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The war on the middle class
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It's time to live within our means once again
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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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California to be bankrupt in 10 days
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Wow! 243,000 New Jobs Created in January
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Jobs For U.S. Workers Stripped Out of Stimulus Bill Behind Closed Doors - Update It Lives!
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The states budget crisis about to get much worse
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The war on the middle class
- 315540 reads
It's time to live within our means once again
- 49936 reads
US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 184773 reads
California to be bankrupt in 10 days
- 33226 reads
Wow! 243,000 New Jobs Created in January
- 50515 reads
Jobs For U.S. Workers Stripped Out of Stimulus Bill Behind Closed Doors - Update It Lives!
- 26049 reads
The states budget crisis about to get much worse
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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?
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New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
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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
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The war on the middle class
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House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
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Tax Cuts for the Rich Do Not Generate Jobs
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TARP Deadbeat List Grows to 55. Remember when:
The banking system is largely insolvent and we have the President telling big banks to lend to small business (which they really never did) and we got smaller banks screaming that bank examiners are too tough on them right now. We should have hit reset on the financial system a long time ago but that would've required pissing off the financial oligarchy and the Obama Administration doesn't want to do that.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
I would take a 10% decrease in price if it meant a 20% increase in sales volume. I think that is exactly what we will see during inventory burn-off.
This is good news for the relatively few W-2 income workers in the entertainment industry and especially good news for artist and those with equity positions.
More interestingly, it speaks volumes about the de-laborization of American industry. Nothing in this ruling or the “pressing ahead” with metals pricing issue has anything to do with millions of factory manufacturing workers both blue and white collar.
Wouldn’t be nice if the ruling said that China is restricting automobile imports. But, then again, that would probably have more of an impact on Mexico, Korea and Japan than the US.
I guess we have no problem with WTO regulations of factory manufactured products because the US has entered a post-industrial age economy that is not factory manufacturing centered.
To bad no one told the industrial unions, when there were such things, that the US was getting out of the manufacturing business. Sadly, they were so focused on mico-factory floor issues like ‘break-time’ they never saw the new world train coming at them. Well, the train came and went and now they are on a permanent break-time as are their children and probably grandchildren.
Obama fawning Democrats and Obama's tersely worded speeches in a deep tone with a resolute look make the Democratic Party pretty ridiculous and democracy improbable.
They already have a system in place that works pretty well Medicare and it should have been turned into "for all" and then work out the inefficiences (which I image would costs would have dropped like a stone with insurance companies out of the picture and Big Pharma having to negotiate with the gov solo)
On black market, oh yeah and people are also going to get bad drugs.
But here is the story that just disgusted me, a WSJ post claiming we have to do that otherwise we are "outsourcing" pharmaceuticals. Uh, not only have they long ago offshore outsourced manufacturing, pretty much all of this decade, esp. '06, they offshore outsourced advanced R&D. Thousands of PhD level researchers lost their jobs/careers.
Not a word of it in the press. So, Big Pharma is already outsourced but still charging absurd profit margins and even planted a story in the WSJ like the are manufacturing here....they have no shame.
Couple of things I foresee happening. One, you're going to see a black market in pharma drugs. This deal will bring on a clamp down on Americans buying their pills from places like Canadadrugs.com. But you tell a senior citizen on Social Security to pay $150 for 30 pills or rent. No, she'll take the bus up North and get her meds which would most likely be generics of popular medicine down here, but because of the deal cannot be sold in the US, unless the Canadians put a stop to it.
Something else I learned, while you're forced to buy insurance, doctors aren't forced to take it. Oh yes, like with Medicaid, they can opt out. That means you're going to see a two-tier system. A lower quality revolving door medical business and doctors taking cash only if you're not on Medicare.
For the life of me, I've never understood why we went to Medicare-for-All. Oh I know why, but you know what I mean. It would have worked out for the insurers as well, with regards to supplemental coverage. I've been on Medicare since earlier this decade. Never a problem. Indeed the only hassle has been dealing with a new supplemental or not at the end of the year, and the choices have been getting lousier.
