Getting Straight on Small Business Job Creation: Firms vs. Establishments I like small businesses. I like medium size and large ones too. I like ‘em all, and while size matters — small firms face different, and often more challenging, hurdles than large ones — I fear we risk systemic distortions if our policies are too dependent on firm size. But aren’t small firms the job creators? As I’ve stressed before, not especially, despite the fact that you hear this mantra hourly from policymakers of both parties. [This is from a new, experimental data series from the BLS, i.e., not yet part of their normal data production — for now, the data only go through March of 2011.] The first figure, from the BLS link above, just shows the time series in jobs by firm size, with the three size classes in the new series, 1-49, 50-499, and 500+, so small, medium, and large. So, the question is, do any of these size classes contribute disproportionately to job growth? That may surprise you if you’re used to hearing the opposite, which you hear a lot. Sources: BLS, ADP Source: BLS
Can Electing Enforcer of Our Plutocracy Stop Wealthy From Getting Richer off Pilfering The Middle Class? The economy is in the toilet? The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment is at this year’s low. Today, jobless claims are up sharply. Bill Moyer in the video below speaks about the American Plutocracy that Citigroup in its internal memos coined with the new term “Plutonomy”. When I wrote my book “As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom” I took a lot of flak for the less than civil name. Jared Bernstein’s published an important article yesterday (Getting Straight on Small Business Job Creation: Firms vs. The only advantage to having the above imbalance is that a privileged few get to monopolize on the services and innovation of the many. Only an informed electorate that elects politicians willing to change policies beneficial to the many, the middle class, will we be able to make a change.
How to Get Our Citizens Actually United IMAGINE you’re the closest living relative of a child who just inherited $100 million after her parents died in a car crash. You’re a distant cousin, but if something happened to her, you’d be next in line. She has juvenile . So you “adjust” her insulin prescription a bit yourself, doubling the dose. When that doesn’t work, you tell her a different drug works just as well, and when she’s reluctant, you offer her a trip to World. What would happen if you got caught? Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a settlement with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. These two fact patterns have a lot in common, except that instead of endangering the life of one child, the company endangered the lives of many, and instead of anyone receiving prison time, the company agreed to pay a fine — which it will no doubt pass on to its customers and shareholders — that is, to us. This isn’t an exception. So why has no one been criminally prosecuted?
The Ryan Choice Reich writes: "Paul Ryan is the reverse of Sarah Palin. She was all right-wing flash without much substance. He's all right-wing substance without much flash." By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog 12 August 12 aul Ryan is the reverse of Sarah Palin. Ryan is not a firebrand. It's here - in Ryan's views and policy judgments - we find the true ideologue. Ryan's views are crystallized in the budget he produced for House Republicans last March as chairman of the House Budget committee. Ryan's budget would also reduce food stamps for poor families by 17 percent ($135 billion) over the decade, leading to a significant increase in hunger - particularly among children. In all, 62 percent of the budget cuts proposed by Ryan would come from low-income programs. The Ryan plan would also turn Medicare into vouchers whose value won't possibly keep up with rising health-care costs - thereby shifting those costs on to seniors. Ryan's views are pure social Darwinism. Is this Mitt Romney's view as well?
Reader Commentary: The GOP's politics of dishonesty, distraction | Opinion By Andy Schmookler In almost every campaign speech, I say the real battle in American politics is not about liberal vs. conservative but about honest vs. dishonest. Bob Goodlatte's recent visit to Staunton illustrates that perfectly. Mr. Despite the president's awkward phrasing that Republicans quoted out of context, he clearly never meant to deny an individual's role in creating a successful business. His point was that we all - even, or perhaps especially, the most successful -- owe a lot to our country and to the things that we have created together as a people. We have a very good reason to know that the president did not mean what Goodlatte and other Republicans pretend that he meant. Mr. This has been a do-nothing Congress because that's what Bob Goodlatte and his Republican colleagues wanted. To make the president fail in a time of economic crisis means making the country fail - and hurting tens of millions of Americans. The 6th District deserves better.
Re-Implement FDR’s 2nd Bill Of Rights The reason for America’s independence, for America’s existence as a sovereign state is stated perfectly from these words from our Declaration of Independence where it states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The preamble to our constitution codifies in summary that: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the constitution ensured the rights of the states and the individual from an overreaching federal government. Currently two distinct notions are in effect.
Easy To Understand Analysis of the Causes of 2008 Crash, Crisis Capitalism’s Failure, & Solution The following article by Professor of Economics Emeritus Richard D. Wolffe is excellent. In simple words he details the real cause of the 2008 depression as well as the reasons we are unable to climb out of it. I posted a similar blog yesterday, of course lacking the gravitas of the Professor Wolffe. Read the article in its entirety then let me know what you think. Monday, 09 July 2012 00:00 By Richard D Wolff , Truthout Richard D. Pedestrians look at the stock market at the NASDAQ studio in Times Square, New York, September 30, 2008. After five years of crisis – with no end in sight – it’s time to evaluate what happened, why and what needs to be done. US capitalism changed in the 1970s. By making these changes, US capitalism provoked a classic contradiction/problem for itself. After Five Years: Report Card on Crisis Capitalism
GOP Senate Candidates Advocate 17th Amendment Repeal How would the Senate look without Senators elected by voters? Before the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, that s exactly how it worked, with increasingly corrupt state legislatures picking Senators. Excerpt from article by by Niels Lesniewski, Roll Call Last November, [Michigan's GOP Senate candidate Pete] Hoekstra told a conservative talk radio program on WAAM in Ann Arbor that allowing people to elect their own Senators weakened the power of the states relative to the federal government. "The direct election of U.S. Hoekstra is not the only Republican Senate nominee to express such opinions. In Arizona, presumptive Democratic Senate nominee Richard Carmona has circulated a Huffington Post story that cited Rep. Rep Todd Akin, the GOP nominee facing Sen.
Ryan Pick Solidifies Competing Visions in Federal Budget Debate - Budget Matters - National Priorities Project If there was ever any doubt that the U.S. federal budget would claim center-stage in the 2012 presidential race, it vanished with Mitt Romney's selection of House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) as the GOP Vice Presidential nominee. Although Mitt Romney has emphasized he will run on a Romney budget, not a Ryan budget, he has already endorsed central elements of Ryan's plan – such as significant cuts to Medicaid and education – and has indicated that the Congressman will play a lead role in shaping the Romney/Ryan platform. Paul Ryan's federal budget proposal includes sweeping changes that supporters say are necessary to shrink bloated government and balance the federal budget, but opponents believe would be draconian in their impact on the American people and the economy. Differences between the Ryan and Obama Let’s look at some of the ways Paul Ryan’s federal budget projections differ dramatically from those of President Obama: Differences between Romney and Obama