tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69991494973652048172012-02-16T14:51:00.456-08:00Original Articles and Re-posts on Policy, Society, Finance, Economics and Politicseditornoreply@blogger.comBlogger831100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-16697844056015462832011-11-17T04:11:00.000-08:002011-11-17T23:02:29.687-08:00

"When profits are produced by rendering a country’s work force unemployed the edifice that economists have built that justifies market capitalism as the deliverer of economic welfare to society no longer stands."The economic mess in which the United States and Europe find themselves and which has been exported to much of the rest of the world is the direct consequence of too much economic

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-42476138962136720922011-10-22T10:49:00.000-07:002011-11-18T05:46:39.641-08:00

“If the Occupiers start chanting ‘Mark to Market,’” an attorney highly conversant with the darker workings of the Wall Street-Washington complex told me, “we’ll know they’re serious.”   Such a call would quickly presage the collapse of our “too big to fail” banks, for it would highlight the fact that a huge proportion of the assets of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Citigroup

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-21867937904608739192011-04-29T09:10:00.000-07:002011-11-18T05:48:00.773-08:00

Ron Paul is far from perfect, but I'll say this much for the Texas congressman: He has never authorized a drone strike in Pakistan. He has never authorized the killing of dozens of women and children in Yemen. He hasn't protected torturers from prosecution and he hasn't overseen the torturous treatment of a 23-year-old young man for the “crime” of revealing the government's criminal behavior.

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-80552327748690937392011-03-19T22:56:00.000-07:002011-03-19T23:00:34.053-07:00

Nuclear power – in war and peace - has always been a war on the people, starting with the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, going on to the Marshall Islanders, ranchers and kindred inhabitants of test sites across the West, Native Americans and poor Latinos and African Americans -- the usual involuntary neighbors of waste dumps -- people in the path of “accidents” – which are, as I like to say,

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-37782726983566626892011-03-06T19:16:00.000-08:002011-11-18T05:54:59.042-08:00

Where have all the commies gone? Relax America. Ignore the shrill sirens of xenophobic alarmists bent on making our Asian counterparts the new threat. I have met the enemy, and they are ours! Passing through Beijing last week, on the way to Hangzhou and Sanya, cabbing from the Capitol Airport by elegant turnpike and driving through the Wangfujeng district, the spectacle of the New China was

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-48549434786512507782011-01-24T07:24:00.000-08:002011-01-24T07:29:56.140-08:00

A new position on business regulation "It's clear, the Obama team is worried that the president hasn't been sufficiently servile to win big business's backing in the upcoming 2012 presidential campaign. So they're pulling out all the stops to show that they can be bigger suck-ups than their Republican rivals." On Tuesday, Barack Obama made the case for easing regulations in an op-ed in the

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-43860657728599898682011-01-07T11:35:00.000-08:002011-01-07T11:39:52.603-08:00

Show me the money ! By the end of Reagan’s second term, the big environmental organizations were well-pickled in the political brine of Washington, with freshness and passion drained out. Early in the 1988 campaign of George H. W. Bush, the Texas transplant attempted to distance himself from the environmental ethos of Reagan, who had said that if you saw one redwood tree you had seen them all

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-32823674245972701832010-12-31T10:20:00.000-08:002010-12-31T10:25:27.808-08:00

It's the color of money!! How did it come to this? Why in the mid-1990s, when Democrats controled government, did the nation’s largest environmental groups, which once stood as such a potent force for radical change, mutate into a servile adjunct to Wall Street?In the early summer of 1995, Jay Hair quietly resigned as head of the National Wildlife Federation. This Napoleonic figure had

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-31363105164836936192010-12-30T10:18:00.000-08:002010-12-30T10:18:35.530-08:00

What can you do for your country? Anyone who doesn’t believe that the US is an incipient fascist state needs only to consult the latest assault on civil liberty by Fox News (sic). Instead of informing citizens, Fox News informs on citizens. Jason Ditz reports on antiwar.com that Fox News “no longer content to simply shill for a growing police state,” turned in a grandmother to the Department

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-44019182023976318182010-12-28T11:15:00.000-08:002010-12-28T13:15:46.213-08:00

Winston Smith For those of you who've forgotten your Orwell, Winston Smith was the protagonist in the 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He worked as a clerk in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where his job was to rewrite historical documents so they match the constantly changing current party line. (editor)The year 2011 will bring Americans a larger and more intrusive police

