Reich once more generates light and not heat.
The latest Pew Research Center poll shows Mitt Romney ahead of President Barack Obama among likely voters, 49% to 45%. But the latest Gallup poll shows the President Obama leading Romney among likely voters, 50% to 45%.
What gives? The Pew poll covered the days immediately following last…
| — | Bernie Sanders, FOCUS | Romney’s Wrong Economic Answers 9/7/12 |
The biggest political news this week won’t be the Democratic convention. It will be Friday’s unemployment report.
If the trend is good — if the rate of unemployment drops and the number of payroll jobs is as good if not better than it was in July — President Obama’s claim we’re on the right track…
Once again, Robert Reich clearly describes the situation at hand.
The most troubling economic trend facing America this Labor Day weekend is the increasing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the very top – among a handful of extraordinarily wealthy people – and the steady decline of the great American middle class.
Inequality in America is…
Economists are pressing Romney to explain how his plan works because the numbers don’t add up. They don’t know they’re living in a unsettling mystery novel where nothing adds up. Other economists are staggered by the fact that Romney’s tax plan would cut taxes for the richest among us while actually raising them for the 95 percent of Americans who aren’t wealthy. The average American earning less than $200,000 would get a tax hike of $2,000, while the wealthiest 0.1 percent would would get an average tax cut of nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Who has the audacity to attempt a deception that big, that bold, that obvious? Who thinks they could could get away with something like that? Tom Ripley, that’s who. Romney’s plan takes everybody else’s money and gives it to ultra-rich people like himself. Remember: What was once yours becomes his …
| — | RJ Eskow, “The Talented Mr. Romney” | OurFuture.org 8/7/12 |
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is quickly running out of time to file charges against financial firms and high-level executives involved in fraud and other crimes leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.
Federal laws require the SEC to file official charges within five years of the alleged crimes due to a statute of limitations. Officials at SEC, according to the Wall Street Journal, are now scrambling to file lawsuits before the five-year time limit runs out.
In one example, experts believe that the SEC should file a civil lawsuit against bankers involved in the high profile ‘Delphinus deal’ no later than next Thursday. Delphinus, a $1.6 billion deal, was a subprime mortgage scam which collapsed within months during 2007 and was a major player in the widespread financial collapse.
A criminal investigation into that deal began months ago; however, prosecutors have yet to file charges. (via As ‘Statute of Limitations’ Approaches, Wall Street Crimes of 2008 Go Unpunished | Common Dreams)
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Um, no. Ever hear of the other William J., Ryan? |
| — | John Atcheson (via azspot) |
VIA OurFuture.org
Here are eight of the biggest myths that are out there:
1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush’s last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama’s first budgetreduced that to $1.29 trillion.2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the “stimulus” was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the “stimulus” with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be “non-reviewable by any court or any agency.”) The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.4) The stimulus didn’t work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
Reality: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is “going broke,” people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on “welfare” and “foreign aid” when that is only a small part of the government’s budget.
