Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 30, 2010
About the Bank of North Dakota
If the 2008- depression lasts for more than a decade, it may be time to move to North Dakota, which has the only public state bank which is independent from both the Federal Reserve System and also from the dictates of, the limitations of, and the clearly demonstrated shortcomings of the high end financial world with its trillions of dollars of "toxic assets". Whereas the North Dakota bank has few or zero toxic assets and some reasonable objectives and policies...
Inside the 'Class War'
Already the big healthcare companies are coming up with new "affordable" plans that limit benefits and choice despite the Administration's promises when it was passed. "The (financial reform) legislation empowers 10 regulatory agencies with the ability to write new rules governing all aspects of the financial industry-from the types of trades banks can conduct to the standards for mortgages, credit cards, and ATM fees. Many of these decisions will be made by regulators....The political environment seems grim, not only for Obama, but for all progressive change. That moment may have passed. This does not mean the public is not angry, only that's its anger is deliberately being channeled by our media in a false direction, into bashing deficits and Dems, not the men in the shadows who are calling the shots.
Dear Congress: We the People are Starving
On a recent night, I worked with other food bank volunteers to feed 15 percent of the town where I live....The food pantry provided food to over 400 people in a town with a population of only 3,000. By the end of the evening nearly all the food was gone....
Deficit Doves
Ultimately, they are going after Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, the venerable programs once considered untouchable "third rails" of U.S. politics. These have been replaced by a new third rail, the defense budget. To really deal with annual deficits and a surging national debt, we are going to need to cut military spending....Stiglitz was one of the many economists who said the economic stimulus package (at $787 billion) was too small. He argues that deficit spending, when done wisely, creates long-term returns for an economy. Conversely, he wrote recently, "Deficits to finance wars or give-aways to the financial sector ... impos[e] a burden on future generations."
If the 2008- depression lasts for more than a decade, it may be time to move to North Dakota, which has the only public state bank which is independent from both the Federal Reserve System and also from the dictates of, the limitations of, and the clearly demonstrated shortcomings of the high end financial world with its trillions of dollars of "toxic assets". Whereas the North Dakota bank has few or zero toxic assets and some reasonable objectives and policies...
Inside the 'Class War'
Already the big healthcare companies are coming up with new "affordable" plans that limit benefits and choice despite the Administration's promises when it was passed. "The (financial reform) legislation empowers 10 regulatory agencies with the ability to write new rules governing all aspects of the financial industry-from the types of trades banks can conduct to the standards for mortgages, credit cards, and ATM fees. Many of these decisions will be made by regulators....The political environment seems grim, not only for Obama, but for all progressive change. That moment may have passed. This does not mean the public is not angry, only that's its anger is deliberately being channeled by our media in a false direction, into bashing deficits and Dems, not the men in the shadows who are calling the shots.
Dear Congress: We the People are Starving
On a recent night, I worked with other food bank volunteers to feed 15 percent of the town where I live....The food pantry provided food to over 400 people in a town with a population of only 3,000. By the end of the evening nearly all the food was gone....
Deficit Doves
Ultimately, they are going after Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, the venerable programs once considered untouchable "third rails" of U.S. politics. These have been replaced by a new third rail, the defense budget. To really deal with annual deficits and a surging national debt, we are going to need to cut military spending....Stiglitz was one of the many economists who said the economic stimulus package (at $787 billion) was too small. He argues that deficit spending, when done wisely, creates long-term returns for an economy. Conversely, he wrote recently, "Deficits to finance wars or give-aways to the financial sector ... impos[e] a burden on future generations."
Thursday, July 29, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 29, 2010
Pandora’s Box in the Gulf: Does Hope Remain?
Americans, especially those unfortunate enough to reside along the Gulf coast, are beginning to get a glimpse of what life is like in an occupied country. The occupying power, in this case, is British Petroleum, a foreign corporation that has committed grievous crimes yet is allowed to continue to lord over us, despoiling our land and sea, poisoning our people even while denying their constitutional rights....A leader with backbone would have asserted immediate control over the disaster inflicted on the Gulf region and dictated terms to BP....He would have placed the company in receivership and under public authority. BP's efforts would have been supervised by appropriate departments of the US government along with the immediate opening of an investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI.
The Real U.S. Government
Most of what the U.S. Government does of any significance -- literally -- occurs behind a vast wall of secrecy, completely unknown to the citizenry. . . . Secrecy is the religion of the political class, and the prime enabler of its corruption. That's why whistle blowers are among the most hated heretics. They're one of the very few classes of people able to shed a small amount of light on what actually takes place....The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."...Meanwhile, the Real U.S. Government -- the network of secret public and private organizations which comprise the National Security and Surveillance State -- expands and surveills and pilfers and destroys without much attention and with virtually no real oversight or accountability.
How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Students into the School to Prison Pipeline
This is about 40 pages and well worth it. This is a study of recent US education practices, especially ones that have come into being during the far right era that began in 1981 with the election of Ronald Reagan. Every once in a while (roughly once a month) we'll link to one of these crucial, carefully documented and very thorough reports.
Charts: Small Banks & Small Business Lending
See these charts to understand the basic structure of the business lending system in the US. There is also a short article that is linked to above the charts. These charts show you that the sheer amount of assets on the balance sheet largely determine what types of businesses a bank will lend to. If you are a small business, it is very, very unlikely you will get any kind of a loan from a huge bank, regardless of how successful your business has been.
Americans, especially those unfortunate enough to reside along the Gulf coast, are beginning to get a glimpse of what life is like in an occupied country. The occupying power, in this case, is British Petroleum, a foreign corporation that has committed grievous crimes yet is allowed to continue to lord over us, despoiling our land and sea, poisoning our people even while denying their constitutional rights....A leader with backbone would have asserted immediate control over the disaster inflicted on the Gulf region and dictated terms to BP....He would have placed the company in receivership and under public authority. BP's efforts would have been supervised by appropriate departments of the US government along with the immediate opening of an investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI.
The Real U.S. Government
Most of what the U.S. Government does of any significance -- literally -- occurs behind a vast wall of secrecy, completely unknown to the citizenry. . . . Secrecy is the religion of the political class, and the prime enabler of its corruption. That's why whistle blowers are among the most hated heretics. They're one of the very few classes of people able to shed a small amount of light on what actually takes place....The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."...Meanwhile, the Real U.S. Government -- the network of secret public and private organizations which comprise the National Security and Surveillance State -- expands and surveills and pilfers and destroys without much attention and with virtually no real oversight or accountability.
How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Students into the School to Prison Pipeline
This is about 40 pages and well worth it. This is a study of recent US education practices, especially ones that have come into being during the far right era that began in 1981 with the election of Ronald Reagan. Every once in a while (roughly once a month) we'll link to one of these crucial, carefully documented and very thorough reports.
Charts: Small Banks & Small Business Lending
See these charts to understand the basic structure of the business lending system in the US. There is also a short article that is linked to above the charts. These charts show you that the sheer amount of assets on the balance sheet largely determine what types of businesses a bank will lend to. If you are a small business, it is very, very unlikely you will get any kind of a loan from a huge bank, regardless of how successful your business has been.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 28, 2010
France (Not) to Repay Debt to Haiti
Years after Haiti achieved freedom from France-in a dramatic slave uprising that defeated Napoleon in 1804-France threatened to re-invade and demanded to be paid for the slaves it had lost....But for Haiti, spending more than its first century of existence in extreme debt was devastating. By 1900, 80 percent of Haiti's national budget was being spent on servicing the French debt, according to historian Alex von Tunzelmann, who wrote that the so-called Independence Debt "did not signify the beginning of freedom, but the end of hope," trapping Haiti in a debt spiral that has continued to the this day. Many Haitians believe the debt they were forced to take on was illegal, and now think of it as France's debt to them. In 2003, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide sent France a bill for more than $21 billion. France has ignored the claim.
Conservatism’s Death Gusher
What those conservatives are not saying, and may be incapable of seeing, is that conservatism itself is largely responsible for what happened, and that conservatism is a continuing disaster for conservatives who live along the Gulf....It is conservative profit-above-all market fundamentalism that has led other oil companies to mount a massive PR campaign to isolate BP as an anomalous "bad actor" and to argue that offshore drilling should be continued by the self-proclaimed "good actors."...Look for the immediate cause, but don't look any further, at the profit-above-all system in which all oil companies operate, a system idolized by conservatives
Inequality Is the Real Debt Burden
Recent polls indicate that many Americans are as concerned about growing government debt as they are about terrorism. It's interesting that concern about debt occurs almost rhythmically when conservatives are out of power. What else would explain the support of a $3 trillion war in the Middle East without concern for "growing debt"?...Debt of and by itself is not the enemy. It is being used as a red herring by those who don't want government lending a helping hand to families in need and who want to push off environmental and social debts to others while enriching the elite.
The New Finance Bill: A Mountain of Legislative Paper, a Molehill of Reform
The American people will continue to have to foot the bill for the mistakes of Wall Street's biggest banks because the legislation does nothing to diminish the economic and political power of these giants. It does not cap their size. It does not resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act that once separated commercial (normal) banking from investment (casino) banking. It does not even link the pay of their traders and top executives to long-term performance. In other words, it does nothing to change their basic structure. And for this reason, it gives them an implicit federal insurance policy against failure unavailable to smaller banks - thereby adding to their economic and political power in the future....The profit-for-nothing sector of the economy (law, accounting, finance) will continue to grow buoyantly.
Years after Haiti achieved freedom from France-in a dramatic slave uprising that defeated Napoleon in 1804-France threatened to re-invade and demanded to be paid for the slaves it had lost....But for Haiti, spending more than its first century of existence in extreme debt was devastating. By 1900, 80 percent of Haiti's national budget was being spent on servicing the French debt, according to historian Alex von Tunzelmann, who wrote that the so-called Independence Debt "did not signify the beginning of freedom, but the end of hope," trapping Haiti in a debt spiral that has continued to the this day. Many Haitians believe the debt they were forced to take on was illegal, and now think of it as France's debt to them. In 2003, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide sent France a bill for more than $21 billion. France has ignored the claim.
Conservatism’s Death Gusher
What those conservatives are not saying, and may be incapable of seeing, is that conservatism itself is largely responsible for what happened, and that conservatism is a continuing disaster for conservatives who live along the Gulf....It is conservative profit-above-all market fundamentalism that has led other oil companies to mount a massive PR campaign to isolate BP as an anomalous "bad actor" and to argue that offshore drilling should be continued by the self-proclaimed "good actors."...Look for the immediate cause, but don't look any further, at the profit-above-all system in which all oil companies operate, a system idolized by conservatives
Inequality Is the Real Debt Burden
Recent polls indicate that many Americans are as concerned about growing government debt as they are about terrorism. It's interesting that concern about debt occurs almost rhythmically when conservatives are out of power. What else would explain the support of a $3 trillion war in the Middle East without concern for "growing debt"?...Debt of and by itself is not the enemy. It is being used as a red herring by those who don't want government lending a helping hand to families in need and who want to push off environmental and social debts to others while enriching the elite.
The New Finance Bill: A Mountain of Legislative Paper, a Molehill of Reform
The American people will continue to have to foot the bill for the mistakes of Wall Street's biggest banks because the legislation does nothing to diminish the economic and political power of these giants. It does not cap their size. It does not resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act that once separated commercial (normal) banking from investment (casino) banking. It does not even link the pay of their traders and top executives to long-term performance. In other words, it does nothing to change their basic structure. And for this reason, it gives them an implicit federal insurance policy against failure unavailable to smaller banks - thereby adding to their economic and political power in the future....The profit-for-nothing sector of the economy (law, accounting, finance) will continue to grow buoyantly.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 27, 2010
Republicans Don't Give a Damn about the Deficit
Ponder that for a minute. The official Republican stance is that taxes aren't relevant to budget problems, but spending is. In this case, $35bn for the jobless (during the worst economic crisis since the great depression) is unacceptable to them because it would bust the budget, but $678bn in breaks for the wealthiest is fine....But the contrast between opposing relatively minor spending to shield the suffering of the unemployed while backing tax cuts for the rich takes this double standard to new levels. Especially when the tax breaks are projected to massively decrease government revenues. What this suggests is that for Republicans, the deficit isn't a real concern – it's simply a political weapon....
