In the works, takes me a while to pour over the data, but one thing, seems the MSM has finally picked up on the concept of population growth, that said, they are not calculating it out, clearly, from that number.
I'll do 2 of these overviews and look at the real population growth, by month.
Remember it's all based out of Census, 2000 base and has a lot of assumptions.
I almost always have a minimum of 175,000 jobs needed to keep up with population growth by the way and EPI is higher.
For all the growth so far this year, job gains are only slightly ahead of the 150,000 new jobs that are needed to keep pace with population growth.
I'm used to seeing 125,000 used as the monthly number of new people entering the workforce. I've seen the 125,000 figure cited over and over the past two plus years I've been following the extremely conplicated and frustrating topic of unemployment.
Is this 150,000 figure an adjustment due to our growing population, due to increased immigration, or something else?
My friend, (and you are my friend, as Red Skelton used to say), I did NOT say that you are unqualifiedly an "unrealistic extremist" -- I conditioned that by "on the prognostic side." I apologize because what I should have said is that, while I agree with you about how extreme many of the realities are and I think that you are realistic in your diagnosis I also think that what you advocate by way of solutions (your prognosis) is unrealistic and extreme.
So, I apologize. I should have been careful to distinguish you from the radical changes in the U.S. Criminal Code that you propose (assuming that your proposals are meant to be taken at face value).
BTW: Whether you could care less or not, I'm still going to vote for your comments when I find that they are advancing the discussion!
I agree with you that votes are not about a contest. My votes are to let people know if I have found an article to be worth reading.
The Medicare “doc fix” will cost more than $62 billion through 2013. The Obama budget offsets those costs over the next 10 years, leaving unaddressed the $315 billion that the physician payments would cost between 2014 and 2021. Over the next ten years, the Health and Human Services Department would:
reduce the threshold for taxing Medicaid providers in 2015 ($18.37 billion);
crack down on high prescribers and utilizers of prescription drugs in Medicaid through better tracking ($3.45 billion);
recover erroneous payments made to insurers participating in the Medicare Advantage program ($6.16 billion);
limit Medicaid reimbursement of durable medical equipment to Medicare rates ($6.4 billion);
speed generic biologics to market by limiting the exclusivity period for brand name manufacturers ($2.34 billion); and
prohibit brand and generic drug companies from delaying the availability of new generic drugs through so-called “pay for delay” deals ($8.79 billion).
Companies and corporations are not leaving America because of insurance rates (which are paid for by employees and customers) that is a false narrative, the companies have fired millions of living wage earning Americans and taken those jobs overseas (mostly to a communist country) for profit, they have stabbed America in the back of money period.
"When you did get an attorney, you found out that you had to wait an additional six months to file. The new bankruptcy law of 2005 requires credit counseling six months prior to filing."
This statement is incorrect.
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) provides that, with limited exceptions, people who plan to file for bankruptcy protection must get credit counseling from a government-approved organization WITHIN 180 days before they file. That means you can get credit counseling a day before you file -- or 180 days before you file.
BAPCPA did make filing for bankruptcy more difficult for debtors (especially for pro se debtors -- debtors without attorneys), but my experience with the bankruptcy court -- I was a law clerk for a bankruptcy judge for a few years -- does not paint such a dire picture for debtors. Bankruptcy judges, for the most part, are compassionate: There is a sincere sympathy for honest debtors (the vast majority of debtors) and a real urge to give them a fresh start.
One correction - credit counseling is required to take place no more than 180 days before filing. It can be done the day before filing. I worked for an agency whose sole purpose was to get them through a counseling session and issue a certificate. It did not cost very much, either. The entire bankruptcy process under the 2005 law is designed to heap as much indignity as possible on the individual who has hit hard times. But they don't have to wait six months to file.
Although there may be rare cases where an employee does not know exactly who they're working for, the vast majority of employees know who hired them. I certainly wasn't talking about the rare exceptions here.
