Warren Buffett’s concept to significantly reduce USA’s trade deficit.
I’m a proponent of a proposal that was introduced to the Senate in 2006. Trade deficits are always detrimental to a nation’s GDP. Trade deficit’s detriment to the GDP exceeds the amount of the deficit itself. The GDP bolsters the median wage.
In the December issue of Rolling Stone the journalist Matt Taibbi hits yet another grand slam exposing the murky world of Wall Street and Washington politics ("Obama's Big Sellout"). Taibbi provides a detailed and thoughtful analysis on the myriad connections between numerous Obama appointees and Robert Rubin, the Obama presidential campaign's economic advisor, and former Clinton Treasury Secretary who led the charge for the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, to create the megamerger that was to become Citigroup.
Rubin then left the Clinton Administration to lead Citigroup in their tumultuous downfall.
Below is a very brief synopsis of some of Taibbi's salient points. Any and all remarks in parenthesis are mine, and should not be attributed to Taibbi's article.
Kevin Phillips, with his masterful recounting of how the Spanish, Dutch, and British empires swiftly fell from their zenith because of imperial overreach, and more importantly the growth and ascendancy of a financial / rentier class, foretells what lies ahead for the United States.
This month’s cover story in Harper’s magazine is a must-read for those who recognize that the broad currents of human history repeat themselves. In, “Barack Hoover Obama: The best and the brightest blow it again” Kevin Baker writes:
Much like Herbert Hoover, Barack Obama is a man attempting to realize a stirring new vision of his society without cutting himself free from the dogmas of the past-without accepting the inevitable conflict. Like Hoover, he is bound to fail.
Explosive anger is spilling out onto the streets of Europe. The meltdown of the global economy is igniting massive social unrest in a region that has long been a symbol of political stability and social cohesion.
It's not a new trend: A wave of upheaval is spreading from the poorer countries on the periphery of the global economy to the prosperous core.
...
Notably absent from the list of countries where the economic crunch is rending the social fabric is the good ole US of A, a state with the greatest level of economic inequality in the wealthy world.
At the annual meeting of American Economists, most everyone refused to admit their failures to prepare or warn about the second worst crisis of the century.
I could find no shame in the halls of the San Francisco Hilton, the location at the annual meeting of American economists that just finished. . . .
Aren't you glad you are in representative Government where the people only get minor choice every couple of years or more?
The American Civic Literacy Program has been quizzing America on basic Eivics, Economics and History. From their press release a shocking 56% of all Government Officials fail this basic quiz.
You sure couldn't tell it by me. Hey, they call Populists vulgar in this article!
It's an interesting piece though, pointing out that with the financial sector crisis the free market has failed and how other emerging economies, the government is very much at the helm.
Here's the first couple of paragraphs as a teaser, click on the above link to read the whole article.
For the best part of three decades, policymakers in the developed world followed Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in seeking to roll back the frontiers of the state. The triple mantra of privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation held sway.
I gotta laugh for in the past, there has been such inherent sexism in the women vote analysis. Things like soccer moms and feelings and fear....well, I guess it takes a think tank run by women to get to the truth of the matter.
A new poll from the National Women's Law Center finds:
Poll Findings: Women Are Worried About the Future and Believe Government Must Act
According to a recent poll by the National Women's Law Center, women feel the impact of economic insecurity and rising food, energy, education, and health care costs more deeply than men – and see government as a key to the solution.
According to the poll, women want:
A better health care system
An end to the wage gap
Affordable birth control, comprehensive sex education, and protection for Roe v. Wade
Well, I'm not alone here refusing to believe that Obama is a Progressive, look at what The Nation's Naomi Klein has to say.
All I can say is I hope all of those disenfranchised Hillary voters swearing to vote McCain put their rage to good use and start demanding one of these candidates start adopting policy that is actually good for the nation and working America.
Recent comments