You Mean Our Corporate Overlords Don't Really Care About Us?

[Atypical]

Yeah, I know. Rather long articles on economics, banking and politics can be hard to get through and completely understand.

I hesitated before posting this for those reasons. Here is what I do sometimes - I gently skim some parts and stay on others that objectively explain something that is important, and this article has a number of those like public banks and the financial meltdown. Another is that Hudson is not hesitant to name the culprits.

BTW, the "market" and the condition of the economy should interest most here. Right?

Try it for some great insights and use them for further analysis.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018...-response.html

[Rewind]

Atypical, ya wants to know "the condition of the economy"? Ya wants "great insights"? Ya wants an editorial that invites "further analysis"? I gots such an editorial. This is from the Daily News and it should be kept in mind when we vote in November:

With trillion-dollar deficits, Republican leaders have abandoned fiscal responsibility
Daily News, Aug 1 2018 6:00 PM

Trillion-dollar deficits are projected to start next year, according to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, a reflection of how irresponsible the federal government continues to be. The projection directly contradicts a claim made in June by Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council for President Trump, in which he said "the deficit is coming down and it’s coming down rapidly."

Just weeks later, the OMB issued a budget report indicating the budget deficit would rise from $890 billion in 2018 to $1.1 trillion in 2019. Over that same time period, the deficit was projected to rise from 4.4% of gross domestic product to 5.1% of GDP. Either way, Kudlow was dead wrong, and the reality is that President Trump and Congress have a serious budget problem to contend with.

Notably, the OMB’s figures are even worse than those released by the Congressional Budget Office in April, which didn’t project the federal deficit actually surpassing the $1 trillion mark until 2020. The OMB projects budget deficits over the next decade, with estimates that between 2019 and 2028, $8 trillion in deficits will be run up.

Considering the Republican Party presents itself as the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, it is untenable that a federal government controlled by Republicans is continuing to run up budget deficits. As politically convenient as it might be in the short run to spend without limit, such practices not only threaten the long-term fiscal health of the federal government — they saddle future generations with considerable debt.

As seen with numerous spending bills to date, the concern for fiscal responsibility that created the tea party has seemingly vanished among congressional leadership.

"The post-2016 Republican Party has abandoned even the pretense of fiscal conservatism," tweeted Rep. Justin Amash, R-Michigan, in response to the OMB report. "My colleagues used to pay lip service to limited government and less spending; now, they don’t even bother."

While it is fortunate that tax reform passed last year has apparently helped spur continued economic growth, the notion that the federal government can cut taxes and spend more just doesn’t work. Tinkering with reforms to things like food stamps might have their merit but that won’t be enough to bring the federal budget anywhere close to balance. This is particularly true given the Trump administration’s fondness for bloating the military budget much faster than it’s willing to cut non-military spending.

Unfortunately, tax-cut-and-spend Republicans have become the norm and fiscal responsibility has been tossed aside out of political convenience. If the public can’t rely on Republicans to actually be fiscally responsible, what’s the point of electing them?

https://www.dailynews.com/2018/08/01...esponsibility/

[Atypical]

Tax cuts for the rich are good. Tax cuts for corporations will help create jobs and promote wage increases and bonuses for workers.

Both are BULLSHIT and have been lies forever.

By Tripling Its Stock Buybacks, Apple Robs Workers And The Economy

https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhan.../#6cbae144808e

[Atypical]

It is inappropriate to accept MSM's take on complex issues - or much of anything else. You must read from objective (non-ideological) and other authoritative sources to begin to understand what is accurate and what is propaganda or plain error.

This is an example.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...all-was-uh-not

[Atypical]

Is It Social Media or Corporate Surveillance? Facebook's Business Model

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 4, 2018 ~

Facebook (and others) know almost everything about you and monitor you 24/7. What could go wrong?


http://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/0...usiness-model/

[Atypical]

This is the newest potential (disastrous) effort by Wall Street to control whatever they want to regardless of consequences.

