Agreed, the list of donors I posted from opensecrets showed that 2008 Obama donors now simply move their bets to Romney (banksters fully supported Obama in 2008, now mostly Mitt), but of course they all still donate some to both parties. And if Romney loses, they'll just donate and/or lobby in whichever way suits their purposes.
Average American has no say. It's great that politicians do get busted on tape from both parties showing their actual contempt for us (besides their laws, voting records, and outright corruption). They go on and on about lazy, uneducated Americans sucking govt. money when most of us have better skills, educational backgrounds, work ethics, and simply want to be left alone without seeking some higher office to control other people. Being insulted by those seeking our votes is really too much. As if the defense contractors and big banks and large MNCs don't ask anything from the govt. or receive govt. subsidies or lobby the govt. for their funds and new laws? The large TBTF get our money directly from the Treasury to spend on themselves and lose on bets in privatized gains and socialized losses, there is no greater leech than that. When was the last time John Doe in a regular job went to DC and lobbied for a law to help him, got a direct link to the Fed and Treasury or DOJ or a handout and then was able to use that money for coke-fueled parties with hookers or vacation homes, or a govt. contract that his friends or former colleagues secured? The hypocrisy and double standards really are too much.
***Unrelated note showing banana republic status of USA - MF Global executives are possibly starting a new hedge fund. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-18/ex-mf-global-equity-derivati...
Notice how they blame "external forces." Excuses excuses, those banksters are never responsible, always have excuses but that's never mentioned by their puppet politicians. Jon Corzine is also thinking about starting a new hedge fund, apparently stealing billions already from farmers isn't enough and he really knows he'll never face any jail time or forfeiture in the USA ever.
Funny, the same hedge fund managers that finance campaigns that criticize the 99% and steal their money are all too willing to take the pension and mutual fund money from the same "commoners" they despise. Good enough to rob and step on, not good enough to have a voice in the rule of law or our own government I guess.
Romney may have gotten busted, but in practice, it's pretty clear some Democrats view the American people in the same way. Just something to manipulate and have go into debt to make sure they keep up consumer spending.
Romney is toast but I said this once he picked Ryan. Worse and worser but that doesn't make Obama or Congress better.
When those in power make the rules, when they stack the deck, and most people have no say - how do things change?
When the wealthy buy the laws, set the rate of pay, cut jobs to obtain more profit for the wealthy - what options do the rest of us have?
How does a 30 hr. part time, just about min wage, no benefit worker do? Main street is working hard to feed the kids and pay the bills. Most barely have a spare hour, or spare dime, to figure out a way out. Most live in some state of worry about keeping the job, getting enough hours, putting gas in the car. People trying to hang on to the little they have aren't going to rock the boat and put basic survival at risk.
I'm not saying you give up. I'm saying you look at the reality of now and try to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation.
Both parties serve the money men, but Mitt Romney can't even stay quiet long enough to get his puppetmasters the position they are paying for. I know the crony capitalists in both D & R view us as worthless leeches and only suitable as slave labor to make crap when wages in the PRC or Bangladesh get too high or as people that can lick the dog sh*t off their kids' $500 shoes, but seriously, Mitt, shut up until you get into office.
Don't say you view us as worthless, no matter the fact that we number in the hundreds of millions and are the vast majority of Americans. Don't despise us when we serve in the military and then you claim in the next sentence that politicians really do care about those serving. Mitt, I'm sorry eighty year old men and women won't just die already and might not be able to toil on a highway crew to make sure you have access only for 1%er vehicles (sort of an HOV lane for the crony capitalists). Mitt, I'm sorry Thomas Paine and other Founding Fathers wrote and talked about social security systems and estate taxes so the handicapped and injured and elderly and sick could go on living productive, inspirational lives - read Paine's writings inbetween Ayn Rand and Murdoch's approved policy papers you dumb sh*t, people who helped found the USA and risked their lives for the common people in this country and in others knew a whole lot more than you and your moneymen puppetmasters and laid out what the USA was about for us today. Read Jefferson's writing bashing banksters - flies in the face of your bankster-love Mitt. He and others warned us about banks, and corporations, and other Presidents like Washington and Eisenhower warned us about foreign alliances and parties. Mitt, crack a book, think a thought.
More and more the 1%ers in both parties really do come off looking like they have special programs and camps for worthless people/"breeders and eaters" - their words are abhorrent. Sort of reminds us of other programs in recent history around the world where the elite wanted to rid society of those they viewed as worthless.
Mitt, leeches and dependent on government? Come on man, be honest for one day in your life. Your daddy was a lobbyist for auto and then, not too difficult to do, ran the auto state of Michigan as Governor. Taxpayers paid his salary. Seems to me he was as insider as you could get and collected paychecks for government work and lobbying. I'm sure he never made money from his "public service" he wasn't entitled to, right? You inherited his wealth. You inherited connections that got you into Harvard for bschool. You inherited connections into private equity. You collected government paychecks in Mass. courtesy of TAXPAYERS! Mitt, that's a whole lot of high-level public positions that most people never dream of having because we're busy actually busting our asses out here in real jobs and helping our family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens because we care.
And now we get lectured to by this son of privilege? F' that. No way. Mitt, banksters and other high level folks in politics and business are the ultimate leeches. They screw up year after year. They use our taxpayer money from the FDIC to backstop their endless gambles/mistakes. They commit crimes. They use our taxpayer money directly for their salaries and bonuses! Talk about leeches. Paul Ryan is a leech - must be, we're funding his job while he takes months off at a time to campaign for more money and power - that's a leech. Can we fire him and everyone else in DC?
Mitt, the unemployed and other Americans out here outside the top 1-5% never laundered money for terrorists or drug cartels like your moneymen banksters have admitted doing. So while you talk about foreign affairs, mention your donors laundering money for the terrorists attacking us. For the drug cartels killing judges, police, women, children, old and young men, and everyone else. Mitt, why so quiet? Mitt, go visit Afghanistan and tell the soldiers and Afghan civilians that banksters launder money for international drug cartels and help launder money for Iran that aids the Taliban. Mitt, hello? I guess all the teachers and police officers and doctors and engineers, scientists, nurses, shop owners, managers, and employees, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, professional drivers, pilots, vets, secretaries, artists, custodians, attorneys and judges, corrections officers, painters, and every single unemployed from those professions, etc., etc. that don't want to vote for him are useless leeches that view themselves as "victims"?
