Archive for category economy
Republican Mitch McConnell’s Twisted Logic on Taxes, Economics and Deficits
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, Budget, Budget & Deficit, Budget Deficit, Conservatives, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Logic & Reasoning, Politics, Republicans, Senate, economy on July 24th, 2010
PARALLEL UNIVERSE by Steve Hester
Remember how “vibrant” the economy was at the end of the Bush Era?
Recall that when Bush left office in January of 2009, the U.S. budget deficit was at an historical all-time high, roughly $1.3 Trillion .
So now Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claims that the Bush Tax Cuts “increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.”
What an inexplicable disconnect between his statement and the foregoing facts regarding the economic collapse brought on by the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, and the deficits a majority of Americans agree that Bush hung around Obama’s neck; deficits that were unprecedented in relation to previous Administrations. It’s patently obvious that McConnell operates from a parallel universe where the laws of basic math and logic don’t apply.
As Ezra Klein of the Washington Post so kindly put it, “it’s enough to make you very, very sad.”
What’s even more unbelievable is how McConnell and the Republicans attempt to blister Obama and the Democrats on taxes, spending and deficits, all while ignoring the most blatant evidence of what the Republicans did after inheriting Clinton’s budget surplus. To describe this behavior in terms of an hypocrisy is an understatement.
So now the country seems inclined to put these guys back in power?
That is utterly terrifying.
NOTE: the sublime painting by Steve Hester is an original watercolor for sale at this link.
JP Morgan Apologizes for Saying What They Think, So You Don’t Think About What They Said
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Senate, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, economy, financial industry on May 5th, 2010
YOU CAN’T UNRING THE BELL . . .
A top executive and economic analyst at mega-bank JP Morgan Chase trashed U.S. senators in a company memo to the bank’s clients - stating that they showed “an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics” regarding the Goldman Sachs hearings, and said “it’s time for the grownups to step in” regarding financial reform.
Interesting . . .
These same banks showed an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics when coming to the taxpayers for bailouts; which suggests that it’s time for the grownups to step in, and teach them a lesson about what happens when you demonstrate an unnerving ignorance of fundamental principles of market economics – you lose the privilege to have such a powerful influence over OUR economy.
The grownups need to make TBTF (Too Big To Fail) = TSTM (Too Small To Matter) – break up these childish Big Banks.
P.S. After a spokesperson for JP Morgan Chase issued an apology for the memorandum – stating that it “does not reflect the views of our firm” – you could here the collective chant from JP Morgan headquarters as they covered their ears . . . “THE BELLS, THE BELLS, THE BELLS.”
Wonder Why President Obama Raised His Own Taxes?
Posted by Lance Haley in Budget Deficit, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, economy, taxes on April 16th, 2010
In case you forgot – and I am almost certain you didn’t – today is April 15th. Tax day. Not that you needed or wanted any reminder.
But there are a few things you might not have considered, and a way to re-frame the notion of taxes in order to understand why we pay them – albeit reluctantly.
As was reported today in the Wall Street Journal, the Obamas just paid $1.8 MILLION in income taxes the year. FYI: that is NOT a typo.
Want to put that in perspective? In 2008, George Bush paid just shy of $204,000 in income taxes; and Dick Cheney paid approximately $600,000 in taxes that same year. That means that President Obama paid over twice as much in income taxes his first year in office than George Bush and Dick Cheney did combined in their last year in office.
So when President Obama increased Medicare contributions on the top 1% of wage earners in this country in order to help fund health care reform, he raised his own taxes. Not your taxes – unless you make in excess of $250,000 a year. His taxes. That is something only one President – George Bush I – has ever agreed to do in almost thirty years.
And the President may later propose to raise taxes again on himself and the very rich. Why, you might ask?
Because this President understands that sublimating his own financial self-interests to that of the greater social good is something Americans have always expected from those who could most afford it – a notion that seems quaint and antiquated in this era of repacious greed and obscene self-interest. Sacrificing a portion of one’s wealth for the good of America was one of the principle things that made this country so great.
Want proof? Read it and weep . . .
