647 individuals in the U.S. have amassed almost a trillion dollars during the pandemic, at the same time as millions of Americans have struggled to make ends meet. Researcher for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good, Omar Ocampo, recently authored an article “Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health” where he discusses Trump’s bailout dollars […]
The Intertwined Histories of Policing, Private Property, and Capitalis...
Abolishing the police requires abolishing capitalism, argues historian Peter Linebaugh. Today, he joins Allen on the program to discuss the origins of policing as an institution in the eighteenth century; the relationship between policing, private property, and wealth; and the intertwined histories of racial capitalism and state violence. Peter Linebaugh is a historian who has […]
Big Money and the Pandemic — Who’s Profiting from the Crisis?
“Extreme wealth inequality has become America’s pre-existing condition,” writes Chuck Collins in a new co-authored report from the Institute for Policy Studies, “Billionaire Bonanza 2020.” In the past six weeks, as a record 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment, the 630 billionaires of the United States have seen their shared wealth go up $406 […]
Bridging the Racial Wealth Divide with Dedrick Asante-Muhammad
What is wealth? What are the barriers of access to economic security—and how do we overcome them? Today on the show, Ali explores these questions in-depth with Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, one of the authors of the new report “Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide.” He offers a clear overview of the racial wealth gap, […]
The Colonial Dynamics of Wealth and Philanthropy
“What ails philanthropy at its core is colonialism. Almost without exception, funders reinforce the colonial division of Us vs. Them, Haves vs. Have Nots, and mostly white saviors and white experts vs. poor, needy, urban, disadvantaged, marginalized, at-risk people,” writes Edgar Villanueva. For today’s episode, we hear from Edgar about his book Decolonizing Wealth, wherein he argues […]
Giants: The Global Power Elite with Peter Phillips
On today’s pledge drive edition, we’re in conversation with Peter Phillips, author of Giants: The Global Power Elite. In the process of his research, Phillips realized that there was “one giant cluster of world capital centered and controlled by just a few hundred people.” Throughout the course of the hour, he and Esty dive into the […]