Obama’s Economy With Dr. Jack Rasmus

By Serj Tachyon, October 9, 2012 / Archive / Comments (0)

Dr. Jack Rasmus is an author and economist who currently teaches at St. Mary's College and Santa Clara University in California. He has written several books on economics starting with his 2006 publication titled The War At Home: The Bush-Corporate Offensive Against American Workers and Their Unions. The War At Home served as a 536 page analysis of 20th century economic restructuring and corporate injustice and was followed up by The Trillion Dollar Income Shift—Essays on Income Inequality in America. Rasmus' most recent book Obama's Economy: Recovery For The Few further investigates America's financial instability and the current recession. The author's analysis of our economy is often critical and emphasizes the shortcomings of the recent stimulus.

Rasmus also works a freelance journalist and has contributed articles to magazines such as “Z” magazine, Critique, In These Times, Amandla,Against the Current, and the Dispatcher. He is known for having created several stage-plays including 1934, a full length musical about the San Francisco waterfront during the 1934 maritime and general strikes; Fire on Pier 32, about the history of the West Coast International Lognshore Workers Union; Our Time, featuring U.S. Presidents and the ascendancy of the Radical Right in American politics from 1932 to 2012; Lockout, about contemporary labor conflicts; and Hold the Light, about a six-month labor strike. Prior to his writing career, he had held jobs as a local union president, business representative, contract negotiator, and organizer for several labor unions.

Tune in Sunday, October 14th, at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific, as NPTR host Sean Prophet interviews author and economist Dr. Jack Rasmus. Please note that we will not be able to accept live call ins as this is a pre-recorded show.

Show Highlights:

"I think Obama had this terrible proclivity to not take on his opponents but to keep trying to come to some understanding with them… every time he extended his hand they just bit it."

"How did we get a 150% increase in corporate profit in the last few years if people aren't buying their products? …You do that by cutting your labor cost."

"We no longer have a trickle down economy. We have a "drip drip" economy. Very little gets down."

"You don't give the banks any free money unless they lend to small and medium business and create jobs. You don't give tax cuts unless you show you've already created the jobs. You don't even give subsidies to the states unless the states can show they haven't cut services or benefits. There's got to be strings attached."

"It's mostly war, tax cuts, and chronic recession. Those are the big reasons why we have this huge debt. So Republicans come around, and what do they want to do? They want to take it out of the hide of students, of retirees, of the poor on Medicare and Medicaid. They want to make all those folks pay for the deficits they created with their tax cuts and their wars."

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Obama’s Economy With Dr. Jack Rasmus