Economics should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-determination. The state should serve the public interest and reduce poverty. Instead, private or special interests are in the driver's seat. Trumponomics is a disaster that is really a sleight of hand. $8 trillion was given to the super-rich. The poor, seniors, children and students are attacked....

Economics should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-determination. The state should serve the public interest and reduce poverty. Instead, private or special interests are in the driver's seat. Trumponomics is a disaster that is like a sleight of hand. $8 trillion was given to the super-rich. The poor, seniors, children and students are under a vicious attack....

All personal and corporate success depends on state investments in roads, schools, hospitals, libraries, food safety, water quality, clean air and airwaves. The Internet, touch-screen technology and GPS originated from state risk-taking. The state becomes corrupted when it turns away from public interest and reducing poverty and becomes the plaything of private or special interests. 8-hour day is 100 years old...

KPFA WorkWeek Radio looks at the recent court victory by Beneica Unified school district groundskeeper Dewayne "Lee" Johnson. Johnson sued the Monsanto corporation for causing cancer with the use of their product Roundup. He was drenched in the chemical and now has terminal cancer....

Three AlterMidya correspondents, Hiyasmin Saturay, Eric Tandoc, Avon Ang, and one student intern from the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication, are among those arrested during the dispersal and are currently detained at the Meycauayan police station. AlterMidya, a national network of independent media outfits, strongly condemns the violence inflicted by the police and security guards on our journalists....

The IMF's austerity policy of the last years was misguided. That austerity policy led to intensified growth declines and increasing unemployment and did not reach its goal of permanently calming the financial markets. Public investments could raise economic growth both in the short- and long-term. State expenditures have a considerable influence on employment and growth....

"The interests of merchants always differ from public interests. As a rule, they are interested in deceiving and misusing the general public" (Adam Smith). Keynes established that the market alone cannot ensure prosperity for everyone. A redistribution of income from top to bottom and regulatory state action are necessary. Public policy means compromise and isn't a sledgehammer slashing everything but the military....

Tipped minimum wage, subminimum wage should be abolished...

KPFA Pacifica WorkWeek Radio hears from former EPA scientists about the attack on science and the effect of attacks on the workers of the EPA whose job it is to defend the health and safety of the American people....

In the GOP tax bill, $5 trillion is given to households with over $1 million income. Seniors, the poor, children and students are attacked. The severe cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, HUD, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, SNAP, food stamps, WIC food assistance, Pell grants, the EPA, the Department of Education, the National Institute for Health and the Legal Corporation are sadistic. Are we headed back to the 11th century when narcissism and illiteracy were accepted and not overcome?...