Recent comments

  • Pure comedic genius! Work for free? Sounds great, let me sign right up. They don't try to be funny, but they sure are.

    Let's see, as soon as those calling the shots in DC and state capitals, corporate boardrooms, and HR all work for free without perks like vacations and bonuses, then maybe they can open their mouths. As soon as the Chamber of Commerce tools that sell us out daily give up their salaries and fly commercially in economy class for 30 hours to China and Malaysia, then maybe they can talk. Flying to sell us out isn't much fun when you're surrounded by folks leaning on you or snoring while you draft ways to f' the American workers over. Yeah, like these people don't bitch and moan if someone doesn't give them annual bonuses and cost-of-living adjustments. Like they don't spend company time planning vacations to Tahiti and endlessly moan when their six or seven figure salaries are "just too low." Like they don't whine at airports when the airline employees don't kiss their asses enough and, oh my, they have to wait in line for a few minutes more.

    They have as much of a right to dictate that we work for free as I do to dictate that CEOs not eat caviar and drink champagne while they conduct "business" with their paid-for politicians. Can I tell them they can only buy 2 carat diamonds for their mistresses rather than 5 carats? Can I dictate that they mix with the hoi polloi and get rid of their gated houses and guarded SUVs? No? Then they need to remain silent because anything they say will just make them sound even more idiotic in the court of public opinion.

    A quick glance at those trying to make our lives harder shows the tragedy that exists today. Are these folks blowing apart IQ tests? Are they curing cancer? Did they score 99.9% percentiles on their SATs while helping the homeless and little orphans? Did they help all those around them in every job they ever had while making sure they never stepped on anyone? Do they actually want ethical workers that have great ideas or are they in fact scared crapless by those that outthink them and outwork them? Now compare that to the "unskilled" folks out there. Served in military, or law enforcement, worked in health, EMTs, teachers, engineers, architects, pharmacists, and on and on. Great skills, great educational backgrounds, and great ethics (both in and out of the workplace). And these people suffering should work for free? Sick of the lies, sick of the bullsh*t.

    Reply to: The American Economy On Purgatory Mountain   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • It would be more accurate to describe this as food stamp program eligibility rather than food assistance. If you research the massive program fraud occuring, the real story is how many people receiving benefits do not need food and sell their cards for cash.

    Reply to: Food Stamp Usage Reaches Record High with 15% of America on Food Stamps   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • The most ridiculous 60 Minutes is on tonight. It's pure propaganda. We have some employer claiming that they can't "train" workers or find them and people who apply "cannot write a complete sentence". Beyond being a complete lie and an insult to the American worker, they are trying to demand workers "train" for four entire months, no pay, no job to earn....drum roll please...$12/hr.

    Right. Let's see, demanding people "train" while not being paid for four months to have the "opportunity" to be "considered" for a hard work job at $12/hr.

    That's not a worker shortage, that's a glut of bad, exploitive employers.

    Reply to: The American Economy On Purgatory Mountain   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • The latest is Obama has vowed to veto any bill which does not let the Bush income tax cuts for the top tier income brackets to expire.

    Notice we don't have a vow to veto cuts to social security, which has nothing to do with the fiscal cliff or budget deficits.

    Reply to: The Grand Bargain Under the Fiscal Cliff   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • If only the banks were lowering rates in line with what they are getting. They are complaining that they are too busy as it is.

    So phase it out for the wealthy that don't need it - the mortgage deduction that is.

    Reply to: An Abbreviated Reading List for Undecided Economic Voters   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • and if one bothered to read the BEA handbook on NIPA one would see that G is very different from C and I, which are private sector. G is spending and investment by the government but excludes transfer payments, such as Medicare and Medicare, social security.

    Reply to: GDP 2.0% for Q3 2012   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • The formula gets a lot of ink but is of dubious value,G is so tightly intertwined with I and C that distinctions are meaningless. It is one large entity losing some trillions of dollars a year. Five hundred billion in cash and a few trillion in non-renewable resources. To assume less G will be less GDP needs actual data. It is easy to imagine the reverse. To assume more GDP is a good idea is also an empirical question.

    Reply to: GDP 2.0% for Q3 2012   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • with unemployment rations running out, some are going back to school just to survive...