Greece: Same Tragedy, Different Scripts
The Greek crisis essentially stems from the same frenzied drive of finance capital to draw profits from the massive indiscriminate extension of credit that led to the implosion of Wall Street....First of all, financial institutions successfully hijacked the narrative of crisis to serve their own ends. The big banks are now truly worried about the awful state of their balance sheets, impaired as they are by the toxic subprime assets they took on and realizing that they severely overextended their lending operations. The principal way they seek to rebuild their balance sheets is to generate fresh capital by using their debtors as pawns. As the centerpiece of this strategy, the banks seek to persuade the public authorities to bail them out once more, as the authorities did in the first stage of the crisis in the form of rescue funds and a low prime lending rate....
Haiti, Six Months On: Too Early for Medals
During my six months in Haiti, I have seen an aid effort proceed on an uneven course - from its problematic inception, to successes in disease prevention, and back to somewhere in between. As the UN Mission Chief Edmond Mulet and others freely admit, the sense of urgency has been lost here. That might sound hard to believe when there are more than 1.5 million living in squalid camps, exposed to the elements with extreme weather on the way, but it's true. And for most Haitians, the failures of the aid effort are more obvious than its successes. The fact that in six months only 5,500 storm proof shelters have been built in the entire country, the huge rise in assaults on women in the camps, the rubble spilling out over every neighbourhood, a city which still looks much the same as it did in the days just after the quake...
Austerity: Why and for Whom?
Clearly, the global capitalist crisis that started in 2007 will be neither short nor shallow. The government rescue of the US financial industry pumped enough extra money into the economy and sufficiently reduced interest rates to give banks and the stock market the heavily hyped "recovery" that started March 2009 and is now over. What is worse, their recovery never reached much of the rest of the economy. Efforts to broaden the recovery or extend it beyond one limp year have failed....A capitalist system that generates so massive a crisis, spreads it globally, and then proposes mass austerity to "overcome" it has lost the right to continue unchallenged....
Ponder that for a minute. The official Republican stance is that taxes aren't relevant to budget problems, but spending is. In this case, $35bn for the jobless (during the worst economic crisis since the great depression) is unacceptable to them because it would bust the budget, but $678bn in breaks for the wealthiest is fine....But the contrast between opposing relatively minor spending to shield the suffering of the unemployed while backing tax cuts for the rich takes this double standard to new levels. Especially when the tax breaks are projected to massively decrease government revenues. What this suggests is that for Republicans, the deficit isn't a real concern – it's simply a political weapon....
Greece: Same Tragedy, Different Scripts
The Greek crisis essentially stems from the same frenzied drive of finance capital to draw profits from the massive indiscriminate extension of credit that led to the implosion of Wall Street....First of all, financial institutions successfully hijacked the narrative of crisis to serve their own ends. The big banks are now truly worried about the awful state of their balance sheets, impaired as they are by the toxic subprime assets they took on and realizing that they severely overextended their lending operations. The principal way they seek to rebuild their balance sheets is to generate fresh capital by using their debtors as pawns. As the centerpiece of this strategy, the banks seek to persuade the public authorities to bail them out once more, as the authorities did in the first stage of the crisis in the form of rescue funds and a low prime lending rate....
Haiti, Six Months On: Too Early for Medals
During my six months in Haiti, I have seen an aid effort proceed on an uneven course - from its problematic inception, to successes in disease prevention, and back to somewhere in between. As the UN Mission Chief Edmond Mulet and others freely admit, the sense of urgency has been lost here. That might sound hard to believe when there are more than 1.5 million living in squalid camps, exposed to the elements with extreme weather on the way, but it's true. And for most Haitians, the failures of the aid effort are more obvious than its successes. The fact that in six months only 5,500 storm proof shelters have been built in the entire country, the huge rise in assaults on women in the camps, the rubble spilling out over every neighbourhood, a city which still looks much the same as it did in the days just after the quake...
Austerity: Why and for Whom?
Clearly, the global capitalist crisis that started in 2007 will be neither short nor shallow. The government rescue of the US financial industry pumped enough extra money into the economy and sufficiently reduced interest rates to give banks and the stock market the heavily hyped "recovery" that started March 2009 and is now over. What is worse, their recovery never reached much of the rest of the economy. Efforts to broaden the recovery or extend it beyond one limp year have failed....A capitalist system that generates so massive a crisis, spreads it globally, and then proposes mass austerity to "overcome" it has lost the right to continue unchallenged....
Monday, July 26, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 26, 2010
Trapped: Is It Too Little, Too Late for Real Financial Reform?
In Haiti, only 2% of pledged aid arrived, a sign not only of ineptitude and hypocrisy, but of deeper financial shortages in many countries that are cutting back across the world. Haitians are living and dying in filth with the real threat of coming hurricanes poised to wash them all away, an outcome that some say is what the elite there wants to do with the country's growing impoverished population....Haiti is not the only country with tent cities. They have popped up in California and some are now called "Obamavilles."...In Europe, new rules limit banker bonuses; here, they are free to continue to be obscenely rewarded....
Jobless 'Recovery' Requires Us to Rebuild America
There also was another drop in the average hourly wage. Fewer hours, lower wages. That's not what most people would call an economy "headed in the right direction." Indeed, the strongest job growth in June came from the low-paying service sector, and nearly half of the 46,000 jobs added there are temporary positions....The reality we face is what economist Paul Krugman is frankly calling a "Long Depression." As happened in a similar decline in the 1870s, those at the top will prosper and take an even larger share of the wealth we all produce, while the majority sees declining income and rising poverty.
Six New Orleans Police Charged in Post-Katrina Killings, But Activists Say Deeper Change is Needed
This week, federal officials charged six current and former New Orleans police officers in connection with the killing of civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina....A coalition of criminal justice activists called Community United for Change (CUC) has asked for federal investigations of dozens of other police murders committed over the past three decades, which advocates say have never been properly examined...."How you gonna get the wolf to watch over the chicken coop?" asks Adolph Grimes, Jr. "It's the system itself that is corrupted."
For the Economy, Help Is Not on the Way
It's different this time. We are in a deep depression: calculated the same way as it was in the 1930s, the unemployment rate is the same as it was in 1934. Global credit markets have stalled. Investment has ceased.
And help isn't coming....No one knows where the recovery will come from for a simple reason: It isn't coming. Not any time soon.
In Haiti, only 2% of pledged aid arrived, a sign not only of ineptitude and hypocrisy, but of deeper financial shortages in many countries that are cutting back across the world. Haitians are living and dying in filth with the real threat of coming hurricanes poised to wash them all away, an outcome that some say is what the elite there wants to do with the country's growing impoverished population....Haiti is not the only country with tent cities. They have popped up in California and some are now called "Obamavilles."...In Europe, new rules limit banker bonuses; here, they are free to continue to be obscenely rewarded....
Jobless 'Recovery' Requires Us to Rebuild America
There also was another drop in the average hourly wage. Fewer hours, lower wages. That's not what most people would call an economy "headed in the right direction." Indeed, the strongest job growth in June came from the low-paying service sector, and nearly half of the 46,000 jobs added there are temporary positions....The reality we face is what economist Paul Krugman is frankly calling a "Long Depression." As happened in a similar decline in the 1870s, those at the top will prosper and take an even larger share of the wealth we all produce, while the majority sees declining income and rising poverty.
Six New Orleans Police Charged in Post-Katrina Killings, But Activists Say Deeper Change is Needed
This week, federal officials charged six current and former New Orleans police officers in connection with the killing of civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina....A coalition of criminal justice activists called Community United for Change (CUC) has asked for federal investigations of dozens of other police murders committed over the past three decades, which advocates say have never been properly examined...."How you gonna get the wolf to watch over the chicken coop?" asks Adolph Grimes, Jr. "It's the system itself that is corrupted."
For the Economy, Help Is Not on the Way
It's different this time. We are in a deep depression: calculated the same way as it was in the 1930s, the unemployment rate is the same as it was in 1934. Global credit markets have stalled. Investment has ceased.
And help isn't coming....No one knows where the recovery will come from for a simple reason: It isn't coming. Not any time soon.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 25, 2010
The Root Of Economic Fragility And Political Anger
Missing from almost all discussion of America's dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation....In other words, Americans are keeping their jobs or finding new ones only by accepting lower wages....We're back to the same ominous trend as before the Great Recession: a larger and larger share of total income going to the very top while the vast middle class continues to lose ground....Each of America's two biggest economic downturns over the last century has followed the same pattern....
Where Is Haiti's Bailout?
A partial index of the West's "humanitarian efforts" in Haiti so far: •Amount pledged for Haiti's reconstruction over the following 18 months at the March 31 UN conference: $5,300,000,000 •Percentage of this amount that has been paid: 1.9....•Estimated number of Haitians who remain homeless after the earthquake: 1,500,000....
Haiti, Six Months After the Earthquake
Haitians are angry, questioning where the billions of dollars donated in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake have gone. The Disaster Accountability Project found that of the 197 organizations that solicited money following the earthquake, only six had publicly available reports detailing their activities. From the "international donor community," the wealthier nations, more than $9 billion was pledged, but to date, only Brazil, Norway and Australia have paid in full. Most of the U.S. pledge of $1.15 billion is now being held up in Congress...According to The Washington Post, only 2 percent of promised reconstruction aid has been delivered....
There’s Just No Pleasing Some Robber Barons
All this comes at the very time that Wall Street lobbyists stand poised to win a sweeping victory preventing a reversal of the radical deregulation that made the banking debacle possible. The "Volcker rule," restoration of the New Deal-era barrier between investment and consumer banking that Obama had pledged to support, is gutted....Game over, Wall Street won big-time, and the Bush-Obama policy has made the financiers whole while largely ignoring the deep plight of the true victims of the economic collapse, the unemployed and the foreclosed.
Missing from almost all discussion of America's dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation....In other words, Americans are keeping their jobs or finding new ones only by accepting lower wages....We're back to the same ominous trend as before the Great Recession: a larger and larger share of total income going to the very top while the vast middle class continues to lose ground....Each of America's two biggest economic downturns over the last century has followed the same pattern....
Where Is Haiti's Bailout?
A partial index of the West's "humanitarian efforts" in Haiti so far: •Amount pledged for Haiti's reconstruction over the following 18 months at the March 31 UN conference: $5,300,000,000 •Percentage of this amount that has been paid: 1.9....•Estimated number of Haitians who remain homeless after the earthquake: 1,500,000....
Haiti, Six Months After the Earthquake
Haitians are angry, questioning where the billions of dollars donated in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake have gone. The Disaster Accountability Project found that of the 197 organizations that solicited money following the earthquake, only six had publicly available reports detailing their activities. From the "international donor community," the wealthier nations, more than $9 billion was pledged, but to date, only Brazil, Norway and Australia have paid in full. Most of the U.S. pledge of $1.15 billion is now being held up in Congress...According to The Washington Post, only 2 percent of promised reconstruction aid has been delivered....
There’s Just No Pleasing Some Robber Barons
All this comes at the very time that Wall Street lobbyists stand poised to win a sweeping victory preventing a reversal of the radical deregulation that made the banking debacle possible. The "Volcker rule," restoration of the New Deal-era barrier between investment and consumer banking that Obama had pledged to support, is gutted....Game over, Wall Street won big-time, and the Bush-Obama policy has made the financiers whole while largely ignoring the deep plight of the true victims of the economic collapse, the unemployed and the foreclosed.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 24, 2010
The Key to Financial Recovery: Restoring the Rule of Law on Wall Street
The financial crisis in America isn't over. It's ongoing, it remains unresolved, and it stands in the way of full economic recovery. The cause, at the deepest level, was a breakdown in the rule of law. And it follows that the first step toward prosperity is to restore the rule of law in the financial sector....Appraisers were selected who were willing to inflate the value of the home being sold....Third, the counterfeit mortgages were laundered so they would look to investors like the real thing. This was the role of the ratings agencies....Upon taking office, President Obama had a chance to change course and didn't take it. By seizing the largest problem banks, the government could have achieved clean audits, replaced top management, cured destructive compensation practices, shrunk a bloated industry, and cut the banks' lobbying power and therefore their capacity to obstruct financial reform. The way to write-downs of bad mortgage debt and therefore to financial recovery would have been opened. None of this happened.
Why the Idiocy About Unemployment?