It's so much more simpler. You have two types, A and B, and that supplement. Then they complicated it with those Advantage plans, but still here, my mom's had it with no problems. Another wasted opportunity for insurers.
Nobody won in this. The insurers may think "holy cow, Uncle Sam's gonna force 'em into our product." This is now an oligopoly. And the terms of this arranged marriage is not that great. There won't be any real choices on product, from what I can tell all the plans are the same it's just the payments that are different.
It would have been better to give everyone Medicare A & B, let the market compete for the supplemental, even across state lines if need be. The fact remains not everyone needs the same coverage. Basic care yes, catastrophic coverage yes. But now folks will be paying for things they will never use.
Like I said, I've had Medicare, because I'm disabled, since 2000, never a problem.
I don't know how many people noticed this article over the weekend, but it really drives home the point of how much of a leadership void exists.
I have been saying for a long time that we are not only in a financial crisis but a larger political crisis. The obvious buyouts for votes to secure cloture of the so-called "Health Care Reform" in the Senate provides ample evidence to anyone paying attention that our entire system of representative government is broken. There is no "representative" democracy, unless you are referring to the millions of dollars in corporate campaign contributions afforded to candidates which then become primary access to legislative manipulation once the candidate is elected.
Evidence of this constitutional betrayal to the average registered voter, whether they be D, R, or I, is included in this explosive piece from Yves Smith, over the weekend.
There is no incremental change that will achieve anything worthwhile. Some weeks ago I wrote an article explaining that There will be no recovery. In very simple terms, the underlying problem is that the "economics of growth" that exemplified the past 2-3 decades of the American experience is simply not sustainable. It was an illusion sold to the American public in order to perpetuate the myth of American superiority and global hegemon. It was totally misleading when it first registered in the American concience, and now it is a cynical lie.
I am 90+% sure that we cannot reverse what has already been set in motion, but I am willing to fight the righteous fight 'til the end, on the off chance that I could be wrong. But I truly doubt that I am and I think Drew Weston says it all better than I could ever say (at least in a single article).
The Senate bill has to be voted down and a Progressive "line in the sand" must be established. This administration must be intimidated from the left, IMO.
that's how I feel about it too, oh thanks, so many waiting until Medicare and it sure sounds like they are going to screw the baby boomers...
Our country is so controlled by corporations.
Did you know "immigrants" has been quotes as saying the U.S. isn't a country, it's just a place to go to make a lot of money? (not all immigrants obviously, but this is a quote often repeated).
It's sad how bad this was screwed up. Our health care system is economically and morally bankrupt and the best we can do is preserve the economic and morally bankrupt system.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
for lobbyists by not presenting a detailed crafted, with analysis bill to Congress.
Was wondering where you were this morning. I expect the site to be fairly quiet due to the holidays so if folks want to write up some elegant rant to a detailed research post, tis the season (or to write silly theme intros that I did today. ;))
Failure pretty much renders Obama Administration useless for the remainder of term. It's amazing with so much at stake this Administration provided NO leadership and totally turned their number one legislative priority over to a congress that is bought and paid for by corporate interests.
Defenders say well we do have two separate branches of government - yeah right - he is the de facto leader of the Democratic Party and if he really wanted to sheppard a strong bill through the sausage maker he could have.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Where is this Easy Street? I would hate to have to live on the meager entitlements many of them get. You forgot to mention the large number of retired -- they've got their nerve ignoring the actuarial tables Bismark used. But once people are out of the labor force, it's not an easy thing to get back in. While some are unable to work because of disease or injury, I would hasten to add that work itself is part of the value one gets in life. I would hate to spend my days watching Jerry Springer -- if that's Easy Street, you can have it. But we have a lot of misconceptions about the poor and disabled, and there is a whole literature on the physical and mental health of the poor. You make a valid point that there has been a change in the way we treat the poor and disabled. I've always found it interesting that when Ronald Reagan became president, he stopped talking about the "Welfare Queen." That was about the time David Stockman discovered that ketchup was a vegetable in school lunches.
Frank T.
