-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post This…is London. by OhioGringo.
Mr Dumas offered up his definition of fascism so it’s not like he’s making an arbitrary decree. From my time in the UK, it seemed like the nation was ruled by private wealth. It’s the same problem we’ve been having over here…. the lionshare of private wealth is amassed in far too few hands. As [...]
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post Golden Oldies Video: Geithner Says “No Risk” of AAA Downgrade
Thanks Jane.
I don’t take Geithner’s statements at face value, he has the track record of a gangsters puppet. I just assume he’s executing his assigned roll in the con.
Look at who’s he’s worked for outside of government and his track record in government since the 1990′s. Names like Kissinger and Peterson pop up on his resume. And if I remember correctly he was the treasury departments point person for the FSA portion of the 1990′s WTO agreements.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post Is FDL made up of “Firebaggers” who have all “gone Hamsher”? by candide08.
I don’t accept the authors assertion that a single random diary represents the opinion of FDL leadership or membership at large. Actually, there is much that the author asserts which I do not accept. For the most part, no evidence is brought forward to back the authors assertions. Without some meat on the bones of [...]
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post I Visited Over 40 Congressional Offices Today to Say: No Support For Anyone Who Votes for Social Security and Medicare Cuts
Thanks Jane!
I completely agree that this is an area where a hard line absolutely must be drawn.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post And Another Thing on Obama’s Last Lecture
When I look back at the history of the FDR years I see leadership. FDR didn’t merely react to the left, he led the nation in a very proactive manner. And he did so with a political party which was loaded to the brim with rascist dixiecrats.
For example, the left didn’t force him to part ways with the lords of finance in the opening days of his admin. FDR proactively decided not to play ball with that crowd at the 1933 London Financial Conference. In the words of historian Thomas Ferguson:
Roosevelt exchanged some messages with them, but finally refused the whole package. He and his advisers correctly concluded that the idea was to suck them into a foolish set of commitments. FDR was simply not willing to make the kind of arrangements with bankers that President Obama was. That’s the heart of the matter.
FDR wasn’t a left winger but he most certainly was a leader proactively trying to make the nation a better place to live.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post Pew Poll Shows Progressive Deficit Reduction Ideas are the Most Popular
Thanks Selise, that was well worth the read.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post How the Roosevelt Institute Sold FDR’s Legacy to Pete Peterson
I don’t believe in the Cheneyism that “deficits don’t matter”. I agree that now is not the time to be concerned with deficits; I think we should have a goal of full employment. But that doesn’t mean that deficits don’t matter forever
I think we completely agree w/regard to full employment being the primary goal.
As for deficits, there’s a crazy wide gap between balanced budgets and Cheneyism.
On average, the federal government should always be running deficits. And in fact, they always have over any extended period of time. You can go back at least as far as Abraham Lincoln and sum up the surplus/deficits over any ten year period and the sum will always end up being a deficit.
How large should the deficit be? It should be full-employment sized.
And yeah, I agree that we need a shift from military spending to domestic civilian spending. It’s either that or shift the defense money into the army corp of engineers and have them fix our crumbling infrastructure.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post I Was Right, the “Experts” Were Wrong, So Why Am I the Underemployed? by dakine01.
I think you have a different definition of right/wrong than our establishment.
On the economy, our establishment defines “right” as whatever Bernanke and/or Obama admin officials says is right. At least, that’s what the “experts” base their opinion on.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post How the Roosevelt Institute Sold FDR’s Legacy to Pete Peterson
Once they buy into the Peterson nonsense they’re no longer “left leaning” organizations.
New Deal 2.0 was always a mixed bag anyway. There were some decent authors but there was also right wingers like Bo Cutter.
As for budgets, it is indeed not possible to balance the budget while at the same time doing everything else which you mentioned. And anyway, balanced budgets amount to an arbitrary goal. Balanced budgets at the Federal level are a nonsensical goal.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post May Economic/Jobs News Will Not Be Good by dakine01.
Thanks Dakine. Related to this, Jared Bernstein (Biden’s ex-Cheif economist) says: “There will be no WPA-type programs in our near future. There was no appetite for them in the Obama admin in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression and there’s a lot less now. The reasons for that are interesting and [...]
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post World economies as a function of energy use by compoundf.
Hmmm, the thing is, we make fabulously wastefull use of the oil we consume. It’s burned off in SUV’s sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and in long haul trucking goods from Mexico to Boston. And of course… much is used by our oversized military. If we moved toward rail and light rail, and put [...]
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post Revolving Door Watch: Former Sen. Judd Gregg to Goldman Sachs
Reminds me of a Joseph Heller line. I don’t remember the exact quote but in a nutshell it goes like:
I have the one thing those guys will never have…. ‘enough’.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post Obama Calls for Resolution of Support for Libya
Can we kick Obama out of office over this abuse?
-
captjjyossarian commented on the blog post A New Normal: The President Can Bomb Anyone Anywhere for as Long as He Wants
Yup, and the Emperor has no cloths.
I think it’s been about 90 years since we’ve had a President that wasn’t either an Emperor or Emperor wanna-be. Today is Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House’s dream come true:
“Let us build a Navy bigger than hers [British Empire] and do what we please.”
They’ve got the biggest navy and they most certainly do as they please. I’d say ‘we’ rather than ‘they’ except it seems that we have no say in the matter.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post Cry Havoc by Daveparts.
It seems clear to me that the 911 commission investigation was doomed from the start. A war with Iraq was already in the cards and they weren’t about to let an investigation unearth anything which might derail/detour an invasion of Iraq.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post It Is Important to Realize that Economics is NOT a Science by OhioGringo.
Yup, it’s difficult/impossible to have an academic career if you cannot get your work published in academic journals.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post It Is Important to Realize that Economics is NOT a Science by OhioGringo.
But it does matter.
It matters because the Fed has a stranglehold on the entire economic profession. The problem goes well beyond the limited number of economists directly on the Fed’s payroll.
This HuffPost research article gives a reasonable description of what has been going on:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/07/priceless-how-the-federal_n_278805.html -
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post Water Cooler – Is Medicare/Medicaid The Debt Driver? Nah – It’s Tax Cuts! by Bill Egnor.
Correction:
‘shocks’ to the economy.
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post Water Cooler – Is Medicare/Medicaid The Debt Driver? Nah – It’s Tax Cuts! by Bill Egnor.
Thanks Bill, I totally agree that a more progressive tax structure would improve our economy. We especially need to put more focus on non-wage income. But one of the points in the article which you quoted left me scratching my head: “Altogether, the economic downturn, the measures enacted to combat it (including the 2009 Recovery [...]
-
captjjyossarian commented on the diary post Water Cooler – Is Medicare/Medicaid The Debt Driver? Nah – It’s Tax Cuts! by Bill Egnor.
Agreed.
Bill seems to ignore who created the catfood commission(President Obama). And there’s no shortage of clips on youtube of Obama and/or Geithner drumming up the debt issue.
- Load More