Be afraid.

http://wallstreetonparade.com/2018/0...street-crisis/

[Rewind]

The President who continually brags about being a shrewd businessman -- never mind all the lawsuits, fines, failed businesses and other legal problems -- today imposed another round of tariffs on goods imported from China. He thinks he's punishing China. He isn't. He's punishing American consumers, who will have to pay higher prices for automobiles, motorcycles, electronics, appliances and hundreds of other products. Trump and his billionaire buddies to whom he gave huge tax cuts can easily afford to pay more. Most of us in the middle class can not, and, as I have said many times, Trump and the Republicans do not care about the middle class.

Psst, President Trump! The Chinese aren't paying for the tariffs you're imposing. We are.
Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times, Sep 17 2018

President Trump announced today that he's slapping a 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, on top of similar tariffs imposed earlier this year on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports. Once the new tariffs are in place, Trump’s levies will apply to almost half the value of the products we buy from China.

Too bad the President doesn't seem to understand who will pay these tariffs. At an event earlier today, Trump talked about the trade negotiations with Mexico and Canada, then said, "China is now paying us billions of dollars in tariffs and hopefully we'll be able to work something out." That's exactly backward. The tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods are paid by the businesses and consumers in this country that buy them.

In other words, the tariffs are a tax on our people, not theirs. The pain ultimately is borne by US consumers as businesses pass along the tariffs they pay on the Chinese components and metals they buy. Alternatively, when businesses shift to higher-priced US-made components and metals to avoid the tariffs, their costs go up and their prices follow.

The New York Times offered a few examples: "Steel prices are up more than 10% since February, the month before Trump announced his long-awaited tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, from a wide swath of trading partners. Prices on washing machines jumped 20% in the months following Trump's decision to impose tariffs on imported washers."

The cost of goods in general is increasing slowly but tariffs probably aren’t a factor because they apply to a very small slice of the economy. That could change, though, if Trump follows through on the two threats he added to the announcement of the $200 billion in new tariffs. First, the tariffs will go up from 10% to 25% on January 1 — a clear effort to force China to the negotiating table. And second, Trump said he’ll hit the rest of China's exports to the United States — about $267 billion worth of goods — "if China takes retaliatory action against our farmers or other industries."

Trump sees this as a contest he can't lose, given how much more Americans import from China than the Chinese import from us. To many economists, this trade imbalance is a sign of the United States' low savings rate, the confidence and capability of US buyers and other factors that aren't necessarily negative. To Trump, it's a sign that China is defeating us in the race for manufacturing jobs.

Referring to last year's $375-billion trade deficit with China, Trump said, "We're not going to lose that. We can't do that. We can't do that anymore. It should have been done many years ago. It should have been done by other Presidents. It's a disgrace that it wasn't done."

The President is counting on China to cave in the face of the ever-ratcheting penalties on Chinese exports. That hasn't happened yet; instead, China has been content to impose retaliatory tariffs on US exports, hurting sales and raising anxiety levels across many industries. In fact, groups representing thousands of businesses banded together this
month to lobby against the levies.

So, get ready for higher prices, consumers, just in time for the holiday season.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ol...htmlstory.html

[Atypical]

We are now, and have been for years, The Corporate States of America not the USA. Business and its lackeys work to control everything to the detriment of the country's citizenry. If business doesn't want something, like regulations that protect us or are good for the environment, they get their sycophants in government and media to spew propaganda that gets it done their way.

This is how it starts for newly elected officials. Disgusting!

https://truthout.org/articles/newly-...e-orientation/

[Atypical]

There is much wrong with the actions and control that corporations currently force on the country. Corporate impunity has always and will continue to hurt us far more than it helps. This is a very informative essay on what some of the problems are.

Here's How The American Cult of 'Shareholder Capitalism' Is Poisoning The Global Economy

https://www.alternet.org/economy/eco...e-call-america

[Atypical]

If you really understand the politics of this country, especially over the last forty years, and are not an ideologue, this essay summarizes exactly how the Republicans operate. Unfortunately, their methods are attractive to those who prefer theater rather than facts and this encourages these cretins to even greater manipulations of reality.

There are serious consequences that come from these distortions like the Iraq war. People die. But, it continues because ...

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/don...-to-lead-them/