This chart from the Citizens for Tax Justice outlines the income tax rates for the top 1% of taxpayers in the United States since 1916. Take note of several very salient facts:
1) It may surprise you to learn that with the exception of 1916 (%15), 1925-31 (25%), and 1988-92 (30% +/-), the current tax rates for the wealthiest Americans has never been lower (35%);
2) In the past, high tax rates on the very rich were able to offset severe economic conditions (The Great Depression), the high costs of war (WW II, Korea, and Vietnam), and helped financed the greatest economic expansion in this country’s history (The Go-Go Years of Wall Street – late 1950’s to mid 1960’s);
3) The reason most Americans now pay a higher rate of taxes in relation to inflation-adjusted income is that the very rich have paid far less in taxes since 1988 – a policy that should not be lost on anyone, Republican or Democrat; the rich DO keep getting richer. Unfortunately, political rhetoric and economic propoganda trumps truth virtually every time.
Here is the reality, America: If you want to reduce deficits, balance the budget for future generations, keep entitlements at their present levels (Social Security and Medicare), and reinforce the middle-class, taxes on the very wealthy are going to have to go up. Significantly.
Call it what you may – “transferring wealth”, Socialism, etc. This is a zero-sum game. Otherwise, many of us will go broke over time while they grow ever richer. It’s that simple. This is not class warfare. This is not social engineering. This is reality, people.
But based on some silly twisted philosophical perception that imposing disporportionately “higher” taxes on the rich is inherently unfair and “Socialist” in nature – which even Warren Buffet, the richest man in America, agrees is nonsense - we vote against our own self-interests, and vicariously support the ultra-rich getting richer. Why? Because we no longer recognize the fact that in the past, America always imposed a proportionally greater financial burden on it’s citizens who have prospered most from her bounty, and were blessed with the gift of wealth.
Against his own self-interest, President Obama readily accepts that duty, as well as the additional burden it imposes on his family, based on the time-honored American principle of self-sacrifice . . .
All for the good of the country.
NOTE: The gentleman pictured at the top of this post is none other than the richest man in America – Warren Buffet.
Obama and Democrats Played Republicans on Healthcare?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Bill O'Reilly, Campaigns, Congress, Conservatives, Dick Cheney, Economics, Glenn Beck, Government, Health Insurance Industry, Healthcare Reform, House of Representatives, Medicaid, Medicare, Politics, Populists, Sarah Palin, Senate, Tea Party, White House, economy on March 24th, 2010
Now the blame game begins about how Health Care Reform got passed.
You are just going to love this one . . .
William Saletan reports today in Slate.com that the Bipartisan Health Care Summit organized by the Whitehouse and attended by the President and party leaders on February 25, 2010 , was in fact a total ruse orchestrated by President Obama to set-up the Republicans; Saletan cites accounts from four different media outlets who quote anonymous Democratic aides that “paint a picture of deception” as follows:
“Obama never believed he could persuade Republicans. He had already decided the shape of the bill. He called the meeting to create an illusion of outreach, put Republicans on the spot, discredit their ideas, and embolden Democrats.”
Oh, Horror of Horrors! How sinister of President Obama. You know they say he is one Hell of a poker player. Republicans should have known just how shrewd and conniving this beast was when they sat down at the table with him. Obama went “all in”, and the Repubs folded. How could he do this to them?
The Republicans spent over a year trying to play Obama and the Democrats like a fiddle, and in the end, it was the Republicans who got played? Hee Hee Hee.
KARMA BABY. KARMA.
Hey Repubs: I think God does have a sense of humor.
Harry Markopolos’ $50 Billion Dollar Failure
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Congress, Crime & Punishment, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Legal & Justice, Politics, Sarah Palin, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on March 2nd, 2010
![dumb and dumber [2]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dumb-and-dumber-23.jpg "dumb and dumber [2]")
S.E.C. LAWYERS’ GRADUATION CLASSES: 1999-2008
If you hired a security guard to watch your house, and it kept getting burglarized – even after someone told him countless times who the thief was – would you let him keep his job?
Stupid question, you say? Really?