Of course, in cases of emergency treatment such as a broken arm, yes, we would do the humane and civil thing. I wasn't talking about the exceptions. I was talking about general medical care given illegal immigrants. Check the stats for medical care and treatment of illegals just in the state of California.
As far as thinking that I'm an unrealistic extremist, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. And, in my opinion, you're blinded to reality. ***** Please note : Personal attacks are not allowed on this site according to the administrator. I would appreciate it very much if you would stick to topic of conversation, and refrain from directing comments towards the person instead of towards the subject matter.
Also, I couldn't care less whether you vote my comments up or down. This site is not a contest, but rather one for information and civil discussion. Please keep that in mind when commenting to material posted on this site. It would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
This is why I will not blanket blast the Fed. There seriously, esp. at the regional Fed sites, some really good economists and tools.
THANK you, that's quite a post! I have some BEA research as well that is starting to recognize offshore outsourcing as a problem, a data skew as well...
so I will try to gather all of these research results and write them up in one big blog post.
Damn I put these great blogs in the columns and miss them anyway!
Commenting on the ever-longer recovery time for the recent Great Recession (my terminology, not Atlanta Reserve's), Dave Altig (senior vice president and research director at the Atlanta Fed):
Explanations abound, but one popular belief is that the answer hides somewhere within the somewhat ambiguous phenomenon labeled "globalization."
Altig goes on to present the relevant data (1999-2008). Then he concludes:
We certainly don't present this information as a definitive answer to the question about the role of offshoring in the slow U.S. jobs recovery. But if you forced us to choose between global or domestic factors as the place to look for solutions as we struggle with persistent underperformance in U.S. labor markets, we'd choose the latter.
What gets me is what appears to be a form of censorship against any questioning of the 'globalist' agenda or recognition that our problems could be in any way a consequence of a failed U.S. approach to international trade - or that the people should expect to be consulted on any trade issues. What little there is in the way of such questioning, it's confined to the issue of China's currency policies (and nothing about why that form of protectionism was ever exempted from the sacred rules of 'free' trade according to the WTO or about that maybe those rules should be overhauled in their entirety).
There is almost no questioning in the Congress or in the media of the premise that we (the working people of America) are out of line to expect any reform or major overhaul in the continuation and enlargement of the globalist agenda as we have and are experiencing it. 'Free' trade continues to get a free pass, without really being subject to media scrutiny, even though everyone knows that protectionism is finding ever greater support throughout the country.
Globalism issues are treated like a sacred cow.
Similarly, there is very little scrutiny of the issues of corruption. Each case that comes forward is examined as though it were an exception rather than the rule.
And the two issues - corruption and 'globalism' are intertwined, as pointed out back in 2006 by economist Joseph Stiglitz -
It's criminally stupid not to stop all this baloney in its tracks.
I just don't see any reason to allow this dangerous nonsense to go on. If it will eventually cost us more in tax dollars than we take in on these monkeyshines, then what is the point?
In effect we're saying we're willing to allow people to pay $1 in tax that will eventually cost us $3 in bailouts and interest. Although of course my figures are entirely made up: who knows, maybe it's $10 in bailouts and interest for every $1 paid in taxes on high risk investments.
The top corporations in profits received bail outs. They are offshore outsourcing jobs, now lobbying intensively for more offshore outsourcing, bringing in guest workers
and they are not creating jobs in the United States.
This is the ultimate insult. If they do not provide jobs to Americans, what is the point of even having them here or allowing them to exist? For the benefit of a few mega investors?
Especially when it is those fired Americans, who now need a job, it's their tax dollars which bailed them out in the first place.
The obvious truth is on every corner of Main Street America. The daily headlines are filled with bad news about employment, the economy in general, our astronomical debt, trade deficits, wars, housing, and increases in poverty and those living off of government assistance programs. Meanwhile, Washington sleeps.
