unemployment
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“Digital” workers don’t delete Marx on May Day
“Digital” economy and work, like the imagined and claimed “4th industrial revolution”, are mesmerizing many scholars that lead them to chorus: “Blue-collars are gone, gone are smoke spewing chimneys, so is Marx”. But, do facts support those scholars’ choir “Cancel Marx” even if data related to blue-collar employees are ignored? Continue reading
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America’s Current Jobs ‘Great Depression’
Two well-known and highly respected mainstream economists, Carmen Reinhart, a chief economist for the World Bank, and Vincent Reinhart, chief economist for Morgan Stanley bank, have recently published an article in the widely read capitalist source, Foreign Affairs, entitled ‘The Pandemic Depression’. Arguing primarily from a global perspective, the economists have concluded the US economy… Continue reading
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British government reimposes welfare benefits sanctions as pandemic continues and unemployment rockets
In March, the Johnson government announced that those receiving welfare benefits including Universal Credit (UC) would not be sanctioned as they normally would if they failed to look for work or otherwise fulfilled their benefit conditionality. Continue reading
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Lives or livelihoods?
6 April 2020 — Michael Roberts Blog There are now two billion people across the world living under some form of lockdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a quarter of the world’s population. The world economy has seen nothing like this. Nearly all economic forecasts for global GDP in 2020 are for… Continue reading
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The Virus & the Working Class
US politicians and media are reporting approximately 500 cases of the virus in the US as of March 8. The actual number is almost certainly much higher, however. Perhaps as much as 10-fold that number, according to some sources. Why? Continue reading
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4IR & the ideological prison By Terry Bell
Last month saw the idea of a new, 21st Century city, complete with bullet trains, widely broadcast, all within the framework of a “developmental state”. But what this really boiled down to was a rehash of 20th Century concepts that produced Shenzhen, Brazilia, Canberra — even London’s Barbican — and, of course, the bullet trains… Continue reading
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The global assault on jobs
An article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled “Investors cheer as Telstra wields the axe on costs” summed up the attitude of the corporate-financial oligarchy to the destruction of workers’ livelihoods and families. Continue reading
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Virtual Economy’s Phantom Job Gains Are Based on Statistical Fraud. And More Fraud Is in the Works By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
In his analysis of the June Labor Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, John Williams (www.ShadowStats.com) wrote that the 288,000 June jobs and 6.1% unemployment rate are “far removed from common experience and underlying reality.” Payrolls were overstated by “massive, hidden shifts in seasonal adjustments,” and the Birth-Death model added the usual phantom jobs. Continue reading
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UK: Labour Party targets unemployed youth for benefit withdrawal By Joe Mount
The opposition Labour Party will end the entitlement to unemployment benefits for those aged between 18 and 21 if it comes to power, leader Ed Miliband announced. The punitive policy means that youth without A-levels or equivalent qualifications would lose their income unless they enrol in vocational training courses. Only those with qualifications would retain… Continue reading
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Poll spotlights British economic insecurity By Julie Hyland
A poll by the Guardian /ICM turned what the newspaper described as a “spotlight on the anxiety of a nation.” The poll underscored the economic insecurity experienced by many workers and youth. Continue reading
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US: Retail Death Rattle Grows Louder
The absolute collapse in retail visitor counts is the warning siren that this country is about to collide with the reality Americans have run out of time, money, jobs, and illusions. The exponential growth model, built upon a never ending flow of consumer credit and an endless supply of cheap fuel, has reached its limit… Continue reading
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UK benefits claimants victimised and driven into destitution By Barry Mason
The British government has greatly increased the number of sanctions against benefit claimants, resulting in their benefits being “stopped.” Continue reading
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UK Labour Party proposes compulsory cheap-labour scheme By Danny Richardson
Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband has launched Labour’s Jobs Guarantee scheme, aimed at young people age 18 to 25 who have been unemployed for 12 months or more. The scheme will last the lifetime of the next parliament if Labour wins the 2015 election. Those enrolled will be compelled to stay for a six-month period… Continue reading
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Starved & evicted: Britain’s poor now treated worse than animals By Tony Gosling
If someone had told me a decade ago that the British government would deliberately starve my fellow countrymen in an attempt to bully them into slave labor jobs that wouldn’t even pay the bills, I would have laughed in their face. Continue reading
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“Economic Terrorism”: The Ongoing Neoliberal Assault on Ordinary Working Class People in Britain By Colin Todhunter
Britain’s problems are not the result of spending on public services. In 1945, the debt was bigger than today, but Britain created the welfare state. In the 1960s, during an era of full employment, the debt was also bigger than now. In 2006, before the crisis, Britain spent more on public services than now, but… Continue reading
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Surveys of British youth find growing anger and despair By Julie Hyland
One in 10 young people in Britain feel they have “nothing to live for.” Based on interviews with 2,161 16 to 25-year-olds in October and November last year, the Trust pointed out that this statistic, if applied to the entire youth population, would equate to 750,000 people aged between 16 and 25. Continue reading
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Denied work, Britain’s poor have become ‘untermensch’ By Tony Gosling
Millions of hardworking families can no longer afford a social life, shoes for their children, to go swimming or to the cinema. Not satisfied with their seventh home, brace of sports cars and servants, the rich are paying Tory politicians, press and the City to grind the faces of Britain’s poor into the dirt. Continue reading
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Video: Portugal's Architect of Austerity Resigns After Nationwide Protests
President Silva’s austerity policies made Portugal a darling of the troika, but highly unpopular at home (inc. transcript) Continue reading
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Video: Portugal’s Architect of Austerity Resigns After Nationwide Protests
President Silva’s austerity policies made Portugal a darling of the troika, but highly unpopular at home (inc. transcript) Continue reading
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Worst cuts in wages for UK workers in ‘deepest recession since WWII’, IFS shows
Between 2010 and 2011, 70 per cent of employees who stayed in the same job fronted real wage cuts, while a third of those workers faced nominal wage freezes or cuts (12 per cent experienced freezes and 21 per cent experienced cuts). Continue reading
The New Dark Age 