Economy
Want to Tackle Income Inequality? You Need to Go After Capital Gains.
By Kevin Drum on Wed. February 20, 2013 12:57 PM PDT Greg Sargent calls our attention to a new study on rising income inequality today. The question at hand isn't how much inequality has increased over the past couple of decades, it's where the increase has come from. The study is from Thomas Hungerford, an analyst with the Congressional Research Service, and the chart on the right tells the story:
It is obviously possible to agree with the Republican negotiating position over the budget sequester, which is that it would be better to replace the sequester with cuts to social spending, yet better to keep the sequester than increase tax revenue in any form. It is also obviously possible to disagree with President Obama’s position, which is that the sequester ought to be replaced with a “balanced” mix of cuts to retirement programs and increased revenue through tax reform. It is also obviously possible to take a stance directly between the two positions. Respectable centrist position agrees with Obama’s position.
Beltway Brain Fever: Sequester Edition -- Daily Intelligencer
December 31, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Today’s economic warfare is not the kind waged a century ago between labor and its industrial employers.
The Finance Industry Has Pried into Every Sector of the Economy, and Has Ended Up Running the Whole Show
Romney-Style Economics Behind Decline of Hostess, But Workers Are Paying the Price Hostess Brands is one of the most recognizable food companies in America, having manufactured Wonder Bread and Twinkies for decades. But now the company has announced they are liquidating, and company is unfairly blaming their workers , many of them members of BCTGM and the Teamsters.
Romney-Style Economics Behind Decline of Hostess, But Workers Are Paying the Price
Poll: Majority of public has lost faith in government ability to fix economy
The results have sharp edges for both Republicans and Democrats, as record numbers say they’re interested in new congressional representation when the November 2012 elections roll around. When it comes to economic issues, the erosion in public trust is deep: Just 26 percent now have even some faith the government can actually solve problems. Confidence is down 21 percentage points from October 2010, and less than half its 2002 levels. One big issue is public concern that the government is failing to address major problems.
If anything, however, the 99 percent slogan aims too low. A large fraction of the top 1 percent’s gains have actually gone to an even smaller group, the top 0.1 percent — the richest one-thousandth of the population. And while Democrats, by and large, want that super-elite to make at least some contribution to long-term deficit reduction, Republicans want to cut the super-elite’s taxes even as they slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the name of fiscal discipline.
We Are the 99.9%
The Occupation - Erik Tarloff - National
Public protest isn't about anything as mundane as ten-point programs and lists of demands A little girl holds a placard during an Occupy Wall Street protest at Times Square in New York / Reuters The lead headline on the front page of Saturday's "Business Day" section of the New York Times : "In Private, Wall St. Bankers Dismiss Protesters as Unsophisticated."
It’s hard to hate these occupiers
By the hoary conventions of American politics, Americans should fear and loathe Occupy Wall Street. The occupiers are vaguely countercultural, counterculturally vague. They are noisy. They are radical. They offer no solutions, though they are prey to the damnedest ideas.
Open Letter to that 53% Guy
In the picture, you’re holding up a sheet of paper that says: I am a former Marine. I work two jobs. I don’t have health insurance.