And how is this a good thing - from Paul Krugman:
That assumes that there will be Democratic majorities and a Democrat in WH for years or decades which is highly unlikely if this thing turns very bad. To me Prof. Krugman provides a major reason to pass a much better bill on the first try. Think about it - if this weak ass foundation turns out to as bad as it is on paper - do you think Democrats will have any credibility in the future to address this issue.
If the incremental change doesn't provide a tangible benefit to most people there is a much higher likelihood of its repeal than anything else.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Maybe you would be so kind as to write up an overview post, from an econ viewpoint.
Yeah, the problem with Firedoglake is everytime keyword "immigration" is mentioned it is accompanied by "racist xenophobe". Those keywords are banned on EP because it completely ignores labor econ. realities or manipulation of immigration policy for wage repression, enabling offshore outsourcing (most common with guest worker Visas)...
That crap drives me nuts, ignoring labor supply/market econ....if one wishes to argue for "pathway to citizenship"
which in some cases could actually help wage levels, depending, for humanitarian purposes or whatever, that's ok, but labor econ fact denial just drives me nuts and that claim of all Americans being a bunch of card carrying KKK Nazi racist xenophobes is so old....it's just corporate lobbyists propaganda so people won't really examine what's happening...because of course no one, esp. those who care about diversity, equality and so on....want to be labeled a "racist xenophobe". It's just an abuse of those terms!
Anywho, this post seemed very well researched and for me...
I called all of my reps the minute I saw the insurance, big pharma lobbyists crafting the bill and they absolute denial of single payer or ignoring the many proposals to really reduce costs and get the U.S. a system along the lines of other industrialized nations....I was like "kill this period" a long time ago for I knew it would end up to be yet another money grab for the "for profit" industry sector. I've been watching it from the "Wall Street" perspective after that and plain gave up tracking it because it's so obviously controlled by these lobbyists.
But to find out the details of the shit pile, now that it's in two final forms, to be "negotiated by 6 "hand picked" conferrees" (and watch out there! I've seen major bill changes happen in conference!) it might be time to overview what's happening.
Looks like they are going to pass this turd and the Firedoglake post appears to be accurate.
Since this is the Holiday break, the readers will be possibly down but also the latest "outrage du jour" news stuff is way down, so getting some attention to these major policies, the details, it's a great time to take it on.
As a long time reader of FDL, I agree that it is not an economics site. Still, they have contributors there like "massacio" and "stirling newberry", who most defintely understand econ and politics, and find really useful ways to explain their observations within the context of political activism, which is the primary purpose of the site.
Additionally, another econ-savvy contributor is Ian Welsh, who recently summarized what true HCR reform should look like, at his own website:
There you have it in less than 200 words, and who can argue with it. It is sensible HC reform, IMO and achieves all the goals of true "reform". Of course, the Healthcare Insurers lose out, and that cannot stand in our corporatocracy. Too bad about that.
BTW Robert, I filled out the petition to kill the Senate bill, did you?
and one that is dead wrong. Firstly women were not in the workforce, secondly disabled are somehow "entitled"? Give me a break! How heartless can one be? Then blacks worked, worked like dogs and were also not counted. Entitlement...oh yeah those lazy bums. Merry Christmas to you, glad you have a sense of reality and the phrase, "there but for the grace of God go I".
You have to also remember (or learn) that there are close to, if not over, 100 million people in this country today that do not and never will work and they are not counted as unemployed. It was a completely different culture in the late 20's/early 30's. The attitude then was you either work or you starve. The entitlement programs that have put tens of millions of Americans on easy street simply didn't exist then. Handicapped people didn't live long and productive lives. There was the occasional sanitarium but the huge majority of those not able to care for themselves simply perished.
If you add the entitled never-employable people to our unemployment numbers we are over 60% unemployed.
in the databases. It's probably somewhere (and it has to be updated monthly) but I couldn't locate it.
If you find it, please post another comment and I will add it.
it seems right now MBS are being purchased with zero for the middle class and they are just once again pawns being foreclosed on.
the fact that China is buying them....
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