Independent Media Institute

By M.K. Bhadrakumar The U.S. President Donald Trump has tied himself and onlookers in knots by his alternating encomiums for and diatribes against China over COVID-19 in the recent weeks. Only he can cut the Gordian knot, and he will be in a position to do so only after November… »

The anti-China fake news campaign about the COVID-19 pandemic fits into the larger war that the U.S. is waging against China. It taps into the deep reservoir of xenophobia and racism in the U.S. and elsewhere. By Prabir Purkayastha / Independent Media Institute The Trump administration has expanded its… »

The 2005 regulations pushed on the World Health Organization by the United States and the Europeans hampered the WHO’s ability to declare an emergency and a pandemic. By Vijay Prashad When U.S. President Donald Trump cut off his government’s funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), one of his grievances was… »

The oil and gas industry is weaker than ever, offering a perfect opportunity for humanity to pull the plug. By Sonali Kolhatkar While the whole world is consumed with the disastrous coronavirus pandemic, little attention is being paid to that sector of our economy whose existence had heretofore represented humanity’s… »

By Steven Rosenfeld When the 2020 election season resumes in Ohio on April 28 and continues in nearly half of the states through July, Americans will see if new voting regimens instituted in response to the pandemic will help voters or preview state-by-state partisan battles over voter turnout. Already there… »

By Sonali Kolhatkar The COVID-19 global pandemic has prompted a major question about leadership in a time of crisis: how to balance the importance of public health with the respecting of individual liberty? The virus respects no borders. It cares little for how nations are run, whether through democratic governance… »

By Vijay Prashad, Paola Estrada, Ana Maldonado, and Zoe PC Last year, on November 21, the Colombian people took to the streets in massive numbers to reject the policies of the government led by President Iván Duque. In particular, the people called on the government to withdraw two policies. First, the… »

By Richard D. Wolff The desperate policies of panic-driven governments involve throwing huge amounts of money at the economies collapsed in response to the coronavirus threat. Monetary authorities create money and lend it at extremely low interest rates to the major corporations and especially big banks “to get them through… »

By Thom Hartmann In the 4,000-year-old “Epic of Gilgamesh,” the arrogant eponymous king killed Humbaba, the giant guardian of the forest so that he could cut down the cedar stands in what is now northern Iraq to build his great city of Uruk. Gilgamesh’s people then diverted the Euphrates River… »

Classical economics helped kill millions in the British Empire’s famines—following economic orthodoxy today could be just as deadly. By Justin Podur I’m writing this at 585,000 worldwide active cases, 26,000 deaths, and with only China and Korea seemingly under some sort of control (using a social metric tool, Worldometer). The… »