Occupy Wall Street: Macing Protesters, Chris Hedges and Michael Moore

Olbermann interviews Michael Moore who says, “I think there needs to be a multi-pronged approach” urging civil disobedience locally as well as nationally, and refusing to move out under a foreclosure notice since no one owns your mortgage any more.  “The banks lost them,” he says, when they bundled them into their little Ponzie schemes.

Super Congress in Session – More of the Cruel Charade

By Michael Collins

Wall Street and the big banks owe $1.5 trillion for the bailout (at least). The Super Congress needs to cut $1.5 trillion over ten years. Get the money from Wall Street and cancel the Super Congress. Problem solved.

Last month’s debt ceiling crisis was resolved when Congress and the Obama administration made a deal to cut trillions in federal spending over the next ten years. Congress identified the easy cuts, the low hanging fruit so to speak, for a total of nearly $1.0 trillion. At the same time, Congress and the White House created the “Super Congress” committee of six senators and six representatives charged with cutting another $1.5 trillion. (Image: Lucy White with permission)

The Crazies versus the Sleepwalkers – Big Budget Showdown

By Michael Collins

The Republican crazies are in a celebrity death match with sleepwalking Democrats. It is a fabricated drama amounting to not much of anything in terms of the nation’s well being. The stakes are supposedly the shutdown of the United States government at midnight this Friday. But the most pressing issue isn’t discussed on Capitol Hill.

Why can’t anyone in a position of power mention the unmentionable? There have been no net new jobs in the United States since 2000. There were 137 million employed citizens that year. There are 139 million employed citizens today. This comes into clear focus when you consider the size of the workforce for 2000 and 2010; 143 million versus 154 million respectively. There are actually fewer jobs in proportion to the workforce.

Isn’t this a worthy topic?   Shouldn’t the story be carried nightly on a major network with a title like: Jobless America, Day 4112?

The Peasants Need Pitchforks

By Robert Scheer
TruthDig

A “working class hero,” John Lennon told us in his song of that title, “is something to be/ Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/ And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/ But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”

The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz in the current issue of Vanity Fair. In an article titled “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz states that the top thin layer of the superwealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: “Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet, in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.”

Decline and Fall (Maybe) January 1, 2011

The Happy New Year Edition (with some good news about 2011)

Michael Collins

The best thing about 2010 is that it’s over. It was a year filled with utter stupidity, mendacity, and greed beyond all bounds on the part of our rulers, also known as The Money Party. Lots of fiddling while Rome and the rest of the world burned. Knowledge is power and among the ruling elite in the United States, the power was off. Somebody forgot to pay the bill or paid with a bad check, no doubt.

A Decade of Job Stagnation In 2000, 135 million citizens were employed. In 2010 there were 139 million Americans employed. Given the 9.7% increase in population since 2000, we would expect to see at least 148 million citizens with jobs. Nobody much wants to talk about this or the true unemployment figures produced by the US Census called “U6”. That measure accounts for, “Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force.” Bureau of Labor Statistics

Dismal Scientists Cheer Up on 2011 – No Worries, Party On

By Numerian posted by Michael Collins

The consensus is in and there is strong agreement: the US economy is on the path to a sustained recovery. 2011 will be a year of surprises on the upside, and 2012 will be even better. Among a list of the top 25 economists surveyed, not one of them predicts a recession in 2011. There is hardly any investment strategist or economist to be found who sees any risks serious enough to derail the US economy. Here is just a sample of the consensus thinking that is to be found in end-of-the year forecasts: (Image)

*Economists in universities and on Wall Street have raised their growth projections for next year. Retail sales, industrial production and factory orders are on the upswing, and new claims for unemployment benefits are trending downward. Despite persistently high unemployment, consumer confidence is improving. Large corporations are reporting healthy profits, and the Dow Jones industrial average reached a two-year high this week. – New York Times

