HUFF POST
U.S. CEO Pay
Jumps Minimum Of 27 Percent Last Year, Survey Finds
First
Posted: 12/14/11 05:40 PM ET Updated: 12/15/11 11:19 AM ET
While
the incomes of so many Americans remain the same size or get smaller, corporate
chiefs can't say they're suffering in quite the same way.
American CEOs
saw pay increases of between 27 and 40 percent last year, according to a
GovernanceMetrics International survey cited by the Guardian. In
addition, the median value of CEOs profits on stock options jumped to $1.3
million from $950,400.
This,
even after Congress passed financial reform regulations that included
provisions aimed at making
CEO pay more transparent
by allowing shareholders to weigh in.
The
survey's findings may resonate with Occupy
movement activists,
who have been railing against income inequality since the protests first
started. Indeed, CEO
pay by itself exceeded the amount that his or her corporation paid in income
taxes in at
least 25 cases last year. And in the year before America's highest-highest-paid
corporate chief netted more than $145 million, U.S. median income fell
to below $27,000,
meaning half of all earners made less than that.
But
John Hammergren, CEO of healthcare provider McKesson, isn't the only boss
taking home the big bucks. JPMorgan Chase Chief Jamie Dimon got a
$19 million raise in 2010
and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein netted
an extra $3.6 million in bonuses last year.
The
news is a good sign for people in the top one percent of earners, who saw
their incomes drop by roughly a third in the official years of the recession, according to a
recent report by The New York Times. Still, even after that fall, the net worth of one percenters
remained 200 times higher
than that of the median national income, according to the Economic Policy
Institute.
Some
CEOs even got huge pay packages for not doing their jobs. Eugene
Isenberg took home $100 million for dropping his title as CEO of Nabors Industries
in October. While Dougless
Foshee, the CEO of natural gas pipeline operator El Paso, became eligible for an exit
package worth $95 million after the company was acquired by rival Kinder
Morgan.
Still,
some don't seem to mind the huge CEO paydays. The vast majority of corporate
shareholders say that CEOs
are being compensated correctly, according to an October study from research firm Equilar.
*
FROM WSWS.org
US hunger, homelessness soar amid cuts in social spending
Half of Americans either poor or low-income
By Andre Damon
16 December 2011
Amid continuous attacks on social services in the United States, hunger and homelessness are growing at epidemic rates, according to a report released Thursday by the United States Conference of Mayors.
The group’s annual survey of hunger and homelessness in its 29 member-cities states that requests for emergency food assistance grew by 15.5 percent in the past year. The number of homeless families grew by 16 percent. The survey covers the period between September 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011.
The mayors’ report is but the latest in a string of recent studies documenting the growth of poverty and social inequality in the US. Two days earlier, the National Center on Family Homelessness reported a 38 percent increase in child homelessness between 2007 and 2010, with the result that one in 45 American children are homeless. (See: “US child homelessness soars”).
The Associated Press, citing Census figures released last month, reported Thursday that half of the American population is either poor or low-income. With long-term unemployment at record levels, food pantries and homeless shelters are being overwhelmed by the growing ranks of the poor.
These grim statistics, which provide only a pale reflection of cascading human suffering and social distress, make a mockery of the claims of the Obama administration and the media that the US in an economic “recovery.” In recent days, Obama has hailed the November jobs report, which registered a 0.4 percent decline in the official unemployment rate to 8.6 percent, as evidence that his policies are working. He ignores the fact that the drop in the jobless rate was due to the exodus of 315,000 discouraged job-seekers from the labor force.
Nor has Obama mentioned, in his stage-managed attempts to present himself as an advocate of “middle-class” workers, any of the recent reports documenting the social disaster fuelled by his pro-corporate policies.
The mayors’ report cites cuts in federal commodities and funding as a factor in the diminishing ability of emergency kitchens and food pantries to keep up with surging demand. It notes that 27 percent of the people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it.
The amount of food distributed has failed to keep pace. While demand for food aid shot up by 15 percent, the amount of food given out by cities increased by only 10 percent.
The inadequacy of resources has had a tangible effect: 86 percent of cities surveyed said that food pantries and emergency kitchens have had to reduce the amount of food given out to visitors. Eighty two percent said they had been forced to turn people away from food kitchens, and 68 percent said they had to tighten rules on how often families could visit food pantries.
