Whenever Sarah Palin or another Tea Party favorite rails against “crony capitalism” and its Wall Street incarnation, there’s always wild applause. The right wingers in attendance may not have any real idea of how this crony capitalism works on The Street, but they have a visceral understanding that it’s a major cause of our present economic malaise. Since the Tea Party is largely funded and its economic views so much shaped these days by the cronies they purport to dislike...

In the founding days of the Republic, a highly literate and very politically savvy American citizenry would spend hours arguing the pros and cons of various governing ideas presented in a flood of pamphlets, and in tightly reasoned works such as The Federalist and The Anti-Federalist. The kind of political arguments impossible to fit in a 30-second TV special interest rant or a 140-character tweet — not that anyone employing these media would ever be interested in trying. So be it. In arguing...

When I say the Obama White House is “brain-dead,” which I do often these days, I don’t mean the folks working there are incapable of thinking. On the contrary. They think deeply about all sorts of things. It’s just that their thinking always seems to lead to new versions of old ideas that are either outdated, demonstrably ineffective, or just plain silly. The well-deserved trashing the Obama White House is getting with its failed $528 million investment in Solyndra, which...

According to Census figures, one in six Americans now lives below the official poverty line. That number will doubtless be used by lefties to argue that taxes should be increased on the rich so that to meet budgetary limits more need not be taken from the poor. This must be checked. The rich must not be made to suffer a lessening of their incomes and wealth just so a bunch or poorer folks don’t get any poorer. We have to save the rich! President Obama’s new jobs initiative is to be funded...

America is in crisis. Economic. Political. Stature within the world community. And the presidential election in 2012 that will select a leader to meet these multi-faceted and increasingly frightening challenges seems at present to pit sitting President Obama against Republican Governor Rick Perry. The former has shown himself to be weak and vacillating, a man without a clear vision for the country, distrusted by his own party and disdained by the other one, a well spoken empty suit. The latter is...

Is there any foolish and destructive idea peddled by conservative ideologues and big business CEOs that President Obama won’t buy into? I’ve come to doubt it. The latest manifestation of his efforts to accommodate these worthies is his just announced suspension of new anti-smog rules promulgated by his own EPA. His reason for suspending them? Because, says the White House, their cost, an estimated $19 to $90 billion, is too great a burden in these difficult economic times. And by extension,...

In a recent post I used the term “nutty Republican logic” in regard to issues such as benefit programs and taxes. I didn’t really explain why this logic is “nutty,” however. So let me do so here, beginning with an allusion to a logical conclusion once reached by Aristotle. The great Greek philosopher believed men had more teeth than women, and believed this for a very logical seeming reason — men generally have bigger jaws. Bigger jaws, more teeth. What could seem...

There’s talk in Republican circles these days about the need to save money by cutting funding for food stamps. One in seven Americans, and by some estimates am even greater percentage of children, now depend on these stamps to supplement their diets. But (and here we come to present day Republican logic) some people who don’t really need this help may be getting it. So, this thinking runs, cut overall funding for the program. And then there’s the same logic applied to unemployment...

Ze women zey simply luv me, Zey can’t get enough of my stuff, Though I’m fat and I’m old and I’m ugly, And ze sex that I like, it is ruff. Ze ones zat I most like to favor, Ze ones for me most preferential, Are ze poor ones I peg as defenseless, Who can’t prove our sex ain’t consensual. And if zez ingrates still complain, Understand not ze honor bestowed, I got money and lawyers and clout, So I walk.. It’s my right… I am owed.

One of the save-the-economy notions floating around Washington these days is something called the American Infrastructure Financing Authority It’s a public-private approach to refurbishing and modernizing our roads, bridges, public transit, schools, and other infrastructure. In its current proposal form, it would have the government front $10 billion in start up capital for infrastructure projects that would pay for themselves over time (e.g. through tolls), with private parties providing...

One of the truly surprising things about our president is his seeming inability to jump in front of a wave that’s already peaking. He failed to do this early this year when he let the Republicans extend the Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy, though the public clearly wanted them ended. He did it again, big time, when he caved to the Tea Party House members in negotiations over the debt ceiling, at a time when an overwhelming majority of Americans in every poll indicated they wished increased...

As I watch the riots, looting and burning in English cities like London and Manchester this summer of 2011, I have the sickening feeling I’m seeing something that will be replicated on these shores in the summer of 2012. Here, however, if the sparks catch, the eruptions are likely to be bigger, nastier, far more violent, far more destructive. And they are also likely to shape the outcome of the 2012 elections in very dramatic ways. There are many social reasons for today’s riots on the...

In 1987 I published a book titled Planet Of The Financial Planners. It was a collection of short satirical pieces, most of which had run in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Los Angles Times, Boston Globe and a few other newspapers. Among the original pieces that hadn’t run elsewhere and that appeared in this book for the first time was one titled “Facing Up To The Man From Chad.” I reproduce that piece here: …The formal announcement came in late 1985. The United...

