37 h. ago Musk is paid $1tn. Nvidia’s worth $5tn. Yet America’s poor are struggling to eat | Steven Greenhouse

We may be in a golden age for the super-rich – but it doesn’t feel that way for the 42 million Americans who use SnapIt seems like an understatement to call this the New Gilded Age. Perhaps we should instead call it the Obscenely Over-the-Top Gilded Age, considering that Tesla shareholders just approved a $1tn pay package for Elon Musk and the market value of chipmaker Nvidia has rocketed above $5tn.Not only that, the 10 richest billionaires in the US saw their collective wealth soar by $698bn over the past year, while Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt, reportedly paid $110m for a 123-room mansion in Los Angeles to host events. And then there’s our billionaire president, who – when his family isn’t raking in tens of millions of dollars through crypto – is obsessed with building a $300m, gilded-to-the-hilt ballroom, funded by fellow billionaires.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading...

Politics

61 h. ago Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back | Steven Greenhouse

Donald Trump is using US power to insert himself into other countries’ affairs, treating them as vassalsFor decades, president after president has sought to rid the US of its image as a bullying, imperialistic nation. But with his blustering, often brutish behavior toward other countries, Donald Trump has rapidly revived that notion. Under Trump, the Ugly American is back.Trump has done this by using US power in aggressive and arrogant ways – by attacking other countries’ policies and then threatening to punish them if they don’t bow to his demands. Trump is doing exactly what international law says national leaders shouldn’t be doing. He has repeatedly inserted himself into other countries’ affairs, browbeating their leaders, berating their policies and disrespecting their sovereignty. Too often, Trump treats other countries as vassals of the US (and of his ego). Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Trump is threatening the basic needs of poor Americans. How low he has sunk | Robert Reich

The president has put Snap benefits in jeopardy amid a fight over Medicaid. The nation has lost its moral authorityThe Democrats had a great day on Tuesday. It’s crucial that they hone their economic message for next year’s midterms to focus on affordability and fairness.Trump is doing the opposite. Although a federal court ordered him to continue to provide food stamps to about 42 million low-income Americans who depend on them, Trump threatened to deny them anyway until the end of the government shutdown.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Tesla shareholders to vote on $1tn pay package for CEO Elon Musk

If approved, the CEO will need to increase Tesla’s value eightfold, to $8.5tn in market capitalization, by 2035Tesla shareholders met on Thursday to vote on a compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk worth close to $1tn. If approved, the package will demonstrate shareholders’ confidence the billionaire can lead his car company into an era dominated by artificial intelligence and robotics. If denied, Tesla may face the loss of a leader who once made the company name synonymous with electric vehicles.If Musk delivers on the lofty milestones in the pay package laid out at Tesla’s 6 November annual meeting, he could become the world’s first trillionaire. To do so, he will need to guide Tesla to $8.5tn in market capitalization, eight times what it’s worth today. He will also be required to deploy millions of autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots and sustain the company’s bottom line in the hundreds of billions over the next decade. Continue reading...

Economics

1 week ago Poor Americans to face delay in food aid as government remains shuttered

Billions in ‘Snap’ nutritional assistance programme benefits are stalled despite court orders

Politics

1 week ago Poor Americans face food aid delay during government shutdown

Billions in ‘Snap’ nutritional assistance programme benefits are stalled despite court orders

Politics

1 week ago Trump is using the shutdown to make life tougher for millions of workers | Steven Greenhouse

Food stamps are in danger and hundreds of thousands of federal workers may go unpaid, as thousands more are laid offFor many Americans, government shutdowns are a painful experience, but in the current shutdown, Donald Trump – that supposed champion of workers – has gone out of his way to make things more painful for millions of workers and their families.As part of his effort to clobber the Democrats in the shutdown showdown, the US president has repeatedly treated workers like pawns by employing a callous calculus that the worse he makes things for workers, the greater the pressure on congressional Democrats to cry uncle and end the shutdown on his terms. Not only are several of Trump’s shutdown moves blatantly anti-worker, but legal experts say many of them violate federal law. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Troops on the streets, Ice thuggery – and prices still climbing: welcome to Trump’s ‘golden age’ | Steven Greenhouse

The president has repeatedly proclaimed a shining moment. Meanwhile, he’s taking a wrecking ball to truth and democracyIn his inauguration speech last January, Donald Trump bombastically declared: “The golden age of America begins right now.” Our braggadocious president has stuck to that theme ever since, telling the United National general assembly in late September: “This is indeed the golden age of America.”With the federal government shut down for more than two weeks, the nation more polarized than at any time since the civil war, political violence growing and the job market slowing, it doesn’t feel remotely like a golden age, unless one focuses on Trump’s Louis XIV-like effort to gild as many things as possible in the Oval Office. Continue reading...

Politics