Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is a living embodiment of what’s wrong with the Silicon Valley venture capital sinkhole. But we can’t get too mad at her for defrauding some of the worst rich people in the world.
Is it really true that if the Democrats had big majorities in Congress, we’d see the sweeping change party stalwarts promise in election campaigns? Here’s a good test: look at the blue states, where Democrats govern virtually alone. It’s not a pretty picture.
European authorities accuse Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko of mounting “hybrid warfare” by letting thousands of migrants amass at the Polish border. But Poland’s nationalist government is also using the crisis to crack down on migrants — with the EU’s blessing.
The film and TV workers’ union IATSE ratified a pair of contracts on Monday, despite a majority of ballots being cast against the larger of the two deals. Thanks to the union’s Electoral College–style voting system, that contract passed anyway.
This fall, Panama has seen large “pro-democracy” and “anti-corruption” protests, backed by mainstream media and much of the country’s business elite. But corruption isn’t owed to a few “bad apple” politicians — it’s rooted in Panama’s ultra-privatized economy.
The political and economic crises roiling countries like Sudan and Tunisia right now cannot be separated from the global institutions of capital and the cycles of indebtedness that they impose.
Buildings’ design communicates the values of a society. In contemporary American architecture, those values appear closer to control and surveillance than openness and enjoyment for all.
The South of slavery and Jim Crow is often cast as the major historical reason for the US’s stunted welfare state. But the most fanatical resistance to taxation and redistribution came from the Northern ruling class.
When Lula and the Workers’ Party took power in Brazil, they had a plan to take on crime and the power of the police. Their failure helped undermine their entire program.
Workers’ retirement savings are being used to bankroll oil and gas companies’ climate destruction.
From brands commissioning immersive installations at prestigious art fairs to hedge funds transforming artworks into stock-like financial instruments, the line between art and capital is blurrier than ever.
Throughout history, it’s been hard for agitators and troublemakers to hold down a good job. In the interwar decades, tens of thousands of them were hired by the Communist International — an employer with long hours, difficult bosses, and a lot of opportunities for travel.