Last week, reporting on the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve Bank, NY Times reporter, Catherine Rampell, opened her story with this line: “No one knows what to do to fix the economy.” How frightening is that? The US and the rest of the world are being sucked into a vortex of political, economic […]
Tag: debt
IT’S CAPITALISM, STUPID
The cause of the debt crisis is to be found in the essence of capitalism itself: competition, which – surprise! – produces losers as well as winners. The primary mechanism through which this contest is engaged is the corporation, which the US Supreme Court recently declared to be the legal equivalent of a person. Here […]
THE CURTAIN RISES ON ACT TWO
The houselights dim. The audience scurries to their seats, now with heightened anticipation. A new political force has gained ascendancy, with an anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-tax, anti-entitlement, pro-corporate, free market agenda. What will the future hold? The curtain rises and . . . . On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged over 500 points, dropping […]
THE CURTAIN RISES ON ACT ONE
Phew! That was exciting. It had me on the edge of my seat. But what a setup for Act Two. Given the plot so far, this is going to be a bumpy ride. This is a situation in which everyone is behaving badly. Consider John Boehner, chief Republican negotiator. During the entire drama, he regularly […]
THE SCANDALOUS TAX CODE
Well, the taxman made his annual visit to collect his due, and while we made it through another year, we’re also another couple of trillion dollars deeper in debt. As we are forever reminded, there are but two remedies for excessive debt: cut spending or raise taxes, one or the other, or a combination of […]
HOW DEBT SAVED CAPITALISM – TEMPORARILY
All this bad-mouthing of debt is downright ungrateful. The criticism of individuals and governments who can’t seem to live within their means ignores the fact that if they had not gone into debt the economy would have ground to a halt a long time ago. It’s debt that keeps the capitalist Ponzi scheme going. As […]
AND THE SQUEEZE GOES ON
As the world’s political and financial leaders seek to reinvigorate economic activity, it is no surprise that the greatest sacrifices and the largest contributions are being demanded from the workers, the laborers who actually produce stuff. As the economy begins to lurch forward in one sector or another, lack of confidence in the sustainability of […]