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-40401084483007850092010-12-15T06:10:00.000-08:002010-12-15T06:10:12.746-08:00

On Friday, December 10, 2010, Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent Socialist, of Vermont, came of age. At last. With just about the best progressive voting record, Senator Sanders has nonetheless been an underachiever in the minds of those Americans who marveled at his tenure as mayor of Burlington, Vt. before he became a Congressman and now a Senator. Last Friday, Sanders tore the covers off an

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-70115386992327097532010-12-10T16:18:00.000-08:002010-12-12T17:26:35.935-08:00

... working and middle-class taxpayers now pay a “bondholder's tax” to firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase (as well as Japan and China). The domination had become quite apparent in early 1993 when President-elect Bill Clinton remarked "You mean to tell me that the success of the economic program and my re-election hinges on the Federal Reserve and a bunch of fucking bond traders?"

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-73238654915908811622010-11-01T15:05:00.000-07:002010-11-01T15:06:46.720-07:00

It was Bill Clinton’s campaign strategist, James Carville, who in 1992 created the election slogan: “It’s the Economy, Stupid.” For the 2010 Congressional campaigns, the slogan should have been: “It’s Corporate Crime and Control, Stupid.” But notwithstanding the latest corporate crime wave, the devastating fallout on workers, investors and taxpayers from the greed and corruption of Wall Street,

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-78091499822853345272010-10-23T21:33:00.000-07:002010-10-23T21:35:36.259-07:00

Here are ten questions for Tea Partiers that they want or do not want to answer. I say it this way because people who call themselves Tea Partiers do not have the same view of politics, government, Big Business or the Constitution. Their opinions range from pure Libertarian to actively furthering the privileges of plutocracy. Their income and occupational background vary as well, though most

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-53877182938333750822010-10-16T11:55:00.000-07:002010-10-16T13:50:59.188-07:00

The “war on terror” is now in its tenth year. What is it really all about?  Paul Craig Roberts offers a reminder.  While you ponder how we got into this economic morass, here is some context. If you remember Ike's famous warning, you're old enough to lend some perspective to those who don't remember the sixties.  editor Does anyone remember the “cakewalk war” that would last six weeks, cost $50-

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-39851214253544940762010-10-15T06:32:00.000-07:002010-10-15T06:33:19.143-07:00

"Enough pussyfooting around! It’s time to make the banks and the bankers pay for their crimes. If government is to have any purpose, it must be to protect the public against crime.  And we have been robbed blind by these banks.  The problem here is that we Americans have lost any sense of community. We don’t really care about the millions who have had their homes stolen by the banksters, as long

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-56061503649236908212010-10-08T19:59:00.000-07:002010-10-08T19:59:40.017-07:00

For a number of years I reported on the monthly nonfarm payroll jobs data. The data did not support the praises economists were singing to the “New Economy.” The “New Economy” consisted, allegedly, of financial services, innovation, and high-tech services. This economy was taking the place of the old “dirty fingernail” economy of industry and manufacturing. Education would retrain the workforce,

g.h.kirschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10751067888415362776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-85346080868280861112010-10-01T12:07:00.000-07:002010-10-01T12:07:06.493-07:00

"In sum, the Neoliberal Revolution seeks to achieve in Europe what the United States has achieved since real wages stopped rising in 1979: doubling the share of wealth enjoyed by the richest 1 per cent. This involves reducing the middle class to poverty ..." Most of the press has described Europe’s labor demonstrations and strikes on Wednesday in terms of the familiar exercise by transport

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-11845676834327819702010-09-14T05:53:00.000-07:002010-09-14T05:56:17.817-07:00

David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. Again, the Democratic faithful should probably not read this. (editor) I watched Obama’s press conference this week, and I was reminded again of what a misfit he is for the presidency, and what a misfit he is for our time. He doesn’t seem to get the concept that an effective president has to get in

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-61317556872076340792010-09-13T11:39:00.000-07:002010-09-13T11:40:45.550-07:00

Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist. A Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), and this editor's favorite economist.  He is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new ed., Pluto Press, 2002) and Trade, Development and Foreign Debt: A History of Theories of Polarization v. Convergence in

