Dean Baker TPM Café, February 1, 2010 Truthout, February 1, 2010 See article on original website Our political leaders continually assert that we should be thanking them that we are not in a second Great Depression rather than complaining about how bad things are. The second Great Depression theme came up repeatedly in the debate over the reappointment of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. It also featured prominently in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s defense of his handling of the AIG bailout.
Consider this article from the Washington Post. (H/T Belmont Club via ECM) How Democrats prevent job creation Most of the article talks about how Obama’s temporary hand-outs will not create any lasting jobs – they’ll simply go away as soon as the government stops taking money from the private sector to pay for these public works projects. But then the article talks about free trade and how free trade creates jobs
Dean Baker The Guardian Unlimited , February 1, 2010 See article on original website It is probably best to leave the gods out of discussions of economic policy, but this barrier was breached last month when Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, told an interviewer that Goldman Sachs was doing God’s work. Most people will never have the opportunity to join Goldman Sachs’ gang of multi-millionaire bankers. However, by Mr.
Obama reads “My Pet Goat” to a class of 6th graders, as the real unemployment rate hits 17% These are all from Gateway Pundit. First, ANGER : Then, MORE ANGER : And in this video , he claims that the health care negotiations really did take place on C-SPAN. Who are you going to believe
Great post by Matt at MandM on an often misunderstood verse. Here’s the passage in question, Matthew 7:1-5 : 1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
ECM sent me this amazing video from Andrew Klavan. The video contains three examples of how the leftists in the entertainment industry lie to their gullible audience about the way the world really is
Dean Baker Sacramento Bee , January 30, 2010 See article on original website Deceptive mortgages helped feed the housing bubble whose collapse wrecked the economy. Ten percent unemployment and 20 million homeowners underwater might seem a good reason to impose tighter standards on mortgages and other loans
Article about Obama’s SOTU proposals from the Family Research Council. (H/T Muddling Towards Maturity ) Excerpt: “Tonight the President also proposed expanding the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit which would only benefit families if: both parents work, a single parent works, or one parent works and the other is in school
January 29, 2010 (GDP Byte) By Dean Baker January 29, 2010 Net national income in the 3rd quarter was 0.3 percent below the level in the 2nd quarter of 2005. GDP grew at a 5.7 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, driven by a sharp decline in the rate at which firms are reducing their inventories. Taking out the effect of inventory fluctuations, final sales of domestic product increased at a 2.1 percent annual rate.
Bernard Hickey delivers an economic weather report in association with BNZ, including a look at RBNZ governer Alan Bollard’s speech on Monetary Policy delivered in Christchurch on January 29.
January 28, 2010 For Immediate Release : January 28, 2010 Contact : Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115 Washington, D.C. – The following statement by economist and CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker was released following Ben Bernanke’s confirmation hearing: The Senate approval of a second term for Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman sends exactly the wrong message to the Federal Reserve Board and the country. First and foremost, Mr.
January 27, 2010 For Immediate Release : January 27, 2010 Contact: Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115 Washington, D.C. – CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker issued the following statement after President Obama’s first State of the Union address: President Obama made several useful proposals on retirement savings, student loans and other areas that will benefit working families. However, this agenda is not bold enough to address the severity of the problems facing the economy and the country’s workers.
Dan Beeton Newmatilda.com (Australia), January 26, 2010 En español See article on original website Debt, Aid, Foreign Interference and the Most-Impoverished Country in the Western Hemisphere The recent earthquake in Haiti has brought the island nation a perhaps unprecedented level of attention, interest, generosity and solidarity. The magnitude of the earthquake’s human toll has prompted international shock and an examination of the factors behind why the quake was so much more devastating in Haiti than similar quakes have been in other parts of the world. It is foreign interference – economic, military and covert – that has been the principle reason why Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, and in turn why the toll of the Jan.
January 27, 2010 (Housing Market Monitor) By Dean Baker January 27, 2010 Mortgage applications are running below the depressed levels of 2009. Note: Beginning today, CEPR’s Housing Market Monitor will be published on a monthly basis, typically coming out on the last Wednesday of the month. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s purchase mortgage applications index fell by another 3.3 percent last week and continues to run substantially below the depressed levels of January 2009.
Dean Baker Truthout, January 25, 2010 See article on original website The Supreme Court ruled last week that corporations could spend as much money as they want in elections thereby making most existing restrictions on corporate election spending unconstitutional. This raises the prospect of U.S
Dean Baker The Guardian Unlimited , January 25, 2010 See article on original website The Senate’s decision on approving Ben Bernanke for a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve Board is coming down to the wire and the Wall Street crew is once again pulling out all the stops. To get the 60 votes they need for Senate approval they are reaching into the treasure chest of tall tales they used to push through the TARP. They are once again telling the American people that the world will end if we don’t do exactly what they want.
Has Barack Obamas mantra for change translated to foreign policy success one year after he became the US President? Obama promised to break away from his predecessor George Bushs polices and rebuild ties with disgruntled allies and reach out to the Muslim world
Ryan Grim, in a posting January 21 on Huffington Post , states that “a recent poll [a Research 2000 National Poll] found that 47 percent of Americans think Bernanke cares more about Wall Street than Main Street, while only 20 percent think he works for Main Street. Independents, who swung heavily for Brown in Massachusetts, are even more opposed to Bernanke than Democrats or Republicans
February 2, 2010 Downsizing the American Dream 7-9pm PST The Hammer Museum/UCLA 10899 Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90024 After the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Wall Street is back but Main Street still suffers. As the divide between rich and poor in America widens, will the middle class recover or be left out as the economy is restructured
The recent announcement of what I’ll call the “Volcker Plan” for regulating banks was sandwiched between two major political events: the election of a Republican Senator from Massachusetts and the Supreme Court’s decision “deregulating” corporate campaign contributions. The timing of the announcement in relation to the election of the Republican (Scott Bowen) is suspicious: it suggests a desire to change the subject and recapture the populist mandate by attacking the hated banks in a more dramatic fashion than by the proposal for a bank tax that I discussed in my last post .
