Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz highlights how investing in the green economy provides a viable economic and ecological path forward in recovering from the coronavirus crisis.

- Mariana Mazzucato discusses the importance of socializing successes to make sure that new industries don't exacerbate inequalities in wealth and power. And Matt Bruenig notes that the majority of the U.S.' wealth gap by race comes from the obscene concentration of riches among the wealthiest white households.

- Meanwhile, Paul Keil reports on yet another drop in the IRS' auditing of wealthy Americans as a service starved of funding to combat the tax-evading rich has limited itself to going after easier targets.

- The International Centre for Non-Profit Law is tracking the anti-protest laws being imposed in the U.S. Musa Al-Gharbi discusses how police departments punish whistleblowers to ensure their abuses can continue without accountability. And Royson James writes that the meager consequences for the deliberate assault on Dafonte Miller shows how the law isn't intended to protect far too many people. 

- Deb Perelman points out how a stubborn refusal to address the ongoing lack of child care is forcing parents (and predominantly women) to choose between work and parenting.

- Finally, Alissa Quart, Astra Taylor and Brittany Powell suggest that an appropriate act of recognition and gratitude for the workers on the front lines of COVID-19 would be to forgive outstanding student debt. But Bobby Hristova reports that the response of Maple Leaf Foods (among other corporate giants) has instead been to end "hero pay" in the midst of an ongoing pandemic - leaving workers angry about how symbolic support has given way to callous management.