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-22391542905933737112010-09-10T11:18:00.000-07:002010-09-10T11:22:10.335-07:00

Mike Whitney's got more disillusioning news for Americans who thought they were voting for change.  (editor) The Fed's Beige Book, which was released on Wednesday, provides a sobering look at an economy that is sputtering-along on empty. Nearly all the districts reported slower activity amid "widespread signs of deceleration". The stimulus-fueled rebound which powered GDP above 5% two quarters

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-52888050009278464862010-09-09T11:35:00.000-07:002010-09-09T11:35:30.793-07:00

Paul Bucheit teaches in the School for New Learning at DePaul University. Like many of us, he finds the Tea Party's support for the Republican Party's agenda strange. He invites those who are capable of understand this to get mad together with the rest of us ...(editor) Not because the government does too much. But because it's done too little. Consider a few disturbing truths: -- We cry '

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-27407352532198385602010-09-07T06:24:00.000-07:002010-09-07T06:26:31.936-07:00

David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. The Democratic faithful should probably not read this liberal's analysis of recent political history, or consider the future consequences of their party's abdication of its role in the struggle for social justice. (editor) In the 1930s, the only thing we had to fear was fear, itself. Today, the main

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-89078566708626911192010-08-20T15:16:00.000-07:002010-08-20T15:22:28.286-07:00

Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy and False Profits: Recoverying From the Bubble Economy. (editor) The middle class is getting whacked by the Great Recession. Fifteen million people are out of work, another 9 million workers can only find part-time jobs, and

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-45856425164180574622010-08-19T09:44:00.000-07:002010-08-19T10:05:25.113-07:00

Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Having just returned from nearly a month in China, where everywhere I went the visible signs of strong and steady growth prevailed, I can attest to the gains job offshoring and relocation of manufacturing have brought the Chinese. Returning to LAX from Beijing's spectacular airport, I

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-65616149811768668592010-07-27T20:56:00.000-07:002010-07-27T20:58:49.843-07:00

News from Blighty: the disparity in death rates between the well-off and the poor in the UK is now greater than at any time since 1921. The London Review of Books points to a new study by the British Medical Journal that shows that by 2007, "for every 100 people under the age of 65 dying in the best-off areas, 199 were dying in the poorest tenth of areas." The Journal study said that the data

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-68760710944267033522010-07-22T07:35:00.000-07:002010-07-22T10:18:30.522-07:00

Jesse Jackson raises old issues we've never dealt with adequately.  Guns or butter, can we have both?  Is the military industrial complex now so institutionalized there's  no way out?   Can "we the people" see ourselves in history, or will we ride this train to the end of the line?  (editor) Will the U.S. once more sacrifice economic justice at home for war abroad? Dr. King used to say that the

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-48594400208520142322010-07-16T08:44:00.000-07:002010-07-16T08:55:16.937-07:00

At the onset of what may some day be remembered as The Great Disillusionment, curiously contemporaneous with the decline into our third economic depression since the 19th century, erstwhile missionary of hope and change, Barack Obama, sees his message flagging and his star sinking. Alexander Cockburn, editor and publisher of Counterpunch, succinctly and eloquently explains the reality America so

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-29362206403663266552010-07-06T08:10:00.000-07:002010-07-06T08:11:04.381-07:00

If Sunday's celebration of American independence seemed to have a hollow ring, perhaps it is because we drift away from the goals that once united us. Al Krebs was the guru for understanding and providing the history of the exploitive anti-democratic behavior of monopoly capital and its devastating impact on communities throughout the world. His analysis applied not only to corporate

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-64541230681159413822010-07-03T16:47:00.000-07:002010-07-03T17:16:30.835-07:00

David Macaray is a Los Angeles playwright.  While many of the scared and disenfranchised are angered by tales of postal workers in limousines, Macaray offers a fairer appraisal of the matter.  (editor) “Beggars don’t envy millionaires; they envy other beggars who have better shoes.”—Bertrand RussellWith most states in the union now experiencing economic hardship (and some, like my state of

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-25698934169900602032010-07-02T08:47:00.000-07:002010-07-02T09:18:17.668-07:00

David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York.  (editor) Let’s be honest: We live in stunningly, jaw-droppingly, ridiculously absurd political times. Here’s the story in a nutshell: A far-right predatory overclass has spent the last thirty years undoing the hard-fought gains of the mid-twentieth century, which had produced a robust middle class and

