David F. Ruccio — Class, race, and poverty in the United States

Before the new Republican administration has a chance to implement its campaign promises and dismantle the social safety net, it’s useful to remember who in fact is assisted by the existing programs.

According to a new study by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, people of all races and ethnic groups who lack a bachelor’s degree receive significant help from the safety net. But white working-class adults stand out....

Occasional Links & Commentary
Class, race, and poverty in the United States
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

William K. Black — Krugman’s Failure to Speak Truth to Power about Austerity

In the first column in this series I explained how Hillary Clinton, during the closing 40 days of her campaign, showcased repeatedly her promise to assault the working class with continuous austerity. I explained that her threat represented economic malpractice – and was insane politics. I showed that the assault on the working class via austerity was such a core belief of the New Democrats that their candidate highlighted that assault even as the polls showed massive, intense rejection of her candidacy by the white working class. I also noted that in this second series in the column I would discuss the failure of her campaign team, and her de facto surrogate, Paul Krugman to speak truth to power about the dual idiocy of her campaign promise to wage continuous war on the working class through austerity forever. 

The broader point is the one made so often and so well by Tom Frank – it is morally wrong, economically illiterate, and politically suicidal for the New Democrats to continue to assault the working class via austerity, “free trade” (sic) deals, and financial deregulation. The only thing worse is to then insult the working class for reacting “badly” to being pummeled for decades by the Party that once defined itself as the party of working people. The New Democrats decided to insult the white working class in response to polls showing that the white working class was enraged at Hillary Clinton. Arrogance and self-blindness are boon companions....

New Economic Perspectives
Krugman’s Failure to Speak Truth to Power about Austerity
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Bill Black — Hillary’s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal

Not to mention waging continuous war through regime change.

New Economic Perspectives
Hillary’s Threat to Wage Continuous War on the Working Class via Austerity Proved Fatal
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

From Routledge:

A growing inequality in income and wealth marks modern capitalism, and it negatively affects nearly every aspect of our lives, especially those of the working class. It is and will continue to be the central issue of politics in almost every nation on earth. In this book, the author explains inequality in clear, passionate, and intelligent prose: what it is, why it matters, how it affects us, what its underlying causes are, and what we might do about it. This book was written to encourage informed radical action by working people, the unemployed, and the poor, uniquely blending the author’s own experiences with his ability to make complex issues comprehensible to a mass audience. This book will be excellent for courses in a variety of disciplines, and it will be useful to activists and the general reading public.

Radical Political Economy
New book by Michael D. Yates: The Great Inequality

David M. Fields