In today’s On the News segment: The Utah State Senate has approved new legislation that would force people into a two-hour “self-reliance” class in order to receive public assistance; international trade courts hugely benefit billionaires and massive corporations; Naomi Klein has a few great ideas for Canada’s next economy, and the US should copy these ideas; and more.
See more news and opinion from Thom Hartmann at Truthout here.
TRANSCRIPT:
Thom Hartmann here – on the best of the rest of Economic and Labor News …
You need to know this. We’ve known for some time that the “investor-state dispute settlement” (ISDS) process is a threat to our national sovereignty. But now we know that those international trade courts are also a huge benefit to billionaires and massive corporations. According to a new study published by York University in Toronto, “The beneficiaries of [the] ISDS … have overwhelmingly been companies with more than $1 billion per year in annual revenue – especially extra-large companies with more than $10 billion – and individuals with more than $100 million in net wealth.” In other words, massive trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) aren’t about expanding trade or opening markets – they’re about making rich people and corporations even richer. And that’s exactly why we must keep push Congress to say no to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That study addresses how these ISDS courts have been given the appearance of “legitimacy” by allowing people to believe that these systems would also benefit individuals and small businesses, but that’s not how they work in practice. The authors explained that challenges are not brought to these courts through normal, public processes that could be utilized by the little guy. Instead, cases are only heard by these private panels of arbitrators, who often represent the same massive corporations likely involved in the case in question. Is it any wonder that nearly all of the money – as in 95 percent – that…