If the public knew that the top ten hedge fund managers were averaging $900,000 an hour (not a typo) during the worst economic year since the Depression--and paying lower income tax rates than the rest of us--the American public would be outraged....The idea of a purely private sector is pure fiction, a soothing fairy tale for Tea Partiers and faith-based, free-market ideologues. Despite all the perks we've been giving to corporate America, it's not at all clear that the private sector will ever again create enough decent jobs to support a middle class society in this country. Right now the economy is supposedly growing, but employment isn't. So what is growing? Well, the obscene bonuses and pay packages of corporate America and Wall Street --- the only growth that counts for our financial elites....When Wall Street is in trouble, we come to the rescue with trillions in bailouts. We've poured hundreds of billions more into two wars. But when it comes to investing in our people to get needed work done, we can't seem to summon the will or find the cash. There's a one-sided war going on between financial elites and the rest of us. They've engineered the economy to enrich themselves at our expense, with Wall Street taking the lead.
Are Profits Hurting Capitalism?
Over the past decade and a half, corporations have been saving more and investing less in their own businesses....The reason for all this saving in the United States is that public companies have become obsessed with quarterly earnings. To show short-term profits, they avoid investing in future growth....If households and corporations are trying to save more of their income and spend less, then it is up to the other two sectors of the economy — the government and the import-export sector — to spend more and save less to keep the economy humming. In other words, there needs to be a large trade surplus, a large government deficit or some combination of the two. This isn’t a matter of economic theory; it’s based in simple accounting....Yet corporate executives are being rewarded for myopia and speculation, undermining the very operation of capitalism. We need tax and regulatory policies to counter this destructive development, along with wider recognition that government deficits, when they counteract corporate savings, are necessary and salutary.
Taming Finance in an Age of Austerity
The "innovations" unleashed by modern finance did not lead to higher long-term efficiency, faster growth, or more prosperity for all. Instead, they were designed to circumvent accounting standards and to evade and avoid taxes that are required to finance the public investments in infrastructure and technology - like the Internet - that underlie real growth, not the phantom growth promoted by the financial sector....When US President Herbert Hoover tried that recipe, it helped transform the 1929 stock-market crash into the Great Depression. When the International Monetary Fund tried the same formula in East Asia in 1997, downturns became recessions, and recessions became depressions....In short, having gotten the world into its current economic mess, financial markets are now saying to countries like Greece and Spain: damned if you don't cut back on spending, but damned if you do as well.
The financial crisis in America isn't over. It's ongoing, it remains unresolved, and it stands in the way of full economic recovery. The cause, at the deepest level, was a breakdown in the rule of law. And it follows that the first step toward prosperity is to restore the rule of law in the financial sector....Appraisers were selected who were willing to inflate the value of the home being sold....Third, the counterfeit mortgages were laundered so they would look to investors like the real thing. This was the role of the ratings agencies....Upon taking office, President Obama had a chance to change course and didn't take it. By seizing the largest problem banks, the government could have achieved clean audits, replaced top management, cured destructive compensation practices, shrunk a bloated industry, and cut the banks' lobbying power and therefore their capacity to obstruct financial reform. The way to write-downs of bad mortgage debt and therefore to financial recovery would have been opened. None of this happened.
Why the Idiocy About Unemployment?
If the public knew that the top ten hedge fund managers were averaging $900,000 an hour (not a typo) during the worst economic year since the Depression--and paying lower income tax rates than the rest of us--the American public would be outraged....The idea of a purely private sector is pure fiction, a soothing fairy tale for Tea Partiers and faith-based, free-market ideologues. Despite all the perks we've been giving to corporate America, it's not at all clear that the private sector will ever again create enough decent jobs to support a middle class society in this country. Right now the economy is supposedly growing, but employment isn't. So what is growing? Well, the obscene bonuses and pay packages of corporate America and Wall Street --- the only growth that counts for our financial elites....When Wall Street is in trouble, we come to the rescue with trillions in bailouts. We've poured hundreds of billions more into two wars. But when it comes to investing in our people to get needed work done, we can't seem to summon the will or find the cash. There's a one-sided war going on between financial elites and the rest of us. They've engineered the economy to enrich themselves at our expense, with Wall Street taking the lead.
Are Profits Hurting Capitalism?
Over the past decade and a half, corporations have been saving more and investing less in their own businesses....The reason for all this saving in the United States is that public companies have become obsessed with quarterly earnings. To show short-term profits, they avoid investing in future growth....If households and corporations are trying to save more of their income and spend less, then it is up to the other two sectors of the economy — the government and the import-export sector — to spend more and save less to keep the economy humming. In other words, there needs to be a large trade surplus, a large government deficit or some combination of the two. This isn’t a matter of economic theory; it’s based in simple accounting....Yet corporate executives are being rewarded for myopia and speculation, undermining the very operation of capitalism. We need tax and regulatory policies to counter this destructive development, along with wider recognition that government deficits, when they counteract corporate savings, are necessary and salutary.
Taming Finance in an Age of Austerity
The "innovations" unleashed by modern finance did not lead to higher long-term efficiency, faster growth, or more prosperity for all. Instead, they were designed to circumvent accounting standards and to evade and avoid taxes that are required to finance the public investments in infrastructure and technology - like the Internet - that underlie real growth, not the phantom growth promoted by the financial sector....When US President Herbert Hoover tried that recipe, it helped transform the 1929 stock-market crash into the Great Depression. When the International Monetary Fund tried the same formula in East Asia in 1997, downturns became recessions, and recessions became depressions....In short, having gotten the world into its current economic mess, financial markets are now saying to countries like Greece and Spain: damned if you don't cut back on spending, but damned if you do as well.
Friday, July 23, 2010
US Collapse Links for July 23, 2010
Shock And Awe: Fireworks, Smiley Faces, and The Depression
We need more than smiley faces these days. The alleged "recovery" is slowing. Many experts don't expect a turnaround until 2011, too late for next fall's elections. Some fear another crash. A few say the Dow Jones Industrial Average is repeating a pattern that appeared just before markets fell in 1929.....In England, The Telegraph reports a truth that many Americans and our media cheerleaders really don't want to see or face:
"With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932."....The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation.
Spending Not the Cause of Our Problems
Social Security always has been especially offensive. It is a universal program that worked and became very popular. It constitutes the major reason poverty rates among the elderly declined dramatically. Had George W. Bush privatized Social Security, our great recession likely would have become Great Depression II....
Unable to go after the program directly, conservatives attacked Social Security through fallacious arguments that the program, which its bipartisan trustees certify as fully funded through 2044, is a fiscal time bomb. As Baker points out, the real fiscal time bombs are exploding private sector dominated health costs, the bank bailouts and war costs of a trillion dollars and counting. Concern about deficits never has prevented the business press or our senators from supporting these corporate behemoths.
What We Make Our Sisters Do for Healthcare
We live with a healthcare system that is largely selfish, greed-driven, money-hungry and brutal to almost every person with an illness - unless that person has care secured a way to survive and afford care while someone else close to them works or unless they have access to care through Medicare, Medicaid, the IHS or the VA. And even in some of those settings, providers are very hard to find and some care little about the wellness of the patient and a lot about the healthy profits.....Check out the status of most insured Americans' health and you'll find some shocking, but predictable realities. Teeth get pulled not fixed. People take OTC meds to avoid the healthcare system and its costs. Symptoms needing attention are ignored until the symptoms become insistent. Parents find ways to get kids to care whenever they care, but many still go without basic services.
Low Taxes are Exacerbating the Recession
"During the period 1951-63, when marginal rates were at their peak -- 91 percent or 92 percent -- the American economy boomed, growing at an average annual rate of 3.71 percent," he wrote in February. "The fact that the marginal rates were what would today be viewed as essentially confiscatory did not cause economic cataclysm -- just the opposite. And during the past seven years, during which we reduced the top marginal rate to 35 percent, average growth was a more meager 1.71 percent."....This makes perfect sense. Though the Reagan zeitgeist created the illusion that taxes stunt economic growth, the numbers prove that higher marginal tax rates generate more resources for the job-creating, wage-generating public investments (roads, bridges, broadband, etc.) that sustain an economy. They also create economic incentives for economy-sustaining capital investment.
We need more than smiley faces these days. The alleged "recovery" is slowing. Many experts don't expect a turnaround until 2011, too late for next fall's elections. Some fear another crash. A few say the Dow Jones Industrial Average is repeating a pattern that appeared just before markets fell in 1929.....In England, The Telegraph reports a truth that many Americans and our media cheerleaders really don't want to see or face:
"With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932."....The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation.
Spending Not the Cause of Our Problems
Social Security always has been especially offensive. It is a universal program that worked and became very popular. It constitutes the major reason poverty rates among the elderly declined dramatically. Had George W. Bush privatized Social Security, our great recession likely would have become Great Depression II....
Unable to go after the program directly, conservatives attacked Social Security through fallacious arguments that the program, which its bipartisan trustees certify as fully funded through 2044, is a fiscal time bomb. As Baker points out, the real fiscal time bombs are exploding private sector dominated health costs, the bank bailouts and war costs of a trillion dollars and counting. Concern about deficits never has prevented the business press or our senators from supporting these corporate behemoths.
What We Make Our Sisters Do for Healthcare
We live with a healthcare system that is largely selfish, greed-driven, money-hungry and brutal to almost every person with an illness - unless that person has care secured a way to survive and afford care while someone else close to them works or unless they have access to care through Medicare, Medicaid, the IHS or the VA. And even in some of those settings, providers are very hard to find and some care little about the wellness of the patient and a lot about the healthy profits.....Check out the status of most insured Americans' health and you'll find some shocking, but predictable realities. Teeth get pulled not fixed. People take OTC meds to avoid the healthcare system and its costs. Symptoms needing attention are ignored until the symptoms become insistent. Parents find ways to get kids to care whenever they care, but many still go without basic services.
Low Taxes are Exacerbating the Recession
"During the period 1951-63, when marginal rates were at their peak -- 91 percent or 92 percent -- the American economy boomed, growing at an average annual rate of 3.71 percent," he wrote in February. "The fact that the marginal rates were what would today be viewed as essentially confiscatory did not cause economic cataclysm -- just the opposite. And during the past seven years, during which we reduced the top marginal rate to 35 percent, average growth was a more meager 1.71 percent."....This makes perfect sense. Though the Reagan zeitgeist created the illusion that taxes stunt economic growth, the numbers prove that higher marginal tax rates generate more resources for the job-creating, wage-generating public investments (roads, bridges, broadband, etc.) that sustain an economy. They also create economic incentives for economy-sustaining capital investment.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 22, 2010
Drill, Gamble, Loot, Starve: The Chamber of Commerce, The GOP, and the Politics of Plunder
What we're seeing is the Politics of Plunder, revealed in all its nakedness....To be clear, the Chamber of Commerce isn't the political lobbying arm of "business," as it sometimes claims. It specifically serves the interests of massive businesses, which are often at odds with the needs of small and medium enterprises....The GOP and its Democratic Blue Dog sympathizers don't want to vote for unemployment benefits or stimulus programs because, we're told, they're so concerned about the deficit. But when it comes to preserving tax cuts for the wealthy it's "deficits be damned." Sen. Jon Kyl's recent comments on the subject expose the inconsistency.
Slouching Toward a Double Dip or a Lousy Recovery at Best
The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession and all the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing....So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing. The states are running an anti-stimulus program (raising taxes, cutting services, laying off teachers, firefighters, police and other employees) that's now bigger than the federal stimulus program....The second booster rocket - the Fed's rock-bottom short-term interest rates - are having almost no effect. That's because jobs and wages are so lousy that consumers don't have enough money to buy much of anything, making small businesses bad credit risks and causing big ones to sit on the huge pile of cash they've accumulated.
The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security
Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction....First, the IMF deserves a substantial share of the blame for the economic crisis that gave us big deficits in the first place.
More Than 1 Million American Households are Likely to Lose Their Homes to Foreclosure This Year
More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans....Assuming the U.S. economy doesn't worsen, aggravating the foreclosure crisis, Sharga projects it will take lenders through 2013 to resolve the backlog of distressed properties that have on their books right now....And a new wave of foreclosures could be coming in the second half of the year, especially if the unemployment rate remains high, mortgage-assistance programs fail, and the economy doesn't improve fast enough to lift home sales.
