by | Nov 28, 2011 | Blog
There's lot's of economic stuff this morning worth sharing. First, the view that austerity is bad for us is starting to make it beyond the pages of obscure blogs and Krugman's column. Here's one from a historian in Bloomberg News: ...“common sense” tells us that...
by Bill Scher | Nov 28, 2011 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Tax Avoidance Alchemy OurFuture.org's Sam Pizzigati: "America’s mega rich are actually taking in much more in income, [Bloomberg] shows, than their tax returns indicate. Hundreds of millions more. And this hidden income has reduced their effective tax...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 28, 2011 | Blog
The story just won't die. People keep commenting on the near-Stalinist level of ideological purity displayed by CNN"s selection of "expert" questioners for last week's Republican national security debate. As soon as it was duly convened, the network's Neocon Politburo...
by Sam Pizzigati | Nov 27, 2011 | Blog
Today's super rich can't turn tin into gold. But they can get Uncle Sam to loan them free money. At the expense, of course, of America's bottom 99 percent. How much money is pouring into the pockets of America's richest 1 percent? How much of this income are America's...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 25, 2011 | Blog
Fahrenheit 451: The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns. They're back. But then, they've never gone away. The Book Killers have always been with us. Before recorded history they were with us, murdering the scholars and storytellers and mystics of...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 24, 2011 | Blog
Conservatives say they want to "bring back" the old USA, the one that existed during those decades of the twentieth century they only seem to see through a gauzy golden haze. Whatever its problems, that country was a place where Republicans and Democrats agreed on two...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 23, 2011 | Blog
Republicans are threatening a scheme to block yet another part of the government - the NLRB, this time - from functioning, for the purpose of enriching the 1% while driving even more of us out of the middle class. Senate Republicans are participating in this scheme by...
by Bill Scher | Nov 23, 2011 | Blog
What am I thankful for this year? I am thankful the conservative movement has stopped trying to pretend to be something that they are not. Instead of masquerading as "compassionate conservatives" who want "clear skies," "personal retirement accounts," protect...
by Bill Scher | Nov 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Tax The Rich ......
by Dave Johnson | Nov 22, 2011 | Blog
Let's hope that the failure of the "super committee" quest to take money out of the economy clears the media mist for a minute, so people can focus on real issues that matter to real people. What are the chances of that? Will our government now focus on creating jobs,...
by Bill Scher | Nov 22, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: No Deal. Good. Now...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 21, 2011 | Blog
Discussion of the "Super Committee" debacle continues to misguide and misinform the public in an all-too-familiar way. Once again the consensus in the media and among political leaders reflects the misperceptions of an insular Washington culture, rather than the...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 21, 2011 | Blog
I just wanted to say a few quick things about deficits and the "super committee." 1) Never forget that 11 years ago we had a huge budget surplus and were on track to pay off the entire debt in 10 years. Then came the Bush tax cuts for the rich and a huge military...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 21, 2011 | Blog
Being in the 99 percent, and living in Washington, DC, is to live and work in close proximity to the 1 percent. (Especially if you work in Capitol Hill.) When you do so on a daily basis, it's easy to forget that — as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote — "The...
by | Nov 21, 2011 | Blog, The Sequester
I'll just let Bernie Sanders explain it to Wolf Blitzer, who appears to be extremely confused by the fact that someone might have liberal principles. In fairness, it's not something he hears every day. Usually, it's a Democrat explaining that he or she is more than...
by | Nov 21, 2011 | Blog, The Sequester
Originally posted a Capital Gains and Games. Two things if you're at all surprised that the anything-but-super committee is going to announce today that it has been unable to agree on a deficit reduction plan and so is going out of business. First, you weren't reading...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: America's Affluent...
by Sam Pizzigati | Nov 20, 2011 | Blog
Just 40 years ago, most Americans rubbed elbows with neighbors from a fairly wide cross-section of income levels. But today's rich, Census data show, are keeping everyone else at arm's length — and more. How many neighborhoods have you ever seen with oodles of rich...
by Greg Colvin | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog
Today, Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL) offered the strongest constitutional amendment introduced in either House of Congress so far to rectify the imbalance of power between the corporations and the people in our democracy. As the struggle in the streets intensifies,...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog
Almost since the Occupy Wall Street movement began, everyone from pundits to the person-in-the-street have offered their $0.02 on what the OWS movement "should" do next. The number of columns and blog posts offering such advice naturally increased after the midnight...
by | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog
There's also this, from a must-read article in The Nation by George Zornick [T]o listen to most media coverage of the deficit debates—and too often, the rhetoric thrown about by Republicans and some Democrats—one comes away thinking the only way to get the fiscal...
by Bill Scher | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog
Assuming the "Super Committee" fails to forge a deficit reduction compromise, those who proclaim to be "deficit hawks" will respond will sadness and anger. They will decry the inability of Congress to function. They will alarm us that we are on a fiscal path to...
by Bill Scher | Nov 18, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE:...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 17, 2011 | Blog
As Mayor Bloomberg's forces swooped down on Occupy Wall Street, news reports described the "hundreds of police and private security guards" who had re-taken Zuccotti Park. Those private guards were used against public citizens who had been exercising their civil...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 17, 2011 | Blog
A government that says corporate money is “speech” dispatches lines of police to stop actual human-being citizens from actually speaking out. It's all right there in front of us: Wall Street got bailouts, the rich got tax cuts, corporations got to buy elections,...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 17, 2011 | Blog
Bear with me here, this gets interesting ... and a bit scary. The 2011 REPORT TO CONGRESS of the U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION has been released. From the press release: The report covers the U.S.-China economic relationship, including the impact...
by | Nov 17, 2011 | Blog
p> What is that thing this NYPD officer is carrying today? TPM says it's reported to be a Long Range Acoustic device, aka LRAD. In case you were wondering about the effects of an LRAD, read this report from the ACLU from last month: The American Civil Liberties...
by Bill Scher | Nov 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Day Of Action...
by Robert Borosage | Nov 16, 2011 | Blog, Economy
The following is prepared testimony from Robert Borosage delivered today to the Congressional Progressive Caucus's Hearing on Jobs I thank the Congressional Progressive Caucus for holding this hearing. I am honored by the invitation to participate. I want to the...
by Roger Hickey | Nov 16, 2011 | Blog
Politicians beholden to the 1% are trying to evict the Occupy movement, from Wall Street and elsewhere around the country. Meanwhile, in Washington, the “Super Committee” threatens to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, while protecting tax cuts for the 1% —...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 16, 2011 | Blog
After labeling Barack Obama a "socialist," you wouldn't think conservatives would be taking their cues from socialists, right? You'd be wrong. From the "flat tax" to the ideal capitalist system, Republican presidential candidates seem to be getting their ideas and...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 16, 2011 | Blog
Ezra Klein's "Wonkbook" is invaluable for anyone trying to follow the Washington policymaking process. Each day it offers its readers everything from the latest CBO analyses to the newest latest adorable animal videos. Since I'm both an obsessive reader of reports and...
by Bill Scher | Nov 16, 2011 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Why Would They Shut Down Occupy Now? OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "...the timing's very interesting - and, for some people, very convenient. The nation's expecting a deficit package from the undemocratic Super Committee, anticipating another...
by Leo Gerard | Nov 16, 2011 | Blog
Wall Street waged war on the American economy and middle class with its reckless gambling. It wasn’t Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac that crashed the economy. It wasn’t the federal government. It wasn’t hapless homeowners who were sold mortgages they couldn’t afford. It was...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 15, 2011 | Blog
Suddenly the Occupy movement is under siege everywhere. There's been a wave of simultaneous, seemingly coordinated clampdowns on peaceful demonstrators in cities all across the country. Why now? It could be nothing more than one heck of a coast-to-coast coincidence,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Nov 15, 2011 | Blog, Economy
"You can't evict an idea whose time has come." That was the message posted on OccupyWallSt.org as early this morning, police began to storm the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. To prove it, supporters of the Occupy movement have vowed...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Nov 15, 2011 | Blog, Economy
On Wednesday, the day before hundreds of Occupy events are scheduled to break out across the country, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will be holding a hearing highlighting the "jobs, not cuts" theme that is a key part of the Occupy movement. The...
by Mary Bottari | Nov 15, 2011 | Blog
In the dead of night last night, the movement to hold big banks accountable for their crimes took two major hits. Occupy Wall Street activists were swept from Zuccotti Park as radical members of Congress moved to gut funding for the Commodity Futures Trading...
by Bill Scher | Nov 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: These Evictions...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 15, 2011 | Blog
A while back I was writing about the Republican threat of a government-wide shutdown, and the two-week Federal Aviation Administration shutdown (and Delta Airlines' anti-union role in that). The shutdown threat was used to force the government to give even more favors...
