2011 is slowly taking ground, while America is in the midst of an ideological War that offer no solutions to any of the painful point of the troublesome Economy:
-The Taxes Debate that is reaping the Nation in and out:
The President cut a Deal with the GOP, extensions of the Bush tax cuts and more to it!
The bill went trough the Senate with the speed of light, probably they all raise the Champagne glasses in their chambers to cheer the Presidential Stroke of Genius that took the huge burden out of their shoulders:
Their Campaign Donors will Love the Presents they Deliver for them for Christmas!
The House give a little better Resistance...fiery speeches and performances on both side...and it also pass!
Finally We sew some true bipartisanship!
Bravo!
- Bravo indeed!
Another bill that will make a Budget whole so huge that the Medicare Donut whole will look like a well fitted ring on a sunny day!
Now let drop the curtains on the stage, turn off the glorious beam and let see the daylight, let see the Real Reasons behind the Theater we just witnessed...
If anyone wonder why the Congress deliver a Christmas Tree to The Wealthy, don't!
There is not one reason alone, there are two Trillions reasons Why!
What?
Yeah...
We hear that Number so many time, but We never really bother to stop and think of the Straight it represent:
Two Trillions dollars is the Number of Cash Stash Corporate America has!
Fat that Corporate America has and We The People Don't!
Fat that Corporate America can survive on while We The People can starve out looking for employment we don't have!
Fat that Corporate America has and it is bigger then the yearly deficit Our Federal Government have to run in order to cover Our Social Security checks and Unemployment checks, pay our Medicare dues or Pay Our Soldiers Salaries Oversea...
Roll those Numbers until their sad reality sink into the conscience with their full painful Consequence:
- Cash Stash that Corporate America has it is Bigger then Our Budget Deficit For A Whole Year...
Or You can roll those Numbers this way:
- Corporate America has more Cash then the 2009 Stimulus package, and the newest Tax Cuts deal combined!
The Corporate Media did a good job indeed: no one report the obvious pathetic downside of the Capitol Hill!
The Irony gets worse:
-Corporate America while well awash in all that cash, still serve the ball to the Federal Government not just to borrow to keep in order the Need of the Society, but also pass the Long overdue Wage Increase: cause Payroll tax cuts for the People are nothing but the long overdue raise that Corporate America will not give to its employees!
-Middle Class is vanishing in the distance like a rainbow of unfulfilled expectations, while Corporate Media is filling the air with the notorious Lie:
- Unemployment is here to stay: Prepare Yourself for The New Normal!
It is very hard for me to say this but I will:
-What We Witnessing those days is a Capitulations of American Federal Government affront of the Corporate America!
Pure and simple Capitulation!
To assume that the Corporate America have now incentive to invest their Corporate cash on American ground is well beyond a naivete:
- Beyond the Neighborhood Retail Plaza, Leisure Resort or Boutique Hotel to simply expect Corporate America To invest in any kind of Production or even Research and Development, while they can do that Oversea for a dime on a dollars is economical suicide and Corporate America is not a desperate fellow!
Simply said they will not, it is a pure, logical and economically justified fact!
Those of You who still believe that is not so, that some sort of Morality, Loyalty or Patriotism will bend them toward Us, cause they are after all Our Corporate...well, believe!
Meanwhile the World is standing still, every other Nations out there do nothing to get ahead of the curve of Progress...
Yeah, We Wish...
The New Congress will take over tomorrow and what is their number one Idea: Repeal of the Health Care bill!
If the notion is not so tragical it will be comedy worthy of a Shakespearean plot:
The fresh Idea that the Tea Party is bringing to Capitol Hill: lets go back to the free Market Economy that did not work in the 18 Century, but it will work in the 21 Century starting with the Health Care System left alone...
What a joke!
Our Congressional leaders are utterly stuck in Impotent Ideological Wars of equally Impotent Idea:
-Keynes economics can't deliver on his full employment Promises cause the Government is not the Investor, it is Distributor of the Resources and they are melting between the Local Officials and Local Entrepreneurs in the Power play of the Local Politics!
