Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economics. Show all posts

Monday, December 3, 2018

These Countries Are Quickly and Quietly Dumping the Dollar

Robert Wheeler
November 29, 2018

Over the past few months, there has been a steady uptick in the number of countries dumping significant portions of their dollar holdings. This is causing many people to worry whether or not the US economy is in for a massive shock sooner, later, or somewhere in between.

While American corporate media outlets either ignore the developments entirely or claim that there is nothing to worry about, the reality is that the dumping of the dollar is a process that is clearly underway. More than that, it appears it is a process that is at least partially coordinated by a number of countries that have been targets of American sanctions and financial bullying in the “post 9/11 world.”

Thus, while corporate media outlets ignore the vanishing dollar dominance and reassure their hapless audience that everything is fine, alt media outlets are predicting a second Weimar Republic, this time in North America.

But what is really going on with the recent dollar dumping? Who is actually dumping the dollar and what kind of effects could we really expect to see in America if the dollar is truly abandoned?

Who Is Dumping The Dollar?

Since the dollar currently enjoys its status as the world’s reserve currency, it is constantly being bought and sold by nations across the entire planet. This arrangement is essentially what is keeping the dollar strong even after the United States embraced neo-liberal Free Trade policies that saw the greatest economic system the world has ever known turned into a shell of its former self. This arrangement allows the United States to sell its “debt” to the rest of the world, which other countries are willing to buy because of the stability of the American governmental system and the fact that America is still an economic powerhouse.


Tuesday, July 3, 2018

1 In 12 American Seniors Currently Facing Food Insecurity Despite Claims Of Better Economy

1 in 12 American Seniors Currently Facing Food Insecurity Despite Claims of Better EconomyBrandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
June 28, 2018

Over 10 Million American Seniors Currently Facing Food Insecurity

Despite the government and its media mouthpieces’ constant claims regarding the “end of the great recession” and the elusive “recovery,” America is still experiencing depression level unemployment rates and vastly lower standards of living.

While the U.S. government touts unemployment rates at around 3%, the reality is that those numbers are more in the 20% range, with statistics being adjusted to make America seem as if it were right back there in its Golden Age of being the most prosperous economy on the face of the earth.

But, despite the celebration from government agencies and corporate media, the ability to meet basic needs like food are still incredibly dicey.

For instance, the 2018 annual report from Feeding America (The State Of Senior Hunger In America 2016: An Annual Report), has analyzed the numbers from two years ago to determine just how stable food security for American seniors is across the country.

The report found some troubling numbers.

Specifically, in 2016, we find that:


Monday, July 2, 2018

Medicare To Become Insolvent Sooner Than Expected, Time For An Overhaul

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
June 18, 2018

A recent report circulating throughout the mainstream media regarding the coming “insolvency” of Medicare and Social Security has sent shockwaves through the United States with many of the Baby Boomer generation concerned that, after working and paying into the program their entire lives, they will be left with nothing when it finally comes time to stop working.

As the Associated Press reported,

Medicare will run out of money sooner than expected, and Social Security's financial problems can't be ignored either, the government said Tuesday in a sobering checkup on programs vital to the middle class.

The report from program trustees says Medicare will become insolvent in 2026 — three years earlier than previously forecast. Its giant trust fund for inpatient care won't be able to fully cover projected medical bills starting at that point.

The report says Social Security will become insolvent in 2034 — no change from the projection last year.

The warning serves as a reminder of major issues left to languish while Washington plunges deeper into partisan strife. Because of the deterioration in Medicare's finances, officials said the Trump administration will be required by law to send Congress a plan next year to address the problems, after the president's budget is submitted.


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

It’s OFFICIAL – Bayer Monsanto Merger Going Through Despite Anti-Trust Law

It's OFFICIAL - Bayer Monsanto Merger Going Through Despite Anti-Trust LawBrandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
May 29, 2018

The US Department of Justice, once considered the office that would protect the American economy from the fatal cancer of monopoly, has now officially become the office that facilitates monopoly through legal loopholes.

It’s hard to argue with the consistency of the DOJ, though, since the office has done nothing to prevent monopolies from taking shape and has sat back and watched while Free Trade folly and fascism have grown to a level never before seen in America. At least the DOJ knows the law so, in that sense, it’s the perfect office to sell Americans down the river.

