US Retirement Benefits to be Cut?
Tom Ferguson, professor of political science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, is in fine form here. Enjoy!
Read more...Category Archives: Income disparity
The Emperors Strike Back
The defenders of the economic orthodoxy have gotten much more shrill of late. In a perverse way, this is probably a positive sign: they might be feeling a tad worried that they are starting to lose their hold over consensus reality. But given how quick various media outlets are to pick up and amplify their […]
Read more...Why the fall in the savings rate means something
A post by Edward Harrison Recently, I wrote a post which examined three different reasons the savings rate in the US could have been falling over the last year. Rebecca Wilder thinks this is a meaningless exercise: Edward Harrison at Credit Writedowns is theorizing why the saving rate is falling when it should be rising, […]
Read more...High Income Disparity Leads to Low Savings Rates
Andrew Dittmer, who was an important collaborator on ECONNED, sent me pdfs of the notorious Citigroup Plutonomy reports for leisure reading. Michael Moore highlighted these two research reports (2005 and 2006) in Capitalism: A Love Story . On the one hand, the authors, Ajay Kapur, Niall Macleod, and Narendra Singh get some credit for addressing […]
Read more...Extolling the Corporate Squeeze of Workers?
I don’t mean to beat up on Spencer at Angry Bear, who has provided an interesting set of comparisons on the perennial question of many investors, “Whither the stock market?” But one section of his discussion, precisely because it is such conventional thinking, is an illustration of how the blind pursuit of “maximizing shareholder value” […]
Read more...Indefensible Men
From the December 2009 issue of The Baffler (no online version of this article available). For those not familiar with The Baffler, this is the revival of a magazine of business and culture edited by Thomas Frank that had previously been published from 1988 to 2007. This issue was called “Margin Call” and included articles […]
Read more...Median Net Worth of Single Black Women in Prime Working Years: $5
In case you somehow harbored the notion that the other half doesn’t live differently than the rest of us, an eye-opening report released by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, “Lifting as We Climb,” analyzes a topic that too often gets short shrift, the net worth, or “wealth” of the lower economic strata. The […]
Read more...US Banks Reject Effort by UK Bank Execs to Rein in Pay
From the Independent: Chief executives from the world’s banks discussed the plans at a secret dinner held at Claridge’s, the London hotel, last October, at which several leading British bankers are said to have suggested that the sector should take greater responsibility for its part in the crash, and do more to reduce the vast […]
Read more...Senators Propose 50% Bonus Tax on Big TARP Recipients
Hhhm. Even though the UK 50% bonus “supertax” was deemed to be a bit of a failure (the banks just grossed up bonuses to compensate for the levy), Senators Barbara Boxer and James Webb have proposed a similar measure, and one wonders how it might fend off the sort of gaming that plagued the UK […]
Read more...Has Obama been a success despite suspicions of crony capitalism?
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. I hope this is a good subject to discuss in light of the recent Obama Administration machinations regarding Fannie and Freddie, Big Pharma, and Healthcare. Before the Christmas break, I wrote a post to tie together my thoughts on why I have found the Obama economic program so unsatisfying […]
Read more...Is kleptocracy a relevant term for discussion about the origins of the crisis?
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Yesterday, I indicated I would write a few thematic posts as a look back at some of the more important economic topics that this credit crisis has uncovered. Tying posts together in a theme definitely gives a better holistic view of a the themes than the posts do in […]
Read more...Goldman Staff Packing Pistols to Defend Against Peasants
As Jim Chanos, who pointed out this Bloomberg piece “Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public,” remarked, “Well, it appears that Goldman’s Best and Brightest may be hedging their goodwill built up by doing ‘God’s work’.” I’ve heard the expression, “Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel,” but I can’t recall an exhortation that links […]
Read more...Do Businesses Hate Their Workers? (Income Disparity Myths Edition)
In America, it isn’t hard to answer the question in the headline “yes.” The oft recited, “Our employees are our greatest asset” is pure Orwellian prattle; most companies treat employees as liabilities, doing everything they can to minimize labor costs, getting rid of workers whenever possible. And this now extends well up into the management […]
Read more...On the Power of Peaceful Protests (Please Join One Against Banks in Chicago Oct. 25-27)
Reader and life-long Chicago resident John Bougearel asked me to reissue a post encouraging readers to participate in peaceful demonstrations during the American Bankers Association annual meeting in Chicago October 25-27. The sessions are organized by a coalition of community, consumer and labor organizations and are called “Showdown in Chicago“. You can find more details […]
Read more...Wealthy Ramp Up Their Spending, So All Must Be Well
The economy must be better, because the rich are spending more. I have to wonder how much of the increase in spending is the result of direct benefit from financial services industry subsidies (ie, people working for large financial firms spending more because they are confident they will have a good to great bonus this […]
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