#1346 Pandemic Economics and the Reverse Robin Hood Bailout
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2020
⏱️ 112 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 4/4/2020
Today we take a look at many of the economic angles of the COVID-19 pandemic including the role of the shock doctrine in the wake of the coronavirus, calls for a socially just economic recovery, calls for the elderly to be turned into Soylent Green and the biggest Reverse Robin Hood bailout of all time.
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SHOW NOTES
Author, activist and journalist Naomi Klein says the coronavirus crisis, like earlier ones, could be a catalyst to shower aid on the wealthiest interests in society, including those most responsible for our current vulnerabilities.
Ch. 2: Prof. Richard Wolff on Pandemic Economics - The Zero Hour - Air Date 3-20-20
Prof. Richard Wolff explains the failure of capitalism to prepare or respond to the pandemic
Ch. 4: AOC on a Socially Just Pandemic Response - Brian Lehrer Show - Air Date 3-31-20
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks about the federal relief package which is to include cash payments to everyone, as well as rent and mortgage relief
Ch. 5: An economic crisis like we’ve never seen - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 3-23-20
Annie Lowrey on the coronavirus depression
Ch. 6: Jim Naureckas on COVID-19 - CounterSpin - Air Date 3-20-20
The coronavirus is highlighting existing faults and fissures in US society. Stark evidence of government priorities and their impact is coming fast and furious.
Ch. 7: Is the cure worse than the disease? - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 3-26-20
Are we overreacting to coronavirus? An economist and a bioethicist weigh in.
Ch. 8: The Cyanide for Septuagenarians Movement - The Bugle - Air Date 3-27-20
A look at the growing movement to ritually sacrifice the elderly and otherwise vulnerable
Ch. 9: The Economic Impact of COVID-19 - Deep Background with Noah Feldman - Air Date 3-16-20
Stefanie Stantcheva, Professor of Economics at Harvard, discusses the economic harms of COVID-19.
Ch. 10: Trump Shows How Woefully Unprepared He Is For Coronavirus - The Majority Report - Air Date 2-26-20
Commenting on an article from Matt Stoller on the changing nature of our economy
Ch. 11: Stephanie Kelton MMT, the Crisis, and the Real Economy - The Zero Hour - Air Date 3-28-20
Stephanie Kelton explains the role of Modern Monetary Theory in the governmental response to the pandemic and economic collapse
For more on those bailouts and who benefits, we speak with Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, Columbia University professor and chief economist for the Roosevelt Institute.
Ch. 13: US news update! - The Last Post - Air Date 3-23-20
Explaining the brutal nature of American individualism in an age of pandemic
Ch. 14: The End of the Status Quo - Progressive Faith Sermon - Air Date 3-29-20
The virus did not so much create new problems as it poured gasoline on existing problems with health care, the income gap, foreign policy, prison policies, and the environment. We have the opportunity to forge a better world after COVID-19.
Ch. 15: The Reverse Robin Hood Bailout - Intercepted - Air Date 4-1-20
Journalist David Dayen, executive editor of the American Prospect, breaks down the corporate interests and powerful people who stand to gain the most from the looting of taxpayer funds.
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 16: Getting depressed in the summer - Craig from Ohio
Ch. 17: Health center update - Alan from Connecticut
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 18: Final comments on the phrases that obscure our reality because you don’t really hate Mondays
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award winning best of left podcast in which we shall learn |
| 0:07.4 | about many of the economic angles of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the role of the shock |
| 0:13.3 | doctrine in the wake of the coronavirus, calls for a socially just economic recovery, calls |
| 0:20.1 | for the elderly to volunteer to be turned into soil and green, and the biggest reverse |
| 0:26.1 | Robin Hood bailout of all time. |
| 0:29.2 | And we've got a huge, huge show for you today, so we're going to get right to it. |
| 0:33.6 | Clips today come from Democracy Now, the zero hour counter spin, the Brian Lairer show, |
| 0:39.9 | the Ezra Klein show, the Bugle deep background, the majority report, the last post, a progressive |
| 0:46.9 | faith sermon from Dr. Roger Ray and Intercepted. |
| 0:56.0 | We begin with a new video by author and activist Naomi Klein, produced by the Intercept. |
| 1:01.9 | In 2007, Klein wrote the shock doctrine, the rise of disaster capitalism. |
| 1:06.8 | Now she argues Trump's plan is a pandemic shock doctrine, but it's not the only way forward. |
| 1:12.7 | The video opens with this quote from economist Milton Friedman, who says, |
| 1:16.9 | only a crisis actual or perceived produces real change, when that crisis occurs, the actions |
| 1:23.1 | that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. |
| 1:30.4 | Ideas that are lying around. |
| 1:32.8 | Friedman, one of history's most extreme free market economists, was wrong about a whole |
| 1:38.4 | lot, but he was right about that. |
| 1:42.2 | In times of crisis, seemingly impossible ideas suddenly become possible, but whose ideas? |
| 1:50.5 | Sensible fair ones designed to keep as many people as possible safe, secure and healthy, |
| 1:56.6 | or predatory ideas designed to further enrich the already unimaginably wealthy, while |
| 2:03.3 | leaving the most vulnerable, further exposed. |
... |
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