Corporations that outsource and bring in guest workers never responsible for anything bad? Only the unemployed are responsible for corporate-policies that bone them? Huh? Corporations that pollute our oceans and rivers need fewer laws? Corporations poisoned tens of thousands of infants but it's my fault and I'm worthless? Corporations can buy all levels of government to screw us over but it's my fault? All Americans not in boardrooms are lazy bastards? CEOs research and develop medicines and other products and market them and transport them and sell them globally and write about them all by themselves? Chester Cheetah says, "Most impressive, Sir."
Mitt, lesson #1, corporations aren't people, they are fictional entities for the sole purpose of limited liability, your ignorance only proves how you really did buy your degrees. If corporations want to be people, fine, the CEOs and everyone else that signs paperwork that commits LIBOR fixing, commodities manipulation, robosigning, foreclosing on vets while they are overseas, commingling funds and stealing them, can go right to prison like every other "person" under the law. They can also be sued personally. Send Dimon and Corzine and Blankfein to jail right now. Even if they aren't people, individuals in corporations are often held responsible for crimes (at least the non-TBTF ones). RICO and FCPA and other laws apply, just as a CEO can be indicted for murder or theft or terrorism. Just because criminals incorporate doesn't give them free reign to rape, murder, and steal, does it, Mitt? If a drug cartel incorporates, can it do as it pleases, laws be damned? Really?
No, this isn't partisan, it's just reflective of how little the people in power and their puppets in both parties honestly view the average Americans in our own country. This reality is so far from the vision our country was founded on. It's an abomination. It's only in the last decade or so we see the possible nightmare invading our waking hours. I think our Founding Fathers revolted for far less and now they are universally seen as heroes. "What say you, Mittens," Bill O' in a parallel universe wants to know, "are you smarter and more honest than our Nation's founders and the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all our Constitutional Amendments and the very people of the USA?" Because we might strongly disagree with that crap. Come out and mix with the folks you despise but want to vote for you or any other party run by the crony capitalists. Don't worry, we're not like the animals you portray us as, in fact, we might have something to add to your echo chamber.
In sum, why reward or even allow those criminals and/or traitors that are selling out their countrymen for their own personal wealth to continue to do so? Why allow them one moment's peace (let alone billions in ill-gotten wealth) while everyone else that studied, worked hard, served their country in the military or as teachers or in other positions and followed all the rules is continually screwed over by people that didn't study, or work honest jobs, or simply got wealthy through connections and/or stepping on anyone and everyone that didn't view other human beings as fodder and steps to some CEO position? All that would happen is that the powers that be would start seeking new rent-taking methods and methods of crushing other Americans, like taxing purchases of farm tools at ridiculous rates, or small homesteads, or forcing public school children to pay college level tuitions or else work in factories to make products the plutocrats could sell, or buying all the land around small farms and homes and then imposing tolls to go through (like Rockefeller did with oil plots surrounding small drillers and the train barons did with farmers 120+ years ago). Nah, not even appeasement, but merely allowing these folks to get away with anything will only embolden them. Like all criminals and those without any shame or integrity, they will take and take and take until someone gets in their face and stops them. Even if someone is hiding in a corner, they will not leave you alone - these predators will view that as weakness.
Well, screw that. I'm tired of these predators thinking for a moment we are weak. Look at them. They surround themselves with guards, live in walled compounds, and never mingle with regular folks. They attend conferences with people just like them. I mean they are even afraid of honest questions! Questions scare them?!
Look at Mike Bloomberg, the plutocrats' mayor. He surrounds himself with armed guards, doesn't walk the streets of the city he represents to mingle with the regular people he should represent, and only attends conferences with other plutocrats where the general public isn't allowed in and he and other plutocrats arrange policies harming us without any checks or balances (e.g., working with phone-hacking and cop bribing Murdoch to get more foreign workers to replace Americans). Who are the cowards then plutocrats? They can't resist constantly showing others how tough they think they are - it's the nature of predators, they only stop when called out and forced to stop. And in a democracy, the numbers of honest people that want the criminal conduct and exploitation to stop far outnumber the criminals destroying the USA - so in true democratic fashion, numbers must carry the day.
You know what our Congress is doing? Not putting together a direct jobs program for U.S. citizens or even passing the label China a currency manipulator. Nope, they are busy making sure more foreigners take our jobs by increasing even more Visas. This time they want to give an automatic green card to foreigners going to our schools. This is while there are 2.1 million U.S. STEM workers who cannot get a job.
Even worse, we're being bombarded with pure statistical lies claiming this creates jobs. It does NOT create jobs, it takes away jobs from U.S. workers. They will claim this bold faced lie and lobbyists helped them out with some complete statistical fiction provided.
That's what our Congress is doing in the midst of our jobs crisis.
Check out numerian's post on the purchase of MBSes, it's really frightening what is going to happen with all of these derivatives later down the road.
That's so out of reality, when people have nothing they cannot "cut back". Nice fantasy and basically you're telling people to just take it, lay down and die. Thanks for sharing.
Bernanke's/Fed's/TPTF's ploy for boosting a stock market bubble further so "people felt richer" lasted for less than 2 trading days. I guess reality is too powerful at this point, despite the best efforts of the Fed, US Government, and MSM/business networks to try to fool us. More free cash for TPTF is now seen for what is was the last two times QE was tried = complete crap that does nothing for the real economy and real jobs. So Bernanke will flood the market with inflation-causing cash with no recognizable returns whatsoever for 99.9% of the population.
