Episodes
Wednesday Oct 30, 2013
Wednesday Oct 30, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus discusses the facts and key trends involving US corporate taxes, the role of corporate taxes in forthcoming US tax code overhaul legislation moving through Congress, and the strategic nature of plans to cut corporate taxes from 35% to 28% by the 'Committee of 29' in Congress seeking a new deficit cutting deal . Rasmus explains the true picture of corporate taxation in America--i.e. real effective corporate tax rates and trends, share of corporate taxes as percent of government revenues, corporate taxation as percent of corporate profits, offshore shifting of $2 trillion of corporate profits to avoid US taxation, what US corporations actually pay to governments overseas, and other key trends in corporate taxation. Multinational corporate loopholes like 'Irish Double', 'Dutch Sandwich', 'Check the Box', 'Looking Through Rule', and other tax avoidance means are explained. (Watch 'Part 2' of this discussion next week on Alternative Visions, when the US corporate tax 'Race to the Bottom between US states, and the similar broader 'Race to the Bottom' between nation states, are both explained).
Thursday Oct 24, 2013
Alternative Visions - What’s Happening to the $1.2 Trillion "Sequester Cuts”?
Thursday Oct 24, 2013
Thursday Oct 24, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus provides an update on last week’s interim ‘Government Shutdown-Debt Ceiling Extension’ deal in Washington and explains the real role and strategy of the Teaparty faction in recent months and going forward to the 2014 elections. With the Teaparty no longer the driving force, now the real negotiations begin (again) between Obama/Congressional Democrats and Congressional Republicans, returning to the ‘well orchestrated dance 2.0’ laid out this past summer before the Teaparty’s intervention. Rasmus predicts there will be a government funding deal by the next January 2014 budget deadline, and there will be no repeated debt ceiling crisis on February 7, 2014. The coming Obama-Republican deal will now include major cuts to social security and medicare, and possibly more tax cuts for corporate America as well. In addition, the $500 billion in proposed sequester defense spending cuts will be further restored in the coming deal, and that restoration has in fact already begun. (For a 35 min. video presentation on “Why Social Security and Medicare Are Not in Crisis”, download Jack’s presentation at: http://www.kyklosproductions.com/videos.html
Wednesday Oct 16, 2013
Alternative Visions - The Coming Deal Ceiling Deal 2.0 - 10/16/13
Wednesday Oct 16, 2013
Wednesday Oct 16, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus focuses on the latest debt ceiling-government shutdown negotiations in Washington, and his prediction of the past weeks that a deal would be reached. That deal appears will occur today, October 16, 2013—at least the first phase. The real negotiations now begin, Rasmus predicts, involving trading off major spending cuts targeting social security and medicare—plus more corporate tax cuts in the pending ‘Tax Code Overhaul’ bill moving through the US House—for a still longer term debt ceiling and government budget agreement that will all occur early next year. Dr. Rasmus explains how Obamacare was never a real issue in the negotiations, and how the real strategy was deficit cuts for debt ceiling. Also explained is how the current settlement is a repeat of the August 2011 debt ceiling 1.0 agreement, cutting spending by $1 trillion, and the 2012 fiscal cliff settlement cutting spending by another $1.2 trillion (the sequester) along with $4 trillion in permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts. It represents what Dr. Rasmus calls the ‘Well Orchestrated Dance’ (2.0) between the two wings of the ruling capitalist party. (see Dr. Rasmus’s blog, jackrasmus.com, for prior articles on the fiscal cliff of December 2012 and debt ceiling 1.0 deal of August 2011).
Wednesday Oct 09, 2013
Wednesday Oct 09, 2013
Dr. Jack Rasmus and guest, Dr. Margaret Flowers, discuss the strategic significance of Obamacare as leverage by conservatives to extract further spending concessions from social security, Medicare, and Medicaid from the Obama administration. Rasmus explains in depth the Republican-Teapublican joint strategy behind provoking a dual government shutdown and crisis involving the debt ceiling extension. Rasmus explains where and how the already slowing US and global economies will be significantly impacted by the debt ceiling crisis and that the current crisis is but a dress rehearsal for a bigger confrontation a year from now before the 2014 midterm elections. Rasmus and Flowers explore how the Obamacare Act is a convenient lynchpin for the strategy now unfolding. Both examine the major faults of the Obamacare law, the current roll out among states, and how its shortcomings and failures play into the Republican-radical right strategy to cut entitlements today and win election in 2014 in Congress.:
Dr. Margaret Flowers is a physician and advocate for Medicare for All, the Secretary of Health for the ‘Green Shadow Cabinet’, co-host of the Washington DC radio show, ‘Clearing the Fog’, a journalist, and past activist in the Occupy Washington DC movement.
Wednesday Oct 02, 2013
Alternative Visions - The US Fiscal-Monetary Crisis Intensifies - 10/02/13
Wednesday Oct 02, 2013
Wednesday Oct 02, 2013