Our downward spiral continues regardless of what rhetoric we hear coming out of the mouths of the Washington Brotherhood. The cost of living is running away from real wages, and affordable health care has become rare for the majority of the population. Food pantries have empty shelves, and home foreclosures have turned many neighborhoods into ghettos. Last week a report came out that said 20% of the homes in the state of Florida are now vacant.
But, when all is said and done, American voters will continue to re-elect anti-America professional politicians to serve in Washington. Go figure.
First of all, no, I often did not know who hired me. I got a job years ago with a farm labor contractor in Salinas and I did not know who hired me. I heard from a guy that was on a short-hoe crew that I should show up at a store parking lot at 5 AM and drive a crew bus. I received a pay check, eventually, of course - but who checked on my immigration status? Nobody's immigration status was checked. Seeing as how I was born in this country, and that was what they wanted, I didn't expect to be 'carded'. All I did was fill out a W-4. Yes, of course, there was a company name, but what if it's a corporation?
Are you seriously suggesting that we jail corporate officers for what their corporations do? I guess maybe that happened once in the Chicago case where Polish immigrant laborers were dying from exposure to poisons. I forget how it turned out, but I doubt that anyone actually did time.
And not only at lower end jobs. When I was hired by large corporations, even when a security clearance was involved, I did not know exactly who hired me. Something to do with the Personnel Department, of course, but there were also interviews.
"A few simple questions"? Of whom would these questions be asked?
Ultimately, you would need a piece of paper signed by someone who is willing to risk life imprisonment.
This makes no sense to me. For one thing, how do you determine if the person who appears to have signed the paper really did, or if the signature was forged, or if the signature belongs to a real person? And have you ever heard of a shredder?
About imprisoning anyone who is responsible for giving food, shelter, etc., at taxpayers' expense ... that has to trace back to federal bureaucrats. Everyone else down the food chain is going to say, "Well, look, this was approved by the government, and what? Now that same government wants to throw me in jail?" So, then, you will say, okay, throw the bureaucrats in jail. You can't even sue those guys on the basis of their individual responsibility - they are protected by laws implementing sovereign immunity.
Anyway, what about this - I know a U.S. citizen who suffered a broken arm while traveling in Germany. Treated with high tech methods, all done, no charge. The Germans told her that they didn't resent that they had to support the system that treated her - they EXPECT that in any civilized country!
Sonny Clark: I greatly appreciate your information-type comments, but I think on the prognosis side, you are an unrealistic extremist.
OOPS. I voted you down resulting in a -1. But now, I have to admit that I am an unrealistic extremist (I guess) when it comes to my support of American Monetary Institute monetary reforms and other financial reforms. Also, I do sometimes fantasize about lining the traitors up in front of a machine gun. So, okay, I have responded with my objections, and now I will vote even your extreme comment up by a +1.
Obviously, the person that does the hiring without checking for legal citizenship is at fault. I totally disagree that it would be difficult to trace papers to the one that actually hires illegals. There's no need to search through mountains of papers to find top level owners. Again, life in prison without the possibility of parole for anyone hiring illegals would put an end to illegal workers in America. It's simple to find out who actually hired an illegal. When you got a job, did you know who hired you? Of course you did. A few simple questions would reveal the person who hired an illegal.
Also, I would include anyone giving illegals food, shelter, medical care, etc. at taxpayers' expense.
You're correct in saying that we can't count on government, at any level. All three branches are corrupt and anti-America.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. First, "they" need to let us and future generations off the hook for their past and current blunders.
Kicking the can down the road in the direction away from where we want to go ... that will never work when the problem is that the vehicle is broken and needs major repairs.
Regulation is neither good nor bad, just because it's regulation. The devil is in the details.
The only alternative to effective and rational regulation of the global capital system is the collapse of that system. Collapse may sound good now, but in practice, systemic collapse is always extremely painful in terms of happiness of the people. The first victim of systemic collapse is always the environment.