Meanwhile, the Iran crisis is stepping up as the US seems intent on increasing military forces in the region, Middle East getting worse, and China vs. Japan continues to heat up over territorial disputes. So we have to borrow money from China to finance our military in the Middle East and sell our military technology to China while the government can't help 27+ million American citizens? That's not too logical and seems to only screw us over at every turn. In other news last week, Japan said it was aiming to completely eliminate dependence on nuclear energy in a few decades. Guess what that added demand on oil will do when Japan seeks oil supplies in waters in the region and also increases the global demand on oil that everyone else demands? Not good for prices or regional security. Add to that the ECB's and Fed's endless desire to flood us with worthless currencies and we'll see new words invented because hyperinflation and staglation and Great Depression Redux, or II, or III won't do the situation justice.
But that's why we leave such matters to our betters in the halls of power that have jobs that don't demand integrity or intelligence. Because logic and long-range thinking never affect simple themes like "blue vs. red," or "money is good, so trillions more off the presses is really, really good," etc. When life can be boiled down to simple themes by the Wizards of Oz and corrupt bastards behind the curtains or in the boardrooms, I'm sure we'll all be okay. Not like they would ever purposely screw us over for their own benefit or the benefit or their relatives or equally corrupt friends and cronies. The Ponzis and scams are becoming more and more readily apparent.
Anyway, on this anniversay of Occupy, where oh where are the masters of the universe like Jon Corzine? Should we check Leavenworth or the Hamptons? Also, remember, banksters were busted for laundering money for terrorists and so as radical Islamists kill our personnel overseas, what is our government doing specifically to bust and imprison the banksters that our aiding our enemies as we speak? Instead of jailing Occupy protestors, what is Mike Bloomberg as a bankster and bankster friend doing to fight bankster money launderers that help terrorists attack us? NYPD? FBI? How about the US Attorneys and DOJ? Eh? Fox News, any comment? MSNBC? CNN? Anyone JAILING THE BANKSTERS THAT AID THE TERRORISTS ATTACKING US THIS WEEK OVERSEAS? These banksters have admitted to aiding them and have only paid fines for doing so, so where's the rule of law and true justice for Americans? And that summarizes the whole ridiculous screwing over of us all for the benefit of criminals pretending to be anything but.
We may as well adapt. Main Street can't change things, we no longer have the power and TPTB are not concerned with Main Street economics.
So live smaller, stop buying stuff and have your friends over for a Saturday afternoon pot luck. Enjoy the life you can make. Figure out how to survive the rest.
immigrant numbers are very tough for our government refuses to track on immigration status, being "foreign born" means people brought over as infants, guest workers, illegals and naturalized citizens, green card holders. That said, you all have burnt me out on this attack on this article with illegals are stealing our jobs pounding. So, when I get up to the task I will pull some of the numbers I can estimate as valid. Right now, you're missing the increasing aging native population.
Example, we have absolutely not verified tally of the number of guest workers in the country and that's unconscionable of our government since guest workers have a direct impact on domestic labor markets.
Most green cards go to family based immigration (you all refer to this as chained migration).
Sigh. For now this thread is closed to more of these posts, yeah, ok, we get your point and I'll have to go do some number crunching and gather about statistics as I can obtain which are valid.
We are granting approximately 70,000 green cards every month to legal immigrants and tolerating at least 7 million illegal aliens working in the US while millions of US workers are seeking employment and millions more have simply given up.
From 2000 to 2010, the native working age population grew by 13.5 million; the working age population for immigrants - legal and illegal – grew by 6.9 million. In 2010, 1.1 million fewer working age natives held jobs than in 2000. In 2010, 4.5 million more immigrant workers - legal and illegal - held jobs than in 2000. It's not hard to see why we have a long-term jobs crisis, is it?
I doubt that anybody who is reading this posting has never interviewed for a job. So when you get into the waiting room, what do you what to see - 20 people waiting to be interviewed or 3 or 4? The more people applying for a job the less likely you are to be hired, especially at the salary you would like.
I am a liberal who has voted Democratic probably 95% of my voting life but I am tied of environmentalists who support all sorts of measures to conserve/cut energy use who then wipe out all gains made by supporting the addition 1 million+ immigrants per year, not to mention supporting amnesty for 11 million+ illegal aliens. I am tired of people who lament the uptick in poverty then support the wholesale importation of poverty via amnesty and family reunification. If an immigrant has low skills and a poor education, how likely is it that his brother is going to be any different? I am tired of liberals who wring their hands over the increasing inequality in the US and then support granting amnesty to 1.2+ illegal aliens, most of whom have no education past HS and who approve handing out 70,000 green cards a MONTH, all of which served to keep un-underemployment high and wages - skilled and unskilled - depressed.
This isn't xenophobia or hatred of immigrants - it's simple economics: The law of supply and demand. It's all about the numbers.
has much more to do with corporate mind lock, mentality than anything and because they can get away with age discrimination and absolutely nothing happens to these employers, no fines, no legal cases lost, no sanctions, not even a scolding.
The perception is older people cost more, are less compliant and god knows what else that is not in reality at all.
No doubt about it in STEM, there is clearly vast age discrimination going on, we see it all over the place, start-ups must be "young", job ads which want "young" and on and on.
Illegal immigrants who often do not have even high school are not taking these jobs, although the flood of foreign labor sure is enabling this kind of age discrimination.
That said, age discrimination across all occupations is so horrific and it's disgusting how it goes even unchallenged by the press, and by politicians.
If only we could enact the same discrimination against Politicians, all of 'em would be out of a job and maybe then they would wake up to what is going on.
Clearly this article is being linked somewhere by those who blame illegal immigration on everything.
Our labor market is much more complex than that folks and there are so many different policy elements which effect labor markets.
All this article does is explain the various different numbers, most often by the press, who do not do math, on what the real number is to keep up with population growth.
That's not illegal alien growth, that's just general population growth and this is a math problem, to help us out since the press "don't do that math thing" much.
It's a math problem, explained, not a referendum on illegal labor or foreign labor. Gez, come on here, read some of the other articles on the site.
New Green Cards = Jobs Created. An equal level of both and that spells doom for the American Worker looking for a job.
Somewhere near the bottom of this hell, is a site called BPO (really). This offshore site brags it will find IT workers at 12 to 25 percent of the U.S. domestic rates for any position.
As a sweetener, it tells the corporate sponsor that no benefits of any kind will be paid.
