http://www.opednews.com/articles/Joseph-Stiglitz-America-H-by-Monika-Mitchell-101008-961.html
Joseph Stiglitz: America Has Created Two Economies
The Feds pulled the big banks back from the brink
of oblivion, but left everyone else up a creek
without a paddle..... these banks were rescued
through three lifelines: capital, credit and
relief from debt. In their emergency hours, they
were liquidated with $700bn in capital. Toxic
debts were allowed to be moved "off" books; the
government bought billions of dollars worth of
toxic securities and let other debt remain
dormant on balance sheets for years to come.
Thirdly, these banks have had access to Federal
Reserve funds at near zero percent for the past
two years while lending to consumers at rates of 18-29%.
.... the rest of the banking system is
struggling to stay afloat. As they tread water,
sea level for mid-range and regional banks is
rising. 800 smaller U.S. banks are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518104575546542463746562.html
Wall Street Pay: A Record $144 Billion
Financial Overhaul Has Affected Structure but Not
Level; Revenue-to-Compensation Ratio Stays Flat
About three dozen of the top publicly held
securities and investment-services firms—which
include banks, investment banks, hedge funds,
money-management firms and securities
exchanges—are set to pay $144 billion in
compensation and benefits this year, a 4%
increase from the $139 billion paid out in 2009,
according to the survey. Compensation was
expected to rise at 26 of the 35 firms.
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/12/seniors-feel-social-security-pinch-prepare-to-cut-back-on-food-wall-st-bonuses-increase/
Seniors Feel Social Security Pinch, Prepare to
Cut Back on Food (Wall St. Bonuses Increase)
http://www.truth-out.org/brother-can-you-spare-a-dime-i-only-earn-six-figures64126
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? I Only Earn Six Figures
by: Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co. | Op-Ed
Take, for example, an unnamed person mentioned in
a recent online post by economist J. Bradford
DeLong. This person supposedly makes $450,000 a
year, has a family of five and after paying
bills, loans, taxes and everything else
(including private school tuition for three
children and the costs of a $1 million house), is
left with only a few hundred dollars a month of
discretionary income. Mr. DeLong says this person
strongly feels that he should not have to pay
more taxes — “It is unfair: he is not ‘rich.’”
As Mr. DeLong puts it, “Is it pathetic that
somebody with nine times the median household
income thinks of himself as just another average
Joe, just another ‘working American’? Yes.”
http://www.truth-out.org/the-shadow-class-war-201064077
The Shadow Class War of 2010
by: E.J. Dionne Jr., Op-Ed
Washington - The 2010 election is turning into a
class war. The wealthy and the powerful started
it. This is a strange development. President
Obama, after all, has been working overtime to
save capitalism. Wall Street is doing just fine
and the rich are getting richer again. The
financial reform bill passed by Congress was
moderate, not radical. Nonetheless, corporations
and affluent individuals are pouring tens of
millions of dollars into attack ads aimed almost
exclusively at Democrats. One of the biggest
political players, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
accepts money from foreign sources.... This
extraordinary state of affairs was facilitated by
the U.S. Supreme Court's scandalous Citizens United decision
http://www.truth-out.org/how-democracy-dies-lessons-a-master64096
How Democracy Dies: Lessons From a Master
The ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes spent
his life battling the assault on democracy by
tyrants. It is disheartening to be reminded that
he lost. But he understood that the hardest
struggle for humankind is often stating and
understanding the obvious. Aristophanes, who had
the temerity to portray the ruling Greek tyrant,
Cleon, as a dog, is the perfect playwright to
turn to in trying to grasp the danger posed to us
by movements from the tea party to militias to
the Christian right, as well as the bankrupt and
corrupt power elite that no longer concerns
itself with the needs of its citizens. He saw the
same corruption 2,400 years ago. He feared
correctly that it would extinguish Athenian
democracy. And he struggled in vain to rouse Athenians from their slumber.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/10/11/the-values-of-everything/
The Values of Everything
Progressive causes are failing: here’s how they could be turned around
By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 12th October 2010
So here we are, forming an orderly queue at the
slaughterhouse gate. The punishment of the poor
for the errors of the rich, the abandonment of
universalism, the dismantling of the shelter the
state provides: apart from a few small protests,
none of this has yet brought us out fighting.
