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How Goldman Sachs Profited From the Greek Debt Crisis

Robert Reich Robert Reich
Just as with the American subprime crisis, and the current plight of many American cities, Wall Street’s predatory lending played an important although little-recognized role. Undoubtedly, Greece suffers from years of corruption and tax avoidance by its wealthy. But Goldman wasn’t an innocent bystander: It padded its profits by leveraging Greece to the hilt—along with much of the rest of the global economy.

Friday Nite Videos -- July 17, 2015

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Ninth Rock From the Sun. War / No More Trouble. Elizabeth Warren Keynotes Netroots Nation. Film: Do I Sound Gay? "Our Selma!" March for Voting Rights

Tidbits - July 16, 2015 - Response to Occupy; Greece; Debt Forgiveness; Why Bernie Sanders; U.S. Torture Program; Flags, Symbols, Racism; Announcements; More...

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Reader Comments: Response to Occupy; Greece and Debt Forgiveness; Why Bernie Sanders; Confederate Flags, Symbols, and Racism; U.S. Torture Program; Death Penalty; and more... Announcements: Benefit Concert for Civil Rights; Rally for Eric Garner; NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and The Voting Rights Act at 50; Rosenberg Case Bombshell - Key Witness Lied; Robert Meeropol statement

Serena Williams Is Today's Muhammad Ali

Dave Zirin The Nation
As a political symbol and an athletic powerhouse, Serena Williams is 'the greatest' in her sport. After her Wimbledon victory, Serena Williams was asked which athlete she admired the most. She said that it was Muhammad Ali. Not for his boxing but for 'what he stood for' outside the ring. For years people have asked who would be "the next Muhammad Ali." If we dare to lift our heads, it will be clear that she is right in front of us.

Hillary Clinton's New Paleoliberalism; Sizing Up Clinton's Plans to Help the Middle Class - Here's the Rub: It Isn't Enough

Matthew Yglesias; Eduardo Porter
Hillary Clinton's record in office suggests that she is more liberal than either her husband or Barack Obama, and in a Monday speech outlining her economic vision she set out to confirm that. However, still lacking is much policy detail as to how this difference might look in practice. A future Clinton administration might help change the norms of corporate governance to foster the kind of labor relations that everyday workers have not experienced in decades.

The Sanders Campaign and the Revival of Socialism in the United States

Joseph M. Schwartz teleSUR
Bernie Sanders is campaigning on behalf of the 99 percent against the 1 percent. And, he is getting lots of supports, drawing thousands to his campaign rallies. Sanders is not running an explicit socialist campaign for public or worker ownership of major firms. Sanders's socialist values underpin his argument that the economy should serve the needs of the people and be governed not by corporate oligarchs, but by democratic means.

The Denouement

Leo Panitch Socialist Project
The frustration, depression and anger of the people who voted OXI with such pride and determination is palpable in Athens today. There is a real danger the party will split and that parts of the Syriza leadership will – reminiscent of the Ramsay Macdonald Labour Government in Britain in 1931 – kick the party away and join with the bourgeois elites in a national unity government.

Why join Islamic State?

Patrick Cockburn London Review of Books
‘At first we dreamed of having a revolution and gaining our liberty,’ he said, ‘but unfortunately the popular movement was not well organised and was manipulated by neighbouring countries such as the Gulf states, so revolution turned into jihad.’ He says that to fight back against the regime the rebels had no choice but to turn to a religious movement that appealed to the conservative people of eastern Syria.