What we're seeing is the Politics of Plunder, revealed in all its nakedness....To be clear, the Chamber of Commerce isn't the political lobbying arm of "business," as it sometimes claims. It specifically serves the interests of massive businesses, which are often at odds with the needs of small and medium enterprises....The GOP and its Democratic Blue Dog sympathizers don't want to vote for unemployment benefits or stimulus programs because, we're told, they're so concerned about the deficit. But when it comes to preserving tax cuts for the wealthy it's "deficits be damned." Sen. Jon Kyl's recent comments on the subject expose the inconsistency.
Slouching Toward a Double Dip or a Lousy Recovery at Best
The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession and all the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing....So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing. The states are running an anti-stimulus program (raising taxes, cutting services, laying off teachers, firefighters, police and other employees) that's now bigger than the federal stimulus program....The second booster rocket - the Fed's rock-bottom short-term interest rates - are having almost no effect. That's because jobs and wages are so lousy that consumers don't have enough money to buy much of anything, making small businesses bad credit risks and causing big ones to sit on the huge pile of cash they've accumulated.
The IMF Is Coming for Your Social Security
Last week, the IMF told the United States that it needs to start getting its budget deficit down. It put cutting Social Security at the top of the steps that the country should take to achieve deficit reduction....First, the IMF deserves a substantial share of the blame for the economic crisis that gave us big deficits in the first place.
More Than 1 Million American Households are Likely to Lose Their Homes to Foreclosure This Year
More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans....Assuming the U.S. economy doesn't worsen, aggravating the foreclosure crisis, Sharga projects it will take lenders through 2013 to resolve the backlog of distressed properties that have on their books right now....And a new wave of foreclosures could be coming in the second half of the year, especially if the unemployment rate remains high, mortgage-assistance programs fail, and the economy doesn't improve fast enough to lift home sales.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 21, 2010
Chinese Rating Agency Strips Western Nations of AAA Status
Dagong Global Credit Rating Co used its first foray into sovereign debt to paint a revolutionary picture of creditworthiness around the world, giving much greater weight to "wealth creating capacity" and foreign reserves than Fitch, Standard & Poor's, or Moody's....The US falls to AA, while Britain and France slither down to AA-. Belgium, Spain, Italy are ranked at A- along with Malaysia....Dagong rates Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, and Singapore at AAA, along with the commodity twins Australia and New Zealand. "The reason for the global financial crisis and debt crisis in Europe is that the current international credit rating system does not correctly reveal the debtor's repayment ability....
The 18 States Facing The Most Brutal Austerity Cuts
A slide type presentation telling you about these 18 states.
The U.S. Middle Class Is Being Wiped Out; Here's the Stats to Prove It
The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America....The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace....The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.
The U.S. Economy Is A Dead Horse And The American People Are Starting To Get Really Pissed Off And Frustrated
Record numbers of Americans are still going bankrupt. Record numbers of Americans are still losing their homes. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is a dead horse at this point....At this point the U.S. economy is like an aging rock star that requires larger and larger doses of drugs each night just to be able to perform. The U.S. economy is addicted to "drugs" such as debt and government stimulus, and years ago those things really supercharged the U.S. economic system, but at this point they aren't provoking much of a response at all....And Americans are still losing their homes in record numbers. (OK, so it isn't the most elegant title ever, laugh out loud.)
Dagong Global Credit Rating Co used its first foray into sovereign debt to paint a revolutionary picture of creditworthiness around the world, giving much greater weight to "wealth creating capacity" and foreign reserves than Fitch, Standard & Poor's, or Moody's....The US falls to AA, while Britain and France slither down to AA-. Belgium, Spain, Italy are ranked at A- along with Malaysia....Dagong rates Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, and Singapore at AAA, along with the commodity twins Australia and New Zealand. "The reason for the global financial crisis and debt crisis in Europe is that the current international credit rating system does not correctly reveal the debtor's repayment ability....
The 18 States Facing The Most Brutal Austerity Cuts
A slide type presentation telling you about these 18 states.
The U.S. Middle Class Is Being Wiped Out; Here's the Stats to Prove It
The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America....The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace....The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.
The U.S. Economy Is A Dead Horse And The American People Are Starting To Get Really Pissed Off And Frustrated
Record numbers of Americans are still going bankrupt. Record numbers of Americans are still losing their homes. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is a dead horse at this point....At this point the U.S. economy is like an aging rock star that requires larger and larger doses of drugs each night just to be able to perform. The U.S. economy is addicted to "drugs" such as debt and government stimulus, and years ago those things really supercharged the U.S. economic system, but at this point they aren't provoking much of a response at all....And Americans are still losing their homes in record numbers. (OK, so it isn't the most elegant title ever, laugh out loud.)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 20, 2010
BP Ruined a Mississippi Way of Life
Skrmetta has no faith in the current clean-up and rescue operations in Mississippi. He labeled them as merely "symbolic" in nature, adding: "The clean up-effort is out of an operation in Mobile, Alabama, they call it the Unified Command. And they bring people in from all over the country and it's like ... a war room...."And you have all these ‘experts', and they have all these soldiers they are giving orders to. But nothing is getting done, I mean, it is crazy. They are telling you that we've got 20,000 boats...but don't tell you that they've hired every little boat with an outboard motor that's riding around in circles in Mississippi Sound doing nothing....like I said, it's a symbolic thing."
Improve and Strengthen Medicare by Expanding It to All
Health care costs, which are rising 2.5 percent faster than our GDP, are a leading driver of our financial deficit. In fact, if our health care costs were comparable to those in other advanced nations, which provide nearly universal health care with better outcomes, we would currently experience a budget surplus....The recent health legislation, misleadingly titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), lacks proven cost controls and is predicted to cause U.S. health care costs to rise faster than if there had been no reform at all (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, April 2010) despite continuing to leave tens of millions out.
No Age of Austerity for the Rich
Cities, counties and states around America, faced with collapsing tax revenues and electorates hostile to any and all tax increases, are implementing slash-and-burn cuts to mental health services, drug treatment programmes, welfare aid, medical coverage for low income residents and the elderly, environmental protection programmes, child protective services, transport systems, schools, universities, community policing, fire departments and many other vital services. Collectively, these cuts diminish the quality of life for all Americans; but, disproportionately, they impact the quality of life and the already-low economic opportunities of the poorest sections of the populations.
Hammering the Poor and Vulnerable
5. The Health Uninsured are charged by hospitals full price, which The Wall Street Journal reported "is far more than the prices typically paid by insurance companies." This is the case, the Journal added, in spite of an annual taxpayer subsidy of $22 billion to hospitals "to care for the uninsured."....6. Amputees who need prosthetic devices find that the devices in the United States are very highly priced (by comparison with other western countries.) Health insurance companies make these products leading candidates for rising co-payments. This can mean tens of thousands of dollars from the patients or they go without.
Skrmetta has no faith in the current clean-up and rescue operations in Mississippi. He labeled them as merely "symbolic" in nature, adding: "The clean up-effort is out of an operation in Mobile, Alabama, they call it the Unified Command. And they bring people in from all over the country and it's like ... a war room...."And you have all these ‘experts', and they have all these soldiers they are giving orders to. But nothing is getting done, I mean, it is crazy. They are telling you that we've got 20,000 boats...but don't tell you that they've hired every little boat with an outboard motor that's riding around in circles in Mississippi Sound doing nothing....like I said, it's a symbolic thing."
Improve and Strengthen Medicare by Expanding It to All
Health care costs, which are rising 2.5 percent faster than our GDP, are a leading driver of our financial deficit. In fact, if our health care costs were comparable to those in other advanced nations, which provide nearly universal health care with better outcomes, we would currently experience a budget surplus....The recent health legislation, misleadingly titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), lacks proven cost controls and is predicted to cause U.S. health care costs to rise faster than if there had been no reform at all (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, April 2010) despite continuing to leave tens of millions out.
No Age of Austerity for the Rich
Cities, counties and states around America, faced with collapsing tax revenues and electorates hostile to any and all tax increases, are implementing slash-and-burn cuts to mental health services, drug treatment programmes, welfare aid, medical coverage for low income residents and the elderly, environmental protection programmes, child protective services, transport systems, schools, universities, community policing, fire departments and many other vital services. Collectively, these cuts diminish the quality of life for all Americans; but, disproportionately, they impact the quality of life and the already-low economic opportunities of the poorest sections of the populations.
Hammering the Poor and Vulnerable
5. The Health Uninsured are charged by hospitals full price, which The Wall Street Journal reported "is far more than the prices typically paid by insurance companies." This is the case, the Journal added, in spite of an annual taxpayer subsidy of $22 billion to hospitals "to care for the uninsured."....6. Amputees who need prosthetic devices find that the devices in the United States are very highly priced (by comparison with other western countries.) Health insurance companies make these products leading candidates for rising co-payments. This can mean tens of thousands of dollars from the patients or they go without.
Monday, July 19, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 19, 2010
Republicans: A Party of Unemployment
They have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs, most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits. The result of the Republicans' actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by the mid-terms....State and local governments have cut their workforce by an average of 65,000 a month over the last three months. Without substantial aid from the federal government, this pace is likely to accelerate. The Republican agenda in blocking aid to the states may add another 300,000 people to the unemployment rolls by early November.
How’s That Recessioney, Oily Thing Working Out For Ya?
This is a David Michael Green article. Most of his articles including this one are absolute must reads. You get high quality writing and broad yet incisive and fact-loaded content.
Waterboarding and the Media
....we found a significant and sudden shift in how newspapers characterized waterboarding. From the early 1930s until the modern story broke in 2004, the newspapers that covered waterboarding almost uniformly called the practice torture or implied it was torture....However....following the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and revelations of waterboarding by the United States, media sources appear to have changed their characterization of the practice....What we found, however, through our review of thousands of articles in major newspapers, was a dramatic shift in coverage away from nearly a century of practice recognizing waterboarding as torture.
Obama’s Health Care Bill Is Enough to Make You Sick
Medical bills lead to 62 percent of personal bankruptcies, and nearly 80 percent of these people had insurance. The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $8,160 per capita. Private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume 31 percent of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $400 billion per year-enough, PNHP estimates, to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans....And if human beings have to die so they can survive, they [insurance companies] are willing to make us pay this price.
They have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs, most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits. The result of the Republicans' actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by the mid-terms....State and local governments have cut their workforce by an average of 65,000 a month over the last three months. Without substantial aid from the federal government, this pace is likely to accelerate. The Republican agenda in blocking aid to the states may add another 300,000 people to the unemployment rolls by early November.
How’s That Recessioney, Oily Thing Working Out For Ya?
This is a David Michael Green article. Most of his articles including this one are absolute must reads. You get high quality writing and broad yet incisive and fact-loaded content.
Waterboarding and the Media
....we found a significant and sudden shift in how newspapers characterized waterboarding. From the early 1930s until the modern story broke in 2004, the newspapers that covered waterboarding almost uniformly called the practice torture or implied it was torture....However....following the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and revelations of waterboarding by the United States, media sources appear to have changed their characterization of the practice....What we found, however, through our review of thousands of articles in major newspapers, was a dramatic shift in coverage away from nearly a century of practice recognizing waterboarding as torture.
Obama’s Health Care Bill Is Enough to Make You Sick
Medical bills lead to 62 percent of personal bankruptcies, and nearly 80 percent of these people had insurance. The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $8,160 per capita. Private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume 31 percent of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $400 billion per year-enough, PNHP estimates, to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans....And if human beings have to die so they can survive, they [insurance companies] are willing to make us pay this price.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 18, 2010
It's BP's Oil
Running the corporate blockade at Louisiana's crude-covered beaches....Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, even after all the warnings, looks worse than I imagined. Pools of oil black and deep stretch down the beach; when cleanup workers drag their rakes along an already-cleaned patch of sand, more auburn crude oozes up. Beneath the surface lie slimy washed-up globules that, one worker says, are "so big you could park a car on them."
BP Texas Refinery Had Huge Toxic Release Just Before Gulf Blowout
Two weeks before the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the huge, trouble-plagued BP refinery in this coastal town spewed tens of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the skies....The release....stemmed from the company's decision to keep producing and selling gasoline while it attempted repairs on a key piece of equipment, according to BP officials and Texas regulators....The company now estimates that 538,000 pounds of chemicals escaped from the refinery while it was replacing the equipment. These included 17,000 pounds of benzene, a known carcinogen; 37,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to respiratory problems; and 186,000 pounds of carbon monoxide.
