Those who continue to tell us that Social Security must be cut (together with other government safety nets) as part of an austerity measure to reduce the deficit in order to restart the economy are either idiots or sociopaths -- particularly if they persist in promulgating this mantra now that the the national deficit is rapidly heading toward zero!!! Moreover, ecomomists who are not whoring for the rich who wish to rob the poor are in agreement that the only way to restart the economy now is by renewed government spending.

---

 theREALnews                                                                         - Permalink -

Papantonio: Deficit Reduction Exposes Austerity Lies

KMC >> 12pm - May 25, 2013

Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder talk about the falling deficit, and how both the traditional media and the Republicans don't want Americans to know that Obama's economic policies are actually working.

Watch Ring of Fire every Sunday at 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific on Free Speech TV!

Follow more of our stories at http://www.RingofFireRadio.com Be sociable! Follow us on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RingofFireRadio Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RingofFireRadio Google+: http://plus.google.com/118415831573195648557

President Obama and many members of Congress claim that Social Security must be cut to reduce the national deficit. Nothing can be farther from the truth! First, Social Security will run a surplus for the next 20 years. Second, Social Security is a $2.8 Trillion insurance policy prepaid by the beneficiaries and by law is not permitted contribute to the national debt. Third, the national debt is now falling on its own accord (the Congressional Budget Office projects the current fiscal year deficit to be 4.0% down sharply from 7.0% last year) ...and any further reduction of the deficit would be a drag on the economy.

---

 theREALnews                                                                               Permalink

Social Security Act Turns 78

Signed into law in 1935, the Social Security Act launched an integral social safety net program, but is it still sustainable? - August 14, 2013

Blogger's Note: The part in my header having to do with the spontaneous reduction in the National deficit was found here: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-deficit-is-shrinking-2013-8

In The Guardian newspaper's report about this subject they quote a former Mackenzie Group economist as saying that as much as $32 trillion might be hidden away in offshore tax havens. This is roughly twice the GDP of the United States, by far the largest GDP in the world. $32 trillion is also about 13 times greater than the current funds in the Social Security Trust Fund and 246 times the $130 billion that Obama proposes to extract from Social Security over the next 10 years. So a one-time levy of just 0.4% imposed on the criminal corporation's current offshore stash could achive the exact same savings without stealing a nickel from our impoverished veterans, unemployed, and elderly.

---

 theREALnews                                                                               Permalink

April 5, 2013

Investigation Reveals Trillions Hidden in Tax Havens

Bill Black: An international collaboration of investigative journalists has released the names of wealthy individuals stashing as much as three times the American GDP in tax havens 2013-04-05 14:11:33

Bio

William K. Black, author of THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE, teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He has taught previously at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement. Black developed the concept of "control fraud" frauds in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a "weapon." Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined. He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae's former senior management. 

There are two forms of debt, public and private. Public debt is accrued by the government, and in the case of the U.S. does not have to be repaid (so long as the rest of the world continues to tolerate continued printing of more dollars). In fact, since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. (via the Fed) has printed $13 TRILLION(!) to bail out the big banks from their reckless mortage loans. Most of the private debt was socked on American citizens when the bank-created real-estate bubble burst. In the past, when there was a financial crisis the banks had to eat their losses, and private debts were written down to whatever the market could afford. But now the government is saying that there cannot be a market solution (because it would hurt its largest campaign contributers, the big banks). So the Obama administration and the Republicans are saying that more private debt (in the form of reinflating the real estate market) is the solution to the present "financial crisis." But in order to appear fiscally "responsible" the government claims that it should cut some part of the deficit ...and the only thing left to cut is Social Security, Medicare, and other social spending. But not only would this be stealing from the rapidly disappearing American middle class (whose payroll taxes have fully paid for these things), it would also be poor economics: As a result, the growth of private debt would grow to even more than the current 75 to 80 percent of family income, essentially shutting down all discretionary consumption ...whereas consumers consuming comprise 70% of the U.S. GDP. "We must destroy the village in order to save it"?