Lies on Unemployment – The jobs are there

Robert Oak at Economic Populist has rebutted the notion that hiring is stalled due to a “skills shortage.” The latest news from the masters of disaster is that there are 5 million jobs in the United States open because of a skills shortage. Not so! as Oak skill fully demonstrates as he demolishes that claim empirically.
See: Blame Employers for the Jobs Crisis – Economic Populist

There is no skills shortage, there never was a skill shortage. There is a shortage of good employers who do not discriminate, age discriminate, ship jobs to India, China, Brazil and treat their workers like cannon fodder. There also is a shortage of jobs, pure and simple. Put U.S. workers first. Demand these employers quit their inane, harsh, wage repressing, discriminatory labor practices. Put a few of of these traitorous employers in jail and sue ’em. Deal with trade and offshore outsourcing, invest in America and Americans. Then and only then will we might actually get somewhere to putting people back to work. Robert Oak

Can anyone in Washington DC read? Unemployment!

By Bill Mitchell
Billy Blog

Macroeconomics has returned to the discredited Treasury view with some modern embellishments. The major attacks of the government fiscal stimulus to conquer unemployment now resonate almost exactly with the bunk that was trotted out by the conservatives during the 1929 British election campaign. The modern proponents (centered at Harvard and Chicago) also appear largely unaware of the arguments and seem content to peddle their nonsense oblivious that their ‘knowledge’ ceased to be such 80 odd years ago. It isn’t rocket science to understand what has happened. The ‘budget cuts have impaired the economy’s ability to grow’. You simply cannot withdraw (drastically) the main source of spending and not expect output to fall (dramatically), writes Bill Mitchell.

Economists Challenge Deficit Reduction

Michael Collins

Three hundred economists released a letter to President Obama today with one message: focus on jobs, not on the deficit. new deal 2.0

Don’t kill jobs and growth in the name of deficit reduction. Statement and 300 endorsers.

Things the President Left Out of His Big Speech

Michael Collins

I just read the presidents big speech tonight and it struck me. There were some key lines left out of the speech. You may have had the same response. For the sake of clarity and fairness, I’ve tried to reconstruct the missing lines. I’m sure that the omissions were just an accident. Or maybe that Robert Gibbs may be up to his old tricks again. My insertions are in italics, following the president’s words from the official White House transcript. White House, August 31, 2010 Here goes.

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Tonight, I’d like to talk to you about the end of our combat mission in Iraq, the ongoing security challenges we face, and the need to rebuild our nation here at home. But before I do that, we need a moment of truth. The Iraq war was based on a deliberate lie involving the White House distorting the National intelligence estimate on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The report got it wrong on WMD. There were none. But it concluded that the only way the nonexistent WMD would be used against the United States was in retaliation for a US attack on Iraq that threatened Saddam Hussein. By deleting this information, the Bush-Cheney White House justified a preemptive invasion without any basis, a crime under international law that our nation helped establish after World War II.

Why Economic Growth in the United States Cannot Happen

By Joaquin posted by Michael Collins

So, you cut back on your lifestyle; performed a so un-Greek personal austerity reset but your credit card balance is still creeping up; or perhaps you are slowly burning through your savings; or you are at the end of the line; abandon ship. Whatever, you have a lot of company out there. (Image)

Why is it so hard to make ends meet these days? The days of living high on the credit hog are over and we all have to get small but in the end, we still have to make ends meet; we have to pay for food, pay for utilities, buy gas, etc. How to make that work?

The World is Choking on Government Debt

By Numerian posted by Michael Collins

Unprecedented relationships are beginning to form in the global bond markets. For as long as anyone can remember, the US government has enjoyed the lowest cost of borrowing whatever the maturity of the bond, because the US has been deemed the safest credit anywhere in the world. The prospect of default of the United States has been considered so low that academics describe the US Treasury bond as the risk-free bond., from which all other credit instruments are priced.

This relationship seems to be breaking down, for the first time in living history. This past week Berkshire Hathaway was able to raise funds at an interest rate lower than that of the US Treasury. Headlines in the financial press stated: “Obama Pays More Than Warren Buffett For Money.” The bonds of DuPont and other stalwart corporate names also yielded less than equivalent maturity Treasuries.

