New Mexico Mercury

Student exposes austerity’s shaky foundations

By Dave Wheelock

A major upheaval took place recently in the world of economic theory. Yet while a sacred cow took a mortal hit, its legacy of social impoverishment and unrest continues unabated.

Why does something presumably as dense and dry as economic theory matter? Because for longer than most of us realize, elected officials have relied on the dominant, though not necessarily correct, school of thought to provide a rationale for the policies they put in place. In the congressional debate over health care, for instance, it was the fundamental argument for a "uniquely American approach" (code for the profit motive) that carried the day and left the U.S. as virtually the only developed nation without universal health care for its citizens (and New Mexicans near the bottom in terms of health care outcomes)...

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Risking it all in defiance of the security state

By Dave Wheelock

There has been a steady stream of so-called whistleblowers since 1863, when the United States False Claims Act was enacted to protect the public interest from fraud by corporate government contractors during the Civil War. The sports-oriented term "whistleblower" was coined in the 1970s by civic activist Ralph Nader, expressly to combat the negative connotations terms like "informer" or "snitch" lend to those who won't go with the flow of corruption. Today, few conscious citizens would argue against the need for whistleblowers, and the need to protect them from the many forms of reprisals that often come their way...

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Did the ‘Iron Lady’ help kill capitalism?

By Dave Wheelock

The recent news of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's death affords an opportunity to open the issue of who will be remembered as significant players in the death of capitalism. Mrs. Thatcher's image as a beacon for freedom may seem secure among mainstream media for the moment but to objective observers it is looking increasingly likely that in the long term the blind passion for "free markets" she shared with the global plutocratic class she abetted will be understood as the beginning of the final chapter for the most productive economic arrangement in history...

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U.S. drones come home to roost

By Dave Wheelock

The pushback against drone strikes on presumed enemies of the United States is to be encouraged considering the inherent legal, moral, and even strategic questions involved in remote-controlled killing within nation states not officially at war with this country.

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