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Tax Avoidance On the Rise: It's Twice the Amount of Social Security and Medicare by Paul Buchheit, commondreams.org | January 7, 2013
Three trillion dollars a year. That's how much the wealthiest Americans avoid through the system of subsidies and schemes and sweet deals that deprive middle-class workers of their earned benefits. That's three times more than the deficit. That's enough for a full-time job for every middle-class household in America. Here are the distressing details. read more »Calling McConnell’s Bluff by Robert Kuttner, prospect.org | January 7, 2013
The budget deal that just averted the supposed fiscal cliff was only a warm up. The next fiscal cliff is the $110 billion in automatic budget cuts (sequesters) that last week’s budget deal deferred only until March. But, as long as we are using topographic metaphors, this is less a cliff than a bluff. On the Sunday talk shows, Republican leaders were full of bravado and swagger. Representative Matt Salmon of Arizona, on CBS “Face the Nation” said it was about time “for another government shutdown.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, ruled out any further tax increases, declaring that “the tax issue is finished, over, completed.” He insisted, “Now it’s time to pivot and turn to the real issue, which is our spending addiction.” But is spending really the problem? read more »GOP Threat: Cut Social Security and Medicare or we'll kill the economy. Americans say NO to both. by Roger Hickey , OurFuture.org | January 6, 2013
Here we go again. read more »Trillion Dollar Coin: Posts on Legality and Constitutionality by Joe Firestone, OurFuture.org | January 5, 2013
Enthusiasm for using Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) to produce a Trillion Dollar Coin, or coins totaling a few trillion dollars continues to increase. read more »The GOP's Dangerous Debt-Ceiling Threat by Jamelle Bouie, prospect.org | January 4, 2013
Even for someone unmoved by hyper-ideological, right-wing rhetoric, Senator John Cornyn’s most recent op-ed for the Houston Chronicle is astounding in its mendacity and utter disregard for responsible governance. To wit, after engaging in a little bizarro history—where he blames the president for brinksmanship on the debt ceiling and the fiscal cliff, as if Obama has an obligation to implement the GOP agenda—the two-term Texas lawmaker presents a government shutdown as a responsible way to force spending cuts. Ignoring, for now, Cornyn’s assertion that the United States will end up like Greece—which, as I noted a few days ago, is ridiculous given our ability to print money—it’s worth elaborating on what Cornyn means when he says “shutdown.” read more »Battles of the Budget by Paul Krugman, The New York Times | January 4, 2013
The centrist fantasy of a Grand Bargain on the budget never had a chance. Even if some kind of bargain had supposedly been reached, key players would soon have reneged on the deal — probably the next time a Republican occupied the White House. For the reality is that our two major political parties are engaged in a fierce struggle over the future shape of American society. Democrats want to preserve the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — and add to them what every other advanced country has: a more or less universal guarantee of essential health care. Republicans want to roll all of that back, making room for drastically lower taxes on the wealthy. Yes, it’s essentially a class war. The fight over the fiscal cliff was just one battle in that war. It ended, arguably, in a tactical victory for Democrats. The question is whether it was a Pyrrhic victory that set the stage for a larger defeat. read more »Madness In December Employment Numbers by David Callahan, policyshop.net | January 4, 2013
The new job numbers are out and, at first glance, there is nothing surprising here. But here's a statistic that jumped out at me: 89,000 public sector workers lost their jobs in October, November, and December—with most of those losses, 66,000, occurring in October. Large-scale layoffs of government workers continue across the United States. Such layoffs undermine local economies and stymie the recovery. For every five workers who were hired in the past three months, one was laid off by government. This doesn't make sense. Government may not always do such a great job of stimulating employment growth through fiscal and monetary policy, but it sure as heck can bolster the job market by continuing to employ those people who do have jobs. Instead, thanks to austerity policies, government has been doing the exact opposite. read more »Why Jobs Must Be Our Goal Now, Not Deficit Reduction by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | January 4, 2013