The idea of incentives set up against higher tax rates is a policy that predates TEFRA, before 1986. What I am advancing hers is a return to targeted incentives, the world before 1986, or the 1985 world in Back to the Future. What is new is the EFAB, my idea.
Uh, not everyone who is unemployed would be offered (or take)a minimum wage job. A lot of people who are unemployed were making six figures. If they got hired (at six figures) and the government paid 50% of their wage, it would cost the government a lot more than it did when they were unemployed.
What needs to happen is to get rid of all the Illegal Immigrants who are driving down wages, filling minimum wage jobs that kids used to do after school (and the lesser skilled held full time), taking advantage of all of our government benies, driving up school and medical costs, lowering property values as they move into houses they have no clue how to take care of,...
Illegal Immigrants send BILLIONS of dollars out of our economy and back to their homeland. They have abused every financial loophole imagineable to rape this country financially of more billions while our government turns a blind eye.
Now that Obama has made the executive order in favor of the Dreamers, BEFORE doing anything to stop the flood of Illegals, you can bet things will only continue to get worse.
I am one who wants a job. I began putting out apps years ago when my on-an-as-need-basis job began to diminish due to increased competition. I am currently employed part time and collecting unemployment, which has decreased this year to almost nothing. I have a couple of things working against me. I am nearing early retirement age and I have no specific marketable skill. Now throw in the recession which has cut back jobs. On top of that, pile on all the new immigrants and Illegals who are added to our population daily. I am angry. I am frustrated. I write my congressmen and our administration constantly to complain about illegal immigration. Do they listen? No. Apparently the livelihood of families who are here illegally are much more important to our government. To hell with people such as I who have no children or grandchildren to move in with or help out. Yeah, that's another thing. Since I didn't ever marry I made sure I never got pregnant. Now I look around at all these welfare families, legal and not, who are pumping out babies like a pezz machine while I pay for it with my taxes. That angers me too!
Our government needs to stop the flood of Illegals and lessen the number of new legal immigrants. They especially need to stop allowing foreigners to come here strictly to fill a position because "we don't have the talent in this country." What a crock! We have all the talent we need here. Believe it. Otherwise, why do all the foreigners come here for their education?
As for our government "creating jobs." All I have heard about is construction, building roads. Sorry but as a poised, feminine lady who is nearing retirement, I do not want to be on a road construction crew! We need to penalize any business that outsources to another country! Harshly! Bring jobs home. (And stop importing from China! They are going to poison us all!)
Back to the Future:
The Enterprise Fabrication Initial Public Offering
Starting with TEFRA in 1986, U.S. Tax policy changed from incentive based to a policy of rate cuts without incentives, with catastrophic results for the domestic U.S economy. Before 1986, the U.S.Tax policy had a Christmas tree of various incentives, many ill-conceived. A balanced policy would bring back incentives, keep incentives few and target the incentives to key economic objectives. Policy initiatives shifted to the extreme of the “flat rate” school now arguing for ending the Estate Tax, cutting the top Corporate and Individual rates and bringing the Capital Gains Rate to zero. The flow of funds offshore and the de-industrialization of the U.S. Economy is the case against the lat-rates school. Empirically, a drop in all tax rates has run parallel to the downward spiral of domestic industrial activity since 1986.
The tax policy bringing us Back to the Future of 1985 would raise the taxable floor for the minimum rates, increase the retirement deductions such as pensions and IRAs, and create a new class of IPO for equity investors. These changes will help negate the Fiscal Cliff for any and all serious about a revival of the domestic economy while avoiding the Carry Trade. Look no further than the published tax returns of many in the Political Class for a case against the Carry Trade (e.g. offshore accounts).
The Enterprise Fabrication IPO, EFAB gives incentives both to the individual investor and the corporate issuer. EFABs investment would be deductible from Gross Income, like retirement accounts for the individual. The corporate issuer would have the added benefit or repatriation of foreign retained earnings without tax, as long as the repatriation is bundled with proceeds of the EFAB IPO. The monies from both the IPO and the repatriation will be dedicated to domestic fabrication facilities, mostly those investments qualifying for the old Investment Tax Credit, with some new items. EFABs have a unique financial advantage over other IPOs. Besides tax incentives, the bundling foreign retained earnings with the IPO proceeds will cut the earnings-per-share dilution of every EFAB IPO in half.
EFAB Qualfying Targets would include:
Movies. No industry has suffered off-shoring quite like Hollywood. The EFAB would bundle the IPO targeted to multiple film projects with repatriation of foreign earnings by Hollywood, so long as the film is sited domestically.
Basic Industry. The law would allow any Green Fields factory domestically sited for chemicals, oil and gas, steel, mining, aerospace satellite and cable systems and other domestic fabrication facilities. Metal-In-The-Ground, Metal in the Sky and Celluloid in the Can (now digital).
Technology. All plant and equipment qualifying under Basic Industry plus new software and internet sites, provided such investment is domestically sited and strictly adheres to the spirit of Department of Labor guidelines regarding outsourcing and pay parity for domestic vs. Visa workers.
Transportation. New Airport, Port, Rail and High Speed Rail Projects qualifying under Basic Industry.This list would include industrial facilities for supply chain e-distribution domestically sited.
BioTech. All Green Fields Biotech research facilities will qualify the same as Basic Industry,
Research in Biotech is increasingly offshore.
Green Energy Facilities. Electric Generation utilizing green energy credits at federal or state level creating more than 50MG/Watts or greater in electricity or caloric equivalent.
Water Distribution Utilities. New Water Extraction and Distribution to Arid Climates. Water extraction and distribution to areas with less that 20 inches of rain fall annually domestically.This investment includes pipelines, aqueducts and wells.
Regulation. The IRS must specifically object on the grounds of intent to avoid economic substance in the IPO and must object within 30 days of the Initial Letter. SEC and agency may object subject to 30 day disapproval.
Disapproval must include conclusive proof of intent to avoid economic substance and transparent regulatory violations in the IPO. No intent to avoid post IPO review by regulators.