So why do we keep the same morons on our government payroll to watch the financial markets? Now that is a good question. And there really is a simple answer. The foxes make sure to instruct their under-lords to have those dumb sharecropper farmers whom they pay beggars wages to for working their land, to keep that same old deaf and blind dog guarding the chicken coop. This metaphor should not be lost on anyone.
Bernie Madoff may be a household word – and one of Time magazines 2009 Top 100 people who affected the world. But Harry Markopolus is just another quiet hero in a global financial market run by pimps and whores. Markopolus has a new book coming out today called, “No One Would Listen“. The book chronicles the story of how Markopolus doggedly pursued a fraud case against Bernie Madoff from 1999 through 2008 by trying to get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyers to investigate Madoff’s House of Cards. All to no avail.
WTF you might ask? At least that’s what I have been saying since this story first broke in early 2009 when Markopolus testified before Congress (you can read his testimony right here), and then was interviewed by CBS’s 60 Minutes.
This is beyond a comedy of errors. This is Dumb and Dumber, The Three Stooges, and Beevis and Butthead all working in concert to unwittingly thwart one another while the criminals continued to steal from us with unbridled impunity. Now is that not a terrifying image? Meet your S.E.C., America. Wall Street owns these guys.
Starting in 1999, Markopolus made several attempts to give the most fundamental proof of Madoff’s fraud to numerous investigators at the S.E.C. - all of which was either willfully or woefully ignored (Markopolus calls them “idiots” – that is too kind, don’t you think, Sarah Palin? I would have called them retards). By 2007, he was fed up with their wanton stupidity, and decided to document it by submitting a nineteen (19) page memorandum to the S.E.C. outlining the basis for his claim. That too, was ignored.
View the complete 60 Minutes interview with Markopolos - or just watch the real BOMBSHELL from minute 7:25 to 8:18 of the interview. That brief one minute segment is incomprehensible. And you wonder why so many investors were “Madoffed” by Bernie?
So after all this, has anything changed?
Hell no!
Harry Markopolus is still trying to settle his first big whistle-blower case, he has spent years living in fear, and yet he remains undeterred in his dogged pursuit of financial racketeers and corporate fraudsters. Of course, his new book should help keep his wife and young boys fed until payday comes. Ironically, Markopolus refers to himself as a “$50 Billion dollar failure”- because he could not get the S.E.C. to listen. One might conclude that he is being flippant, since he all but beat them over the head with his evidence. However, he is serious about characterizing this as his “failure” - he honestly takes it very personally that all these people were hurt by Madoff’s fraud in the face of the S.E.C.’s utter incompetence.
You just have to love this man. After all this, the crooks and the “police” shirk responsibility, and the hero feels guilty? And you wonder why it seems the world has started spinning in the other direction?
Meanwhile, back at the S.E.C., they are still re-disorganizing the deck chairs on the U.S.S. Financial Titanic, and there should be smooth sailing on the calm seas of Neo-Capitalism all the way back to port. No need to worry. They have their securities regulation minions fast asleep on night watch while the next massive financial iceberg awaits in the darkness. And brace yourself, because this next one’s really going to be a doozy folks.
In the meantime, bring them some Dom Perignon, the exquisite pate’, and that rare Russian escargot they just had imported, all paid for with your financial bailouts. And don’t forget to put that on a silver platter.
Oh, they almost forgot to mention it. You can ignore the water rising on the Italian marble dining room floor. That’s just from the watered-down financial regulation reform we are about to get from Wall Street’s wholly-owned public subsidiary, Congress. They have the S.E.C working on that minor leak down in the hull right now.
One Final Note: please do not bother counting the number of lifeboats. Those seats have all been reserved.
Enjoy the cruise. 
P.S. They saved several seats in the lifeboats for the S.E.C. lawyers. You didn’t really think the Financial Terrorists were going to row those things themselves, did you?
Thank Goodness Obama Healthcare Reform is Dead? Caveat Emptor . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Bailouts, Banking, Budget, Budget & Deficit, Budget Deficit, Business and Money, Campaigns, Capitalism, Conservatives, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, Healthcare Reform, How and Why We Get Screwed, Medicare, Sarah Palin, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on February 12th, 2010
This is the face of the future for Republican Health Care and Social Security Reform – memorize it!
