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New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
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Preventing green vs. blue
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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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It's time to live within our means once again
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House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
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The war on the middle class
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New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
- 950461 reads
Preventing green vs. blue
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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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It's time to live within our means once again
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House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
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The war on the middle class
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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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but it's over on reddit, see the next below comment so rate it up.
In truth, illegal immigration does oversupply the labor market with cheap labor and it used to be a major labor issue...to stop it. Why they are for it these days doesn't make a lot of labor economic sense (except to expand the union membership itself), so go figure. But considering we have Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann supposedly representing America's "public opinion", lots of things are upside down.
I listen to daytime talk radio whenever I’m in the car. It is all very conservative right wing. And, I’m amazed at how the hosts of these programs lament the ‘poor’ over taxed RICH people. It’s a constant theme for national programs and local. Given the popularity of these programs, it seems that a large number of Americans who listen to them agree.
A second popular theme is ‘illegal immigrants’, who are the problem with the economy. If we get rid of them and cut the taxes for the rich everything will be fine. Interesting!
http://www.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/a7bzb/the_bottom_line_is_that_m...
Seriously. The American people are completely outraged over the first Wall Street Bail out.
Notice how they spin the topic to imply all deficit spending...
now that Congress is waking up, realizing they are probably going to be booted from office due to the unemployment rate and thus mulling a few more token crumbs to the general public in a 2nd "Stimulus" package?
If we had a Democracy the first TARP would have never passed.
I am beginning to think the IMF is just itching to get into America to demand their draconian "reduce your deficit" measures like we're a .....Argentina. Oops....I guess we're well on our way there!
Democracy. God, too funny.
Anonymous comments are moderated and I saw a slew of real "slime" against anyone who is the working poor. (I didn't allow them to post).
It's amazing but also a sign of new class warfare.....but the basically discriminatory claims of people who are poor is what I didn't allow to post on the site. Let me just say it's astounding how people prey upon the vulnerable...kind of a kick 'em when they're down....
I guess that's important so they can alleviate their guilt.
;)
See, I wasn't even aware of DeLauro's bill.
You know a nice post would be to overview it in detail, then link to the bill. You've seen me do those types of posts.
and you can analyze why it will work.
She's been a huge fighter for the U.S. middle class and it's pretty ridiculous, because she often comes up with some fairly practical solutions and her legislation gets plain ignored, at least in the past.
She's also been aware of offshore outsourcing and is pretty much the only one in Congress where I could find any raw data.
what you are saying is that an extra dollar has the same value to someone who makes minimum wage as someone who makes million dollars every week?
Cause that's the argument that you're making.
Economists call it the declining marginal utility of income.
The policy implication of this being that its more important that all be able to eat than that some be able to have a summer house in the Hamptons.
Some form of direct employment program and Rep. DeLauro's National Infrastructure Development Bank
There. Now can I swear - just kidding.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Folks, I notice we're getting increasing formatting problems. Remember, there are all sorts of tools, including an image zoom, to help format your posts.
The biggest mistake I see is with images. They are not formatted correctly and override the width of the blog column, which is about 530px.
Then, people are posting a lot of FU's type of things in their headers and comments.
It's getting a little excessive ya all, so how about channeling that anger and rage into something more specific.
I know it's tough when one is so pissed off they are about to stroke out, but give it a whirl.
The entire country is mad as hell but few really know how to change anything.
Hey, what can I say? Although it's hard to find 3rd party candidates that have positions which make sense for me. But at least I'm throwing it out there.
I don't think the Obama administration is asleep. I think the Democrats are still riding the coattails of the ghosts of the Democratic party and what they used to be. i.e. used to be Pro U.S., pro labor, pro middle class....
You guys can put in swear words all you want in these posts, but I personally think we should start pushing for very exact, detailed policy, legislation as we can find it.
Frankly, over the weekend, well, some of the crap coming from the left is just that. I hate to say that but it seems we have some policy pushes that just are nutso in terms of real world econ and job creation.
Anyway, we need to push for proposals, legislation, we believe we actually work.
We need to demand it, I don't think they are asleep. I think they are bought and paid for by lobbyists.
On the housing prices themselves, I think $173k median probably needs to be broken down more. Places where there might be jobs, usually the prices are still way past income that can afford the payments.
