January 2, 2012
Shorter Republican Strategy
-- by Dave Johnson
Shorter version of The GOP’s game plan to end Obama’s presidency - The Plum Line - The Washington Post:
"Obama didn't clean up the mess we made fast enough, therefore you should put us back in office."
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:55 PM PST on January 02, 2012.
December 31, 2011
Financial Sector Growth
-- by Dave Johnson
Brad DeLong: America’s Financial Leviathan: Project Syndicate discusses ways the financial sector can help the economy, and mentions the sector's justification for its growth:
"not, by and large, been a bad thing....Deploying capital to the places where it can be best used helps the economy grow..."
But if the financial sector was helping the economy grow, then the sector's share of the economy would not be increasing so much, because the economy would be increasing.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:58 AM PST on December 31, 2011.
Mass Unemployment As Conservative Policy - To Keep Wages Down
-- by Dave Johnson
In England under Margaret Thatcher:
The policy was to create mass unemployment IN ORDER to reduce the strength of the working class IN ORDER to bring wages down and profits up -- so that the few at the top benefit.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:32 AM PST on December 31, 2011.
December 30, 2011
Verizon's Fee And Attacks On Workers Are Cut From Same Cloth Of Corporate Greed
-- by Dave Johnson
You may have heard that Verizon is going to charge customers a $2 "convenience fee" to pay their bills online. You may not have heard that Verizon is asking its workers to take cuts in their pensions, sick pay, health insurance, even disability for employees injured on the job. These examples of corporate greed are cut from the same cloth. This is about big corporations using their power to drain and ultimately destroy the middle class so the 1% can have even more.
NY Times, An Uproar on the Web Over $2 Fee by Verizon,
The $2 monthly fee, which takes effect Jan. 15, will apply to people who make one-time credit or debit card payments on the phone or online. ...The outsize reaction in many ways reflects the year that is now concluding. The economy has not improved much, consumers are fresh off their victory in getting Bank of America to rescind its own move to levy a small new monthly fee and airlines and other companies continue to ask customers to pay à la carte for goods and services that were once part of the standard price.
Then there was Verizon, making the announcement in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s and calling its new charge a “convenience” fee.
Not Just Squeezing Customers -- Squeezing Workers, Too!
In August I posted, Verizon's Workers Strike Back At Corporate Greed -- You Can Join Them!
The giant telecom company Verizon, currently raking in the billions ($6 billion in profits and a $10 billion dividend on $108 billion in revenue last year), while paying no taxes, is putting the squeeze on its workers, and they are fighting back. With all those profits, the company has been consumed by greed: Now Verizon is asking for $1 billion in concessions from its workers.
This giant company is extremely profitable, yet manages to pay not taxes: (click through for full story)
Paying No Taxes?Verizon, with $108 billion in revenue and huge profits, is not paying taxes. Citizens for Tax Justice, in Verizon Pushes for $1 Billion in Concessions from Workers, While Receiving Nearly $1 Billion in Subsidies from Uncle Sam, explains, (emphasis added below because I got mad when I read it.)
When you hear about Verizon putting the squeeze on its customers, keep the company's workers in mind.
Click here to sign CWA's petition: Stop Verizon Greed
Click here to learn about leafleting at a Verizon Wireless store
Click here for the latest information on the Verizon workers' efforts.
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:50 PM PST on December 30, 2011.
Another Washington Post Social Security Mistake
-- by Dave Johnson
See if you can spot the big mistake (giving them the benefit of the doubt) in this Washington Post story: Payroll tax cut raises worries about Social Security’s future funding:
This year, the Social Security system projects that it will pay out $46 billion more in benefits than it will collect in cash. It made up for the shortfall by redeeming Treasury bonds bought in years when there were cash surpluses.
Here is the mistake, thanks to Dean Baker: Social Security Is NOT Selling Government Bonds,
This is not true. The Social Security trust fund is projected to earn $114.9 billion in interest on the bonds it holds. It will use a portion of these earnings to pay current benefits. It will not be redeeming its bonds.
