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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter!
Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
Partners in CrimeEugenia Tsao reports on the upcoming revision of one of the most important books in America, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Here’s where the drug lords, the shrinks and the insurance companies collude in establishing hundreds of bogus psychic conditions requiring the psychotropic drugs from which they reap billions every year. There are about 250,000 migrant laborers in Israel, mostly from the Philippines and Thailand. Meanwhile tens of thousands of Palestinians can’t find work. From Tel Aviv, Yonatan Preminger reports on Israel’s vicious employment strategy. Also in this latest newsletter Andrew Cockburn updates his CounterPunch world exclusive on how the U.S. has secretly helped build Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.
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Today's Stories July 7, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Uri Avnery Brian M. Downing Gary Leupp David Macaray July 6, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Nikolas Kozloff Gary Leupp Jonathan Cook Tim Wise Franklin Lamb Charles R. Larson Carlos Benemann Shepherd Bliss Jerry Kroth Karyn Strickler Website of the Day July 3-5, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Eamonn Fingleton Jeffrey St. Clair Mike Whitney Pam Martens George Ciccariello-Maher Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Anthony DiMaggio Roger Burbach John Ross Nikolas Kozloff Gareth Porter Andy Worthington Saul Landau David Macaray Adam Federman Jane Slaughter Labor's Vague Rally for Health Care Russell Mokhiber Black Caucus Muzzled on Israeli Kidnapping of McKinney Robert Jensen Robert Bryce Belén Fernandez Missy Comley Beattie C. G. Estabrook Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend July 2, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff Wendell Potter Ellen Hodgson Brown Christian Christensen Iran: Networked Dissent? Patrick Irelan Binoy Kampmark Returning Iraq Nicola Nasser Brian Tokar Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 1, 2009 Vijay Prashad Alberto Vallente Thorensen Paul Craig Roberts Robert Weissman Manuel García, Jr. Victor Figueroa-Clark / Pablo Navarrete Norman Solomon Franklin Lamb Martha Rosenberg Diane Rejman Website of the Day June 30, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Benjamin Dangl Jonathan Cook Franklin Lamb George Wuerthner Todd Gordon Ron Jacobs Kenneth Libby Julian Vigo Website of the Day
June 29, 2009 Ishmael Reed Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Conn Hallinan James G. Abourezk Ralph Nader Carol Miller Greg Moses Website of the Day June 26-28, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Doug Peacock Daniel Wolff Mike Whitney John Ross David Rosen Emily Ratner Gareth Porter Farid Marjai Nadia Hijab Paul Craig Roberts Fred Gardner Carl Ginsburg Paul Watson David Ker Thomson Farzana Versey Geoff Berne Todd Alan Price Ramzy Baroud Jeff Sher Dr. Carol Paris Despite My Arrest by Max Baucus, I Will Continue to Advocate for Quality Health Care for All Walter Brasch Adultery as Family Value? Glen Johnson Charlotte Laws Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend June 25, 2009 Kathy Kelly Jack Bratich Wendell Potter Charles R. Larson Alan Farago Jonathan Cook Gareth Porter Bitta Mostofi / David Macaray Mark Schuller Website of the Day June 24, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Dean Baker Andy Worthington James Bovard Diana Gibson / P. Sainath Gareth Porter Robert Alvarez Dave Lindorff Steven Colatrella Remembering Giovanni Arrighi Website of the Day
June 23, 2009 David Price Patrick Cockburn James Ridgeway / Dave Lindorff Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Gary Leupp Brian M. Downing Robert Bryce Nicholas Dearden Yousef Munayyer Website of the Day June 22, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Chris Floyd Jack Z. Bratich Atash Yaghmaian Laura Carlsen Paul Craig Roberts Vijay Prashad Fred Gardner Andy Thayer David Macaray Website of the Day
June 19 - 21, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Al Giordano Henry A. Giroux Anthony DiMaggio Paul Craig Roberts John Ross Gareth Porter Carl Ginsburg Tommi Avicolli Mecca Joe Bageant Serge Halimi P. Sainath Jim Goodman Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Robert Fantina Harvey Wasserman Walter Brasch David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Ben Sonnenberg Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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July 7, 2009 An Unblinking View From the Rabbit HolePrincple Over PrincipalBy ALAN FARAGO In a sign of how perilous the national economy is, The New York Times favors broadly reducing principal on underwater residential mortgages ("Not much relief", July 5, 2009). "Everybody wins" according to the Times by resolving the collateral damage of a speculator-driven economy. Taxpayers win because they will not be required to dole out additional billions when the economy is dragged down further the rabbit hole. But here is who doesn't win: responsible homeowners who did not buy a bigger mortgage than they could reasonably afford, or, citizens who could have bought but rented or who otherwise remained on the sidelines during the speculative frenzy that turned home mortgages into gambling chips to enhance their standard of living. Why should these heroes be forced to pay? The New York City residential real estate market is one of the most inflated in the world. That is the result, mainly, of the Wall Street juggernaut built on confections of debt. Now that markets for fraudulent debt has cratered and Wall Street is shriveling, inflated values for condominiums, apartments, and houses are collapsing, too. The Times' view is that reducing principal will establish a basement for the depression in residential real estate. But the tidal wave of foreclosures has already radically changed market values. It is principle, not principal, that needs protecting. The buck has to stop somewhere. As a card-carrying member of the hero class of homeowners, I ask: why should responsible taxpayers who violated no standards of fiduciary responsibility be forced to underwrite those who did? I was a refusenik. I did not buy into the housing market bubble or the culture of greed and speculation that plunged the US economy into the worst economic crisis since the Depression. Why should I pay, again and again and again? Of course, all US taxpayers are all paying-- hugely-- for miscalculations of risk that passed as sound public policy by elected officials, Democrats and Republicans alike. All those business school degrees in high places didn't add up to a hill of beans. The Alan Greenspans and Robert Rubins of the world have no place in the public realm. But in addition to their banishment on an Isle of Elba or Alcatraz, I have a counter-proposal on behalf of the hero class: if Congress and the Obama administration approves reducing principal for homeowner mortgages that are underwater, then home owners who did not chase the fireflies of unsustainable personal debt or do not benefit from their own TARP should be compensated. Give the hero class, his or her due: a 30 year income tax holiday equivalent to the average amount of forgiveness of mortgages for the top bracket of income earners, compounded annually. Allow individuals to trade these hero class tax credits to profitable corporations for cash. Why the upper bracket and not the average of home values of reduced principal? Because the upper bracket of wage earners benefited mostly from and contributed to the speculative fever that is now destroying the national treasury. This suggestion is only half in jest. If you weren't part of the culture of greed and excess that marked the past decade, if you weren't bailed out and haven't been able to get your 100 cents on the dollar like Goldman Sachs, you don't even have a party favor to remind you of what you missed. Welcome aboard. My keyhole view into the operations of the US Treasury is from a low level of ordinary interest. I don't know how much future national pain could be avoided by reducing principal of underwater mortgages today. Clearly, the New York Times has data that is not being reported. But I do know that reducing some principal on mortgages-- self selected by past mistakes--, when neighbors aren't given the same opportunity to profit, makes a mockery of contracts and is theft by any other name. The bottom line: speculators who continue to agitate for the next bubble in the US economy need to be wrung from the system. Their bankrupt behavior and preferences wrecked the economy. Tragically, their interests are still represented in Washington more than mine and yours, notwithstanding "change we can believe in". Alan Farago lives in south Florida. He can be reached at: afarago@bellsouth.net
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
Spell Albuquerque:
Waiting for
Lightning
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