http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/12/14/krugman-fiscal-cliff-a-political-crisis-not-a-debt-crisis Comments On: Krugman: 'Fiscal Cliff' a political crisis, not a debt crisis by David Koon en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Fri, 24 May 2013 20:00:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by mrprincipal07]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:20:03 -0600 Arkansas Times
Another excellent piece I highly recommend - way of looking at the economy is to look at our foundation. This article has a very interesting historical look-see. We still need to wage/win shays and whiskey rebellions...)

William Hogeland: How Big Finance Won the American Revolution

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/27…
Posted by Eureka Springs]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:25:24 -0600 Arkansas Times
One way to look at "the economy" Perplexed is that the govmint has borrowed trillions to give the super rich a nice tax break. That money of course has simply gone into investments of all sorts including the stock market. One of the consequences of raising those taxes is less money for Wall Street. They make money going up and going down, especially when the game is as rigged as it is now. But your retirement will go down as a result.

Another way to look at "the economy" is what is known as full employment. The more people that have jobs, the more jobs are created to chase those dollars. But, there is nothing left to produce in America for wages that Americans will work for. The housing bubble wasn't just a vehicle for Wall Street to rob the US Treasury. That was only a side benefit. The goal was full employment. We were building house we didn't need to create jobs.

The Goodwill now sells surplus clothes in LR by the pound, $1.37 a pound for new clothes. Voodoo economics isn't the only thing that's dead. The consumer economy is dead as well.
Posted by FullThrottle]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:03:34 -0600 Arkansas Times
Obama begged Boehner for for more draconian austerity measures/cuts last time around. Even Boehner admitted he got 98 percent of what GOP wanted. Obama never disputed that.. he wanted worse and wore that stance like he deserved a medal. Obama and congress set up this deadline called a cliff by design and intent. He went over congress and established the cat food commission anyway... And then, when the commission couldn't agree he's pressed on with those failed rec's for billionaire Pete Peterson as if they were gospel anyway. He repeatedly told the nation during the campaign, including the debates, that he was certain he and Romney/Ryan agreed on these things. Romney just smiled.

If I were going to place a wager I would still bet on a near christmas break austerity bill passage. They've already covered massive defense authorization/spending. Just before xmas is when fewest people are watching and lame duck sessions have awful precedent at that time. But it's clear the only considerations from either party are for the very rich, against the rest of us.

Bailing out banksters
Health costs
Defense

Are the costly fiscal elephants in the room... for 90 percent of the average Americans to accept either parties stance on any of those three is to ask for a beating. Because they want to pretend SS and medicare cuts, more free trade, more war, bigger banksters, more derivatives, low taxation on the rich are our only alternatives. Not decent paying jobs for anyone who wants one, health care for all... and rule of law with decent jail cells for financial and war criminals.
Posted by Eureka Springs]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:17:41 -0600 Arkansas Times
"Why won’t the Republicans get specific? Because they don’t know how. The truth is that, when it comes to spending, they’ve been faking it all along — not just in this election, but for decades."

The republicans are running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It's dead, but doesn't know it.

Their cluelessness as to their current situation and what to do about is evident in every postmortem and brainstorming session they engage in. Not only, are they clueless about the current fiscal negotiations, they are clueless about broadening their base and winning back the groups they have spent the last year abusing and abasing.

Wimmin folk, for instance. Instapundint, Glenn Reynolds made me laugh and laugh and laugh with this idea. It was just too silly for umbrage.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/12/13/si…

Please, please, GOTP, keep listening to DeMint, Ingraham, Limbaugh, Hannity, Reynolds, etal. They are your brain trust. Never mind that they are disconnected from reality, just like that manic chicken.
Posted by the outlier]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:57:16 -0600 Arkansas Times
Isn't it simplistic to try to summarize something as complex as the American/World economy? Aren't there multiple economies at work, each with their own manner of behavior, each resounding in their own way to different stimuli?

The easy example is that for all practical purposes, the economy has worked pretty well for upper income people the last 20-25 years or more. "Their economy" isn't broken at all. They have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo on multiple issues. But "the economy" has sucked for the last 20-25 years for people who actually work for a living. Surely there's enough evidence after the last 30 years that "the economy" is not working for everyone, that when you lower tax rates on the rich, they simply hoard the cash, that they seldom take real risks and that they don't create jobs except for people who will work for peanuts in South Asia.

Politicians and the media imply that if we simply do [blank] then "the economy" will be better for everyone. I don't think it works that way at all and I wish that we, as an electorate, were sophisticated enough to realize it. We have 30 years of evidence to inform us.
Posted by Perplexed]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:51:47 -0600 Arkansas Times
But I find myself agreeing with IMJUSTSAYING that the Dems shouldn't be pounding on their chest all that much. Granted the repugs blocked everything they could during Obama's first term, but the one thing that really bothered me was he seemed to be the only person in the U.S. who didn't recognize the republicans had no intention of working with him in anyway shape for form. And in that respect he wasted a lot of time and effort on people who want nothing more than to regain power, the good of the country be damned.
Posted by TX-Travler]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:51:06 -0600 Arkansas Times
Based on that analysis it would appear that we are headed over the fiscal cliff. And, of course, "ugly" will take many forms in the years ahead. Wingnuts will continue to control southern states and probably have the House fairly often if not continually. Eventually, they will right themselves and rebuild some form of conservative adgenda.

The only thing that will kill the deal at this point is Barry caving in again. I hope that they are smarter than that.
Posted by FullThrottle]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:22:28 -0600 Arkansas Times
"Very ugly indeed.

"Mythologies die hard, and they die even harder when the myth is financed by those with deep pockets and a vested interest in perpetuating the myth.

"And that is where the modern day Republican Party resides. Beholden to their elite benefactors, and deaf to any facts which prove their myths as the failures they have been.

"But that doesn't excuse the Democrats from playing along. President Obama campaigned, in 2008, on increasing the minimum wage. 4 years later, the minimum wage is still at or near historic lows.

"President Obama campaigned, both in 2008 and 2012, on making the elite rich pay more in tax revenue. Instead, he extended their tax cuts and now might be negotiating for an insignificant rate raise versus raising the eligibility age for Medicare.

"President Obama campaigned in 2008 on the premise that he was going to regulate Wall St. We got the tame Dodd-Frank bill (still not fully implemented) instead of bringing back Glass Steagall and repealing the 2000 CFMA.

"The Democrats had the numbers to change the bankruptcy laws back to where they were before the Republicans changed them to benefit banks and credit card companies. But they didn't do that. The Democrats had the numbers to allow Medicare to negotiate with Big Pharma, but they didn't do that either.

"Railing against the Republicans for their policy failures is necessary. But so is pointing out the reality that the Democrats have not been much better.
Posted by imjustsaying]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:07:37 -0600 Arkansas Times

As usual, Krugman is more right than wrong;
America faces a political cliff, not a fiscal one.


“Frustration is the wet nurse of violence.”
David Abrahansen
Posted by Zatharus]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:52:09 -0600 Arkansas Times