | Richard WolffProspects for the Left in the United States are far better than they seem to most observers across the political spectrum (excepting those who fantasize imminent revolutionary uprisings spear-headed by 79-year-old sociology professors).
How the rich soaked the rest of us
1 March 2011 | GuardianThe astonishing story of the last few decades is a massive redistribution of wealth, as the rich have shifted the tax burden.
Corporations to Government: Give Us More, Tax Us Less
22 February 2011 | Richard WolffNothing better shows corporate control over the government than Washington's basic response to the current economic crisis.
The revenge of trickle-down economics
14 February 2011 | GuardianDifferences between Democrats and Republicans on the deficit are cosmetic. Both are committed to a broken, corrupt system.
Bonuses for bankers, bankruptcy for public services
20 January 2011 | GuardianGoldman Sachs sets aside $15bn for pay; the state of California cuts $1.5bn from education. What's wrong with this picture?
The myth of ‘American exceptionalism’ implodes
18 January 2011 | GuardianUntil the 1970s, US capitalism shared its spoils with American workers. But since 2008, it has made them pay for its failures.
2011: calling time on capitalism
1 January 2011 | GuardianRecent decades have seen a massive redistribution of wealth, imposing the cost of successive crises on the poorest. Enough!
The Roller Coaster from Hell
20 December 2010 | Soho JournalIt looks like it is going to be a Wiley Coyote ride and if you are not really scared yet, maybe it’s because you are not paying enough attention, because the signs all say we all ought to be scare s**tless.
Why France Matters Here Too
26 October 2010 | Richard WolffFor many weeks now, the historic social change sweeping across France has drawn increasing attention globally. It should. A genuine, mass democratic upsurge has surprised all those who thought, hoped, or feared that such things could no longer happen in countries like France or the US.
French Revolutions
26 October 2010 | Yes!In France, the government’s response to the economic crisis has sparked massive protests. What do they mean for the U.S.?
The Keynesian Revival: a Marxian Critique
23 October 2010 | Richard WolffA Critique of the Revival of Keynesian Counter-Recessionary Policies.
French Labor Activism, US Labor Passivism
10 October 2010 | Richard WolffWorker mobilizations against austerity in the US have been, in comparison to the French, scattered and sporadic.
Austerity Hustle
29 September 2010 | Richard WolffA different kind of austerity — collecting income taxes from U.S.-based multinational corporations and wealthy individuals — could generate vast revenues.
Why Millions March in France, But Not in the US
9 September 2010 | Richard WolffThe basic issue is the same there and here. Capitalism generates another of its regular, periodic crises, only this one is really bad.
The Enigma of Capital and the Crisis this Time
16 August 2010 | David HarveyThere are many explanations for the crisis of capital that began in 2007. But the one thing missing is an understanding of “systemic risks.”
The Regulation and Reform Dilemma
22 July 2010 | Richard WolffWith financial reform now newly passed, politicians who supported it go into overdrive to exaggerate its likely effects. Their cultivated enthusiasms culminate in the same promises made by every president and congressperson after similar reforms were enacted in the wake of earlier capitalist crises. “This reform,” they all insist, “will prevent crises in the future.” That promise has been broken every time as our current global capitalist crisis proves yet again.
Austerity: Why and for Whom?
4 July 2010 | Richard WolffA capitalist system that generates so massive a crisis, spreads it globally, and then proposes mass austerity to “overcome” it has lost the right to continue unchallenged.
General Election 2010: bankers become MPs in new Parliament
11 May 2010 | TelegraphThe number of MPs with a financial services background has doubled since 1997, giving the City its best Parliamentary representation for decades.
Class Struggles and National Debts
6 May 2010 | Richard WolffThe political conflicts and street battles in Greece today foretell what is coming to many countries including the US. The struggles are basically over what the government spends on and who pays the taxes.
Now we know the truth. The financial meltdown wasn't a mistake — it was a con
18 April 2010 | ObserverHiding behind the complexities of our financial system, banks and other institutions are being accused of fraud and deception, with Goldman Sachs just the latest in the spotlight. This has become the most pressing election issue of all.
The Economic Crisis: A Marxian Interpretation
9 March 2010 | Wolff & ResnickLike most capitalist crises, today’s challenges economists, journalists, and politicians to explain and to overcome it. The post-1930s struggles between neoclassical and Keynesian economics are rejoined. We show that both proved inadequate to preventing crises and served rather to enable and justify (as ‘‘solutions’’ for crises) what were merely oscillations between two forms of capitalism differentiated according to greater or lesser state economic interventions. Our Marxian economic analysis here proceeds differently.
Capitalism and the Useful Nation State
9 March 2010 | e-International RelationsNot so long ago, it was fashionable among apologists and many other commentators on contemporary capitalism to refer to the nation state as passé.
Lessons from the Housing Disaster
2 March 2010 | Richard WolffOf the roughly 56 million homes in the US today with mortgages, one in seven is “delinquent.” That is over 7 million homes more than 30 days behind in mortgage payments.