Going after the little guys who do the hiring - for example, labor contractors in the fields -- is like going after the 12-year-olds who do the street running for crack dealers who are themselves pretty far down the ladder from the big-time importers of cocaine.
You can go out into the fields of Central California and you'll find layers of contracts, almost like derivatives, wrapped around many 10-acre or 40-1cre parcels. The "owners" of the land, what do they know? Somebody's name on a title in the County records. But what other paper can be found, after a diligent search, that conditions the title? The "owners" may have leveraged (monetized) title to some bank, who leased it to somebody who has already sold the crop in advance to somebody who leased the cultivation and the seeding to other somebodies who leased the weeding and spraying to other somebodies, who subbed the hiring to somebody who hired three semi-legals who happen to have brought along 15 of their cousins (who don't speak one word of English).
If you find the ultimate owners, they are likely to be off-shore entities. So, when you go to sentence them, where do you find them? Are you going to send arrest teams of U.S. Marshals around the world? And the corporate fronts or partnerships, what if they cry foul not only in our courts but also international law. And then there's retaliation: maybe some U.S. investors will be tried and sentenced to life in other countries - who knows what for?
BUT there is a way to get at the entire system. RICO! Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. You wouldn't have to take more than a few hundred acres for the entire system to change quickly. Of course, it couldn't be done without some kind of amnesty for at least some of the "precariat" (precarious proletariat) who are currently doing the work on the ground.
Remember the meat-packing plant in Iowa that was raided in 2008? What if it had been seized in its entirety, including the methamphetamine factory located at its center?
I think people would pay attention.
OOOPS! One little glitch: not only can the working people of America not count on the White House and, for sure, not on the current Congress - we also cannot count on the SCOTUS!
In the works, takes me a while to pour over the data, but one thing, seems the MSM has finally picked up on the concept of population growth, that said, they are not calculating it out, clearly, from that number.
I'll do 2 of these overviews and look at the real population growth, by month.
Remember it's all based out of Census, 2000 base and has a lot of assumptions.
I almost always have a minimum of 175,000 jobs needed to keep up with population growth by the way and EPI is higher.
Depends upon what assumptions one makes.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/06/news/economy/april_jobs_report_unemploym...
For all the growth so far this year, job gains are only slightly ahead of the 150,000 new jobs that are needed to keep pace with population growth.
I'm used to seeing 125,000 used as the monthly number of new people entering the workforce. I've seen the 125,000 figure cited over and over the past two plus years I've been following the extremely conplicated and frustrating topic of unemployment.
Is this 150,000 figure an adjustment due to our growing population, due to increased immigration, or something else?
I apologize!
My friend, (and you are my friend, as Red Skelton used to say), I did NOT say that you are unqualifiedly an "unrealistic extremist" -- I conditioned that by "on the prognostic side." I apologize because what I should have said is that, while I agree with you about how extreme many of the realities are
and I think that you are realistic in your diagnosis 
I also think that what you advocate by way of solutions (your prognosis) is unrealistic and extreme.
So, I apologize. I should have been careful to distinguish you from the radical changes in the U.S. Criminal Code that you propose (assuming that your proposals are meant to be taken at face value).
BTW: Whether you could care less or not, I'm still going to vote for your comments when I find that they are advancing the discussion!
I agree with you that votes are not about a contest. My votes are to let people know if I have found an article to be worth reading.
This article may be of interest to you.
Health Care Budget Focuses on ‘Doc Fix’
The Medicare “doc fix” will cost more than $62 billion through 2013. The Obama budget offsets those costs over the next 10 years, leaving unaddressed the $315 billion that the physician payments would cost between 2014 and 2021. Over the next ten years, the Health and Human Services Department would:
reduce the threshold for taxing Medicaid providers in 2015 ($18.37 billion);
crack down on high prescribers and utilizers of prescription drugs in Medicaid through better tracking ($3.45 billion);
recover erroneous payments made to insurers participating in the Medicare Advantage program ($6.16 billion);
limit Medicaid reimbursement of durable medical equipment to Medicare rates ($6.4 billion);
speed generic biologics to market by limiting the exclusivity period for brand name manufacturers ($2.34 billion); and
prohibit brand and generic drug companies from delaying the availability of new generic drugs through so-called “pay for delay” deals ($8.79 billion).
