"The legislators may just discover that the bank money is toxic, and standing with the banks perilous to their political careers." This quote is wishful, naive perception. Since the birth of this nation it is the Senate that has been too big in egoism to fail! By its very nature--despite the myth of profiles in courage--it is 99% flunkeys to Wall Street even though dissenters always claim conscience driven motives to hide the backdoor of oligarchy.
Economist bean-counter Robert Samuelson is panicky over healthcare for millions more running up the national debt.[The uninsured] "already receive substantial medical care." Apparenly it is not worth putting in jeopardy other enterprises such as the war machine, outsourcing and Wall Street bonuses.
According to Robert Reich "both sides of the Pacific is that both America and China are capable of producing far more than their own consumers are capable of buying." Only true, particularly in this country that is under an industrial famine and no longer capable of real productivity and wages. China, would have its hands full keeping up with domestic demand if it ever developed a substantial social safety net and nearly a billion middle class population.
Grayson is old McCarthyism in reverse. True, the republican party deserves a kick in the ass for its obnoxious obstruction tactics, yet Democrats should not fall to their level. If Republicans can't see the enormous compromise the Democrats have made in not demanding single payer healthcare, then an up or down vote on tbe public option should be done immediately; nor should congress delay an effective date but activate the healthcare bill by January.
Finance committee on healthcare in introducing its infinite amendments to amendments is indicative of lawmakers sophistry and insincerity, reducing the Senate to brazen dysfunction and embarrassment. Republican members clearly favor protecting the rates and profits of the health industry under the aegis of the free market, while the Democrats contort reform with double talk by insisting on “change” that barely changes anything because it is constrained by fitting change into a dogge...
What’s wrong with a change of heart? For seven years Bush never had a heart in Afghanistan, but when Obama "dithers" even though he had committed forces there as one of his first acts in office, now he’s hesitant over committing more. Bravo. However. It’s wrong to keep troops already there in suspension. I say, just get the hell out of there, including Iraq. Nor is there any point—in order to win—in bombing them back to the Stone Age because Afghans have never left....
You don’t hear much today about the nanny state even though it is displayed in the full dress of overwhelming force. Criticism of nanny is ordinarily directed toward the welfare mother, pubic housing, government employees, social security and Medicaid, Medicare, even national emergency handouts, which has now become financial behemoths as too big to fail, when in faith we are told, the free market is capable of taking care of itself. Much like insurance companies notorious for exorbitant c...
First of all, I don’t want to hear anymore about the poor sacrificing US taxpayer shelling out hard earned money for bailouts—it’s the hard working Chinese tax payer who’s doing the bailing out. Sure, our great grandchildren will eventually get the bill in the mail, but by that time it will be inconsequential inasmuch as China shall have claimed ownership of the good old USA. As for Geithner it’s too soon to judge—in light of current upbeat stockmarket r...
I thought Obama campaigned against the top-down theory of governance and economics? Unfortunately that's how our universe works--and ultimately black holes rule. Since the beginning of our time, the social contract is pocked with black holes--politicians and corporate moguls suck the life out of us. It may be the way of darwinian cosmology and the matrix of pac-man society, but damn it, we shouldn't take it anymore! No social structure should have to be at the mercy of these thugs on Wall Street...
The most important action the government can take to ease the economic crisis is to bypass the middle-fiddle manipulators of Wall Street and deal with the thousands of solvent local and regional banks that still exercise sound lending and investment practices. Moreover, there are countless ways to put people to work without having to wait for new technology such as wind turbine grids and high speed rails. Decaying malls and housing are in need of immediate clean up and repair. Many malls in decl...
This reminds me of the principal of a high school who disciplines only the good kids. In face of the squeamish manner toward the financial thugs, this firing of Wagoner--the only CEO of the big three that's actually an automaker--is ludicrous and hypocritical. With GM finally getting it right with the Volt, top seller Buick, and the innovative Caddy, this is no time to crack the whip.Obama caved in to the Bill Clinton Club led by Summers who wouldn't dare get tough with his buddies on Wall...
I'm more concerned over just what is a toxic asset and the degree of its negative value. No one ever says what the hell they are. They should be listed and identified. We've been told this mess is due to subprime mortgages. I don't believe it, what with all the revisions made be by Fan/Fred Macs and FDIC. Ithink these transnational banks have been engaged in Ponzi schemes, dubious Wall street trading, especially with hedge funds, not to mention horrendous loans to other nations far worse than Ci...
Ask not what your country can do for you... The aim of bailouts is not only to renew reasonably profitable banks but mainly for banks to be serviceable to average citizens so that they can make sound financial decisions in developing an egalitarian economy. Bankers need a lesson in good citizenship.
Needless to say there was no such thing as finance in the dawn of an emerging human race. Every able-bodied thing we now call a prehistory person fended for himself in the hunt for nutrition, placing him in the midst of the animal kingdom and not yet barely above. Able-bodied females and children not far from the mouth of the cave gathered twigs and branches to keep the cave fires burning for the hunt’s yield. Scattered extended families merged into tribes in realizing the pooling ...
Exchanging ideas is essential to a free society. However, when on the tax system a letter writer who is a math teacher says the government ought not to penalize taxpayers who are wealthy owes to free speech the entire equation. The tax system does not nor should it consider a simplistic proportion as the writer advocates, for it is just another flat tax scam that sees no unfairness to one percentage fits all. Progressive tax is based on taxable income meaning income after one has had...