State violence for plunder and repression intersects with the immense social crisis. It is notable that San Bernardino is known as the “Detroit of California.” In the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, the city has been plunged into bankruptcy, mass unemployment and poverty. These conditions are mirrored in different forms throughout the country.
This, along with trillions in tax-payer bailouts and trillions more in Fed asset-purchases (“quantitative easing”), has provided an endless flow of virtually free credit to the banks and the financial elite, fueling a three-fold rise in the stock market and record profits and executive pay packages.
The mass killing in San Bernardino, California
4 December 2015
The population of the United States and the world watched in horror as news of another mass shooting emerged Wednesday afternoon. A total of 14 people are confirmed dead and 21 injured in the massacre at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. When one includes the families and friends of the dead and injured, who will be permanently scarred by the tragedy, the victims number in the thousands.As of this writing, it is not clear what precisely motivated the two shooters, Syed Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeed Malik, 27. Farook, who was born in the United States, worked as an environmental inspector at the center, which provides services for people with disabilities. He reportedly got into an argument while attending a holiday party at the facility, left, and returned, heavily armed, with his wife. Both were killed yesterday evening following a car chase and a shootout with the police.
The killings were evidently planned in advance, as the pair were armed with two assault rifles and semiautomatic handguns, dressed in masks, and wearing body armor and cameras. They also reportedly brought explosives that were not detonated. After the shootout, police found 1,600 rounds of ammunition in their SUV, with thousands more rounds discovered at their house in Redlands.
On Thursday afternoon, FBI officials announced they were treating the massacre as a terrorism case, citing the extensive preparations for the crime, a previous communication with an individual being monitored by the state, and the travels of Farook to Saudi Arabia, where he met his wife in 2014.
If it does turn out that Farook and Malik were influenced at least in part by Islamic fundamentalism, it is significant that the ties are to Saudi Arabia, Washington’s principal Arab ally in the Middle East and the source of much of the financing and support for what the US claims to be fighting in the “war on terror.” However, such connections at this point remain speculative.
Whether or not the perpetrators were tied to Islamist political organizations, the mass killing in San Bernardino is hardly an isolated episode. Explanations based on terrorist sympathies are not required and are, in fact, an evasion to avoid examining the social roots of the repeated manifestations of homicidal violence in the United States.
So far this year, there have been at least 353 mass shootings in the United States, with at least 461 dead and 1,309 injured. Wednesday’s massacre is the deadliest mass killing since Sandy Hook Elementary School, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six staff members.
In virtually every case, the victims are mowed down indiscriminately. The killers are not striking out at any particular individual. Their actions express extreme alienation from other people and indifference to human life—the lives of others as well as their own. In the San Bernardino tragedy, the two perpetrators had a six-month-old baby, whom they reportedly left with relatives the morning of the killings.
There is a particular horror in the targeting of a facility dedicated to providing aid for the disabled.
Whatever the specific individual motives for each such act, their frequency demands a deeper explanation. The answer is to be found not in individual, but in social pathology. While only an infinitesimal minority of people commit such crimes, those who do are taking to an extreme dysfunctional and diseased tendencies in American society as whole.
From the political establishment and media, no explanation is forthcoming. The Obama administration responded with its standard platitudes. In a statement Thursday, President Obama acknowledged the “prevalence of these types of mass shootings in this country.”
He added that it was not yet known whether the attack was “workplace-related” or “terrorist-related,” and repeated his call to limit access to guns. “When individuals decide they want to do somebody harm [we need] to make it a little harder for them to do it,” he said. While the prevalence of guns may explain how the killers got access to the weapons they used, it says nothing about the origins of the crime.
What is most notable about the endless media commentary that follows each mass killing is the failure to relate these crimes to specific circumstances in American society. This is because such events are a damning indictment of the state of American capitalism and its products—endless war abroad and deep social crisis within the United States.
The US has been in a state of perpetual war unprecedented in American history—going back a quarter century to the first Gulf War in 1990-1991. Someone like Farook, born in 1987, has grown up under conditions of non-stop war. For 15 years, war has been carried out under the banner of the “war on terror,” which has been used to justify the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the second invasion of Iraq in 2003, the bombing of Libya in 2011 and the escalating war in Syria and Iraq today. The toll in human life from these wars is well over a million, with millions more turned into refugees, their lives destroyed.
On a daily basis, the US military is engaged in bombings, drone strikes and “targeted assassinations.” The “war on terror” has been used to justify torture, concentration camps, the horror of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration has gone further than any other government in routinizing state-sponsored murder and devaluing human life. The political establishment and the media in the US would have the American people believe that endless violence and killing internationally have no domestic consequences.
The state of perpetual war seeps into every aspect of social life in the United States. The “war on terror” has been accompanied by a continual whipping up of an atmosphere of fear and repression at home. Violence abroad is increasingly brought back into daily life in America.
The police are armed to the teeth with military weaponry and carry out killings at a rate of more than 1,000 people a year. On the same day as the San Bernardino killing, video was released showing police in San Francisco, California claiming another victim. This follows the release of video of the blatant police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in Chicago last year.
State violence for plunder and repression intersects with the immense social crisis. It is notable that San Bernardino is known as the “Detroit of California.” In the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, the city has been plunged into bankruptcy, mass unemployment and poverty. These conditions are mirrored in different forms throughout the country.
There is an acute level of social alienation that is felt by millions of people, with, at present, no progressive outlet. There are countless grievances that find no redress. Political life in the United States is deeply toxic, with the most backward and malignant conceptions fostered by the establishment and promoted by the media. In this confused environment, people snap and do monstrous things. With no mechanism for the legitimate expression of social and personal grievances, they take instead a maniacal form.
