Pharmaceutical companies bend or withhold scientific data and lie about their drugs, in ways which endanger, harm or kill sick people, to make a profit. That is the shocking reality laid bare in Ben Goldacre’s new book, ‘Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients’. This is  a prime example of the way the profit motive rewarded by Capitalism stands in front of human progress. ...

It is a dark day for the rule of law. Federal and state authorities have chosen not to indict HSBC, the London-based bank, on charges of vast and prolonged money laundering, for fear that criminal prosecution would topple the bank and, in the process, endanger the financial system. They also have not charged any top HSBC banker in the case, though it boggles the mind that a bank could launder money as HSBC ...

112 dead after preventable fire at Bangladesh garment factory   Update Dec 6, 2012: Sometimes, you read something, and it makes your blood boil. Like this quote from today's New York Times, about Walmart's connection to the fire in a Bangladesh factory that killed 112 people two weeks ago: "[T]wo officials who attended a meeting held in Bangladesh in 2011 to discuss factory safety in the garment indust ...

PARIS — Its membership in the euro currency union hanging in the balance, Greece continues to receive billions of euros in emergency assistance from a so-called troika of lenders overseeing its bailout. But almost none of the money is going to the Greek government to pay for vital public services. Instead, it is flowing directly back into the troika’s pockets. The European bailout of 130 billion euros ($163 ...

A worldwide research effort in collaboration with BBC Panorama and the ICIJ reveals the people behind these anonymous companies       The existence of an extraordinary global network of sham company directors, most of them British, can be revealed. The UK government claims such abuses were stamped out long ago, but a worldwide joint investigation by the Guardian, the BBC's Panorama and the Wa ...

Large Bank Mergers Since 1990 This is how the U.S. banking monopoly was created after more than two decades of unbridled bank mergers endorsed, and in some cases, encouraged the by the OCC, the FDIC, the FTC and the elimination of Glass-Steagall.   ...

In BBC Paul Mason’s report published a few days ago, the notorious Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros declares ‘We are at war with domestic and international bankers’ (3:08 Mason’s report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19976841) Sure, Panagiotaros likes to imagine himself as a righteous warrior, but truth falls closer to the fact that he is a mercenary, and after looking between the lines one can understand ...

I am sitting in front of my pc trying to organize my thoughts while at the same time trying to overcome the shock I am under. Its impossible…No matter what kind of language I will use, how much superlative expressions I will put in the paper,  is still difficult  for me to express myself the way I would like to. Hence, I will try to be as simple as possible describing the facts that I experienced and hoping ...

Michael Nevradakis Ph.D student in Media Studies, University of Texas at Austin   Is austerity the way forward for Greece and other countries that are in the throes of a severe economic crisis? According to much of the world's media, the answer to that is a resounding "yes." Since the outbreak of the economic crisis in Greece in late 2009, many prominent media outlets, including all of Greece's major t ...

photos: Alexandros Michailidis text: Dina Batzia Conflicts, arrests and injuries was the scenery of the protest in Skouries yesterday,   where hundreds residents and supporters gathered to protest gold mining activity. From the morning yesterday committees struggle against the gold mines in Halkidiki started protest and 6 km march to Skouries. Several hundreds of residents of the nearby village of Ierissos, ...