Hold Fast

My good family friend Avram Barlowe penned this thoughtful piece which I think merits wider reading. Avram is a teacher in the New York City public school system and a union shop steward. What Would Carl Oglesby Say About Bob Rubin? . . . and by extension, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama? Coming of age [...]

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Via Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism. Econ4 economists put out a statement on housing accompanying this video. It includes this passage, which I think is spot-on: We oppose treating the nation’s housing as a bundle of assets to be sliced, diced, flipped, and bailed out in pursuit of inflated profits and bonuses. We call for [...]

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Matt Stoller interviews Neil Barofsky, who says he’d be happy to serve as chairman of the SEC, if the President nominates him. He and Stoller talk about what he would do as SEC Chair and the important role the SEC has to play to regulate the banking system and make sure we don’t ever go [...]

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Alex Pareene offers up some great strategic advise for Democrats in DC: If Democrats want to get the big pundits on their side, they should pull a Boehner and just name whatever it is they’re trying to pass “The Simpson Plan.” That should be the name they use when they reintroduce card-check. And cap-and-trade. Planned [...]

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Yep, this about covers it. Also, too, class war.

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I’ve been quite skeptical of the value of Warren Buffett as a key advocate for Democrats around tax policy and social spending (see: here, here, and here). While Buffett is supportive of the not-bad idea that rich Americans should pay higher taxes, he’s been either vague or advocated small increases – while coupling his tax [...]

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I didn’t know this one, from David Dayen: Of course, nobody is questioning why we’re holding to this artificial deficit reduction construct at all. As Jed Graham explains, over the last three years, the US has reduced the federal budget deficit more rapidly than at any time since World War II. This is an artifact of [...]

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Matt Taibbi responds to President Obama’s criticism of Rolling Stone’s coverage of his accomplishments, or lack there of, in passing effective financial reform. Specifically Taibbi goes after Obama for not addressing the problem of Too Big To Fail banks in an adequate way. He concludes: The sum total of all of this is that Obama [...]

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Dean Baker’s piece in The Guardian on the politics and economics of Social Security is must-read. The story here is a simple one: while social security may enjoy overwhelming support across the political spectrum, it does not poll nearly as well among the wealthy people – who finance political campaigns and own major news outlets. The [...]

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Via Yves Smith. More at Econ4.org.

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