Where are the Populists?

Michael Collins

“There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it.”  William Jennings Bryan, 1896

Populism is broadly defined as “political ideas and activities that are intended to represent ordinary people’s needs and wishes.” The majority are  deliberately held down by the financial elite.  Removal of the financial elite is the vehicle to realize the “people’s needs and wishes.” (Graph)

“Capitalist Tool”

Michael Collins

Just a few cynics doubted the magnificent procession of then Senator Barack Obama to the highest office in the land. He was the redemption of our past sins, the proof that we were a better nation than we had been. After all, race has been at the center of American politics since Bacon’s Rebellion was crushed in 1667 but we were  moving beyond that.  And we did.   Race was set aside for most of those who voted.

As it turned out, the campaign wasn’t about redeeming anything other than the bill that Wall Street presented to the citizens of the United States in October, 2008. The financial system was grinding its gears, about to flame out in a series of big investment bank failures. The Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, told a private session of Congress that absent immediate aid, the financial calamity would be so devastating that Congress should prepare for riots by outraged citizens.

Ben Bernanke or Bernie Sanders; Who Will Build A Better America?

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

The adage is “Time moves on.” The assumption is all will get better. However, for the little people in the United States, those who work, pay taxes, and still cannot make ends meet, life has been a backward motion. Throughout the history of America, it was believed the people, with the assistance of elected Representatives, and well-chosen regulators would ensure that the United States was solid, strong, and fiscally viable. Currently the public is told that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has saved the country from certain crash. However, for the first time in generations, the population feels as though it is in free fall.

Consumer Confidence Rises; Democracy Declines

By Betsy L. Angert
Copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

Great News! The good life will soon return to America. Auspiciously, months before the holiday shopping season began, Americans were told that after more than a year of fiscal recession, or what some have characterized as akin to an economic depression, consumers were optimistic. The confidence index and other indicators were much improved. Manufacturing executives assured the public, the engine that drives the free enterprise system was in a “sustainable recovery mode.” In the very near future, products, and people’s sense of need, would be fabricated again. Everything will be right with the world, economically. Few feared the threat that, long ago, Americans had come to accept. The foundation of a democratic system had eroded in favor of consumption.

The growth of unemployment since January 2007

Interactive map- watch the change from 2007 to 2009!  Link

Latoya Egwuekwe

Watch the growth of unemployment by county/geographic region from Jan 2007 through Sept 2009.   This isn’t U6 so it could have been even worse.   Do our “rulers” even have a notion of what this means, let alone a plan?

No Armistice in War on Poor

By Laura Flanders

Armistice Day reminds us that when wars end, the winners and losers are supposed to make peace. For the first time, in 2009, leaders of World War II enemies, Germany and France, commemorated the date together as a sign of new mutual respect. But this week also marked the ten-year anniversary of a different kind of war — a war on Americans’ assets and the poor. Ten years later, while the winners and losers are obvious, there’s no armistice in sight.

On November 12, 1999, after decades of banking deregulation, congress repealed the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which up until that point had kept Main Street banks and commercial financial speculation apart. Glass-Steagall’s repeal unleashed a wave of derivative marketing that rewarded shameless loan sharks for selling the most vulnerable Americans into a bubble of debt.

The war on public-sector unions

By Lee Sustar

State and local governments are making deep spending cuts wherever they can, and taking aim at the power of public-sector unions.

Is Globalization Working For America?

By Jon Taplin – October 5, 2009  TalkingPointsMemo

” If the average American worker had any economic literacy, they would look at this chart and scream, “I’ve been getting royally screwed since 2001!” Capitalism was not supposed to work this way–as the workers become more productive their wages fall. But of course as wages fall and layoffs grow, the working class is well aware that they can no longer borrow from their home equity or their ten credit cards and so they cut back on discretionary spending. This means that our ten years of overcapacity in what’s left of our industrial plant will get worse.”