Barack Obama's presidency certainly hasn't been an all-out bust -- repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, taking out Osama bin Laden and getting some form of universal health coverage passed are real achievements -- but he's completely crapped the bed when it comes to jobs. And I'm not just talking about the high unemployment rate, either -- I'm talking about the continued collapse in workers' income. Check out this chart from David Frum:
Workers' share of national income started steadily dropping under Reagan and Bush I, saw a brief rebound during the late '90s tech boom, and then fell off a cliff during the Bush II and Obama administrations.
Of course, not everyone is hurting. As Felix Salmon pointed out earlier this year, the financial services industry has weathered this recession just fine:
There are lots of reasons this has occurred, but broadly speaking this trend started in the 1980s when we collectively decided that rich people were magical wealth leprechauns who must be kept happy at all costs lest they take their pots of gold elsewhere. So we got huge tax cuts for the wealthy, free trade agreements, financial deregulation and a government that turned a blind eye toward businesses that broke the law by employing illegal labor at below the minimum wage.
But sadly, that just isn't enough for our Galtian overlords. See, they don't just want us to change the law for their own benefit anymore. Indeed, they want to flat-out plunder people without facing any sort of legal consequences. "But how the hell can they justify that?" you sanely ask. The answer is, the same way they've justified giant tax cuts: By arguing that they're just Too Special and Important to be held accountable. Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, starting floating this cute little idea the other week when he declared that Goldman Sachs was too systemically important to face criminal prosecution:
The U.S. Department of Justice, which is reviewing a Senate subcommittee report that alleged Goldman Sachs misled clients before the financial crisis, will avoid jeopardizing the fifth- largest U.S. bank by assets because it’s viewed as “too big to fail,” Hintz wrote in note to clients today.
“If an alleged violation is identified during a Goldman investigation, we expect a reasoned response from the Justice Department,” Hintz wrote. “In a worst case environment, we would expect a ‘too big to fail’ bank such as Goldman to be offered a deferred-prosecution agreement, pay a significant fine and submit to a federal monitor in lieu of a criminal charge.”
And this is what America has become, then: A nation where the rich and powerful can trample the poor and middle class with impunity and face zero repercussions for their crimes. The fact that this trend has not only continued under Barack Obama's watch but has actually accelerated is about as damning an indictment of him and his administration as I can fathom. And it's not just him either, as some of our progressive "heroes" like Barney Frank are still happily allowing Wall Street to organize campaign fundraisers in their names.
There's going to be a breaking point sometime in the future where people will actually vote for a political candidate who refuses to kiss rich peoples' asses as a matter of policy. The question is, how bad will things have to get before people reach this threshold of revelation? Hopefully it'll happen before Paul Ryan starts floating the idea of reviving the poll tax.
And this is what America has become, then: A nation where the rich and powerful can trample the poor and middle class with impunity and face zero repercussions for their crimes.
You need look no further than the Middle East today or to history to see what ultimately happens when the breaking point is reached.
This country will be no different. The apathy of the American people will end when the pain gets great enough.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Have you boiled any frogs lately?
and even faux news can't convince americans that they don't need to eat when they are hungry, sleep under roofs when it is cold and wet, and receive medical care when they are in pain
the long term un- and under-employed have already noticed these things ... soon, they will outnumbered the rest
It will , but given the mentality of the people in this country it's going to have to get much worse and I doubt I'll live long enough to see the stooges wake up .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
Things will get worse, maybe even unbearable, tens of thousands of people could drop dead in one day due to these policies and your average American, true to form, will not take up arms against their oppressors, but instead, find the nearest scapegoat and proceed to inflict pain and suffering on them. In this way they hope to curry favor with their oppressor, and maybe get a few scraps thrown their way. If you're expecting a revolution, Liberal and Proud (of what?), It's not ever going to happen, not here, not ever.
The breaking point will come, it's only a question of when. I hope I live long enough to see it.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Did you actually find the Reply button?
:P
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
From Naked Capitalism http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/liftin...
The original from Metanoi http://metanoia-films.org/compilations.php
You can download it!
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Since when has any party or politician, except Sanders, had any intention of restoring prosperity?
The progressive caucus is the only group that has a plan for actual, real renewal of prosperity, and of course the Democratic Leadership and the 'Liberal' Media ignore it completely.
The Democratic Leadership and the Republican extremists are in complete agreement: The American worker must be completely impoverished at all costs.
Obama's role is to demoralize the democratic voter to ensure the Republicans win.
What, he's waiting for us to beg him to run?
The F'n politicians , all the Republicans and three quarters of the so called Democrats have sold themselves , the country and we the people to the highest bidders , they've become a bunch of corrupt self serving whores . They don't care about jobs or prosperity ( just as long as the fat cats / their masters are prospering ) they care only about themselves . Bernie Sanders and just a few others are the only exception .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
peoples' arses is more detrimental is harmful to the country, because when you kiss a rich guy's arse, he comes to expect and demand it.
me-oww!
