US Economy repair: and its not comunism or socialism - just realism

If we truly want to stop inflation and corporate greed, Governments should nationalize Healthcare, including the Pharmaceutical industry, and the Energy industry. The Educational sector should be liberalized, and subsidized by the government, making all education free, based on student qualification proficency tests. Putting all of the  above in the hands of the private sector has not worked, and will never work. This is not Communism, or Socialism, this is pure logic.

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Read more at: https://www.eu-digest.blogspot.com

The long and winding road to global corporate tax justice – Alex Cobham

More than 130 countries and jurisdictions have now signed up in principle to outline proposals to reform international corporate tax rules. These proposals—and in particular, the global minimum corporate-tax rate envisaged—would represent the biggest change for a century. But the reforms, now driven by the United States under Joe Biden, are also proving highly divisive, globally and within the European Union. That has potentially important implications for the tax rules and EU-US relations.


Read more atL The long and winding road to global corporate tax justice – Alex Cobham

USA: Greed Destroyed US Social Immune System. It’s Time to Rebuild It - by Monika Sauerlein

This crisis is about a lot more than a virus in America.
 
Read more at:
https://www.motherjones.com/media/2020/03/greed-destroyed-our-social-immune-system-its-time-to-rebuild-it/

USA - Chemical Industry: Monsanto's Glyphosate "Roundup weed-killer" goes on trial in US with billions at stake - by Aimee Picchi

After it was introduced in the 1970s, Roundup was promoted as an "herbicide that gets to the root of the problem."

Now, four decades later, manufacturer Monsanto will face a lawsuit that seeks to get to the root of another problem: whether the active ingredient in the weed-killer is to blame for a California man's terminal cancer. If Monsanto fails to persuade the court that its product isn't to blame, the agricultural company's flagship product could take a hefty hit.

Billions in revenue could be at stake for Monsanto and its new corporate parent, German chemical giant Bayer, which closed its $60 billion acquisition earlier this month. While Monsanto doesn't break out sales of glyphosate -- the active ingredient in Roundup -- the product delivered $4.8 billion in revenue in 2015. In its latest fiscal year, Monsanto cited higher global sales of glyphosate for helping lift total revenue by 8 percent.

Monsanto declined to comment on the potential sales impact, citing the trial proceedings. In a statement earlier this month, it told CBS News it denied the allegations.

"We have empathy for anyone suffering from cancer, but the scientific evidence clearly shows that glyphosate was not the cause. We look forward to presenting this evidence to the court," it said.

Note EU-Digest: Unfortunately the EU recently cleared the use of this weed killer for the next five years, after a heated debate over whether it causes cancer or not. 

Regardless of this decision, given the legal battle Monsanto is now facing in the US, the EU Parliament, despite the obvious intense lobby by the chemical industry, should immediately halt the use of  the weed-killer glyphosate in Europe, and take another close look at the dangers this weed killer poses for European consumers. Better late than sorry.

Read more: Monsanto's Roundup weed-killer goes on trial with billions at stake - CBS News

EU - US TTIP talks failed

EU-US free trade talks have 'failed', says German minister Germany's vice chancellor and economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said Sunday that negotiations on a massive trade deal between the European Union and the United States were effectively dead in the water. http://f24.my/2bPcKX6

Capitalism: The World Needs This: "The Saner Approach to Capitalism" - by Robert Reich

The old ways do not work anymore

In recent weeks, the managers, employees, and customers of a New England chain of supermarkets called "Market Basket" have joined together to oppose the board of director's decision earlier in the year to oust the chain's popular chief executive, Arthur T. Demoulas.

Their demonstrations and boycotts have emptied most of the chain's seventy stores.

What was so special about Arthur T., as he's known? Mainly, his business model. He kept prices lower than his competitors, paid his employees more, and gave them and his managers more authority.

Late last year he offered customers an additional 4 percent discount, arguing they could use the money more than the shareholders.

In other words, Arthur T. viewed the company as a joint enterprise from which everyone should benefit, not just shareholders. Which is why the board fired him.

It's far from clear who will win this battle. But, interestingly, we're beginning to see the Arthur T. business model pop up all over the place.

Patagonia, a large apparel manufacturer based in Ventura, California, has organized itself as a "B-corporation." That's a for-profit company whose articles of incorporation require it to take into account the interests of workers, the community, and the environment, as well as shareholders.

The performance of B-corporations according to this measure is regularly reviewed and certified by a nonprofit entity called B Lab.

To date, over 500 companies in sixty industries have been certified as B-corporations, including the household products firm "Seventh Generation."

In addition, 27 states have passed laws allowing companies to incorporate as "benefit corporations." This gives directors legal protection to consider the interests of all stakeholders rather than just the shareholders who elected them.

We may be witnessing the beginning of a return to a form of capitalism that was taken for granted in America sixty years ago.

What changed? In the 1980s, corporate raiders began mounting unfriendly takeovers of companies that could deliver higher returns to their shareholders - if they abandoned their other stakeholders.

The raiders figured profits would be higher if the companies fought unions, cut workers' pay or fired them, automated as many jobs as possible or moved jobs abroad, shuttered factories, abandoned their communities, and squeezed their customers.

Although the law didn't require companies to maximize shareholder value, shareholders had the legal right to replace directors. The raiders pushed them to vote out directors who wouldn't make these changes and vote in directors who would (or else sell their shares to the raiders, who'd do the dirty work).

Since then, shareholder capitalism has replaced stakeholder capitalism. Corporate raiders have morphed into private equity managers, and unfriendly takeovers are rare. But it's now assumed corporations exist only to maximize shareholder returns.

Read more: Robert Reich: The World Needs This Saner Approach to Capitalism | Alternet

USA - Minimum wage: McDonald's and America's new low-wage economy explained - by Josh Freedman

Recently week, more than 2,000 fast food workers and activists picketed outside McDonald's (MCD) annual shareholder meeting to protest low wages.

The demonstrations in Oak Brook, Ill. are a reminder of the growing economic inequality in America. At McDonald's, workers making the federal minimum wage earn $7.25 an hour, while those in Illinois take in $8.25 at the state's minimum wage. By contrast, the chain's CEO Don Thompson made approximately $9.5 million last year, which means it would take a minimum wage worker more than a million hours of work to earn Thompson's annual salary.

We could blame greedy corporate executives for the pay gap, but that would be too simplistic. It doesn't capture the changing corporate structures central to understanding the rise of low-wage work at some of America's biggest companies.

McDonald's, for instance, doesn't actually employ most of its workers; instead, they work for individual franchise restaurants that operate as independent businesses and pay fees to use the company's brand and sell its products. Beyond that, however, the individual franchise owner is technically the employer and therefore responsible for setting and paying workers' wages.

Read more: McDonald's and America's new low-wage economy explained - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blogTerm Sheet