Category: Capitalism

Patient data from GP surgeries sold to US companies

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7 December 2019 — The Guardian

Dealings with international pharma raise new fears about American ambitions to access NHS

Jeremy Corbyn shows redacted documents of secret trade talks between the UK and US governments.

Jeremy Corbyn shows redacted documents of secret trade talks between the UK and US governments. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Data about millions of NHS patients has been sold to US and other international pharmaceutical companies for research, the Observer has learned, raising new fears about America’s growing ambitions to access lucrative parts of the health service after Brexit.

Economics as a social science

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5 December 2019 — Michael Roberts Blog

Recently, Benoît Cœuré, a leading French member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, delivered an address to economics students at the job forum of Paris School of Economics. He wanted to explain to the gathered students that becoming an economist was a great thing to do and paid well. “For many, a master’s degree is a natural step towards a PhD. And a PhD is essentially a promise of employment. In the United States, for example, the unemployment rate for PhD economists is about 0.8%, the lowest among all sciences.  Not a bad place to start from.”

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Capitalism: The fantasy world continues

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28 November 2019 — Michael Roberts Blog

The fantasy world continues.  In the US and Europe, stock market index levels are hitting new all-time highs.  Bond prices are also near all-time highs.  Investment in both stocks and bonds are delivering massive profits for the financial institutions and companies. Conversely, in the ‘real’ economy, particularly in the productive sectors of industry and transport, the story is dismal.  The world’s auto industry is in serious decline.  Layoffs of workers are on the agenda in most auto companies.  The manufacturing sectors in most major economies are contracting. And as measured by the so-called purchasing managers indexes (PMIs), which are indexes of surveys of company managers about the state and prospects for their companies, even the large service sectors are slowing or stagnant.

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A system that steals from our future

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26 November 2019 — Climate & Capitalism

Deadly gains

“We have been mortgaging the health of future generations to realize economic and development gains in the present”

A major report on human health in the Anthropocene, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, begins by noting an apparent paradox, that global human health has been improving even while environmental destruction is undermining it. The explanation, the authors say, is “straightforward and sobering.”
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Green Strategy: To beat climate change, humanity needs socialism

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14 November, 2019 — People’s World

Demonstrators sit on the ground in front of the White House, April 29, 2017, during a demonstration and march. Thousands gathered across the country to march in protest of President Trump’s environmental policies, which have included rolling back restrictions on mining, oil drilling, and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants.| Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

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Hunger Games: Food Abundance and Twisted Truths

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24 November 2019 — Global Research

The world already produces enough food to feed 10 billion people but over two billion are experiencing micronutrient deficiencies (of which 821 million were classed as chronically undernourished in 2018). However, supporters of genetic engineering (GE) crops continually push the narrative that GE technology is required if we are to feed the world and properly support farmers. 

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Europe’s Economy Today & Tomorrow, Part 2: Artificial Intelligence, Uberization, & Capitalist ‘Sharing Economy’ Ideology

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18 November 2019 — Jack Rasmus

By Jack Rasmus

Introduction

The Wall St. Journal page one article of November 18, 2019 broadcast: “Europe’s New Jobs Stoke Discontent”.

It asked: ‘why are workers so angry’, when millions more jobs have been created since Europe’s last recessions (2008-09 and 2011-13), when millions more job openings remain, and when minimum wages have been raised in most countries’?

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Lawyers launch $500M class-action lawsuit against Roundup makers

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21 November 2019 — GMWatch

Case represents Canada’s largest class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of glyphosate herbicide

EXCERPT: Darryl Singer, the head of commercial and civil litigation at Diamond & Diamond, said the plaintiffs involved in this class-action lawsuit are looking not only for financial compensation, but also what he calls “behaviour modification” so that the same thing doesn’t happen again in the future with other products in Canada.
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Capitalism versus Life on Earth

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20 November 2019 — Climate & Capitalism

Deadly growth

Image by The All-Nite Images via Flickr

Environmental destruction isn’t driven by human nature or mistaken ideas. It is an inevitable consequence of a system built on capital accumulation.

Climate & Capitalism editor Ian Angus spoke at an educational conference organized by Socialist Action in Toronto, on November 16, 2019. His talk has been edited for publication.

by Ian Angus

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