What Capitalism Is Not

The Robin Hood Tax and why we should get behind it

"Wall Street banks and corporations are raking in record profits while our communities continue to suffer job losses and cuts to public programs. Instead of lining the pockets of corporate fat cats, this money should go to our children’s Head Start programs, Grandma’s retirement, and fixing our broken healthcare system.

It’s time for the administration to stand with the people and TAX WALL STREET. Join us April 20 as we march to the White House and Treasury Department to demand a financial transaction tax on Wall Street trades so we can put the money toward global health needs, addressing the climate crisis, jobs, and education."
Sign up to support here:

http://www.robinhoodtax.org/get-involved

Quote of the day

“The American people are angry. They are angry that the middle class is collapsing because of the Wall Street-caused recession... Meanwhile, the wealthy & the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well & now billionaires & their congressional friends want to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick & the poor.” --Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont)

And they'll get away with it unless we stand up and demand different and better.

Why people are protesting

Why we occupy: Billionaire John Paulson Paid Zero Taxes For 9 Billion Fee Income We spotted this today: “John Paulson, the most successful hedge-fund manager of all, bet against the mortgage market one year and then bet with Glenn Beck in the gold market the next. Paulson made himself $9 billion in fees in just two years. His current tax bill on that $9 billion? Zero.” Link to original post: http://statspotting.com/2011/04/billionaire-john-paulson-paid-zero-taxes-for-9-billion-fee-income/

Quote of the day on US social justice (with chart)

"We are slowly — and painfully — being forced to realize that we are no longer the America of our imaginations. Our greatness was not enshrined. Being a world leader is less about destiny than focused determination, and it is there that we have faltered. We sold ourselves a pipe dream that everyone could get rich and no one would get hurt — a pipe dream that exploded like a pipe bomb when the already-rich grabbed for all the gold; when they used their fortunes to influence government and gain favors and protection; when everyone else was left to scrounge around their ankles in hopes that a few coins would fall. We have not taken care of the least among us. We have allowed a revolting level of income inequality to develop. We have watched as millions of our fellow countrymen have fallen into poverty. And we have done a poor job of educating our children and now threaten to leave them a country that is a shell of its former self. We should be ashamed. Poor policies and poor choices have led to exceedingly poor outcomes. Our societal chickens have come home to roost." --Charles M. Blow, Op/ed columnist, The New York Times

"We're number one!" Except we're not. Far from it. Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/opinion/blow-americas-exploding-pipe-dream.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Notice it's the guy with the money

Noted economist Joseph Stiglitz on the "Occupy Wall Street" protests

"You are right to be indignant. The fact is the system is not working right. It is not right that we have so many people without jobs when we have so many needs that we have to fulfill. It’s not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless people. Our financial markets have an important role to play. They’re supposed to allocate capital, manage risks. But they misallocated capital, and they created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There’s a system where we’ve socialized losses and privatized gains. That’s not capitalism; that’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing, and we won’t succeed in creating a just society." --Joseph Stiglitz, Economist to the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters. Links: http://dangerousintersection.org/2011/10/06/economist-joseph-stiglitz-speaks-to-the-wall-street-occupiers/; http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/09/3196907/hundreds-march-in-kc-occupy-movement.html#storylink=omni_popular

Big story on Wall Street not being covered

There are now--and have been for a three days--people protesting and occupying the area around Wall Street as protests to the greed and corruption of the place and what they've done and are doing to our government and economic system. That said, the story doesn't seem to be getting much coverage. At least, it doesn't seem to be getting much coverage from the news I've seen. It hasn't been in The Star at all, either, from what I've seen. Link: http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-wall-street-thousands-march-nyc-financial-district-set-protest-encampment/1316446947; http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-19/wall-street-areas-blocked-as-police-arrest-seven-in-protest.html

I can hardly believe I'm quoting Jesse Ventura seriously

We Ain't Got Time To Bleed. It's Time for the Revolution.

"You control our world. You've poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. We fight in your wars, die for your causes, and sacrifice our freedoms to protect you. You've liquidated our savings, destroyed our middle class, and used our tax dollars to bailout your unending greed. We are slaves to your corporations, zombies to your airwaves, servants to your decadence. You've stolen our elections, assassinated our leaders, and abolished our basic rights as human beings. You own our property, shipped away our jobs, and shredded our unions. You've profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. You've monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame. We are hit...we are bleeding...but we ain't got time to bleed. We will bring the giants to their knees and you will witness our revolution! "

-Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, April 12, 2011
 
Good on you, Governor.