Joseph Kishore
Fed chair signals rate hike as ECB expands stimulus
By Barry Grey
4 December 2015
The divergence in monetary policy between the US central bank and its European counterpart was starkly on display Thursday. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, testifying before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, strongly hinted at a hike later this month in the Fed's benchmark interest rate. Only hours before, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced a further loosening of its monetary policy.Yellen painted a rosy picture of a US economy enjoying sustained, if only “moderate,” growth, an improving labor market, and inflation that, while abnormally low, promised to rise toward the Fed's target rate of 2 percent in the medium term.
“The US economy has recovered substantially since the Great Recession,” she told the committee, noting that the official unemployment rate had fallen from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009 to 5 percent in October of this year. She did not mention that the labor force participation rate, a more comprehensive measure of employment, remains at near-record lows.
Nor did she acknowledge, as she had in a speech the previous day to the Economic Club of Washington DC, that in October there were almost 2 million workers who were not accounted for in the official jobless rate because they had not looked for work in the previous four weeks, but who said they wanted and were available for work.
In reality, the US economy remains depressed more than seven years after the 2008 Wall Street crash, with economic growth at about half the average rate for the post-World War II period, millions driven out of the labor market, and millions more relegated to low-wage, temporary or part-time jobs.
Yellen’s depiction of the state of the US economy was designed to justify beginning to raise interest rates in mid-December, when the Fed’s policy-making Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next meets. The Fed has not raised its benchmark federal funds rate for nearly ten years, and has kept the rate at near-zero since December of 2008. This, along with trillions in tax-payer bailouts and trillions more in Fed asset-purchases (“quantitative easing”), has provided an endless flow of virtually free credit to the banks and the financial elite, fueling a three-fold rise in the stock market and record profits and executive pay packages.
These policies on the part of the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration have effected a historically unprecedented redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top and an immense growth in social inequality. The so-called “recovery” has been a bonanza for the rich and the super-rich, but a disaster for the working class.
It has been, moreover, a “recovery” based almost entirely on financial parasitism and speculation, at the expense of society’s infrastructure. As the International Monetary Fund noted last April, corporate investment in production in North America and Europe has fallen by 25 percent during the supposed recovery. Meanwhile, entirely parasitic activities such as stock buybacks and corporate mergers are proceeding at a record pace.
Just two days before Yellen’s testimony, the Institute for Supply Management reported that US manufacturing activity fell in November to its lowest level since June 2009. As for inflation, the overall consumer price inflation rate for the past year of 0.25 percent bespeaks an economy hovering on the edge of Depression-era deflation.
Yellen concluded her testimony by saying she “looked forward” to initiating an increase in interest rates, as that would testify to the success of the US economy in overcoming the impact of the financial crash of 2008.
But, as she made clear, such a move would not mean an end to the easy-money policy that has fueled the further enrichment of the ruling elite. Over the months of talk of a rate hike, Yellen has been at pains to reassure Wall Street that the increases will be small and gradual and there will be no return to the level of rates that prevailed for most of the post-World War II period.
On Thursday, she told the congressional committee: “Of course, even after the initial increase in the federal funds rate, monetary policy will remain accommodative…the Committee anticipates that even after employment and inflation are near mandate-consistent levels, economic conditions may, for some time, warrant keeping the target federal funds rate below levels the [FOMC] views as normal in the longer run.”
She warned that keeping rates at near-zero too long could result in sharper increases down the road and made the additional warning that a continuation of the present policy could “encourage excessive risk-taking and thus undermine financial stability.” That this is a mounting concern was underscored by a report released Monday by Standard & Poor’s noting that an indicator of default risk for junk bonds had risen to levels not seen since September 2009. The report said the “distress ratio” reached 20.1 percent in November and the actual default rate rose to 2.71 percent.
In the course of the hearing, Yellen suggested that getting interest rates off the floor was also necessary to provide the Fed with more ammunition, in the form of future rate cuts, to stimulate the economy should the tenuous “recovery” collapse.
US economic growth remains anemic in large measure because the global economy is slowing, shrinking export markets and demand for goods. At the same time, the Fed’s plans to begin tightening monetary policy are driving up the exchange rate of the dollar, which has risen 12 percent over the past year against a basket of currencies, further depressing US exports.
Moreover, a rise in US rates will exacerbate the crisis of emerging market economies from Brazil to Indonesia to Turkey that are already reeling from the slowdown in China and falling commodity prices. Higher US rates and a higher dollar will speed up the flow of capital out of these countries into the US.
Europe is even more depressed than the US. Gross domestic product growth in the euro zone is negligible, unemployment is in the double-digits, and inflation is barely in positive territory, coming in at 0.1 percent in November.
On Thursday, the ECB announced a further cut in its deposit rate—the interest it charges to banks that deposit money with it—from minus 0.20 percent to minus 0.30 percent. This move is designed to force banks to invest more of their money and take greater risks.
ECB President Mario Draghi followed this up with the announcement that the central bank would extend its current program of quantitative easing, to the tune of 60 billion euros a month, for at least six more months—to March 2017 “or beyond, if necessary.” Draghi added that the ECB was “willing and able” to act further if needed.
In the run-up to the ECB meeting, Draghi had stressed that the current expansion in the euro zone is the weakest in more than 25 years, and the central bank’s chief economist, Peter Praet, had warned of “seeping pessimism” in Europe and a “reluctance to invest” on the part of business.
The financial markets were disappointed that Draghi did not go even further in pumping money into their coffers and responded with a sharp stock sell-off in the UK, France and Germany. In the US, the markets were down by well over 1 percent.
