The totality of today’s Economic Update is devoted to exploring (1) the multiple ways that capitalism imposes class warfare on its people, and (2) how class warfare shapes the capitalist system’s impact on employers and employees. Specific examples show (1) what kind of class struggle is involved in tariffs such as those imposed by Trump, (2) how inflation exemplifies class war, and (3) how unemployment reflects and includes class war. A question addressed throughout today’s program is “Why establish and maintain an economic system that produces and reproduces class war across its history?”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Trump Organization requested record number of foreign workers in 2025
The Trump Organization requested 184 foreign workers to work across various company properties, a record number that has increased over the years.
The company sought to hire workers through H-2A and H-2B visas for temporary positions at Mar-a-Lago, two golf clubs and at Trump Vineyard Estates in Charlottesville, Va., according to data from the Department of Labor.
Over the course of Trump’s first term and the first nine months of his second term, the Trump Organization’s visa requests increased from 121 in 2021 to 184 in 2025, according to Forbes. Overall, the company has filed to hire 566 foreign laborers, primarily to work as servers, farm workers, kitchen staff, clerks and housekeepers.
https://thehill.com/business/5603478-trump-organization-foreign-workers-2025/
Economist Warns That Trump’s Investments in the Tech Industry Could Crash the Whole Economy
To strengthen America’s technological edge, President Donald Trump directed the government to buy $8.9 billion of Intel stock this summer, a controversial move that may be followed by a similar deal with quantum-computing companies getting millions of dollars in federal funding.
The splashy moves could endanger the prosperous American economy, according to an influential economist speaking to Politico — especially in tandem with the White House’s gutting of agencies that have historically collaborated with the private sector.
“I think the kind of capitalism Trump has is crony capitalism,” Italian economist Mariana Mazzucato told Politico. “I would describe crony capitalism as Mafia-like. You’re showing your upper hand. You’re handing out favors to some. But then divide and conquer. Picking and choosing without a particular strategy.”
https://futurism.com/future-society/economist-trump-economy-crash
People’s Summit Begins In Brazil As An Alternative To COP30
Organized by more than 1,100 civil society organizations, the Summit is expected to bring together more than 30,000 people who will exchange experiences and denounce those who, according to them, are destroying the environment.
“We are starting the People’s Summit… by reinforcing our resistance to the false solutions presented by COP30, which carries with it the mark of projects to destroy nature, pollute rivers, and poison forests,” said Ayala Ferreira, national leader of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST).
Unlike COP30, which focuses on intergovernmental negotiations, the People’s Summit offers a collective environment and dialogues open to the public. Its program is based on six fundamental axes that include historical reparation and environmental racism, just transition, and food sovereignty.
The organizers emphasize that the answers to a sustainable world come from the people of the waters, forests, fields, and peripheries, who resist with their collective, agroecological, and ancestral practices.
However, in a historic event, the Brazilian indigenous movement, with the support of the federal government, ensured massive participation in COP30. As a result of this coordination, nearly 400 indigenous leaders gained access to the official spaces of the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
https://popularresistance.org/peoples-summit-begins-in-brazil-as-an-alternative-to-cop30/
Are We Humans or Homo Economicus? Why Economics Needs to Evolve Beyond Growth
An economist talking with authority about an area in which he had no expertise – is common enough to have a name: economics imperialism. In a masterly historical account, Matthew Watson, professor of political economy at the University of Warwick, traces the development of the mathematical market models that have come to dominate economics, and which allow economists to dazzle us with what looks like hard science and inarguable logic (and most importantly, numbers). Watson points out the important distinctions and differences between what he calls the “world within the model”, in other words the world as depicted by a mathematical model, and the “real world”, or the world as it is experienced in everyday life.
In the real world, rather than rewarding work on growth, many outside of economics – and increasingly many within the discipline – argue that the focus on economic growth is a big problem. It’s as wrong-headed and outdated as the idea of homo economicus. Perhaps, instead of economists invading non-economic arenas, we actually need more non-economists and more non-traditional economists taking a cold, hard look at this traditional economic objective.
