Early Headlines: Baltimore Police Ignore Looted Drug Stores, Higher Taxes for the Rich, Parallel Currency for Greece, Russia Leaves the Dollar and More

Early Bird Headlines 06 June 2015

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

U.S.

• In Baltimore, allegations of police doing less as drugs are rampant (CNN) Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts is asking for federal help to fight an uptick in crime in his city — an increase he largely attributes to looted drugs that have made their way to the streets of Baltimore. At least 27 pharmacies and drug clinics were looted during riots after the April death of Freddie Gray, much more than previously reported, and as much as 175,000 units of dosage narcotics are now on the street, he said. How quickly did police respond when pharmacies reported thefts and looting? One pharmacist said it tool over a month to get a police visit.
• The Harvard IKB School of Engineering (Jeffrey Sachs, The Huffington Post) An incredible story of how money gained through fraud resulted in the largest-ever donation to Harvard University.
• Fiscal Austerity, Dollar Appreciation, and Maldistribution will Derail the US Economy (Levy Economics Institute of Bard College) Hat tip to Scott Fullwiler. The projections made by the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) assumes an unsustainable growth of private sector debt.

• Even Affluent American Strongly Support Higher Taxes on the Rich (Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism) Those in the upper 20% of all U.S. household incomes have nearly the same opinion about “taxing the rich” as those in lower income groups. The $100k group in the survey below is just shy of the $106k income which starts the top quintile of U.S. households.

Greece

• Tsipras tells lenders not to humiliate Greece over debt (BBC News) Greece’s prime minister has warned international creditors not to impose humiliating terms on his country as it seeks urgently needed bailout funds.
  
• Greek Parallel Currency: How to Do it Properly (EconoMonitor) Hat tip to Naked Capitalism. Good discussion of two parallel currency options for Greece, one of which could possibly be a sustainable process and keep Greece in the EU-18 (Eurozone).  See also GEI News for a different variation of the theme:  Transitional Money for Greece.
  

Iraq

• Doubling Down on a Doubtful Strategy (Foreign Policy) Why the current U.S. plan to win back Iraq only guarantees the Islamic State won’t be defeated. Drip feeding a failing effort is seldom effective, according to author Michael Knights.

Russia

• Russia Gets Very Serious on De-dollarizing (Alternative Economics)

Russia is about to take another major step towards liberating the Ruble from the Dollar System. Its Finance Ministry just revealed it is considering issuing Russian state debt in Chinese Yuan. That would be an elegant way to decouple from the dependence and blackmail pressures from the US Treasury financial terrorism operations while at the same time strengthening the bonds between China and Russia-Washington’s worst geopolitical nightmare.

Pakistan

• Brave Malala’s hitmen secretly FREED just weeks after their 25 year prison sentences (The Daily Mirror) The secret trial, which was said by Pakistani authorities to have convicted the 10 thugs responsible for the assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai, actually only convicted 2 – the other 8, including the suspected ringleader, walked free. Why was Malala targeted? She spoke out publicly against Taliban oppression of female education.

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