The reality is a "50% drop" on a home in say the bay area still means it's way out of reach, even when making 6 figures. $550k, who can afford that?
econbrowser.
Concludes, what goes up, must come down. i.e. the areas where the bubble was most intense, most artificially created are the regions where the burst or price drop is most intense.
has a lot of statistics, graphs. I'm linking to the overview because the analysis was done as (I think) part of a PhD dissertation.
A couple years ago I put roughly a third of my savings into Euros via ETF, a third into a gold ETF, and kept a third in cash. I eventually liquidated my positions to buy a house. I ended up doing alright on the gold and euros, but looking back on it, I regretted it. I think if I had spent a little more time actually earning more money instead of all the time I spent reading articles about what gold, euros, and the dollar were going to do next, I would have come out better. Also, I didn't realize it when I bought the gold ETF, but it is taxed at a higher rate. Apparently it is considered as a "collectible" rather than a stock. So my tax rate on my gold ETF gains was way higher than the rate on any other stocks or investments or my income from working.
After reading your article, I am tempted to buy some more gold, but probably not, for the reasons mentioned above. I got burned so badly with the late 90's tech bubble, that I have lost any appetite for the stock market. I guess I'll probably just keep my savings in cash like a chicken shit and sadly watch the dollars lose their value.
miasmo.com
Here is an absolute key quote from another CR article on existing home sales:
emphasis added.
Mr. President you want to address the budget deficit and federal debt - it's called jobs. Mr. President you want to address the housing crisis - it's called jobs. Mr. President you want your party to remain in power and you get re-elected - it's called jobs.
You and your conservative democratic colleagues got to ask yourselves:
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Forget about jobs and putting people back to work so that we can increase tax revenue to address this deficit hysteria. No, No. We rather re-inflate asset bubbles.
Attempts to re-inflate the asset bubble will not address negative equity situation. Negative equity situation is deep and requires more dramatic action that the Administration and Wall Street want to avoid. So we will keep wasting money with these home buyer tax credits.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
gold goes mainstream, from CBS MarketWatch:
This is all interesting. I thought this would happen with the first TARP fund and unfortunately bought some GLD options which were worthless because it didn't happen.
What was wrong was my timing, not my view that gold would eventually go through the roof.
It's about inflation down the road and the dollar, this is mention specifically...
but I'm still wondering about oil There is movement to curtail oil speculation in Congress.
If it's tied to oil, the world's global currency...hmmm....
but wow, central banks.....that's a "bull" sign (and a bad sign for the dollar)
This is probably the something you were referring to.
People forget about Russia being a significant player, but they are. That 15 tonnes is in addition to the 30 tonnes they will be purchasing from Gokhran. The Russian central bank, with the 3rd largest reserves in the world, is buying up much of the domestic gold production, which is the 2nd largest in the world.
China, the largest gold producer in the world, is buying up most of its domestic gold production. And India just bought half of the IMF gold sales.
Just like currency movements, the central banks can move the gold market when they want to.
go ahead and define a fair-tax? how about I pay X-dollars, flat. As does everyone else. I say that is pretty dang fair.
Get post ‘manfrommiddletown’ (as usual).
But, be careful what you wish for. I expect that when the Feds go ‘Libby Dole’ on the states it will take the form of cut your expenses (e.g. school budgets, etc) ‘Or Else’ no money.
According to a report on Google (AFP):
“US lawmakers: New tax should pay for Afghan war”
Influential US lawmakers on Thursday called for levying a new income tax to pay for the war in Afghanistan, warning its costs pose a mortal threat to efforts like a sweeping health care overhaul…"Share The Sacrifice Act of 2010"
The group included House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey; Representative John Murtha, who chair that panel's defense subcommittee; and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.
In the same vain:
"Upper-Bracket Tax May Be Needed for Afghan War Cost, Levin Says
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for more troops sent to Afghanistan and NATO should provide half of the new soldiers, said Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
An “additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000” a year, could fund more troops, Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.
All this is from the leaders of the party that came to power last year running against “Bush’s War”. School districts are cutting budgets,10’s of millions have no health insurance etc. etc, and these ‘Liberals’ what to raise taxes for a war that no one can explain. Indeed, no one seems to know how to fight let alone win.
As I have written in these comments sections before, the economics of empire is completely ignored in all the economic discourse. We study symtoms and ignore the disease!
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