Robert Reich brings a gun to a knife fight.
In an OpEd pice today, Robert Reich blasts a hole in the reactionary right wing forces that dominate our politics today.
The regressive right has slowly consolidated power over the last three decades as income and wealth have concentrated at the top. In the late 1970s the richest 1 percent of Americans received 9 percent of total income and held 18 percent of the nation’s wealth; by 2007, they had more than 23 percent of total income and 35 percent of America’s wealth. CEOs of the 1970s were paid 40 times the average worker’s wage; now CEOs receive 300 times the typical workers’ wage.
This concentration of income and wealth has generated the political heft to deregulate Wall Street and halve top tax rates. It has bankrolled the so-called Tea Party movement, and captured the House of Representatives and many state governments. Through a sequence of presidential appointments it has also overtaken the Supreme Court.
Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts (and, all too often, Kennedy) claim they’re conservative jurists. But they’re judicial activists bent on overturning seventy-five years of jurisprudence by resurrecting states’ rights, treating the 2nd Amendment as if America still relied on local militias, narrowing the Commerce Clause, and calling money speech and corporations people.
If you want to know what the 99% are up to, this is a big part of it. I would add the elimination of the fairness doctrine as part of this onslaught to our collective rights which has fostered a media culture hostile to voices of dissent against the dominance of the right in our political lives. To quote the immortal Chuck D, “Fight the Power!”
Numbnutz Reich should have brought some bullets for that gun. The article was nothing more than the same old discredited Keynesian nonsense. He’s mighty proud of how the Progressives screwed up the country. Yup, the same morons that gave us Prohibition.
What exactly are collective rights?
I keep hearing from Wingnutotopia that Keynesian economics is somehow “discredited,” yet I never see any evidence in support of that. Funny thing is, Keynesian economics (and economists) just keep being right, to the point that major fund managers recognize how very very right they are.
If you want to talk economics, let’s talk economics. Let’s talk how the Fed abandoned the Friedman plan to fix the money supply at a specific level in 1979 under then-chairman Paul Volker.
The plan caused interest rates to fluctuate wildly (as the Keynesians accurately predicted it would) . The plan was abandoned quietly in October of 1982. The Fed officially abandoned the monetarist dream plan in 1993.
Keynesians were right then and they’re right now. Enjoy your talking points!
Really?!?!?! QE 1 & QE 2 worked? That’s why Obama proposed Q E 3 a/k/a Jobs Bill? Really? We can spend our way out of debt? Next thing you know you’ll be telling me we are the wealthiest nation on Earth.
Wow… Seriously, just stop talking about things you clearly do not understand.
QE3 = Jobs Bill? Really?
Do you even know what “quantitative easing” is? Wait, stupid question. From your comment, you clearly do not. While you’ve repeatedly demonstrated that you lack the cognitive capacity to learn, I’m gonna give it a try anyway. I enjoy tilting at TeaOP windmills.
Quantitative easing is a monetary policy. The jobs bill is a fiscal policy. There is a big, big difference.
First. The formula for GDP is:
Y = C + I + G + ( X – IM )
QE involves manipulating the quantity of money in the economy by carrying out open market operations. The hope is that injecting liquidity into the economy will drive down interest rates and encourage investment (I). The Fed manipulates the money supply through the purchase of T-bills and other financial assets from banks with money it “creates” through the process thereby generating excess reserves in the banking industry. Reserves that, they hope, the banks will lend to businesses to pursue investment. This is an expansionary monetary policy.
The later, the jobs bill, is a fiscal spending plan that involves injecting liquidity into the economy by direct spending (G) through the hiring of employees at companies who contract to do work on behalf of the government. This type of stimulus plan more directly impacts the economy since it’s tied directly to one of the inputs into GDP and more directly stimulates growth.
The advantage of the QE process, and any Fed process, is that it can circumvent the obstructionist TeaOP congress in an effort to improve the economy. This is why the Tea Terrorists were so upset when Bernanke proposed QE2, out of fear that it would work. The Tea Terrorists need the economy to suck going into 2012, but then you knew that, being a Tea Terrorist yourself.
Before you make comments on economics, it would pay to actually know something about economics.
I think it would be best if you just STFU now. Tuck your little tail between your little legs and wander off to poke at someone who isn’t your intellectual superior in every conceivable way.
Nice equations. How’s that working out for the economy?
Yeah, egghead Phil, with your elitist science and book learnin ‘n stuff!
All them high-falutin words n’ stuff! It’s so unfair to poor Orlin who can’t keep up.
He fancies himself a modern-day Harrison Bergeron. Smarter than everyone but held back by society. It’s kind of sad, really. And he, like the other TeaOP don’t recognize that Kurt Vonnegut was making fun of them!
Too bad. He should learn not to intrude in the discussions of his intellectual superiors. He might learn something if he’d shut up long enough to listen. But I’m not holding my breath…
Quite well, actually. The Keynesian model of AD-AS continues to demonstrate efficacy in helping me (and most clued-in economists and fund managers) understand the cause and nature of the recession, the liquidity trap and, if we had politicians on either side of the aisle who understood it, how to recover from it through large infrastructure investment.
