This article originally appeared on the Guernica website.

Updates on Providence, RI cuts of retired city workers' pensions and tax exemption for Brown University; on joblessness and unemployment for recent college grads; and on the thriving communist mayor and town of Marinaleda, Spain. Major discussions of how and why enterprises buy political influence with examples from Hollywood producers and the ATT Corp. Responses to questions about the Tobin Tax on financial transactions and on how and why national debts have serious economic consequences.

Updates on impact of subprime mortgage abuses and economic crisis on racial and ethnic minorities; on Japan's nationalization of the Tepco Corp., and mixed results of bailouts of GM and Chrysler. Major discussions of (1) why government take-overs of private enterprise are rarely "socialistic" and mostly pro-capitalist, and (2) the basic causes and cures for unemployment in capitalist economies. Responses to comments on decision-making in workers' self-directed enterprises and about "recovery" in the housing market. 

appeared in Truthout.org May 10, 2012   Recent defeats of Dutch, Greek and French governing parties show rising opposition to their austerity policies. Across Europe and North America, similar oppositions mount. Bailing out large financial and other corporations with borrowed money has been the almost universal government plan for coping with global capitalist crisis. The result - rising government deficits and debts - was followed by "austerity policies" to reduce those deficits and debts.

Published on May 8, 2012 by RTAmerica

As 1 in 4 children in America struggle with hunger every day, there are also those who have extremely lavish lifestyles even at a young age. RT's Anastasia Churkina takes a look at the lives of the faces behind the statistics -- and what economic despair and extreme wealth of today mean for America's future.