Every president is finally remembered by a single sentence. George Washington was the father of our country and the first president. Abraham Lincoln saved the Union and freed the slaves. Ronald Reagan revived the economy and defeated the S...
Criminal aliens continue to enter the country under his porous-borders policies. Prognosis: mayhem.
more at this source:
Illegal youths crossing border jumps 269%, HHS warns of running out of beds
December 3, 2015
Obama's Real Legacy: Ten Ticking Time Bombs
Every president is finally remembered by a single sentence. George Washington was the father of our country and the first president. Abraham Lincoln saved the Union and freed the slaves. Ronald Reagan revived the economy and defeated the Soviet Union. Bill Clinton reformed welfare and balanced the budget.
What about Barack Obama? How will he be remembered? He was our first black president and killed bin Laden? He screwed up our health care? Not quite Mount Rushmore material, I’d say.
What about Barack Obama? How will he be remembered? He was our first black president and killed bin Laden? He screwed up our health care? Not quite Mount Rushmore material, I’d say.
Still, it would be unfair to call President Obama an underachiever. He boasts a rather impressive legacy, in the negative column. How many presidents, after all, have managed to increase federal spending by one-fifth and the national debt by two-thirds? What president can compete with him on having expanded presidential power via executive action, often without legal authority? Next to him, Nixon and LBJ look like schoolgirls. And who even comes close to his electoral record? Under Mr. Obama, Democrats have lost 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats, both houses of Congress, 12 governorships, 30 state legislative chambers, and more than 900 state legislative seats. Let no one say this man was inconsequential.
Is it premature to define his legacy? Not really. Although he has nearly fourteen months to go, he is already the lamest of ducks. Just listen to his would-be Democratic successors: one strains to detect any proud talk of “the Obama Record” or spirited cries of “Win one more for Barack.” Our 44th president is as a political albatross and increasingly reminds one of the hapless Jimmy Carter in his final, miserable days. Indeed, the parallels with 1980 are eerie: Russia on the march, Iranian mullahs chanting “Death to America,” the economy stuck in the doldrums -- and so on. At this late date it’s hard to see how Mr. Obama could alter the judgment that his has been a failed presidency.
And what exactly is his legacy? A collection of ticking time bombs, left behind to be defused or cleaned up after by his unfortunate successors. The list is seemingly endless, but ten strike me as particularly urgent and worrisome.
1. Another Iraq war. With the Friday the 13th Paris Attacks, it’s clear we are once again at war in the Middle East. And while some of the blame must go to George W. Bush for needlessly toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, a good share of the blame must accrue to Mr. Obama, for having mismanaged the withdrawal so badly that a kind of Neo-Mordor has been able to erupt from out of nowhere to seize vast stretches of the Arabian peninsula. Mr. Obama’s half-hearted aerial bombardment campaign against ISIS, which seems designed to run out the clock on a problem deemed insoluble, has acted as an invitation to the Orc armies of radical Islam to bring the battle to us -- and has enticed Russia into filling the regional power vacuum. Public support for American boots on the ground is soft; but that could change with a single, Paris-style massacre on American soil. A Third Iraq War is no longer out of the question, and would be an ironic legacy for the 2009 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Prognosis: war.
2. A nuclear Iran. Supporters of Obama’s controversial Iran nuclear deal argue that it has bought us ten years -- a decade for Israel to figure out how to defend itself against a nuclear-armed theocracy bent on its destruction. But that argument optimistically assumes the mullahs aren’t planning to cheat. Photographic evidence suggests they already are. Prognosis (for Israel): poor.
3. A flat-lined “recovery.” Job growth remains so weak that our definition of what constitutes a “recovery” has been redefined downward. We’re generating a mere 230,000 new non-farm jobs a month -- too few to achieve escape velocity. Although Democrats are celebrating the fall of headline unemployment below 5 percent, the real unemployment rate is closer to 10 percent. Labor-force participation is historically low. Real wage growth is stalled. The stock market is essentially flat. The Fed has held interest rates at zero percent for seven years now, flooding the economy with cheap money; and while it is teasing markets with hints of a rate hike, under current conditions that could easily kill off what “recovery” there is. Prognosis: continued malaise, with a chance of recession.
4. Higher deficits. Even if the Fed holds off for now, the deficit, which is currently $439 billion, is expected to rise to $540 billion by 2020. When the Fed does pull the trigger, the deficit will shoot up because of higher borrowing costs and countercyclical welfare spending. Everyone’s cost of borrowing for a home or automobile will go up, too. Prognosis: a run on aspirin.
5. Higher energy costs. On its way out the door, the Obama EPA has finalized an ambitious trio of massive environmental regulations aimed at winning its war on coal, war on carbon, and war on ponds and ditches. If the costly new rules aren’t stopped, U.S. coal-fired power plants, and affordable energy prices, can be expected to undergo manmade extinction. Prognosis: the chills.
6. Health care despair. Economists are predicting large increases in ObamaCare premiums and deductibles for 2016 and 2017. In a normal insurance market, premiums and deductibles move in opposite directions. That’s no longer the case under the ironically named, and still unpopular, Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, enrollment in Obamacare seems to have leveled off and the exchanges show signs of having entered a death spiral. Twelve of 23 non-profit co-ops in the exchanges have gone belly up. This month UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurer, announced it has lost so much money on Obamacare, it will pull out of the program altogether unless it receives a multi-billion-dollar bailout. And then there’s the Cadillac Tax, a grand time bomb ticking away in the background and scheduled to go off in 2018. If not repealed or softened, its aftershocks will almost certainly level the employer-based system, from which half of the U.S. population currently gets its health insurance. Prognosis: a big Democratic push for single payer.