Social Security has a huge trust fund -- if you think $2.6 trillion is huge. That trust fund is invested in US Treasury Bonds, and earns interest.
When you hear that Social Security is "in trouble' or "going broke" you are hearing from people who ignore this huge, huge trust fund and the interest it earns. This trust fund, along with the money people pay in, means that Social Security has enough to pay full benefits until 2037. Even then it will still be able to pay everyone more than they receive today. (Yes, more, because of cost-of-living adjustments.)
One of the problems with Social Security is that the "cap" -- the top income that is taxed to pay into the fund -- was calculated in the 80's, and they didn't foresee that all income gains after the 80s would only go to those at the top, where the income isn't taxed to pay into the fund. So, since the 80s, as more and more of the income gains went to the top few, the Social Security fund started to not have quite enough to go on forever. So now it it projected to only last until 2037. This is, of course, easily fixed -- as are so many of our country's problems -- by asking those at the top to pay in a little more.
So ... will I be attacked with pepper spray and batons for suggesting that the rich should pay back a bit more?
See also, Jan 2010, Washington Post Joins Wall Street Sneak Attack On Social Security.
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:49 PM PST on December 30, 2011.
December 29, 2011
My Silicon Valley Experience
-- by Dave Johnson
Dave Winer, in Scripting News: So you want to be an entrepreneur describes my own Silicon Valley experience, too,
I used to be a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.Back in the day, you made a product, put it in a box, put the box through distribution, helped retailers sell it, got back a little money, paid your employees, and hoped there would be enough to make some more product, boxes, etc.
If you weren't one of the BigCo's the distributors would play games with your money. Eventually the games got so sophisticated, they had it worked out so you owed them more money than you made, so there was no way to get ahead. Unless you were one of the Big Ones. But even they hit the wall, and the software-in-a-box business went by the wayside.
A few people got rich from that. Yes, it was a bubble. What you got paid for was not your ability to make money. But, rather the ability of the VCs to sell Wall Street on whatever it is they sold them on back then. We were part of the whole system that eventually hit the wall with Credit Default Swaps and huge bailouts and unrepentant bankers. There was a trickle-down. The closer you were to someone who actually made something, the less you got paid. You read that right, the less you got paid. I'll repeat it. If you made something you got paid less.
Please go read the rest.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:16 PM PST on December 29, 2011.
Dave On Hartmann Talking About Wall Street Crimes
-- by Dave Johnson
This is me on Thom Hartmann's Big Picture TV show Tuesday, talking about my AlterNet article, 7 of the Nastiest Scams, Rip-Offs and Tricks From Wall Street Crooks:
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:21 AM PST on December 29, 2011.
The 99% Act
-- by Dave Johnson
1 infographic, 5 million jobs | Rebuild the Dream | A Hub for the American Dream Movement
Click to see huge version.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:56 AM PST on December 29, 2011.
December 27, 2011
Newt Wants To Lose
-- by Dave Johnson
A lot of people are missing that Newt was never in the primaries to actually win. He entered the primaries to raise his name recognition so he could make more with his various scams that he runs. Remember, he made more than $50 million just from health care lobbying in the last decade. And that was just one of his schemes.
So there he was, suddenly in the lead. Not the plan! He can't pull in that kind of cash if he is the actual nominee -- and he knows he can't win the election. So he needs to milk the lead but make sure he doesn't actually win the nomination. Did you notice that he slowed way down on campaigning in Iowa after taking the lead. That's the tip-off.
Newt running for President is just one more Republican con game.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:22 AM PST on December 27, 2011.
December 24, 2011
Holiday Card From The Johnsons
-- by Dave Johnson
Our little white dog Paddington does a "ballet" with his back legs, and this card shows him doing a holiday Nutcracker ballet.
-- Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:43 PM PST on December 24, 2011.