The acceptance of policies which counteract our
interests is the pervasive mystery of the 21st
Century. In the United States, blue-collar
workers angrily demand that they be left without
healthcare, and insist that millionaires should
pay less tax. In the UK we appear ready to
abandon the social progress for which our
ancestors risked their lives with barely a mutter
of protest. What has happened to us?
http://www.alternet.org/story/148470/8_ways_to_fight_the_right-wingers_and_corporations_buying_off_our_government?page=entire
8 Ways to Fight the Right-Wingers and Corporations Buying Off Our Government
What the public wants means nothing if our
democracy is secretly corrupted by big money.
Robert Reich
http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/10/bank-shot.html#more
Bank Shot
By James Howard Kunstler
The banking authorities were shocked -
shocked - to discover last week that an awful lot
of mortgage paper in this country is not quite in
order... appears to contain, er,
irregularities... seems less than kosher...
frankly, exudes an odor like unto dead carp or,
shall we say, a heap of dead carp the size of the
building at 3900 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. Any day now we will hear that... mistakes... were... made.
Is it indelicate to say that the USA as an
enterprise has its head so deeply and firmly up
its ass that the all the proctologists alive on
planet Earth could not extract the collective
cranium from the collective cloacal chamber even
with the aid of a Bucyrus-Erie 1060-WX bucket-wheel excavator?
http://blogs.alternet.org/grantlawrence/2010/10/06/amid-horrible-economic-news-corporate-profits-soar/
Amid Horrible Economic News Corporate Profits Soar
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/09/capitol-hill-top-corporate-sponsors
Capitol Hill's Top 75 Corporate Sponsors
How industry donations rule the political money game.
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/13/chamber-of-commerce-receives-at-least-885000-from-over-80-foreign-companies-that-may-be-used-to-attack-democrats/
Chamber Of Commerce Receives At Least $885,000
From Over 80 Foreign Companies That May Be Used to Attack Democrats
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/14-5
‘Are You Guys Eventually Going To Disclose?’ Chamber Responds Bluntly, ‘No!’
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd hosted the Chamber of
Commerce’s chief lobbyist Bruce Josten this
morning to discuss our reports documenting the
Chamber’s foreign sources of funding. As he has
done in the past, Josten resorted to name-calling
as a defense for his organization, suggesting
that we’re a “liberal left wing blog” that can’t be trusted.
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/15/small-business-tax-cut/
Small Business Case for Ending Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
Enter several refreshing new voices in this
debate – the American Sustainable Business
Council and Business for Shared Prosperity
–networks of enterprises rooted in their
localities. In their recent report, “Restoring
Top Tax Rates Makes Sense for Small Business,”
they make a business case for allowing the top tax rates to expire.
http://www.alternet.org/story/148513/how_to_earn_%24900%2C000_an_hour_while_unemployment_soars
How to Earn $900,000 an Hour While Unemployment Soars
The top 10 hedge fund honchos each averaged $1.87
billion in 2009 -- wouldn't you like to know their secrets? Here are a few.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/13-9
AFL-CIO’s ‘Job Tracker’ Continues Electoral
Season Attention to Corporate Offshoring
Tapping into the public anxiety about offshoring
job losses, the AFL-CIO and its community
affiliate, Working America, last week unveiled a
new website feature called "Job Tracker" that
allows anyone to search by zip code for companies that have outsourced jobs.
http://tinyurl.com/2e8ne48
Low taxes, low unemployment? Sounds good, but no truism
This started out to be a fact-check of something
Newt Gingrich said (which turns out to be
something between an untruth and a colossal
oversimplification), but I’m afraid it’s morphed
into a more philosophical inquiry into that
strange, twisted relationship between politics,
facts and truthiness..... "Your unemployment
rate is lower than the national average because
[Pawlenty] cut taxes, cut regulations and
encouraged business, The states with the lowest
unemployment rates have the lowest taxes."
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-coming-middle-class-anarchy
The Coming Middle-Class Anarchy
http://www.truth-out.org/iranian-chinese-computers-also-discovered-have-been-hacking-dc-internet-voting-system64132
Iranian, Chinese Computers Also Discovered to
Have Been Hacking DC Internet Voting System
http://www.collapsenet.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=299:so-why-are-spotlights-turning-on-the-imf-to-avert-currency-wars?-11-october-2010&Itemid=171
So Why Are Spotlights Turning on the IMF to Avert Currency Wars?
MikeRuppert - There’s Either a Secret Agenda or a Massive Dodge in Play
“If we do not do the impossible, we shall be
faced with the unthinkable.” social philosopher Murray Bookchin
How can a person live a moral life in a culture
of death? Charles Bowden Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing