Economy News

The Obama Jobs Record In One Graph

1:54 pm EST January 24th, 2012 | Economy | 59 Comments

If you can’t decipher this complex graph, allow me to help: Blue good.

America’s Real Fifth Column

1:00 pm EST October 29th, 2011 | Economy | 137 Comments

NY Times columnist Joe Nocera has revealed pictures from last year’s Halloween party for the Steven J. Baum law firm, a law firm that has been a key ally of the big banks in foreclosing on homes and evicting people. They represent Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Nocera explains the costumes:

Let me describe a few of the photos. In one, two Baum employees are dressed like homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a sign around her neck that reads: “3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served.” My source said that “I was never served” is meant to mock “the typical excuse” of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure proceeding.

Here are some of the pictures:

When people attack the Occupy protesters or President Obama or Democrats or Liberals for “waging class warfare” that’s because we’ve only just now joined the war. We’ve been under attack, from the inside, for a long time. We’ve only begun now to fight back.

VIDEO: Jon Stewart Destroys The GOP’s Class Warfare

10:58 am EST August 22nd, 2011 | Conservative, Economy, Republicans | 5 Comments

I wish we had Dem politicians and liberal pundits with 1/3 the mojo of the Daily Show. In this clip Stewart, with precision, rips apart just how full of excrement the GOP’s bellyaching on class warfare is. Bonus points for pointing out the Heritage Foundation’s vile attempt to claim rich people have it good.

Conservative Economics And The Downgrade

12:52 pm EST August 6th, 2011 | Economy | 107 Comments

US Treasury

By many indications, the S&P downgrade of America doesn’t make much sense.

Just to make it perfect, it turns out that S&P got the math wrong by $2 trillion, and after much discussion conceded the point — then went ahead with the downgrade.

As others have noted, these are the very same people who were rubber-stamping absolute junk mortgage-backed securities as if they were investment grade material back in 2007 and 2008. This is like an alcoholic advising us on how to be a moderate drinker.

That said, there is obviously something wrong with America’s economy, and it has been for some time. What ails us is conservative in nature. The idea that we can cut the taxes of our richest citizens without investing in the future for the rest of us.

When times get bad, the upper echelon doesn’t really suffer. Sure, their mutual funds may fluctuate, and they may be forced to take one less mediterranean cruise this year, but they aren’t facing the decisions that confront the middle class of America. Decisions like “how much can we eat” or “can we pay our rent/mortgage”. The fact that this is happening while conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation are telling America’s poor to thank God for good they have it is perverse.

It doesn’t help when both parties buy into this economic folly. Sure, the Democrats are somewhat better than the Republicans in that they don’t actively try to destroy the economy, but both President Obama and President Clinton show and have shown an admiration for failed conservative economic policies that sometimes end up being destructive to the middle class in the style of George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan.

At some point it has to end. Clearly the economic collapse of 2008 hasn’t been the jolt our leaders – and our citizens – need to bring about the common sense policies they are just unwilling to enact. The solutions to what ails America and the world aren’t super-complicated. They just need to get done.

But dishonest economic downgrades aren’t helpful, either.

Why Does The White House Love Geithner So Much?

8:42 am EST August 4th, 2011 | Democrats, Economy | 10 Comments

Tim Geithner’s easily one of the worst members of the Obama cabinet. He’s too close to Wall Street, terrible in media appearances, and a symbol of economic half-measures that have been far more friendly to hedge fund managers than middle class voters. The NY Times reports today that the White House has basically begged him to stay. I suppose they don’t think the GOP would let anyone else through, but still… fail.

Topic: President Obama, Tim Geithner

Doomed: Investment Manager Edition

8:04 am EST August 4th, 2011 | Economy | 1 Comment

The following is from an investment manager who works with very wealthy clients:

Not surprisingly, Wall Street and the top of corporate America are doing extremely well as of June 2011. For example, in Q1 of 2011, America’s top corporations reported 31% profit growth and a 31% reduction in taxes, the latter due to profit outsourcing to low tax rate countries. Somewhere around 40% of the profits in the S&P 500 come from overseas and stay overseas, with about half of these 500 top corporations having their headquarters in tax havens. If the corporations don’t repatriate their profits, they pay no U.S. taxes. The year 2010 was a record year for compensation on Wall Street, while corporate CEO compensation rose by over 30%, most Americans struggled. In 2010 a dozen major companies, including GE, Verizon, Boeing, Wells Fargo, and Fed Ex paid US tax rates between -0.7% and -9.2%. Production, employment, profits, and taxes have all been outsourced. Major U.S. corporations are currently lobbying to have another “tax-repatriation” window like that in 2004 where they can bring back corporate profits at a 5.25% tax rate versus the usual 35% US corporate tax rate. Ordinary working citizens with the lowest incomes are taxed at 10%.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this: A highly complex and largely discrete set of laws and exemptions from laws has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the U.S. political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9% are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5%, much less the top 0.1%. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules. I am not optimistic.

I’m intrigued by the ability of the super-rich to get middle and lower class people to do their dirty work, simply with the carrot that they may one day be rich. We’re doomed.

The Grand Crap Sandwich

7:36 am EST August 1st, 2011 | Democrats, Economy, Liberals | 101 Comments

Obama The Republican Party was able to enact more conservative cuts on the government with a Democratic President and Democratic Senate than they were with a Republican President, House, and Senate. That’s how much of a massive failure the debt ceiling “deal” is.

