In his search for a ‘grand bargain’ on the budget, president Obama has repeatedly signaled his willingness to cut earned benefits such as Social Security, a long-standing goal of the oligarchy. The way it is proposed is to replace the current Consumer Price Index or CPI, the current way of measuring the rate of inflation, …
Category Archive: Economics
Mar 27 2013
Percentages versus absolute numbers
I came across this article that said that rich people gave money to charities differently from the middle class and the poor. One difference was to whom they gave money. “The poor tend to give to religious organizations and social-service charities, while the wealthy prefer to support colleges and universities, arts organizations, and museums.”
Mar 25 2013
Cyprus update
As was to be expected, a deal has emerged over the weekend to deal with the demand by the European Central Bank that Cyprus needs to come up with 5.8 billion euros or risk going bankrupt.
Mar 21 2013
Why isn’t the minimum wage today $22?
I am sick of hearing people opposing a rise in the minimum wage because it would be an intolerable burden on business that would cause them to lay people off or prevent them hiring workers or that it would cause rampant inflation. Suring a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, …
Mar 21 2013
What the Cyprus crisis reveals about oligarchic control
The Cyprus government has extended the bank closure until next Tuesday, suggesting that the bailout plan proposed by the president is running into really heavy weather. The European Central Bank has apparently given the government a deadline until Monday to accept the deal or go bankrupt, so you can expect the Cypriot parliament to come …
Mar 20 2013
The people of Cyprus versus the global oligarchy
Felix Salmon has been following the bizarre Cyprus bailout plan and its coverage in the US and hightlights a New York Times report that sheds a revealing light on the lens through which the elite media in the US views things.
Mar 17 2013
What kind of crazy plan is this?
I was stunned this morning to read that the government of Cyprus was going to immediately impose a one-time levy of 6.75 percent on deposits of less than 100,000 euros and 9.9 percent of more than that on the savings deposits of all Cypriots in order to receive $13 billion in bailout money from the …
Mar 16 2013
One big bank finally being brought to account?
The way the big banks have been getting away with their crimes is truly a scandal, with the white House, the Justice Department, and other federal agencies responsible for monitoring them either unwilling or unable to do anything about it. This leaves Congress as the only possible entity that can do something and senator Carl …
Mar 15 2013
The scandal of being too big to fail and jail
In his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder confessed publicly what has long been suspected, that the government has no intention of prosecuting the big banks and putting their top executives in jail even for egregious crimes because they think they are too big to fail.
Mar 11 2013
Income inequality and hunger in Venezuela and the US
Once in while, a news item comes along that inadvertently gives us a telling insight into our media mindset. NPR featured this obituary by the Associated Press’s business reporters Pamela Sampson and Pablo Gorondi on the legacy of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez that had this quite extraordinary passage that tells you all that you need to …
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