The Economic Populist
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BREAKING: Wall Street Mega-Merger!!!
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US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 182919 reads
Why the economy isn't recovering
- 85172 reads
Uncle Sam wants to buy your car
- 8710 reads
CPI Jumps 0.4% on Shelter and Gas Costs
- 20348 reads
Appeals Court: Fed must disclose bank bailout records
- 13020 reads
Lobbyists Surround the Hill - Demand Their Bail Out
- 7976 reads
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BREAKING: Wall Street Mega-Merger!!!
- 22500 reads
US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 182919 reads
Why the economy isn't recovering
- 85172 reads
Uncle Sam wants to buy your car
- 8710 reads
CPI Jumps 0.4% on Shelter and Gas Costs
- 20348 reads
Appeals Court: Fed must disclose bank bailout records
- 13020 reads
Lobbyists Surround the Hill - Demand Their Bail Out
- 7976 reads
The Golden Rule
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Will the NY Attorney General Bring Doomsday Charges Against Wall Street? If So, How Long Will He Survive?
- 1215985 reads
New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
- 949078 reads
How Many Jobs Are Needed to Keep Up with Population Growth?
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
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U3 and U6 Unemployment during the Great Depression
- 320765 reads
The war on the middle class
- 314778 reads
House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
- 313912 reads
Tax Cuts for the Rich Do Not Generate Jobs
- 279572 reads
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The latest gem. Colleges are offering skills training for the unemployed that "today's employers" want.
Oh, what skills do they supposedly want? Chemical engineering? Neuroscience? Civil engineering to fix our infrastructure? People that can destroy banking cartels and help right the wrongs? What skills do these job destroyers need that they simply can't find in the US?
So-called "non-profit institutions of higher learning" are asking people to sign up for classes at their expense (obviously some federal govt. $ going to the colleges too) for . . . recycling and landscaping and radon testing! Doesn't get any better than that.
Hey, are you 45 and long-term unemployed and "overqualified"? Do you have a BS in Electrical Engineering? Or Nuclear Engineering? Can you design nuclear reactors? Well, GE doesn't want you, you're American and might not go along with outsourcing and CEOs raping companies and nations. But your local college thinks you should pay money to learn how to test for radon. Or if you are lucky, learn landscaping (not even landscape architecture, but landscaping, at a college? anything for tuition money) and see if you'll get hired as a 50 year old woman or 60 year old man with asthma. Best of luck!
Instead of fighting for all the unemployed these schools taught and took money from and changing the national policies killing us, they see $$$$$ at every turn, even if it is making the unemployed poorer. Where's the outrage?
2012 and this our present and future - NASA engineers, veterans, the potential brains and visionaries that could cure AIDS or diabetes being told to become radon testers. Those jobs are fine, but really, is the best the Banana Republic can do for people who can do so much more for the US and the rest of the world? And how do the 97% (Third Estate numbers) really save money, pay off college and grad school debts, and send their kids to college on that?
The Third Estate keeps getting screwed over and the elites just tell us to suck it up (funny how the 3% never change, it's always the peasants that have to lower their goals).
is $3.5k a month gross, after taxes, single, although varies greatly on State to State, assume take home pay is $2800 with income tax, FICA, Medicare (yes folks, you pay for Medicare while working). Your mortgage doesn't include taxes and insurance so tack on another $200, that leaves roughly $1700 for food, retirement, health care, transportation and if not offered through work, health insurance premiums significant. Mortgage payments are supposed to be no more than 25% of your gross, so that's already exceeded it. But the median wage in this country is $26.4k. This is for a single person, who I think could squeeze by here but a family on $42k a year, no way.
Whenever I hear Romney or Ryan claiming that their plan will be kept the same for those "in or near retirement" while also "saving and strengthening Medicare for future retirees", a quote from Judge Judy comes to mind, which goes something like this, "Don't piss on my leg and tell me that its raining."
