Economics

Greece is a crime scene. And its working people are not the perpetrators of the crime, they are the victims - scammed, defrauded, their national industries looted and their treasury drained by financial flim-flam.

Greg Palast, Vice Magazine

If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cafe latte to all reader-supported Evergreene Digest--using the donation button above—so we can bring you more just like it.

Greek minister Theodoros Pangalos

Monday, May 20, 2013 | It wasn't too difficult picking out the Fat Bastard in the crowd of Russian models, craven moochers and media mavens. Besides, Fat Bastard and I were both desperate for coffee and heading for the same empty urn.

(We'd both signed on for Kazakhstan's annual Eurasia Media Forum, a kind of Burning Man festival for Eastern oilgarchs and their media camp followers.)

Full story…

• It’s high time our elected officials started listening to the wisdom of economists like Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, who for months has been consistently warning us about the dangers of austerity. And once again, he’s been proved right.
• Austerity debunked
• Everything We Know About What’s Happened Under Sequestration

Truthdig

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of all reader supported Evergreene Digest readers like you. Thank you!

Flickr/401(K) 2013

May 7, 2013 | For those pushing austerity as the solution to America’s economic ills, here’s a reality check: According to a new study, austerity policies have cost the U.S. roughly 2.2 million jobs.

In the 46 months since the recession ended, federal, state and local governments have cut approximately half a million jobs, a study by Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney at the Brookings Institution found. After other recessions since 1970, the government typically hired about 1.7 million workers.

Reports such as this one show that it’s high time our elected officials started listening to the wisdom of economists like Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, who for months has been consistently warning us about the dangers of austerity. And once again, he’s been proved right.

Full story…

Shutterstock illustration of American candle burning.

Related:

Austerity debunked, Aljazeera

• As Europe struggles under widespread spending cuts, it seems that the theory behind austerity may, in fact, be flawed.
• Earth to Washington: Repeal the Sequester

Everything We Know About What’s Happened Under Sequestration, Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica

May 7, 2013 | When the annual White House Easter Egg Hunt faced cancellation this year due to the package of mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration, the National Park Service kicked into high gear. It rescued the event 2014 held since 1878 2014 with money from “corporate sponsors and the sale of commemorative wooden eggs,” according to the Washington Post.