This article was posted on The Huffington Post 9/6/11. To read it on HuffPo click on the link.
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Nearly everyone agrees — the deficit is a problem and must be fixed.
Fixing this recessionary deficit will take time. Lots of time… and sacrifice. Lots of sacrifice!
There is no agreement in Congress on how deficit reduction can be fairly accomplished but, honest discourse is an absolute necessity. A few reasonable adjustments could put deficit reduction on a positive path in the short-term. There is much more involved in developing a long-term solution, but it’s also easily achievable.
Short-term, seven key elements must be considered including raising taxes and closing loopholes to increase revenues. Anyone who tells you we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem, and refuses to raise taxes is either ignoring the truth or stupid.
What will it take to restore fiscal responsibility?
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Tags: Affordable Care Act, banks, Bush Wars, Congress, deficit, Democrats, Economy, Grover Norquist, repatriation, Super Committee, Tax Pledge, Taxes, unemployment
Posted in Budget, Economy, Healthcare, HuffPost Articles, Jobs, Opinion, Politics, Rebalancing America, Taxes | No Comments »
Article was posted on The Huffington Post on 8/11/11. Click on link to read it on HuffPost.
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For most Americans it has been a slow and painful recovery from this recession.
Analysts, politicians, and pundits continually offer excuses for the slowness of this recovery; and there are a multitude of excuses.
Most prominent among them is ‘the government,’ and the catch phrase being pushed, ‘uncertainty.’ It’s constantly stated, “businesses are reluctant to hire or grow, because of the uncertainty of government policies.”
They’ve blamed low income home buyers for the housing crisis; buying more home than they could realistic afford. They call them liar’s loans. But they hold corrupt mortgage lenders, Wall Street charlatans, and rating agencies, harmless.
Are there any other reasons the American economy is struggling?
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Tags: Arab Spring, banks, candidates, capitalism, Congress, consumers, deficit, Democrats, Disabled Veterans, Economy, John Boehner, Main Street, recession, Republicans, Social Security, the Fed, The Treasury
Posted in Economy, HuffPost Articles, Politics | No Comments »
The Tea Party is adamant against voting for an increase in the debt ceiling.
Their belief—that the debt limit is a sham, a prevarication, a filament of Timothy Geithner’s imagination, and, therefore, arbitrary—is putting the nation’s economy at risk.
And that risk could extend beyond our shores to the world economy.
Compromise is not in the Tea Party’s vocabulary which limits their ability to govern. They’re willing to let the U.S. default on our debt obligations to push their single-minded mission—cut spending!
What if they’re right?
Will the economy suffer if we don’t raise the limit? Will the Treasury be unable to pay our bills? Will there be pain from an inability to pay debts that have already been incurred?
Do we really have a spending problem and not a revenue problem?
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Posted in Economy, Election 2012, Politics | No Comments »
New article has been posted on The Huffington Post, on 7/19/11. Click on link to read article on Huff Post.
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Holding the debt ceiling hostage is a huge political mistake.
The debt limit and budget deficit are separate issues and should be dealt with separately.
This debt limit is the ghost of Congresses past. The budget and reducing the deficit is the ghost of Congresses future. But, reality is firmly entrenched in the present.
Reasonable legislators understand the immediacy of raising the debt ceiling and the potential ramifications of failing to do so.
It has been raised without question 10 times since 2000, eight times under George Bush. Though there is no clear history from a previous default, economic and business leaders around the world are warning of catastrophic implications in failing to do so.
If this is even remotely possible, why are Republicans holding the debt ceiling hostage?
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Tags: Congress, deficit, Democrats, Economy, House of Representatives, Jobs, middle-class, Politics, Republicans, Stock Markets, Taxes, taxpayers, Tea Party, the Fed, unemployment, Wall Street
Posted in Economy, HuffPost Articles, Politics, Republican Crises, UnAmerican | 2 Comments »
Since banking crisis began in January of 2008, the FDIC has taken over 377 banks.
Besides the two Georgia banks closed on Friday, the FDIC shuttered another bank in Florida and one in Arizona, the 55th bank closed this year. The two banks were the 15th and 16th closed in Georgia this year and the 67th since the crisis began.
The cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund this week was only $129.3 million which isn’t too bad, but every week the Fund gets hit depletes it.
Losing seven banks, compared to last year’s losses, doesn’t seem to bad. The improvement is welcome bu, seven in the first two weeks of July is just short of the losses for May and June.
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Tags: Arizona, banks, DIF, FDIC, Florida, foreclosures, Georgia, take-overs
Posted in Banking, Economy, FDIC Foreclosures | No Comments »
A ‘mystriguing’ title for a mystery novel but this is not fiction!
Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, prides himself on the pledge that he has most Republicans sign.
The pledge, which Norquist entitled, Taxpayer Protection Pledge, essentially marshals every Republican politician at the federal level and most at the state levels from raising taxes in any form; including a misinterpretation of temporary tax benefits, such as oil subsidies, and the reasons for their passage.
