“The Truth About the Economy in 2 Minutes and 15 Seconds”
good video for a 2 minute summary of a very complicated issue.
Pay very close attention.
Pretty sure most of my followers are aware of this basic information, but it’s depicted very concisely here and needs to be passed around everywhere.
Really like this!
Advertisers: American middle class is dead (by SamSeder)
According to a new white paper from Ad Age, the America where average families dominated the consumer market has completely vanished.
In 2004, America’s multinational corporations offered Congress a deal: They would repatriate hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign profits — to invest in new plants and create new jobs at home — in exchange for a break from the 35 percent corporate tax rate imposed on overseas profits when they are brought into the country.
A Republican-controlled Congress leapt at it, passing the Homeland Investment Act, which allowed companies to repatriate some $300 billion in 2005 and pay only 5.25 percent in taxes. As for all of those promised factories and jobs, they did not materialize. Research by three prominent economists, including Kristin Forbes, a former top economic adviser to President George W. Bush, found that between 60 and 92 cents of every dollar brought home found its way into shareholders’ pockets.
And they want to do it again!
![Chart Of The Day: Analysis Shows Dramatic Social Security Cuts Under GOP Plan | TPMDC
This week, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities issued a report […] The analysis, by entitlement expert Paul Van de Water, calculates the combined effects of the two Social Security benefit cuts undergirding the Roadmap for America’s Future — a fiscal plan authored by the GOP’s top budget guy Paul Ryan.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_laphwbIu9r1qz4uwlo1_400.jpg)
Chart Of The Day: Analysis Shows Dramatic Social Security Cuts Under GOP Plan | TPMDC
This week, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities issued a report […] The analysis, by entitlement expert Paul Van de Water, calculates the combined effects of the two Social Security benefit cuts undergirding the Roadmap for America’s Future — a fiscal plan authored by the GOP’s top budget guy Paul Ryan.
White House White Board (2 min)
This is a pretty good video. I wish there were more Democrats (or any??) that would get out there in the media and use visual aids to explain the tax situation and illustrate why their position is right for the American people. Every single Democrat should repeat, “it doesn’t make any sense, it costs too much money and we know it doesn’t work.” Over and over and over.
I don’t know why I keep being surprised that the majority of Democrats suck at politics. They’re often right on policy, but they have no idea how to play politics. Not only do they have to clear up the misconceptions about taxes, they also should be able to clearly convey (morally, economically, etc.) why this is the right way to approach this issue. And it’s not just taxes, they need to do this with EVERYTHING.
Argh, I’m just so frustrated with being preemptively blamed for congressional losses this fall because I’m disappointed, critical and not “sucking it up” when THEY ARE THE ONES THAT ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOBS. Both policy-wise and politically.
(Source: digbysblog.blogspot.com)
I think when you have troubles like that you shouldn’t be bitching about a little bailout. You should have been thinking it should have been bigger… There’s danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, ‘My life is a little harder than it used to be.’ At a certain place you’ve got to say to the people, ‘Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.’
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Charles Munger, the billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, defending the bank bailouts and explaining why the government was right not to disperse funds directly to individuals. (via officialssay)
Wow.
Cenk Uygur: Who does Alan Simpson think he is? And why is the White House backing him? (via firedoglake)
The last part is priceless!!
An aging population will eventually (over the course of the next 20 years) cause the cost of paying Social Security benefits to rise from its current 4.8 percent of G.D.P. to about 6 percent of G.D.P. To give you some perspective, that’s a significantly smaller increase than the rise in defense spending since 2001, which Washington certainly didn’t consider a crisis, or even a reason to rethink some of the Bush tax cuts.
Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. A clever series of experiments in “monkeynomics” shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too.
Totally worth your 20 minutes… fascinating!
