The Economic Populist
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
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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
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Showdown at the Occupy Wall Street OK Corral
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The Administration Double Speak on Jobs & Exports
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4th Quarter GDP Grew at 2.9% Rate on Increased Inventories, Personal Services, and Government
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The Best of the Best of 2011 LIstomania
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
- 345284 reads
US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 183612 reads
Showdown at the Occupy Wall Street OK Corral
- 39119 reads
The Administration Double Speak on Jobs & Exports
- 22066 reads
4th Quarter GDP Grew at 2.9% Rate on Increased Inventories, Personal Services, and Government
- 77763 reads
The Best of the Best of 2011 LIstomania
- 20571 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?
- 1215983 reads
New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
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How Many Jobs Are Needed to Keep Up with Population Growth?
- 361595 reads
VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
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U3 and U6 Unemployment during the Great Depression
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The war on the middle class
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House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
- 313902 reads
Tax Cuts for the Rich Do Not Generate Jobs
- 279563 reads
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...at least in large part. The crackpot economic theories that have dominated the politics of Congress since 1980, more so every year, are to blame.
Markets are self regulating, leave them alone. Let the market take care of it." What a hustle that was. What utter garbage.
And now we are well on the way to national serfdom.
There is a solution. The American Society of Civil Engineers issued an infrastructure Report Care in 2009. The country fails across the board. But there's a silver lining. The $2 trillion price tag is the biggest jobs program ever and it's a mandatory project. How about some bonds for that, bonds tied to an actual project. The fact that I'm mentioning this and it's not mentioned every day inside the beltway shows how indifferent our leaders are to the state of the nation's infrastructure and the nation's real needs.
Report Card Video
http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
per year. There already is nothing left.
I see rents going to $2k/mon and i have no idea who can afford that.
I should be happy because the world didn't come to an end.
But wait. It is coming to an end -- just not today at 6PM.
Our world is far more threatened by what this report tells us, plus other negative economic factors. Yet the media doesn't portray this stuff as an emergency. Not that the media should get all the blame either, because the public, while ahead of the politicians in rating the economy and jobs as our #1 problem, isnt't demanding any action.
Anyhow, thanks for once again for bringing the important news (that I often wouldn't understand without your explanations and graphs) to my attention.
[Ignore/delete prior post]
If things go on the way they are, surely there will be a point in the next decade or so that anyone making under $100,000 (family with kids) or $60,000 (single) will not have anything left.
Think about it: rents are once again starting to creep up in many parts of the country. Health care's zooming up faster now than before the rececssion, evidently. State and local taxes, energy, food, clothes, commodities -- all are UP, UP and AWAY!
Yet not only are wages stagnant for most, but for many there are no wages -- or they have gone down.
So I ask the joke question that is not a joke: if we continue on our presnet course, when will everything the average person makes go to bills and essentials?
If things to on the way they are, surely there will be a point in the next decade or so that anyone making under $100,000 (family) or $75,000 (single) will not have anything left.
Think about it: rents are once again starting to creep up in many parts of the country. Health care's zooming up faster now than before the rececssion, evidently. State and local taxes, energy, food, clothes, commodities -- all are UP, UP and AWAY!
Yet not only are wages stagnant for most, but for many there are no wages -- or they have gone done.
So I ask the joke question that is not a joke: if we continue on our presnet course, when will everything the average person makes go to bills and essentials?
First, I'm busy preparing for the end of the world, but I cannot find any killer posts either. If others have a must read article published this week, please list it here in these comments.
While this "Koch brothers" anti-union rhetoric is completely off the rail on unions, the history is they do help working conditions, wages and professionals really need one, it seems also unions have gone off the mark too.
Lately unions, especially the SEIU, pushed the illegal immigrant thing, which clearly the American people outright reject and many of the rank and file reject it too, way too many jobs going to illegals, use of illegal labor to fire union members, break unions, erode worker rights....
Then, the teachers union. The rules to become a teacher these days are inane, but the entire educational system seems really screwed up. It isn't the teacher's fault, it's more the system and those administrators, still I don't think they are helping.
On the other hand, H-1B visas are being used to displace teachers. It's ridiculous, here are all of these people needing a job and they are importing foreign guest workers as teachers.
So, while ranting nonsense trying to claim unions haven't helped worker, esp. with wages is false, some of the original criticisms have good points.
The damn unions seemed to be more interested in pushing "amnesty" and illegal immigrant causes that getting more Americans in the unions and increasing wages, securing jobs.
Do you see this as being more than a reminder from the unions that they have a quid pro quo relationship with the Democrats and they won't provide the quid without the quo?
I guess maybe he's saying that to appease his membership.
Other than that, because of our long history of two party politics, he's possibly committing his members to doing nothing in 2012. Given the Republican turn to the right -- which the Tea Party influence has only intensified (at least while running, if not in office), the Democrats are all organized labor has right now.
Is there some Column C person out there I don't know about who might run this time from the left? I wish there were, but who?
P.S. I have to admit that I find his claims to speak for all workers grating. Sometimes what the unions do helps all workers, but often it's for themselves only. I feel he's using all workers to hide behind while advocating his positions, he never refers to his "members" at all, only "workers."