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-6079862890052083352010-06-30T14:50:00.000-07:002010-06-30T15:54:57.768-07:00

The whole economic crisis is class war. What is being billed as public debt began as the private debt of financial speculators who offloaded it onto the public. The governments that bailed out these insolvent speculators then became insolvent themselves; but the bailed-out banks, rather than lending a helping hand in return, have demanded their pound of flesh, with payment in full. The

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-32007058460692131412010-06-26T08:50:00.000-07:002010-06-26T08:52:55.287-07:00

With reform of banks and confrontation of their power largely impossible, and business as usual, here and abroad, careening on, President Obama, once the great hope of so many, is about to bring us change like you'd never believe. As the G20 meet in Canada, the stage is set for the final acts of social cowardice that will shortly unmask the ugliness of class war. Michael Hudson is a renowned

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-32405489255330299762010-06-24T08:22:00.000-07:002010-06-24T08:25:40.302-07:00

Alan Farago is conservation chair of Friends of the Everglades. He lives in south Florida.   The article that follows touches on the destructive forces that have long been at work subverting environmental regulation, particularly underground, where we destroy aquifers and pollute waters that nature has stored safely for millennia. After some 40 years of assault by the likes of James Watt, Dick

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-90342404800590365422010-06-16T10:48:00.000-07:002010-06-16T10:57:17.530-07:00

The US financial sector received an unconditional bailout – and is not now facing any kind of meaningful re-regulation. We are setting ourselves up, without question, for another boom based on excessive and reckless risk-taking at the heart of the world’s financial system. This can end only one way: badly. Informed opinion is sharply divided about how the next 12 months will play out for the

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-62306143497083800562010-06-15T09:17:00.000-07:002010-06-15T09:19:39.506-07:00

The boomers are to blame. Any honest book about them would have to be titled America's Worst Generation. For environmentalists, whose warnings and arguments have been ignored, maligned and ridiculed since the Reagan Revolution dawned three decades ago, the Gulf of Oil disaster evokes a wicked brew of emotions and attitudes. On the one hand, we feel the pain and horror of the unfolding

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-68411650337674150252010-06-15T08:57:00.000-07:002010-06-15T08:59:19.612-07:00

Did the Federal Reserve collude with the big banks to hold millions of houses off the market until the Fed finished adding $1.25 trillion to the banks reserves? Did the Fed do this to make it appear that its bond purchasing plan (quantitative easing) was stabilizing prices when, in fact, it was the reduction in supply that stopped prices from plunging? It sure looks that way. This is from

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-89171396375706882182010-06-07T07:43:00.000-07:002010-06-07T07:43:45.299-07:00

The young American pictured here was shot in the back of the head at close range.  He was executed by commandos during the recent piracy sanctioned by Israel. The article below by David Lindorff is re-posted from OpEd News, and is also being carried today by Counterpunch.  You will not find this being reported by the corporate media.  If it were, it would surely outrage most Americans. What

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-10246054276033497702010-05-31T13:25:00.000-07:002010-06-01T07:55:15.716-07:00

I'm so sick of Memorial Day. And I am even sicker of politicians who wrap themselves in the bloody flag and try to rub off some of the stench of death from the bodies of those who have died, mostly in vain for worthless causes, in hopes that taking on some of the odor will cause them to be perceived as admirable patriots themselves. If we memorialize them, it should be by vowing never again to

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-50283888961775175212010-05-24T12:28:00.000-07:002010-05-24T12:36:34.915-07:00

What follows is another article by my favorite economist. My favorite because of his particular ability to put the dismal science in both social and historical context. While we always seem to think we plow virgin ground, in fact, the issues we face recur from epoch to epoch. And what renders economics more a craft than a science is the very human and somewhat irrational forces it must consider:

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-54888260975656742282010-05-21T10:10:00.000-07:002010-05-21T10:30:47.589-07:00

Environmentalism is dead. It has been co-opted and corrupted to the point of absolute strangulation, and what remains of the corpse is being devoured rapaciously by the necrophiliacs at your favorite corporate-controlled big environmental organization. Another tragedy befalls the environment and we can count on those that were once environmentalists to capitalize, figuratively and literally.

