February 15, 2012

Screw the Greeks! Save The Banks!

"Greece is the epicenter of a drama that threatens to unwind with all the intrigue and subterfuge of ancient Greek myths and tragedies. As with the legend of Icarus, big, and now bigger, transnational banks provoked the gods with their wax-and-feather financial fabrications to create the appearance of soaring wealth. Now that they have flown too close to the sun and their wings have melted, these banks are being brought to earth by the obligations and consequences imposed by their fabrications.

Rather than take responsibility, these banks seek to appease the gods by sacrificing taxpayers. In fact, if one looks closely, these banks aspire to be gods themselves. They clothe themselves in their indispensability and shield themselves from accountability with tales about how many innocent citizens will be hurt if they don’t get their next bailout. It is as if they say, “We are above the law… We are the law.” Mathematics, legal enforcement, restraint, humility all must fall under the sword of their hubris."

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb12/Greece-default-Zeus02-12.html

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The point we cannot emphasize sufficiently is that Greece is not being bailed out. Workers are losing their jobs, wages and pensions. Taxes are rising. The economy is contracting. We learned today that GDP was 7% smaller in Q4 2011 than in Q4 2010. For the entire year, the economy contracted 6.8%. The government has assumed a 6% contraction in 2011 for this year’s budget forecasts.

The fact that the VAT proceeds fell 18.7% in January is unlikely to reflect tax evasions as much a dramatic compression of demand.
If Greece is not being bailed out, where are the funds going? The vast majority of the aid money is going to service Greece’s debt. It the German proposal to set up an escrow account materializes, it would tear the veneer of illusion off the Greek bail out story and reveal the true beneficiaries of the aid is not Greece but its creditors.

http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2012/02/there-is-no-closure-in-greece-whatsoever.html?

February 15, 2012

A False Dilemma Over Social Security

"It's always good to get a silly caricature to begin the week and Fred Hiatt at the Washington Post is happy to supply one. He presents us with the divide between "nostalgia liberals" and "accountability liberals."

The story is that nostalgia liberals are opposed to means-testing Social Security while accountability liberals say "the only way to protect benefits for the poor is to scale back expected benefits for the wealthy." Nostalgia liberals support traditional public schools, while accountability liberals support charter schools and testing. More generally, "accountability liberals put more stock in market forces and individual empowerment." Of course the picture of "nostalgia liberals" is a ridiculous caricature by someone who is a charter member of the "accountability liberals" masquerading as a neutral voice.

<snip>

Also, contrary to what Hiatt claims, Social Security is not a subsidy to middle class and wealthy people, it is a government-run insurance system. The middle class and wealthy pay for their benefits."


http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/fred-hiatts-accountability-liberals-dont-know-arithmetic

February 15, 2012

Letter to Rep. Tom Cole: Social Security is Not 'Closing in on Bankruptcy'

The Honorable Tom Cole

2458 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515-3604

Dear Representative Cole:

In a recent column (1)calling for entitlement reform, you wrote that Social Security is “…closing in on bankruptcy.” This is not true. The latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) (2) show that Social Security will be able to pay full benefits through the year 2038 and will be able to pay almost 80 percent of full benefits for decades afterwards.

As you point out in your column, the CBO noted that higher projected costs for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid stem partly from aging and partly from “rising costs for health care.” In fact, it is easy to show that the latter – our broken private health care system – is the main problem. The United States pays more than twice as much per person for health care than the average in other wealthy countries. If Americans paid the same for health care (3) as people in other countries, we would see budget surpluses over the long term, not deficits. 

As a member of the House Appropriations and Budget Committees, it is crucial that you accurately describe vital programs like Social Security and its relationship to debt and deficits.  If I can provide you with further information or background on this, I would be happy to do so.

Links
(1) http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/209823-rep-tom-cole-r-okla
(2) http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12375
(3) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/2/38980580.pdf


http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/social-security-monitor/letter-to-rep-tom-cole-social-security-is-not-closing-in-on-bankruptcy?utm_source=CEPR+feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cepr+%28CEPR%29

February 9, 2012

Who's in charge, anyway?

1. Why in the world did the Admin. pick this contraception fight now? Did Katherine Sebelius just wake up one morning and figure it was a good day to piss off some Catholic bishops? What was supposed to be gained by raising this issue now?

2. One day the NY and CA A.G.s are opposed to the bank mortgage deal, the next day they're signing it, letting banks who ripped people off to the tune of $7 trillion squirm out from under civil prosecution by paying a piddling $25 billion - maybe.

3. The Defense Secretary says the Iranians are just months away from getting The Bomb, the Director of National Intelligence says they're not a threat. A few days later the two of them, Panetta and Clapper reverse field and basically adopt each other's positions.

Sometimes I think that this Administration's campaign slogan out to be: "Hey, we know we suck, but we're not as sucky as them."

Go ahead. Flame away. It's just all very discouraging.

February 9, 2012

Iran's Arsenal Of Sunburn Missiles Is More Than Enough To Close The Strait

"Any good armchair general with a good search engine and time on their hands can figure out in a hurry that the song and dance about Iran being unable to close the Strait if Hormuz for long  is just a plain crock. Worse than a crock. Yet, this big Orwellian lie persists, so once again I have to set the record straight. Iran has the capability of not only closing the Strait for some time, but creating a world of hurt for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet."




Read more: http://www.wallstreetexaminer.com/blogs/winter/?p=4519#ixzz1luHbvjQ1

February 9, 2012

Apparently we can't all just get along

"Then, listening to the news, I hear a group chanting at a Newt Gingrich rally in Florida: “Kenya! Kenya! Kenya!”

I wish I could say they were from the Kenyan Ministry of Tourism, but I am sorry to report that these idiots were stating where they want to send the president of the United States.

The idea of sending black people back to Africa has a long history in this country, but in the mouths of white people after Reconstruction, I think I am on pretty safe ground when I say this is simply the white racist’s solution to the 'Negro Problem'.

I’m an optimist. I want to believe human beings will come together and solve the serious problems that face us now and threaten our children’s future. I want to believe that the American dream is alive—not the dream of a big house and a couple of cars, but the dream that we will continue to work together to make this nation more just for everyone. I’d like to think that we really are all in this together—citizens of one nation—and that when push comes to shove, we have each other’s backs.

But I have my doubts, and not just because of a group of fools chanting at a Newt Gingrich rally. That’s their right, even if they are wasting an important right (free speech) on an unimportant matter (demonstrating that they are really stupid). I hear a lot of unintelligent things said here in San Francisco about conservatives, or Christians, or people who live in some strange part of the country like Oklahoma or Walnut Creek. Prejudice is prejudice, whether you are on the left, right, or in the middle.

http://redroom.com/member/sam-barry/blog/apparently-we-can%E2%80%99t-just-all-get-along