WTF is wrong with Americans?

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Wednesday February 02, 2011 · 11:56 PM PST

2011/02/02 · 23:56

All over the world people are standing up to corrupt kleptocracies. In Greece and Iceland, the people took to the streets to resist the looting of the public sphere by banks. The dictator of Tunisia has fallen and Mubarak is on they way down. Americans, however, are as docile and obedient towards our masters as ever.

wannabe hermit

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Friday January 28, 2011 · 9:20 PM PST

2011/01/28 · 21:20

On the face of it, one would think that it's insane to freeze or cut federal spending and slash state and local spending in an economy as weak as ours is today. But the truth is that critics of austerity like Krugman, Stiglitz, and Dean Baker just don't have the brainpower to understand how austerity measures figure into the brilliant Rubinite plan for economic prosperity.

wannabe hermit

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Thursday January 27, 2011 · 11:54 PM PST

2011/01/27 · 23:54

If the U.S. continues on its current path, it will be experiencing full-blown stagflation by the time of the 2012 election. On fiscal policy, the only debate between the two parties is over how much to cut. At the same time, the Fed is going ahead with Quantitative Easing 2, which will expand the money supply and pump more liquidity into the banks. The policies of fiscal policy austerity and monetary expansion are leading us to the worst of all worlds: declining employment and wages coinciding with rising prices.

wannabe hermit

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Friday November 20, 2009 · 1:48 PM PST

2009/11/20 · 13:48

Imagine the following scenario:

Bob the construction worker and Lloyd the banker are neighbors. Bob's savings consist of 2 gold coins. Lloyd's savings consist of 10 gold coins.

One day, the god of thought experiments (GOTE)shows up with 100 coins. He takes Lloyd's coins and Bob's and puts them in a bag with his 100. He then tells Lloyd that he can divide the 112 coins between himself and Bob any way he wants. Bob can then either accept the distribution of coins or GOTE will take all 112 coins and leave Bob and Lloyd with nothing.

wannabe hermit

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Tuesday October 27, 2009 · 12:56 PM PDT

2009/10/27 · 12:56

The top priority of every first-term president is to become a two-term president. Since healthcare reform was Obama’s central domestic campaign promise in 2008, he must pass a healthcare reform bill of some kind before 2012. With large majorities in the House and Senate, along with the momentum of a fresh election victory, 2009 is the year in which a bill is most likely to occur. Failure to pass a healthcare bill will be seen as a major defeat and encourage members of Congress to distance themselves from a president seen throughout Washington as weak.

wannabe hermit

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Saturday October 24, 2009 · 12:30 PM PDT

2009/10/24 · 12:30

Executive compensation on Wall Street is an issue that could make or break the Obama presidency. To many respectable figures in the media and in the administration (especially at the Treasury), executive pay is just a distraction from the real issues. Passionate anger over Wall Street compensation is seen as the hallmark of a demagogue. However, while the amount of money to be paid out in compensation to financial executives and employees (roughly $140 billion) is not all that much in the context of a $14 trillion economy, it is of great political importance.

wannabe hermit

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Tuesday October 20, 2009 · 12:43 PM PDT

2009/10/20 · 12:43

17% of the American workforce is either unemployed or underemployed. More than seven million people have lost their jobs since this recession began, in an economy that needs to add more than 100,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth. This situation affects not only those who are looking for work and cannot find it, it also creates an atmosphere of fear among those who still have jobs, as they know that should they displease their employers in any way, they could be next. A pervasive culture of fear and uncertainty is emerging in America today, and it is quite likely that the Republican Party will be most successful in harnessing that fear and turning it into anger towards its political enemies and will dominate the 2010 election.

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WTF is wrong with Americans?

8 Steps to a Neoliberal Utopia.

The path to stagflation.

A thought experiment on the power of spite

The best interests of the White House are served by quietly undermining the public option.

The spat over executive pay is a gift to the dems (if they don't cave)

Dems are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by spurning populist rage instead of embracing it