Wall Street’s House of Horrors: Feds Say Ex-Financier Tortured Women with Electrocution Devices in Manhattan ‘Sex Dungeon’
A retired New York financier identified as Howard Rubin, 70, and his former personal assistant Jennifer Powers, 45, were indicted in late September in the Eastern District of New York on ten criminal counts related to sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution, and bank fraud. The indictment stems from allegations that the pair ran a decade long operation exploiting women for commercial sex acts, many involving bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadomasochism. Prosecutors also allege the sexual abuse was especially brutal. According to court filings, Rubin “used his wealth to mislead and recruit women to engage in commercial sex acts … where Rubin then tortured women beyond their consent, causing lasting physical and/or psychological pain, and in some cases physical injuries.” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said in a statement. The indictment alleges that Rubin tortured women beyond their consent, detailing injuries like breast implants flipping upside down.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the scheme operated from at least 2009 through 2019. Rubin and Powers allegedly recruited dozens of women, including former Playboy models, by offering money and luxury travel, then transported them to hotel rooms and a Midtown Manhattan penthouse transformed into a sound proofed “sex dungeon” equipped with electrocution devices and restraints, painted all red.
From the world’s first-ever bailout by the Romans to 33% interest loans 5,000 years ago, humans have pretty much always been in financial crisis
The Romans didn’t just worship money; they weaponized credit in ways that feel eerily contemporary. They had banks, bankers, mortgages, and speculative real estate bubbles. And, in 33 CE, they experienced what McWilliams calls “the world’s first credit crisis.”
Emperor Tiberius was enjoying semi-retirement in Capri when news of an alleged coup shattered his peace. A young pretender named Sejanus had rallied senators and aristocrats to overthrow him. Tiberius, shrewd and ruthless, smoked out the conspirators.
Once he identified the traitors, he had Sejanus killed — and took things even further.
“Shaken by the sheer number of senators prepared to betray him, Tiberius moved against them in the place it hurt them most: their pockets,” McWilliams writes. The Senate, it turned out, was running a massive lending racket, borrowing at low rates in Rome and lending across the provinces at usurious rates. Tiberius passed a law forcing senators to keep a percentage of their income in Italian lands, which meant they had to dump their speculative provincial properties immediately. Land prices collapsed. Debts remained. Balance sheets imploded.
“The empire of credit was in the middle of a property boom, the treasury was full, and low interest rates had pushed up land prices,” writes McWilliams. Then it all seized up. Banks called in loans. Romans hoarded gold and silver. Liquidity vanished. The resulting panic spread throughout the system —landowners had to sell prime real estate in Rome and Capri to cover reckless investments in Syria and Egypt. It was 2008, but with togas.
BlackRock started buying American public utility companies
They buy them with debt, when the purchase goes through the debt goes to the power company, not to BlackRock
This means entire states power bills will instantly rise to pay off the debt. It’s a racket and it’s started
“What if I told you that your electricity bill isn’t just paying for the power you use? It might also be paying off Wall Street’s debt.”
https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1987725418045317434
Report: Private equity firms like BlackRock SNAPPING UP Public Utilities & Electric Bills To SKYROCKET
Private equity firms like BlackRock and Blackstone are acquiring U.S. electric utilities, raising concerns about monopolistic control and skyrocketing electricity rates. Historical examples, such as California’s 2000–2001 energy crisis, demonstrate how privatization can lead to price gouging, rolling blackouts, and market manipulation for profit. Critics warn that these acquisitions exploit political influence, labor allies, and clean energy groups to advance deals, while leaving consumers with limited recourse and higher costs.
Europe without microchips and Germany ignored by Beijing
Once again, Europeans are falling into a trap set by their Anglo-Saxon allies, especially the US. In its strategy against European industry, the US will guarantee another influx of investors and a likely exodus of companies to its struggling economy. However, it has a clear reindustrialisation plan, supported by both the Biden and Trump administrations.
[…]
The short-term implications for Europeans are clear: automotive, satellite, military, and electronics industries, among others, are now literally scrambling for new suppliers. These will eventually appear, but when, and at what price?
Germany is the most affected and has already protested: ‘German industry depends on these chips!’ complained its Minister for the Economy, who was travelling in Kiev.
Just as with energy, which, following the Nord Stream explosions, is now entirely dependent on expensive US-produced LNG, Germany and Europe’s industries are suffering another major setback, this time in the semiconductor sector, for which they have no domestic production or immediate alternatives.
https://williambowles.info/2025/10/27/european-without-microchips-and-germany-ignored-by-beijing/
House Republicans Preserve Provision Gifting Millions of Dollars to GOP Senators
Refreshed from a lengthy break, courtesy of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) desire not to vote on a measure that would compel the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files, GOP lawmakers bravely protected the “America First” priorities in the bill.
For example, they voted down an attempt to extend the Obamacare subsidies that make health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans, blocked an effort to prevent the administration from using $40 billion in taxpayer money to prop up Argentina’s economy just because Donald Trump likes their president, and protected language allowing a few Republican senators to personally enrich themselves just because DOJ had dared to investigate the president’s 2020 coup attempt.
In other words, in spite of their Epstein vacation, they haven’t missed a beat.