Tag: Debt

Briefings

Background Briefing: July 2, 2020

On By gram

 

Job Guarantees Could Reverse the Epidemic of Job Loss Since the Government Has the Cure

We begin with the convergence of three crises, our unqualified and unstable leader who appears to be in the pocket of a hostile foreign adversary, a pandemic that is getting worse with Dr. Fauci warning we could have 100.000 new coronavirus cases a day, and mounting record unemployment due to an economy in freefall which looks more and more like it will have to be shut down again. Joining us is Pavlina Tcherneva, a Professor of Economics at Bard College and a research scholar at the Levy Economics Institute to discuss her latest book just out is The Case for a Job Guarantee and her article at The American Prospect “Controlling the Viral Spread of Unemployment with a Job Guarantee: Job Loss is an epidemic, and the federal government has the cure”. With a public health and an unemployment crisis in which dealing with the pandemic crisis first created the second unemployment crisis, Pavlina offers a vision of a more humane world where federal spending is treated as a public utility to benefit the many, not the few with jobs that could repair our crumbling infrastructure and deal with the climate crisis.

 

SCOTUS Hands DeVos a Victory to Fund Religious Schools at the Expense of Public Education

Then we speak with David Halperin, a senior fellow at Republic Report who was previously senior policy advisor for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign; White House speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs to President Clinton; and counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee. He joins us to discuss his article at Republic Report “DeVos Tries Everything to Force Deceived Students to Repay Loans” and the victory that the Supreme Court just handed the Secretary of Education who wants to fund religious schools at the expense of public education.

 

Mexico’s AMLO Thinks Jesus Christ Can Cure the Pandemic

Then finally we go to Mexico to speak with Toby Miller, a Research Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the Stuart Hall Professor of Cultural Studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City. One of the world’s leading analysts of popular culture, media, and their connection to the politics of everyday life, his books include Greening the Media and Blow Up the Humanities, and his latest book is Greenwashing Culture. He joins us to discuss the shocking report that 50% of Mexicans are testing positive for the coronavirus and that AMLO, the country’s socialist leader, is a born-again evangelical who thinks Jesus Christ will cure the pandemic.