https://znetwork.org/author/gerepstein/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Tue, 16 Dec 2025 16:03:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/gerepstein/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-economy-is-becoming-highly-dependent-on-a-new-and-untested-ai-industry/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-economy-is-becoming-highly-dependent-on-a-new-and-untested-ai-industry/#respond Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292439 Over the last few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become extremely popular in Silicon Valley and is widely regarded as the most transformative technology in the 21st century. In fact, it is already reshaping sectors like education, transportation, finance, health care, media, and telecommunications. Indeed, it is estimated that about 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies may [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-economy-is-becoming-highly-dependent-on-a-new-and-untested-ai-industry/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-trumps-executive-order-on-401ks-means-for-workers-who-hope-to-retire/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-trumps-executive-order-on-401ks-means-for-workers-who-hope-to-retire/#respond Wed, 17 Sep 2025 18:11:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288678 A new Trump executive order has opened the door for 401(K) holders to invest in private equity, cryptocurrency, and other alternative assets. Why did Trump make this decision? Is this a beneficial “public policy” for common people preparing for retirement? Gerald Epstein, a leading expert on finance and financial crises, warns that Trump’s executive order [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-trumps-executive-order-on-401ks-means-for-workers-who-hope-to-retire/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-is-setting-the-us-economy-up-for-another-great-financial-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-is-setting-the-us-economy-up-for-another-great-financial-crisis/#respond Fri, 27 Jun 2025 18:38:57 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285538 The financial system of the United States has always been prone to instability and crises. Now, however, under the new Trump administration, which is pushing for major cuts in regulation, including in the cryptocurrency sector in which the Trump family has a major financial stake, the financial system has become more vulnerable than ever, posing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-is-setting-the-us-economy-up-for-another-great-financial-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-does-trumps-economic-chaos-mean-for-the-global-financial-system/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-does-trumps-economic-chaos-mean-for-the-global-financial-system/#respond Sun, 04 May 2025 11:03:59 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283330 The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency have brought about big, destructive changes in U.S. society and culture as well as on the environment. They have also caused real damage to the economy, which has gone on reverse on almost all fronts since Trump took office. By talking out of both sides of his mouth on [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-does-trumps-economic-chaos-mean-for-the-global-financial-system/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/interest-rate-cuts-now-could-help-workers-but-thats-not-who-the-fed-serves/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/interest-rate-cuts-now-could-help-workers-but-thats-not-who-the-fed-serves/#respond Sat, 24 Aug 2024 15:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271298 The Federal Reserve hasn’t changed interest rates since July of last year, after 11 hikes between March 2022 and July 2023 in the hope that higher borrowing costs would slow down consumer and business demand so inflation rates would drop. It kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged in its latest meeting ending July 31, 2024, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/interest-rate-cuts-now-could-help-workers-but-thats-not-who-the-fed-serves/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-bust-the-bankers-club/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-bust-the-bankers-club/#respond Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262902 It’s been almost a year since the banking crisis kicked off last March. On Friday, March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, a state-chartered commercial bank based in Santa Clara, California, collapsed after facing a sudden bank run and capital crisis. SVB’s collapse was the second largest bank failure in U.S. history since Washington Mutual [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-bust-the-bankers-club/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-democratize-finance-we-must-take-the-banks-away-from-the-bankers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-democratize-finance-we-must-take-the-banks-away-from-the-bankers/#respond Sun, 18 Feb 2024 16:07:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262377 Our current banking and financial system has transformed politics in favor of the rich, debilitating democratic institutions, destroying the common good and hurting the poor in the process. In this context, the challenge we face is to end plutocracy and restore democracy. It is this challenge that world-renowned progressive economist Gerald Epstein brilliantly elucidates in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-democratize-finance-we-must-take-the-banks-away-from-the-bankers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-growing-number-of-economists-are-joining-the-fight-to-rein-in-the-big-banks/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-growing-number-of-economists-are-joining-the-fight-to-rein-in-the-big-banks/#respond Tue, 13 Feb 2024 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262143 The fortunes of the five richest men in the world have “shot up by 114 percent since 2020,” according to a January 2024 Oxfam report on global inequality, while “nearly five billion people have been made poorer.” This most recent gross increase in wealth and income inequality builds on global trends that took hold in the early [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-growing-number-of-economists-are-joining-the-fight-to-rein-in-the-big-banks/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-the-us-dollar-on-the-verge-of-being-dethroned-as-the-worlds-currency/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-the-us-dollar-on-the-verge-of-being-dethroned-as-the-worlds-currency/#respond Tue, 18 Jul 2023 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1249595 Since Russia invaded Ukraine, and especially after Washington imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow, a number of countries across the world — including Brazil, China, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and South Africa — have been pushing back against the hegemony of the U.S. dollar in the global economy. As this de-dollarization movement picks up steam we [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-the-us-dollar-on-the-verge-of-being-dethroned-as-the-worlds-currency/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-banks-have-now-collapsed-a-progressive-economist-explains-why/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-banks-have-now-collapsed-a-progressive-economist-explains-why/#respond Thu, 23 Mar 2023 14:54:11 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1241984 Three banks in the U.S. (Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate) have collapsed since early March. The collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are the two biggest bank failures since 2008. Silicon Valley Bank had deep ties to the high-tech industry while Signature Bank and Silvergate were some of the world’s biggest [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-banks-have-now-collapsed-a-progressive-economist-explains-why/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-banking-can-improve-lives-of-us-workers-help-save-the-planet/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-banking-can-improve-lives-of-us-workers-help-save-the-planet/#respond Fri, 11 Jun 2021 09:03:51 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1047454 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-banking-can-improve-lives-of-us-workers-help-save-the-planet/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-the-fed-can-bail-out-wall-street-it-can-rescue-public-education/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-the-fed-can-bail-out-wall-street-it-can-rescue-public-education/#respond Mon, 03 Aug 2020 09:02:40 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1036973 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-the-fed-can-bail-out-wall-street-it-can-rescue-public-education/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-2020-budget-rewards-the-wealthiest-individuals/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-2020-budget-rewards-the-wealthiest-individuals/#respond Fri, 29 Mar 2019 09:02:29 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1018589 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-2020-budget-rewards-the-wealthiest-individuals/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-trumps-policies-wreak-havoc-on-us-and-global-economies/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-trumps-policies-wreak-havoc-on-us-and-global-economies/#respond Wed, 17 Oct 2018 09:02:38 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1013895 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-trumps-policies-wreak-havoc-on-us-and-global-economies/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/goodbye-regulations-hello-impending-global-financial-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/goodbye-regulations-hello-impending-global-financial-crisis/#respond Thu, 05 Jul 2018 09:02:58 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1011383 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/goodbye-regulations-hello-impending-global-financial-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zmagazine/the-infrastructure-of-fascism/ Fri, 22 Sep 2017 13:36:09 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=zmagarticle&p=1002542 Effectively, this “executive order” served-up a wish list that would have been compiled by any real estate mogul who doesn’t want any government agency or public group to come between him, his building, and his bottom line. In the name of building more useful infrastructure executive order is designed to let developers skirt environmental regulations, and most likely, labor, health, and safety regulations as well. The Executive Order will make it a lot easier to build more Trump towers in flood plains, but do little or nothing for the country’s true infrastructure needs.]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-infrastructure-of-fascism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-infrastructure-of-fascism/#respond Sun, 20 Aug 2017 09:02:06 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1001266 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-infrastructure-of-fascism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bannon-fired-from-white-house/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bannon-fired-from-white-house/#respond Sat, 19 Aug 2017 09:01:48 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1001290 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bannon-fired-from-white-house/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/financial-globalization-can-wreck-societies/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/financial-globalization-can-wreck-societies/#respond Tue, 25 Jul 2017 09:00:28 +0000 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/financial-globalization-can-wreck-societies/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resistance-in-the-age-of-trumpism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resistance-in-the-age-of-trumpism/#respond Mon, 22 May 2017 09:00:33 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=998395 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resistance-in-the-age-of-trumpism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/paul-krugman-crosses-the-line/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/paul-krugman-crosses-the-line/#respond Sat, 16 Apr 2016 09:00:09 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=985612 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/paul-krugman-crosses-the-line/feed/ 0