SPQRApr 25

You might be living in a rigged economic system if...

"From the start of the 2020s, American businesses have been formidable in maintaining and growing their profits. Despite a gantlet of challenges — a pandemic, tariffs, high inflation and wars in key commodity hubs — profits have leaped ahead."
#corporatism #riggedmarkets #economy #corruption #banks #oligarchy #plutocracy #businesses #inflation
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/business/economy/companies-profits-prices-iran-war.html

Amid Iran War, Companies Look to Extend a Record Profit Run by Raising Prices

Higher inflation is leading companies to raise prices without sacrificing margins.

The New York Times
SPQRFeb 10
It's comical how incompetent, weak, and compromised all the leaders of the West are. The Legion of Doom barely has to fart and the former Western powers start flailing. Of course, the mealy mouthed, chubby masses can't think or want to ask why we are here, so this is what we get.
#UK #Britain #Labour #politics #Epstein #corruption #corporatism #RiggedMarkets #neoliberalism #KeirStarmer
https://www.economist.com/britain/2026/02/09/keir-starmer-a-sick-man-who-cant-afford-to-catch-a-cold
Keir Starmer: a sick man who can’t afford to catch a cold

Britain’s prime minister remains on the brink. It is not just Peter Mandelson that has left him exposed

The Economist
Paul HealeyFeb 7
‘Wall from which Banksy’s Ibex goat was removed at Kew Bridge has been daubed with paint’ A critique against the commodification and abduction of art by the investors who have captured the art market? Time for artists to unionise and end the exploitation from those who drive the poverty of inequality and injustice. #RiggedMarkets #ArtFreedom #Democracy #ArtRepresentatives #ArtDelegates #FreedomFromFascists #FreedomFromFascistMobMarkets https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/wall-from-which-banksys-ibex-goat-was-removed-at-kew-bridge-has-been-daubed-with-paint/
SPQRJan 30
The story of how Mr. Trump came to intervene in Honduran politics and align himself with a foreign terrorist organization is essential for understanding the world he is trying to build.... His actions may seem contradictory. But there is a coherent logic to them: They expand territorial power for a class of transnational elites who believe they’re above the law.
#authoritarianism #oligarchs #fascism #Trumpism #policy #corporatism #RiggedMarkets
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/prospera-honduras-trump-pardon.html
Opinion | Próspera, Honduras and Trump’s Pardon of Hernandez

MAGA sees a borderless future in Honduras.

The New York Times
SPQRJan 28
President Trump threatened to increase tariffs on South Korean exports because the country had not ratified a trade deal with the United States quickly enough.
#Korea #USA #trade #tarrifs #economics #clientelism #riggedmarkets
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/business/economy/trump-tariffs-south-korea.html
Trump Says He Will Raise Tariffs on South Korea to 25%

President Trump threatened to increase tariffs on South Korean exports, including cars, citing the country’s slow ratification of a trade deal.

The New York Times
SPQRJan 7
No fvck Sherlock: "The study, called “Ruling for the Rich,” concludes that the wealthy have the wind at their backs before the justices and that a good way to guess the outcome of a case is to follow the money."
#corruption #plutocracy #oligarchy #riggedmarkets #legal #aristocracy #greed
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/us/politics/supreme-court-study-rich-poor.html
Supreme Court Increasingly Favors the Rich, Economists Say

A new study found that the court’s Republican appointees voted for the wealthier side in cases 70 percent of the time in 2022, up from 45 percent in 1953.

The New York Times
SPQRDec 29
A nerdy economics essay recently went viral. It asserted that the federal measure for the poverty line was woefully outdated and that for a family of four, the income needed today to function in American society was $140,000.
#inequality #economics #capitalism #poverty #RiggedMarkets #plutocracy #oligarchy #corruption #USpolitics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/middle-class-us-economy-affordability.html
Why Middle-Class Americans Say Life Is Unaffordable

Economists say that a typical middle-class family today is richer than one in the 1960s. Americans in their 20s and 30s don’t believe it.

The New York Times
SPQRDec 10, 2025

No one ever said Americans were intelligent people.

"As I dug into the research, something far more important than the specific dollar estimate of an average family’s loss emerged: Trump’s economic policies have put the nation on a long-term path of decline, in terms of gross domestic product, employment, capital investment and wage growth."
#collapse #authoritarianism #Trumpism #econmics #RiggedMarkets #corruption #CostofLiving #tariffs
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/opinion/trump-affordability-crisis-hoax.html

Opinion | Why the ‘Affordability Hoax’ Is a Trap for Trump

I doubt this was what Trump meant when he called himself “Mr. Brexit.”

The New York Times
SPQRNov 17, 2025

Private Equity are evil SOBs. They are the termites of capitalism.

"In the paper industry, private equity has often followed a familiar playbook: Buy a distressed asset on the cheap and load it with debt, some of which is used to pay the private equity firm. Then, in a few years, the private equity firm sells the company or declares bankruptcy."
#economics #capitalism #VentureEquity #RiggedMarkets #collapse #USpolitics #Ohio #policy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/business/ohio-paper-mill-private-equity.html

A MAGA Senator Promised Hope for a Dying Ohio Mill. Then Reality Set In.

The town’s unionized workers wanted to believe that there was something better than what private equity owners had offered.

The New York Times
SPQROct 15, 2025
A short overview from a lefty stance on why all our trade deals have lead to Canadian deindustrialization, shrinking the middle class, and reducing economic diversity. Free Trade is corporatism: movement of capital and goods, but constraining people, labour, and government to defend national interests. The Conservatives and Liberals have been selling us out for a century.
#Canada #trade #economics #markets #corporatism #riggedmarkets https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=VTRjCkCDqNc&si=SJUw7PdK5DTakToX
Before you continue