Economics Current Info - If you're not interested just pass it by!

[joebryant]

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ON, that's the NEW Jim Crow, i.e., anyone with a felony record can't vote...GO FIGURE.

 

[PurpleChicken]

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Amen

 

[Dunkopf]

I might have voted for Powell over Obama. He was very straightforward. I did say might have.

Last I heard, privately owned prisons were the fastest growing business in the USA. They should eliminate the DEA. That would eliminate a huge burden on the taxpayer and eliminate a lot of the prisoners. I don't know the numbers, but Black people make up the largest percentage of prisoners incarcerated for non violent crimes.

First order of business for the new House is to eliminate funding for NPR. Whoever controls the media controls the political discourse. Just ask Rupert Murdoch. They want to eliminate the only station that is anywhere close to fair and balanced. Go figure.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Quote:
This is the truth.

Privatizing the prison system created a system where there is profit in getting people jail time. Corruption was not at all far behind. Here in PA there has been a massive and revolting scandal involving judges taking kickbacks to sentence JUVENILES who had committed petty crimes to time in a juvie hall. Permanent damage to a child, drain on taxpayer to line a couple of people's pockets.

 

[joebryant]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

Quote:
This is the truth.

Privatizing the prison system created a system where there is profit in getting people jail time. Corruption was not at all far behind. Here in PA there has been a massive and revolting scandal involving judges taking kickbacks to sentence JUVENILES who had committed petty crimes to time in a juvie hall. Permanent damage to a child, drain on taxpayer to line a couple of people's pockets.


The word is rampant EVIL, not corruption.​

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Daily digest on Corporate welfare ----


http://cber.iweb.bsu.edu/propertytax/9-Hicks-and-LaFaive.pdf

2006 Study in Michigan showing that corporate welfare - tax breaks to encourage business do NOT bring in either the business or the job numbers promised. Essentially, in most cases the state did not even come close to breaking even in taxes earned.

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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/07/att_verizon_get_most_federal_a.html

AT&T, Verizon get most federal aid for phone service
AT&T and Verizon Communications were the biggest recipients of federal support from an $8 billion phone subsidy program, according to data released Thursday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Over the past three years, AT&T received $1.3 billion in funds to deploy phone lines to rural areas. Verizon got $1.27 billion in the same 2007-09 period.
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http://www.dismountingourtiger.com/...porate-executives-thrive-on-lavish-welfare-2/
Corporations and corporate executives thrive on lavish welfare
Posted on May 25, 2010 by Edwin Lee
Most of us hold an interesting but fallacious cultural myth about large businesses: management‘s job is solely to maximize the return on investment to the stockholders, as if stockholders are the only ones responsible for the existence and health of the business. The myth includes no financial, ethical or legal obligations to society or to a healthy government except what little the law requires.
Without laws enforced by government and mostly voluntary adherence to them by all of us, according to principles we learned through universal education, there would be no mechanism to pool investors’ resources and operate them, no stockholders, no intellectual or property rights. Corporate and intellectual property laws evolved from the 17th century to the present. Government pays for codifying and enforcing them and for universal education that enables us to follow them coherently.
Without an effective transportation infrastructure, largely paid for by government including the education for how business and individuals can use it jointly, policed by government to eliminate “highway robbery” as a cost of business, businesses couldn’t sell to large markets without building in the cost of private security forces and weeks to transport goods.
The list goes on, but many citizens, particularly those of the right wing persuasion, lack any sense of the intimate involvement of a healthy government and an educated society in successful businesses; vital supporting roles which most large corporations get for free!
In reality, corporations and their executives are the greatest recipients of welfare of all our citizenry. Much of this corporate welfare is sucked out of the companies by the executives to pad their salaries, bonuses and benefits. We have created and sustained “hot house” corporations and welfare executives that couldn’t exist in a cold cruel world and yet many citizens and their pandering politicians cry foul when we expect our coddled corporate citizens to contribute their fair share for the health of government and society. There is nothing that the citizens of Greece have done to bankrupt their nation that our corporate citizens and their executives have not done to our economy in spades.

