We rationalize what our leaders do, for they are our leaders.
Up, Up And Away: After years and years of the nations of the world committing to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, in 2011 emissions increased 3% to an all-time high of 34 billion metric tons. Slow motion suicide. And who's the villain? The United States and China, as nations. The UK, Germany and US on a 'per-person' basis. But not me, I recycle.
Wrong Question: Those who understand the total dependence of the American economy on the continuing expansion of the debt loads carried by ordinary people ask, “How can Bernanke get the Banks Lending Again”. They really should be asking, “Are the people stupid enough to borrow even more?”
Over There: The French are abolishing tax breaks for the rich and increasing their taxes as the government prepares to spend money to give a boost to the economy. Ooolala.
American Taliban: In Lincoln, Nebraska, three paid-up members of the Our-Way-Or-Die wing of the We’re-Not-Crazy coalition invaded a woman's home, stripped her, tied her up, carved various slurs on her arms and stomach, set fire to her house and fled into the night chanting “Mathew Shepard was a fag!” Her crime – they thought she was a lesbian and they felt their gonads were in danger. Why weren't they down at the theater, slaughtering children?
Shorty: Spain and Italy, in an act of abject desperation, banned short selling, as they try to stem at least a part of the systemic collapse of the European economy. Finding a workable solution would have been difficult, but given the level of denial and delusion among Europe's leaders, there is little hope left that the rabbit can be snatched from the hat.
Whack A Mole: The American government, having failed in its efforts in Central and South America, is taking its War on Drugs to Africa. There will be lots of neat military equipment shipped to tin-pot dictatorships, lots of training for “elite counter-narcotics police” plus the usual training in interrogation techniques. Just what the Pentagon, DEA and private thugs-for-hire companies need, a 'new frontier' to invade and destroy, and lots of new people to kill in the name of progress and democracy.
Slim And None: Here's another Rose Colored Glasses bit of pabulum about how we can still avoid paying for our ecological crimes. It starts with us “standing up to Dirty Energy” and voluntarily reverting to 16th Century technologies...
The Rich Are Different: The Mitten is poster-boy for the rich, vis-à-vis taxes. They do not want us to know how they evade/avoid taxes nor how much it is they are not paying. "They are rich. They don’t pay taxes. They run the world. They really don’t want us to see how they do it." They have accumulated $32 trillion in hidden financial assets in various tax havens (and this does not include the value of real estate, private jets, yachts, artwork and jet skis).
Record Setting: Over the weekend The Mitten's main theme has been the repetition of a complete fabrication, which the MSM seems to be passively swallowing. There are not two sides to this issue.
Poor Babies: BofA, Wells Fargo and their ilk are being forced to "buy back' more and more crappy mortgages they palmed off on gullible investors, and say that it will harm their profits, perhaps for years. So?
Porn O'Graph: Going Dutch.
The Parting Shot:
“What are you staring at?”
9 comments:
American Taliban~ It was Lincoln Nebraska not Laramie Wyoming. At least that's how I read it. Sad story.
The African 'drug ' intervention is all about the oil.
Anony 8.01 - Right, emendation applied & thanks.
ckm
Hmmn,is the deer in the photo a 'white tail'...seems a bit leggy compared to the local variety we have up here.
I want to add kudos for 'Wrong Question' it truly is an issue of insolvent borrowers rather than tightwad bankers!
Although I do know people looking to borrow who have no business doing so...but this brings us full circle to the unsettling issue of 'if you can't live on your paycheck, it's not your employer's problem, it's yours!'
Yes, she's a white tail and leggy with it - seems to be at the gawky age - rather like my teenaged granddaughters. She was with (pic coming Saturday)a buck about twice her weight.
Gegner:
See my comment yesterday. Now, here is another angle to your "unsettling" issue: why aren't American workers paid more in line with those of other western, democratic market economies? Why are they not getting paid enough that they do not have to borrow?
Re: The Rich Are Different
Remember: this $32 Trillion (which equals the equivalent of 32 million millionaires) only represents the money (CASH) American wealthy have overseas.
Corporations have another $2 Trillion (another 2 million millionaires worth) of CASH.
I have seen reports there is another $64 Trillion CASH in the U.S. banks.
The talk about the "debt" problem of $15 Trillion over ten (10) years at 1.45% interest (U.S. Treasury bond yields currently) and with effective rates below zero in shorter-term bonds, makes the U.S. debt more realistically manageable.
That amounts to one trillion, five hundred billion dollars per year, which is about maybe two percent (2%) of the wealthiest 20%'s cash reserves (who have 93% of that money). That is what the Pareto distribution is in the U.S.; and it is what contributes to our low standing in the Gini coefficient worldwide.
Also, think about this:
let's take that $32 trillion figure and tax it at 5% (overseas wealth tax, let's call it). Let's also assume that the entire amount is collected.
That would generate $1.5 trillion dollars in revenue per year (the same as the current debt payment, with interest, roughly speaking).
However, let's assume a "profligate" Congress spent it all on badly needed infrastructure repair and "pork" projects.
$1.5 trillion as the equivalent of 1.5 million million dollars.
Let's divide that by second number by 10.
It also represents 15 million $100,000 jobs for one year. But wait, we don't have 15 million unemployed Americans. We only have 13 million unemployed Americans. And that does not even count the multiplier effect of those "pork barrel" infrastructure jobs.
That same number represents 7.5 million $100,000 jobs one two years; or 7.5 million $50,000 jobs for four years, not counting the multiplier effect.
That does not require "printing" any money; or funny accounting. That does not even count all of the wealth this country has at its disposal to put people to work. It would not impinge the wealthy's lifestyle, as it does not represent their current spending. And it should make you wonder, just what are these "job creators" waiting for?
Along the lines of quote above, here is one of the paragraphs from the The Rich Are Different link:
The sheer size of the cash pile sitting out of reach of tax authorities is so great that it suggests standard measures of inequality radically underestimate the true gap between rich and poor. According to Henry's calculations, £6.3tn of assets is owned by only 92,000 people, or 0.001% of the world's population – a tiny class of the mega-rich who have more in common with each other than those at the bottom of the income scale in their own societies.
Your point is well taken, Okie!
The concentration of wealth at the top of our society is a serious threat to future social cohesion.
The starvation diet the tax base is on is already showing up as dire consequences for our children.
They closed entire school systems during the original Great Depression and we will doubtless see the same again as municipalities across the country shrug and put out children's education on the chopping block.
The questions we are faced with as a people are 'the purpose of society' and the true definition of the word 'criminal'...
I want to thank Okie Lawyer and Gegner for their fine discussion & I learned a bit and that's always a good thing.
CKM
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