The BP/Government Police State
McClelland also described how BP has virtually bought entire Police Departments which now do its bidding....It's been documented for months now that BP and government officials have been acting in unison to block media coverage of the area....Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest-preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts, but this creepy police state behavior is intolerable....BP's destructive conduct and the government's complicity have slowly faded from public attention, and there clearly seem to be multiple levels of law enforcement devoted to keeping it that way, no matter how plainly illegal their tactics are.
30 Million Productive Jobs to Rebuild US Infrastructure, Industry and Agriculture: The Program to End the Economic Depression
The US and the world are gripped by a deepening economic depression. There is no recovery and no automatic business cycle which will revive the economy. This bottomless depression will worsen until policies are reformed. The depression results from deregulated and globalized financial speculation, especially the $1.5 quadrillion world derivatives bubble....We must reverse this trend of speculation, de-industrialization, and immiseration. Current policy bails out bankers, but harms working people, industrial producers, farmers, and small business....This program will create 30 million jobs in less than five years.
Running the corporate blockade at Louisiana's crude-covered beaches....Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, even after all the warnings, looks worse than I imagined. Pools of oil black and deep stretch down the beach; when cleanup workers drag their rakes along an already-cleaned patch of sand, more auburn crude oozes up. Beneath the surface lie slimy washed-up globules that, one worker says, are "so big you could park a car on them."
BP Texas Refinery Had Huge Toxic Release Just Before Gulf Blowout
Two weeks before the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the huge, trouble-plagued BP refinery in this coastal town spewed tens of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the skies....The release....stemmed from the company's decision to keep producing and selling gasoline while it attempted repairs on a key piece of equipment, according to BP officials and Texas regulators....The company now estimates that 538,000 pounds of chemicals escaped from the refinery while it was replacing the equipment. These included 17,000 pounds of benzene, a known carcinogen; 37,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to respiratory problems; and 186,000 pounds of carbon monoxide.
The BP/Government Police State
McClelland also described how BP has virtually bought entire Police Departments which now do its bidding....It's been documented for months now that BP and government officials have been acting in unison to block media coverage of the area....Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest-preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts, but this creepy police state behavior is intolerable....BP's destructive conduct and the government's complicity have slowly faded from public attention, and there clearly seem to be multiple levels of law enforcement devoted to keeping it that way, no matter how plainly illegal their tactics are.
30 Million Productive Jobs to Rebuild US Infrastructure, Industry and Agriculture: The Program to End the Economic Depression
The US and the world are gripped by a deepening economic depression. There is no recovery and no automatic business cycle which will revive the economy. This bottomless depression will worsen until policies are reformed. The depression results from deregulated and globalized financial speculation, especially the $1.5 quadrillion world derivatives bubble....We must reverse this trend of speculation, de-industrialization, and immiseration. Current policy bails out bankers, but harms working people, industrial producers, farmers, and small business....This program will create 30 million jobs in less than five years.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 17, 2010
Video: Crises of Capitalism
David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
The EU Banking System Is In Big Trouble
The EU banking system is in big trouble. Many of the Union's largest banks are sitting on hundreds of billions of euros in dodgy sovereign bonds and non performing real estate loans. But writing down their losses will deplete their capital and force them to restructure their debt. So the banks are concealing their losses through accounting sleight-of-hand and by borrowing money from the European Central Bank. This has helped to hide the rot at the heart of the system....Trichet is a banking industry rep, much like Geithner and Bernanke. His job is to maintain the political and economic power of the banks and to dump the losses onto the public.
Russian Sub 'Could Stop Oil Leak'
Russian-owned submersibles would be able to cap the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the captain of one of the vessels has said....He explained that the subs had already worked in much harsher conditions, such as the Arctic....The submersible's pilot also said that the Russians were very surprised that BP and the US government had not asked them for help from the beginning....And though BP says it is now able to gather some 10,000 barrels of oil a day, using a device that siphons oil up to surface ships, thousands of barrels of oil continue to gush daily from the ocean floor....The US administration has already called the leak the biggest environmental catastrophe in the country's history.
Coast Guard Bans Reporters From Oil Cleanup Sites
Reporters have been complaining for weeks about BP, the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard working to keep reporters away from wrenching images of oil-covered birds and oil-soaked beaches. On Friday, a photographer from ProPublica was detained by police and BP officials after taking photos of a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas....Cooper compared the latest effort to prevent access to the oil spill to similar efforts during Hurricane Katrina...."Frankly it's a lot like in Katrina, where they tried to make it impossible to see recovery efforts of people who died in their homes. If we can't show what is happening, warts and all ... that makes it very easy to hide failure, and hide incompetence."
David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?
The EU Banking System Is In Big Trouble
The EU banking system is in big trouble. Many of the Union's largest banks are sitting on hundreds of billions of euros in dodgy sovereign bonds and non performing real estate loans. But writing down their losses will deplete their capital and force them to restructure their debt. So the banks are concealing their losses through accounting sleight-of-hand and by borrowing money from the European Central Bank. This has helped to hide the rot at the heart of the system....Trichet is a banking industry rep, much like Geithner and Bernanke. His job is to maintain the political and economic power of the banks and to dump the losses onto the public.
Russian Sub 'Could Stop Oil Leak'
Russian-owned submersibles would be able to cap the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the captain of one of the vessels has said....He explained that the subs had already worked in much harsher conditions, such as the Arctic....The submersible's pilot also said that the Russians were very surprised that BP and the US government had not asked them for help from the beginning....And though BP says it is now able to gather some 10,000 barrels of oil a day, using a device that siphons oil up to surface ships, thousands of barrels of oil continue to gush daily from the ocean floor....The US administration has already called the leak the biggest environmental catastrophe in the country's history.
Coast Guard Bans Reporters From Oil Cleanup Sites
Reporters have been complaining for weeks about BP, the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard working to keep reporters away from wrenching images of oil-covered birds and oil-soaked beaches. On Friday, a photographer from ProPublica was detained by police and BP officials after taking photos of a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas....Cooper compared the latest effort to prevent access to the oil spill to similar efforts during Hurricane Katrina...."Frankly it's a lot like in Katrina, where they tried to make it impossible to see recovery efforts of people who died in their homes. If we can't show what is happening, warts and all ... that makes it very easy to hide failure, and hide incompetence."
Friday, July 16, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 16, 2010
The Cost of War
These are US cost of war counters. When the page first loads you see the grand totals. Then you can drill down to find the cost per person or per household. And you can drill down to find the cost by state and even by county.
Your Taxes and War
According to the tax-day analysis of the National Priorities Project (NPP), an overwhelming 218 of those dollars went to pay for military expenditures and interest on military-related debt (generated, in part, by current war spending). The next highest amount -- $137 -- went to healthcare, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program....In 2009, $67, nearly 10 cents on every tax dollar, went to an aggregated category of spending NPP has titled “government,” tripling it in a single year, largely thanks to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), otherwise known as the bank bailout, whose cost every community in America has had to shoulder.
Why Teachers Unions Are Fed Up with Obama
Unfortunately for President Obama, the perverse use of government to achieve right wing objectives is only speeding up the decline of the US and is at the same time doing nothing to enhance his reelection chances. The policies don't work and the "other side of the aisle" detests the tools and techniques.
Wealthy Reap Rewards While Those Who Work Lose
Millionaires in the U.S. and Canada saw their wealth increase 15 percent in 2009, to a total of 4.6 trillion dollars, the report found....Worldwide, 11 million - or less than 1 percent of all households - were millionaires in 2009. They owned about 38 percent of the world's wealth or 111 trillion dollars, up from about 36 percent in 2008, according to Boston Consulting Group....The nation's jobs crisis is so catastrophic that, unless Congress acts on the scale of the New Deal, millions of Americans will experience extremely long periods of unemployment for many years ahead," Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, told a panel of the Committee on Ways and Means recently.
These are US cost of war counters. When the page first loads you see the grand totals. Then you can drill down to find the cost per person or per household. And you can drill down to find the cost by state and even by county.
Your Taxes and War
According to the tax-day analysis of the National Priorities Project (NPP), an overwhelming 218 of those dollars went to pay for military expenditures and interest on military-related debt (generated, in part, by current war spending). The next highest amount -- $137 -- went to healthcare, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program....In 2009, $67, nearly 10 cents on every tax dollar, went to an aggregated category of spending NPP has titled “government,” tripling it in a single year, largely thanks to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), otherwise known as the bank bailout, whose cost every community in America has had to shoulder.
Why Teachers Unions Are Fed Up with Obama
Unfortunately for President Obama, the perverse use of government to achieve right wing objectives is only speeding up the decline of the US and is at the same time doing nothing to enhance his reelection chances. The policies don't work and the "other side of the aisle" detests the tools and techniques.
Wealthy Reap Rewards While Those Who Work Lose
Millionaires in the U.S. and Canada saw their wealth increase 15 percent in 2009, to a total of 4.6 trillion dollars, the report found....Worldwide, 11 million - or less than 1 percent of all households - were millionaires in 2009. They owned about 38 percent of the world's wealth or 111 trillion dollars, up from about 36 percent in 2008, according to Boston Consulting Group....The nation's jobs crisis is so catastrophic that, unless Congress acts on the scale of the New Deal, millions of Americans will experience extremely long periods of unemployment for many years ahead," Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, told a panel of the Committee on Ways and Means recently.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 15, 2010
For a New Generation, an Elusive American Dream
For young adults, the prospects in the workplace, even for the college-educated, have rarely been so bleak. Apart from the 14 percent who are unemployed and seeking work, as Scott Nicholson is, 23 percent are not even seeking a job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The total, 37 percent, is the highest in more than three decades and a rate reminiscent of the 1930s....The college-educated among these young adults are better off. But nearly 17 percent are either unemployed or not seeking work, a record level (although some are in graduate school).
More Red Flags for the Economy
The FOMC's June statement was a real stunner. The economy is losing-ground in nearly every area. Household and business spending, bank lending and home sales are all either slowing down or falling sharply. The Commerce Dept. revised its first quarter estimate of GDP from 3.0% to 2.7% due to lower than expected consumer spending. The recovery is largely a mirage created by inventory adjustments and fiscal stimulus. 46 of the 50 states are mired in huge deficits that will require substantial cuts to balance. That will be a drag on activity going forward.
Debt Deflation: a Long Economic Winter Ahead
Judging by the pronouncements made by leaders at the recent G8 and G20 meetings in June, and their collective commitment to cut governments’ deficits in half by 2013, I don't think that politicians fully understand the danger presently facing the world economy....In fact, any new shock hitting the world economy, economic or political, risks accelerating the collapse of the debt house of cards, with dire consequences for production and employment....Austerity fiscal measures may raise government efficiency, but they are not what will cushion the real effects of the debt deflation.
The Great Divergence
Investing? Need a Job? Choose your country wisely...International stock markets are undergoing a new level of analysis at the country level. It's likely that investors are beginning to price in changes in their assumptions of futures cash flows and discount rates, informed by each country's growth prospects, debt levels, inflation risks, and fiscal battle plans. If the first decade of this century was about the convergence of economic performance, bond yields, and stock performance in developed countries, the next few years may be about the growing divergences in these characteristics. If so, country selection will begin to matter again.
For young adults, the prospects in the workplace, even for the college-educated, have rarely been so bleak. Apart from the 14 percent who are unemployed and seeking work, as Scott Nicholson is, 23 percent are not even seeking a job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The total, 37 percent, is the highest in more than three decades and a rate reminiscent of the 1930s....The college-educated among these young adults are better off. But nearly 17 percent are either unemployed or not seeking work, a record level (although some are in graduate school).
More Red Flags for the Economy
The FOMC's June statement was a real stunner. The economy is losing-ground in nearly every area. Household and business spending, bank lending and home sales are all either slowing down or falling sharply. The Commerce Dept. revised its first quarter estimate of GDP from 3.0% to 2.7% due to lower than expected consumer spending. The recovery is largely a mirage created by inventory adjustments and fiscal stimulus. 46 of the 50 states are mired in huge deficits that will require substantial cuts to balance. That will be a drag on activity going forward.
Debt Deflation: a Long Economic Winter Ahead
Judging by the pronouncements made by leaders at the recent G8 and G20 meetings in June, and their collective commitment to cut governments’ deficits in half by 2013, I don't think that politicians fully understand the danger presently facing the world economy....In fact, any new shock hitting the world economy, economic or political, risks accelerating the collapse of the debt house of cards, with dire consequences for production and employment....Austerity fiscal measures may raise government efficiency, but they are not what will cushion the real effects of the debt deflation.
The Great Divergence
Investing? Need a Job? Choose your country wisely...International stock markets are undergoing a new level of analysis at the country level. It's likely that investors are beginning to price in changes in their assumptions of futures cash flows and discount rates, informed by each country's growth prospects, debt levels, inflation risks, and fiscal battle plans. If the first decade of this century was about the convergence of economic performance, bond yields, and stock performance in developed countries, the next few years may be about the growing divergences in these characteristics. If so, country selection will begin to matter again.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 14, 2010
In Whose Interest Does the State in China Serve and Why?
For the world's workers, the unrest in China is to be welcomed. China has the largest working class of any nation. The fact that this massive social force is on the move and that its power is growing creates opportunities for workers' struggles across the globe. Frequently, it is the same big business owners that exploit Chinese workers that are exploiting and laying off workers in, for instance, the U.S.
President Barack Obama: The Balance Sheet
Specifically, Obama has not only not pulled the troops out of the Middle East but he has been even more belligerent than that old warmonger George W. Bush....The answer to the jobs crisis is a large-scale program of public works....BP destroyed the Gulf region by cutting back on safety requirements because the costs of safety eats into their profit margins. Did Obama nationalize BPs assets so the cleanup could be handled in a responsible manner? No. He “worked” with BP so that they would have to cough up only $20 billion for the cleanup. The sanctity of private property trumps even properly assigning responsibility for dealing with the worst environmental disaster since the Exxon Valdez.
Stimulus or Austerity: The People vs the Banks
Rich investors are not investing in companies because consumers are not buying the products that corporations produce. And where mainstream economists blame “consumer confidence” for this problem, the real issue remains “consumer impoverishment.” ...It is the rich investor that lacks the “confidence” that the unemployed or low-waged worker can buy enough of the products produced by corporations. This is the problem that will continue to haunt the establishment economists, who will incessantly preach that the economy is on a perpetual verge of recovery....This illusion of recovery is being instituted into government policy.
Expect Lots of Government Layoffs at State, Local Level
Up to 400,000 workers could lose jobs in the next year as states, counties and cities grapple with lower revenue and less federal funding....States face a cumulative $140 billion budget gap in fiscal 2011, which began July 1 for most....Philippa Dunne, who surveys state financial officials for a newsletter, the Liscio Report, says most plan to intensify layoffs the coming year after relying largely on furloughs...."The downturn has gone on so long, all the low-hanging fruit has been taken," says Scott Pattison, head of the state budget officers group.
For the world's workers, the unrest in China is to be welcomed. China has the largest working class of any nation. The fact that this massive social force is on the move and that its power is growing creates opportunities for workers' struggles across the globe. Frequently, it is the same big business owners that exploit Chinese workers that are exploiting and laying off workers in, for instance, the U.S.
President Barack Obama: The Balance Sheet
Specifically, Obama has not only not pulled the troops out of the Middle East but he has been even more belligerent than that old warmonger George W. Bush....The answer to the jobs crisis is a large-scale program of public works....BP destroyed the Gulf region by cutting back on safety requirements because the costs of safety eats into their profit margins. Did Obama nationalize BPs assets so the cleanup could be handled in a responsible manner? No. He “worked” with BP so that they would have to cough up only $20 billion for the cleanup. The sanctity of private property trumps even properly assigning responsibility for dealing with the worst environmental disaster since the Exxon Valdez.
Stimulus or Austerity: The People vs the Banks
Rich investors are not investing in companies because consumers are not buying the products that corporations produce. And where mainstream economists blame “consumer confidence” for this problem, the real issue remains “consumer impoverishment.” ...It is the rich investor that lacks the “confidence” that the unemployed or low-waged worker can buy enough of the products produced by corporations. This is the problem that will continue to haunt the establishment economists, who will incessantly preach that the economy is on a perpetual verge of recovery....This illusion of recovery is being instituted into government policy.
Expect Lots of Government Layoffs at State, Local Level
Up to 400,000 workers could lose jobs in the next year as states, counties and cities grapple with lower revenue and less federal funding....States face a cumulative $140 billion budget gap in fiscal 2011, which began July 1 for most....Philippa Dunne, who surveys state financial officials for a newsletter, the Liscio Report, says most plan to intensify layoffs the coming year after relying largely on furloughs...."The downturn has gone on so long, all the low-hanging fruit has been taken," says Scott Pattison, head of the state budget officers group.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 13, 2010
Tentative Pact by Minnesota Nurses’ Union Gives up Safe Patient Ratios
From the beginning of negotiations, the hospitals have been hostile in the extreme to the whole concept that nurses should have a role in determining patient care through staffing ratios....Indeed, both the nurses’ struggle and the right to health care for all workers requires the mobilization of the entire working class, independent of both the Democrats and Republicans, against capitalist control over health care.
American Middle Class Slowly Disappearing Under Mounds of Debt – How Wall Street and Government Sucked Working and Middle Class Americans Into Perpetual Debt Serfdom.
Much of what we consider to be middle class living has been kept on life support by banking debt. Yet no system can go on forever with too much debt and too little production. Banks have become a dangerously large part of our economy. That is why so much focus is given to Wall Street and the banking sector. It is a largely idle industry that merely attempts to suck off the wealth creation of actual real work.
Unjust Spoils
Wall Street's banditry was the proximate cause of the Great Recession, not its underlying cause. Even if the Street is better controlled in the future (and I have my doubts), the structural reason for the Great Recession still haunts America. That reason is America's surging inequality.
Older, More Educated Workers, Have Highest Length of Unemployment
Generally the more education an individual has, the higher the average length of unemployment....For the long term unemployed, it is better to be younger - and have less education....Ann adds these comments: More education = longer unemployment if the job is lost. The upside is the more educated the worker, the less likely they are to lose their job, but the downside of being more educated is that once they hit 45 if they lose their job, they are toast.
From the beginning of negotiations, the hospitals have been hostile in the extreme to the whole concept that nurses should have a role in determining patient care through staffing ratios....Indeed, both the nurses’ struggle and the right to health care for all workers requires the mobilization of the entire working class, independent of both the Democrats and Republicans, against capitalist control over health care.
American Middle Class Slowly Disappearing Under Mounds of Debt – How Wall Street and Government Sucked Working and Middle Class Americans Into Perpetual Debt Serfdom.
Much of what we consider to be middle class living has been kept on life support by banking debt. Yet no system can go on forever with too much debt and too little production. Banks have become a dangerously large part of our economy. That is why so much focus is given to Wall Street and the banking sector. It is a largely idle industry that merely attempts to suck off the wealth creation of actual real work.
Unjust Spoils
Wall Street's banditry was the proximate cause of the Great Recession, not its underlying cause. Even if the Street is better controlled in the future (and I have my doubts), the structural reason for the Great Recession still haunts America. That reason is America's surging inequality.
Older, More Educated Workers, Have Highest Length of Unemployment
Generally the more education an individual has, the higher the average length of unemployment....For the long term unemployed, it is better to be younger - and have less education....Ann adds these comments: More education = longer unemployment if the job is lost. The upside is the more educated the worker, the less likely they are to lose their job, but the downside of being more educated is that once they hit 45 if they lose their job, they are toast.
Monday, July 12, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 12, 2010
Punishing the Jobless
Today, American workers face the worst job market since the Great Depression, with five job seekers for every job opening, with the average spell of unemployment now at 35 weeks. Yet the Senate went home for the holiday weekend without extending benefits....But as you may have noticed, right now the economy isn’t booming — again, there are five unemployed workers for every job opening....Cutting off benefits to the unemployed will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.
A Government of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Rich
Two hundred and thirty-four years on, the federal government in Washington commemorated the anniversary with a series of actions that demonstrated how thoroughly the principles elaborated in the Declaration have been repudiated in practice, leaving Americans with a government that is as unrepresentative and reactionary as that of old King George III....Taken together, these actions provide an unmistakable portrait of a government that is of the rich, by the rich and for the rich—one that is utterly unresponsive to the needs and wishes of the vast majority of the American people....The policies of this government are catastrophic for millions upon millions of Americans.
British Unions Block Struggle Against Government Austerity Plans
Britain’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition has announced public spending cuts that are possibly the most savage in Europe. Every week sees fresh declarations of cuts on top of those already identified by the outgoing Labour government prior to the May general election. This includes a three-year public sector pay freeze, an attack on pensions, and hundreds of thousands of job losses....Nothing less than a general strike movement is sufficient to meet the challenge to workers’ fundamental social interests that has now begun. Without an all-out offensive against the ruling elite, millions face abject poverty, mass unemployment and a brutal existence.
G20 Summit Exposes Deep Trans-Atlantic Differences
In an article for the New York Times titled “That ‘30s Feeling”, columnist Paul Krugman warned that Germany’s current austerity polices evoked “the policies of Heinrich Brüning” who sealed “the doom of the Weimar Republic” and in turn played a role in opening the road to the Nazis. In a visit to Berlin,...Krugman’s warnings were then backed up by a comment in the Financial Times by the US investor George Soros also warning of a return to the thirties if the German policies were replicated throughout Europe....Underlining these divergences are the rapidly diverging interests of US and German banking and business interests.
Today, American workers face the worst job market since the Great Depression, with five job seekers for every job opening, with the average spell of unemployment now at 35 weeks. Yet the Senate went home for the holiday weekend without extending benefits....But as you may have noticed, right now the economy isn’t booming — again, there are five unemployed workers for every job opening....Cutting off benefits to the unemployed will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.
A Government of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Rich
Two hundred and thirty-four years on, the federal government in Washington commemorated the anniversary with a series of actions that demonstrated how thoroughly the principles elaborated in the Declaration have been repudiated in practice, leaving Americans with a government that is as unrepresentative and reactionary as that of old King George III....Taken together, these actions provide an unmistakable portrait of a government that is of the rich, by the rich and for the rich—one that is utterly unresponsive to the needs and wishes of the vast majority of the American people....The policies of this government are catastrophic for millions upon millions of Americans.
British Unions Block Struggle Against Government Austerity Plans
Britain’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition has announced public spending cuts that are possibly the most savage in Europe. Every week sees fresh declarations of cuts on top of those already identified by the outgoing Labour government prior to the May general election. This includes a three-year public sector pay freeze, an attack on pensions, and hundreds of thousands of job losses....Nothing less than a general strike movement is sufficient to meet the challenge to workers’ fundamental social interests that has now begun. Without an all-out offensive against the ruling elite, millions face abject poverty, mass unemployment and a brutal existence.
G20 Summit Exposes Deep Trans-Atlantic Differences
In an article for the New York Times titled “That ‘30s Feeling”, columnist Paul Krugman warned that Germany’s current austerity polices evoked “the policies of Heinrich Brüning” who sealed “the doom of the Weimar Republic” and in turn played a role in opening the road to the Nazis. In a visit to Berlin,...Krugman’s warnings were then backed up by a comment in the Financial Times by the US investor George Soros also warning of a return to the thirties if the German policies were replicated throughout Europe....Underlining these divergences are the rapidly diverging interests of US and German banking and business interests.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 11, 2010
Recession Cut Into Employment for Half of Working Adults, Study Says
The recession has directly hit more than half of the nation's working adults, pushing them into unemployment, pay cuts, reduced hours at work or part-time jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
Virginia Begins Courtroom Assault on Federal Health-Care Overhaul
The legal challenge to the nation's new health-care law was launched Thursday in a courtroom in Richmond, where the office of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II argued that the measure is an unprecedented overreach by Washington that violates the founders' intention of a limited federal government....Cuccinelli has said his suit was necessitated by a Virginia statute that went into effect Thursday making it illegal to force residents to buy health insurance. The measure was passed by legislators explicitly to clash with the federal law, which imposes a fine on people who don't buy insurance by 2014.
