from The Real New Network
Jeff Faux: The dreams of Wall Street and the military/industrial complex are not compatible with the dreams of the American middle class
Posts tagged ‘Wall Street’
Jeff Faux on the Hunger Games Economy, Obama, and Romney
by n0madic, posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 at 4:50 pmJoseph Stiglitz on Occupy and Why U.S.-Europe Austerity Will Only Weaken Economic Recovery
by n0madic, posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2012 at 10:36 pmfrom Democracy Now!
As European leaders scramble to address the sovereign debt crisis, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues the austerity measures pushed by Germany, the United States and international creditors are only “going to make the countries weaker and weaker.” If European economies contract, Stiglitz predicts that “our economy [will] go down further into the hole. … Those policies then increase the probability of our weak economy tipping over into recession.” Stiglitz’s new book is “The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers our Future.” Stigliz continues: “Occupy Wall Street was a reflection of a lot of American’s perspective that our economic system is unfair. … There was a hope after the crisis, that government would fix things, it didn’t. Or didn’t do enough, and that combination of economic unfairness and a political system that doesn’t seem capable of correcting these injustices, I think is what motivated a lot of the Occupy Wall Street.”
Why We Need A Stronger Volcker Rule
by n0madic, posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 11:11 pmfrom the Center for American Progress
Center for American Progress’ Jennifer Erickson, Director of Competitiveness and Economic Growth, describes the Volcker Rule and explains why it needs to be strengthened.
We’re a Country Needing Heroes
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Monday, May 21st, 2012 at 7:49 pmWe’re a country needing some heroes. And we really need them here in Illinois where for decades politicians have joined with the rest of our country’s politicians in selling out the middle class, starving the funding for our public schools and communities, and protecting large corporations and the One Percent.
For forty years, at the state and federal level, politicians have worked for big business interests attacking our labor unions, pension plans, small farms and businesses. Big business interests lobbied politicians, sometimes people in them became politicians or formed “Think Tanks” to lobby politicians. They ended regulations (Glass-Steagall) and opened up the banking system to gambling. They’ve gambled 401 Ks and mortgages. They lobbied for corporations to become monopolies. They lobbied for tax breaks, loopholes, and subsidies.
This has been a systematic, well thought out plan carried out by large moneyed interests and big business. A corporate lawyer named Lewis F. Powell in 1971 first outlined the plan on paper. Powell wrote a long memo to Eugene Sydnor, Jr. the then Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Called the Powell Memo, it outlined the plan for advancing corporate influence by deregulating corporations, building an array of institutions to push for unbridled corporate capitalism, and to diminish individual’s interests. It targeted unions and schools.
Nurses Stand Up to Politicians
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2012 at 8:40 pmHe was a shirtless man walking around the crowd of demonstrators holding up a sign that read: “Since you politicians are going to f&#k me, you could at least wear a condom.
While there was understandable frustration like this expressed by some at the rally, most of the signs were directed toward solutions. One read, “Heal America. Tax Wall Street,” and on the back, “An Economy for the 99%. Healthcare for all. Jobs with Dignity. Quality Public Education. A Healthy Environment.” Or, another sign, “Single Payer Healthcare.” Another read, “Real Funding. Speculation Tax,” and another, “Tax Wall Street.”
“End This Depression Now”: Paul Krugman Urges Public Spending, Not Deficit Hysteria
by n0madic, posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 at 2:30 pmfrom Democracy Now!
Public spending is under assault from the United States to Europe in the name of fighting deficits. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman argues in his new book, “End This Depression Now!”, that the hysteria over the deficit will constrain an economic recovery in a time of high unemployment and stagnating wages. “The economics is really easy,” says Krugman, “If we were to spend more money at the government level, rehire the school teachers, firefighters, police officers who have been laid off in the last several years because of cutbacks, we would be a long way back toward full employment. … Right now there’s just not enough spending. We need the government to step in and provide the demand we need … We’ve had austerity in the face of a recession in a way that we’ve never had before since the 1930s. The results are clear — it is disastrous.” Krugman writes about the economy as a columnist for the New York Times and is a Professor of Economics at Princeton University.
The interview continues after the jump …
OSI: Pat Langley, “Occupy’s Queer Ancestor”
by n0madic, posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at 3:44 pmPat Langley speaks to Occupy Springfield, IL about the similarities between the Occupy movement and the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP)
What About the Real Crisis – Unemployment?
by John Laesch, posted on Monday, August 15th, 2011 at 7:13 pmNorthern Illinois Jobs With Justice (NIJWJ) has been holding monthly events and rallies on the first Friday of every month when unemployment numbers are released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The last rally was covered by The Voice (Not an on-line article, but their website tells where you can pick up a copy), and The Beacon News.
August unemploymet numbers (9.1% unemployed) showed little improvement in the economic crisis facing millions of American families. The Chicago Political Economy Group (CPEG) points out that adding the 13.9 million unemployed together with the 6.5 million discouraged workers means that over 20 million American families are still suffering even though the Great Recession was declared “over” more than two years ago.
The question is, what are we going to do about it?
President Obama’s Big Deal: Cuts for Social Security, but No Taxes for Wall Street
by Dean Baker, posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 2:45 pmCross-posted from Truthout, where it was originally published on July 18, 2011.
The ability of Washington to turn everything on its head has no limits. We are in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Even though the recession officially ended two years ago, there are still more than 25 million people who are unemployed, can only find part-time work or who have given up looking for work altogether. This is an outrage and a tragedy. These people’s lives are being ruined due to the mismanagement of the economy.
And we know the cause of this mismanagement. The folks who get paid to manage and regulate the economy were unable to see an $8 trillion housing bubble. They weren’t bothered by the doubling of house prices in many areas, nor the dodgy mortgages that were sold to finance these purchases. Somehow, people like former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and his sidekick and successor Ben Bernanke thought everything was fine as the Wall Street financers made billions selling junk mortgage and derivative instruments around the world.
When the bubble burst, one of the consequences was an increased budget deficit. This is kind of like two plus two equals four. The collapsing bubble tanked the economy. Tax revenue plummets and we spend more on programs like unemployment insurance and foods stamps. We did also have some tax cuts and stimulus spending to boost the economy. The result is a larger budget deficit.
All of this is about as clear as it can possibly be. The large deficit came about because the housing bubble, which was fueled by Wall Street excesses, crashed the economy. Yet, we are constantly being told by politicians from President Obama to Tea Party Republicans that we have a problem of out-of-control spending.
The claim of out-of-control spending is simply not true. It is an invention, a fabrication, a falsehood with no basis in reality that politicians are pushing to advance their agenda. And that agenda is not pretty.
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DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen on Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead
by n0madic, posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at 6:00 amIn Red to Blue: Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Grassroots Politics
Van Hollen’s district
Van Hollen has brought this experience to bear in his subsequent work at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). And he was not the only one to go to school on that 2002 campaign. As Gottlieb puts it:
David Axelrod told Van Hollen in 2008 that he had learned some lessons from being on the other side of the 2002 primary. It was a really good grassroots campaign, Axelrod said, with the passion on Van Hollen’s side. Van Hollen carried the lessons learned in 2002 into the successful effort to build a House Democratic majority in 2006. Axelrod and David Plouffe may have applied those lessons in the 2008 50-state race for the White House. (Gottlieb, Red to Blue, 32)
Last week Van Hollen appeared with Gottlieb at a book event in Washington, DC and talked about his attempt to apply those lessons learned to his work with the DCCC. Van Hollen’s introductory remarks, plus the question and answer session that followed, are presented below.