-Freedman economics can't deliver cause The America is not the Playing field of his Theories but The World: the wealth trickle down, not in our backyard, but Oversea were the Productive Investments are happening, simple as that!
Instead Our Congressional leader should start looking for the alternative in Ideologies:
-"It does not matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches a mouse!"
If the Economy is in a crise let open our mind, shred our Ideological prejudice and spell the Truth:
- Our Stimulus did not work so well, the New Stimulus will not work so well, and here is Why:
Cause Taxes cuts & Taxes raise are happening in the domain of individual Income bracket, to say the best will stimulate the Consumptions, although for a very short time!
That is so 20 Century Solutions of the Economic Maladies!
21 Century Solutions Are:
-Where Do We Invest The Taxes Revenues?
In the Third Millennium The World will be shape not by the Power of the Guns, Germs and Steel, but by Knowledge, Present and Future, and The Nations Who get to adjust to that simple Fact will rose to be The Leaders of the Future Wealth of the Nations!
Both America and China in 2009 put up forward a Stimulus package, but what a world of different they were:
- Our was hitting a resistance every step of the way and ended up being a goodies bag consistent on tax cuts, unemployment Benefits and States Financial Budget support, while this is how the Chinese Stimulus of 2009 look a like:
source: ECONOMIC OBSERVER English edition of the weekly Chinese newspaper 2009
Recently The Government in China bring forward a sweeping 1.5 trillion $ Stimulus bill also!
Yeah...they did, as so did we: double on our stimulus, except what a World of difference the New Chinese bill stand For:
Instead of make up finesse on the previous bill, China turn the ship toward the real Solutions:
Productive Investment in those arias:
- Alternative energies
- Biotechnology
- New generation information technologies
- High end equipment manufacturing
- Advance materials
- Alternative fuel cars
- Green, environment friendly technologies
Government Investments: building Factories that will absorb the skilled labor that will productively supply employments for decade to come!
It is also a first step toward the shifts from intensive labor Manufacture Economy toward a high tech, high paid top skilled jobs of tomorrow...
All that will be accomplished in five years with is an average time span of an Architectural Project: simply said China is building China!
Wake up and smell the coffee, cause someone in China is laughing on our bickering, on our ignorance and our pathetic ideological blindness!
Now more then ever it is a time for action...
If the Knowledge is The Power To Be, in the era of Internet failure to communicate and spread the Knowledge is a simple crime of the mind: we are all Paul Revere, We Should all talk, and connect, and talk and connect, so we will see that we actually search for the same: a better life, time to spend with our families and Love ones without stress and worries, and if it is that simple then the Divisions on Progressive and Conservative and all the Colors in between are just artificial inventions of the Powers who are turning us into a modern slaves chained to a political affiliations that don't have our best interest in mind cause they are also slaves to a Few very Wealthy individuals...
-The Taxes Debate that is reaping the Nation in and out:
The President cut a Deal with the GOP, extensions of the Bush tax cuts and more to it!
The bill went trough the Senate with the speed of light, probably they all raise the Champagne glasses in their chambers to cheer the Presidential Stroke of Genius that took the huge burden out of their shoulders:
Their Campaign Donors will Love the Presents they Deliver for them for Christmas!
The House give a little better Resistance...fiery speeches and performances on both side...and it also pass!
Finally We sew some true bipartisanship!
Bravo!
- Bravo indeed!
Another bill that will make a Budget whole so huge that the Medicare Donut whole will look like a well fitted ring on a sunny day!
Now let drop the curtains on the stage, turn off the glorious beam and let see the daylight, let see the Real Reasons behind the Theater we just witnessed...
If anyone wonder why the Congress deliver a Christmas Tree to The Wealthy, don't!
There is not one reason alone, there are two Trillions reasons Why!
What?
Yeah...
We hear that Number so many time, but We never really bother to stop and think of the Straight it represent:
Two Trillions dollars is the Number of Cash Stash Corporate America has!
Fat that Corporate America has and We The People Don't!
Fat that Corporate America can survive on while We The People can starve out looking for employment we don't have!
Fat that Corporate America has and it is bigger then the yearly deficit Our Federal Government have to run in order to cover Our Social Security checks and Unemployment checks, pay our Medicare dues or Pay Our Soldiers Salaries Oversea...
Roll those Numbers until their sad reality sink into the conscience with their full painful Consequence:
- Cash Stash that Corporate America has it is Bigger then Our Budget Deficit For A Whole Year...
Or You can roll those Numbers this way:
- Corporate America has more Cash then the 2009 Stimulus package, and the newest Tax Cuts deal combined!
The Corporate Media did a good job indeed: no one report the obvious pathetic downside of the Capitol Hill!
The Irony gets worse:
-Corporate America while well awash in all that cash, still serve the ball to the Federal Government not just to borrow to keep in order the Need of the Society, but also pass the Long overdue Wage Increase: cause Payroll tax cuts for the People are nothing but the long overdue raise that Corporate America will not give to its employees!
-Middle Class is vanishing in the distance like a rainbow of unfulfilled expectations, while Corporate Media is filling the air with the notorious Lie:
- Unemployment is here to stay: Prepare Yourself for The New Normal!
It is very hard for me to say this but I will:
-What We Witnessing those days is a Capitulations of American Federal Government affront of the Corporate America!
Pure and simple Capitulation!
To assume that the Corporate America have now incentive to invest their Corporate cash on American ground is well beyond a naivete:
- Beyond the Neighborhood Retail Plaza, Leisure Resort or Boutique Hotel to simply expect Corporate America To invest in any kind of Production or even Research and Development, while they can do that Oversea for a dime on a dollars is economical suicide and Corporate America is not a desperate fellow!
Simply said they will not, it is a pure, logical and economically justified fact!
Those of You who still believe that is not so, that some sort of Morality, Loyalty or Patriotism will bend them toward Us, cause they are after all Our Corporate...well, believe!
Meanwhile the World is standing still, every other Nations out there do nothing to get ahead of the curve of Progress...
Yeah, We Wish...
The New Congress will take over tomorrow and what is their number one Idea: Repeal of the Health Care bill!
If the notion is not so tragical it will be comedy worthy of a Shakespearean plot:
The fresh Idea that the Tea Party is bringing to Capitol Hill: lets go back to the free Market Economy that did not work in the 18 Century, but it will work in the 21 Century starting with the Health Care System left alone...
What a joke!
Our Congressional leaders are utterly stuck in Impotent Ideological Wars of equally Impotent Idea:
-Keynes economics can't deliver on his full employment Promises cause the Government is not the Investor, it is Distributor of the Resources and they are melting between the Local Officials and Local Entrepreneurs in the Power play of the Local Politics!
-Freedman economics can't deliver cause The America is not the Playing field of his Theories but The World: the wealth trickle down, not in our backyard, but Oversea were the Productive Investments are happening, simple as that!
Instead Our Congressional leader should start looking for the alternative in Ideologies:
-"It does not matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches a mouse!"
If the Economy is in a crise let open our mind, shred our Ideological prejudice and spell the Truth:
- Our Stimulus did not work so well, the New Stimulus will not work so well, and here is Why:
Cause Taxes cuts & Taxes raise are happening in the domain of individual Income bracket, to say the best will stimulate the Consumptions, although for a very short time!
That is so 20 Century Solutions of the Economic Maladies!
21 Century Solutions Are:
-Where Do We Invest The Taxes Revenues?
In the Third Millennium The World will be shape not by the Power of the Guns, Germs and Steel, but by Knowledge, Present and Future, and The Nations Who get to adjust to that simple Fact will rose to be The Leaders of the Future Wealth of the Nations!
Both America and China in 2009 put up forward a Stimulus package, but what a world of different they were:
- Our was hitting a resistance every step of the way and ended up being a goodies bag consistent on tax cuts, unemployment Benefits and States Financial Budget support, while this is how the Chinese Stimulus of 2009 look a like:
source: ECONOMIC OBSERVER English edition of the weekly Chinese newspaper 2009
Recently The Government in China bring forward a sweeping 1.5 trillion $ Stimulus bill also!