Brad: Surely by this time you must realize that the objective of politicians is not to restore prosperity to the nation, but to maintain and increase their own.
Beat me to it.
*shorter than my original, incoherent rant.
It's TOO BIG!
Simple.
Where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?
Does anyone still believe that our elected representatives really don't understand what's going on? REALLY?
They only answer to the ones who pay for them. We only pay their salaries, and no one goes into politics for the salary.
They know what is going on, they know what they're doing. They don't care, because they don't have to.
lining their own pockets. The people be damned.
I hear there's a new pol on the ticket in '12 who isn't like that at all. Let's all get out there and vote for him! He'll fix it all.
The only thing more naive than a voter is a taxpayer.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
They kiss their asses for their own prosperity.
That story being that President's don't really have as much influence on the economy during their time in office- the first term, anyway- as much as do the actions of their predecessors/preceding congresses. Carter inherited a relatively shitty economy, and it remained shitty until the actions of his appointee for the Fed's chair, Paul Volcker, came to fruition under Reagan. A big part of the Clinton era tech boom can be traced to legislation passed under Bush I (not crediting Bush for anything but signing what Congress passed). Right now we're living in the fallout of the Bush II era decisions.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
to save the banks
There was some precedent for dealing with bank runs after the Panic of 1907. It took J.P. Morgan using his own fortune, and Morgan convincing a few other wealthy New York bankers who hadn't taken a hit, to bail out the other crashing banks. That's what led to the creation of the Fed: 100 years ago they realized that there might come a time when banks wouldn't or couldn't come to the aid of others.
But there's a big difference between bailing out banks and creating jobs. You can't quickly create a demand for goods and services. And in this day and age, even when there's demand, you don't create as many jobs, because machines now make it so that one man can do the work of three or four.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
the new deal, haven't you? fdr ... 1st term ...?
Go back and take a look at the composition of Congress after the '32 elections. There was a HUGE swing to the left. HUGE. It's the one time in our history that I can think of where the national will swung so much in one election that the inherent conservatism of the Constitution was overridden by the will of the people.
Here's something to think about while we're in the past: The Great Depression deepened even after the early New Deal Legislation was passed. The economy crept up slowly for a few years, then *BAM* there was a recession in 1937. The US didn't pull all the way out of the Great Depression until WWII created a huge demand for jobs and more deficit spending (not a bad thing, deficit spending, imo) than the nation had ever seen before.
There's no small amount of irony at work here, either: If we didn't have the social safety net provided under the New Deal (FDIC and Social Security) and LBJ's Great Society (Medicare), you'd have a fuckload more of the elderly or those approaching retirement age insecure enough to actually do something to effect social justice today, rather than sit their smiling, twiddling their thumbs between elections where they vote for Republicans and conservaDems.
ETA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression...
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Your post implies they are kissing ass to create jobs and not for self serving purposes.
if you had gone at the post from the angle that they are self serving aholes instead of impling they are just stupid politicians not getting the consequences of their actions I think it would have been a more valid point to have been made.
To assume they care about us is a joke at this point.
... where people will actually vote for a political candidate who refuses to kiss rich peoples' asses as a matter of policy
when the american people reach that breaking point, i suspect that they will be too angry to file in orderly fashion into the voting booth ... they will be angry, filled with rage for all that has been stolen from them and for all the suffering experienced by them and those whom they love
revolutions are born of such rage
won't restore prosperity, but it will get you a pat on the back and a few 'atta' boys.
There's going to be a breaking point sometime in the future where people will actually vote for a political candidate who refuses to kiss rich peoples' asses as a matter of policy.
1) yes there will be a breaking point some time.
2) no way change will or can occur peacefully - it can not be as simple as voting for the right guy. The greedheads have completely rigged the system:
a) truth is buried, Lies and dissembling are all the voters hear. Greedhead ownership of corporate media and media consolidation facilitate easy manipulation of the information voters receive.
b) the voting system is in the process of being rigged with machine manipulation and voter requirements to reduce and eliminate voters not onboard with the greedhead agenda. .
Goodbye democracy in America - never good, but fast vanishing in favor of plutocracy.
Why would anyone want o assume that our political leaders have any interest whatever in restoring prosperity? They're all getting hog assed rich making sure things get worse, not better.
The US monetary base
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/A...
Currency in Circulation
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/W...
Reserve Bank Credit
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/R...
Excess Reserves of Depository Institutions
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/E...
...and other new lows, like the velocity of money dying
Money Multiplier
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/M...
I won't bother making a point, most here will disagree anyways
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
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