---

 theREALnews                                                                               Permalink

March 25, 2013
Government Debt and Deficits Are Not the Problem - Private Debt Is

Michael Hudson: Why do they call for governments to balance the budget by pushing the economy at large deeper into debt, while trying to save the banks from taking a loss? -

Bio

Michael Hudson is a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971). His most recent book is "Beyond the Bubble." 

Ever wonder just how big the wealth disparity in the U.S. really is?

---

http://youtu.be/QPKKQnijnsM

Wealth Inequality in America

politizane 

Published on Nov 20, 2012 
Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is. 

References: 
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2...
http://danariely.com/2010/09/30/wealt...
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011...
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/...

Notwithstanding Jon Stewart's ridicule of Paul Krugman's suggestion that the U.S. Treasury mint a trillion-dollar coin to avert austerity, all of the top economists who have not gone over to "the dark side of the force" (aka the neoliberal kleptocracy) know that (1) the platinum coin is but one of many viable ways to avert austerity and (2) imposition of austerity is a sure recipe to crash the economy, bringing great suffering to all but the top 1%. Here, top economist Bill Black relates the deep history of austerity, revealing it to be a self-serving right-wing dogma rather than a scientifically determined necessity.

---

 theREALnews                                                                               Permalink

January 18, 2013

Stewart vs Krugman and the Religion of Austerity

Bill Black: Obama has options, including the trillion dollar coin, to refuse to negotiate under the gun but he's taken them off the table; both sides subscribe to the dogma of austerity
Watch full multipart The Black Financial and Fraud Report


Bio

William K. Black, author of THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE, teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He has taught previously at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement. Black developed the concept of "control fraud" frauds in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a "weapon." Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined. He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae's former senior management.

Stephen Lendman: "Austerity reflects predatory capitalist harshness. Bankers, other corporate favorites, and super-rich elites are enriched at the expense of most others." "Washington's fiscal cliff duplicity conceals class war. Bipartisan complicity wants America's social contract destroyed. By 2023 or sooner, it may no longer exist."

---

New York Times Supports Austerity Harshness
By Stephen Lendman (about the author)                                                            Permalink
OpEdNews Op Eds 1/8/2013 at 01:23:40

opednews.com

New York Times Supports Austerity Harshness

The NYT notoriously supports wealth, power and privilege.

by Stephen Lendman

Austerity reflects predatory capitalist harshness. Bankers, other corporate favorites, and super-rich elites are enriched at the expense of most others.

Force-fed policies are destructive. Disadvantaged households are harmed most. Capital's divine right is prioritized. It profits by cutting wages and eroding social spending en route to eliminating it altogether.

Washington's fiscal cliff duplicity conceals class war. Bipartisan complicity wants America's social contract destroyed. By 2023 or sooner, it may no longer exist.

Robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul is policy. It's happening across Europe. The worst of times are planned. Banker rights are prioritized over popular ones. They're on the chopping block for elimination.

On January 1, The New York Times headlined "Used to Hardship, Latvia Accepts Austerity, and Its Pain Eases."

It's hard imaging rubbish this unconscionable gets published. The Times featured it.

Latvia "provide(s) a rare boost to champions of the proposition that pain pays," said The Times. Hard times continue. "But in just four years, the country has gone from the (EU's) worst economic disaster zone to a model of what the (IMF) hails as the healing properties of deep budget cuts."

IMF policies wage financial war on humanity. They're hugely destructive. They debt-entrap nations. They impoverish millions. They force-feed structural adjustment harshness. They mandate:

• privatization of state enterprises; many are sold for a fraction of real worth;

• mass layoffs;

• deregulation;

• deep social spending cuts;

• wage freezes or cuts;

• unrestricted free market access for western corporations;

• corporate-friendly tax cuts;

• tax increases for working households;

• trade unionism crushed or marginalized; and

• harsh repression against opposition to a system incompatible with social democracy, civil and human rights.

Kleptocrats are empowered. Bankers and other corporate predators strip mine countries of material wealth and resources. Crown jewels are sold off at fire sale prices. Poverty, unemployment, hunger and homelessness grow.