None of the 29 cities surveyed said they expected the demand for emergency food assistance to fall in the next year, while all but two expected the demand to increase.
Meanwhile, three quarters of the cities said they expected the amount of money available for aid to fall next year, and 41 percent said the decrease would be “substantial.”
About half of those seeking emergency food assistance came as families. A quarter were employed. Eleven percent were homeless.
Sixty percent of the cities reported an increase in family homelessness. Among individuals, homelessness increased by 6 percent.
The mayors’ survey found that an average of 18 percent of homeless people who requested assistance did not receive it. It also found that shelters in two thirds of the surveyed cities were forced to turn away homeless families with children, while 70 percent had to turn away individuals.
Sixty four percent of surveyed cities said they expected the number of homeless families to increase next year, while the same percentage of cities said they expected the amount of recourses available to help the homeless to decrease.
Individual cities paint an even bleaker picture of social distress. In Detroit, the number of requests for emergency food assistance grew by 30 percent in the past year, while in Salt Lake City, Utah the figure grew by 35 percent.
The mayors’ report comes a month after the Census Bureau released its 2010 Supplemental Poverty Measure, which, employing different criteria than the official report, increased the number of Americans estimated to be in poverty from 46.2 million to 49 million and the poverty rate from 15.1 to 16 percent.
Buried within the Supplemental Poverty Measure report is perhaps its most shocking finding: the percentage of the population classified as “low-income,” that is, making between 100 and 200 percent of the poverty rate, has nearly doubled. The official statistic puts the portion of families making between 100 and 200 percent of the poverty rate at 18.8 percent of the total population, while the new statistic puts it at 31.8 percent.
According to the supplemental Census report, there are 49.1 million people in poverty and an additional 97.3 million who are considered low-income. The two figures combined total 146.4 million out of a population of 300 million.
Alongside mass unemployment, falling wages play a critical role in the staggering growth of poverty in the US. Just over the past 12 months, wages have fallen by 1.7 percent in real terms.
This is the result of a coordinated and national corporate assault on workers’ wages that was inaugurated with the Obama administration’s forced bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009. Obama insisted that government loans to the auto companies be contingent on a vast expansion of tier-two wages ($14 an hour) for new-hires, and an overall reduction of labor costs to those at non-union foreign transplant auto factories.
Together with the collapse in home values, mass unemployment and wage-cutting have thrown even families with working adults into poverty. According to a study by the Working Poor Families Project released this month, the portion of employed families that classify as low-income grew from 27 percent in 2002 to 31.2 percent in 2010.
“Many of these families used to be solidly middle class but have seen their incomes drop below the low-income threshold because of a pay cut, a reduction in hours, or because a spouse lost their job,” said Mark Mather, a co-author of the analysis.
In the face of this mounting social catastrophe, no section of the political establishment, Democratic or Republican, is proposing any measures to alleviate the crisis and create jobs. Rather, the entire framework of the official discussion revolves around savage austerity measures to make the working class pay for the multi-trillion-dollar bailout of the banks. These measures include hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to food stamps, home heating assistance, education and core social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
*
WALL STREET’S RAPE AND PILLAGE OF A NATION… and it ain’t
over!
*
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-than-5-million-households-had.html
*
More than 5 million households had their wealth wiped out
since 2005
By Andre Damon
28 July 2011
28 July 2011
The
typical US household lost 28 percent of its wealth during the economic crisis,
with one third of these being totally wiped out, according to a recent analysis
of Census Bureau data carried out by the Pew Research Center, “Wealth Gaps Rise
to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics”.
While
the study headlines racial disparities, the most striking findings concern the
general impoverishment of all sections of the population. The percent of US
households who have a net worth of zero dollars or below—meaning they have more
debts than assets—grew from 15 percent in 2005, to 20 percent in 2009. This
means that 5.6 million households, or about 15 million people, had their wealth
totally wiped out during the first part of the economic downturn. These figures
come from an analysis of Census Bureau survey data for 2005 and 2009.
The
study found that, after adjusting for inflation, the median wealth of US
households fell from $96,894 in 2005 to $70,000 in 2009, a drop of 28 percent.
The majority of this is attributable to the precipitous fall in real estate
values, by about 30 percent between 2006 and 2009 and even more since.