Quote of the day

"The terrible, cold, cruel part is Wall Street. Rivers of gold flow there from all over the earth, and death comes with it. There, as nowhere else, you feel a total absence of the spirit: herds of men who cannot count past three, herds more who cannot get past six, scorn for pure science and demoniacal respect for the present. And the terrible thing is that the crowd that fills the street believes that the world will always be the same and that it is their duty to keep that huge machine running, day and night, forever." - Federico Garcia Lorca

Link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Garcia_Lorca

8 Surprising facts about the shrinking Middle Class in the US

--Income Inquality Is Soaring: In 2005, the bottom 20 percent of household earners had an average income of $10,655 while households in the top 20 percent made nearly 160,000 – a disparity of 1,500 percent, the highest gap ever recorded, Arianna notes in Third World America; --Cash-Strapped States Are Cutting Crucial Services: "According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least twenty-nine states have made cuts to public health programs, twenty-four states have cut programs for the elderly and disabled, twenty-nine states have cut aid to K–12 education, and thirty-nine states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities. America’s states faced a cumulative budget gap of $166 billion for fiscal 2010. Total shortfalls through fiscal 2011 are estimated at $380 billion—and could be even higher depending on what happens to unemployment. These are massive numbers. But when you remember that we spent $182 billion to bail out AIG ($12.9 billion of which went straight to Goldman Sachs), you realize that this amount alone would be more than enough to close the 2010 budget gap in every state in the Union. Toss in the $45 billion we gave to now-making-a-profit Bank of America and the $45 billion we gave to now-making-a-profit Citigroup, and we would be well on the way to ensuring that no state’s vital services are cut through 2011." --Corporations are skipping out on taxes: "According to the White House, in 2004, the last year data on this was compiled, U.S. multinational corporations paid roughly $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign active earnings— putting their tax rate at around 2.3 percent. Know many middle-class Americans getting off that easy at tax time?" - Arianna Huffington, Third World America; --The Financial Services Sector Is Dominating Our Economy: "As MIT professor Simon Johnson recounted in the Atlantic, between 1973 and 1985, the financial industry’s share of domestic corporate profits topped out at 16 percent. In the 1990s, it spanned between 21 percent and 30 percent. Just before the financial crisis hit, it stood at 41 percent. The share of our economy devoted to making things of value is shrinking, while the share devoted to valuing made-up things (credit-swap derivatives, anyone?) is expanding. It’s the financialization of our economy." --Health care costs are bankrupting Americans: "The vast majority of people who file for bankruptcy are middle-class folks who can’t pay their bills because they’ve lost their jobs or been hit with high medical bills. In fact, a 2009 study by researchers at Harvard and Ohio University showed that health-care problems were the root cause of 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies in America in 2007. When the same researchers did this study across five states in 2001, health-care problems caused only 50 percent of bankruptcy filings. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, America had 1.4 million personal bankruptcies in 2009, a 32 percent increase over the previous year. Put another way: Every thirty seconds, someone in this country files for bankruptcy in the wake of a serious illness."; --The Foreclosure Crisis Is Not Abating: “Barry Bosworth and Rosanna Smart of the Brookings Institution found that the catastrophic collapse of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage market resulted in the disappearance of $13 trillion in American household wealth between mid-2007 and March 2009... on average, U.S. households lost one quarter of their wealth in that period," cites Huffington. She continues, “We are facing nothing less than a national emergency: 2.8 million homes faced foreclosure in 2009, and an estimated 3 million more are expected to be foreclosed on in 2010. If there was ever a middle-class Katrina, this is it." --America's Education System Is In Crisis: America's educational system is failing: "Eight years ago, amid much fanfare, the D.C. establishment passed No Child Left Behind...but it turned out to be reform in name only," Arianna explains Third World America . "Despite a goal of 100 percent proficiency in reading and math, eight years later we are not even close. In Alabama, only 20 percent of eighth graders are proficient in math. In California, it’s just 23 percent. In New York, it’s 34 percent." --America's Infrastructure Is Crumbling: "In studying car crashes across the country, the Transportation Construction coalition determined that badly maintained or managed roads are responsible for $217 billion in car crashes annually – far more than headline-grabbing alcohol-related accidents ($130 billion) and speed-related pile-ups ($97 billion)", Arianna writes in Third World America. But Americans are paying an even higher price for our deteriorating roads. Of the 42,000 road fatalities each year, 53% are at least partially the result of poor road conditions. "We are currently spending $70 billion annually on improving our highways, but that’s nowhere near the $186 billion a year that is needed. It's a collision of need versus resources; for far too many of us, it can be fatal," she adds. It is the point of Arianna Huffington's book, Third World America, that some of us, here in the US, are, in fact, members of the "Third World", that is, in poverty equal to undeveloped countries. Did you think we were better than that? Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/8-surprising-facts-about_n_675545.html#s121657

Where now?

The Dow is up some more, along with other relatively good news about and on the economy, at least here in the United States. (European markets took a hit, however. Hopefully they're not more realistic than us in the States). Home sales were shown to be up last month in news reports yesterday, too.

So maybe now we can and should consider cutting back on the billions and trillions we were originally going to throw at Wall Street.

Sounds like a good idea.




Link to original story:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wall-St-jumps-on-signs-rb-14740995.html

An update

An update to Tuesday's (March 10) entry:

There's a story out right now on Yahoo! News from a Time Magazine article saying much the same thing.

See story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090312/us_time/08599188463000

People are asking the same thing--Is the President trying to do too many other, less important things right now, rather than focusing on fixing the financial mess we're in?

He seems to think not.

Some of us think he is.

We hope we're wrong, of course.

We want and need this thing attended to--and fixed.

Covering the year almost gone

There's some things to be learned there.

You want faith in our economic and political leaders?

Well don't look for it here.

Or lately.

Check out this quote for why, exactly, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson asked for 700 billion dollars of our taxpayer money to bail out his cronies on Wall Street, according to a "Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the initial bailout, quoted on Forbes.com, September 23:

"It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number."


Makes ya' wanna vote for higher taxes, doesn't it?