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/02/14/Health-Care-Budget-Foc...
Also see : http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/05/06/Medicare-Doc-Fix-Put-o...
Companies and corporations are not leaving America because of insurance rates (which are paid for by employees and customers) that is a false narrative, the companies have fired millions of living wage earning Americans and taken those jobs overseas (mostly to a communist country) for profit, they have stabbed America in the back of money period.
"When you did get an attorney, you found out that you had to wait an additional six months to file. The new bankruptcy law of 2005 requires credit counseling six months prior to filing."
This statement is incorrect.
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) provides that, with limited exceptions, people who plan to file for bankruptcy protection must get credit counseling from a government-approved organization WITHIN 180 days before they file. That means you can get credit counseling a day before you file -- or 180 days before you file.
BAPCPA did make filing for bankruptcy more difficult for debtors (especially for pro se debtors -- debtors without attorneys), but my experience with the bankruptcy court -- I was a law clerk for a bankruptcy judge for a few years -- does not paint such a dire picture for debtors. Bankruptcy judges, for the most part, are compassionate: There is a sincere sympathy for honest debtors (the vast majority of debtors) and a real urge to give them a fresh start.
One correction - credit counseling is required to take place no more than 180 days before filing. It can be done the day before filing. I worked for an agency whose sole purpose was to get them through a counseling session and issue a certificate. It did not cost very much, either. The entire bankruptcy process under the 2005 law is designed to heap as much indignity as possible on the individual who has hit hard times. But they don't have to wait six months to file.
Although there may be rare cases where an employee does not know exactly who they're working for, the vast majority of employees know who hired them. I certainly wasn't talking about the rare exceptions here.
Of course, in cases of emergency treatment such as a broken arm, yes, we would do the humane and civil thing. I wasn't talking about the exceptions. I was talking about general medical care given illegal immigrants. Check the stats for medical care and treatment of illegals just in the state of California.
As far as thinking that I'm an unrealistic extremist, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. And, in my opinion, you're blinded to reality. ***** Please note : Personal attacks are not allowed on this site according to the administrator. I would appreciate it very much if you would stick to topic of conversation, and refrain from directing comments towards the person instead of towards the subject matter.
Also, I couldn't care less whether you vote my comments up or down. This site is not a contest, but rather one for information and civil discussion. Please keep that in mind when commenting to material posted on this site. It would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
Lawless Nation: The Executive Branch
Lawless Nation: Congress
"The Judiciary" is in production;)
This is why I will not blanket blast the Fed. There seriously, esp. at the regional Fed sites, some really good economists and tools.
THANK you, that's quite a post! I have some BEA research as well that is starting to recognize offshore outsourcing as a problem, a data skew as well...
so I will try to gather all of these research results and write them up in one big blog post.
Damn I put these great blogs in the columns and miss them anyway!
I see a link to the GOV pages just to the right here. Pretty good blog from Dave Altig there!
Atlanta Reserve macroblog
Commenting on the ever-longer recovery time for the recent Great Recession (my terminology, not Atlanta Reserve's), Dave Altig (senior vice president and research director at the Atlanta Fed):
Altig goes on to present the relevant data (1999-2008). Then he concludes:
What gets me is what appears to be a form of censorship against any questioning of the 'globalist' agenda or recognition that our problems could be in any way a consequence of a failed U.S. approach to international trade - or that the people should expect to be consulted on any trade issues. What little there is in the way of such questioning, it's confined to the issue of China's currency policies (and nothing about why that form of protectionism was ever exempted from the sacred rules of 'free' trade according to the WTO or about that maybe those rules should be overhauled in their entirety).