Agreed, the list of donors I posted from opensecrets showed that 2008 Obama donors now simply move their bets to Romney (banksters fully supported Obama in 2008, now mostly Mitt), but of course they all still donate some to both parties. And if Romney loses, they'll just donate and/or lobby in whichever way suits their purposes.
Average American has no say. It's great that politicians do get busted on tape from both parties showing their actual contempt for us (besides their laws, voting records, and outright corruption). They go on and on about lazy, uneducated Americans sucking govt. money when most of us have better skills, educational backgrounds, work ethics, and simply want to be left alone without seeking some higher office to control other people. Being insulted by those seeking our votes is really too much. As if the defense contractors and big banks and large MNCs don't ask anything from the govt. or receive govt. subsidies or lobby the govt. for their funds and new laws? The large TBTF get our money directly from the Treasury to spend on themselves and lose on bets in privatized gains and socialized losses, there is no greater leech than that. When was the last time John Doe in a regular job went to DC and lobbied for a law to help him, got a direct link to the Fed and Treasury or DOJ or a handout and then was able to use that money for coke-fueled parties with hookers or vacation homes, or a govt. contract that his friends or former colleagues secured? The hypocrisy and double standards really are too much.
***Unrelated note showing banana republic status of USA - MF Global executives are possibly starting a new hedge fund.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-18/ex-mf-global-equity-derivati...
Notice how they blame "external forces." Excuses excuses, those banksters are never responsible, always have excuses but that's never mentioned by their puppet politicians. Jon Corzine is also thinking about starting a new hedge fund, apparently stealing billions already from farmers isn't enough and he really knows he'll never face any jail time or forfeiture in the USA ever.
Funny, the same hedge fund managers that finance campaigns that criticize the 99% and steal their money are all too willing to take the pension and mutual fund money from the same "commoners" they despise. Good enough to rob and step on, not good enough to have a voice in the rule of law or our own government I guess.
Romney may have gotten busted, but in practice, it's pretty clear some Democrats view the American people in the same way. Just something to manipulate and have go into debt to make sure they keep up consumer spending.
Romney is toast but I said this once he picked Ryan. Worse and worser but that doesn't make Obama or Congress better.
When those in power make the rules, when they stack the deck, and most people have no say - how do things change?
When the wealthy buy the laws, set the rate of pay, cut jobs to obtain more profit for the wealthy - what options do the rest of us have?
How does a 30 hr. part time, just about min wage, no benefit worker do? Main street is working hard to feed the kids and pay the bills. Most barely have a spare hour, or spare dime, to figure out a way out. Most live in some state of worry about keeping the job, getting enough hours, putting gas in the car. People trying to hang on to the little they have aren't going to rock the boat and put basic survival at risk.
I'm not saying you give up. I'm saying you look at the reality of now and try to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation.
Both parties serve the money men, but Mitt Romney can't even stay quiet long enough to get his puppetmasters the position they are paying for. I know the crony capitalists in both D & R view us as worthless leeches and only suitable as slave labor to make crap when wages in the PRC or Bangladesh get too high or as people that can lick the dog sh*t off their kids' $500 shoes, but seriously, Mitt, shut up until you get into office.
Don't say you view us as worthless, no matter the fact that we number in the hundreds of millions and are the vast majority of Americans. Don't despise us when we serve in the military and then you claim in the next sentence that politicians really do care about those serving. Mitt, I'm sorry eighty year old men and women won't just die already and might not be able to toil on a highway crew to make sure you have access only for 1%er vehicles (sort of an HOV lane for the crony capitalists). Mitt, I'm sorry Thomas Paine and other Founding Fathers wrote and talked about social security systems and estate taxes so the handicapped and injured and elderly and sick could go on living productive, inspirational lives - read Paine's writings inbetween Ayn Rand and Murdoch's approved policy papers you dumb sh*t, people who helped found the USA and risked their lives for the common people in this country and in others knew a whole lot more than you and your moneymen puppetmasters and laid out what the USA was about for us today. Read Jefferson's writing bashing banksters - flies in the face of your bankster-love Mitt. He and others warned us about banks, and corporations, and other Presidents like Washington and Eisenhower warned us about foreign alliances and parties. Mitt, crack a book, think a thought.
More and more the 1%ers in both parties really do come off looking like they have special programs and camps for worthless people/"breeders and eaters" - their words are abhorrent. Sort of reminds us of other programs in recent history around the world where the elite wanted to rid society of those they viewed as worthless.
Mitt, leeches and dependent on government? Come on man, be honest for one day in your life. Your daddy was a lobbyist for auto and then, not too difficult to do, ran the auto state of Michigan as Governor. Taxpayers paid his salary. Seems to me he was as insider as you could get and collected paychecks for government work and lobbying. I'm sure he never made money from his "public service" he wasn't entitled to, right? You inherited his wealth. You inherited connections that got you into Harvard for bschool. You inherited connections into private equity. You collected government paychecks in Mass. courtesy of TAXPAYERS! Mitt, that's a whole lot of high-level public positions that most people never dream of having because we're busy actually busting our asses out here in real jobs and helping our family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens because we care.
And now we get lectured to by this son of privilege? F' that. No way. Mitt, banksters and other high level folks in politics and business are the ultimate leeches. They screw up year after year. They use our taxpayer money from the FDIC to backstop their endless gambles/mistakes. They commit crimes. They use our taxpayer money directly for their salaries and bonuses! Talk about leeches. Paul Ryan is a leech - must be, we're funding his job while he takes months off at a time to campaign for more money and power - that's a leech. Can we fire him and everyone else in DC?
Mitt, the unemployed and other Americans out here outside the top 1-5% never laundered money for terrorists or drug cartels like your moneymen banksters have admitted doing. So while you talk about foreign affairs, mention your donors laundering money for the terrorists attacking us. For the drug cartels killing judges, police, women, children, old and young men, and everyone else. Mitt, why so quiet? Mitt, go visit Afghanistan and tell the soldiers and Afghan civilians that banksters launder money for international drug cartels and help launder money for Iran that aids the Taliban. Mitt, hello? I guess all the teachers and police officers and doctors and engineers, scientists, nurses, shop owners, managers, and employees, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, professional drivers, pilots, vets, secretaries, artists, custodians, attorneys and judges, corrections officers, painters, and every single unemployed from those professions, etc., etc. that don't want to vote for him are useless leeches that view themselves as "victims"?
