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Background Briefing: January 1, 2020
The Elite Charade of Changing the World
On this New Years Day we continue our look back on the defining stories of the past year with our coverage examining our economic health and that of the global economy in what many see as a new gilded age. We begin with my interview from February 26th of 2019 with Anand Giridharadas, editor at large for Time Magazine and a former columnist for
The New York Times about his new book “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World”, an insider’s groundbreaking journey into the inner sanctums of the global elite of this new gilded age. We discuss the issue which exposed the emperors of Davos having no clothes which happened when Dutch historian Rutger Bregman cut through the sanctimonious talk of justice, equality and transparency by pointing out that “nobody raises the issue of tax avoidance and the rich not paying their fair share. It’s like going to a firefighter’s conference and not talking about water”.
An Adviser to AOC and Senators Sanders and Warren
Then we go to an interview from June 5th of 2019 just following Bernie Sanders address to the annual meeting of Walmart shareholders at which he shamed the company’s executives and the Walton family owners who are among the richest families in the world, pointing out that “Walmart workers are sick and tired of being paid starvation wages”. Later Sanders joined Representative Ocasio Cortez and economist Robert Hockett for a town hall on Twitter to discuss their bill the Loan Shark Prevention Act which puts a 15% cap on all consumer loans. Robert Hockett, a Professor of Law at Cornell Law School who
helped Elizabeth Warren write the Accountable Capitalism Act and is currently a public finance adviser to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and helped write the Green New Deal and the Loan Shark Prevention Act, joined us. We discussed how since usury laws were overturned by the banking lobby, banks and credit card companies in states like South Dakota and Delaware are able to charge as much as 23% for money they borrow from the Federal Reserve at 2.5%. Starting in the 1980’s with Ronald Reagan, this has turned America from an income-based economy to a credit-driven consumer economy with most of the gains of increased productivity going to the 1% while most Americans haven’t had a raise since the late 1970’s. We also discussed Elizabeth Warren’s latest plan which she calls an “Agenda for Economic Patriotism”.
The Realities of Our Sociopathic Economy
Then finally we hear an interview from October 29 of 2019 when I spoke with Emily Guendelsberger, a journalist and author of the new book, just out, “On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane”, joins us to discuss how after her newspaper closed, she took three low-wage jobs at an Amazon warehouse in
Kentucky, a call center in North Carolina, and a McDonald’s in San Francisco. We discuss the harsh realities of our sociopathic economy in her journey into the fastest-growing segment of the American workforce.
A Holiday Message from Background Briefing
As a new year and a new decade begin, we thank our listeners and supporters for their donations which sustain and build Background Briefing. At this critical juncture when the year ahead 2020 will determine the fate of our country and the world should Donald Trump be impeached, voted out or, God-forbid, reelected. It is a sad irony that at the moment when we most need an alternative network in a radio landscape dominated by Rush Limbaugh and his clones, Pacifica, the network over which Background Briefing broadcasts, is teetering on bankruptcy due to factionalism and mismanagement. Your support is even more urgent as we transition to online broadcasting while trying to find a new home on the radio.
Despite Trump’s ruinous regime, we must continue our work to revive the truth, shed light in the darkness, overcome hatred with love, and spread kindness instead of cruelty. As President Lincoln said in his First Inaugural Address, “Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again [we are] touched... by the better angels of our nature.”
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