People lucky enough to have jobs become serfs. Debt peonage substitutes for freedom. A race to the bottom follows. Force-fed austerity is neo-Malthusaianism writ large.

Its holy trinity mandates no public sphere, unrestrained corporate empowerment, and abolition of social spending. It's the worst of all economic/financial worlds.

They're financialized into hollow shell dystopian backwaters.

Bravo, said The Times. After seeing its economy shrink 20% from peak levels, Latvia dead-cat bounced a smidgen. Its exports rose.

"We are here to celebrate," said IMF head Christine Lagarde. She's a world class scoundrel. She was Washington's top choice to run things. Her support for neoliberal harshness won her the job.

Her mandate is austerity harshness, mass impoverishment, neo-serfdom, and extracting wealth for giant banks and other financial favorites. Her background showed she's up to the challenge.

She held previous high-level financial, trade, and other government and business posts. She didn't disappoint. She's a walking conflict of interest.

She's a longstanding hardline neoliberal insider. She's well rewarded for inflicting pain. She calls Latvia a success story. Its government sacked a third of its civil servants.

Wages were severely slashed. Benefits largely disappeared. Economic deprivation left vast numbers "severely materially deprived."

For ordinary people, crisis conditions persist. Anyone out of work on earning subsistence or sub-poverty pay understands what's going on better than talking-head economists.

Many people left and won't return. They include some of Latvia's best and brightest. Why endure IMF harshness.

Riga-based Stockholm School of Economics Professor Morten Hansen said Latvia's unusually open economy enabled relentless wage and benefit squeezing.

"You can only do this in a country that is willing to take serious pain for some time and has a dramatic flexibility in the labor market," he said.

In other words, it's only possible where workers have no rights, those most vocal and angry leave, and others know resistance faces stiff crackdowns. It's also easier perhaps in tiny countries. Larger ones are harder to control.

Hansen added that "The lesson of what Latvia has done is that there is no lesson."
Jeffrey Sommers and Michael Hudson addressed Latvia. Their article is titled "Latvia's Economic Disaster as a Neoliberal Success Story: A Model for Europe and the US?"

Latvia is today's "most highly celebrated anti-labor success story," they said. It's called a country "where labor did not fight back, but simply emigrated politely and quietly."

Workers endured austerity instead of resisting, it's claimed. Many voted with their feet and left. Most remained and suffered. Tax burdens are "decidedly on (their) backs"."

Latvia is praised for being "business friendly." It comes at a high price. It reflects 19th century harshness. It's a cruel unacceptable social experiment.

The New York Times article is discussed. Human misery is called the "Latvian Miracle." The newspaper of record "has fallen in line with the surrealistic Orwellian attempts to depict Latvia's austerity and asset stripping as an economic success"."

Wages and benefits are stripped to the bone. Workers endure unconscionable tax burdens. Real estate interests get off lightly. So do capital gains and other business-friendly initiatives.

Latvia became "de-industrializ(ed), depopulat(ed) and de-socializ(ed)." It's a model dystopian state. It became a "Protestant morality play."

"(S)toic Balts confront(ed) crisis" by avoiding "histrionics (and) getting busy with work." These type notions appeal to "smug middle-class prejudices and stereotypes in countries whose populations have not had to suffer economic experiments in neoliberal horror."

"Anyone with actual experience in Latvia will see the dissonance between myth and reality regarding the government's response to the crisis." "Latvians most emphatically did protest both the corruption and proposed austerity following the fall 2008 crash."

Neoliberal regimes condemn resistance. Harshness was force-fed. Many people emigrated. Protests abated. People most vocal and angry sought better times elsewhere.

Latvia's post-Soviet population dropped from 2.7 million to "an official" 2.08 in 2010. "Demographic reports originally (said) 1.88 million in 2010. Some Latvian demographers" say totals were inflated.
Latvian "success" reflects "neoliberal Potemkin Village illusion." The country's 2008 economic collapse "was the deepest of any nation when the financial bubble burst."

The depth of its crisis permitted a dead-cat bounce. Officials and media scoundrels claim recovery. Privileged few alone benefit.