7. A “food stamp” nation. Over the past decade, the food stamps program has nearly doubled in size from 26 million to 46 million recipients (one in seven Americans) and more than doubled in cost from $29 billion to $64 billion a year. When the next recession hits, these figures will swell to historic highs. Democrats oppose common-sense reforms. Prognosis: more dependency.
8. Insolvent entitlements. Entitlement reform has gone nowhere under Mr. Obama, despite the fact that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are among the fastest-growing sources of outlays. The various Social Security trust funds are all insolvent. The disability insurance trust fund is slated to go bankrupt by 2020; the hospital insurance fund, by 2030; and the big retirement fund, by 2034. Reforms are imperative. For example, SSDI enrollment has exploded over the past twenty years from 2.8 percent of the working-age population to 5.1 percent; lax rules have morphed the program into a form of unemployment insurance. For Democrats, the only entitlement “reforms” they’ll discuss are proposals to make the programs bigger and more redistributive. Prognosis: higher taxes.
9. A needless crime wave. The murder rate is going up again in a number of American cities, in the wake of the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore -- racially charged tragedies that Mr. Obama has tried to exploit for partisan gain. Thousands of criminals are poised to hit the streets again, thanks to his end-of-term efforts to reduce the national prison population. Criminal aliens continue to enter the country under his porous-borders policies. Prognosis: mayhem.
10. Conscience wars. The Left is following the inescapable logic of its fundamental rejection of human nature and common sense. With Mr. Obama’s active support, our elites are now determined to make us all cooperate in same-sex “marriage,” to accept a radical redefinition of gender, and to pay for other people’s contraceptives and elective abortions. Freedom of speech, religious liberty, the rights of conscience, and even intelligible grammar and clear thought, must all be sacrificed to the gods of sexual liberation. Prognosis: sustained unpleasantness, with a chance of civil unrest.
There is always hope, of course. Perhaps our 45th president will help us regain our senses and turn these messes around. The night is darkest just before the dawn. But whatever happens, surely Mr. Obama has secured for himself a prominent place in the annals of failure.
Dean F. Clancy, a former White House and congressional aide, writes on U.S. health care, budget, and constitutional issues. Follow him at deanclancy.com or on twitter: @DeanClancy.
And what exactly is his legacy? A collection of ticking time bombs, left behind to be defused or cleaned up after by his unfortunate successors. The list is seemingly endless, but ten strike me as particularly urgent and worrisome.
1. Another Iraq war. With the Friday the 13th Paris Attacks, it’s clear we are once again at war in the Middle East. And while some of the blame must go to George W. Bush for needlessly toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, a good share of the blame must accrue to Mr. Obama, for having mismanaged the withdrawal so badly that a kind of Neo-Mordor has been able to erupt from out of nowhere to seize vast stretches of the Arabian peninsula. Mr. Obama’s half-hearted aerial bombardment campaign against ISIS, which seems designed to run out the clock on a problem deemed insoluble, has acted as an invitation to the Orc armies of radical Islam to bring the battle to us -- and has enticed Russia into filling the regional power vacuum. Public support for American boots on the ground is soft; but that could change with a single, Paris-style massacre on American soil. A Third Iraq War is no longer out of the question, and would be an ironic legacy for the 2009 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Prognosis: war.
2. A nuclear Iran. Supporters of Obama’s controversial Iran nuclear deal argue that it has bought us ten years -- a decade for Israel to figure out how to defend itself against a nuclear-armed theocracy bent on its destruction. But that argument optimistically assumes the mullahs aren’t planning to cheat. Photographic evidence suggests they already are. Prognosis (for Israel): poor.
3. A flat-lined “recovery.” Job growth remains so weak that our definition of what constitutes a “recovery” has been redefined downward. We’re generating a mere 230,000 new non-farm jobs a month -- too few to achieve escape velocity. Although Democrats are celebrating the fall of headline unemployment below 5 percent, the real unemployment rate is closer to 10 percent. Labor-force participation is historically low. Real wage growth is stalled. The stock market is essentially flat. The Fed has held interest rates at zero percent for seven years now, flooding the economy with cheap money; and while it is teasing markets with hints of a rate hike, under current conditions that could easily kill off what “recovery” there is. Prognosis: continued malaise, with a chance of recession.
4. Higher deficits. Even if the Fed holds off for now, the deficit, which is currently $439 billion, is expected to rise to $540 billion by 2020. When the Fed does pull the trigger, the deficit will shoot up because of higher borrowing costs and countercyclical welfare spending. Everyone’s cost of borrowing for a home or automobile will go up, too. Prognosis: a run on aspirin.
5. Higher energy costs. On its way out the door, the Obama EPA has finalized an ambitious trio of massive environmental regulations aimed at winning its war on coal, war on carbon, and war on ponds and ditches. If the costly new rules aren’t stopped, U.S. coal-fired power plants, and affordable energy prices, can be expected to undergo manmade extinction. Prognosis: the chills.
6. Health care despair. Economists are predicting large increases in ObamaCare premiums and deductibles for 2016 and 2017. In a normal insurance market, premiums and deductibles move in opposite directions. That’s no longer the case under the ironically named, and still unpopular, Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, enrollment in Obamacare seems to have leveled off and the exchanges show signs of having entered a death spiral. Twelve of 23 non-profit co-ops in the exchanges have gone belly up. This month UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurer, announced it has lost so much money on Obamacare, it will pull out of the program altogether unless it receives a multi-billion-dollar bailout. And then there’s the Cadillac Tax, a grand time bomb ticking away in the background and scheduled to go off in 2018. If not repealed or softened, its aftershocks will almost certainly level the employer-based system, from which half of the U.S. population currently gets its health insurance. Prognosis: a big Democratic push for single payer.