As it is we continue to pretend that there is such a thing as “expansionary austerity” and we continue to “cut,cut,cut” and tank the economy.
But why am I telling you this? Your “obsolete intellectual equipment” isn’t capable of absorbing information more complex than a sound bite (an only then if it’s in monosyllabic words). So hopefully someone else will derive insight from what I write here. I fear you never will.
You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.
Just throwing big words you don’t understand against a wall and seeing if they stick, eh?
I apologize. I thought my poetic license was valid here.
The question remains, how did those Keynesian policies work out fer ya?
I didn’t realize that “poetic license” was TeaOP for “catastrophically ignorant.” My bad.
Clearly, the country is becoming a Third World Banana Republic without bananas thanks to the ‘catastrophically ignorant’ quackery of the lunatics in charge.
TeaOP is as clever and intelligent as something an unborn child might come up with.
You are so staggeringly ignorant.
Your ignorance is absolute.
I think we got it now, you think I’m catastrophically ignorant, staggeringly ignorant, and my ignorance is absolute.
That is as original and as creative as say, an armpit.
When you can’t understand the painting, criticize the frame.
What intellectual graveyard did that come from?
Orlin Sellers: “I think we got it now, you think I’m catastrophically ignorant, staggeringly ignorant, and my ignorance is absolute.”
Me: What do you mean “we”, white man. (*wink*) But, yes, Phil and the rest of us think that you are catastrophically, staggeringly, and absolutely ignorant.
Orlin Sellers: “That is as original and as creative as say, an armpit.”
Me: (*laughing*) What in the hell does THAT mean?!
Dude, a metaphor is supposed to illuminate, not leave people scratching their heads, saying, “WTF”.
By the way, Orlinsky, you should really stop trying to go toe-to-toe with Phil. Intellectually speaking, your nose is embedded in his navel, and you’re looking increasingly moronic.
Hint: This is NOT the best time for you to employ sarcasm.
With all due respect, Orlin, maybe political debate in a forum like this one, or in any forum, for that matter, really isn’t your thing.
Try to remember that you have to be *THIS HIGH* to get on the “ride”, okay, big guy?
That explains Phil’s case of omphaloskepsis
I really do enjoy your preposterous comedy. I couldn’t possibly leave and miss laughing at what you might say next.
Couldn’t find it with a Google search, could you? That’s because I said it. Me. It’s not a cut-and-paste quote from anyone. Orlin, you, and only you, are the inspiration for that turn-of-phrase. I think it suits you quite well. For that, I thank you. I shall employ it again, no doubt, when dealing with your brand of “deflectionary” ignorance.
Phil: “When you can’t understand the painting, criticize the frame.”
Orlin Sellers: “What intellectual graveyard did that come from?”
Me: Orlinsky, you should really stop trying to go toe-to-toe with Phil. Intellectually speaking, your nose is embedded in his navel, and you’re looking increasingly moronic.
Me: That explains Phil’s case of omphaloskepsis
Yes, and I keep finding you rummaging around in the lint. So how’s that whole “the jobs bill is QE3” working out for you?
It’s kinda like that picture of yours that doesn’t paint a thousand words.
By the way, I see you took poetic license misquoting me.
It doesn’t change the fact that you are a sad, ignorant little person.
A buffoon calling someone names really doesn’t have any impact.
“A buffoon calling someone names really doesn’t have any impact. ”
Agreed, which is why a needy fool like you doesn’t tick us off- you’re too much of an obvious as*clown to harm anything.
Whatever Koch/ WMC/ WisGOP is paying you, it’s too much. Zach, get this bandwith-waster out.
No, I don’t think blocking him is the right thing to do. He hasn’t been abusive. He doesn’t threaten people, he just enjoys parading his ignorance for all to see. More power to him! He’s doing a great job convincing undecided voters that the right has gone completely insane.
Keep up the good work, Orlin!
“Numbnutz Reich” would agree.
What are you people afraid of?
Not you, that’s for sure.
Does anybody remember the Black Knight from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, the one who guarded the footbridge over which King Arthur wanted to pass?
Orlin’s single-minded and delusional certainty that he has emerged victorious here in his various contretemps with Phil reminds me that the Black Knight lives on in his boneheaded ignorance/arrogance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
Huzzah! Huzzah Orlin Sellers! Huzzah the new “Black Knight”!
“What are you people afraid of?”
Interesting, albeit delusional, spin, Orlin.
I guess that everybody copes with adversity in their own way, huh, big guy? This just happens to be yours.
Truth be told, Big O, we just think that you’re an idiot.
I knew that I recognized you from somewhere, Big O.
You’re the Black Knight from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
Huzzah, Sir Orlin, the Black Knight! Huzzah!
Orlin,
I’m tempted to call you a coprophagous homunculus, but I’m too nice of a guy.
Yeah, and I’m tempted to call you a quadrilateral, astronomical, incandescent son-of-a-bitch, but I’m not Mark Twain. Cheers!