The
fall in home values has been compounded by falling wages. Between 2005 and
2009, workers’ average hourly earnings fell, on an inflation-adjusted basis, by
5 percent, according to the Labor Department.
Indebtedness
has grown as rapidly as wealth has fallen. Between 2005 and 2009, unsecured
liabilities grew 33 percent for the population as a whole, the study found.
Meanwhile,
the share of household wealth held by the wealthiest ten percent of households
grew from 49 percent in 2005 to 56 percent in 2009.
Racial
minorities have been particularly hard hit, including by the fall in housing
values. The net worth of Hispanic households fell by a staggering 66 percent,
from $12,124 in 2005 to $5,677 in 2009. The net worth of black households has
likewise tumbled 53 percent. Among Hispanics, unsecured debt grew by 47
percent.
The
level of inequality between whites, blacks, and Hispanics is now at the highest
level in 25 years, and no doubt longer. The racial differentiation is partly
attributable to geography. While whites saw the values of their own homes fall
by 18 percent and blacks by 23 percent, the home values of Hispanics fell by
more than half.
As
the report notes, “In 2005, more than two-in-five of the nation’s Hispanic and
Asian households resided in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada,
the five states with the steepest declines in home prices.” For Hispanics living
in these states, the report noted, “median net worth tumbled from $51,464 in
2005 to $6,375 in 2009, a loss of 88 percent.”
These
racial divergences, however, mask the more fundamental growth of inequality
between the working class and the wealthy of all races. The report notes that
the wealthiest 10 percent of blacks now controls 67 percent of the wealth for
that group, compared to 59 percent before the downturn. For Hispanics,
likewise, the wealthiest 10 percent controlled 72 percent of wealth in 2009, up
from 59 percent in 2005.
The
number of unemployed, meanwhile, grew from 7.9 million to 15.2 million between
2005 and 2009. Rising unemployment, too, has disproportionately affected
minorities. Unemployment has affected blacks and hispanics disproportionately,
with the unemployment rate for blacks currently at 16.5 percent and 11.6
percent for hispanics.
The
staggering fall in wealth has had an transformative effect on American society,
contributing to the millions of foreclosures and personal bankruptcies.
According to figures from Realtytrac.com, there were 10 million foreclosures
between 2005 and 2009, the years covered by the survey.
*
UNDER OBAMA, THE RICH GET RICHER, AND JOBS GO TO HIS LA RAZA
PARTY BASE!
WALL ST PROFIT SOAR! SO DOES FORECLOSURES, UNEMPLOYMENT,
POVERTY FOR AMERICANS… AND ILLEGALS OVER OUR BORDERS!
ONE WAY OBAMA SERVICES HIS CORPORATE PAYMASTERS IS TO ASSURE
THEM THAT HE WILL SABOTAGE E-VERIFY, HOLD OUR BORDERS OPEN FOR HORDES OF
ILLEGALS HEADED FOR OUR JOBS, AND CONTINUE NON-ENFORCEMENT OF LAW PROHIBITING
THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS. IN FACT, OBAMA’S SEC. of LABOR IS A LA RAZA
SUPREMACIST HILDA SOLIS WORKING FOR ILLEGALS, MEXICANS THAT IS.
THERE IS A REASON WHY OBAMA, THE LA RAZA DEMS, MEXICO AND
THE U. S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE WANT OPEN BORDERS…it’s all about keeping wages DEPRESSED!
*
As dozens of major
corporations announced increased second-quarter profits this week, the US
working class was hit with a disastrous new round of mass layoffs.
*
Profits soar amid mass layoffs
By Andre Damon
23 July 2011
23 July 2011
As dozens of major corporations
announced increased second-quarter profits this week, the US working class was
hit with a disastrous new round of mass layoffs.
On
Monday, book seller Borders announced that it would liquidate all of its
stores, laying off 10,700 workers. That same day, Cisco, the telecom equipment
maker, said it would cut its workforce by 11,500. Within 24 hours, Lockheed
Martin, the aerospace company, announced that it would eliminate 6,500 jobs.
At
the same time, Caterpillar, the maker of construction equipment, said its
profits were up 44 percent in the second quarter compared to last year. Office
equipment maker Xerox saw its profits grow 41 percent in the same time.
General
Electric’s profits were up 17 percent, PepsiCo’s were up by 18 percent, and
McDonald’s, the fast food company, saw a 19 percent increase, reaching a new
record.