Corporations that outsource and bring in guest workers never responsible for anything bad? Only the unemployed are responsible for corporate-policies that bone them? Huh? Corporations that pollute our oceans and rivers need fewer laws? Corporations poisoned tens of thousands of infants but it's my fault and I'm worthless? Corporations can buy all levels of government to screw us over but it's my fault? All Americans not in boardrooms are lazy bastards? CEOs research and develop medicines and other products and market them and transport them and sell them globally and write about them all by themselves? Chester Cheetah says, "Most impressive, Sir."
Mitt, lesson #1, corporations aren't people, they are fictional entities for the sole purpose of limited liability, your ignorance only proves how you really did buy your degrees. If corporations want to be people, fine, the CEOs and everyone else that signs paperwork that commits LIBOR fixing, commodities manipulation, robosigning, foreclosing on vets while they are overseas, commingling funds and stealing them, can go right to prison like every other "person" under the law. They can also be sued personally. Send Dimon and Corzine and Blankfein to jail right now. Even if they aren't people, individuals in corporations are often held responsible for crimes (at least the non-TBTF ones). RICO and FCPA and other laws apply, just as a CEO can be indicted for murder or theft or terrorism. Just because criminals incorporate doesn't give them free reign to rape, murder, and steal, does it, Mitt? If a drug cartel incorporates, can it do as it pleases, laws be damned? Really?
No, this isn't partisan, it's just reflective of how little the people in power and their puppets in both parties honestly view the average Americans in our own country. This reality is so far from the vision our country was founded on. It's an abomination. It's only in the last decade or so we see the possible nightmare invading our waking hours. I think our Founding Fathers revolted for far less and now they are universally seen as heroes. "What say you, Mittens," Bill O' in a parallel universe wants to know, "are you smarter and more honest than our Nation's founders and the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all our Constitutional Amendments and the very people of the USA?" Because we might strongly disagree with that crap. Come out and mix with the folks you despise but want to vote for you or any other party run by the crony capitalists. Don't worry, we're not like the animals you portray us as, in fact, we might have something to add to your echo chamber.
It baffles me that people can't see what the endgame is in all this. When I think about it I just want to curl up in a little ball and weep.
In sum, why reward or even allow those criminals and/or traitors that are selling out their countrymen for their own personal wealth to continue to do so? Why allow them one moment's peace (let alone billions in ill-gotten wealth) while everyone else that studied, worked hard, served their country in the military or as teachers or in other positions and followed all the rules is continually screwed over by people that didn't study, or work honest jobs, or simply got wealthy through connections and/or stepping on anyone and everyone that didn't view other human beings as fodder and steps to some CEO position? All that would happen is that the powers that be would start seeking new rent-taking methods and methods of crushing other Americans, like taxing purchases of farm tools at ridiculous rates, or small homesteads, or forcing public school children to pay college level tuitions or else work in factories to make products the plutocrats could sell, or buying all the land around small farms and homes and then imposing tolls to go through (like Rockefeller did with oil plots surrounding small drillers and the train barons did with farmers 120+ years ago). Nah, not even appeasement, but merely allowing these folks to get away with anything will only embolden them. Like all criminals and those without any shame or integrity, they will take and take and take until someone gets in their face and stops them. Even if someone is hiding in a corner, they will not leave you alone - these predators will view that as weakness.
Well, screw that. I'm tired of these predators thinking for a moment we are weak. Look at them. They surround themselves with guards, live in walled compounds, and never mingle with regular folks. They attend conferences with people just like them. I mean they are even afraid of honest questions! Questions scare them?!
Look at Mike Bloomberg, the plutocrats' mayor. He surrounds himself with armed guards, doesn't walk the streets of the city he represents to mingle with the regular people he should represent, and only attends conferences with other plutocrats where the general public isn't allowed in and he and other plutocrats arrange policies harming us without any checks or balances (e.g., working with phone-hacking and cop bribing Murdoch to get more foreign workers to replace Americans). Who are the cowards then plutocrats? They can't resist constantly showing others how tough they think they are - it's the nature of predators, they only stop when called out and forced to stop. And in a democracy, the numbers of honest people that want the criminal conduct and exploitation to stop far outnumber the criminals destroying the USA - so in true democratic fashion, numbers must carry the day.
You know what our Congress is doing? Not putting together a direct jobs program for U.S. citizens or even passing the label China a currency manipulator. Nope, they are busy making sure more foreigners take our jobs by increasing even more Visas. This time they want to give an automatic green card to foreigners going to our schools. This is while there are 2.1 million U.S. STEM workers who cannot get a job.
Even worse, we're being bombarded with pure statistical lies claiming this creates jobs. It does NOT create jobs, it takes away jobs from U.S. workers. They will claim this bold faced lie and lobbyists helped them out with some complete statistical fiction provided.
That's what our Congress is doing in the midst of our jobs crisis.
Check out numerian's post on the purchase of MBSes, it's really frightening what is going to happen with all of these derivatives later down the road.
That's so out of reality, when people have nothing they cannot "cut back". Nice fantasy and basically you're telling people to just take it, lay down and die. Thanks for sharing.
Bernanke's/Fed's/TPTF's ploy for boosting a stock market bubble further so "people felt richer" lasted for less than 2 trading days. I guess reality is too powerful at this point, despite the best efforts of the Fed, US Government, and MSM/business networks to try to fool us. More free cash for TPTF is now seen for what is was the last two times QE was tried = complete crap that does nothing for the real economy and real jobs. So Bernanke will flood the market with inflation-causing cash with no recognizable returns whatsoever for 99.9% of the population.
Meanwhile, the Iran crisis is stepping up as the US seems intent on increasing military forces in the region, Middle East getting worse, and China vs. Japan continues to heat up over territorial disputes. So we have to borrow money from China to finance our military in the Middle East and sell our military technology to China while the government can't help 27+ million American citizens? That's not too logical and seems to only screw us over at every turn. In other news last week, Japan said it was aiming to completely eliminate dependence on nuclear energy in a few decades. Guess what that added demand on oil will do when Japan seeks oil supplies in waters in the region and also increases the global demand on oil that everyone else demands? Not good for prices or regional security. Add to that the ECB's and Fed's endless desire to flood us with worthless currencies and we'll see new words invented because hyperinflation and staglation and Great Depression Redux, or II, or III won't do the situation justice.
But that's why we leave such matters to our betters in the halls of power that have jobs that don't demand integrity or intelligence. Because logic and long-range thinking never affect simple themes like "blue vs. red," or "money is good, so trillions more off the presses is really, really good," etc. When life can be boiled down to simple themes by the Wizards of Oz and corrupt bastards behind the curtains or in the boardrooms, I'm sure we'll all be okay. Not like they would ever purposely screw us over for their own benefit or the benefit or their relatives or equally corrupt friends and cronies. The Ponzis and scams are becoming more and more readily apparent.
Anyway, on this anniversay of Occupy, where oh where are the masters of the universe like Jon Corzine? Should we check Leavenworth or the Hamptons? Also, remember, banksters were busted for laundering money for terrorists and so as radical Islamists kill our personnel overseas, what is our government doing specifically to bust and imprison the banksters that our aiding our enemies as we speak? Instead of jailing Occupy protestors, what is Mike Bloomberg as a bankster and bankster friend doing to fight bankster money launderers that help terrorists attack us? NYPD? FBI? How about the US Attorneys and DOJ? Eh? Fox News, any comment? MSNBC? CNN? Anyone JAILING THE BANKSTERS THAT AID THE TERRORISTS ATTACKING US THIS WEEK OVERSEAS? These banksters have admitted to aiding them and have only paid fines for doing so, so where's the rule of law and true justice for Americans? And that summarizes the whole ridiculous screwing over of us all for the benefit of criminals pretending to be anything but.
We may as well adapt. Main Street can't change things, we no longer have the power and TPTB are not concerned with Main Street economics.
So live smaller, stop buying stuff and have your friends over for a Saturday afternoon pot luck. Enjoy the life you can make. Figure out how to survive the rest.
immigrant numbers are very tough for our government refuses to track on immigration status, being "foreign born" means people brought over as infants, guest workers, illegals and naturalized citizens, green card holders. That said, you all have burnt me out on this attack on this article with illegals are stealing our jobs pounding. So, when I get up to the task I will pull some of the numbers I can estimate as valid. Right now, you're missing the increasing aging native population.
Example, we have absolutely not verified tally of the number of guest workers in the country and that's unconscionable of our government since guest workers have a direct impact on domestic labor markets.
Most green cards go to family based immigration (you all refer to this as chained migration).
Sigh. For now this thread is closed to more of these posts, yeah, ok, we get your point and I'll have to go do some number crunching and gather about statistics as I can obtain which are valid.
We are granting approximately 70,000 green cards every month to legal immigrants and tolerating at least 7 million illegal aliens working in the US while millions of US workers are seeking employment and millions more have simply given up.
From 2000 to 2010, the native working age population grew by 13.5 million; the working age population for immigrants - legal and illegal – grew by 6.9 million. In 2010, 1.1 million fewer working age natives held jobs than in 2000. In 2010, 4.5 million more immigrant workers - legal and illegal - held jobs than in 2000. It's not hard to see why we have a long-term jobs crisis, is it?
I doubt that anybody who is reading this posting has never interviewed for a job. So when you get into the waiting room, what do you what to see - 20 people waiting to be interviewed or 3 or 4? The more people applying for a job the less likely you are to be hired, especially at the salary you would like.
I am a liberal who has voted Democratic probably 95% of my voting life but I am tied of environmentalists who support all sorts of measures to conserve/cut energy use who then wipe out all gains made by supporting the addition 1 million+ immigrants per year, not to mention supporting amnesty for 11 million+ illegal aliens. I am tired of people who lament the uptick in poverty then support the wholesale importation of poverty via amnesty and family reunification. If an immigrant has low skills and a poor education, how likely is it that his brother is going to be any different? I am tired of liberals who wring their hands over the increasing inequality in the US and then support granting amnesty to 1.2+ illegal aliens, most of whom have no education past HS and who approve handing out 70,000 green cards a MONTH, all of which served to keep un-underemployment high and wages - skilled and unskilled - depressed.
This isn't xenophobia or hatred of immigrants - it's simple economics: The law of supply and demand. It's all about the numbers.
has much more to do with corporate mind lock, mentality than anything and because they can get away with age discrimination and absolutely nothing happens to these employers, no fines, no legal cases lost, no sanctions, not even a scolding.
The perception is older people cost more, are less compliant and god knows what else that is not in reality at all.
No doubt about it in STEM, there is clearly vast age discrimination going on, we see it all over the place, start-ups must be "young", job ads which want "young" and on and on.
Illegal immigrants who often do not have even high school are not taking these jobs, although the flood of foreign labor sure is enabling this kind of age discrimination.
That said, age discrimination across all occupations is so horrific and it's disgusting how it goes even unchallenged by the press, and by politicians.
If only we could enact the same discrimination against Politicians, all of 'em would be out of a job and maybe then they would wake up to what is going on.
Clearly this article is being linked somewhere by those who blame illegal immigration on everything.
Our labor market is much more complex than that folks and there are so many different policy elements which effect labor markets.
All this article does is explain the various different numbers, most often by the press, who do not do math, on what the real number is to keep up with population growth.
That's not illegal alien growth, that's just general population growth and this is a math problem, to help us out since the press "don't do that math thing" much.
It's a math problem, explained, not a referendum on illegal labor or foreign labor. Gez, come on here, read some of the other articles on the site.
New Green Cards = Jobs Created. An equal level of both and that spells doom for the American Worker looking for a job.
Somewhere near the bottom of this hell, is a site called BPO (really). This offshore site brags it will find IT workers at 12 to 25 percent of the U.S. domestic rates for any position.