“I’m not Mark Twain.”
We know, Orlin. It’s been painfully clear from the start.
Besides, you’re the Black Knight:
“Yeah, and I’m tempted to call you a quadrilateral, astronomical, incandescent son-of-a-bitch. . .”
Jeez, you’re an idiot!
Orlin Sellers: “Yeah, and I’m tempted to call you a quadrilateral, astronomical, incandescent son-of-a-bitch, but I’m not Mark Twain. Cheers!”
Does anyone remember the episode of “Friends” where Joey writes a letter in support of Chandler and Monica’s adoption application, the one where he uses a thesaurus to make himself sound “more intelligent”, with predictable results?
I swear, every time the Orlmeister “opens his mouth”, I hear Joey using that thesaurus.
At least Joey had a fundamental, underlying sweetness to him that always saved him from being defined by his stupidity. Orlin just comes off as arrogant. . .and stupid.
Is anybody else getting a Notalib “vibe” off of this guy?
No, Orlin, THAT isn’t a good thing.
@ Orlin
“That explains Phil’s case of omphaloskepsis
I really do enjoy your preposterous comedy. I couldn’t possibly leave and miss laughing at what you might say next. ”
You know what, buddy, you really are just like Sheldon from the “Big Bang Theory”.
You poor sop.
Anyway, if, like Sheldon, the use of words like “omphaloskepsis” tickles your geekish funnybone, have at it.
There is something that you need to realize, though.
While the way that you tied “omphaloskepsis” into my “naval” reference was technically clever, it was clever only in a way that a sexually repressed, emotionally stunted/immature geek, like Sheldon, would appreciate/find funny. And, like Sheldon, I can see that you don’t really get how that isn’t cool in the real world, however technically clever and/or smart it may have been.
Dude, people laugh at people like Sheldon, just as people have laughed at geeks throughout time. Accordingly, they laugh at people like you. Why not use your “big brain” to “do the math” on that one, and avoid the derision?
In considering “[my] preposterous humor”, dear, sweet, clueless Sheldon, uh, I mean, Orlin, try to remember that you’re the only one who finds it “preposterous”.
Everyone else is here just laughing at you [and at the “preposterou[ly]” pretentious words you come up with, words best left to academia, to the “Big Bang Theory” or to enclaves of geeks wherever they may be
found].
Orlin, I suspect that you’re smart in certain ways, much like Sheldon from “Big Bang Theory”, but you lack the necessary maturity and gravitas to meaningfully participate here.
Maybe it’s just not the right place for you.
Okay, now you are just boring me with your redundancy. How long are you & Phil gonna continue with this nonsense?
Orlin: “Okay, now you are just boring me with your redundancy. How long are you & Phil gonna continue with this nonsense?”
Me: Aw, Orlin, come on now, admit it, it’s really only redundant to humorless pedants like you.
But, to answer your question, as long as it takes.
What is truly tiresome is you substituting snide, snarky, generally incomprehensible/incoherent one-liners for meaningful and substantive responses.
Phil has won the substantive day here, dancing circles around you intellectually.
I’m just doing clean-up, ya know, and seeing the humor in a geekish, pedantic twit/intellectual lightweight like you having his hat handed to him repeatedly by an intellectual superior like Phil, then trying to salve his bruised ego with a puffed out chest, false bravado and snarky “come-backs” that fall flat.
Yawning out of boredom.
Ah yes, THE infamous wingnut *yawn*. . .The wingnut’s ultimate fall-back position when confronted with overwhelming intellectual superiority. . .
I saw you moving in that direction, Big O, but I really didn’t think that I’d see THE *yawn* so quickly.
With that tacit admission from Mr. Sellers (some of you may know him as Sheldon, but I digress), “Game, set, match” to Mr. Scarr.
Don’t worry about it, Orlin. You were outmatched from the outset. There is a consolation prize, however.
You have won the coveted “Black Knight” award, awarded only one other time in history, to a pompous, self-important wingnut who was always wrong (who, by the way and to our great amusment, gave himself the screen-name here of “Wingnut”), but who could be counted on to hold on to a misguided point of view until the bitter end.
Where Wingnut once trod, you now tread. You, sir, are the new “Black Knight” of the realm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
Huzzah! Huzzah Orlin Sellers! Huzzah the new “Black Knight”!
Can you show me the video of Phil walking on water?
Outwitted? By whom? Somebody posting a technical formula is hardly outwitting someone.
Posting baloney that flies in the face of common observation is hardly a winning strategy.
But, you can continue your economic imbecilities of believing breaking windows is good for the economy until the 12th of Never and it won’t change the fact that it is a fallacy as proven by Bastiat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
Huzzah! Huzzah Orlin Sellers! Huzzah the new “Black Knight”!
If only there were a way to push ZB’s buttons….
If only. . .(*laughing*). . .
Orlin Sellers is Notalib redux. If we learned nothing else from Notalib, ya just have to nip these things in the bud.
Come at ’em hard and fast. Leave dazed and confused.