Take a look at these two sentences: “(I)f losses from the 2007- 2009 crisis were to reach similar levels (as they did in previous recessions) … losses could exceed $13 trillion.” Government Accountability Office “You would think that any regulation that could affect a major part of the economy and cost industry and/or consumers millions [...]
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“Reviving his populist re-election message,” says the Washington Post about tonight’s State of the Union speech, “President Barack Obama will press a politically-divided Congress to approve more tax increases and fewer spending cuts.” Messages like that are always welcome, although we think of them more as “common-sensical” than “populist.” But messages only go so far [...]
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We gave these "agencies" all this power, along with a huge financial incentive to rate garbage as if it were roses. Then we, in the form of government regulators, looked the other way. And now we're shocked - shocked! - that these for-profit companies were behaving ... well, like for-profit companies.
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This is why I so love Pete Peterson and Alan Simpson for launching their generational war. It's such fun being accused of being a "greedy geezer" when this is the result of the inevitable vagaries of capitalism: somebody's going to be on the losing side at the moment at which they no longer have time to make it all back.
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It’s been four years since Wall Street ruined the economy, we’re nearly nine million jobs behind where we need to be, and for years our politicians have debated how much less – not how much more – they’ll do about it. Now we’re about to be hit with another round of devastating spending cuts, thanks [...]
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We needed heroes after the financial crisis. Instead we got bureaucrats, compromisers, and perhaps something much worse. Federal law enforcement officials, our "thin gray line" against banker crime, were charged with restoring the balance of justice and reducing the threat of future crises. Seems they had other things on their minds.
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That deficit problem we keep hearing about is gone. When it comes to spending cuts, it’s time to follow the advice a general offered when we were mired in Vietnam: Declare victory and get out. We had a deficit problem, once, although it was never as urgent or as important as our jobs crisis. Nor was [...]
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A growing number Republican Governors are refusing to expand their state Medicaid programs. The Supreme Court weakened the Medicaid expansion written into the Affordable Care Act, when it ruled that the federal government can’t penalize states that refused the expansion by withholding their existing Medicaid funding. That made it easier for conservative governors to withhold [...]
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It must’ve been like old home week when the old gang of Wall Street and Washington insiders finalized a couple more cushy settlements last week. Everybody knew the drill: Ignore the potential criminal charges and agree on settlement figures they think the public will swallow – figures that are big enough to sound impressive but far [...]
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It turns out, hacking away at government's budget cuts off growth. Gee, who could have predicted? Add to that a huge loss in wealth from the stock market and housing crashes and a truly terrible job market and you've got yourself a real problem on your hands. But let's not have that stop us from going forward with a plan to cut programs from the oldest and the sickest among us, provide no relief for crushing student debt burdens as well as fire public employees, bust unions and basically squeeze everyone who is a member of the middle, working and poor classes allegedly because we might have some problems two decades from now.
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