Tag: Economy

Science Proves It’s Not Your Imagination. The Rich Really are A**holes

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MittMoneyLG

The relative assholeyness of rich folks has been proven in not one, not two, but SEVEN recent experiments. Why there is such interest in proving this topic as the world struggles with economic lassitude and the rise of the 1% might be worth a scientific experiment of its own, but the fact is, we do want to know and social scientists have confirmed our suspicions.

The National Academy of Sciences grouped the studies under the collective heading, “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior.” Among the key findings:

  • “Upper-class drivers were the most likely to cut off other vehicles at the intersection, even when controlling for time of day, driver’s perceived sex and age, and amount of traffic.” Drivers of “high status” cars cut off other vehicles nearly 30% of the time; “low-status” cars cut off other vehicles 7.7% of the time.
  • Drivers of “low status” vehicles failed to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk up to 30% of the time, while 46% of “high status” vehicle drivers failed to yield, an increase of more than 50%.

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If Republicans Wanted Prices at the Pump to Fall, They Would Go Along with Obama’s Plan

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gaspump

The president is proposing a plan that would actually make a dent in gas prices. And no, it’s not drill baby, drill because, as Obama explained, there’s a big hole in that idea.

…the problem is we use more than 20 percent of the world’s oil and we only have 2 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves. Even if we drilled every square inch of this country right now, we’d still have to rely disproportionately on other countries for their oil. That means we pay more at the pump every time there’s instability in the Middle East, or growing demand in countries like China and India.

Instead, the president wants to attack gas prices both administratively — meaning acting as allowed without Congress needing to do that whole law-passing thing of which they seem incapable — and legislatively. Both strategies start by attacking the real problem — oil speculation. Obama:

We can’t afford a situation where speculators artificially manipulate markets by buying up oil, creating the perception of a shortage, and driving prices higher — only to flip the oil for a quick profit…That’s not the way the market should work. And for anyone who thinks this cannot happen, just think back to how Enron traders manipulated the price of electricity to reap huge profits at everybody else’s expense.

Obama made good a long time ago on a campaign promise to close the “Enron loophole,” which allowed traders to evade American regulations by buying and selling electronically or overseas.

So here’s what he’s asking our representatives in Washington to do.

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Borowitz: Birther Questions are Good News for the Economy

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birther

We heartily embrace this leading economic indicator from satirist Andy Borowitz.

While most economists agree that any significant improvement in the US economy is generally accompanied by an uptick in GOP questions about Mr. Obama’s place of birth, there is now an econometric tool for measuring the increase in those claims: the so-called S & P Birther Index.

The Birther Index, established in 2008, measures the occurrences of such words as “birth certificate,” “Kenya,” and “wasn’t born here” in Republican statements about the President, and has proven to be a surprisingly reliable tool for tracking improvements in the economy.

As is generally accepted, the best way for Republicans to take the White House this fall is to sabotage the economy. Failing that, they can fall back on such hot button issues as whether the president was really born in Hawaii, and how he personally is responsible for the price of gas at the pump. Then again, there’s always assailing people who provide testimony to Congressional committees.

Reagan Placed a Higher Tax Burden on Americans Than Obama

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The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein recently refuted the Republican/Tea Party touchstone that Obama has placed a higher tax burden on Americans than other presidents. Klein shows you have only to look to Ronald Reagan for evidence.

Today’s problems, Klein says, are radically different from Reagan’s era, and they began under Clinton, who allowed the crumbling of the wall between insured and uninsured investing and the deregulation of the mortgage industry, and were exacerbated under Bush II, who continued deregulation and used deficit spending to finance tax cuts for the rich and the war he declared in Iraq.

Contrary to popular belief, taxes are lower under Obama than they were under Reagan. In 1983, when Reagan was trying to get the economy out of recession, revenues were 17.5 percent of GDP. In 2010, when Obama was trying to guide the economy into a recovery, revenues were 14.9 percent of GDP.

Taxes are so low under Obama in large part because of the Bush tax cuts and the effects of the financial crisis. But they’re also low because of the tax cuts passed by Obama in the stimulus bill.

Klein adds that the long-term outlook under the Obama plan is good.

In 1988, when Reagan left office, revenues were 18.2 percent of GDP. Under the Congressional Budget Office’s alternative-fiscal scenario — which is their most realistic projection — revenues only rise to 18.4 percent of GDP by 2021. If Obama manages to pass his most consistent tax-policy demand and sunset the Bush tax cuts for income over $250,000, that would rise by less than half a percentage point. In other words, taxes were never as low under Reagan as they are under Obama, and Obama’s policies would not lead to a significantly different tax burden than Reagan’s policies did.

Finally, Klein notes that Obama isn’t done yet so while we can definitively rate Reagan’s initiatives, Obama’s are a work in progress.

Struggling to Understand How Rich Mitt Romney Is

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MittMoney
Romney and his fellow Bain Capitalists

It’s hard for most of us to imagine being worth a few million dollars. That’s serious greenbacks, putting us beyond worry and squarely in the land of comfort. But if we were Mitt Romney, who is worth a quarter-BILLION dollars, that would be chump change.

And while all the presidential candidates are in that comfortable, worry-free zone, Romney’s wealth, according to a fascinating piece of research in the Tampa Bay Times, blocks out the sun.

Romney refuses to say how much, if anything, he pays in income taxes

For every $100 personally owned by Romney, President Obama has $4.20, Newt Gingrich has $2.70 and Ron Paul has $2. And Rick Santorum, closely trailing a victorious Romney in last week’s Iowa caucus, has but a single buck.

But wait, there’s more.

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Bad News About Your 2011 Tax Return

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TaxCalc

The White House is providing this handy little calculator you can use to figure out how much you’ll save on taxes if Congress passes the American Jobs Act (not likely), and how much you’ll owe if they don’t (way more likely). Start planning now how much more you’ll need to have saved in April by using the widget. Then go lobby your Republican senator or representative to Pass! This! Bill!

The Photo the Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want to Show

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PoliceArrest

Rumor has it that pictures and video of the arrest of retired Philadelphia police chief Ray Lewis at the Nov. 17 Occupy Wall Street protest are being ignored by the corporate media.

Indeed, when I did a Google search to verify the details before posting about it here, the main coverage I could find was from Britain’s Daily Mail. This photo, and others posted at the Daily Mail, are mainly available on Tumblr, Facebook and YouTube.

Lewis, who retired as a captain in the Philadelphia police in 2004, went to New York in full dress uniform and a sign that read, “NYPD – Don’t be Wall Street mercenaries” in solidarity with the protesters.

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