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-25208022467911310472010-05-20T11:32:00.000-07:002010-05-20T17:38:42.655-07:00

With the likes of Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan-Chase pulling his strings, most credible economists who understand the causes of the recent financial crisis, and the threats we face going forward, are disappointed in Obama's slavish support of the status quo. In the face of the administration's continuing resistance to real financial reform, even members of the Democratic party voted yesterday to

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-25927397172978162922010-05-19T12:26:00.000-07:002010-05-19T14:18:15.474-07:00

Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy and False Profits: Recoverying From the Bubble Economy. This article was originally published in The Guardian.  (editor) Most of the wealthy countries have now made deficit reduction the primary focus of their economic policy. Even

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-90534207170123770642010-05-17T18:03:00.000-07:002010-05-18T05:24:08.278-07:00

Back in the day, "Uncle Tom" was a term reserved for those who went along and didn't oppose their masters.  Is our president the slave of current  financial oligarchs like Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan-Chase? As his administration balks at breaking up financial institutions "too big to fail" and caves to Wall Street's lobbyists on amendment after amendment meant to strengthen his and Dodd's anemic

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-24633060893761745332010-05-11T13:29:00.000-07:002010-05-12T03:19:08.571-07:00

The banker bailouts continue, this time in Europe, as the oligarchy rushes to prepare for the crash, printing money for themselves, foreclosing properties, stripping assets worldwide, untaxing themselves and loading labor and industry with a burden sure to sink nations everywhere into debt peonage.  While Greeks take to the ramparts to protest their government's surrender to unelected financial

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-41568568237737551222010-05-11T05:00:00.000-07:002010-05-11T09:42:47.149-07:00

For any who also wonder whither has gone our faith, the article below may provide discomforting reassurance of a reality we would like to deny. Eric Toussaint; Doctor of Political Science (University of Liege and University of Paris VIII), is president of the Committee for the Cancellation of Third World Debt – Belgium and author of The World Bank: A Critical Primer, Pluto, London, 2008.  (

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-10396299902334795412010-05-10T09:49:00.000-07:002010-05-10T10:08:45.791-07:00

For those refugees of the drug crazed 60s, remaining memory perhaps includes lyrics from a hit, The Pusher. What better metaphor might we find then for an analogy to the financial morass faced by so many greying "boomers" adrift, and hung-over in a world addicted to debt. Greg Moses employs this shared memory to help us understand the predicament we face, and the fate of the pushers, co-dependent

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-73588053678515898862010-05-09T11:08:00.000-07:002010-05-09T13:31:32.863-07:00

"Shame on you.  It's your own fault.  Now, learn to live with it."   Or so the great Thomas Friedman at the New York Times would have it.  Now and then Dean Baker really nails it.  His daily blog, Beat the Press, regularly pulls down the pants of writers at the NYT and Washington Post who reach absurd conclusions based on stupid premises. But this post succinctly lays out the difference

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-13628280610542561092010-05-05T08:30:00.000-07:002010-05-05T08:47:08.541-07:00

They're back again with the second in the old two step. The final step to bailout the big banks that created all that toxic "securitized" mortgage debt.   Step two is: stick the taxpayers with another $Trillion$ in worthless paper the Fed (that's a private institution remember) bought from the banks.   Will they fool congress?  Will they fool the taxpayers?  Let Mr. Whitney explain just how

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-84538215390232216412010-05-03T09:21:00.000-07:002010-05-05T09:24:57.063-07:00

Goldman Sachs used to be the firm that pursued top government posts; now government is in hot pursuit of it, and not in a good way. The SEC has charged the firm and an employee, Fabrice Tourre, with securities fraud and the Justice Department has commenced a criminal investigation, according to news reports. Change appears to be swallowing Goldman Sachs. It began quietly moving out of its

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-15421138267849703992010-04-28T12:02:00.000-07:002010-04-28T12:05:11.623-07:00

British Petroleum had a fail-safe system for it’s Deepwater Horizon floating deep-water drilling rig. You know, the one that blew up and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving a tangled spaghetti pile of 22-inch steel pipe one mile long all balled up on the sea floor a mile below the surface, and that is leaking oil at 42,000 gallons per day...so far. The thing is, the fail-safe system, about the

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-18166757933505373722010-04-27T12:37:00.000-07:002010-04-27T21:12:20.249-07:00