Myths of Austerity
So the next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you’ll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we’re bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we’re good. And real-world policy — policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families — is being built on that foundation.
Go Tell Osama Bin-Laden?
Osama bin-Laden, and whoever else planned the operation, obviously damaged the U.S. in many ways on September 11, 2001. In the long run, though, one of their greatest achievements may have been the damage they did to America's capacity for critical thought, in the process setting the country on a decade of war that simply makes no sense when you consider the actual numbers involved.....Does (President Obama) really want his legacy to be a war in which our opponents will boast of their heroism in defending their homeland against a far more numerous and better armed enemy?
The recession has directly hit more than half of the nation's working adults, pushing them into unemployment, pay cuts, reduced hours at work or part-time jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
Virginia Begins Courtroom Assault on Federal Health-Care Overhaul
The legal challenge to the nation's new health-care law was launched Thursday in a courtroom in Richmond, where the office of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II argued that the measure is an unprecedented overreach by Washington that violates the founders' intention of a limited federal government....Cuccinelli has said his suit was necessitated by a Virginia statute that went into effect Thursday making it illegal to force residents to buy health insurance. The measure was passed by legislators explicitly to clash with the federal law, which imposes a fine on people who don't buy insurance by 2014.
Myths of Austerity
So the next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you’ll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we’re bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we’re good. And real-world policy — policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families — is being built on that foundation.
Go Tell Osama Bin-Laden?
Osama bin-Laden, and whoever else planned the operation, obviously damaged the U.S. in many ways on September 11, 2001. In the long run, though, one of their greatest achievements may have been the damage they did to America's capacity for critical thought, in the process setting the country on a decade of war that simply makes no sense when you consider the actual numbers involved.....Does (President Obama) really want his legacy to be a war in which our opponents will boast of their heroism in defending their homeland against a far more numerous and better armed enemy?
Saturday, July 10, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 10, 2010
How bad is the oil spill? Flight sheds light on magnitude of disaster
Live from the Gulf: "Now I'm appalled that from 2,000 feet up I can see heavy oil slicks all the way to the horizon.... "The water looks so unnatural the way the light comes off it now. It's a dull yellow rather than shiny and sparkly reflections," Tom notes. By 30 miles off the coast, oil is everywhere. There are dozens of shimmers of purple oil that seem to sink downward into the sea, a possible effect from the millions of gallons of Corexit dispersant that have been sprayed over this stretch of ocean."
A Tale of Two Depressions: What do the New Data Tell Us?
Compare the current depression with the last one in great detail here. This is real, advanced, heavy economics folks, so if you don't like or can't make any use of this kind of thing, don't bother clicking here.
Governments Move to cut Spending, in 1930's Echo
"The world’s rich countries are now conducting a dangerous experiment. They are repeating an economic policy out of the 1930s — starting to cut spending and raise taxes before a recovery is assured — and hoping today’s situation is different enough to assure a different outcome. ,,,,In an ideal world, countries would pair more short-term spending and tax cuts with long-term spending cuts and tax increases. But not a single big country has figured out, politically, how to do that."
Bleak Outlook for Long-Term Unemployed
If you've already lost your job, your prospects for finding a new one are looking dismal. Especially if you lost your job a long time ago. The average length of time that the typical unemployed person has been looking for work increased again in June, to yet another record high of 35.2 weeks....The typical unemployed person churns back into the job market after a few weeks or months. But those who have already been out of jobs for a longer period of time have been falling further and further behind.
Live from the Gulf: "Now I'm appalled that from 2,000 feet up I can see heavy oil slicks all the way to the horizon.... "The water looks so unnatural the way the light comes off it now. It's a dull yellow rather than shiny and sparkly reflections," Tom notes. By 30 miles off the coast, oil is everywhere. There are dozens of shimmers of purple oil that seem to sink downward into the sea, a possible effect from the millions of gallons of Corexit dispersant that have been sprayed over this stretch of ocean."
A Tale of Two Depressions: What do the New Data Tell Us?
Compare the current depression with the last one in great detail here. This is real, advanced, heavy economics folks, so if you don't like or can't make any use of this kind of thing, don't bother clicking here.
Governments Move to cut Spending, in 1930's Echo
"The world’s rich countries are now conducting a dangerous experiment. They are repeating an economic policy out of the 1930s — starting to cut spending and raise taxes before a recovery is assured — and hoping today’s situation is different enough to assure a different outcome. ,,,,In an ideal world, countries would pair more short-term spending and tax cuts with long-term spending cuts and tax increases. But not a single big country has figured out, politically, how to do that."
Bleak Outlook for Long-Term Unemployed
If you've already lost your job, your prospects for finding a new one are looking dismal. Especially if you lost your job a long time ago. The average length of time that the typical unemployed person has been looking for work increased again in June, to yet another record high of 35.2 weeks....The typical unemployed person churns back into the job market after a few weeks or months. But those who have already been out of jobs for a longer period of time have been falling further and further behind.
Friday, July 9, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 9, 2010
America Can't Solve Crises Because It's a Company-Owned Town
A masterpiece that I would have added to the feed last week were it not for the fact I was tied up with many other things.
Dead On Arrival: Financial Reform Fails
The official dead on arrival notice for the "financial reform".
"Deficit Terrorism" and Economic Warfare: All the Perks are going to Wall Street, while Main Street slips into Debt Slavery
Even when the stock market does not go up (when it stays the same or declines) rich people involved with trading financial securities still make serious money, on transaction fees, on security insurance, on consulting, and so forth. This article argues that financial transactions currently tax-free should be taxed to help financially devasted US States and depression-battered people on Main St. in general.
The Third Depression
Paul Krugman points out that this is a depression, not a mere recession. Virtually all of the other establishment commentators are afraid to say this is a depression, or else they really believe it was a recession followed by a recovery that we are now supposedly in. That's right, they think we are in a recovery. Laugh out loud!
A masterpiece that I would have added to the feed last week were it not for the fact I was tied up with many other things.
Dead On Arrival: Financial Reform Fails
The official dead on arrival notice for the "financial reform".
"Deficit Terrorism" and Economic Warfare: All the Perks are going to Wall Street, while Main Street slips into Debt Slavery
Even when the stock market does not go up (when it stays the same or declines) rich people involved with trading financial securities still make serious money, on transaction fees, on security insurance, on consulting, and so forth. This article argues that financial transactions currently tax-free should be taxed to help financially devasted US States and depression-battered people on Main St. in general.
The Third Depression
Paul Krugman points out that this is a depression, not a mere recession. Virtually all of the other establishment commentators are afraid to say this is a depression, or else they really believe it was a recession followed by a recovery that we are now supposedly in. That's right, they think we are in a recovery. Laugh out loud!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 8, 2010
Europe’s Fiscal Dystopia: The “New Austerity” Road to Financial Serfdom: Massive Cutbacks in Public Spending
Professor Michael Hudson describes the latest developments and controversies of the economic depression. He has a rather anti-European bias in his outlook, but that negative is more than offset by his positives: he is a very good economist and understands the dynamics of this depression better than most.
Mission Accomplished: The Reagan Occupation and the Destruction of the American Middle Class
David Michael Green writes ultra high quality articles about the economy and the political situation in the US.. You get both accurate commentary and very high quality writing from him. This particular article is an excellent autopsy for the American middle class; may it rest in peace.
In Colorado, Pot-Selling Pioneers Try to Turn a Profit
Alhtough very low on the importance scale, this article is interesting for how it reveals common themes in the post-collapse US economy, namely, (a) Anything that has to do with health is still a money making opportunity, and (b) While the national government is far too far to the right to do much about the collapse of the overall economy, local governments are trying to micromanage and over regulate what few money making opportunites there still are, thereby reducing them. So American government is a failure at all levels.
Senate "Doc Fix" Comes Too Late to Avoid Physicians' Rancor
It seems that the Democrats are having trouble trying to avoid breaking promises they made in order to get their massive health insurance subsidy passed earlier this year. Along with the Medicare cuts, state laws and constitutional lawsuits are also pending against the Democrats' foolhardy refusal to back real cost reductions via single payer. At the end of this news story, the comments are lively, laugh out loud.
Professor Michael Hudson describes the latest developments and controversies of the economic depression. He has a rather anti-European bias in his outlook, but that negative is more than offset by his positives: he is a very good economist and understands the dynamics of this depression better than most.
Mission Accomplished: The Reagan Occupation and the Destruction of the American Middle Class
David Michael Green writes ultra high quality articles about the economy and the political situation in the US.. You get both accurate commentary and very high quality writing from him. This particular article is an excellent autopsy for the American middle class; may it rest in peace.
In Colorado, Pot-Selling Pioneers Try to Turn a Profit
Alhtough very low on the importance scale, this article is interesting for how it reveals common themes in the post-collapse US economy, namely, (a) Anything that has to do with health is still a money making opportunity, and (b) While the national government is far too far to the right to do much about the collapse of the overall economy, local governments are trying to micromanage and over regulate what few money making opportunites there still are, thereby reducing them. So American government is a failure at all levels.
Senate "Doc Fix" Comes Too Late to Avoid Physicians' Rancor
It seems that the Democrats are having trouble trying to avoid breaking promises they made in order to get their massive health insurance subsidy passed earlier this year. Along with the Medicare cuts, state laws and constitutional lawsuits are also pending against the Democrats' foolhardy refusal to back real cost reductions via single payer. At the end of this news story, the comments are lively, laugh out loud.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 7, 2010
Federal Reserve Statement in English
The economy is falling off a cliff. The Federal Government has blown over $1.5 trillion a year for the last two years to try to get private parties to lever up again, but they have no more credit capacity and still have no jobs.
Judge Sides With Google in Viacom Suit Over Videos
“YouTube and Google stole hundreds of thousands of video clips from artists and content creators, including Viacom, building a substantial business that was sold for billions of dollars,” Mr. Fricklas said.
The Great Financial Crisis: Interview of John Bellamy Foster
This is more than a year old but is still a very relevant and very real description of the US economy. (I was cleaning up some old bookmarks and found this.)
Analysts Question Fannie's Threat on Mortgage Defaults
Student Loan borrowers are already "taking loans to their graves" in the US, where lenders are being given more and more dominance over debtors in a more and more right wing US society. Now those who default on their mortgages are being threatened with permanent indebtedness. Apparently on tap is that those who are hammered by the economy will not only lose their home but they also will be sued into more or less permanent debt slavery.
The economy is falling off a cliff. The Federal Government has blown over $1.5 trillion a year for the last two years to try to get private parties to lever up again, but they have no more credit capacity and still have no jobs.
Judge Sides With Google in Viacom Suit Over Videos
“YouTube and Google stole hundreds of thousands of video clips from artists and content creators, including Viacom, building a substantial business that was sold for billions of dollars,” Mr. Fricklas said.
The Great Financial Crisis: Interview of John Bellamy Foster
This is more than a year old but is still a very relevant and very real description of the US economy. (I was cleaning up some old bookmarks and found this.)
Analysts Question Fannie's Threat on Mortgage Defaults
Student Loan borrowers are already "taking loans to their graves" in the US, where lenders are being given more and more dominance over debtors in a more and more right wing US society. Now those who default on their mortgages are being threatened with permanent indebtedness. Apparently on tap is that those who are hammered by the economy will not only lose their home but they also will be sued into more or less permanent debt slavery.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 6, 2010
What's the Penalty for not Having Insurance?
Ordinarily, the penalty would be treated as a tax, and you could be prosecuted for income tax evasion if you didn’t pay it. But the new health law explicitly says that there will be no criminal sanctions for failing to pay the penalty, and no liens or levies on your property, said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University. The government could come after your tax refund to pay the penalty, but since you say you don’t get a refund, that won’t be an option.
Surprises in Store for Economists
The reason that consumers are not spending more money has nothing to do with attitudes. The reason that most consumers aren't spending is the same reason that homeless people don't spend much money: they don't have any. Economists used to be able to understand basic economic concepts. Apparently, most have lost this ability. As a result we are likely to see many more surprised economists and much proposed in the way of very bad economic policy.
Remember: In 1930, They Didn't Know it was "The Great Depression" Yet
A slideshow about the 1930's depression and how it was a good number of years before people at that time really knew it was a depression.
