From Stark
A poor report on job creation helped push the stock market down Friday, July 8. One of our best economics blogs, Calculated Risk, observes that job creation is going to remain sluggish for a long time, because of long-term damage that the credit bubble collapse caused to the housing market, commercial real estate and other key economic sectors.
The problem, Calculated Risk says, is excess capacity in many sectors. A debt ceiling agreement and federal spending cuts won’t fix that. The fix will take time.
Calculated Risk is a daily must-visit for me. It doesn’t always provide lively reading, but it provides lots of economic data accompanied by excellent charts and clear explanations of what the data means, and blogger Bill McBride has no discernable partisan agenda.
I’s be open to all possibilities, and doing things differently is something that’s be a reality for the future as it has been for the past, but we must not turn our backs on something that is from the past that if we do it differently & better (along with even completely new innovations) we may/can/could find better results for our future.
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
Well, de Tocqueville’s ramblings have always provided a great read, AFY, but I doubt the Frenchman really understood money and credit. Indeed, he wrote in the same period that Jackson and others were struggling to free America from the bankers, but your selected quote misses the point.
Frankly, his 19th century perspective of the peoples’ representatives bribing the public to stay in office has surely been eclipsed by the more sinister threat of congress accepting bribes from the enemies of the public to perpetuate their careers and further their interests.
Perhaps you do not have sufficient faith in democracy, if you gravitate to that very republican predilection for rule by a few of “the better people.” Oh surely we can rely on the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, Schiffs and Mellons (the real masters of the universe) to manage the money supply and our credit markets. Certainly they know better what will be best for us.
What de Tocqueville missed during his travels in America was the struggle to throw off the international bankers who owned the central bank. When “Old Hickory” stood up to them and vetoed congresses recharter of the Second Bank of the US, he expressed what still remain the primary reasons for abolishing such a central bank:
It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
It served mainly to make the rich richer.
It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
Banks are controlled by a few select families.
Banks have a long history of instigating wars between nations, forcing them to borrow funding to pay for them.
Oh why can’t we learn from history?
Todd, some time back, a friend remarked, “if Obama hadn’t come along, the bankers would have had to create him.” Which made me laugh, because what my friend had missed was that the bankers had, indeed, created him.
Obama has never been for change you could believe in; it’s just a slogan, like “I’m lovin’ it.”
So, do you think these spineless Democrats are lovin’ it now?
But, as I recall, their boy, Barack, went to Wall Street for his instructions, Wall Street didn’t have to come to him.
Tocqueville was not alone in his beliefs as to the weakness of man (or government by man):
“A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired.” –Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 1775
And today what we have been witnessing with how our government has grown beyond the limitations of our constitution was also predicted:
“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” –James Madison, speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
But the solution remains the same:
“Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man or order of men.” Adam Smith
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
Frankly, AFY, the Smith quote is just the banal tripe that’s got us here. A litany of economic myths and illusions.
Certainly, witnessing these last several decades should disillusion all but complete fools … and, of course, the true believers!
Given the sorry state of public education in America, the best innovations of the 21st century will be coming from China and India.
Smart people don’t grow on trees.
Greg and AFY,
The question remains: how can the people possibly organize and wrest control of their government from the corporate plutocracy, given that the plutocrats control not only the government, but the media as well?
Yes, Todd, that’s indeed, though difficult THE question.
And to your list of what they control, let’s not forget to add the hearts and minds of all those who would join them.
I have more questions:
In our name, and for the sake of their class interests, the corporate plutocrats have used our government for decades to commit countless, horrible atrocities around the world. How many dozens of nations have we bombed, while spouting the shibboleths and platitudes of “freedom, liberty, and democracy?” How many democratic governments have we overthrown? How many ruthless dictators have we aided, armed, and abetted? How many countless thousands of civilians have been murdered in our name?
How have the plutocrats kept the American people from fully realizing that all of our hands are stained with blood? The plutocrats have used our government to pour forth dozens of rivers of blood in our name in far-flung lands at the four corners of the globe to further their interests. How have the American people been made to stand idly by and allow so many gross injustices to be perpetrated in our name?
How have Americans been blinded to the untold suffering of hundreds of thousands of our own veterans who have recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan physically and psychologically disabled from the trauma of being enmeshed in unspeakable horrors? How many generations will we suffer the pain and the wounds of these wars?
