Saturday, 1 February 2025

Trump's Billionaires Will Accelerate American Decline. Dr Richard Wolff Explains How

Jan 28, 2025 | On the campaign trail and beyond, Donald Trump and MAGA right have repeatedly presented themselves as the true representatives of America's beleaguered working class. And yet, like the Capitol rotunda on Inauguration Day, Trump's administration is filled with billionaires, mega-millionaires, and corporate oligarchs whose staggering wealth is increasing year after year while working people struggle to get by. How are people, voters and non-voters alike, supposed to square this seeming contradiction?

In this special post-Inauguration interview, Dr Richard Wolff explains how the naked oligarchy on display in Trump's inauguration and in his administration is not a contradiction, but a clear sign of a society hastening its own collapse under the weight of historic, unsustainable levels of inequality.


Why Does Trump Want the Panama Canal? - The Global Story Podcast, BBC World Service

Feb 1, 2025 | Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has made a string of expansionist foreign policy announcements, angering several of his international counterparts.

After reiterating his ambitious intention to purchase Greenland, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the US president doubled down on his insistence that Washington should regain control of the Panama Canal, the essential shipping passage he claims has been commandeered by China.

Built by the United States in the early twentieth century, the waterway transformed global trade and marked America’s emergence as a superpower on the world stage, before being transferred to Panamanian control via a 1977 treaty. So why has Donald Trump got it in his sights now?

In this episode Jonny Dymond speaks to Julie Greene, professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, about the storied history of the Panama Canal. And the BBC’s North America business correspondent Michelle Fleury discusses the politics and economics behind the Trump administration's diplomatic pursuit of the trade route.


NZZ erklärt: Joe Biden scheiterte als Präsident – das waren die Gründe

Jan 18, 2025 | Joe Biden wollte Amerika einen und die Demokratie schützen. Stattdessen prägten seine Amtszeit wirtschaftliche Herausforderungen, eine ungelöste Migrationskrise und internationale Konflikte. Manche reden bei seiner Amtszeit von einem «Intermezzo der Trump-Ära».