The
energy and mining companies did even better, benefiting from rising gas prices,
which reduced the real incomes of American workers by billions of dollars.
Halliburton, the oil contractor, said its profits were up by 53 percent in the
second quarter compared to a year earlier, while fellow oil contractor
Schlumberger said its profits were up by 64 percent.
Most
of the major banks likewise said their profits were up significantly in the
second quarter. Goldman Sachs announced $1.09 billion in profits, up 57 percent
from last year. But even this huge increase was considered a “disappointment”
for traders.
JPMorgan
said its second-quarter profit was up by 13 percent, despite setting aside a
$1.3 billion charge-off for lawsuits it expects in relation to its trafficking
of fraudulent mortgages. Citigroup reported a profit of $3.34 billion, up 24
percent from a year ago.
This
renewed growth in profits comes at the same time as the sharpest growth in
unemployment since 2009. Between March and June, the unemployment rate grew by
0.4 percentage points, to 9.2 percent. In the same period, the number of
unemployed people grew by 545,000.
Apple,
the world’s largest music retailer and a leading manufacturer of mobile
electronics, announced a 95 percent increase in profitability. In its earnings
statement, the company said that it was sitting on a cash hoard of $76 billion.
This staggering sum, amassed by a single company controlled by a few large
shareholders, could put two million people to work full-time for a year.
US
corporations have combined cash reserves of $2 trillion. That is enough money
to put all the unemployed people in the United States to work for four years,
even without any profit generated from their labor.
But
fresh off of what is for many a record-breaking second quarter, the companies
are refusing to use their newly accumulated cash to hire. In fact, planned mass
layoffs have only accelerated.
Even
after the disastrous second quarter, the jobs situation is getting worse.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc, the executive placement company, said
earlier this week that the number of planned job cuts grew by 11.6 percent,
reaching 41,432 last month. This was the second consecutive monthly increase in
planned mass layoffs.
New
claims for unemployment benefits have likewise moved upwards. After dipping in
April to 385,000, the lowest level since 2007, they have steadily grown,
reaching 418,000 last week.
The
disastrous employment conditions in the private sector are only exacerbated by
the aggressive budget cutting carried out by state and local governments, under
the whip of cuts to federal assistance.
State
and local governments have cut 165,000 jobs so far this year, on top of the
quarter million workers they laid off in 2010. But this is only the beginning:
analysts expect hundreds of thousands more layoffs this year as cuts in federal
aid intensify.
These
planned layoffs will only be compounded by the massive federal spending cuts
currently being discussed between the Congress and the White House, which would
eliminate between $3 and $4 trillion from federal spending. This would mean
hundreds of thousands of federal job cuts.
The
fact that American corporations were able to accumulate record profits while
hundreds of thousands were thrown into the ranks of unemployment is not a
coincidence. These profits were generated through the impoverishment of
workers, who, desperate for any work available, have increasingly accepted
lower wages and worse conditions.
Despite
the abysmal employment conditions, mass joblessness has disappeared as a
political issue in the United States, with the entire political establishment
pushing for cuts to government spending. This absurd and irrational setup is a
product of the monopolization of political life in the United States by the
super-rich, who are carrying out a full-scale assault on the social conditions
of the working class.
In
contrast to the ruling class’s anti-social and destructive policy, the working
class must present its own political program. The trillions of dollars sitting
on the balance sheets of the corporations must be expropriated and used to
provide jobs and desperately-needed social services.
This
program requires a new mass political movement, completely independent of the
Democrats and Republicans, to break the political stranglehold of the
corporations, and reorganize society on the basis of social need, not private
profit.
*
OBAMA’S AMERICA: Open & Undefended Borders!
*
*
OBAMA HAS FILLED HIS
ADMINSTRATION WITH PRIMARILY LA RAZA PARTY MEMBERS.
Here’s his Sec. Labor, HILDA
SOLIS:
While in Congress, she
opposed strengthening the border fence, supported expansion of illegal alien
benefits (including driver's licenses and in-state tuition discounts), embraced
sanctuary cities that refused to cooperate with federal homeland security
officials to enforce immigration laws, and aggressively championed a mass
amnesty. Solis was steeped in the pro-illegal alien worker organizing movement
in Southern California and was buoyed by amnesty-supporting Big Labor groups
led by the Service Employees International Union. She has now caused a Capitol
Hill firestorm over her new taxpayer-funded advertising and outreach campaign
to illegal aliens regarding fair wages:
*
Michelle Malkin
The
U.S. Department of Illegal Alien Labor
President
Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is supposed to represent American workers.