Once again, Mike Whitney puts his finger on the flaws in our financial system and makes the issues understandable as few other writers can. As we listen to so much rhetoric, paid for by banks and purchased from politicians, re-characterizing the problems to avoid reform, Whitney's voice cuts through all the blather. (editor) Most people still don't know what caused the financial crisis. They

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-16366560696472034962010-04-21T21:36:00.000-07:002010-04-22T09:31:53.933-07:00

As President Obama packed his bags tonight for a little visit to his good friends in New York, his old pals on Wall Street are rolling out quite a welcome. They have a little message for Obama, the opening lines will be delivered by their new front group, Stop Too Big To Fail that just made an enormous media buy meant to signal the start of a campaign that will morph into political war on

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-81063868328593171132010-04-07T07:52:00.000-07:002010-04-07T19:00:13.640-07:00

Next time you hear the right-wingers lament interference in the "free market" ask them how they feel about creating markets that drive wealth to the top instead of the middle. Yes, ask them how they feel about facilitating patent and copyright monopolies instead of focusing on a more egalitarian distribution. Hey, ask them how they feel about the drug companies sucking 3 trillion in monopoly

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-37587666572632777572010-04-02T08:14:00.000-07:002010-04-07T11:13:01.155-07:00

David Lindorff is a writer and journalist based in Philadelphia.  He was the author of  The Case for Impeachment published by St. Martens Press during the Bush years. Lindorff asks a question and provides an answer that should make Democrats squirm.  While they were quite vocal in their denunciations of "W", what has become of their voices now?  (editor) Back in 2005-06, I wrote a book, The

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-56039913623395087522010-03-31T11:14:00.000-07:002010-04-02T14:22:31.329-07:00

While nobody seems to be watching, the fat cats of finance, with the unabated assistance of Wall Street's favorite son, Tim Geithner, are quietly to get yet another bail-out at tax payer expense swapping toxic paper secured by underwater mortgages for government guaranteed instruments. Can there be any remaining doubt who bought Obama? (editor) Last Friday, the Obama administration announced

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-32491026120093945222010-03-29T04:17:00.000-07:002010-03-29T16:11:35.204-07:00

What follows is a thoughtful look, from a quite different perspective, at the economic relations between the US and the People's Republic of China. Different, because the author directs our attention to the more interesting question, who profits from the off-shoring of American manufacturing jobs. And the answer seems to be multi-national corporations, primarilly from the US. With a 60% share

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-67953524882780820252010-03-28T13:54:00.000-07:002010-03-31T14:57:40.977-07:00

What follows is a presentation made by Lawrence Solomon to the Colorado Mining Association in Denver, Colorado, this past February. Mr. Solomon has long been one of the most passionate voices against the scheme by rent seekers to tax the world, in particular the poorest amongst us, on the bogus theory that human activity is responsible for an allegedly warming climate. The exposure of these

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-76435458195058971072010-03-24T02:22:00.000-07:002010-03-24T23:06:57.623-07:00

What follows below is a particularly poignant, and comprehensive statement by a truly moderate observer who, after decades of effort, says he is throwing in the towel. Paul Craig Roberts is an economist and nationally syndicated columnist who served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the "Father of Reaganomics." Another knee-jerk bleeding heart

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-76857586888240320152009-06-07T09:10:00.000-07:002010-03-24T23:07:55.926-07:00

Mike Whitney has written a most insightful article laying out the state of our national finances. It is the story of a nation in which the regulatory system has been captured by the masters of capital and the keys to the treasury have been stolen from the people.Whitney points out Bernanke has underwritten the entire financial system and shifted 100per cent of the liability for losses onto the

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-1382308897541186852009-05-30T18:24:00.000-07:002009-06-11T07:53:28.040-07:00

Lawrence Solomon, executive director of Energy Probe Research Institute is an author and journalist who has long been outspoken in opposition to nuclear power and now is deeply concerned with the implementation of a cap & trade scheme for CO2 and its consequences for the poorest amongst us.Another day, another denier comes forward to challenge the views of Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-14201803991584777332009-05-23T07:20:00.000-07:002009-05-23T20:29:15.515-07:00

