Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Years (2015 to 2020)

Happy New Years (2015 to 2020)

Many observers seem to be pessimistic about economic prospects, both in the near term and the longer time horizon. Many speak of secular stagnation [a condition of negligible or no economic growth in a market-based economy], whether due to demographic, technological, or sociological reasons. Paul Krugman in his interview with Ezra Klein actually talks about the next five years, but only in terms of income inequality, which he does not seem optimistic will be overcome.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

10 Ways Obama's Trade Agreement will hurt American Workers

* Senator Bernie Sanders (the Independent from Vermont) remarks on a pending trade deal (TPP) that President Obama wants — showing once again that American workers can't rely on neither the Democrats nor the Republicans when it comes to protecting the interests of the American working-class.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Economic Propaganda, Financial Chicanery and Inequality

(* A collection of recent tid-bits -- including blurbs about jobs, outsourcing and the oil glut.)

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

It's almost 2015: What's in YOUR Wallet?

What's in YOUR wallet?

December 23, 2014: The Stock Markets Boom!

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 have both recently hit all-time record highs (again!). All throughout 2013 and 2014, the stock markets have hit several all-time record highs — surpassing the previous highs of 2007 before the stock markets crashed during the Great Recession.

Even the Nasdaq is on track to tie it's previous record high. (On March 10, 2000, the Nasdaq Composite closed at an all-time high of 5,048 --- the decline from this peak signaled the beginning of the dot-com bubble burst.)

Since Obama first took office, the Dow is up 170% -- the S&P 500 is up 205% --- and the Nasdaq is up 207% (See charts below)

One would think that American workers' 401ks and union pensions would be doing very well, but...

80% of the stocks are owned by the top 10% --- and 50% of the stocks are owned by the top 1% --- so the uber-rich are getting richer still.

But what's in your wallet?

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Is ANY Pension Safe?

First, another question: Should someone (who's preparing for retirement) take a lump sum payment from their pension plan and have it deposited into a ROTH IRA account — or should they take a monthly payment?

From CNN Money in January 2014:

To make sure your pension plan isn't on the brink of running out of money, and your benefits aren't at risk, do some research. Request a copy of your plan's annual report, called a form 5500. Look for the funding ratio, or the amount of money that the plan has set aside to pay its future obligations. Typically, a healthy pension fund will have a ratio of at least 80%. Even if your plan becomes insolvent, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures private pension plans, will take over and pay your benefits. But there is an annual limit to what it will pay (in 2014, nearly $60,000 for single-employer plans). If you're in a significantly under-funded plan and your promised pension is larger than that limit, a lump sum could be a safer option.

But that was then, and this is now. With a new provision in the recent spending bill that puts pensions at risk, now what should we do?

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Will Cuba be the new Emerging Market?

Was Obama's reason for ending the 50-year-old embargo on Cuba based on "humanitarian reasons" — such as to bring home an American spy and so that Cuban families could reunite?

Or was big business behind Obama's decision to open trade relations with another dictatorship so as to create another "emerging market" to boost corporate profits — and to accommodate American companies who are seeking another pool of cheap labor?

Friday, December 19, 2014

Millennials and "Anti-Government" Government

What do our prime-age workers, the unemployed, the under-employed, the over-worked and the under-paid all have to look forward to in 2015 with the new GOP Congress when it comes to jobs and wages?

Over 9 million unemployed Americans (and more than 6 million others who are "not in the labor force" but who also want a job) will soon see what the new Congress will propose next year as their first "jobs bill" (Hint: It won't be for government jobs or public infrastructure investment — and it will be the GOP's very first bill).

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

How does Cheap Oil Risk U.S. Jobs and Pensions?

FORBES (from 2011): ExxonMobil CEO Says Oil Price Should Be $60 To $70 A Barrel -- "Rex Tillerson, the boss of ExxonMobil admitted last week that the price of oil–based purely on supply and demand- should be in the $60 to $70 a barrel range. The reason it’s above $100 a barrel, Tillerson explained, is due to the oil majors using futures contracts to lock in current high prices, and speculation that is engineered by the high-frequency trading of quantitative hedge funds."

Fast forward to December 2014...

Monday, December 15, 2014

Vanishing American Workers

New York Times: The Vanishing Male Worker (by Binyamin Appelbaum on December 11, 2014) -- From a New York Times/CBS News/Kaiser Family Foundation poll of 30 million Americans 25 to 54 who are without jobs: 44 percent of men in the survey said there were jobs in their area they could get, but were not willing to take (because they pay so low). Mr. Katz, a Harvard economist, said that some men might choose to describe themselves as unwilling to take low-wage jobs when in fact they cannot find any jobs at all. There are about 10 million prime-age men (25 to 54) who are not working, but there are only 4.8 million job openings for men and women of all ages. The decline of the work force is divisible into three related trends:

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Congress Forgot to Flush

The Senate passed the new spending bill on a 56 to 40 vote. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) voted against the bill because of the Dodd-Frank provision that allows the banks (once again) to recklessly gamble with other people's money. Here's what Elizabeth Warren had said just before the vote.

...

How American Workers were Devalued

Labor vs. Capital

Here is Franklin D. Roosevelt's Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act (on June 16, 1933) -- "No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country."

Adam Smith (sometimes referred to as "the father of capitalism") wrote in his magnum opus The Wealth of Nations (the first modern work of economics): "Labour was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased."

Fast forward to 2014...

Pensions at Risk in New Spending Bill

The new spending bill contains a measure that would allow (for the very first time) pension benefits of current retirees to be severely cut. The rule would alters 40 years of federal law and could affect millions of workers, many of them who are part of a shrinking group of middle-income employees (i.e. truckers, construction workers, supermarket employees, etc.)

Friday, December 12, 2014

Cable Companies Hold People Hostage

The issue of net neutrality has garnered most of the attention for major broadband providers — and how they plan to manage access to their networks and the information flowing over them to maximize profits, address government regulation and innovate in the years ahead.

Cable Company Monopolies

From Gizmodo . . .

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

China now ranks #1 in World Economy

China leads in the global economy.

After already over-taking Japan has the world's 2nd largest economy, the Chinese economy has just passed the U.S.’s to become the largest economy in the world. Market Watch recently reported: "For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet ... The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy. And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A."

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Can People be Corporations?

"Corporations are people my friend!"

People should incorporate themselves.
(This post was excerpted and edited for length from the Washington Post)

If companies are claiming the rights and privileges of people, maybe people should start claiming the rights and privileges of corporations. "Rights harmonization" should flow in both directions, since we’re now all indistinguishable and equally protected “persons” in the Supreme Court’s eyes.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Most Americans are Economic Populists

Democrats have always had a winning message, but most refuse to use it — why?

* Excerpted and edited for more clarity from two posts at Robert's Stochastic Thoughts

People keep asking what the Democrats can do to convince white working-class and middle-class Americans that the Democratic party is on their side. I keep writing that they can propose increasing the progressivity of the US tax code — a proposal also known as "class war".

Friday, December 5, 2014

New York Senator Chuck Schumer might be right...

...but he's usually wrong (My update on April 1, 2016 -- because he is endorsing Hillary Clinton, rather than Bernie Sanders.)

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Conservatives hate government, unless THEY ARE government

Directly below is excerpted from a post by a corporate shill "conservative" economist at his blog making a case for government jobs (decent and humane jobs) that pay a fair and living wage — just as politicians also enjoy good government jobs that offer great pay and benefits. Conservatives, libertarians, right-wingers, Republicans and Tea Party fanatics hate "government", but yet they love being a part of that same government.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Republican PayPals for Corporate CEOs

Last Monday, Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Tx.) joined Republican Reps. Scott Garrett (N.J.) and Bill Huizenga (Mich.) to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission (the federal agency that regulates Wall Street) to forget about the duly enacted CEO pay reform (in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act) that requires companies to disclose the ratio between their CEO and worker pay.