Yeah...they did, as so did we: double on our stimulus, except what a World of difference the New Chinese bill stand For:
Instead of make up finesse on the previous bill, China turn the ship toward the real Solutions:
Productive Investment in those arias:
- Alternative energies
- Biotechnology
- New generation information technologies
- High end equipment manufacturing
- Advance materials
- Alternative fuel cars
- Green, environment friendly technologies
Government Investments: building Factories that will absorb the skilled labor that will productively supply employments for decade to come!
It is also a first step toward the shifts from intensive labor Manufacture Economy toward a high tech, high paid top skilled jobs of tomorrow...
All that will be accomplished in five years with is an average time span of an Architectural Project: simply said China is building China!
Wake up and smell the coffee, cause someone in China is laughing on our bickering, on our ignorance and our pathetic ideological blindness!
Now more then ever it is a time for action...
If the Knowledge is The Power To Be, in the era of Internet failure to communicate and spread the Knowledge is a simple crime of the mind: we are all Paul Revere, We Should all talk, and connect, and talk and connect, so we will see that we actually search for the same: a better life, time to spend with our families and Love ones without stress and worries, and if it is that simple then the Divisions on Progressive and Conservative and all the Colors in between are just artificial inventions of the Powers who are turning us into a modern slaves chained to a political affiliations that don't have our best interest in mind cause they are also slaves to a Few very Wealthy individuals...
So, I am the person who DMed you a bunch of comments (@mjpinmd), but I will write here, too. (Oh, great, she says :-) )
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think that there are several forces at play. First, labor is so much cheaper in China that it has to flow there. Ultimately, labor will flow to Africa and India, I suspect, assuming global warming doesn't bake the continent/sub-continent. This just isn't going to change. We just made a color photocopy on a $150 printer. You can not make such a machine in the US at that price. Unlike the low priced labor from Japan and Korea of past generations, there are so many people in China that our consumption can be met by their output. Therefore, most manufacturing is going to move to China. Heavy goods (large air conditioners, for instance) are moving to Mexico and will likely be shipped back to the US by rail.
Have you ever tried to buy a bike made in the US? I tried. I thought for sure that Trek was made in the US. Hah! Turns out their website is basically a lie and only certain specialized high-end bikes are made in the US. So, I can buy a cheap bike made in China and sold at Walmart for $100, a better bike, still made in China, from a local bike store, for $400, or I can buy a special bike made in NY for about $700. What do I buy for my 11 year old daughter? (We bought the $400 Trek).
The world has to shift to a different energy source. With that change will come a shift in the balance of power. If the US follows the same mindset that England did when coal was king, those who have investments in oil will continue to drive the country on a path that continues this reliance on oil. They will drive us into ground, killing all who stand in the way until some other power source usurps oil.
So, Koch et al will attempt to maintain their stranglehold on power so that they can maintain their profits and their investments in oil continue to pay off. This is one group of people that needs to be wiped out. But, they have billions to invest in media, can buy all the media outlets they need (Ohhh…. Bill, you were not-working-for-me when you allowed the FCC based limits of media ownership be removed.) and can force feed thoughts into people's mind that oil is endless, wind power is terrible, and solar power is… well, I don't really know. Fills up the golf courses?
However, to counter this: energy source change is going to happen, and those who invest in it will make massive profits. So, I don't see a shift to alternative energy sources as hopeless. I just don't expect the components to be made in the US!
My neighbors are so full of rage and fear that talking to them on these topics is very, very difficult. Every party I attend, I hope I don't hear something something so totally fucking obnoxious that I have to respond. Starting a discussion - like healthcare - just generates a torrent of supposed facts and crap that you just can't refute with truth unless your brain is wired to the internet. It is far easier to rain non-sense out of your mouth than it is to refute it. Your friend says "The Health Care Bill Taxes Gold!!!" You suspect this is non-sense, but how to you refute such garbage without doing a search?
(cont.)