7. A “food stamp” nation. Over the past decade, the food stamps program has nearly doubled in size from 26 million to 46 million recipients (one in seven Americans) and more than doubled in cost from $29 billion to $64 billion a year. When the next recession hits, these figures will swell to historic highs. Democrats oppose common-sense reforms. Prognosis: more dependency.
8. Insolvent entitlements. Entitlement reform has gone nowhere under Mr. Obama, despite the fact that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are among the fastest-growing sources of outlays. The various Social Security trust funds are all insolvent. The disability insurance trust fund is slated to go bankrupt by 2020; the hospital insurance fund, by 2030; and the big retirement fund, by 2034. Reforms are imperative. For example, SSDI enrollment has exploded over the past twenty years from 2.8 percent of the working-age population to 5.1 percent; lax rules have morphed the program into a form of unemployment insurance. For Democrats, the only entitlement “reforms” they’ll discuss are proposals to make the programs bigger and more redistributive. Prognosis: higher taxes.
9. A needless crime wave. The murder rate is going up again in a number of American cities, in the wake of the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore -- racially charged tragedies that Mr. Obama has tried to exploit for partisan gain. Thousands of criminals are poised to hit the streets again, thanks to his end-of-term efforts to reduce the national prison population. Criminal aliens continue to enter the country under his porous-borders policies. Prognosis: mayhem.
10. Conscience wars. The Left is following the inescapable logic of its fundamental rejection of human nature and common sense. With Mr. Obama’s active support, our elites are now determined to make us all cooperate in same-sex “marriage,” to accept a radical redefinition of gender, and to pay for other people’s contraceptives and elective abortions. Freedom of speech, religious liberty, the rights of conscience, and even intelligible grammar and clear thought, must all be sacrificed to the gods of sexual liberation. Prognosis: sustained unpleasantness, with a chance of civil unrest.
There is always hope, of course. Perhaps our 45th president will help us regain our senses and turn these messes around. The night is darkest just before the dawn. But whatever happens, surely Mr. Obama has secured for himself a prominent place in the annals of failure.
Dean F. Clancy, a former White House and congressional aide, writes on U.S. health care, budget, and constitutional issues. Follow him at deanclancy.com or on twitter: @DeanClancy.
Every
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/obamas_real_legacy_ten_ticking_time_bombs.html#ixzz3tHbscdiD
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/11/the_causes_of_income_inequality.html#ixzz3qSBDYQVs
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/obamas_real_legacy_ten_ticking_time_bombs.html#ixzz3tHbscdiD
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
November 3, 2015
The Causes of Income Inequality
Income inequality has risen during the last several decades to heights last seen in the 1920s. Most of the income growth has gone to a small fraction of the population, the ultra-rich elites, while real wages for the bottom 90 percent has been stagnant since the 1980s. The U.S. now ranks at, or near, the top of developed countries for income inequality. Job creation has lagged far behind population growth. Automation has erased some jobs, but corrupt, inept government leadership is responsible for the deplorable job- deficit-low wage situation.
Trade agreements are one cause of job and wage reduction. Over the last twenty years, we’ve amassed $10 trillion in trade deficits and exported 12 million manufacturing jobs, forcing workers to move into lower-wage service jobs. Government brags about the free trade agreements, CAFTA, NAFTA, KORUS, and TPP. But the “free” applies only to the foreign trading partners, which manipulate their currencies, pay sweatshop workers low wages, manufacture under environmentally-toxic conditions, and restrict U.S. imports. We hand over our technology, good-paying jobs, product labeling, and safety guarantees -- all to enrich multinational corporations and foreign industry. Industrial research and development have been decimated as companies move overseas or outsource jobs, leaving the nation a future of little technological innovation. The U.S. is left with hollowed-out industries and service jobs.
Trade agreements are one cause of job and wage reduction. Over the last twenty years, we’ve amassed $10 trillion in trade deficits and exported 12 million manufacturing jobs, forcing workers to move into lower-wage service jobs. Government brags about the free trade agreements, CAFTA, NAFTA, KORUS, and TPP. But the “free” applies only to the foreign trading partners, which manipulate their currencies, pay sweatshop workers low wages, manufacture under environmentally-toxic conditions, and restrict U.S. imports. We hand over our technology, good-paying jobs, product labeling, and safety guarantees -- all to enrich multinational corporations and foreign industry. Industrial research and development have been decimated as companies move overseas or outsource jobs, leaving the nation a future of little technological innovation. The U.S. is left with hollowed-out industries and service jobs.
The federal government encourages the massive illegal and legal immigration that plays a huge role in job scarcity and income suppression for American workers. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, a viable economy cannot exist with open borders and unrestricted immigration. An oversupply of workers willing to work for less pay, the outsourcing of jobs, and visa-immigrant hiring allow companies to replace American workers with immigrants for reduced labor and benefit costs. A well-known example is that of Disney IT workers who were forced to train their cheaper immigrant replacements. It is no coincidence that the rise in immigration has occurred simultaneously with the rise of the welfare state. People unemployed, or in low-wage and part-time jobs, rely on government subsidies. The result is larger national debt, more corporate wealth, and declining wages.
ObamaCare influences, and will influence to greater degrees, the lowering of incomes for Americans as healthcare costs rise. Higher premiums and deductions for health insurance are being shifted to employees, reducing benefits and wages. Medical care costs already have risen much faster than wages, leaving many struggling to pay for necessities. Ever-higher deductions mean that people can’t afford to use the insurance they are forced to buy because they can’t even pay the deductions.