It is a massive failure, not only of progressive politics, but of American politics. The legislation will hobble the economic recovery while hurting the poor and middle class. Anybody who believes in progress for America should loudly vote against this monstrosity.

Everybody should share the blame here.

The Republican Party, for its dogged dedication to policies that enrich the already rich at the expense of ordinary Americans.

Congressional Democrats, for being listless and directionless and spineless at practically every opportunity. Given the reigns of power by the American people, they dithered and dithered and watered legislation down. While in the majority, they allowed the GOP to wield far too much influence, while also making the party’s own conservative wing overly influential. Those choices helped lead to a loss of power in 2010, and even weaker leadership in 2011.

President Obama, who has now shown himself to be a terrible negotiator of epic proportions. With just the House, he gave the Republicans the least terrible of their demands. The right demanded no revenue and all-cuts, and Obama gave them just what they wanted. Sure, they would have rather had even deeper cuts — but Obama played the entire game on GOP territory.

I wish someone would show the President a thesaurus and explain that “capitulation” is not a synonym of “compromise.”

In 2010, Democrats ran on a platform of “the Republicans are worse” and as a result suffered at the midterm elections. You cannot run a strong campaign on that kind of message. People need a reason to vote for you, not just against the other guy.

Democrats have now compounded their 2010 problem. If the bill passes, a Democratic president, along with a Democratic senate, will be enshrining conservative policy as law. While overall it’s still better to have Democrats in power — the Democrats themselves have undercut progressive policy. That’s a crappy way to motivate your progressive base.

And again, besides the politics and the optics, the deal is just bad for America. It is wrong for our country. It hurts an already bleeding nation. And the Democrats helped.

In the past progressives like myself said we needed “more and better” Democrats, please. Now we truly realize that its far better to get better Democrats because a majority with a Democratic president simply unwilling to push forward and do the right thing clearly isn’t getting the job done.

This is a massive failure.

Topic: President Obama, U.S. Senate, US House

We Are Doomed

3:19 pm EST July 26th, 2011 | Economy, Politics | 77 Comments

The position of President Obama and the Democrats on the debt ceiling is terrible. It involves cuts to social programs, and a belt tightening philosophy precisely when the economic environment demands almost exactly the opposite sort of policy.

The problem is it is the best worst option available to us. The Republican proposals were even more austere and less useful in shoring up our economy.

The Overton Window refers to the concept of an idea slowly gaining acceptance until it becomes mainstream thought. The Overton Window has so shifted that the crappy Democratic proposal seems like a far better choice.

We are doomed.

We face gigantic problems in the country and in the world. But our political machinery is simply incapable of even acknowledging the problems, much less fixing them. An economy paralyzed by job loss is being discussed as a debt problem, for Christ’s sake.

We are going down the same road to austerity as England, and what they’ve had to show for it is stagnant growth — and oh, lucky for us, England has a far more extensive safety net for the middle class and unfortunate. When our economy seizes up as we feed Grover Norquist’s fetish for starving the beast, there’s not nearly enough of a cushion for those who need it.

We are doomed.

We Are Doomed: Banks Lobbying For More Deregulation Of Derivatives

3:45 pm EST July 15th, 2011 | Business, Economy | 23 Comments

I would say this is like bashing your head against a wall repeatedly, but that’s downplaying it. I shouldn’t believe this, but there it is.

Federal regulators are considering backing off a plan to curb Wall Street’s control over the derivatives market, another potential win for the big banks.

Last fall, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed rules that would prevent a bank or financial firm from controlling more than 20 percent of any one derivatives exchange or trading facility. Now, regulators are discussing lowering the cap, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

STOP THIS. YOU’RE GOING TO DESTROY THE PLANET.

Seriously, deregulated derivative markets have helped to cause one of the largest economic recessions in U.S. history. Sure, Wall Street had a few bumps on the road but they got right back on their feet (with some help from the U.S. taxypayer). That isn’t the case for the average middle and lower class American.

These people were given the keys to the bank, they robbed it, and you’re giving them a second chance.

Do we have a Democratic Republic anymore or a permanent Robber Baron enrichment scheme? Sweet Jesus.

Poll: It’s Still The Bush Recession

8:36 am EST July 14th, 2011 | Economy | 49 Comments

In this new Qunnipiac poll, everybody is underwater as far as approval on the economy goes — though President Obama gets higher marks than everyone else. More importantly, despite the almost three-year long campaign by conservative politicians, conservative media (especially Fox News), and a compliant mainstream press, the blame for our failing economy still goes to the “leader” that got it there: George W. Bush.

“Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the economy, but by 2-1 they pin the blame on former President George W. Bush rather than Obama, who is now more than 60 percent through his term of office.”

“Given this public view, it might be reasonable to expect that the president’s re-election campaign will be, as it was in 2008, running against the former president, in addition to the actual GOP nominee,” said Brown. “The key voting bloc, independents, say 49 – 24 percent that Bush is more responsible for the economy than Obama.”

Aside from the politics, it is amazing that the brand of economic brain-deadery the Bushies employed isn’t in the trash. Yet, here are Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell proposing the same old crap that got us in this mess in the first place. Insane. (via)