This is a good and thoughtful post Marie. Corporate government is here.I will edit President Lincoln's famous statement... Government of, for and by the corporations shall not perish with out a big fight and the corporations have most of the ammunition and all we have is the internet and a lot of potential soldiers who don't even know that there is a war on!
ReplyDeleteI agree with pretty much you have said. Corporations dictate the rules and politicians just follow, but there are other global forces of influence at play and many economic factors that can change the rules of the game.Example: the NGO's They have lots of influence on what happens around the world and they can put much pressure in governments. We are a global society after all. Regarding how China is preparing for the near future and moving ahead of us in so many different ways I think it wont happen too fast and they will encounter much of the same economic and social problems we are having in here as their midlle class grows bigger and stronger. Those problems will slow them down a bit. They will also have some massive problems such as food shortage, increasing pollution, and a rising midlle class not willing to work for miserable wages and that will take much energy and resources before they can be solved. I have much optimism that this country will emerge out of the economic collapse in a much healthier and productive way than ever before. What we have experienced in recent years will make America much stronger and wiser.Sorry if this is a simplistic comment for thei blog but I am not a macroeconomics student, just a casual observer.
ReplyDeleteI am lolapowers with a different screen name :-)
ReplyDeleteAlso , never forget the 'black swans.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Marie, by the way, as you can see I'm a foreign people who loves the US's friends, tell me how's the US economy? Sincerely desire that we can see everything is going to be all right. As usual I passed here and twit your blog. Have a wonderful night.
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden I realize I dont have an reply to a comment option...
ReplyDeleteHello Google...?!
Anyway, in response to Mike: yes China do invest in Africa, but to say that Corporate follow the chip labor is to agree to the popular masquerade of economics: they follow the chip cost of production, labour is just a cost...so where the manipulation start:
If the cost of productions go down, then the price of productions should go down also, but it is not going down at all: why?
Cause they are Monopolies, Corporations is just their New Fancy name: they are nothing but the Monopolies with the Power to control the Price, the way they control the Production!
Moving the Factories in China or for that matter all over the Globe they are lowering the cost of their Productions while the Power of Monopoly bend the market forces and allow them to make extra profits...
That is the sole reason they go Oversea...
The possibility to realize extra profit, not the chip labor, as a matter of fact, they always pay extra in labour cost to the domestic Market in order to establish themselves in the Foreign community, the stories of chip labour are just that, stories...
The science of alternative energy is just that a Science and it will happen, who will be first will reap the benefits for decade to come...
Maybe You should read my post: Who are the German and the Jew among us: it talk about the Corporate going over sea!
I have a Health Care post also, it may help You to open Your Neighbors eyes also...
In and out, all of my post are building upon themselves, witch is my goal, to break the dogmas and raise the awareness that Economy can be much much better with the Globalization...
Wow...i believe this might be your best essay yet Marie..."trickle-down economics" has been proven wrong throughout the 20th Century...a demand-side economy is the only one that builds the middle class...
ReplyDeleteBoth India and China are increasing their spending on infrastructure projects as a percent of domestic spending...as a result, their outlook going forward is much rosier than ours...investment companies understand this and have placed more emphasis on foreign stocks, while downgrading many domestic US equities...
In other words, our own wealthy class understands that they are throwing the US economy under the bus, but why should they care when they can invest internationally and with little tax liability?
Again, great post Marie...the comparison with China and their stimulus pie chart (so different than ours!!!) is quite telling...
excellent post... lots of passion, it shows that you gave it time. i'll be stopping by more often and i look forward to your next.
ReplyDeleteMy Dear Marie,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately you're preaching to the choir on this as the sane "informed" people know the real story and unfortunately "Most" Republicans have the mindset of "Me" not "Us" and ultimately the "Upper 10%" would prefer that the rest of us move to Mexico so that "They" can have "Their Country Back," which is a sad testament as to where we stand at this point in time.