Of course, selling Americans down the river is exactly what the DOJ has done and, if the new merger between Bayer and Monsanto is any inclination, that river will be so polluted, it will be safer to drink from the water fountains at the Daichii nuclear reactor plant.

As RT reports,

The US Department of Justice has reached a settlement that would allow Bayer AG’s $66 billion takeover of Monsanto Co, requiring the German company to sell $9 billion in agricultural assets first.

The merger as initially proposed would have harmed consumers and farmers by eliminating competition, the DOJ said. However, the Trump administration is satisfied with the terms of the settlement announced Tuesday.


Thursday, May 10, 2018

Why Millennials Have Way More In Common With Their Grandparents’ Generation


Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
May 7, 2018

Millennials are Behaving More and More Like Their Grandparents…

Millennials, once considered the most rebellious of all generations, are confounding their parents’ generation and onlookers yet again with the newfound realization that the current generation has more in common with their grandparents than their parents.

As Katherine Martinko writes in her article, “Millennials Are Behaving More Like Their Grandparents,”

Young people’s interest in ‘healthy, clean living’ has them cooking, crafting, and counting their pennies in ways that baffle their Boomer parents. 
Young people are not the wild whippersnappers they used to be, according to an amusing article in the Wall Street Journal. While their parents would have been chugging beers, microwaving pizzas, and watching soap operas, this next generation of adults is more inclined to sip non-alcoholic beverages on a Saturday night, eat fennel instead of fries, and participate in hot yoga and terrarium-building classes for entertainment. 
It’s a curious change in habits for an age group that has long been associated with rebellion and pushing limits, but one that Alison Angus, an analyst for Euromonitor, says reflects young people’s desire “to assert control and find comfort in an unstable world.” Angus said: 
“They feel they can make a difference, and this influences their spending choices. This means more saying no: no to alcohol; no to unhealthy habits; no to animal-based products and, increasingly, no to unmeasured or uninformed spending.”


Monday, April 2, 2018

Trump’s NAFTA Renegotiation Seeks To Empower Toxic Food Industry

Brandon Turbeville
March 23, 2018

After three decades of disastrous Free Trade policies that have seen American jobs shipped out the door, Mexican sweat shops pop up all across the country, and the loss of biodiversity and diversity of the food supply in Mexico, NAFTA is finally being looked at once again. With that second look, a tangled web of interests and perspectives has arisen that are difficult for the average American to unravel, especially given the fact that their media has done nothing but lie to them in regards to the effects of NAFTA on their own economy.

Corporate America and the financial sector are and have always been in favor of the agreement due to the fact that they are able to take advantage of cheap labor and weaker worker and environmental protections in order to maximize profits. Likewise, major international corporations like Monsanto have been able to move into Mexico and Canada, destroying the biodiversity and health of the people living there.

In addition, a host of wealthy oligarchical ideologues who wish to see “one planet” united under the banner of trade have long seen the NAFTA deal as the first step in the creation of the “one world” system by using trade to unite the Americas.

Because these three elements have been in favor of NAFTA, both the U.S. government and American media have thus worked to promote, protect, and expand the agreement since the day it was publicly proposed.


Friday, August 4, 2017

U.S. Inadvertently Proves Free Trade Doesn't Work; Sanctions On Russia Result In Better Russian Ag Economy, Food Independence

free tradeBrandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
August 3, 2017

Over the past few decades, Americans may well have become the most heavily propagandized people on the face of the earth. This propaganda push reached a fever pitch after 9/11 and has intensified with each passing year, with Americans becoming more and more disconnected from reality by the month.

In 2017, hysteria and fear over the Russians, non-existent Russian hacking, and the most insane conspiracy theories surrounding Putin and Russia in general is running through the reporting of every single mainstream corporate media outlet, creating the environment in which a second Cold War can flourish and in which half of the country has been turned into political paranoid schizophrenics. Thus, when the United States imposed sanctions on Russia for defending national sovereignty, fighting terrorism, and opposing the Western financier agenda of world hegemony, these unfortunate American souls tended to believe that America had really done a number on the Russian economy. After all, the same media that tells them daily that they are out of the “recession” also tells them that the Russians are suffering under America’s regime of sanctions.