"We will spend the summer holding elected leaders in Congress as well as the states accountable on one measure: Are they improving or degrading life for working families?”
"We are looking hard at how we work in the nation’s political arena. We have listened hard, and what workers want is an independent labor movement that builds the power of working people -- in the workplace and in political life … Our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate. It is to improve the lives of working families and strengthen our country.
"It doesn’t matter if candidates and parties are controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing aside -- the outcome is the same either way. If leaders aren’t blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families’ interests, working people will not support them. This is where our focus will be -- now, in 2012 and beyond."" Richard Trumpkka, President, AFL-CIO
Link
or credit games generally are insane. When you need credit, they deny and jack up the rates, when you don't, that's when they try to get you as a customer.
Absolutely ridiculous, esp. for anyone wanting to start a small business.
New business? I don't think people understand how hard it has become to secure a business loan to start a new business. It's become a never ending cycle of floundering... this is my breakdown: Man has job. Man gets laid off from job because of recession. Man then has to collect unemployment and max out his credit cards to stay afloat. Man's credit drops dramatically from over usage of cards. Man applies for new job but is turned down because the employer checks his credit report. Man gets frustrated and decides he can go it alone and formulates his business plan. Man approaches bank for small business loan and is turned down. Man then wisely seeks implement credit repair only to find that the services cost an exorbitant amount a month.
Anyway, say adios to whatever social support we've been getting through the years... it's all going to war and illegal immigrants. Hurrah for the good ole US of A.
Allegiance
Loyalty or the obligation of loyalty, as to a nation, sovereign, or cause. The obligations of a vassal to a lord.
trea·son
NOUN:
Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
A betrayal of trust or confidence.
Do these terms seem to identify a governing body collectively known as the US Congress, which has acted with little if any allegiance to the people which it represents and for which its actions, through legislation enabling the enemies of said represented, causing the transfer of said representeds wealth has compromised the health safety and general welfare of said represented, the entire body inclusive of the executive branch should be prosecuted for acts of TREASON.
enough is enough
any legislation providing tax incentives for offshoring of American Jobs or industry should hereby be deemed unconstitutional and revoked. Any Representative that voted to pass such legislation should be held for treason against the United States and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Any executive that signed such legislation into law should also be justly prosecuted for acts of treason.
Great idea and we've have many proposals on some sort of transaction tax on trades, generally, but putting a tax on derivatives, esp. those which create systemic risk, are the most "fictional", say CDS since they are not 1:1, i.e. the trader has no connection to the underlying asset would be great.
If you want to have your book reviewed, email me off line and get me a copy and I'll write it up as a post.
Sounds interesting and frankly, anything the MNCs or Wall Street doesn't like, which are usually sound proposals, gets suppressed for even public discourse.
I've told you many, many times and I am not interested in repeating myself or filling up this site with misinformation and useless argument. You repeatedly write insults, misinformation, argumentative comments filling up a thread, like you are doing right now. This is troll behavior and you have been given guides as to what troll behavior is.
Follow the rules or leave.
With all due respect, please point out the crap. I only presented my side of the discussion, nothing more. Isn't that what everyone else does? If I'm not mistaken, this site is full of opinions and views on many different issues. So, why is mine crap? I offered no lies or misinformation, yet you say it's crap? What crap are you referring to? Are opposing views and opinions crap to you? Please explain. Thanks.
$600 trillion derivatives market = opportunity to reduce National Debt by an additional 1/2 $ trillion yearly
A small 0.5% transfer fee on the $600 trillion Derivatives market would pay off the debt without cuts in Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. It would raise $500 billion per year.
Reference: How to Pay Off the National Debt by Kainz available at Barnes and Noble or amazon.com
I told you, trolling, being a troll is filling up the comments with argumentative nonsense and I am not going through your absurd claims again. We have over 200 articles on EP on unions, the history of unions.
STOP filling up the boards with this trolling crap.
Hey, what nonsense?? Can you prove that anything that I've said is a lie or misinformation? If so, then do it, please. Is this just a one-sided event? Are only those that you're in total agreement with allowed to make comments? I do understand that you obviously have your pets here, but where does fair play come in?
And, for your information sir, I know a lot about unions and their history. I just finished reading a piece about the textile unions in the south. Would you like the address to the website? I don't talk just to babble, I know what I'm talking about. Can you dispute what I say with facts and data? If so, do it, please. Otherwise, please allow me the same courtesy that you afford others. It would be greatly appreciated.
I've been around unions and union workers all of my life, including family members. I lived in union country next to the chemical and refinery industries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for ten years. My neighbors were union workers. My friends were union workers. I know a lot more than you think about unions.
Serious question : Is this site for pro-union folks ONLY ???? It sure seems that way to me. Aren't there two sides to every issue? Are you only interested in just one side, the side that you're on ???
Do you make a habit of saying that an opposing view and opinion is "nonsense"?? If the view and/or opinion doesn't agree with your thinking, then, to you, it's nonsense? Pleeeese !!!
Please point out the nonsense, please.
Seems he used the same call girl service as Elliot Spitzer but more interesting, he abused one.
For a prostitute to say don't send any more girls to this guy to a Madam when it's $1200 an hour, that says something.
The IMF today is just prattling on with their austerity agenda.
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