Although I am one who has been a registered Republican and voting faithfully along party lines since Ronald Reagan because I agree with the Republican Party's stance on the social issues, yet I will drop my party affiliation to become "Independent" and sit this election out. I cannot and will not vote for Obama and Biden because of where they stand on social issues. However, I will not vote for those who would cut my throat the first chance they get after getting elected. At 51, I have paid into Social Security and Medicare all my working life, and after over 30 years, by now I have a vested interest in those programs.
Where did Simpleton/(Toilet)Bowles ever come up with the idea that entitlements ought to be left alone for those who are age 55 and above, while it is okay to throw those who are 54 and below under the bus? There is no doubt in my mind that this was a political calculation. For a long time now, most politicians have known better than to mess with that dreaded "third rail of politics", so exempting those who are 55 and above from the effects of their wonderful "entitlement reform" was designed to mitigate the inevitable backlash sure to follow any attempts by politicians to screw over such a large class of people.
Whatever happened to the constitutional right of "equal protection under the law"? This goes out the window if Romney and Ryan get their way.
How come age discrimination in the workplace is illegal, yet the Romney/Ryan scheme would discriminate against those who are younger than 55, by not giving them the same deal that those 55 and over are getting? Hopefully the despicable plans of Shyt Onme and Cryin' Ryan will never be enacted. If so, then baby boomers who are unfortunate enough to be in the 54 and below age bracket ought to file a lawsuit to protest age discrimination.
http://www.paulryansucks.blogspot.com/
You are welcome.
"a $200,000 mortgage when a household earns $42,000 a year" at 3.55% is $903.58 a month
the so-called housing recovery is merely a fiction of Fed manipulated interest rates, which will not stay this low forever...
They only care about polls and whether their snow job on the American people is effective or not. Honestly, Ben Bernanke cares more about the unemployed that our politicians do. Since it's silly season I need to overview both platforms and show, x policy presented as "job creator" is actually a massive job destroyer. We know this but let's make it official.
It's positively disgusting watching these people, the only thing politicians know how to produce is spin. The corporate lobbyist agenda is already laid out and both parties will heed their demands.
Just think how fantastic it must be to have a degree or two, 1-20 years of experience, and then work for some boss who's got you working as an intern for free. And what's your reward? You need to use foodstamps (brought to you by the fine folks at JPMorgan, including Jamie "It's easier to name the laws I haven't broken" Dimon. Middle class, see ya. We've got bosses making people work for free and citizens depending entirely on the govt. to survive.
I look at China and I see the same thing. The whole Revolution came about because of exploitation (in that case, foreign powers). But what do we have now? The PRC government is now so desperate to keep foreign companies happy (until they can steal all the IP) and keep people employed that Foxconn was using interns forced to work for free. So now the PRC and the US aren't so different after all, as long as the oligarchs here are happy and the Party elite are happy over there, who cares about the rest of us?
You would think it is a right to work. The last policy in the U.S. which said that jobs are a right was Humphrey-Hawkins. The 1970s. If you say work is a right, you will be confronted by the word 'opportunity'. Get a job, I got mine, you get yours. If you are not working, you are worthless, unskilled, lazy and every other adjective used to cut
of job training for the unemployed and Unemployment Insurance.
Not one of the pretenders to the throne has a clue of what to do about the unemployed.
Nothing.
Sixty percent of all animal feed used by China is imported from the U.S. but somehow, we have no trade leverage with China. Without U.S. corn, China has very little meat, and very little complete protein. China also imports soy. It no longer matters about the Treasuries held by BOC when rampant world hunger is getting nearer at hand.
That same corn must transverse the port of New Orleans, which may bite the bullet of this hurricane, but not all of them
Anything vs the USD is going to go in one direction excepting brief breaks when the CB need some lower inflation numbers for a quarter or so ..for political reasons. Look at the yen for example..
http://mlatrader.com/?p=64
All the same..