Another contributor to job deficiency and wage stagnation is the increased regulation and taxation of small businesses instituted by Obama’s executive orders, EPA overreach, and ObamaCare. Small businesses traditionally have created two-thirds of new jobs annually. The bright spot in the economy, small businesses have created 78.7 percent of new jobs since the recession. Today, faced with these government anti-business policies, small businesses are closing their doors at a faster rate than new businesses are opening. The small businesses that remain open often don’t expand because of Obamacare and government regulations.
Income inequality is greatly impacted by the Federal Reserve’s policies of money-printing and zero interest rates, which have led to the funding of the financial and corporate markets while ignoring the needs of smaller businesses. The money supply and cheap lending has gone to the government, large corporations, and Wall Street, leaving the rest of the economy to sputter along with little capital and fewer jobs. The Fed’s policies of crony capitalism favor big business and big banks over that of smaller entities and are responsible for the increasing number of big business deals such as Walgreen's purchase of Rite Aid.
This government-driven, crony-capitalist economy defined by job scarcity and wage stagnation is the reason college graduates are burdened by $1.3 trillion debt, living with parents, can’t afford to marry or buy homes, and working as waitresses and bartenders. Job scarcity and low wages are the reasons we’re becoming a nation of renters rather than homeowners. They are the reasons that 51 percent of workers earn less than $30,000 a year. They are the reasons for the demise of the middle class and the burgeoning welfare rolls, the modern-day equivalent of slavery.
Income inequality and its devastating consequences are seldom mentioned on the nightly news. The media and bogus government statistics paint rosy pictures about economic recovery, and government masks the bad economy with welfare so that we don’t see Great Depression bread lines. But the only recovery has been in the Federal Reserve’s inflated stock market, not in the main street economy, where 94 million working-age adults are unemployed and 47 million are on some welfare program. The “Made in America” displays weekly touted by ABC news are the few exceptions, rather than the rule, in an American economy of boarded-up stores and factories.
The political implications of income inequality are most evident in the increasing rise and entrenchment of career politicians, supported by big donor funding and media favoritism. The integrity of the electoral process is endangered as election propaganda, funded by big money and hyped by corporate media bias, become more prominent in spreading lies, distortions, and innuendos to the voting public. Unrestricted campaign funding has given the moneyed elites first access to elected officials. At the same time, private-sector unions, small businesses, and citizens find their influence dwindling or irrelevant. This crony capitalism, resembling dictatorships and communist oligarchies, seriously threatens our democracy because money, power, and media control are consolidated in the hands of a few at the top. Voter apathy prevails, as voters feel increasingly powerless to change the course of events.
The United States, a once great economic powerhouse and the largest creditor nation, has become the largest debtor nation, and is fast becoming a banana republic. Past and present elected authorities and public officials have stripped bare our industries, put the nation under a mountain of debt, and turned the U.S. into a welfare depository. Government leaders have intentionally failed to protect our borders, jobs, and freedoms. These public “servants” and the wealthy elites have garnered riches for themselves, and purposely impoverished citizens and future generations. The greatest threats to our economy and national security are not foreign countries or terrorists; they are the enemies inside, corrupt government leaders and the money masters they serve.
ObamaCare influences, and will influence to greater degrees, the lowering of incomes for Americans as healthcare costs rise. Higher premiums and deductions for health insurance are being shifted to employees, reducing benefits and wages. Medical care costs already have risen much faster than wages, leaving many struggling to pay for necessities. Ever-higher deductions mean that people can’t afford to use the insurance they are forced to buy because they can’t even pay the deductions.
Another contributor to job deficiency and wage stagnation is the increased regulation and taxation of small businesses instituted by Obama’s executive orders, EPA overreach, and ObamaCare. Small businesses traditionally have created two-thirds of new jobs annually. The bright spot in the economy, small businesses have created 78.7 percent of new jobs since the recession. Today, faced with these government anti-business policies, small businesses are closing their doors at a faster rate than new businesses are opening. The small businesses that remain open often don’t expand because of Obamacare and government regulations.
Income inequality is greatly impacted by the Federal Reserve’s policies of money-printing and zero interest rates, which have led to the funding of the financial and corporate markets while ignoring the needs of smaller businesses. The money supply and cheap lending has gone to the government, large corporations, and Wall Street, leaving the rest of the economy to sputter along with little capital and fewer jobs. The Fed’s policies of crony capitalism favor big business and big banks over that of smaller entities and are responsible for the increasing number of big business deals such as Walgreen's purchase of Rite Aid.
DEATH OF THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS
This government-driven, crony-capitalist economy defined by job scarcity and wage stagnation is the reason college graduates are burdened by $1.3 trillion debt, living with parents, can’t afford to marry or buy homes, and working as waitresses and bartenders. Job scarcity and low wages are the reasons we’re becoming a nation of renters rather than homeowners. They are the reasons that 51 percent of workers earn less than $30,000 a year. They are the reasons for the demise of the middle class and the burgeoning welfare rolls, the modern-day equivalent of slavery.
Income inequality and its devastating consequences are seldom mentioned on the nightly news. The media and bogus government statistics paint rosy pictures about economic recovery, and government masks the bad economy with welfare so that we don’t see Great Depression bread lines. But the only recovery has been in the Federal Reserve’s inflated stock market, not in the main street economy, where 94 million working-age adults are unemployed and 47 million are on some welfare program. The “Made in America” displays weekly touted by ABC news are the few exceptions, rather than the rule, in an American economy of boarded-up stores and factories.