As a sweetener, it tells the corporate sponsor that no benefits of any kind will be paid.
The idea of incentives set up against higher tax rates is a policy that predates TEFRA, before 1986. What I am advancing hers is a return to targeted incentives, the world before 1986, or the 1985 world in Back to the Future. What is new is the EFAB, my idea.
Uh, not everyone who is unemployed would be offered (or take)a minimum wage job. A lot of people who are unemployed were making six figures. If they got hired (at six figures) and the government paid 50% of their wage, it would cost the government a lot more than it did when they were unemployed.
What needs to happen is to get rid of all the Illegal Immigrants who are driving down wages, filling minimum wage jobs that kids used to do after school (and the lesser skilled held full time), taking advantage of all of our government benies, driving up school and medical costs, lowering property values as they move into houses they have no clue how to take care of,...
Illegal Immigrants send BILLIONS of dollars out of our economy and back to their homeland. They have abused every financial loophole imagineable to rape this country financially of more billions while our government turns a blind eye.
Now that Obama has made the executive order in favor of the Dreamers, BEFORE doing anything to stop the flood of Illegals, you can bet things will only continue to get worse.
I am one who wants a job. I began putting out apps years ago when my on-an-as-need-basis job began to diminish due to increased competition. I am currently employed part time and collecting unemployment, which has decreased this year to almost nothing. I have a couple of things working against me. I am nearing early retirement age and I have no specific marketable skill. Now throw in the recession which has cut back jobs. On top of that, pile on all the new immigrants and Illegals who are added to our population daily. I am angry. I am frustrated. I write my congressmen and our administration constantly to complain about illegal immigration. Do they listen? No. Apparently the livelihood of families who are here illegally are much more important to our government. To hell with people such as I who have no children or grandchildren to move in with or help out. Yeah, that's another thing. Since I didn't ever marry I made sure I never got pregnant. Now I look around at all these welfare families, legal and not, who are pumping out babies like a pezz machine while I pay for it with my taxes. That angers me too!
Our government needs to stop the flood of Illegals and lessen the number of new legal immigrants. They especially need to stop allowing foreigners to come here strictly to fill a position because "we don't have the talent in this country." What a crock! We have all the talent we need here. Believe it. Otherwise, why do all the foreigners come here for their education?
As for our government "creating jobs." All I have heard about is construction, building roads. Sorry but as a poised, feminine lady who is nearing retirement, I do not want to be on a road construction crew! We need to penalize any business that outsources to another country! Harshly! Bring jobs home. (And stop importing from China! They are going to poison us all!)
Whose policy recommendations are these? link?
Back to the Future:
The Enterprise Fabrication Initial Public Offering
Starting with TEFRA in 1986, U.S. Tax policy changed from incentive based to a policy of rate cuts without incentives, with catastrophic results for the domestic U.S economy. Before 1986, the U.S.Tax policy had a Christmas tree of various incentives, many ill-conceived. A balanced policy would bring back incentives, keep incentives few and target the incentives to key economic objectives. Policy initiatives shifted to the extreme of the “flat rate” school now arguing for ending the Estate Tax, cutting the top Corporate and Individual rates and bringing the Capital Gains Rate to zero. The flow of funds offshore and the de-industrialization of the U.S. Economy is the case against the lat-rates school. Empirically, a drop in all tax rates has run parallel to the downward spiral of domestic industrial activity since 1986.
The tax policy bringing us Back to the Future of 1985 would raise the taxable floor for the minimum rates, increase the retirement deductions such as pensions and IRAs, and create a new class of IPO for equity investors. These changes will help negate the Fiscal Cliff for any and all serious about a revival of the domestic economy while avoiding the Carry Trade. Look no further than the published tax returns of many in the Political Class for a case against the Carry Trade (e.g. offshore accounts).
The Enterprise Fabrication IPO, EFAB gives incentives both to the individual investor and the corporate issuer. EFABs investment would be deductible from Gross Income, like retirement accounts for the individual. The corporate issuer would have the added benefit or repatriation of foreign retained earnings without tax, as long as the repatriation is bundled with proceeds of the EFAB IPO. The monies from both the IPO and the repatriation will be dedicated to domestic fabrication facilities, mostly those investments qualifying for the old Investment Tax Credit, with some new items. EFABs have a unique financial advantage over other IPOs. Besides tax incentives, the bundling foreign retained earnings with the IPO proceeds will cut the earnings-per-share dilution of every EFAB IPO in half.
EFAB Qualfying Targets would include:
Movies. No industry has suffered off-shoring quite like Hollywood. The EFAB would bundle the IPO targeted to multiple film projects with repatriation of foreign earnings by Hollywood, so long as the film is sited domestically.
Basic Industry. The law would allow any Green Fields factory domestically sited for chemicals, oil and gas, steel, mining, aerospace satellite and cable systems and other domestic fabrication facilities. Metal-In-The-Ground, Metal in the Sky and Celluloid in the Can (now digital).
Technology. All plant and equipment qualifying under Basic Industry plus new software and internet sites, provided such investment is domestically sited and strictly adheres to the spirit of Department of Labor guidelines regarding outsourcing and pay parity for domestic vs. Visa workers.
Transportation. New Airport, Port, Rail and High Speed Rail Projects qualifying under Basic Industry.This list would include industrial facilities for supply chain e-distribution domestically sited.
BioTech. All Green Fields Biotech research facilities will qualify the same as Basic Industry,
Research in Biotech is increasingly offshore.
Green Energy Facilities. Electric Generation utilizing green energy credits at federal or state level creating more than 50MG/Watts or greater in electricity or caloric equivalent.
Water Distribution Utilities. New Water Extraction and Distribution to Arid Climates.
Water extraction and distribution to areas with less that 20 inches of rain fall annually domestically.This investment includes pipelines, aqueducts and wells.
Regulation. The IRS must specifically object on the grounds of intent to avoid economic substance in the IPO and must object within 30 days of the Initial Letter. SEC and agency may object subject to 30 day disapproval.
Disapproval must include conclusive proof of intent to avoid economic substance and transparent regulatory violations in the IPO. No intent to avoid post IPO review by regulators.
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