Success reflects population and capital flight, clear-cutting forests, de-industrialization, neoserfdom, unprotected workers, poverty-level wages, and addressing underdeveloped agricultural and transit sectors.

"Neoliberals call austerity and emigration 'stability' and even economic growth and recovery, as long as people don't complain or demand an alternative."

Is Latvia's model heading for America? Bipartisan complicity to destroy popular benefits suggests the worst of hard times ahead. They'll arrive incrementally over time.

The America older generations grew up in doesn't exist. Worse times loom. Younger ones face dystopian harshness. They'll be no place to hide.

                                                                ----------

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at Email address removed .
His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
click here

REQUIRED WATCH FOR ANYONE WHO THINKS THAT SOCIAL SECURITY "NEEDS" TO BE CUT, OR WORSE, PRIVATIZED!!! MICHAEL HUDSON, ONE OF THE TOP TWO OR THREE ECONONOMISTS IN THE COUNTRY WHO HAVE NOT BEEN BOUGHT OFF BY WALLSTREET, DOES NOT MINCE WORDS IN THIS COGENT EXPOSE OF THE NON-EXISTANT FISCAL CLIFF CURRENTLY BEING SOLD AS AN EXCUSE TO FINALLY GIVE WALL STREET IT'S FONDEST WISH: STEALING THE SAFTY NET OF THE 99% WHOSE PAYROLL TAX RATES (HIGHER THAN MITT ROMNEY'S TOTAL TAX RATE) HAVE PREPAID SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE FOR DECADES INTO THE FUTURE.

---

 theREALnews                                                                               Permalink

November 25, 2012

Fiscal Cliff An Artificial Crisis

Michael Hudson: Fiscal cliff was manufactured to shift more of the burden of the crisis onto ordinary people
Watch full multipart Fiscal Cliff An Artificial Crisis


Bio 

Michael Hudson is a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971). His most recent book is "Beyond the Bubble." 

FROM ROBERT REICH'S BLOG

---

http://youtu.be/cO1F7EcGFAc                                                                                    Original here


Monday, August 20, 2012

The Five Reasons Why the Ryan-Romney Economic Plan Would Be A Disaster for America

Mitt Romney hasn’t provided details so  we should be grateful he’s selected as vice president a man with a detailed plan Romney says is “marvelous,” “bold and exciting,” “excellent,” “much needed,” and “consistent with” what he’s put out.

So let’s look at the five basic features of this “marvelous” Ryan plan.

FIRST: It  would boost unemployment because it slashes public spending next year and the year after, when the economy is still likely to need a boost, not a fiscal drag. It would be the same austerity trap now throwing Europe into recession. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Ryan’s plan would mean 1.3 million fewer jobs next year than otherwise, and 2.8 million fewer the year after.

SECOND: Ryan would take from lower-income Americans and give to the rich – who already have the biggest share of America’s total income and wealth in almost a century. His plan would raise taxes on families earning between 30 and 40 thousand dollars by almost $500 a year, and slash programs like Medicare, food stamps, and children’s health What would Ryan do with these savings? Reduce taxes on millionaires by an average of almost $500,000 a year.

THIRD: Ryan wants to turn Medicare into vouchers that won’t keep up with the rising costs of health care – thereby shifting the burden onto seniors. By contrast, Obama’s Affordable Care Act saves money on Medicare by reducing payments to medical providers like hospitals and drug companies.

FOURTH: He wants to add money to defense while cutting spending on education, infrastructure, and basic research and development. America already spends more on defense than the next five biggest military spenders put together. Our future productivity depends on the public investments Ryan wants to cut.

FIFTH AND Finally, Ryan’s budget doesn’t even reduce the federal budget deficit – not for decades. Remember: He’s adding to military spending, giving huge additional tax cuts to the very rich, and stifling economic growth by cutting spending too early.  The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates Ryan’s Roadmap would push public debt to over 175 percent of GDP by 2050.

So there you have it. The Ryan – Ryan-ROMNEY – economic plan.

And the five reasons why it would be a disaster for America.

(Please watch the video — and share.)

---

ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock" and “The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.