Taking Over the Enterprise
10 January 2010 | Richard WolffWe are overdue for a new strategy. Labor and the Left are at low points in long declines. One cause has been adherence to a failed strategy.
Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
13 December 2009 | ObserverDrugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions.
Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist Transition
December 2009 | David HarveyThe historical geography of capitalist development is at a key inflexion point in which the geographical configurations of power are rapidly shifting at the very moment when the temporal dynamic is facing very serious constraints.
Class and Monopoly
8 October 2009 | Wolff & ResnickMonopoly refers to a power or political process, whereas class refers to economic processes. This paper offers a systematic examination of the diverse possible relationships between monopoly power and class structure.
State Capitalism versus Communism: What Happened in the USSR and the PRC?
29 September 2009 | Wolff, Resnick & GabrielSince 1917 analysts have debated what kind of economic system existed in the USSR and the PRC. They mostly juxtaposed ‘socialism’ there to ‘capitalism’ in Western Europe and the USA. The two sides were defined chiefly in terms of private versus state property and markets versus planning. We challenge this debate by means of Marx's focus on the organization of surplus labor.
Their crisis, our challenge
March 2009 | Red PepperIn a far reaching interview with Red Pepper, David Harvey argues that the current financial crisis and bank bail-outs could lead to a massive consolidation of the banking system and a return to capitalist ‘business as usual’ — unless there is sustained revolt and pressure for a dramatic redistribution and socialisation of wealth.
Marxian Class Analysis and Economics
1 June 2006 | Dollars & SenseClass analysis predates economics. Long before modern economics emerged, ancient Greek thinkers, for example, analyzed their society by classifying people into groups by wealth. They viewed understanding the relationships between classes as crucial to improving their society and debated whether wealth should be distributed equally.
The G8 Summit: A Fraud and a Circus
23 June 2005 | John PilgerTony Blair's “vision for Africa” is about as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added).
G8 ‘still sells arms to regimes’
22 June 2005 | BBC NewsCountries from the G8 group of wealthy nations have been accused of continuing to sell arms to regimes using them to abuse human rights.
A truckload of nonsense
14 June 2005 | GuardianThe G8 plan to save Africa comes with conditions that make it little more than an extortion racket.
Property scandal
20 September 2004 | New StatesmanA few rich people, many of them aristocrats, own 69 per cent of the land in Britain. As a result, house prices are so high, millions can't afford to buy a home. The NS launches a campaign to end this feudal system.
UN Darfur vote turns scramble for Sudan's oil
10 September 2004 | Afrol NewsIf an oil export embargo is approved, China and India would lose their influence over Sudan's vast oil reserves and a Khartoum regime change would open up these resources to the West. The US is in favour of sanctions, China is against.
US navy plans ‘show of force’ off oil-rich west Africa
5 June 2004 | Agence France-PresseA US navy carrier battlegroup will make a “show of force” in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea off west Africa as part of an unprecedented global operation to demonstrate America's command of the high seas, a US diplomatic source told AFP on Friday.
Bank of England slams ‘paranoid conspiracy allegations’ in BCCI case
26 January 2004 | Agence France-PresseBank of England lawyers rejected as “paranoid conspiracy allegations” charges that officials deliberately lied over the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in 1991.
Arnold to Settle Lawsuits for Pennies on the Dollar
12 October 2003 | Yurica ReportThe Yurica Report has learned that only three days after Mr. Schwarzenegger won his victory in California, an aide announced that the governor-elect intends to settle pending energy fraud lawsuits.
Arnold Unplugged — It's Hasta la Vista to $9 Billion if the Governator is Selected
4 October 2003 | Greg PalastIt's not what Arnold Schwarzenegger did to the girls a decade back that should raise an eyebrow. According to a series of memoranda our office obtained today, it's his dalliance with the boys in a hotel room just two years ago that's the real scandal.
Revealed: the great stock market swindle
13 July 2003 | ObserverPeriodic catastrophic declines that destroy years of accumulated profits are the norm, not the exception.
UK forges £1bn secret arms deal with Thailand
10 November 2002 | ObserverMinister agrees to help promote food products linked to cancer.
US ‘dumping unsold GM food on Africa’
7 October 2002 | GuardianTwo leading international environment and development groups accused the US yesterday of manipulating the southern African food crisis to benefit their GM food interests and of using the UN to distribute domestic food surpluses which could not otherwise find a market.
Africa torn between GM aid and starvation
6 August 2002 | TimesStarving nations in southern Africa are being forced to choose between accepting genetically modified food aid or condemning millions of people to death in the worst food shortage in 50 years. They fear the long-term effects of GM foods, as well as their impact on exports to Europe.
Money Elites
May 2001 | SpectrezineAlfred Mendes discusses the power and continued influence of money-elites in post-war Europe.
