Economic Update With Richard Wolff: Le Pen, Fascism and France

Описание: On this episode of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff talks about the final round of French presidential elections between Marine Le Pene and Emmanuel Macron. Professor Wolff describes Le Pen as a Trump-style politician who promotes an anti-immigrant rhetoric, ultra-nationalism, and has also expressed interest in leaving the European Union. On the other hand, Macron is part of the French political establishment and served as Minister of Economy and Finance under French president Francois Hollande.

Mr. Wolff highlights the fact that 20% of the French people voted for a left-wing progressive named Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round. A lot of Melenchon's supporters are not willing to vote for neither of the top two presidential candidates (lesser of two evils) ; they have decided to abstain from voting. This is somewhat similar to what happened in the U.S. presidential elections when a significant number of Bernie Sanders' supporters decided not to vote for Hillary Clinton nor for Donald Trump.

On a different note, Former U.S. president Barrack Obama has accepted to give a paid speech for an investment bank called Cantor Fitzgerald. This investment bank has an upcoming health economics investors conference scheduled for September and the for former president will be the main speaker of the event for a $400,000 fee. However, the Chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick was an avid supporter of Jeb Bush and had shown support for John Mccain in a previous presidential race. This goes to show you that individuals with big pockets give money to both political parties (Republicans & Democrats) in exchange for favors.

Professor Wolff also mentions that the Trump Administration wants to reduce the Corporate tax rate. The Trump Amivistrationwants to reduce the official rate of corporate profits tax from 35% to 15%. Nonetheless, corporations have used loopholes to avoid paying 35%. In fact, over the last 50 years corporate taxes have been significantly reduce. The U.S. has one of the 5 lowest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world.The corporate tax rate in the U.S. is lower than Australia, Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, and several others. Therefore, the notion that U. S. corporations cannot compete because of the tax rate is simply not true.

Professor Wolff tells his viewers that Wells Fargo has been caught faking accounts that were created for people who did not authorize it or permit it. As a result, people were confronted with credit card bills and other fee from accounts that they never approved. Event though, Wells Fargo admitted their wrongdoing and paid some fines, The company's stocks took a dive when this fraudulent behavior was revealed. Nonetheless, Warren Buffett, a big shareholder in the company voted to keep the board of directors. Consequently, no one from the board of directors was punished for their illegal and unethical practices.

U.S. Corporations have trillions of dollars in profits in accounts overseas, which exempt them from paying taxes. These corporations have asked the government to give them "Tax Holiday" so that they can bring those profits back home without having to pay taxes and use the money to hire people and expand production. However, Mr. Wolff claim that these corporations won't use their profits from overseas to hire people or expand production in the U.S., but will use them to pay higher salaries to their top executives and pay out dividends to investors who own shares.

lastly, Richard Wolff interviews Dr. Harriet Fraad, a mental health counselor/ Hypnotherapist on the contradictions of "Family Values" in the U.S.. economy. According to Dr. Fraad, Donald Trump and the far-right use "Family Values" as a cover take away government support and other benefits from families. #MNN #RichardWolff #EconomicUpdate #FrenchElections #CorporateTaxes #CorporateWelfare #WellsFargo #WarrenBuffett #Profits #TaxHaven #FamilyValues

Updates on French election's significance; Obama's $400,000 bank speaking fee; US corp tax cuts; Wells Fargo "saved" by Warren Buffett; why bringing home US corps' foreign profits just helps them. Interview Dr. Harriet Fraad on contradictions of "family values" in the US economy.

Economic Update airs Tuesday nights at 8PM on MNN 1 (TWC 34 & 1995, RCN 82, FiOS 33 and streaming on www.mnn.org). Previously aired episodes of Economic Update can be found on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network YouTube page.

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