Episodes
Wednesday Jan 30, 2013
Alternative Visions - The Coming Collapse of Retirement in America - 01/30/13
Wednesday Jan 30, 2013
Wednesday Jan 30, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus will address the topic, ‘The Coming Collapse of Retirement in America’ on today’s Alternative Visions show. The discussion will look at the 6 elements of the retirement system in the US: Private defined benefit pensions, 401k plans, personal savings, retiree health benefits, social security, and medicare. The retirement system in America set up in the late 1940s-early 1950s originally called for a ‘3-legged stool’ of incomes, composed of one-third retirement income from defined benefit pensions, one third from personal savings, and one third from social security. The first two of those legs have already collapsed. And now Congress is about to begin breaking the last leg, social security and medicare, with its upcoming deficit cuts. This will intensify as Congress restores defense spending cuts previously scheduled, and enacts big corporate tax cuts later in the year. The consequences of collapsing retirement incomes affecting 70 million people will be significant, Dr. Rasmus argues, and will hold back anyk sustained economic recovery in the US in 2013-14 and beyond, as GDP data for the fourth quarter 2012 just issued today show the US economy may have already entered the ‘double dip’ recession Dr. Rasmus has been predicting for more than a year.
Wednesday Jan 23, 2013
Alternative Visions - The Housing Crisis in America—Is it Really Over? - 01/23/13
Wednesday Jan 23, 2013
Wednesday Jan 23, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus discusses today ‘The Housing Crisis in America—Is it Really Over’? Jack examines the data that shows foreclosures haven’t really abated, housing construction is mostly new apartment building to accommodate the 13.7 million who have been foreclosed since 2008, rents are accelerating, and Obama’s housing programs since 2009 have been largely veiled mortgage bank subsidy programs, including the current $10 billion bank mortgage liability deal just concluded. Jack explains how speculators like hedge funds, private equity firms, and REITS, are buying up foreclosed properties en masse across the country, raising rents, and planning to make big profits from resales the next few years. Jack then interviews guest, Tom Bias, who tells us what’s really happening on the ground to homeowners and ex-homeowners in New Jersey. The Housing crisis may be over for banks and speculators, but not for the 20 million plus foreclosed or in negative equity.
Jack’s guest is Tom Bias from New Jersey. Tom Bias worked in the printing trades for 40 years before being laid off two years short of retirement age in 2010. He’s been a political activist since the late 1960s in the civil rights, peace, and labor movements, and is currently on the coordinating committee of the Emergency Labor Network and a co-managing editor of the Labor Standard website.
Wednesday Jan 16, 2013
Alternative Visions - The Failure of Mainstream Economics - 01/16/13
Wednesday Jan 16, 2013
Wednesday Jan 16, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus discusses why mainstream economists have failed in recent years to accurately forecast the course of the US and global economies—first missing predictions of the financial crash of 2008, then forecasting a rapid recovery that didn’t materialize, and now once again claiming the US economy is about to ‘take off’ in a full recovery in 2013. Unlike mainstream academic economists, Dr. Rasmus has been predicting a continuing ‘bumping along the bottom’ for the US economy at best, and, should US deficit cutting become severe in 2013 and the global economy continue to slowly slip into recession from Japan to Germany, as it now is, the ‘recovery’ could be worse than a best case ‘bumping along the bottom’. Jack introduces his guest, Zoltan Zigedy, to discuss these and other related topics. Zoltan Zigedy is the nom de plume of Greg Godels, a US based activist in the Communist movement who left the academic world many years ago with an uncompleted PhD thesis in Philosophy. He writes regularly on his blog, ZZ's blog, and on Marxism-Leninism Today. His writings have been published internationally in Cuba, Greece, Italy, Canada, UK, Argentina, Ireland, Singapore and Ukraine.He writes often on Marxist political economy and the current global crisis.
Wednesday Jan 09, 2013
The Imminent Attack on Social Security & Medicare - 01/09/13
Wednesday Jan 09, 2013
Wednesday Jan 09, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus interviews Eric Laursen, author of the just published definitive book on “Social Security: The Peoples’ Pension”. With Fiscal Cliff, Austerity American Style, deficit cutting negotiations in Congress now in its second phase, emerging is the central focus by both Republicans and Democrats on big cuts to Medicare and Social Security, in exchange for a debt ceiling deal 2.0. It’s ‘back to the future’ and a repeat of August 2011 and the first ‘debt ceiling deal’ where trillions in spending were cut in exchange for a deal on the debt ceiling. Social Security and Medicare have never been in such danger. Jack and Eric discuss the facts vs. fear-mongering by politicians about social security retirement and medicare.
Jack’s guest, Eric Laursen is an independent journalist and activist who has been writing and reporting on politics, the economy, the financial sector, and retirement for many years. His work has appeared in such publications as the Village Voice, The Nation, Institutional Investor, Counterpunch, Z Magazine, and elsewhere. His most recent book, The People's Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security Since Reagan," was just named one of Booklist's Editor's Choice award winners for 2012. Eric lives in western Massachusetts and is also a longtime antiwar and social justice activist.Wednesday Jan 02, 2013
Alternative Visions - Fiscal Cliff Deal and Economic Predictions 2012 - 01/02/13
Wednesday Jan 02, 2013
Wednesday Jan 02, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus provides an analysis of yesterday’s Fiscal Cliff deal between Congress and Obama, confirming his predictions of the last six weeks, explaining why the next, second phase of negotiations give Republicans and US House of Representatives the advantage. Expect a focus on Medicare-Medicaid cuts and another ‘Debt Ceiling Debacle 2.0’, similar to the last one in August 2011. Jack then reviews his economic predictions of the past year and hints at what is to come.