There is almost no questioning in the Congress or in the media of the premise that we (the working people of America) are out of line to expect any reform or major overhaul in the continuation and enlargement of the globalist agenda as we have and are experiencing it. 'Free' trade continues to get a free pass, without really being subject to media scrutiny, even though everyone knows that protectionism is finding ever greater support throughout the country.
Globalism issues are treated like a sacred cow.
Similarly, there is very little scrutiny of the issues of corruption. Each case that comes forward is examined as though it were an exception rather than the rule.
And the two issues - corruption and 'globalism' are intertwined, as pointed out back in 2006 by economist Joseph Stiglitz -
Corrupting the Fight Against Corruption
It's criminally stupid not to stop all this baloney in its tracks.
I just don't see any reason to allow this dangerous nonsense to go on. If it will eventually cost us more in tax dollars than we take in on these monkeyshines, then what is the point?
In effect we're saying we're willing to allow people to pay $1 in tax that will eventually cost us $3 in bailouts and interest. Although of course my figures are entirely made up: who knows, maybe it's $10 in bailouts and interest for every $1 paid in taxes on high risk investments.
The top corporations in profits received bail outs. They are offshore outsourcing jobs, now lobbying intensively for more offshore outsourcing, bringing in guest workers
and they are not creating jobs in the United States.
This is the ultimate insult. If they do not provide jobs to Americans, what is the point of even having them here or allowing them to exist? For the benefit of a few mega investors?
Especially when it is those fired Americans, who now need a job, it's their tax dollars which bailed them out in the first place.
The obvious truth is on every corner of Main Street America. The daily headlines are filled with bad news about employment, the economy in general, our astronomical debt, trade deficits, wars, housing, and increases in poverty and those living off of government assistance programs. Meanwhile, Washington sleeps.
Our downward spiral continues regardless of what rhetoric we hear coming out of the mouths of the Washington Brotherhood. The cost of living is running away from real wages, and affordable health care has become rare for the majority of the population. Food pantries have empty shelves, and home foreclosures have turned many neighborhoods into ghettos. Last week a report came out that said 20% of the homes in the state of Florida are now vacant.
But, when all is said and done, American voters will continue to re-elect anti-America professional politicians to serve in Washington. Go figure.
** Thanks for the applause my friend.
First of all, no, I often did not know who hired me. I got a job years ago with a farm labor contractor in Salinas and I did not know who hired me. I heard from a guy that was on a short-hoe crew that I should show up at a store parking lot at 5 AM and drive a crew bus. I received a pay check, eventually, of course - but who checked on my immigration status? Nobody's immigration status was checked. Seeing as how I was born in this country, and that was what they wanted, I didn't expect to be 'carded'. All I did was fill out a W-4. Yes, of course, there was a company name, but what if it's a corporation?
Are you seriously suggesting that we jail corporate officers for what their corporations do? I guess maybe that happened once in the Chicago case where Polish immigrant laborers were dying from exposure to poisons. I forget how it turned out, but I doubt that anyone actually did time.
And not only at lower end jobs. When I was hired by large corporations, even when a security clearance was involved, I did not know exactly who hired me. Something to do with the Personnel Department, of course, but there were also interviews.
"A few simple questions"? Of whom would these questions be asked?
Ultimately, you would need a piece of paper signed by someone who is willing to risk life imprisonment.
This makes no sense to me. For one thing, how do you determine if the person who appears to have signed the paper really did, or if the signature was forged, or if the signature belongs to a real person? And have you ever heard of a shredder?
About imprisoning anyone who is responsible for giving food, shelter, etc., at taxpayers' expense ... that has to trace back to federal bureaucrats. Everyone else down the food chain is going to say, "Well, look, this was approved by the government, and what? Now that same government wants to throw me in jail?" So, then, you will say, okay, throw the bureaucrats in jail. You can't even sue those guys on the basis of their individual responsibility - they are protected by laws implementing sovereign immunity.