The political implications of income inequality are most evident in the increasing rise and entrenchment of career politicians, supported by big donor funding and media favoritism. The integrity of the electoral process is endangered as election propaganda, funded by big money and hyped by corporate media bias, become more prominent in spreading lies, distortions, and innuendos to the voting public. Unrestricted campaign funding has given the moneyed elites first access to elected officials. At the same time, private-sector unions, small businesses, and citizens find their influence dwindling or irrelevant. This crony capitalism, resembling dictatorships and communist oligarchies, seriously threatens our democracy because money, power, and media control are consolidated in the hands of a few at the top. Voter apathy prevails, as voters feel increasingly powerless to change the course of events.
The United States, a once great economic powerhouse and the largest creditor nation, has become the largest debtor nation, and is fast becoming a banana republic. Past and present elected authorities and public officials have stripped bare our industries, put the nation under a mountain of debt, and turned the U.S. into a welfare depository. Government leaders have intentionally failed to protect our borders, jobs, and freedoms. These public “servants” and the wealthy elites have garnered riches for themselves, and purposely impoverished citizens and future generations. The greatest threats to our economy and national security are not foreign countries or terrorists; they are the enemies inside, corrupt government leaders and the money masters they serve.
Income inequality has risen during the last several decades to heights last seen in the 1920s. Most of the income growth has gone to a small fraction of the population, the ultra-rich elites, while real wages for the bottom 90 percent has been stagnant since the 1980s. The U.S. now ranks at, or near, the top of developed countries for income inequality. Job creation has lagged far behind population growth. Automation has erased some jobs, but corrupt, inept government leadership is responsible for the deplorable job- deficit-low wage situation.
Trade agreements are one cause of job and wage reduction. Over the last twenty years, we’ve amassed $10 trillion in trade deficits and exported 12 million manufacturing jobs, forcing workers to move into lower-wage service jobs. Government brags about the free trade agreements, CAFTA, NAFTA, KORUS, and TPP. But the “free” applies only to the foreign trading partners, which manipulate their currencies, pay sweatshop workers low wages, manufacture under environmentally-toxic conditions, and restrict U.S. imports. We hand over our technology, good-paying jobs, product labeling, and safety guarantees -- all to enrich multinational corporations and foreign industry. Industrial research and development have been decimated as companies move overseas or outsource jobs, leaving the nation a future of little technological innovation. The U.S. is left with hollowed-out industries and service jobs.
The federal government encourages the massive illegal and legal immigration that plays a huge role in job scarcity and income suppression for American workers. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, a viable economy cannot exist with open borders and unrestricted immigration. An oversupply of workers willing to work for less pay, the outsourcing of jobs, and visa-immigrant hiring allow companies to replace American workers with immigrants for reduced labor and benefit costs. A well-known example is that of Disney IT workers who were forced to train their cheaper immigrant replacements. It is no coincidence that the rise in immigration has occurred simultaneously with the rise of the welfare state. People unemployed, or in low-wage and part-time jobs, rely on government subsidies. The result is larger national debt, more corporate wealth, and declining wages.
ObamaCare influences, and will influence to greater degrees, the lowering of incomes for Americans as healthcare costs rise. Higher premiums and deductions for health insurance are being shifted to employees, reducing benefits and wages. Medical care costs already have risen much faster than wages, leaving many struggling to pay for necessities. Ever-higher deductions mean that people can’t afford to use the insurance they are forced to buy because they can’t even pay the deductions.
Another contributor to job deficiency and wage stagnation is the increased regulation and taxation of small businesses instituted by Obama’s executive orders, EPA overreach, and ObamaCare. Small businesses traditionally have created two-thirds of new jobs annually. The bright spot in the economy, small businesses have created 78.7 percent of new jobs since the recession. Today, faced with these government anti-business policies, small businesses are closing their doors at a faster rate than new businesses are opening. The small businesses that remain open often don’t expand because of Obamacare and government regulations.
Income inequality is greatly impacted by the Federal Reserve’s policies of money-printing and zero interest rates, which have led to the funding of the financial and corporate markets while ignoring the needs of smaller businesses. The money supply and cheap lending has gone to the government, large corporations, and Wall Street, leaving the rest of the economy to sputter along with little capital and fewer jobs. The Fed’s policies of crony capitalism favor big business and big banks over that of smaller entities and are responsible for the increasing number of big business deals such as Walgreen's purchase of Rite Aid.
This government-driven, crony-capitalist economy defined by job scarcity and wage stagnation is the reason college graduates are burdened by $1.3 trillion debt, living with parents, can’t afford to marry or buy homes, and working as waitresses and bartenders. Job scarcity and low wages are the reasons we’re becoming a nation of renters rather than homeowners. They are the reasons that 51 percent of workers earn less than $30,000 a year. They are the reasons for the demise of the middle class and the burgeoning welfare rolls, the modern-day equivalent of slavery.
Income inequality and its devastating consequences are seldom mentioned on the nightly news. The media and bogus government statistics paint rosy pictures about economic recovery, and government masks the bad economy with welfare so that we don’t see Great Depression bread lines. But the only recovery has been in the Federal Reserve’s inflated stock market, not in the main street economy, where 94 million working-age adults are unemployed and 47 million are on some welfare program. The “Made in America” displays weekly touted by ABC news are the few exceptions, rather than the rule, in an American economy of boarded-up stores and factories.
The political implications of income inequality are most evident in the increasing rise and entrenchment of career politicians, supported by big donor funding and media favoritism. The integrity of the electoral process is endangered as election propaganda, funded by big money and hyped by corporate media bias, become more prominent in spreading lies, distortions, and innuendos to the voting public. Unrestricted campaign funding has given the moneyed elites first access to elected officials. At the same time, private-sector unions, small businesses, and citizens find their influence dwindling or irrelevant. This crony capitalism, resembling dictatorships and communist oligarchies, seriously threatens our democracy because money, power, and media control are consolidated in the hands of a few at the top. Voter apathy prevails, as voters feel increasingly powerless to change the course of events.
