This is part of the series on the insecurities produced by American capitalism for most Americans. The Insecurities of Jobs Employment insecurity is the first insecurity that comes to mind. It is historically one of the original products of the capitalist revolution. Harvard political science professor Kathleen Thelen gave an —>> read more –>>

We have written at some length about the flatlining of income growth for the bottom 90% of the population since 1980 and the transfer (heist) of that income to the top 10%, really almost all to the top 1%. This is the $47 Trillion Heist. Insecurity – a central feature —>> read more –>>

The phenomenon of Trump is so disturbing that it requires our entire mental attention. He creates so much noise that, for many, the only strategy is to turn off the news.  His election, despite his obvious pathological narcissism, requires a profound explanation that may even draw on the concept of —>> read more –>>

Changes in Economic Policy and Regulation In two earlier posts, “What is financialization and why does it matter? – part 1” and “What is financialization and why does it matter? – Part 2” we defined financialization and discussed the changes in the financial sector of the economy as well as —>> read more –>>

Changes in the behavior of nonfinancial corporations – the real economy In Part 1 we reviewed the definition of financialization and “Changes in the structure and operation of financial markets”. Go back to that first post in this three-part series, “What is financialization and why does it matter? – part —>> read more –>>

Today, I came across this article on Medium: The Rich Are Hoarding Wealth—Because They Know What’s Coming by Angus Peterson. I have regularly referred to the state of our species as a crisis of global warming, exhaustion of the earth’s resources, and species extinction (including ours). Peterson expands this list —>> read more –>>

Financialization is one of the most important drivers of changes in the last 50 years in American capitalism, and consequently in our society. As noted in other posts, and recently by Bernie Sanders, almost all of the income growth in the past 50 years has ended up in the bank —>> read more –>>

A reader of my recent post, “Bernie Sanders got much right about our current situation….” commented: “Thank you Mark for validating what we know to be true with real data. Now what do we do about it?” My perspective on our situation has shifted because I have come to recognize —>> read more –>>

Bernie Sanders, Senator from VT, sent out an email yesterday. The subject line contained one word, “Oligarchy”. So, I read it. There is much truth here: Dear Mark, For years and years in the corporate media, you’d only heard the word ‘oligarch’ preceded by the word ‘Russian.’ But oligarchs aren’t —>> read more –>>

Background Cerberus Capital, a private equity firm, began buying several hospitals in Massachusetts in 2010. In 2015, Cerberus sold most of its hospitals’ property to other investors for $1.25 billion. This suddenly added significant lease (rent) costs to the hospitals’ budgets. Other cost-cutting practices were applied. The hospitals then provided —>> read more –>>