Anyway, what about this - I know a U.S. citizen who suffered a broken arm while traveling in Germany. Treated with high tech methods, all done, no charge. The Germans told her that they didn't resent that they had to support the system that treated her - they EXPECT that in any civilized country!
Sonny Clark: I greatly appreciate your information-type comments, but I think on the prognosis side, you are an unrealistic extremist.
OOPS. I voted you down resulting in a -1. But now, I have to admit that I am an unrealistic extremist (I guess) when it comes to my support of American Monetary Institute monetary reforms and other financial reforms. Also, I do sometimes fantasize about lining the traitors up in front of a machine gun. So, okay, I have responded with my objections, and now I will vote even your extreme comment up by a +1.
Obviously, the person that does the hiring without checking for legal citizenship is at fault. I totally disagree that it would be difficult to trace papers to the one that actually hires illegals. There's no need to search through mountains of papers to find top level owners. Again, life in prison without the possibility of parole for anyone hiring illegals would put an end to illegal workers in America. It's simple to find out who actually hired an illegal. When you got a job, did you know who hired you? Of course you did. A few simple questions would reveal the person who hired an illegal.
Also, I would include anyone giving illegals food, shelter, medical care, etc. at taxpayers' expense.
You're correct in saying that we can't count on government, at any level. All three branches are corrupt and anti-America.
Another contributor here at EP who doesn't believe in pulling punches - but that's alright
since they're legal and above the belt
It's just that sometimes I feel like I'm getting punch-drunk here
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. First, "they" need to let us and future generations off the hook for their past and current blunders.
Kicking the can down the road in the direction away from where we want to go ... that will never work when the problem is that the vehicle is broken and needs major repairs.
Regulation is neither good nor bad, just because it's regulation. The devil is in the details.
The only alternative to effective and rational regulation of the global capital system is the collapse of that system. Collapse may sound good now, but in practice, systemic collapse is always extremely painful in terms of happiness of the people. The first victim of systemic collapse is always the environment.
Applause for Robert Oaks
AND for Sonny Clark 
Light
has been cast into many dark corners of the real economy.
Life sentences are not practical.
Going after the little guys who do the hiring - for example, labor contractors in the fields -- is like going after the 12-year-olds who do the street running for crack dealers who are themselves pretty far down the ladder from the big-time importers of cocaine.
You can go out into the fields of Central California and you'll find layers of contracts, almost like derivatives, wrapped around many 10-acre or 40-1cre parcels. The "owners" of the land, what do they know? Somebody's name on a title in the County records. But what other paper can be found, after a diligent search, that conditions the title? The "owners" may have leveraged (monetized) title to some bank, who leased it to somebody who has already sold the crop in advance to somebody who leased the cultivation and the seeding to other somebodies who leased the weeding and spraying to other somebodies, who subbed the hiring to somebody who hired three semi-legals who happen to have brought along 15 of their cousins (who don't speak one word of English).
If you find the ultimate owners, they are likely to be off-shore entities. So, when you go to sentence them, where do you find them? Are you going to send arrest teams of U.S. Marshals around the world? And the corporate fronts or partnerships, what if they cry foul not only in our courts but also international law. And then there's retaliation: maybe some U.S. investors will be tried and sentenced to life in other countries - who knows what for?
BUT there is a way to get at the entire system. RICO! Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. You wouldn't have to take more than a few hundred acres for the entire system to change quickly. Of course, it couldn't be done without some kind of amnesty for at least some of the "precariat" (precarious proletariat) who are currently doing the work on the ground.
Remember the meat-packing plant in Iowa that was raided in 2008? What if it had been seized in its entirety, including the methamphetamine factory located at its center?
I think people would pay attention.
OOOPS! One little glitch: not only can the working people of America not count on the White House and, for sure, not on the current Congress - we also cannot count on the SCOTUS!
Pages