The United States, a once great economic powerhouse and the largest creditor nation, has become the largest debtor nation, and is fast becoming a banana republic. Past and present elected authorities and public officials have stripped bare our industries, put the nation under a mountain of debt, and turned the U.S. into a welfare depository. Government leaders have intentionally failed to protect our borders, jobs, and freedoms. These public “servants” and the wealthy elites have garnered riches for themselves, and purposely impoverished citizens and future generations. The greatest threats to our economy and national security are not foreign countries or terrorists; they are the enemies inside, corrupt government leaders and the money masters they serve.
Trade agreements are one cause of job and wage reduction. Over the last twenty years, we’ve amassed $10 trillion in trade deficits and exported 12 million manufacturing jobs, forcing workers to move into lower-wage service jobs. Government brags about the free trade agreements, CAFTA, NAFTA, KORUS, and TPP. But the “free” applies only to the foreign trading partners, which manipulate their currencies, pay sweatshop workers low wages, manufacture under environmentally-toxic conditions, and restrict U.S. imports. We hand over our technology, good-paying jobs, product labeling, and safety guarantees -- all to enrich multinational corporations and foreign industry. Industrial research and development have been decimated as companies move overseas or outsource jobs, leaving the nation a future of little technological innovation. The U.S. is left with hollowed-out industries and service jobs.
The federal government encourages the massive illegal and legal immigration that plays a huge role in job scarcity and income suppression for American workers. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, a viable economy cannot exist with open borders and unrestricted immigration. An oversupply of workers willing to work for less pay, the outsourcing of jobs, and visa-immigrant hiring allow companies to replace American workers with immigrants for reduced labor and benefit costs. A well-known example is that of Disney IT workers who were forced to train their cheaper immigrant replacements. It is no coincidence that the rise in immigration has occurred simultaneously with the rise of the welfare state. People unemployed, or in low-wage and part-time jobs, rely on government subsidies. The result is larger national debt, more corporate wealth, and declining wages.
ObamaCare influences, and will influence to greater degrees, the lowering of incomes for Americans as healthcare costs rise. Higher premiums and deductions for health insurance are being shifted to employees, reducing benefits and wages. Medical care costs already have risen much faster than wages, leaving many struggling to pay for necessities. Ever-higher deductions mean that people can’t afford to use the insurance they are forced to buy because they can’t even pay the deductions.
Another contributor to job deficiency and wage stagnation is the increased regulation and taxation of small businesses instituted by Obama’s executive orders, EPA overreach, and ObamaCare. Small businesses traditionally have created two-thirds of new jobs annually. The bright spot in the economy, small businesses have created 78.7 percent of new jobs since the recession. Today, faced with these government anti-business policies, small businesses are closing their doors at a faster rate than new businesses are opening. The small businesses that remain open often don’t expand because of Obamacare and government regulations.
Income inequality is greatly impacted by the Federal Reserve’s policies of money-printing and zero interest rates, which have led to the funding of the financial and corporate markets while ignoring the needs of smaller businesses. The money supply and cheap lending has gone to the government, large corporations, and Wall Street, leaving the rest of the economy to sputter along with little capital and fewer jobs. The Fed’s policies of crony capitalism favor big business and big banks over that of smaller entities and are responsible for the increasing number of big business deals such as Walgreen's purchase of Rite Aid.
This government-driven, crony-capitalist economy defined by job scarcity and wage stagnation is the reason college graduates are burdened by $1.3 trillion debt, living with parents, can’t afford to marry or buy homes, and working as waitresses and bartenders. Job scarcity and low wages are the reasons we’re becoming a nation of renters rather than homeowners. They are the reasons that 51 percent of workers earn less than $30,000 a year. They are the reasons for the demise of the middle class and the burgeoning welfare rolls, the modern-day equivalent of slavery.
Income inequality and its devastating consequences are seldom mentioned on the nightly news. The media and bogus government statistics paint rosy pictures about economic recovery, and government masks the bad economy with welfare so that we don’t see Great Depression bread lines. But the only recovery has been in the Federal Reserve’s inflated stock market, not in the main street economy, where 94 million working-age adults are unemployed and 47 million are on some welfare program. The “Made in America” displays weekly touted by ABC news are the few exceptions, rather than the rule, in an American economy of boarded-up stores and factories.
The political implications of income inequality are most evident in the increasing rise and entrenchment of career politicians, supported by big donor funding and media favoritism. The integrity of the electoral process is endangered as election propaganda, funded by big money and hyped by corporate media bias, become more prominent in spreading lies, distortions, and innuendos to the voting public. Unrestricted campaign funding has given the moneyed elites first access to elected officials. At the same time, private-sector unions, small businesses, and citizens find their influence dwindling or irrelevant. This crony capitalism, resembling dictatorships and communist oligarchies, seriously threatens our democracy because money, power, and media control are consolidated in the hands of a few at the top. Voter apathy prevails, as voters feel increasingly powerless to change the course of events.
The United States, a once great economic powerhouse and the largest creditor nation, has become the largest debtor nation, and is fast becoming a banana republic. Past and present elected authorities and public officials have stripped bare our industries, put the nation under a mountain of debt, and turned the U.S. into a welfare depository. Government leaders have intentionally failed to protect our borders, jobs, and freedoms. These public “servants” and the wealthy elites have garnered riches for themselves, and purposely impoverished citizens and future generations. The greatest threats to our economy and national security are not foreign countries or terrorists; they are the enemies inside, corrupt government leaders and the money masters they serve.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/11/the_causes_of_income_inequality.html#ixzz3qSBDYQVs
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment