The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. Alexis de Tocqueville<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alexisdeto390854.html>
On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 1:03 PM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > In what shouldn't be a surprise to anyone with a pulse > > Growth of Income Inequality Is Worse Under Obama than Bush ( > > http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/growth-of-income-inequality-is-worse-under-obama-than-bush.html > ) > > Yesterday, the President gave a speech in which he demanded that Congress > raise taxes on millionaires, as a way to somewhat recalibrate the nations > wealth distribution. His advisors, like Gene Sperling, are giving speeches > talking about the need for manufacturing. A common question in DC > is whether this populist pose will help him win the election. Perhaps it > will. Perhaps not. Romney is a weak candidate, cartoonishly wealthy and > from what Ive seen, pretty inept. But on policy, theres a more > interesting question. > > A better puzzle to wrestle with is why President Obama is able to continue > to speak as if his administration has not presided over a significant > expansion of income redistribution upward. The data on inequality shows > that his policies are not incrementally better than those of his > predecessor, or that were making progress too slowly, as liberal Democrats > like to argue. It doesnt even show that the outcome is the same as > Bushs. No, look at this table, from Emmanuel Saez (h/t Ian Welsh). Check > out those two red circles I added. > ... > Chart here > ... > Yup, under Bush, the 1% captured a disproportionate share of the income > gains from the Bush boom of 2002-2007. They got 65 cents of every dollar > created in that boom, up 20 cents from when Clinton was President. Under > Obama, the 1% got 93 cents of every dollar created in that boom. Thats > not only more than under Bush, up 28 cents. In the transition from Bush to > Obama, inequality got worse, faster, than under the transition from Clinton > to Bush. Obama accelerated the growth of inequality. > > Income concentrations are relatively rare, but when they happen, sharp > policy moves can retain a strong measure of equality. Its well-known at > this point that President Obama did not want to make such moves. TARP, > cramdown, and the foreclosure fraud settlement suggest that his interests > lie in preserving the capital structure of the large banks. What about > other policy priorities? > > Despite his recent speech, President Obama knows that his income tax > proposal is going nowhere. So lets look at three recent policy choices > that are going somewhere. > > 1) President Obama is on the verge of approving a Free Trade deal with > Colombia, despite the murder of union organizers in that country. Not > content with establishing similar deals with Panama (which has to do with > enlarging tax havens) and South Korea, the administration is now > embarking on a much vaster Trans-Pacific Partnership deal with countries > all over Asia. And its being negotiated entirely in secret, with > corporate and government officials the only ones allow to be in the room. > Trade is a significant driver of lower wages. > > 2) President Obama just pushed for and signed the JOBS Act, which is a > substantial relaxation of regulations and accounting requirements on > corporations seeking to go public. Bill Black has many four letter words > to describe this bill, but its basically a license for Wall Street to > commit fraud in the equity markets. The SEC is beginning to promulgate > instructions on how this will work. > > 3) President Obama just refused to issue an executive order forcing > campaign spending disclosure by government contractors. President Obama > actually criticized the Supreme Courts decision in Citizens United at a > State of the Union address, but as with yesterdays speech on raising taxes > on millionaires, there was actually no there there. > > > Read more at the link. > > > J > > - > > I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody. - > B > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:349818 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