How many Americans know that we are currently funding a drug war in which tens of thousands of innocent Mexican civilians have been disappeared, tortured, and murdered? How many know that we’ve just dropped thousands of bombs on Tripoli? How many know that our government is currently building secret bases with which to launch more drone missile attacks in Yemen? How many Americans know that we still have 46,000 soldiers in Iraq and nearly 100,000 on the ground in Afghanistan? How many among us know what is really happening on the ground in Afghanistan in our name?
How many Americans fully realize that they were systematically deceived by their government and the media in the run-up to the Iraq War and that all the justifications and rationalizations for Operation Iraqi Freedom and the “Liberation of Iraq” were blatant falsehoods? How many Americans realize that most of the civilian infrastructure destroyed by U.S. bombs in Iraq has yet to be rebuilt? How many know that, thanks to U.S. bombs, sewage runs in the streets, and on a good day, many Iraqis might be lucky to receive four hours of electricity?
During the initial “shock and awe” bombing campaign of Baghdad, how many Americans watched the brilliant flashes and heard the thunderous explosions on TV and, then, marveled at the shear might and technical sophistication of our military prowess, instead of crying for all the innocent mothers and children and elderly we were killing, as we dropped all those cruise missiles and bunker buster bombs on a civilian population who had done absolutely nothing to deserve our wrath?
How long will Americans continue to remain willfully ignorant of the truth of what is happening in their name? How long will Americans continue to believe the lies and spin and propaganda offered daily over our airwaves and television cables? When will the American people finally wake up, see the errors of their ways, and reclaim control of their government from a greedy, power-hungry, corporate elite seemingly hell-bent on the systematic destruction of all that is good and noble and holy?
True power lies in the peoples’ hands, and it is the responsibility of the people to retain control over our democracy and ensure the actions of our government are grounded in moral principles. We must rekindle a hearty respect for the truth, take responsibility for our own educations, unite as one people, and rise up to demand true democratic reforms from our government. Only then can we assuage our collective guilt and enjoy, once again, the blessings of a democracy that is of the people, by the people, and for the people. We must do all these things, not only because they are right, but because they are our moral duty and our greatest responsibility.
T2, sounds like you don’t like the direction Obama has been leading us?
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
Todd, we’re all good Germans now.
AFY, how trite.
But it was a poignant trite, don’t ya know!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
Todd, as always, your passionate writing is appreciated. You have asked important questions and raised critical issues, as you have in the past.
What’s fascinating to me is that many people whose beliefs differ greatly acknowledge our runaway government. Most feel they are not well represented by the powers that be. Of course, in a plutarchy (a combination of a plutocracy and an oligarchy), the overriding paradigm is controlled by a small number of very wealthy individuals, so the majority may always feel disenfranchised.
I believe it’s important to remember that corporations are comprised of – and controlled by – people. Corporate decisions are made by the individuals who own and run them, not by some inanimate automaton. As things stand, it does not seem possible for someone to be elected (or appointed) to a powerful position without the support of the plutarchy. Perhaps campaign finance reform will change that, but it’s been something we’ve waited for – for a long time.
I hope you will continue to raise these issues and ask the difficult questions. Even more, I hope these issues get addressed and questions answered.
Thanks for your comments.
Here’s to the First Amendment!
I ran across this column that you’ll all love, I’m sure:
AMERICA’S BURGEONING CLASS WAR COULD SPELL OPPORTUNITY FOR GOP
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002335-america%E2%80%99s-bourgeoning-class-war-could-spell-opportunity-for-gop
“Last week’s disappointing job reports, with unemployment rising above 9%, only reinforced an emerging reality that few politicians, in either party, are ready to address. American society is becoming feudalized, with increasingly impregnable walls between the classes. This is ironic for a nation largely defined by its opportunity for upward mobility and fluid class structure….”
“This [disillusionment with Democrat faux populists] has created a class divide large enough to propel a Republican sweep next year.”
If nothing else, doesn’t this underscore the desperateness of the situation. With two political parties bowing and scraping to serve the affluent and the plutocrats, the people’s frustration will again provide them the opportunity to throw out a president who has fundamentally screwed them, to be even better screwed by Republican lackeys.
Listening to Boehner, Cantor and McConell, oh how wonderful it will be to live in their promised land.
Curmudgeon,
I’ll offer this:
Elizabeth Warren, The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class
http://youtu.be/akVL7QY0S8A