Mike Whitney explains that Credit Default Swaps are all about selling paper with no capital backing, an activity tantamount to counterfeiting, yet no one has been indicted or prosecuted. "Defrauding clients and then sticking it to Joe sixpack has become de rigueur on Wall Street."CDS have spread into every corner of the financial system, lashing together banks and other financial institutions in

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-87219987683853992942009-05-22T21:40:00.000-07:002009-05-23T06:24:42.140-07:00

Anthony Watts has reposted an interesting article by Leonard Weinstein ScD that lends perspective when considering the assertions of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) lobby. Dr. Weinstein's paper is useful reading if you care to be better informed on the disputes raging in the scientific community and better understand the push back by scientists unconvinced that present changes in climate

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-7365911945579503892009-05-21T10:12:00.000-07:002009-05-21T14:28:01.595-07:00

An interesting article today at Counterpunch by its co-editor, Jeffrey St. Clair, and Joshua Franks on the Obama administration's environmental protection stance. The writers make interesting observations regarding CO2 and Cap & Trade. What follows is an excerpt:When it comes to CO2 emissions, the EPA has been more bark than bite. While admitting that greenhouse gases are a threat to human

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-45729119416193449122009-05-21T00:42:00.000-07:002009-05-22T14:30:39.956-07:00

Today, the financial sector is translating its affluence (at taxpayer expense), into the political power to pry yet more public infrastructure away from state and local communities and from the public domain at the national level, Thatcher- and Blair-style as it is sold off to absentee buyers-on-credit to pay off public debt (while cutting taxes on wealth yet further). No one remembers the cry

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-62765471737238664672009-05-20T08:43:00.000-07:002009-05-20T10:42:37.002-07:00

Do people realize that the reason their home equity is vanishing, their 401ks have been slashed in half and their jobs are at risk is because Wall Street was gaming the system with leverage and financial innovation? The current downturn is not really a recession at all; it's more like a self-inflicted wound perpetrated by avaricious speculators who put a gun to the economy's head and blew its

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-55052967056040096332009-05-19T01:24:00.000-07:002009-05-21T13:56:52.371-07:00

Among the giant taboos afflicting Congress these days is the proposal to create a single payer health insurance system (often called full Medicare for everyone).How can this be? Don’t the elected politicians represent the people? Don't they always have their finger to the wind?Well, single payer is only supported by a majority of the American people, physicians and nurses. They like the idea

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-56390105706548809102009-05-18T01:39:00.000-07:002009-05-22T08:19:14.903-07:00

In reversing himself and declaring that the US government will not release further photos in its possession of torture being practiced on captives held by the US military and the CIA, President Obama is sounding increasingly like the Bush/Cheney administration before him.It may well be that, as Obama says, release of those photos could lead to anger in the Islamic world and perhaps to recruitment

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-3895800424948280922009-05-17T01:27:00.000-07:002009-05-22T08:18:28.963-07:00

Barack Obama is aggressively stepping up the war in Afghanistan. He's intensified the cross-border bombing of Pakistan and he is doubling the number of U.S. troops to 68,000 by 2010. He's also a strong proponent of pilotless drones even though hundreds of civilians have been killed in bombing raid blunders.On May 4, 2009, 143 civilians were killed in a bombing raid in Bala Baluk, a remote area

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-13230924095407526982009-05-16T01:17:00.000-07:002009-07-31T09:57:21.115-07:00

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, asks, “What do you suppose it is like to be elected president of the United States only to find that your power is restricted to the service of powerful interest groups?”“On April 30 the primacy of special over public interests was demonstrated yet again. The Democrats’ bill to prevent 1.7 million mortgage foreclosures and, thus,

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-8532896580313765512009-05-13T20:20:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:09:10.145-07:00

Events have forced those who earlier warned of global warming to modulate their hysteria and instead ring the alarm for catastrophic “climate change” instead.Why the nuance? If anthropogenic CO2 was causing the atmosphere to warm, why not keep saying so?Well because in fact, since about the time they'd put together the financing, bought the publicity and endowed the science to trot out “

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-16194565735288566722009-05-10T01:37:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:09:25.775-07:00

As we race towards a future fraught with economic and environmental uncertainty; and as global forces pull at our cherished freedoms and political institutions, at the risk of more ridicule and condescension from the ever faithful greenies amongst us, let's take another look at global warming, cap & trade and the forces behind both.Some years back the climate models being developed by the global

