The The Hello and welcome to Behind the News, my name is Doug Henwood.

Two guests today, the climate activist Sarah Buehler will talk about Biden's climate

policy, notably his cancellation of the Keystone pipeline.

And then Chris Meizano will review the main contributions of the great political scientist

Leo Penich, who died last month.

This is a jam-packed show, so I won't say much about the Game Stop

Circus. I wrote up my thoughts in a piece for Jacobin, so if you're interested, I suggest you

check it out. For now I'll only say, forget all those propagandists who say the stock market serves an important role in allocating capital for investment.

It doesn't.

Over the last 20 years, U.S. companies have raised about $650 billion by floating stock, less than 2% of real investment in things like buildings and machines.

Over the same period, firms distributed over $8 trillion, 13 times as much, to their shareholders by buying

up their own stock in an effort to boost its price.

The stock market is a giant machine for value extraction by the very rich. And while there's no denying the

shoddenfroid of value of a gang of disreputable reditors relieving some hedge fund

tanshos of their shirts, their hijinks are not going to bring down the

system as some of the more heated commentators have been fantasizing about.

For more for me visit Jacobin mag.com.

I didn't expect much from Joe Biden but so far he's exceeding expectations, especially on climate.

Yes, there will be too many concessions to Wall Street and corporate power, but on the

other hand, his executive orders are much stronger than I would have predicted,

and his elevation of climate to such an important role

is not standard centrist Democratic fair. Yet to be seen is how he handles the politically

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