DhafirTrial

Michael Hudson ICH

The major financial problem tearing economies apart over the past century has lain more with official inter-governmental debt than with private-sector debt. That is why the global economy today faces a similar breakdown to 1929-31, when it became apparent that the volume of official inter-government debts could not be paid. (more…)

Pro Publica

In late 2011, the Red Cross launched a multimillion-dollar project to transform the desperately poor area, which was hit hard by the earthquake that struck Haiti the year before. The main focus of the project — called LAMIKA, an acronym in Creole for “A Better Life in My Neighborhood” — was building hundreds of permanent homes.

Today, not one home has been built in Campeche. Many residents live in shacks made of rusty sheet metal, without access to drinkable water, electricity or basic sanitation. When it rains, their homes flood and residents bail out mud and water. (more…)

The results of the first “Survey of Living Conditions in Ecuador” showed that poverty has fallen by one third. It also revealed that 900,000 individuals have been lifted out of extreme poverty, whilst the Gini coefficient, which measures wealth gaps, has dropped 4.8 points since 2006. (more…)
 

Truthout

When authorities booked Richard Murphy into the jail in Monterey, California, on January 18, 2013, the war veteran likely never envisioned ending up being back in court months later, not to face criminal charges, but to expose the abuse he would suffer at the hands of the jail’s private health-care provider. (more…)

Commondreams

Pointing to egregious examples of Fortune 500 corporations “manipulating the tax system to avoid paying even a dime in tax on billions of dollars in U.S. profits,” a new report from Citizens for Tax Justice makes a sharp case for corporate tax reform. (more…)

William D. Hartung Tomdispatch

President Obama and Senator John McCain, who have clashed on almost every conceivable issue, do agree on one thing: the Pentagon needs more money. Obama wants to raise the Pentagon’s budget for fiscal year 2016 by $35 billion more than the caps that exist under current law allow.  McCain wants to see Obama his $35 billion and raise him $17 billion more. (more…)

Commondreams

Taking a stand against the for-profit schools which they say have saddled them with mountains of debt, a number of recent graduates, dubbed the Corinithian 15, on Monday launched a student debt strike. (more…)

BBC

A former US soldier who allegedly formed an international band of snipers as mercenaries has confessed to a murder plot in New York. (more…)