Now remember all of those terrifying Town Hall meetings in the Summer of 2009, where all you heard about on a daily basis were “Death Panels” and Medicare cuts, and Big Brother’s government bureaucrats making decisions about both the quality and quantity of health care you were going to receive?
You have nothing to worry about. Obama’s Health Care Reform is likely all but dead, and many of you will try to vote the Republicans back into power in this Fall’s mid-term elections so that they can protect you from Obama’s scary Socialist Big Government. Hip, Hip, Hooray (or is that Horror?) for their brand of Capitalism and individual freedom.
Except for one thing. The Republicans do not intend to protect you from anything (remember, that’s the point of shrinking government support). Including going broke in your retirement years from either rising health care costs, or diminishing retirement income. Think I am kidding? This is not hyperbole!
Ignore what follows at your own peril . . .
At the 2009 CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) - this is the Superbowl of Conservative power-brokers, with Glenn Beck as their 2010 Keynote Speaker - Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) proposed that Medicare be completely dismantled, and replaced by a system of vouchers for seniors to purchase health insurance in the private sector.
Make no mistake about it: this will be the platform for the Republicans’ answer on how to reform health care once they are back in power. Do you doubt that? Well, Fox News reported that Ryan has been annointed as “the leader of future of the conservative movement.” That’s code for Republican Presidential nominee. He is their visionary, and here is his vision for American retirees’ Medicare and social security safety nets.
According to The Economist magazine, and an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Ryan’s “daring plan” will stimulate both the health insurance industry, as well as the health care industry, while slowing the growth of government health care spending; which is great if you are a Republican rising star like Ryan, who receives almost 40% of his political campaign contributions from health-related industries and their beneficiaries.
What’s not so great for retirees is that the CBO analysis shows why this is so great for the government and those industries: the dollar value of those vouchers you are going to get under Ryan’s plan will not rise as quickly as the projected costs of health care. Which means retirees will have higher out-of-pocket expenses as time goes on. And you can be certain that if those costs are going up, your private health insurance will also be going up at an equally rising rate – after all, they have to make a profit. That’s Capitalism. Right?
Another great thing about this plan – but not so great for retirees – is that the cost to the government will continue to grow more slowly because, as the CBO projections show, people will use less health care when they have to increasingly pay more and more out of their own pockets. Remember last summer when Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers scared you about the government rationing health care? Now you can do it to yourself!
In essence, Ryan’s Republican plan would make the government go broke more slowly than American retirees will, while temporarily keeping this growing health care crisis at bay another decade or two, and increase the profits of health-related industries along the way, forcing you to resort to receiving less and less health care as you grow older.
Don’t believe me? Do the math. It’s really that simple.
And Remember: Under the Republican Healthcare Reform Plan you will NOT even have Medicare supplemental insurance to fall back on. You wanted government out of your life . . . you got it!
So be happy you are not going to get Health Care Reform from Obama. I don’t mean to alarm you – especially after the Republicans scared you sufficiently enough to ensure health care reform would not get passed. After all, now they are free to begin selling you their notion of a “free market” alternative. Caveat emptor (“buyer beware”).
And recall the proverbial admonishment: “Be careful what you wish for . . . you just might get it.”
Happy retirement, America.
P.S. Ryan’s “free market plan” also calls for Social Security to be completely dismantled, and privatized. Surely the impact of that policy is not lost on anyone after the global financial markets collapsed for the second time in a decade – losing almost 40% of their value in both downturns, with average investment returns for the past ten (10) years of about 1%. What if your social security safety net was invested there? Hint: it’s not a “free market” proposal - the government will limit your choices on how you can invest your social security retirement. Are you really so naive as to think Wall Street won’t have their greedy fingers in that enormous financial pie? They own Washington, D.C.!
Allah Bama is Holding America Hostage For a Whole Side of Pork – Isn’t That Against Their Religion?