    Reply to: Consumer Credit Increases 5.0% on Student Debt for September 2012   11 years 11 months ago
  • Fellow Americans, have your medical or financial records compromised once, maybe shocked and pissed. "Oh, we'll reimburse you" say the banksters and employees over endless phone calls and conversations as they eye the 5 PM end of the day as you fret over ID theft or compromised info. Thanks jackholes, but reimburse me for letting someone steal my money in the first place? How's that for a deal? Are you giving me extra $? Is the CEO or head of outsourcing or security fired or suspended or fined? No? Is Senator A or Rep. B going to rip these clowns a new one for treating your life like yesterday's trash. Then I'm actually worse off because we have to file reports, follow through with ID theft at this police station or with that agency, etc. and you go on and on living the bankster lifestyle. Is Wells Fargo CEO fined $5,000 for every breach? No? F that. Second time, move on over to small, local folks. More likely than not they aren't shipping SSN and personal info. to Bangalore or looking to hire an intern to work for free to handle your account info., and if they are, we won't have to be pawned off like we're scum merely for wanting to protect our money, our medical records, our personal info. Outsourcing and all the other crap pays off for the big douches short-term, long-term, WHIRLWIND is a comin'!

    In a few years the banksters and politicians and media will sit there scratching their heads as everyone keeps cash in vaults in their homes or local banks and no one will dare do business with people they don't personally know/trust, grinding everything to a halt or much slower pace. Think real local (which is actually very nice in many ways - just because it doesn't involve the Internet or TBTF or global finance doesn't make it "backwards" and served many people for many centuries). Who could have guessed that would be the outcome? Well, anyone with an ounce of sense that gets tired of being ripped off and burned and ignored by those in charge getting rich and powerful.

    Reply to: Outsourcing Has Its Benefits - Money Landering, Stock Market Crashes and Failed Projects   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • I'm a huge fan of media and others telling us that somehow we all "chose" this or that based on a preselected choice of 1 of 2 candidates.
    Banksters + corporate CEOs + political establishment + media: Hey, Joe, would you like tacos or burritos? Look at that, Joe loves tacos and hates burritos, but he loves Mexican food of any kind.
    Joe: Actually, I'd prefer hamburgers or sushi or some Chinese food.
    Response: Hey, Joe, STFU, we choose tacos or burritos, you love Mexican food, that's all you get.
    Joe: That sucks. Can I not eat?
    Response: Sure Joe, but don't you love America? Love it or leave it. Now choose!

    Yeah, I'm not seeing my choice in the billionaire-funded choice between Obama and Romney. Gosh, it's a choice between "Socialism" (according to Fox) and "Capitalism" (according to Fox) or "Anti-banksterism" (according to MSNBC) and "Banksterism" (according to MSNBC). Now, I've read quite a bit, and I see big $ winning this election no matter what. Obama had 4 years to fight banksters, and I have yet to see Dimon and Blankfein et al being led away in handcuffs for international fraud and money laundering and bribery. Murdoch lurks still despite FCPA and RICO. And on. Romney was just the choice of 2012 for the same crew after they felt Obama didn't give them as much as they demanded (hard to believe, but apparently their greed still isn't satiated). Whatever.

    Reply to: Election Aftermath - Campaign Spending Could have Given Every Person $19 and Pot Wins!   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • I saw that, pretty disgusting and politics these days are nothing but marketing, public relations with the media spewing mostly noise and a gerrymandered Congressional district map and an electoral college which gives most people no real say.

    We're been writing about the fiscal cliff for sometime and magically, all at once, the media talks about it, but now. It should have been a major campaign issue.

    Reply to: Election Aftermath - Campaign Spending Could have Given Every Person $19 and Pot Wins!   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • It's sickening, really sickening. It's obvious the media and politicians have no interest in policies, actual governing, or any insight whatsoever that will actually involve thought and making our lives better. It's all about the perpetual horseraces, raising money, personalities, and getting ratings through vapid coverage. 2016? These people will cover the House races and then we can get 24/7 coverage of who's in the primaries in a year or two, then 24/7 election. It's ironic, as global and domestic events and issues become far more complex and demand greater analysis after incredible amounts of fact gathering, the media and politicians choose to ignore everything but elections, dumb everything down, and just talk about money, personalities, the artificial issue of the day you didn't know existed/mattered (e.g., are airplane carriers biased against obese people? are steroids a major concern in Little League baseball? is some unknown teacher, preacher, professor, hot dog vendor, etc. evil incarnate because he said xyz?) or "hot celeb" of the day, and the same 3-5 issues over and over again. I guess this serves the puppetmasters and the overpaid, unthinking teleprompter readers that are incapable of anything else.

