Mike Whitney: Why Washington Hates Hugo Chavez

Mike Whitney: Why Washington Hates Hugo Chavez

"In Chavez's Venezuela the basic needs of ordinary working people take precedent over the profiteering of cutthroat banksters. Is it any wonder why Washington hates him?"

Mike Whitney: Bulletins From Clunkerville

This article eviscerates the "green shoot" fantasy:

Mike Whitney: Bulletins From Clunkerville

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Economic links

On tax rates and wealth distribution:
http://empirestudies.blogspot.com/2008/11/who-rules-america.html

Michael Hudson on Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/5/new_600b_fed_stimulus_fuels_fears

Michael Whitney on inflation and other things:
http://empirestudies.blogspot.com/search?q=Whitney

Paul Craig Roberts:
http://empirestudies.blogspot.com/search?q=roberts

Game Plan for a Flat Tax, Social Security Cutbacks and Austerity: Obama's Sellout on Taxes
By MICHAEL HUDSON (Dec 8, 2010)
http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson12082010.html

The Endless Thanksgiving: Next Up: a "Flat Tax" for the Rich
By MICHAEL HUDSON (Nov 25, 2010)
http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson11252010.html

David Cay Johnson on Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/18/free_lunch_how_the_wealthiest_americans

Wealth for the Common Good:
 http://wealthforcommongood.org/resources/tax-fact-sheet/

“Shifting Responsibility: How 50 Years of Tax Cuts Benefited the Wealthiest Americans,” Chuck Collins, Alison Goldberg, and Sam Pizzigati (Wealth for the Common Good, April 2010)
www.ips-dc.org/files/1675/ShiftingResponsibility.pdf

Chuck Collins, “Reverse the Great Tax Shift”
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/04/07/reverse-the-great-tax-shift/

Obama's Austerity: We should have seen this coming, No?

Obama's Big Payback to Wall Street

The Worst Deal in American History?

By MIKE WHITNEY

Here's a clip from a speech Obama gave in November 2008, before he even took office, and long before the budget deficits had become a problem:

"Our economy is trapped in a vicious cycle: the turmoil on Wall Street means a new round of belt-tightening for families and businesses on Main Street ....we'll have to scour our federal budget, line-by-line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well."

Huh? You mean Obama was prattling the right-wing mantra before he ever set foot in the Oval Office?

Uh huh; which explains why he picked the two losers most responsible for the Crash of '08 to lead his economics team; Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner. Obama devotees shrugged off the appointments as a rookie error unwilling to breach any criticism of the Dear Leader. Even now, they cry "Foul", claiming Obama was either hoodwinked or --get this--a "poor negotiator".

Get real. Obama is as far right as you can get without donning a Tricorn hat and joining a militia. Don't believe it?

Here's an excerpt from his book Audacity of Hope where he gushingly praises his boyhood hero, Ronald Reagan:

"Reagan spoke to America's longing for order, our need to believe that we are not simply subject to blind, impersonal forces, but that we can shape our individual and collective destinies, so long as we rediscover the traditional virtues of hard work, patriotism, person responsibility, optimism, and faith.

That Reagan's message found such a receptive audience spoke not only to his skills as a communicator; it also spoke to the failures of liberal government, during a period of economic stagnation, to give middle-class voters any sense that it was fighting for them. For the fact was that government at every level had become too cavalier about spending taxpayer money. Too often, bureaucracies were oblivious to the cost of their mandates. A lot of liberal rhetoric did seem to value rights and entitlements over duties and responsibilities. Reagan may have exaggerated the sins of the welfare state, and certainly liberals were right to complain that his domestic policies tilted heavily toward economic elites, with corporate raiders making tidy profits throughout the eighties while unions were busted and the income for the average working stiff flatlined.

Nevertheless, by promising to side with those who worked hard, obeyed the law, cared for their families, and loved their country, Reagan offered Americans a sense of a common purpose that liberals seemed no longer able to muster. And the more his critics carped, the more those critics played into the role he'd written for them--a band of out-of-touch, tax-and-spend, blame-America-first, politically correct elites (Audacity of Hope, 31-32). (Excerpt from, Christopher Caldwell, What Obama Owes to Reagan, Daily Kos)

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney08012011.html

Is the Sky Really Falling?

Dollar Hysteria

By MIKE WHITNEY

The real reason the dollar will lose its role as the world's reserve currency is because US markets, which until recently provided up to 25 percent of global demand, are in sharp decline. Export-dependent nations--like Japan, China, Germany, South Korea--already see the handwriting on the wall. US consumers are buried under a mountain of debt, which means that their spending-spree won't resume anytime soon. On top of that, unemployment is soaring, personal wealth is falling, savings are rising, and Washington's anti-labor bias assures that wages will continue to stagnate for the foreseeable future. Thus, the American middle class will no longer be the driving force behind global consumption/demand that it was before the crisis. Once consumers are less able to buy new Toyota Prius's or load up on the latest China-made widgets at Walmart, there will be less incentive for foreign governments and central banks to stockpile greenbacks or trade exclusively in dollars.

Mike Whitney: A Short History of Bubblenomics‏

"It might surprise you to know that the Fed has become so skilled at bubble-making, that the condition of the underlying economy doesn't really matter any more. By fixing interest rates below the rate of inflation and attaching a liquidity-tailpipe to the stock market (QE2), the Fed has been able engineer a boom in equities, while the so-called "real" economy languishes in a near-Depression. In fact, consumer credit is actually shrinking (excluding student loans) while margin debt (the amount that speculators borrow to buy stocks) continues to soar. This is an astonishing development. The Fed has created a bifurcated market where bankers and hedge fund managers are able to rake in billions off their gaming operations while 300 million working Americans remain mired in debt."

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney05062011.html

Give a Worker a Raise

How to Fight Deflation

By MIKE WHITNEY

"Deflation has spread to every sector of the economy; retail, travel, luxury items, autos, building supplies, home furnishings, electronics. No business has been spared. The C.P.I. inflation-gauge has slipped into negative territory and is now at -2.1 percent. Prices are headed down and spending is falling fast. Unemployment is soaring, wages are dropping, and the average work-week has been sliced to just 33 hrs.
...

Economist Irving Fisher tackled the problem of deflation 76 years ago in his masterpiece "Debt-Deflation Theory of the Great Depression". Fisher showed how over-indebtedness eventually triggers a chain of events beginning with debt liquidation and ending in distress selling, huge capital losses, and violent economic contraction. This is the challenge that Bernanke faces today.

...

Wall Street likes to stimulate demand through credit expansion and bubblenomics because they can skim fat bonuses on the front end and then bail out before stocks crash. But this perennial "boom and bust" cycle is a real loser for ordinary working class Americans, who merely want a little stability and a paycheck that keeps pace with inflation. The best way to avoid "demand shock"--which is at the heart of every recession--is through wage growth and full employment. It's that simple. When workers get better pay, they buy more more stuff and the economy thrives. Everybody wins!"