Posted by Lance Haley in Budget, Budget Deficit, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, economy on February 11th, 2010
Allah Bama’s Monument to Pork Barrel Spending
Are Republicans really serious about pork-barrel spending? What about national security? How about the War in Afghanistan that they have been paying so much lip service to since 9/11 – as in 2001?
One has to wonder as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of the party stands silent, and defenseless (or so they act), as fellow Republican Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) just hung a whole side of pork around the necks of his own party members. Believe it or not, Shelby contends it’s all done in the name of critical national security, when it’s really for the sake his home state – Allah Bama.
Since when did building tanker refueling planes constitute a critical national security issue when compared to personally holding up the appointment of seventy – count them, 70 – presidential nominees to various government positions. What is most glaring is that one of these appointees is designated to become the top Department of Defense point-man for managing deployments to Afghanistan.
Is Senator Shelby providing comfort and support to the terrorists? After all, isn’t that the standard moniker Republicans try to hang around the Democrats’ necks everytime they delay anything regarding national security?
Let’s see? Building refueling tankers in the next five years or ensuring proper deployment of soldiers to Afghanistan in the next five months? The choice is not exactly rocket science. Anyone want to argue this one with young American soldiers’ lives on the line?
Go ahead . . . make my day.
Even Conservative writers and bloggers have weighed-in against Shelby’s political grandstanding, pointing out that there is no legitimate basis for holding up the business of the whole Senate confirmation process over pork-barrel spending. Daniel Larison of The American Conservative magazine said it best:
With this kind of irrational thinking, Shelby could probably even make a case for the critical national security aspect of his $819,000 Catfish Genome Project down there in the bayou that was awarded in 2009. You know, they have to serve those tanker refueling plane pilots something while they are up in the air for those long overseas flights to Afghanistan.
Wunder if dat der Vulcan feller is feedin’ dem catfish pork rinds?
Obama Does Not Begrudge Wall Street Terrorists’ Robbing the National Treasury to make a Profit?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Banking, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on February 10th, 2010
President Obama – you cannot be serious?!?
These Titans of Socialist Capitalism take the money we bailed them out with – including “rigging” the system with the help of Paulson and Geithner so that AIG’s TARP money was re-directed to them – go on to make an enormous profit by trading with that money (which was not the purpose of the bailouts), and you call them savvy businessmen?
Now almost a year ago to the day, you gave the following remarks at the White House:
“This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.”
So are they failures? Or savvy businessmen? Or both?
This author recently pondered your failure to immediately regulate and reign-in Wall Street after your election when they were still on the ropes. Here is the bottom line: They screwed up, then they screwed us, and then you screwed up?
Do you see the problem here, Mr. President. The cognitive dissonance regarding your words and deeds towards Wall Street is deeply disturbing to those who supported you in 2008, especially when you had the perfect combination of opportunity, power, and the political capital to reign in these financial terrorists right after you took an oath to protect the American people. You did nothing, and now it is too late. Was it intentional? Or are you being obtuse?
When political rhetoric collides with inaction, people become dismayed. Maybe the young voters who are stepping to the sidelines are correct?
Disillusionment is too mild a word for such a betrayal if it was just the “same old wine in a brand new bottle“, President Obama.
“Meet the new Boss . . . Same as the Old Boss . . .We Won’t Get Fooled Again!”
Shame on us for ever having the audacity to hope? I hope not.
OK, President Obama, “Where’s The Beef”?
Posted by Lance Haley in Bailouts, Business and Money, Capitalism, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Wall Street, economy on February 6th, 2010
You are making all of this noise about refocusing TARP (bailout) funds towards small business.
President Obama, this blog noted that you said the same thing 100 days ago . . . read it right here.
So Where’s The Beef?
America: Ten Years From Now, Recall When You Believed Health Care Reform Was Too Expensive
Posted by Lance Haley in Budget Deficit, Uncategorized, economy on February 4th, 2010
Let’s see. Obama’s Health Care Reform was way too expensive. We just could not afford it. It was going to financially break the country.
Read this little statistic released this week, and then you just keep telling yourself that . . .