Such a stringent demand on legislators has no place in a healthy and vibrant democracy. In fact, a pledge so restrictive as to potentially derail a functioning democracy can not be tolerated in a free society and should be viewed as UnAmerican.
What of the politicians who would sign such a pledge?
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Tags: Americans for Tax Reform, candidates, Congress, Cut Cap and Balance, debt ceiling, debt limit, deficit, democracy, Democrats, Economy, Ed Royce, Family Leader, Gary Miller, Grover Norquist, House of Representatives, Jim DeMint, middle-class, pledge, Politics, Republicans, Taxes, The Marriage Vow
Posted in Economy, Politics, Republican Crises | 5 Comments »
Foreclosures have been benign for the last two months.
On Friday the FDIC took over three more banks including another in Illinois. Two banks were also closed in Colorado bringing the 2011 total to 51.
In May and June only 9 banks were taken over by the FDIC.
But during that time Georgia lost four more banks, the 10th through the 13th this year and 65 since the crisis began. Florida also lost two, its 5th and 6th of the year and 51st since January of 2008.
The two months only cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $523.5 million which was great news compared to the weekly numbers over the last few years.
So, is the increase in July a sign that things are reversing? The three banks seized on Friday will cost the DIF $590.4 million—we’re back to half-a-billion dollars again. More than the total of the previous two months.
Despite the two good months, banks are still in jeopardy given the fragility of the economy and the markets. A downturn in the markets, increased unemployment, problems in China or Europe, or more devastating natural disasters could have an adverse effect on the banking system.
So banks are still something we should watch and be concerned about.
Tags: banks, DIF, FDIC, Florida, foreclosures, Georgia, Illinois, take-overs
Posted in Banking, Economy, FDIC Foreclosures | No Comments »
Corporations want a tax break to repatriate foreign profits—again!
Republicans, global corporations, the Chamber of Commerce, and Republican lawmakers are claiming that a tax rate of 5% for corporations to repatriate their foreign profits will create jobs, stimulate capital investment, and grow the economy.
We’ve heard that song before—the same pathetic rhetoric—in 2004. But the corporations did not use the billions they repatriated from the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, to create jobs or grow the economy.
In fact, the biggest recipients—some of the biggest multi-national corporations in the world—laid-off thousands of employees after receiving this gift from the government.
Why on earth would we consider it again?
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Tags: Bank of America, banks, Bill Clinton, capitalism, Chevron, Congress, corporations, Democrats, Economy, Exxon Mobil, GE, Glass-Steagall, Jobs, middle-class, Pfizer, Politics, Rahm Emanuel, recovery, repatriation, Republicans, Taxes, unemployment
Posted in Economy, Jobs, Politics, Taxes, UnAmerican | 9 Comments »
This new article has been posted at The Huffington Post and on wsj.com.To read it there click on the link.
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Like spoiled children the remaining two Republicans quit bipartisan budget talks.
Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, and Senator, Jon Kyl, the last two GOP members, left the Biden chaired budget negotiations.
But this is not the first time Republicans have quit.
Because things weren’t going his way, Senator Tom Coburn, left the Gang of Six. Sarah Palin continues to quit everything she starts, more recently her big bus vacation. And Republicans have, over and over, abandoned positions they had previously supported as soon as the Democrats or Obama endorse them, even if they’re good for the nation.
This time, the consequences may be more serious—the results far more devastating.
Why, when negotiations reach critical points, do Republicans take their ball and head home?
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Tags: bailout, Congress, debt ceiling, deficit, Democrats, Economy, Eric Cantor, House of Representatives, John Kyl, middle-class, Politics, recovery, regulation, Republicans, spending cuts, TARP
Posted in Budget, Economy, Election 2012, HuffPost Articles, Politics, Republican Crises | No Comments »
My newest article is now available on The Huffington Post. Click on the HuffPo linke to read it there.
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The U.S. economy is surviving only because of over-stimulation.
We’re living on fumes in this country, and the pursuit of happiness has come to an end for millions of families!
Main Street is still suffering. But, the Market is on Viagra, shored up by QE2, the Fed program to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. Treasury Bonds. As QE2 winds down, and the economy falters, the discussion turns to the possibility of QE3.
A tremendous number of band aids have been administered to keep the U.S. economy from hemorrhaging; to prevent not only a domestic collapse, but a global one.
Each attempt to divert a financial disaster has had varying levels of success; many failing to achieve their intended goals.
Why have we needed so much stimulus?
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Tags: AIG, banks, campaign financing, capitalism, Citigroup, Congress, consumers, deficit, Democrats, Economy, foreclosures, Glass-Steagall, Goldman Sachs, Jobs, middle-class, Politics, recovery, regulation, Republicans, stimulus, TARP, Taxes, taxpayers, Tea Party, the Fed, unemployment, Wall Street
Posted in Economy, HuffPost Articles, Predictions, Wall Street | No Comments »