Fannie Screws the Citizens Twice
If you buy ANOTHER overpriced house and willfully and knowingly destroy your financial future a second time, after being screwed once by the Real Estate Guild in all its forms - Fannie, Freddie, the large banks, the "agents" and brokers of various sorts plus the crooked appraisers and of course government at state, local and federal levels, you deserve what you get.
Ordinarily, the penalty would be treated as a tax, and you could be prosecuted for income tax evasion if you didn’t pay it. But the new health law explicitly says that there will be no criminal sanctions for failing to pay the penalty, and no liens or levies on your property, said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University. The government could come after your tax refund to pay the penalty, but since you say you don’t get a refund, that won’t be an option.
Surprises in Store for Economists
The reason that consumers are not spending more money has nothing to do with attitudes. The reason that most consumers aren't spending is the same reason that homeless people don't spend much money: they don't have any. Economists used to be able to understand basic economic concepts. Apparently, most have lost this ability. As a result we are likely to see many more surprised economists and much proposed in the way of very bad economic policy.
Remember: In 1930, They Didn't Know it was "The Great Depression" Yet
A slideshow about the 1930's depression and how it was a good number of years before people at that time really knew it was a depression.
Fannie Screws the Citizens Twice
If you buy ANOTHER overpriced house and willfully and knowingly destroy your financial future a second time, after being screwed once by the Real Estate Guild in all its forms - Fannie, Freddie, the large banks, the "agents" and brokers of various sorts plus the crooked appraisers and of course government at state, local and federal levels, you deserve what you get.
Monday, July 5, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 5, 2010
In Europe, Fears of a Deeper Crisis are Intensifying
After a brief respite following the announcement last week of a nearly $1 trillion bailout plan for Europe, fear in the financial markets is building again, this time over worries that the Continent’s biggest banks face strains that will hobble European economies. ....With the exception of wartime, “the public finances in the majority of advanced industrial countries are in a worse state today than at any time since the industrial revolution,” Willem Buiter, Citigroup’s top economist, wrote in a recent report.
Massacre in Thailand and Obama's Foreign Policy Stance
When the White House is quiet as protestors are butchered in the streets of Bangkok Thailand, suspicions are raised. Silence often equals complicity. One can only imagine what the U.S.’ response would be to a Venezuelan government slaughter: the U.S. media and Obama would loudly condemn such an act, in contrast to the muted response to Thailand’s blood bath.
Knowledge, Truth, and Human Action: America Hits the Wall
Americans have a problem with the truth. They seem to be unable to accept it, which is difficult to understand at a time in history when knowledge plays a larger and larger role in determining human action.
Debt Rising in Europe - Interactive Political / Economic Map of Europe
The European Union is made up of 27 countries, with one of the chief goals being to create a single market and integrate economies through shared regulations. Overseeing the E.U. is the European Commission, based in Brussels. Within the European Union are 16 countries that use a common currency, the euro.
After a brief respite following the announcement last week of a nearly $1 trillion bailout plan for Europe, fear in the financial markets is building again, this time over worries that the Continent’s biggest banks face strains that will hobble European economies. ....With the exception of wartime, “the public finances in the majority of advanced industrial countries are in a worse state today than at any time since the industrial revolution,” Willem Buiter, Citigroup’s top economist, wrote in a recent report.
Massacre in Thailand and Obama's Foreign Policy Stance
When the White House is quiet as protestors are butchered in the streets of Bangkok Thailand, suspicions are raised. Silence often equals complicity. One can only imagine what the U.S.’ response would be to a Venezuelan government slaughter: the U.S. media and Obama would loudly condemn such an act, in contrast to the muted response to Thailand’s blood bath.
Knowledge, Truth, and Human Action: America Hits the Wall
Americans have a problem with the truth. They seem to be unable to accept it, which is difficult to understand at a time in history when knowledge plays a larger and larger role in determining human action.
Debt Rising in Europe - Interactive Political / Economic Map of Europe
The European Union is made up of 27 countries, with one of the chief goals being to create a single market and integrate economies through shared regulations. Overseeing the E.U. is the European Commission, based in Brussels. Within the European Union are 16 countries that use a common currency, the euro.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 4, 2010
Europe's Debt Crisis Casts a Shadow Over China
The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading as the plummeting euro makes Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicates any move to break the Chinese currency’s peg to the dollar.
Google's Data Collection Angers European Officials
European privacy regulators and advocates reacted angrily Saturday to the disclosure by Google, the world’s largest search engine, that it had systematically collected private data since 2006 while compiling its Street View photo archive.
How Trillion Dollar Deficits Were Created - Interactive Graphic
To understand the looming deficits, The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office projections of the budget surplus or deficit for the years 2009-12, President Obama’s current term.
Where the Debt is Coming From
That’s from an International Monetary Fund report released today titled “Navigating the Fiscal Challenges Ahead.” The takeaway from this chart is that the surging public debt in advanced countries is driven mostly by huge declines in taxes as a result of less economic activity in the last few years.
The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading as the plummeting euro makes Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicates any move to break the Chinese currency’s peg to the dollar.
Google's Data Collection Angers European Officials
European privacy regulators and advocates reacted angrily Saturday to the disclosure by Google, the world’s largest search engine, that it had systematically collected private data since 2006 while compiling its Street View photo archive.
How Trillion Dollar Deficits Were Created - Interactive Graphic
To understand the looming deficits, The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office projections of the budget surplus or deficit for the years 2009-12, President Obama’s current term.
Where the Debt is Coming From
That’s from an International Monetary Fund report released today titled “Navigating the Fiscal Challenges Ahead.” The takeaway from this chart is that the surging public debt in advanced countries is driven mostly by huge declines in taxes as a result of less economic activity in the last few years.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 3, 2010
Gap in Rules on Oil Spills From Wells
But experts say there are large gaps in what the international agreements cover. \n"There is a tremendous body of international law addressing oil pollution, dealing with matters including construction and seaworthiness of ships, safety of navigation, pollution response, and liability," said Tim Stephens, a senior lecturer on the law faculty at the University of Sydney and the co-author of a forthcoming textbook on the law of the sea. \nHowever, the international maritime conventions apply "primarily or exclusively" to accidents involving tankers... They do not apply to accidents involving oil platforms, like the Deepwater Horizon spill.
The Financial Oligarchy Reigns: Democracy's Death Spiral From Greece to the United States
As the Economic Elite continue their plunder, the people in Greece riot and the big banks score yet another big blow against the people of the United States.
Derivatives Get A Key Supporter
Alan Greenspan-still as incompetent as ever...
Giant Plumes of Oil Found Under Gulf of Mexico
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.
But experts say there are large gaps in what the international agreements cover. \n"There is a tremendous body of international law addressing oil pollution, dealing with matters including construction and seaworthiness of ships, safety of navigation, pollution response, and liability," said Tim Stephens, a senior lecturer on the law faculty at the University of Sydney and the co-author of a forthcoming textbook on the law of the sea. \nHowever, the international maritime conventions apply "primarily or exclusively" to accidents involving tankers... They do not apply to accidents involving oil platforms, like the Deepwater Horizon spill.
The Financial Oligarchy Reigns: Democracy's Death Spiral From Greece to the United States
As the Economic Elite continue their plunder, the people in Greece riot and the big banks score yet another big blow against the people of the United States.
Derivatives Get A Key Supporter
Alan Greenspan-still as incompetent as ever...
Giant Plumes of Oil Found Under Gulf of Mexico
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.
Friday, July 2, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 2, 2010
Workers Left Behind
While the economy added jobs last month, prospects for the long-term unemployed are looking increasingly grim...
Counting on Medicaid Money, States Face Shortfalls
Many states do not have contingencies for replacing the federal money. Their options will be limited by the severity of the steps they already have taken, and by federal requirements that they maintain eligibility levels for Medicaid. \n"We don't have a specific list of things we would do if we don't get the money," said Erik Kriss, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson's budget office, "but we are looking for the most part at the cut side of the ledger."
Wal-Mart Sales Suggest the Economy is Still Shaky
...much of the retail rebound has taken place on the shoulders of wealthier consumers -- about 40% of all spending currently comes from the 20% of households with the highest incomes.\n\nThe Mortgage Bankers Association reported yesterday that the number of mortgages in foreclosure has climbed to a new record, with foreclosures and delinquencies now accounting for one out of every seven US mortgages out there.
The New Poor - The Economy Shifts, Leaving Some Behind
Millions of workers who have already been unemployed for months, if not years, will most likely remain that way even as the overall job market continues to improve, economists say. \nMany of the jobs lost during the recession are not coming back.
While the economy added jobs last month, prospects for the long-term unemployed are looking increasingly grim...
Counting on Medicaid Money, States Face Shortfalls
Many states do not have contingencies for replacing the federal money. Their options will be limited by the severity of the steps they already have taken, and by federal requirements that they maintain eligibility levels for Medicaid. \n"We don't have a specific list of things we would do if we don't get the money," said Erik Kriss, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson's budget office, "but we are looking for the most part at the cut side of the ledger."
Wal-Mart Sales Suggest the Economy is Still Shaky
...much of the retail rebound has taken place on the shoulders of wealthier consumers -- about 40% of all spending currently comes from the 20% of households with the highest incomes.\n\nThe Mortgage Bankers Association reported yesterday that the number of mortgages in foreclosure has climbed to a new record, with foreclosures and delinquencies now accounting for one out of every seven US mortgages out there.
The New Poor - The Economy Shifts, Leaving Some Behind
Millions of workers who have already been unemployed for months, if not years, will most likely remain that way even as the overall job market continues to improve, economists say. \nMany of the jobs lost during the recession are not coming back.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
US Collapse Bookmarks for July 1, 2010
Nearly One Million US Workers Cut Off Unemployment Benefits
With 12 Democrats joining a unanimous Republican bloc, the US Senate voted Wednesday to defeat a proposed extension of unemployment benefits for workers who have been jobless for nearly two years. The bill would have extended unemployment benefits for those out of work more than six months, until November 30....
Besides the oil industry tax, there is enormous business opposition to a proposed increase in the tax on the compensation of hedge fund managers—much of it currently taxed not as income but at the much lower capital gains rate—as well as a tax increase on investment partnerships. Lobbying against this provision was said to be especially heavy on the part of companies like Blackstone.
Stocks Down After Bad Housing Report
“As housing weakens, will consumers continually feel exuberant about their respective financial situations? We think not.”
America's Cowardly Progressives
After listening to a number of speeches at a national conference of progressives I come to this conclusion: Progressives are more than eager to take credit for electing President Obama and even to complain about the many failures of him and his administration. They overwhelmingly feel that his campaign promises were far, far better than what he has delivered. They are disappointed. They are frustrated. They are sad. But ultimately they are also cowards.
Why do I say this? Because they seem completely incapable of using straightforward language to criticize Obama. They resist saying he has lied to the public, betrayed progressives and sold out to corporate interests. Most importantly, they do not want to openly confess and proclaim that he has been a sham government reformer.
The Psychopathic Criminal Enterprise Called America
The Government uses the law to harm people and shield the establishment....
With 12 Democrats joining a unanimous Republican bloc, the US Senate voted Wednesday to defeat a proposed extension of unemployment benefits for workers who have been jobless for nearly two years. The bill would have extended unemployment benefits for those out of work more than six months, until November 30....
Besides the oil industry tax, there is enormous business opposition to a proposed increase in the tax on the compensation of hedge fund managers—much of it currently taxed not as income but at the much lower capital gains rate—as well as a tax increase on investment partnerships. Lobbying against this provision was said to be especially heavy on the part of companies like Blackstone.
Stocks Down After Bad Housing Report
“As housing weakens, will consumers continually feel exuberant about their respective financial situations? We think not.”
America's Cowardly Progressives
After listening to a number of speeches at a national conference of progressives I come to this conclusion: Progressives are more than eager to take credit for electing President Obama and even to complain about the many failures of him and his administration. They overwhelmingly feel that his campaign promises were far, far better than what he has delivered. They are disappointed. They are frustrated. They are sad. But ultimately they are also cowards.
Why do I say this? Because they seem completely incapable of using straightforward language to criticize Obama. They resist saying he has lied to the public, betrayed progressives and sold out to corporate interests. Most importantly, they do not want to openly confess and proclaim that he has been a sham government reformer.
The Psychopathic Criminal Enterprise Called America
The Government uses the law to harm people and shield the establishment....
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