EPISODE 181

Here’s a no brainer observation: It would be hard to find any areas of agreement between the AFL-CIO and Goldman Sachs. Well, I got one—it turns out that the AFL-CIO and Goldman Sachs, along with scores of heads of states, labor folks and business titans, are on the same page about one idea which hasn’t gotten a lot of attention—creating $3 trillion in grants for worldwide distribution by the International Monetary Fund to countries needing immediate financial aid to contend with the pandemic. You’ll learn all about this fascinating global tale in my conversation with Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

And speaking of money, Morris Pearl, the chair of Patriotic Millionaires, joins me to explain how we can free up $200 billion for badly strapped charities by just a little jiggering of the rules for philanthropic foundations who sock away tax break-driven contributions from rich people.

My rant for this week: to be sure, COVID-19 closed down retail stores lickety-split but the collapse of name brands like J. Crew was already in the cards—Wall Street pirates, especially private equity companies, had been looting big chains for years, piling on huge debt burdens that all but guaranteed scores of retail outlets could not weather an economic crisis. It’s an example of the way in which the pandemic has exposed even further the rotten so-called “free market” economic system.