May 13, 2019 by jackrasmus
My comment on declining quality & pay of US jobs, expansion of underemployed and precariate work, and even worse impact of AI and new tech on jobs 2020-2030. Why neither markets nor guaranteed income will reverse the worsening job and pay crisis. Watch the Youtube interview:
While the capitalist system has undergone numerous restructurings throughout its history, capitalist elites purpose in restructuring has remained the same: to restore and/or extend their hegemony. The current restructuring, operative since 1978, is called Neoliberalism. The book examines Neoliberalism as both an Idea and an historical practice composed of a particular mix of fiscal-monetary-trade-industrial policies that began with the latest US capitalist restructuring in the late 1970s, continuing to evolve to this day. The book further explains the deeper material forces giving rise to - as well as now undermining - the Neoliberal policy regime, with special focus given to the crisis of Neoliberalism in the wake of the 2008-09 global crash, Obama's failure to resurrect it, and Trump's current doomed effort to restore it in a new, more aggressive form. Evidence why Neoliberalism is destroying US Democracy concludes the book's analysis.
Describes how US federal governments, often in cooperation with the largest US private banks, introduced and expanded central banking functions from 1781 through the creation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Based on an analysis of the evolution of the US banking system - from pre-1781, through the 1787 US Constitutional Convention, Congressional debates on Hamilton's reports to Congress, the rise and fall of the 1st and 2nd Banks of the United States, and through the long period of the National Banking System form 1862-1913, the book shows how central banking in the US evolved out of the private banking system, and how following the financial crash of 1907 big New York banks pushed through Congress the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating a central bank which they then managed for their interests.
(Click on image) CENTRAL BANKERS is a comprehensive critique of central banks’ policies in the 21st century, explaining why the massive injections of free money to the banking system since the 1970s enabled the creation of excess corporate debt that has led to financial bubbles and repeated crises. The book addresses the growing contradictions of central banking, why they are failing in their functions, targets and tools, and proposes a radical democratization and restructuring to transform them to serve the public interest and not the private banks.
(Click on image) LOOTING GREECE, A New Financial Imperialism Emerges. This book - Reveals clearly who calls the shots in the Eurozone—the hardliners, not the remnants and political residue of what was once European social democracy, - Follows the negotiations in their excruciating detail as the Troika tightens the screws from 2009 to the present, - Shows how Europe’s financial elite enriches itself on Greek debt, privatizations and financial manipulations, turning Greece into an Economic Protectorate.
(Click on image): This book offers a new approach to explaining why mainstream economic analyses have repeatedly failed and why fiscal and monetary policies have been incapable of producing a sustained recovery. It explains why the global economy is slowing long term and becoming more unstable, why policies to date have largely failed the trend, and why the next crisis may therefore prove even worse than that of 2008-09.
(Click on image) Obama's Economy: Recovery for the Few, explains how the weakest and most lopsided economic recovery since 1947 has been the direct outcome of failed economic policies of the Obama administration and US Federal Reserve bank since February 2009. Includes a detailed 'alternative program' in the final chapter. Includes the book, a video DVD presentation, and 66-slide PPT slideshow.
(Click on image) Obama's Economy: Recovery for the Few, explains how the weakest and most lopsided economic recovery since 1947 has been the direct outcome of failed economic policies of the Obama administration and US Federal Reserve bank since February 2009. Includes a detailed 'alternative program' in the final chapter.
(Click on image) A theoretical analysis, with historical case examples, of origins, causes and future evolution of the recent--and continuing--economic crisis in the U.S. and global economy. Includes predictions in 2009 of the inevitable failure of Obama policies and more serious crisis to come, 2013-15.
(Click on image) Seven specific reasons why economic recovery under Obama since 2009 has failed for all but the wealthiest few and largest corporations. The book spells out eight specific areas as an Alternative Economic Recovery Program.
(Click on image) The War At Home: The Corporate Offensive From Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, is a 534 page, extensively researched, nonfiction book that describes the evolution of corporate-government policies from 1980 to 2005 that have shifted more than a $1 trillion dollars a year, every year, from 90 million American middle and working class households to the wealthiest 10% and corporations.
Dr. Jack Rasmus @drjackrasmus
Jack Rasmus 
Great interview; about the best that can be done in a few minutes. Why the idea of a New Green Deal which would generate millions of jobs and save the planet is not even on the table is beyond me.
And why are Democrat Party leaders, Pelosi and Shumer, not embracing the proposals of the newcomer progressives–AOC et. al.–concerning Green new Deal? Why? They’re still trying to resurrect the dead politics of the Clinton-Obama era (that contributed mightily to the mess we’re in): e.g. bipartisanship, work with the ‘good Republicans’, play by the rules as Trump breaks them every day, hold hearings in Congress on Trump & his neocons but don’t impeach (while Trump tells Exec branch not to respond to Congress subpoenas), etc. etc. THis is 1850s all over again, as Trump slouches toward dictatorship by the Executive branch against the legislative (betting on the Judiciary to back him up). In the interim, he considers himself ‘above the law’. The definition of a tyrant by the way. So we slide into tyranny and stumble toward a US kind of dictatorship. And the leaders of the Democrat Party keep getting outmaneuvered time and again, showing their ineptitude and tactical and strategic failure repeatedly. They won’t let any ‘left’ challengers reform the party, led by the moneybags and DLC faction ever since Clinton. And that means indirectly, quietly, and through the back door scuttling their proposals like the Green New Deal and other ideas (tax the rich, free education, medicare for all, etc. etc.). THis isn’t the Democratic Party any more, than the Republican Party is what it was instead of becoming the instrument of Donald Trump to deepen his control of the political institutions to his benefit, on the way to an American form of fascism–totally legal in takeover and eventual rule. In the meantime, one of the hallmarks of fascism–i.e. military aggression abroad–is being carried forth by the neocons, Bolton & Co., n ow running US foreign policy in the vacuum created in the Trump administration.
Jack, what do you mean by, ” This is the 1850s all over again.”
The 1850s was a fundamental constitutional crisis, where not only the political parties were unable to compromise but the population of the country was fundamentally divided. The institutions of government (Congress, Executive, Courts) failed to achieve a resolution. We are drifting in that direction once again. Congress is stalemated and divided, the Executive branch refuses to acknowledge the authority of the legislative (Congress), and the SCOTUS will either have to not intervene or, doing so, will have to support one side or the other, which will exacerbate the conflicts. The institutional divisions are a reflection of the divided society. Checks and balances are atrophying. Democracy is in decline at various levels. We know what happened by 1860-61. I’m not saying civil war is on the horizon or inevitable, but that we are clearly drifting in that direction. THere are two Americas and they are increasingly at odds with each other and in conflict at multiple levels–institutional, social, political, and values.