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-38266987503371565122009-05-06T01:28:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:09:59.212-07:00

While after a hundred days the Obama administration may be spinnin' and grinnin', the rising chorus of criticism on the left evidences the disillusionment and disenchantment growing among those who believed they were voting for a change from Bush.On issue after issue, the bottom line is no change.Elliott Cohen, is an ethicist and political analyst. He is the editor in chief of the International

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-63410878876607526052009-05-04T15:52:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:10:16.295-07:00

For those who still remember the idealism of their youth, this link will take you back to Kent State University May 4, 1970.On this day almost 40 years ago, the illusion that government can not turn on its citizens, even their children, was violently dispelled. Nixon's imperial presidency created the situation, but he would not be the last. George W. Bush and company proved that. The current

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-46433973531970727992009-04-27T09:59:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:10:32.564-07:00

Congressional correspondent Susan Ferrechio reports passing cap & trade legislation is business as usual in Washington, not always pretty to watch."In exchange for votes to pass a controversial global warming package, Democratic leaders are offering some lawmakers generous "emission allowances” to protect their districts from the economic pain of restrictions.Democrats so far have been unable to

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-82872302893798591352009-03-29T09:32:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:10:51.238-07:00

What do you know, and what do you take on faith? Who do you trust, and should you trust them? Do you believe that failing to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere will have catastrophic environmental consequences?Faced with uncertain threats on the one hand, and certain dire consequences on the other, what is the way to go?The argument to cap CO2 emissions and trade the rights to its emission is:The

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-25674128287552938182009-03-24T20:56:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:11:13.142-07:00

The good news for ordinary American taxpayers just keeps coming. Monday's formal announcement of Treasury Secretary Geithner's oft floated It-Ain't-Really-a-Bailout Plan thrilled Wall Street. Why wouldn't it? Not only will it turn the losers into winners at the rest of the country's expense. It will create a brand new game for the fine folks that gave us those other great games, like Credit

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-13516516208040506192009-03-22T21:12:00.000-07:002009-07-31T08:11:41.980-07:00

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it would buy $300 billion of long-term Treasurys over the next six months. The Fed also announced plans to buy an additional $750 billion in mortgage-backed securities. To those of you who don't understand, the Fed is not a government institution. It's a private bank controlled by the world's wealthiest. No I'm not talking about Bill Gates or Warren

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-83852952011236933452009-03-15T21:22:00.000-07:002010-03-31T01:03:23.038-07:00

"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." -- Thomas Jefferson The interest expense paid on the national debt is the third largest expense in the federal budget In Fiscal Year 2008, the U. S. Government spent $412 billion on interest payments to

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-11537347515083497482009-03-03T21:46:00.000-08:002009-07-31T08:12:34.391-07:00

There's a disturbing pattern emerging in the current administration's approach to national problems. Last week they proposed to saddle the citizenry with the costs of salvaging a private banking industry.Why? Because Obama's men, who will never be weaned from the golden teat, believe a few private banks, on their knees begging for their financial lives, are better suited to manage the nation's

editornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-1786833169941955532009-02-21T20:46:00.000-08:002009-07-31T08:12:51.221-07:00

It is difficult to appreciate the momentousness of the moment at hand as the struggle to resolve matters swirling in the banking sector come to the critical pass. The debate over nationalization of our largest, but failing, banks portends a watershed event, a sea change in our economic lives. Perhaps even the culmination of the Revolution of 1776.Since that revolution freed us from English

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-13817758824994511382009-02-16T20:59:00.000-08:002009-07-31T10:06:48.288-07:00

Lest you think our current financial crisis is unprecedented, it's not. These crises have been occurring since the Dark Ages; probably earlier. They always are tied to the struggle to create and control money, and profit from the same.And that struggle is always a contest between the citizenry and those whose power is seated in the ability to use their wealth to manipulate economies and

editornoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6999149497365204817.post-18138603770673012952009-02-10T21:24:00.000-08:002009-07-31T08:13:25.875-07:00

The President's dynamic duo, Larry Summers and Tim Geithner, tell us, “governments make poor bank managers.” Geithner, our brand spankin' new Secretary of the Treasury, goes on. “We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system,”“The worst loan owns the bank.” This was an insight shared with me at

editornoreply@blogger.com0