Here is a recent article of what the Germans view of America is and it isn't pretty, but unfortunately it's very true in many regards...
http://goo.gl/GNAdZ
Sadly, many of the people who voted for Obama in 2008 either sat on the sidelines in 2010 or jumped over to the other side as they took the attitude that in a paltry 2 years Obama's gallant effort to turn 8 years of carnage around was not quick enough so they felt that he did not provide "Change!" Considering the Country was teetering on the brink of financial collapse and chaos and he prevented the second depression was "Not Good Enough" for these "Fair Weather Supporters?" Just how much can one person physically do in just 2 years? So these jokers wanted to return to the Bush mess after only 2 years?
Dr. Robert Watson from Lynn University provided me with a list of the President's accomplishments in just the first 18 months and you want to tell me that wasn't enough for these losers to turn around and vote Republicans back in? After this last election and giving the President only 2 years to magically turn this country around for many LOSERS to bail and vote Republican I'm just embarrassed to admit I am an American.
http://goo.gl/j7Lq0
Perhaps America had better open their eyes to the facts and had better roll their sleeves up for "Us" and stop being "Me" and what have You done for "Me" lately so that "WE" can fix this country together!
In response to my other readers:
ReplyDeleteJames,
It is an Honor to get a positive critic from a Man of Your Dignity, I'm flatter that You like it and I'm obliged to rise with my next to Your expectation...
Lola,
Of course I recognize You even You use a different name, cause even without a picture Your calm reasoning is Your signature...
For an observer You are sharp in Your Conclusions...yes China is still far behind,and they will hit the wall of natural restrictions sooner or letter, but they steaming up, while we chilling out on the beach waiting for a big wave to lift all boat, at least our New Elected Official are...
Mark,
Finally You join our conversations with Your usual short but to the point remarks, thank You for that...I need Your Down to Earth reasoning, and Your support is essential for me...
Carlos, You are my most Faithful followers, and it is so good to hear from You again!
You are right to hope, cause we will come out of the Recession soon, we may not climb so fast on the Hill of recovery, bu we will be way out of the bottom...
Leo,
Thank You for Your warm support, it will be my pleasure to keep You posted!
and last but not least:
Sean,
I follow Your link: Alter net is on my subscribe list cause they have no option of follow up, and Your site is awesome also...
I will like to tell You that I share your post election blues but only for a while, then I realize that the analyze that the media is giving us is part of the Truth:
It is Corporate Media, their goal is to shape and manipulate the Public Opinion to serve their Master and the other ugly truth is that Statistics is always drew its conclusions based on a sample of the whole: ergo it is highly open to speculations!
Yes I do believe most of the people stay home but from completely different reason:
Main Street left the Democrats and gather around Progressives and Liberals mostly, not GOP! They send a massage to the Dems that their votes not to be taken for granted, that's all...
People need Progressives, they did not abandon Obama, they abandon the Democrats...
In my eyes that is a reason for a Celebrations, not sorrow!
By the way, I grow up under single payer system, dont worry it will hit our shore faster then You think possible and here is why:
Their is tree Monopolies in The Health Care system in America:
Hospitals; Pharmaceutical Industry; & Insurance Corporations!
Their Power of Monopolies is raising the prices daily, but in doing so, they becoming a huge burdening cost to all the rest of the Corporations on the Market called Corporate America, and we all know what Corporate will do to cut the cost in order to maximize the Profit!
We give them a blow, shred their blood in the sea of Corporate Sharks, they will cut them loose or attack them to peaces!
It is that simple!
The Health Care post that I have on this pages is a good starting point to keep the Faith high in this troublesome times...
Marie
Good post! (yet again!)
ReplyDeleteMy observations for what they are worth:
China will continue to produce as much as the market can bear, they have their own set of financial issues and a massive population to feed. I don't begrudge China for trying to rise above poverty, but they have some major inherent problems: They have no oversight, regulations or quality control. The Corporations love that.
Multi-national corporations only care about their bottom line. If we want to turn things around in this country we need to become tough with the corporations by enforcing oversight and paying high-prices for skirting regulations. The sanctions need to be tough, as in: You are banned from doing business in the USA. We only need one of these for all the others to realize we mean business. This is the only language they understand.
Sorry Marie, as usual, I went too long. PEACE-Olivia