The news today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is that the U.S. job market is treading water. The number of new jobs created in December (155,000), and percent unemployment (7.8), were the same as the revised numbers for November. Also, about the same number of people are looking for work (12.2 million), with additional millions too discouraged even to look. Put simply, we’re a very long way from the job growth we need to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. That would be at least 300,000 new jobs per month. All of which means job growth and wage growth should be the central focus of economic policy, not deficit reduction. read more »Holding the Debt Limit Hostage is Unconstitutional, So Why Not Get Around it by Minting a Trillion-Dollar Platinum Coin? by Joshua Holland, alternet.org | January 4, 2013
It's bizarre how people distinguish between serious and unserious proposals. With another debt-ceiling show-down looming, talk of the 'platinum coin option' – declared deeply unserious in 2011 – is once again gaining some traction. I say: do it, and let the chips fall where they may. Who knows where the courts land, or even if the GOP has the chutzpah to take the case to court at that point in the game? Courts certainly can and do rule on narrow technicalities, and the threat of a global economic meltdown is a pretty strong incentive. But it should also be on the table because there is nothing more ridiculous than a congressional minority threatening the economy by trying to extract unpopular concessions in exchange for paying the bills that Congress itself already ran up. Let's not pretend this is normal behavior we're dealing with. In fact, let's not pretend it's Constitutional. read more »Paul Goes Platinum! by Joe Firestone, OurFuture.org | January 3, 2013
Another platinum coin surge in the Second Wave rippled through the mainstream media yesterday and this time hit the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Domenico Mantanaro of MSNBC kicked things off on one of the morning shows by mentioning the Trillion Dollar Coin (TDC) as a possible solution to the debt ceiling problem. read more »
The Latest
Stiglitz Says U.S. Faces `Anemic Recovery,' Needs More Stimulus, bloomberg.com | August 6, 2010
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz said the U.S. economy faces an “anemic recovery” and the government will need to enact another round of “better designed” stimulus measures. more »
CEO Pay Has `Catch' as Executive Performance Targets Prevail, Hewitt Says, bloomberg.com | August 5, 2010
More companies are linking future stock and cash bonuses to specific targets, according to a study of 157 companies in the Fortune 250 released today by Hewitt Associates Inc., a Lincolnshire, Illinois-based human resources consultant. Thirty- five percent of companies in the Fortune 250 had performance plans in place in 2009 compared with 18 percent in 2003.
Senate Debate Looms on Tax Cuts for Rich, The New York Times | August 5, 2010
Reid Plans September Showdown on Extension of Tax Cuts , thehill.com | August 5, 2010
Senate Democrats will hold a September showdown over trillions of dollars in expiring tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush.
Senior Democrats had expected the controversial issue to be postponed until after the election, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring it up when lawmakers return from a five-week August recess.
Small Business Bill Appears to Be Stuck in Senate, mcclatchydc.com | August 5, 2010
Foreclosed On—By the U.S. , The Wall Street Journal | August 4, 2010
James Currell is struggling to prevent his Minnesota home from being foreclosed. But his lender isn't a bank. It is the U.S. government.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is facing the prospect of foreclosing on a number of properties in the coming months, from homes to commercial buildings, a result of a souring mortgage portfolio it took over when it helped bail out Bear Stearns in 2008.
U.S. Consumer Bankruptcies May Exceed 1.6 Million, Report Says, bloomberg.com | August 4, 2010
U.S. consumer bankruptcies, after rising 9 percent last month from June, might exceed 1.6 million this year, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
The 137,698 bankruptcy filings in July also represent a 9 percent increase from a year earlier, the institute said yesterday in a statement posted on its website, citing data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
New Democratic Strategy for Creating Jobs Focuses on a Boost in Manufacturing, The Washington Post | August 4, 2010
Maine, Pain Drive Senate Vote Today, Politico | August 4, 2010
Tax Cuts and Tanks Require Real Money, voices.washingtonpost.com | August 3, 2010
The issue isn't that conservatives don't care about the deficit. We don't really know whether Republicans care about the deficit. They say they do, and they would certainly prefer to reduce the deficit than give people health-care coverage or keep states from firing 500,000 employees. The issue is that they care about tax cuts and defense spending more. more »