    Reply to: Election Aftermath - Campaign Spending Could have Given Every Person $19 and Pot Wins!   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • I'm not even sure thet tied!

    Reply to: The Election is Over. Do you think the middle class won?   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Just a reminder we've been outlining the consequences of the Fiscal cliff for months and magically the press, all at once woke up with "dire reports".

    So, I believe we're in for what we predicted, cuts to the social safety net under the guise of a "bargain" to avert the fiscal cliff.

    We'll update as it happens.

    Reply to: The Perfect Economic Storm   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Quantitative easing is being done by buying up mortgage backed securities and that's a prop for housing prices.

    The interest deduction has been in place for decades and removing it will stop a major incentive basically for people who have to get a mortgage, i.e. the middle class. Rich people can pay cash.

    Reply to: An Abbreviated Reading List for Undecided Economic Voters   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • At least I assume this was checked but you can only vote with U.S. citizenship.

    Right now the media is trying to spin this to be "we must pass Comprehensive immigration reform" but I'm not so sure what's going on here.

    Legitimate would be bombasts of negative advertising, microtargeting, playing the race card and so on.

    Possibly also people are growing up and the Dream act means their school hood friends.

    This is a real problem, mixed message for U.S. public education is required to educate children who are here illegally.

    Great for them, but it gives a mixed message, either you're here illegally and need to leave or you're not. You have a whole generation of people growing up who have been here illegally, educated in a system that tells them about their future in America, plus they make friends with school pals and so on.

    But I would go more for microtargeting, propaganda, manipulation, messages targeted to individuals, small demographic slides.

    Reply to: An Abbreviated Reading List for Undecided Economic Voters   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Obama is no dummy.

    Wouldn't the 23 million existing illegals be the first to jump on this?

    Reply to: An Abbreviated Reading List for Undecided Economic Voters   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Housing would just move to it's true value just as higher ed and medical would if the Government didn't create a false bottom.

    Those industries (housing aside because they are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it and it's still trying to reach true value) would stop spending money that doesn't exist and in order to survive prices would have to fall. 10 years ago a physician tried to talk me into an expensive, risky procedure for something that I am resigned to live with. I have read studies in the New England Journal of medicine that said this would not work for me but since my medical would pay for it the doctor was pushing it regardless. A prime example of spending money just for the sake of it.

    The mortgage deduction is a tax advantage for people who can afford a home, at least it should be phased out for higher incomes. Does a millionaire need a mortgage interest deduction?

    I agree about the fiscal cliff. There is a lot of support for that to really happen but then again I was rooting for the world economy to collapse in 2008 because those with real marketable skills would have been fine.

    What would the CEO of a company be worth without this faux finance based economy? Man has been on earth and survived for tens of thousands of years while the out of balance economy has only been in existence since Nixon killed Bretton Woods. There is no inflation? Yeah, right.

    I realize my views are reactionary rather than well thought out but it's how I feel. How many houses does Dick Fuld still own?

    They would HAVE to slowly phase out the mortgage deduction - they could not kill it on people that bought a home and depended on that to afford it.

    Reply to: An Abbreviated Reading List for Undecided Economic Voters   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Supposedly Obama is giving a "select invited" "Press statement", no questions. So, gear up to be screwed.

    If they remove the deduction for mortgage interest we will see a 2nd collapse of the housing market.

    These people are insane. Honestly I think maybe it might be better to just let all of the Bush tax cuts expire, go over the fiscal cliff and deal with the resulting recession than some of the plans they are going to do, namely enact austerity measures.

    Reply to: An Abbreviated Reading List for Undecided Economic Voters   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Eliminating the mortgage deduction is getting some time on the discussion circuit.

    That's something that would have to be phased in but that I agree with.

    Everything that is subsidized by the Government eventually becomes too expensive and beyond the reach of those the subsidy was meant to help. The answer is always to increase the subsidy.

    Education, Health Care and Housing.

    Reply to: An Abbreviated Reading List for Undecided Economic Voters   11 years 11 months ago
    EPer:

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