Writings

One of the most powerful — and least known — tools of corporate rule is ISDS: Investor-State Dispute Settlement. Built into trade and investment treaties, ISDS gives corporations the right to sue governments in private tribunals outside public courts, outside democratic accountability — over policies that might reduce their expected future profits. Not actual losses. Expected profits.

On so-called “Liberation Day,” the Trump administration announced its new wave of tariffs. The language was poignant. Liberation. It was a word meant to stir, to conjure up the dream of breaking free from foreign exploitation.

The mainstream media – television, print and digital – routinely cycle through the litany of crises gripping the world. One week they’ll tell us about the latest climate disaster. The next, the focus may shift to the war in Ukraine. A few days later, COVID-19’s latest variant might be trending...