Political types used to worry about an imperial presidency in which a chief executive used both formal and merely implied powers of his office to run roughshod over congress, the courts, and other institutions to impose his own will on government policy. No need to worry about that, however, with Barack Obama in the White House. The man clearly has other priorities. He’s got a lot more important things on his mind than running the country in the way he promised supporters he would run it last...

I didn’t vote for George Bush in 2000. During his first few months in office I thought he was a joke — a bad joke. After he invaded Iraq and in tandem with a Republican congress pushed the country hard to the right, his policies made me angry. But I have to give the man credit, too. When 9/11 struck and America was in shock, he stepped up big-time. I remember the night shortly after that tragedy when he addressed a joint session of congress. Like virtually all Americans and much of the word,...

Economists have their standard definitions. They work their numbers and proclaim when we are in a recession, out of a recession, when an economic recovery is taking place, and when that recovery is merely hitting a “soft patch.” But really, who but the media, government officials, and economists themselves take these definitions seriously anymore when it comes to reflecting reality as experienced by most Americans? These days, not many people. For most Americans, the recession didn’t...

Public respect for both parties in congress is now at an all-time low. The president is increasingly seen as a well-spoken empty suit who occasionally mouths popular views he doesn’t go on to defend, and invariably caves to people he purports to oppose. There’s an opportunity here for a new national political grouping to not only challenge a political class in Washington that is so obviously out of tune with the wishes of most Americans, but to actually win the White House, and than...

Everyone now understands that on August 2 or shortly thereafter, the Treasury is going to have to prioritize which bills it pays and play triage with other obligations. Here’s my own list of the bills that should be the first that don’t get paid: 1, The salaries of every member of Congress, the President, and all their respective staffers. Before hundreds of thousands of honorable, hard-working federal employees feel the pain, the bunglers who bright about the pain should take the hit....

There was a fascinating article about Rep. Eric Cantor in yesterday’s Washington Post. Cantor is the leader of the Tea Party clique in Congress that has turned a standard, non-controversial debt ceiling increase, one done more than 70 times over the years, into a mechanism to push an ultra-conservative fiscal agenda. Cantor, this Post article also notes, is a long time defender (and contributions recipient) of a Wall Street clique, hedge funds and private equity funds, some of whose managers...

Before the opening gong, There’ll come to a new trading day, News of a swoon in Hong Kong, Fears sov’reign bonds might not pay; Profits, but draped with stark warnings, Earnings, but sales that fell, ?Inflation, again prices spawning, Fears, talking heads can not quell; The Fed once again to the fore, Will step up and bravely declare, We won’t, this new crisis ignore, It won’t, long-term good times impair; With a flourish they’ll open the vaults, And out will gush seas of cash, That...

No local, state or federal law can violate the U.S. Constitution. Neither can a policy of Congress. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that this country’s public debt “shall not be questioned.” Obviously, because of disagreements between congress and the president over the federal budget, the country’s public debt IS being questioned. So… So this coming Thursday or Friday, if Plan B C, or D fails to raise the debt ceiling, to prevent a default that would...

The reluctance of Tea Party Republicans in the House fo Representatives to accept any compromise on the debt ceiling is generally attributed to three things: ideologically-based economics; fear of Grover Norquist and the no-tax pledge he made them sign; and retribution at the polls by Tea Partiers if they caved on anything. All these factors play into the behavior of these House reps, of course. But a more important one can probably be gleaned from a reading of James Thurber’s wonderful short...

When I hear Republicans constantly referring to millionaires and billionaires as “job creators,” and therefore people who should not be taxed more in this jobs-poor economy, I find myself a tad mystified. It’s not that I totally disagree with this identification. It’s more like I’m listening to people who just caught the last half of a beginner’s economics lecture, and never came back to hear the first half. Of course you need capital to get a business off the...

Since 1975, benefits of Social Security recipients have been adjusted for inflation every year. Last year Washington found a cute way to stiff recipients out of this cost of living adjustment (COLA). Now both parties there are working on a plan to ensure that older Americans get a smaller adjustment every year into the future. The chosen mechanism to ensure this is something called the “chained consumer price index,” which may soon replace the traditional Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure for...

If Eric Cantor, the Tea Party’s rep in Congress, were singing karaoke these days, it might be in the style of an old Frank Sinatra favorite. They’ll Do It My Way And now, though defaults loom, I hold one steadfast notion; It’s that, tax hikes mean doom, To this I swear, my full devotion; For me, negotiate, A lesser rich folks exalted payday, That game I’ll never play, They’ll do it my way. Some doubts, others may hold, But doubt for me, a lib trait silly; I’m sold,...