Likewise, Americans are incessantly reminded that Free Trade is here to stay and that, despite it having been a miserable failure ever since day one, the United States needs more free trade if it’s ever going to “get back on track.” The few Americans who remember such things as tariffs are told that tariffs are dangerous relics of a bygone era of scary “nationalism” and even that they are racist. Indeed, the river of propaganda runs thick in America.

But what about these issues? What can we learn from the actual data and from the actual chain of events?


Thursday, May 18, 2017

In Defense of Millennials

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
Activist Post
May 17, 2017

Within the last ten years, it has become a trend of the older generations to make fun of millennials for being entitled, lazy, stupid, and generally annoying. Millennials are regarded as the opposite of the “greatest generation.” Where the “greatest generation” worked hard, fought through struggle and obstacles, and respected authority, millennials are regarded as people who feel entitled to certain levels of comfort from the start, avoid hardships and hard work, and have little regard for rules and responsibility. Where the older generation did not complain, millennials complain at the slightest obstacle they find in their path.

Of course, millennials haven’t made their situation better by being the generation of Social Justice Warriors who scream racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, or any and all other isms and phobias taught to them by cultural Marxist professors and media outlets at the slightest sign of disagreement or not being worshipped as the special snowflake they see themselves as being.

For the sake of this discussion, however, we will put aside the issue of cultural Marxism, the growing movement to make beautiful things ugly and ugly things beautiful at a cultural level, or the obsession with identity politics. This is by no means the generation with which such aberrations began. In fact, the millennial insistence on out-lefting each other is merely a manifestation of a social agenda that has been on the go for over one hundred years.

Instead, we should address the economic criticism of millennials which tends to revolve around work ethic, education, and overall level of “success.” Of course, “success” as defined by middle America is solely financial. Despite the generally more honorable values of past generations (community, family, etc.), Americans of all generations tend to measure a human being’s worth by the size of their wallet. In America, the bigger the purse, the bigger the person.


Monday, April 3, 2017

It's Time To Nationalize The Federal Reserve!

Brandon Turbeville
BrandonTurbeville.com
April 3, 2017

The United States today finds itself in the midst of a crisis which exists on a multitude of different levels. From the establishment of a culture of constant warfare, increasing environmental degradation, and the devolution into an outright police state, the perils of the current system are easily visible to those with eyes to see.

Nowhere, however, is the crisis more visible than in the manifestations of the world economic depression.

From mass unemployment (estimated at approximately 25% when all factors are considered) and a growing national debt to a ballooning trade deficit and the loss of purchasing power of the dollar as well as decrepit and crumbling national infrastructure, the United States today faces a crisis of epic proportions. Add to this the lack of real, tangible progress and even the trend to regression, the future of the United States and the rest of the world seems bleak.

Most of the blame for this economic calamity, of course, can be directly traced back to the treachery of private bankers, Wall Street, and the practice of usury combined with the acts of the agents of these financiers in the halls of government at some point or other. In other words, the politicians these banks and corporations own. Ever since the Federal Reserve was solidified as the perceived national bank of the United States, the most powerful nation on the face of the earth and, thus, its people, were placed under the rule and at the mercy of private bankers. The economic health and future of the United States was placed in the hands of the very elitists and financiers from which the American people should have been protected. As a result of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and subsequent policy, the power over the issuing of currency and credit, the ability to cause mass inflation or deflation, and the opportunity to orchestrate booms and busts, productivity and depression, was placed in the hands of private bankers who were granted the authority to act completely independent of the authority of the United States Federal government. Thus, the U.S. Federal government has now been reduced to reacting to the decisions made by the private Federal Reserve instead of the Federal Reserve acting as a truly national bank and reacting to the decisions made by the Federal government. The latter is as it should be. The former is an aberration.


Thursday, March 23, 2017

Donbass, East Ukraine On Its Way To Becoming Own Country By Default

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
March 22, 2017

After having fallen prey to Western machinations of destabilization and civil war, it is apparent that there may now be irreparable differences between the East and West portions of Ukraine. With the East of Ukraine more in line with Russia and the West more in line with Western Europe, all compounded by years of civil war and outright persecution and atrocities committed by the fascist Ukrainian forces, the DPR and LPR are showing signs of going their separate ways and breaking away from West Ukraine in a more final fashion.

When Crimea voted to reunite with Russia after a long separation, many suspected the DPR and LPR would follow suit. In fact, there was a movement within both republics to do the same. However, geopolitical and diplomatic concerns on the part of Russia prevented such a vote from ever solidifying a “reunification” with Russia.

A vote to reunify with Russia in the same fashion as Crimea would have no doubt caused a diplomatic emergency between Russia and the warmongering West. Indeed, it may have even caused military confrontation. However, after time passed and the impasse between East and West Ukraine has become more pronounced, it appears that East Ukraine is making moves toward becoming its own country even without formal recognition. East Ukraine – DPR and LPR (Donbass)– may very well become their own nation by default and by natural progression of events.

Eastern Ukraine (Donbass) has, for at least a year, begun working on setting up the framework of a governmental system, complete with a political framework, the seizing of banks, and the operation of various industries. Greater centralized military structure, as necessitated by the current conflict, has also become a reality.


Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Truth on the Tracks with Brandon Turbeville - January 30, 2017

Brandon Turbeville
BrandonTurbeville.com
UCY.TV
January 30, 2017

Truth on the Tracks with Brandon Turbeville - January 30, 2017

Brandon discusses the Syrian crisis and the Donald Trump Presidency: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

ACCESS THE PROGRAM HERE

ACCESS THE TRUTH ON THE TRACKS ARCHIVES HERE




Monday, January 30, 2017

Media, Corporations Promote Hysteria Over Possibility Of Tariffs; Predict End Of World

Gold Is Where You Find It: The Need For Tariffs Now

Trump and MexicoBrandon Turbeville
Global Research
January 29, 2017

Mid-week, President Donald Trump announced his intention to create a border wall with Mexico, making good on his incessant campaign rhetoric to “Build A Wall” and even make Mexico pay for it. While no one, including his supporters, realistically believed that Trump would actually make Mexico pay for a wall, Trump has surprised everyone by revealing that he can do just that . . . at least in a sense. One of the ideas being floated to fund the construction of the border wall, among others, is the imposition of a 20% Protective Tariff on all goods coming in from Mexico.

As of yet, the tariff has not been set in stone but both the mainstream and the alternative media are now on fire with debates surrounding the efficacy, dangers, or benefits of protective tariffs and “protectionism.” Yet much of the hysteria over tariffs coming from both mainstream and alternative media outlets is nothing more than the propaganda of globalization and “Free Trade” that has been drilled into the heads of Americans for years by government, international corporations, Wall Street, the mainstream media, and a host of questionable “think tanks” and organizations so that they will accept lower living standards, lower wages, and the domination of society by corporate oligarchs.

While the question of illegal immigration and border walls are an important one – it is also important to maintain a proper understanding of tariffs, protectionism, Free Trade, and the risks and benefits of these policies in the real world.


Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Victory! Trump Addresses Demand, Abandons TPP!

Trump TPP
Image Credit: Natural Blaze
Brandon Turbeville
BrandonTurbeville.com
January 23, 2017

On January 23, 2017 President Donald Trump made clear that the United States is no longer pursuing the horrific trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In an Executive Order, Trump officially abandoned and disbanded the TPP which the Obama administration, Congressional hacks, Wall Street, and major corporations had worked for eight years to solidify.

In so doing, Trump has moved forward with a policy that we have agitated for since the creation of the TPP. Only a few days into his administration, Trump has met one of demands a stated in the article platform "A Real New Deal For America - 43 Points.

We congratulate President Trump on his decision to abandon the TPP. We also encourage him to move forward in abandoning NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, and the various bilateral Chinese trade agreements that have done so much damage to the American jobs market. We also encourage him to consider removing the United States from the World Trade Organization.
We must, as Americans, now realize that the fight is nowhere near being over. But we have made progress. We must continue to push for an end to "Free Trade" and for the implementation of the rest of our demands. 

Monday, January 23, 2017

Trump Abandons, Dismantles The TPP!

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
Natural Blaze
January 23, 2017

On January 23, 2017 President Donald Trump made clear that the United States is no longer pursuing the horrific trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In an Executive Order, Trump officially abandoned and disbanded the TPP which the Obama administration, Congressional hacks, Wall Street, and major corporations had worked for eight years to solidify.

Much of the text of the TPP was unknown to American citizens since it was lobbied and created in secret. However, leaked sections of the document revealed a plan to not only “remove barriers on trade” which, in reality, is political speak for NAFTA on steroids and a massive sucking sound of American jobs fleeing across the Pacific, but also that the TPP contained a number of frightening points that would have allowed for the corporate domination of the American regulatory system, copyright law, and the internet as well as the American food supply.

As Brett Redmayne-Tidley wrote for Activist Post in April, 2016,

If Americans don’t stop TPP corporations will literally be able to circumvent the existing laws of the EPA, FDA, trade unions, collective bargaining agreements, patent protections, banking regulations and many other American regulations and rights. All will be negated solely by the arbitrary diktats of corporations. This treason is being currently and secretly included in the language of the TPP treaty here in San Diego.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Possible New Major Events.

nature-1673788_960_720-700x512Lanaria Amberkira
October 15, 2016

From The Netherlands

The world is now facing the possibility of a number of major events occurring in the very near future. 1) Bank Crisis. 2) Disunity and Elections in America and Europe. 3) Microchip implants.

1) Bank Crisis.

A crisis greater than 2008. The Deutsche Bank and the US Dollar are in dire straits.

Deutsche Bank’s fine hangs overhead, above the 13 billion mark, but now there is talk of reducing the penalty, being demanded by the US OMB due to tampering with American mortgages for 2008. It was one of the banks, which “was too large, to fall.” And yet, it is in great distress and in danger of falling. There is still very little learned, after Lehman Brothers and the banking crisis that followed.

This situation should cause great concern as it is a real threat for a financial waterloo.

Three possibilities can occur when if Deutsche Bank fell like a domino and took other banks takes with it. 1) Bankruptcy which could mean the collapse of the entire system. 2) Bail-in, which means that shareholders and depositors bear the cost, but this is both impracticable and impassable, because the debts are too high and the depositors and shareholders are certainly not sufficiently capable of filling the gap 3) Bail-out, which means that citizens and taxpayers have to pay it again. This is now denied by high and low, but what’s going to happen anyway. *

How are citizens going to pay? Our pensions and our savings will go to the emergency lending banks. Our prosperity, welfare and social gains will become even more undressed and our wages reduced or frozen. We will have to work even longer while the real rich, multinationals, banks once again benefit. One man’s death is another man’s poison.


Saturday, August 6, 2016

Growing Organic Market In China But Is It Only For The Rich?

seeds-1302793_960_720Brandon Turbeville
August 5, 2016

Despite being the second largest economy on the face of the earth, and rapidly moving to become the first, a vast majority of Chinese wouldn’t know it. The 20th century for China has been marked with low living standards, totalitarianism, war and genocide.

Not content to suffer under only one ideology, China saw nearly 80 million people murdered under communism, only now to see its environment and its people further enslaved under the introduction of capitalism. Indeed, the Chinese people have suffered under a one-two punch coming from multiple enemies from all different directions.

Now the nouveau riche of China are looking around and realizing that the toxic soup of their country and the material which they call food is far below their standards. Instead of eating food that was produced in a virtual chemical factory, the successful Chinese entrepreneur is looking for food fit for humans.

In short, the upper-middle class and wealthy wants to go organic.

Consider two stories of two different Chinese men, not only on a quest for organic food, but in the middle of producing it. The article, published in the “Globe and Mail,” details the men’s journey by writing,


Saturday, July 9, 2016

Could U.S. Train System Be The Next Environmental, Health Time Bomb?

train-crash-396263_960_720Brandon Turbeville
July 8, 2016

In early May 2016, a CSX derailed in Washington, D.C. spilling ethanol and large amounts of sodium hydroxide next to the Rhode Island Avenue metro station. nearly 8,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide, a highly caustic chemical that is used for dissolving a number of substances including flesh and bone as well as for production in household cleaners.

Local D.C. officials insisted that the fumes posed no threat to public health but many in the D.C. area remained unconvinced.

In fact, Richard Eskow, host of the Zero Hour and Senior fellow at Campaign for America’s Future revealed in his article for the Huffington Post that despite the reassurances of the local officials, he fell ill after spending only a few minutes at the site of the crash with symptoms matching those of exposure to sodium hydroxide. This was the scene in Washington D.C., the nation’s Capitol.

Train wrecks have been occurring since trains have existed. They have caused death, destruction and have had songs written about them. They have, on occasion, even prompted evacuations of whole towns. But these incidents had always been isolated. Over the last 20 years, however, the United States has witnessed an apparent increase not only in derailment but in derailment of trains carrying hazardous materials.


Thursday, July 7, 2016

A Real New Deal For America - 43 Points

Brandon Turbeville
BrandonTurbeville.com
July 7, 2016

Before Americans become obsessed with debating useless policies and campaign promises or begin their 4 year ritual of “choosing the lesser evil,” it is important to remember that there are real solutions and demands available for a national recovery and a truly free America. A brief summary of some of these solutions and demands are provided below:

1.) End all bailouts of banks and financial institutions. End the concept of “Too Big To Fail.” Any public money given to private banks to maintain solvency must be clawed back by a variety of available means. Banks that find themselves insolvent must be seized by the FDIC for Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. Immediate triage of the bank assets with derivatives being separated and eliminated during this process.

2.) In order to bring back the separation of banks, brokerage houses, and insurance firms, reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act.

3.) Ban Adjustable Rate Mortgages. Ban Credit Default Swaps.

4.) Enact a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax for revenue generation and to discourage dangerous forms of speculation.


Sunday, June 5, 2016

Yes, The Minimum Wage Was Always Supposed To Be A Living Wage

Image Source: The Socialist 
Brandon Turbeville
BrandonTurbeville.com
June 5, 2016

Ever since the minimum wage was enacted in 1938, powerful industry and banking interests have lobbied against it and, logically, against the prospect of ever raising it. The reasoning behind such large corporations and banks’ opposition to the federal minimum wage statutes and the subsequent increase in wage payments is simple enough to understand. However, much of their public crowing over the issue has hidden the greed behind their arguments into carefully crafted propaganda that has unfortunately been eaten up by many members of the general public, themselves suffering under wage stagnation and the prospect of poverty.

Fear over loss of jobs, automation, and reduced profits have all been trotted out as a defense against the raising of the minimum wage and, in some more extreme elements, even against the concept of the minimum wage itself.

One of the more common rebuttals one might be accustomed to hearing from opponents in regards to the minimum wage is that “The minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage. It was originally meant to simply be an entry-level wage.”

In other words, according to these critics, the minimum wage was merely set to establish an entry-level wage so that a worker could gain some experience in a trade, but it was never meant to provide that worker with a livable wage by which he could support himself or a family. Such is the response repeated by many free market proponents and often generally well-meaning people who have been woefully mislead by Wall Street and corporate interests.

The argument, however, no doubt promoted by Wall Street and free-market fetishists, simply does not have any basis in reality. Whatever one may think about the minimum wage, there can be little doubt that the minimum wage was indeed meant to be a living wage. One need only look at the statements of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the father of the American minimum wage, to see such is the case.


Thursday, May 12, 2016

The Clinton Economy Is The Wal-Mart Economy

Image Source: ABC News
Brandon Turbeville
BrandonTurbeville.com
May 10, 2016

If any corporate donation can accurately predict the direction in which a Hillary Clinton presidency would take the American economy, it would be the sizeable donations made by Wal-Mart executives.

As early as 2013, Alice Walton, heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune, donated the maximum allowed amount ($25,000) to the Ready For Hillary PAC. [1]

The Clinton Foundation has also received a sizeable amount of direct donations from Wal-Mart. Indeed, the Wal-Mart Foundation has even donated anywhere from $1 to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation in 2013 alone. The Wal-Mart Foundation has also funded and hosted a number of “energy and climate change” awards for the Clinton Global Initiative. [2]

The assistance and promotion has been reciprocal, of course, with the Clinton Global Initiative posting a rave review of the Wal-Mart corporation, naming it a company that makes great “efforts to empower girls and women.” It was unclear as to whether it was the slave labor wages, the humiliating work environment, or the abusive labor policies of Wal-mart that were the “empowerment of girls and women.” Such questions generally do go unanswered.[3]

The Clinton’s have also assisted Wal-Mart in the past regarding its effort to appear as more environmentally-friendly. For this reason, Bill Clinton met with past Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott in order to help boost the company’s relationship with environmentalists.[4]

Yet the Clinton connection to Wal-Mart goes much further back than 2013. As Kevin Young and Diana C. Sierra Becerra of Solidarity wrote in their article “Something That Might Be Called A Neo-Con: Hillary Clinton And Corporate Feminism,”