Make those parasites sitting in our government(at all levels, local through DC, the Fed, IMF, World Bank) that are getting rich off banksterism and our tax money move out here in the real world. Let them struggle to to feed themselves with food stamps in 2012 for a few months and skip the lobbyist dinners and jets. Let them look 24/7 for jobs that pay so little that you need foodstamps to get by and be rejected 2,000 times because they have no real world experience that their families or cronies didn't hook them up with. 2012 and this isn't leading to mass protests and outrage at every single official? These politicians will keep getting fatter (literally and figuratively) and wealthier while we starve. Sure hope we can send more money and aid through the IMF to other countries and help feed them, let's ignore our own citizens, their starvation, and their unemployment. Hey, where are Hillary and Bill making friends overseas today?
Meanwhile, in Florida, sure hope Romney doesn't talk about fending for yourself and Ayn Rand when things like hurricanes bear down on the USA - 'cause things like the National Weather Service, NASA satellites, Coast Guard, National Guard, FEMA, US Army Corps of Engineers, Einsenhower's interstate highway system, military technology like rescue boats and helicopters and stormchasing airplanes, etc. all pretty important federal items, along with federal aid, when natural disasters (like hurricanes, floods, forest fires, tornadoes, etc.) come calling as they do every single year.
National conventions - pretty sure no one there is going to be working two jobs so they can still rely on food stamps to feed themselves and loved ones. Lobbyists are covering everyone's bill - but remember, nothing's free in life, and they want more payout from that hated government whoever wins.
boycott imports.?
As the last graph shows hiring discrimination against the 55 plus group is at it's highest, at the same time everyone is worried about the baby boomers and the solvency of Social Security. If more seniors were working, they wouldn't HAVE to file for early SS benefits. You would think these so-called leaders would see the correlation but of course they don't. Many senior citizens have years of valuable experience and are hard and loyal workers, but there are so many roadblocks in the way for them to secure jobs that many give up. Now you have this huge segment of talented, energetic (yes old folks can be energetic!) hard working people sitting home, waiting to die. Thanks America! There are programs that are called Mature worker programs, and Senior employment entities that are supposed to hire older people. Many are now not available or underfunded! Those wealthy crooks who still cling to the lie that they should get tax breaks because they're the job creators is the biggest crock of nonsense EVER created. If you want people to continue paying into the Social Security fund...Hire Seniors so they don't have to collect!
Through their repeated actions, it's clear that the Fed and the Federal Govt. aren't really too concerned about what small farmers (i.e., non-mega-corporate farmers) and consumers think. Those in power aren't going to end the Fed under any circumstances.
The Fed is owned and run by banksters - just look at its composition, and where its alumni work. Banksters lobby and run the White House, DOJ, Treasury, etc. They aren't giving up power, especially when they are set to win this election no matter who wins the exercise. Banksterdom central. There are supposed to be spots open to regular, non-bankster citizens according to the Fed rules so that unemployment and inflation are dealt with to the benefit of the majority of American citizens, but those spots are never filled by Joe Regular Citizen, it's pure banksters all around. Would Joe Regular really help foreign banks like DBank or Barclays through secret loans? Of course not, he would look out for his friends, neighbors, and fellow Americans. So he's excluded and you get megarich people like Dimon and others. Sure, I trust those people. . . to rob us and then blame us for the robbery.
CFTC, DOJ, state AGs, and county DAs with juridiction over victims, suspects, and funds didn't do anything when Corzine caught commingling and stealing $1.2 billion from farmers across the USA and then moved stolen money to Dimon's JP Morgan despite law after law and reg after reg prohibiting it. White House okay with theft since Corzine still raising money for White House, despite fact farmers growing food for us and world are decimated financially. Hey, it's only food, banksters and politicians need to get richer, just eat cake (but use bark to make it).
