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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 10-12, 2009 José Pertierra July 9, 2009 Ronnie Cummings Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff James Bovard Norman Solomon Afghanistan: the Escalation Scam Allan Nairn Andy Worthington Tomas Borge Nadia Hijab Paul Krassner Website of the Day July 8, 2009 Saul Landau Dean Baker Winslow T. Wheeler Eric Walberg Ray McGovern David Rosen Dr. Mona El Farra Ron Jacobs Benjamin Dangl Alan Farago Website of the Day July 7, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Uri Avnery Brian M. Downing Gary Leupp Gregory A. Burris David Macaray Laura Flanders Alan Farago Greg Moses Dan Bacher Website of the Day 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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Weekend Edition There Was a Reason for the Rose-TintSummers' Clouded Crystal BallBy CARL GINSBURG You have to start to wonder how it is that every significant economic prediction put out by this Administration falls short. How is it that President Obama's circle of economists, led by Lawrence Summers, misses the mark, time after time? Was deception a necessary ingredient in selling the biggest bailout of banks ever, anywhere? No sooner had the stress test been announced by the new Administration than the OECD predicted that one of the test's central working assumptions -- 3.6 per cent GDP growth in the US for the fourth quarter of 2009 -- was far off the mark. OECD, and many others since, put US growth in the 1-2 per cent range for Q4. In fact, economists -- especially the ones whose paychecks are not derived from market gains -- are now saying that US growth is likely to remain on the low side not just now but for years to come. Lost in the shuffle is the point that stress tests were to assure some protection of taxpayer money used in the bailout of financial institutions. Unemployment? Most reports now predict it'll run in excess of 10 per cent , considerably higher than what the White House was saying back in February. Remember when the Gang of Summers predicted a gain of 600,000 jobs by summer, only to now reveal that more than 2 million have been lost? And that's putting aside from jobs data those who've given up looking or temps who want full-time work but can't get it-- which makes the jobless scene significantly worse than the current 9.5 per cent suggests. Official predictions of mortgage assistance became a fiction in no time, too. Banks are doing very little on that front, as is now widely reported and which was entirely predictable. The one exception is where banks have been sued by states for mortgage fraud (most banks are settling quickly) and have been ordered to provide relief by the courts. Despite those efforts, we are now witnessing a wholesale transfer of wealth out of minority and working class communities -- what some are gloomily calling historic in magnitude -- as homes are forfeited in cities and towns across the country and new landlords arrive, heroes of the free market. A few banks are back in the black already and they are trumpeting it. One profit center: late fees. About $25 billion was earned last year in credit card late fees. Banks have announced higher profit goals for such fees and are on course to achieve them this year. It's a full-fledged growth industry, the kind the Gang of Summers needs to breathe new life into our nation's financial services industry-- the key to America's recovery. So next time you pay a late charge chalk it up to national duty. Before the fallout, as much as 1 in 3 dollars of GDP was attributed to financial activity, a huge increase from the 1960s and before. The Summers formula puts us back on track to be nation that makes money on money. I asked Rahm Emanuel last summer if he had concerns that the US would follow other empires -- Spain, Holland, Britain -- in demise when finance hit 30 per cent of economic activity and collapse ensued (a theory, hardly radical, popularized by Kevin Phillips). Emanuel laughed it off, saying "speculation is good". For him it was; he made $15 million speculating in the energy sector between government jobs. Back to the rest of us. No surprise people are struggling to keep up with payments, as wages went down in June, continuing a multi-decade trend. The cost of living went down as well, by 1.3 per cent in May from a year before -- the biggest drop in 60 years -- and still Americans struggle to get by. With the Fed and financial press gripped by fears of inflation and its prospective effects on US government borrowing, deflation remains dominant--- as it was in the 1930s, when few goods at any cost were sold en masse. Which takes us to the "credit crisis" itself. Was there not a high mathematical probability that expanding credit in an era of stagnant wages was a doomed project, making a bubble burst all but inevitable? Especially when the credit is in the form of high-interest sub-prime mortgages and high-interest credit cards? Just like the science of opinion polling, you only get answers to the questions you ask. And mathematicians up and down Wall Street seemed to have simply eschewed plotting macro, long-term wage trends against credit. Two years appears to be the maximum period of reference invoked on Wall Street, according to former Lazard banker William Cohan in his new and disturbing book on Bear Stearns, "House of Cards". Honestly, it starts to feel an awful lot like the West Wing is playing a "Bait 'n Switch" game and brings to mind a tall tale from another era told by Bill Clinton and HIS resident economic whiz (and Summers' mentor), Robert Rubin, when they sold a dislocation/low-wage scam, called NAFTA, with promises of better jobs for laid off Americans down the road. Clinton, Obama, Rubin, Summers.... Axelrod, Emanuel.. these men share many traits, it would seem, such as extolling the virtues of patience. And the fact that they are all loaded. Not to worry. Last week Lawrence Summers assured us that "the stimulus is on track". "Bait 'n Switch" starts to feel an awful lot like the Voodoo Economics of the 1980s, when the big wage decline was just being put in motion. Carl Ginsburg is a tv producer and journalist based in New York. He can be reached at carlginsburg@gmail.com
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
Spell Albuquerque:
Waiting for
Lightning
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