What you need to know is that this longtime open-borders sympathizer has always
had a rather radical definition of "American." At a Latino voter
registration project conference in Los Angeles many years ago, Solis asserted
to thunderous applause, "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized
or not."
That's
right. The woman in charge of enforcing our employment laws doesn't give a hoot
about our immigration laws -- or about the fundamental distinction between
those who followed the rules in pursuit of the American dream and those who
didn't.
* Obama Administration Challenges Arizona E-Verify Law
The
Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down a 2007 Arizona law that punishes employers who
hire illegal aliens, a law enacted by then-Governor Janet Napolitano. (Solicitor General's Amicus
Curiae Brief).
Called the “Legal Arizona Workers Act,” the law requires all employers in
Arizona to use E-Verify and provides that the business licenses of those who
hire illegal workers shall be repealed. From the date of enactment, the
Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups have been trying to undo
it, attacking it through a failed ballot initiative and also through a lawsuit.
Now the Chamber is asking the United States Supreme Court to hear the case (Chamber
of Commerce v. Candelaria), and the Obama Administration is weighing in
against the law.
*
“I’m not here to punish bankers!” BARACK OBAMA ON THE FLOOR
OF THE SENATE, IN THE FACES OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/07/obamas-pledge-to-wall-st-rich-will-get.html
*
OBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM – WHO PAYS FOR HIS BANKSTERS’
BAILOUTS AND MASSIVE GOV SUBSIDIZED BONUSES… GOT TO CUT FROM THE PEOPLE, BUT
FIRST, OBAMA WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR AMNESTY AFTER AMNESTY, OPEN &
UNDEFENDED BORDERS, AND CONTINUED NON-ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS THAT WILL ENABLE
EMPLOYERS TO HIRE ONLY ILLEGALS ON THE CHEAP!
THAT IS WHY OBAMA IS DETERMINED TO FLOOD OUR COUNTRY WITH
MORE ILLEGALS!
THERE IS A REASON WHY THE U. S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE, FRONT FOR
BIG BUSINESS, AND MOST OF THE FORTUNE 500, GENEROUS DONORS TO THE MEX FASCIST
PARTY of LA RAZA, WANT OBAMA’S OPEN BORDERS AND NON-ENFORCEMENT… depressed
wages!!!!
*
Wsws.org
Underlying the rise of the
financial aristocracy—which exercises control over the entire political
system—is the failure of the world capitalist system as a whole. In amassing
its wealth, this tiny layer of the population, concentrated above all in the
United States, has overseen a vast destruction of industry and social infrastructure.
The ruling classes of every country now openly proclaim that the maintenance of
their system depends upon an unprecedented destruction in the living conditions
of the broad masses of the population.
*
Obama’s budget and the rot of
American capitalism
15 February 2011
On
Monday, the Obama administration released its proposed federal budget for
fiscal year 2012. After committing trillions in federal bailouts to the banks
and billionaires, the White House is demanding cuts that will devastate the
working class, and particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sections.
The
$1.1 trillion in cuts for the next decade proposed by the White House is to be
only the starting point for further cuts, as spokesmen for both big business
parties acknowledge. Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat, declared,
“We’ve got to do substantially more than $1 trillion worth of deficit reduction
in the next decade.” Republican House Speaker John Boehner said, “There’s no
limit to the amount we’re willing to cut.”
Democrats
and Republicans agree on gargantuan military spending, an uninterrupted flow of
funds to the financial aristocracy, and continued tax breaks for corporate
America and the wealthy. As a top White House official told the press at a
background briefing on the budget, “The debate in Washington is not whether to
cut or to spend. We both agree we should cut. The question is how we cut and
what we cut.”
The
Obama budget projects that the ten-year cumulative deficit will reach a
staggering $10.4 trillion. By attempting to wring such vast sums from the hides
of the population, the ruling elite is trying to set American society back to
conditions not seen for generations.
Programs
to be cut include not only those targeted by Obama and the Republicans in the
current budget debate—home heating assistance, Pell Grants, WIC, Head Start,
etc.—but the much larger entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare,
which will face cuts later in the budget process.
The
social impact will be incalculable. As hundreds of thousands of people face the
bitter cold of winter without heat and gas, Obama is proposing halving the
grossly inadequate federal assistance that is available. As students graduate
with record debt and no job prospects, the administration is proposing significant
cuts in government aid. Such gross indifference to social distress is repeated
in every sphere.
Significant
cuts to Social Security and Medicare—which amount to denying America’s elderly
their right to pensions and health care—would have an even broader impact.
Behind
the “debate” in Washington and the media over the budget is a massive lie—the
claim that the budget deficits are a product of excessive social spending.
Obama’s budget director Jacob Lew summed up this grotesque falsification an
op-ed column published in the New York Times February 6, under the
headline, “The Easy Cuts Are Behind Us.” Lew claimed that the causes of the
projected budget deficits were “decisions to make two large tax cuts without
offsetting them and to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit without
paying for it, combined with the effects of the recession…”
This
list is notable for what it leaves out: the cost of two wars, in Afghanistan
and Iraq, which runs into the trillions; and the bank bailouts, where more
trillions in public funds were placed at the disposal of the financial
aristocracy, with no questions asked. The military budget by itself accounts
for the lion’s share of the ten-year deficit: more than $7 trillion of the
projected $10 trillion.
Lew’s
more fundamental omission, however, is the grotesque class inequality that
pervades American society. The top one percent of the US population owns over
one third of the country’s wealth. The greatest wealth, however, is
concentrated in an even smaller layer. Indeed, the $1.1 trillion in proposed
cuts—which will have a terrible impact on the lives of millions of people—is
somewhat less than the combined wealth of only the 400 richest Americans.
The
arguments presented by the ruling elite for the cuts are staggeringly hypocritical.
As they drown in floods of cash, they insist that no money is available for
workers’ most basic needs.
Workers
must reject this argument out of hand. They are not responsible for the orgy of
swindling and profiteering that produced the 2008 Wall Street crash and pushed
the world economy into the deepest slump since the Great Depression. On the
contrary, an essential feature of the speculative binge was that the share of
national income received by workers has shrunk to the lowest level in nearly a
century.
Underlying the rise of the
financial aristocracy—which exercises control over the entire political
system—is the failure of the world capitalist system as a whole. In amassing
its wealth, this tiny layer of the population, concentrated above all in the
United States, has overseen a vast destruction of industry and social
infrastructure. The ruling classes of every country now openly proclaim that
the maintenance of their system depends upon an unprecedented destruction in
the living conditions of the broad masses of the population.
These
measures will provoke mass opposition. The revolutionary struggles in Egypt—in
which protests and strikes of millions of workers and youth forced the
resignation of a US-backed dictator that ruled the country for more than 30
years—point to the forms of struggle that will spread worldwide in the coming
period. Mass unemployment, record inequality, and the corruption of the
political system are common to Egypt and the United States, and are in fact
universal. At the foundation of this system is the principle that economic life
must be subordinated to private profit and the maintenance of the wealth of
those who control the giant banks and corporations.
The
working class can secure its interests only through the overturn of the
capitalist system as a whole—that is, the reorganization of economic life to
meet social need. In every aspect of its policies and of its social being, the
ruling class itself makes the case for socialist revolution.
Patrick
Martin
*
OBAMA HAS TWO AGENDAS. SERVICING BANKSTER DONORS, AND PUSHING
OUR BORDERS OPEN FOR MORE ILLEGALS. HE KNOW WE WON’T BE PUNKED BY HIS
PERFORMANCES THE SECOND TIME AROUND!
*
“Records
show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial
industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase
($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
*
Obama’s Economic Advisers: International Socialists, Union Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and Campaign Cronies
Posted on February 24, 2011 by Ben Johnson
http://floydreports.com/obama%E2%80%99s-economic-advisers-international-socialists-union-thugs-nbc-execs-soros-scholars-subprime-lenders-amnesty-shills-and-campaign-cronies/
*
Obama’s Economic Advisers: International Socialists, Union
Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and
Campaign Cronies
*
FROM CREOLE FOLKS
Obama Seeks Brother of "Chicago
Mob Boss" for Top White House Post
The
roaches and con-artist, fake journalist on cable news are all lying about
William Daley being all this and all that, this man is an open borders, down
with America, free trade globalist. MSNBC and Gretta "the
Scientology" Van Susteren from Fox News are knowingly deceiving the
public about D. Issa & his letter to "business owners"=which they
made into such a BIG DAM DEAL, but no one says anything whenBarrack
Hussein Obama, comes around with all of these shady bankers, hedge fund
managers and Wall St. Tycoons, which he puts in his cabinet. All of
Obama's meeting with Wall Street asking, "What can I do for you?" is
never something covered by Keith Oberman or Rachel Maddow.
(Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is considering naming William Daley, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive and former U.S. Commerce secretary, to a high-level administration post, possibly White House chief of staff, people familiar with the matter said.
*
Obamanomics:
How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends,
Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses
BY TIMOTHY P
CARNEY
Editorial Reviews
Obama Is Making
You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs
up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you
wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate
socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s
corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
Congressman
Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to read Obamanomics.”
And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling author says, “Obamanomics
is conservative muckraking at its best and an indispensable field guide to the
Obama years.”
If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows
up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit
exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam.
Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger,
somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book
names the names—and it will make your blood boil.
*
Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?
Goldman
Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack
Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from
Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and
consumers.
Investigative
reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and
the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling
corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s
Obamanomics. In this explosive book, Carney reveals:
* The
Great Health Care Scam—Obama’s backroom deals with drug companies spell
corporate profits and more government control
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics
If
you’ve wondered what’s happening to our country, as the federal government
swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts
deficit exploding “stimulus packages” that create make-work government jobs,
this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils
down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and
those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will
make your blood boil.
*
Praise for Obamanomics
Praise for Obamanomics
“The
notion that ‘big business’ is on the side of the free market is one of
progressivism’s most valuable myths. It allows them to demonize corporations by
day and get in bed with them by night. Obamanomics is conservative
muckraking at its best. It reveals how President Obama is exploiting the big
business mythology to undermine the free market and stick it to entrepreneurs,
taxpayers, and consumers. It’s an indispensable field guide to the Obama
years.”
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author
“‘Every
time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.’ With this astute
observation, Tim Carney begins his task of laying bare the Obama
administration’s corporatist governing strategy, hidden behind the president’s
populist veneer. This meticulously researched book is a must-read for anyone
who wants to understand how Washington really works.”
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama
“Every
libertarian and free-market conservative who still believes that large
corporations are trusted allies in the battle for economic liberty needs to
read this book, as does every well-meaning liberal who believes that expansions
of the welfare-regulatory state are done to benefit the common people.”
—Congressman Ron Paul
—Congressman Ron Paul
“It’s
understandable for critics to condemn President Obama for his ‘socialism.’ But
as Tim Carney shows, the real situation is at once more subtle and more
sinister. Obamanomics favors big business while disproportionately punishing
everyone else. So-called progressives are too clueless to notice, as usual,
which is why we have Tim Carney and this book.”
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History
*
·
Hardcover: 256 pages
·
Publisher: Regnery Press (November 30,
2009)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 1596986123
·
ISBN-13: 978-1596986121
*
*
OBAMA, AS HE
ASSAULT THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS, HIS BANKSTERS, THE CORPORATE RICH, LA RAZA,
AND ILLEGALS ARE ALL DOING FINE!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/08/barack-obama-one-of-greatest-tragedies.html
THE REST OF
AMERICAN IS FORECLOSED ON, AND GETTING THE TAX BILLS TO PAY FOR ALL OF OBAMA’S
WELFARE FOR BANKSTERS AND ILLEGALS!
FROM HERITAGE
FOUNDATION
Morning Bell: End
Crony Capitalism
At 300 East 23rd Street in the exclusive Gramercy Park neighborhood [1] of Manhattan, where to get into parts of the park you need a key granted just to residents, a new 98-unit luxury apartment complex has been built with an outdoor movie theater and panoramic city views [2]. The problem is that not enough buyers are coughing up the $820,000 to $3 million the project’s developers are asking for the privilege to own a unit in the building. But don’t worry, the Obama administration is coming to the rescue. Last December, the Federal Housing Administration loosened its financing rules [3] so that U.S. taxpayers would have the honor of backing loans with downpayments as low as 3.5%. Now rich Manhattanites can better afford condos in buildings with pet spas, concierges and rooftop lounges like the one in Gramercy Park, all on the taxpayers’ dime.
