Since publication of economist Jeff Faux's 2012 book, The Servant Economy, America’s elite has continued policies that are pressing the living standards of much of the middle class ever downwards. At the same time, lavish gains have gone to Wall Street and Pentagon wars have become a continuing feature of the US posture in the world. Even though politicians talk about helping the middle class recover, wealth flows to the uppermost fraction of the top 1% and the military-industrial juggernaut thrives. It has become increasingly difficult to distinguish the liberal Obama from the neocons of the Bush years. Jeff Faux is founder of the Economic Policy Institute, the premier research center on economic issues effecting working people. He is a regular winter visitor to San Miguel.
We surely live in interesting times--from the deepening of U.S.-led militarism to existential ecological and economic crises to shifts in the world order ranging from a significant decline of the Global North along with the rise of the East and Global South. Vijay Prashad, executive director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social... Read more