About Edwin Lee
Retired electrical engineer, entrepreneur, and CEO. Co-founder of four companies (2 successful and two other learning experiences), author and speaker, inventor with 23 US Patents. More complete bio at www.elew.com
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http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticke...5.html?tickers=brk-b,gs,brk-a,xlf,wmt,tgt,cab

VIDEO GO WATCH THIS!!!

"This enormous growth of incomes at the top is not the result of market forces -- there's some market forces -- but it's largely the result of all these rules nobody knows about," he tells Dan and Aaron in this clip.
The problem starts with government subsidies, says Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. States are spending around $70 billion on government subsidies, he estimates. That doesn't include the hundreds of billions more doled out in federal subsidies.
"Is that capitalism?," he complains. "Go compete in a competitive arena. Don't go to Washington and say 'give me money' either by saying 'I don't have to pay taxes' or forcing other people to pay taxes that go to me. Go earn your money in the marketplace."

 

[PurpleChicken]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

The list goes on, but many citizens, particularly those of the right wing persuasion, lack any sense of the intimate involvement of a healthy government and an educated society in successful businesses; vital supporting roles which most large corporations get for free!

See, now that's a crock of cr*p. Most of the people in those positions use whatever party is convenient at the time and many are Democrats. Statements like that do nothing but polarize and anger people. (I say this towards the writer, not IHWIMY for posting it. Most of the article was good)

Most conservatives I know and have had discussions with all agree that government has a responsibility to regulate and police our economy, not subsidize or attempt to do what free enterprise does better. I know many liberals who feel the same way.

Two prime examples are healthcare and our current recession. If the federal and state governments created a level and fair playing field for the insurance companies our premiums would be less and more Americans would have private insurance. If the government didn't keep interest rates artificially low and encourage irresponsible lending practices(aka Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac) we would not have this real estate recession we have now. Both parties failed MISERABLY or perhaps INTENTIONALLY.

Can someone find the richest 100 Americans and their party affiliation?​

 

[FarmerJamie]

Quote:
See, now that's a crock of cr*p. Most of the people in those positions use whatever party is convenient at the time and many are Democrats. Statements like that do nothing but polarize and anger people. (I say this towards the writer, not IHWIMY for posting it. Most of the article was good)

Most conservatives I know and have had discussions with all agree that government has a responsibility to regulate and police our economy, not subsidize or attempt to do what free enterprise does better. I know many liberals who feel the same way.

Two prime examples are healthcare and our current recession. If the federal and state governments created a level and fair playing field for the insurance companies our premiums would be less and more Americans would have private insurance. If the government didn't keep interest rates artificially low and encourage irresponsible lending practices(aka Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac) we would not have this real estate recession we have now. Both parties failed MISERABLY or perhaps INTENTIONALLY.

Can someone find the richest 100 Americans and their party affiliation?

Couldn't find an exact list, but the data I saw was a little misleading, since folks will sometimes contribute to both sides to hedge their bets. One of the Forbes articles I read said the "old money" rich tended towards Republican, and "new money" rich has started to trend Democratic.

You can check out the CongressCrittershttp://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2009/guide/-38181-1.html

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Quote:
See, now that's a crock of cr*p. Most of the people in those positions use whatever party is convenient at the time and many are Democrats. Statements like that do nothing but polarize and anger people. (I say this towards the writer, not IHWIMY for posting it. Most of the article was good)

Most conservatives I know and have had discussions with all agree that government has a responsibility to regulate and police our economy, not subsidize or attempt to do what free enterprise does better. I know many liberals who feel the same way.

Two prime examples are healthcare and our current recession. If the federal and state governments created a level and fair playing field for the insurance companies our premiums would be less and more Americans would have private insurance. If the government didn't keep interest rates artificially low and encourage irresponsible lending practices(aka Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac) we would not have this real estate recession we have now. Both parties failed MISERABLY or perhaps INTENTIONALLY.

Can someone find the richest 100 Americans and their party affiliation?

I think the writer was talking about infrastructure issues. Not, government interference in the market. These are two separate things. Locally, the Home Depot moved in and put the local hardware lumber store out of business. I wonder if the owner knew that his tax dollars had paid for the intensive restructuring of the sewer system and the complete redesign of the intersection that was necessary to get the Home Depot moved in?? Or that the Depot had a tax waiver for five years?????