You read that correctly: the FHA, created in 1934 to make homeownership attainable for low- to moderate-income Americans, is now subsidizing Manhattan luxury condominiums. How did we get here? The mindset that allowed this unconscionable public policy to occur was on display yesterday in Washington, where Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hosted his Future of Housing Finance symposium. While Secretary Geithner promised [4] “fundamental reform” of our nation’s housing policies, he also insisted that the federal government must continue to play a strong role in U.S. mortgage markets: “There is a strong case to be made for a carefully designed guarantee in a reformed system, with the objective of providing a measure of stability in access to mortgages, even in future economic downturns.”
Geithner was not asked if FHA’s backing of Manhattan luxury condos fit his definition of a “carefully designed guarantee in a reformed system,” but American Enterprise Institute fellow Alex Pollock was there to at least throw some cold water [4] on Geithner’s central-planner arrogance: “You can either, in my view, be a private company or a government agency — one or the other, but not both.”
Geithner’s “carefully designed” government intervention mindset is at the core of why the Obama administration’s economic policies have been a complete failure. Since taking office the Obama administration has used the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other initiatives to buy one car company [5], give another to union allies [6], punish non-union workers [7], undermine the bankruptcy code [6], enrich Wall Street at the expense of Main Street [8], bail out Mickey Mouse [9], keep unionized zombie firms from dying [10] and generally terrorize the world economy [11]. That is why, for the first time ever in 2010, the United States fell from the ranks of the economically “free,” as measured by The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom [12]. From housing, to banking, to spending and taxation, the U.S. economy will only truly recover once it is clear to private enterprises that their best bet is investing in employees, machines and ideas, not lawyers and lobbyists in Washington. To that end, Heritage’s just-released Solutions for America [13] chapter on Restoring the U.S. to a Free Economy [14] recommends:
Unwind Government Intervention: The government should end the interventions it has made since 2008, starting with abolition of the TARP program. It should then abolish Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and repeal all U.S. government regulatory measures that interfere with mortgage markets. Congress should also repeal the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, which discriminates against small firms and reduces competition. Companies should be allowed to fail, and laws and regulations should create no expectation of a future bailout.
Reduce Government Involvement in Commercial Decision-making: Congress must eliminate the insidious practice of earmarking, which corrupts the legislative process. The government needs to divest itself of all assets acquired in connection with the financial crisis and recession and refrain from interfering in bankruptcy cases.
Reduce Tax Rates: Our corporate income tax rate, currently the second highest in the developed world, must be cut to restore U.S. competitiveness. The corporate tax rate should be set at or below the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 26% to eliminate the incentive for businesses and jobs to move overseas. We should also stop taxing businesses as individuals, but rather reduce rates to 25%, which would help business to grow and create jobs.
Spend Less and Devolve Responsibilities: Congress should enact a firm cap on the annual increase in total government spending, limited to inflation plus population growth. Lawmakers should exert all effort to keep overall federal spending to less than 20% of U.S. GDP, the historical post–World War II average for federal spending.
Give Workers a RAISE: Union contracts set both a wage floor and a wage ceiling. Unionized employers may not give productive workers pay raises outside those envisioned in the collectively bargained contract. The RAISE Act (Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees) would allow employers to pay individual workers more, but not less, than the union contract specifies thus restoring to millions of union members the inherent American right to earn individual raises through individual efforts.
On Monday, President Barack Obama visited the ZBB Energy battery factory in Menomonee Falls, Wis. Last January, the Obama Energy Department invested $14 million in the company, and President Obama was on hand to claim credit for every employed person there. But The Wall Street Journal [15] did some homework and found that since going public in June of 2007, ZBB has been hemorrhaging money. The firm lost $4.9 million in fiscal year 2008, $5.5 million in fiscal year 2009, and has a “cumulative deficit” of $44.1 million. ZBB has admitted that its ability to continue as a “going concern” depends on securing additional investment. In a free market economy, private investors would provide those funds, reap the rewards if ZBB prospered and suffer the losses if ZBB failed. But under President Obama’s crony capitalist economy, ZBB is the big winner if the company survives, and if they fail, it is you, the taxpayer, who loses.
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