And consumers/food eaters, well, no one cares about them. Fed QE to infinity, endless ZIRP, Fed paying interest on Fed funds held at bankster banks, banksters borrowing from Fed at 0% but loaning out at loanshark rates (but using credit cards, so it's "legal"), etc. merely rewards banksters through massive inflation and savers losing out to speculators. And banksters love speculating on commodities, just like oil, metals, pork, soy, corn, etc. So, no one in power cares if small farmers or people desperate for jobs, or food, suffer more. It's all about the banksters - and they demand more $. What's eating bark compared to another house in Aspen? ASPEN! Come on, don't deny the banksters, politicians, or Fed officials. Let everyone else eat bark!
corn is in Turkey, chicken animal feed as well, also similar to beef. Grass feed beef is way more healthy for us and the cattle, but drought kills everything, including grass.
Well, if the Fed does more quantitative easing I think there is going to be "end the Fed" movement come out even more powerful.
Soy, rice, wheat, and other commodities' prices are the stuff revolutions are built on overseas (e.g., French Revolution and wheat shortages). Food supplies and prices are the source of endless struggles globally. Even Iran knows screwing around with its massive subsidies that keep gasoline (not food directly ) dirt cheap causes major domestic unrest (besides the problems internally and externally it already has). People in places like the PRC, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, and Thailand aren't all kicking it in some new Ford plant and saving some cash, in fact, most of them are still scratching out a living. And given that many locals left farms to look for greater prosperity in cities, they are especially prone to higher prices because they can't grow their own food anymore. So when we face droughts and problems, they are going to be facing the same things and increasingly get agitated. Especially once a new middle class gets used to beef (outside India) and higher-end products and get those taken away, oh, people get pissed.
Regarding how the mandate is regressive for lower/middle income singles, you said "typical rent payment for a 1 bedroom, $800/month"......It's even worse if you're making that 33k income living is Southern California where the average 1 bedroom apt is more like 1,400 a month. That person BARELY squeeks by as it is. Obamacare will take what little discretionary money that usually goes to car repairs, out of pocket health expenses (to walk in clinics for example) and other emergencies that come up. Guess they want to drive that person to debt and bankruptcy.
Germany did this when hit with recession as did others to keep as many people working as possible. Surprise, they recovered in spite of the current Euro crisis. In the U.S. people are working to death and as we point out in the productivity overview, U.S. workers are not sharing at all in the soaring U.S. labor productivity figures.
perhaps "job" needs redefining.
in 1972 alvin toffler wrote;
due to advances in production
the working week (hours) needs to be reduced to spread the jobs.?
I got tired of trying to work out the logic of these people a long time ago. For example, these CEOs and puppets always say they can't find qualified people and our schools are terrible even when wages are decreasing (belying any supply shortage) and the very same CEOs and HR and politicians attended the same (or worse) schools. Most of the CEOs never were that bright and certainly aren't in any position to judge real brains or talent, they were just ruthless enough to climb to the top. Then, wouldn't you know it, these same people want more foreigners to go to the same schools they just criticized on student visas from China, etc. Then they claim that graduates of these same "crap" schools are so valuable now as grads that they should be allowed to stay here indefinitely lest we lose that awesome education from the very same "crap schools."
Or they can't find skilled workers here, and then hire people who literally came straight off farms overseas with no skills and who were unemployed (I guess the unemployed bar only applies to Americans). Well, keeping 27 million Americans (with that number destined to keep growing) permanently unemployed and replacing them with foreigners on visas or here illegally (or both) is destroying society, destroying fiscal revenues, putting a massive burden on public utilities, schools, law enforcement, etc. as people can't pay into the system and increasingly are locked out of contributing to their own Nation and being heard.
Those people aren't going to hold everyone keeping them locked out of society accountable? Why not, they are being screwed over by "public servants" that swore oaths and betray them daily.
I gave up the logic of it all and just view everything now as serving their paymasters in corporate boardrooms and trying to buy votes with people coming to this country. And then it makes sense.
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