Political Economy category archive

It’s not who you think.

It’s Republicans and their corporate masters, who believe that they are entitled to take away what little old folks have. (By the way, the link points to the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch dot com, hardly a fount of radical thinking.)

The Rude Truth, as told by Delaware Liberal.

For all practical purposes, status quo ante.

Jobless claims were little changed at 374,000 in the week ended Aug. 25, matching the upwardly revised figure from the prior week, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The median forecast of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for 370,000. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, climbed to a six-week high.

(snip)

Today’s report showed the number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 5,000 in the week ended Aug. 18 to 3.32 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Bloomberg’s “experts” were closer than usual to hitting their number.

Which reminds me of the classic definition of an “expert”:

• “X” is the mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity.
• A “spurt” is a drip under pressure.
• Thus an expert is an unknown drip under pressure.

Der Spiegel analyzes the fight in Congress of serving fat pills fried potatoes in various forms to school children and finds unexpected metaphors. A nugget:

Since the eruption of the financial crisis, paranoia has taken hold in American politics. Americans’ faith in institutions has been shaken. The government has become the adversary of the citizens, and the elites the enemies of ordinary people. Rallying cries characterize both left-wing and right-wing protest movements, from the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street. Those who do not shout these slogans, at least in part, find it difficult to be heard at all.

Politicians, such as former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, exploit the divisions. They invoke the US Constitution and America’s long-outdated clichés, such as the values of small-town life and the days when a handshake was still considered a word of honor.

The world has become more complicated and complex, but the political debate in America has become more simplistic — wilfully ignorant of climate change, inattentive to the new requirements of an immigrant society, wary of science and even unknowledgeable about the insights of food science.

Change versus idyll: That’s the new dichotomy of the political discourse, which consists of only two incompatible categories: American and un-American. When Michelle Obama recommended that Americans eat more vegetables and fewer sweets, and perhaps occasionally skip dessert, Sarah Palin acted as if the First Lady had declared war on freedom. Now Michelle Obama was trying to deprive Americans of their desserts, Palin claimed, and her fellow citizens in many parts of the country agreed.

I was setting up a computer to dual boot Windows 7 and Linux Mint and forgot that it was Thursday.

No significant change, but it can’t make Republicans, who want President Obama to fail, happy (emphasis added):

The number of people seeking first-time unemployment benefits rose a slight 4,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 372,000, evidence that the job market’s recovery remains modest and uneven.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 3,750 to 368,000.

Applications are a measure of the pace of layoffs. When they fall consistently below 375,000, it generally suggests hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate.

Robert Reich explains Paul Ryan’s blueprint for destroying the middle class.

Via C&L.

At Tampa Bay dot com, Robyn Blumner considers Mike Lofgren’s new book.

Lofgren is a long-time Republican operative who is fed up with both parties. A snippet:

Democrats are no longer a viable opposition party countering the Republicans, who now work exclusively for the benefit of the rich, according to Lofgren. Their willingness to compete with Republicans for deep-pocket fund-raising has transformed Democrats from FDR progressives who would stand for workers and the middle class over corporate interests, to pipsqueak moderates who cleave to a “center” that keeps moving further to the right. Lofgren calls Democrats half a party.

As to Republicans, Lofgren’s book is a foghorn warning, an open-mouthed scream that would scare even Edvard Munch. He says his party has been hijacked by opportunists and true believers who have transformed it from the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Eisenhower into one of “crackpots” like Eric Cantor, Steve King, Michele Bachmann and Allen West.

In Lofgren’s experience, the new Republican Party wants to remake the country as “an upside-down utopia in which corporations rule; the Constitution, like science, is faith-based; and war is the first, not the last, resort in foreign policy.”

Frankly, I don’t much disagree. My own Democratic voting record is born as much of “consider the alternative” as of anything else. The Democratic Party hasn’t had much of an identifiable program since LBJ. They haven’t gotten much right, but they sure as hell get a lot less wrong.

And, honest to Pete, do think of the alternative.

At McClatchy, Scott Klinger takes a look at some of those who have benefited most from Bush’s tax cuts. A nugget.

Then there’s Dave Cote, Honeywell’s CEO. The Bush tax cuts saved him about $2.5 million that he would otherwise have had to pay on his $55 million income last year. Cote is a high-profile crusader for low taxes on corporations and the wealthy. As a member of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction commission, he supported cuts to Social Security and Medicare while pushing for reductions to his own taxes.

Cote’s insistence that U.S. corporate taxes are too high is ironic, given his own firm’s ability to dodge them. Over the last three years, Honeywell reported $2.5 billion in U.S. pre-tax income and yet got net tax benefits back from the government worth $377 million. It’s also notable that Honeywell is no U.S. “job creator.” The corporation shrunk its U.S. workforce from 58,000 to 53,000 over the last three years, while offshoring 4,000 jobs.

It’s welfare for the rich.

Mitch McConnell gets his continuing wish.

Still no significant change:

Jobless claims climbed by 2,000 to 366,000 in the week ended Aug. 11, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 45 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an increase to 365,000. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, dropped to 363,750, the fewest since the week ended March 31.

(snip)

Today’s report showed the number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 31,000 in the week ended Aug. 4 to 3.31 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments decreased by about 63,900 to 2.36 million in the week ended July 28.

Rachel Maddow thinks not, and has the evidence.

Excerpt:

In essence, the (Ryan budget–ed.) is Robin Hood in reverse.

Via Raw Story.

My father had a number of Horatio Alger books, which he likely inherited from his father, as most of them were written in the Gilded Age.

In this new Gilded Age, Robyn Blumner wonders whether the endurance of the Horatio Alger myth has something to do with white men’s attraction to the macho “Let ’em eat cake” posturing of the Republican Party and its glorification of vulture capitalists.

Actually, here’s the story of today’s economy that blue-collar workers should take to the voting booth: Our striving Horatio Alger hero watches helplessly as his company is bought out by a private equity firm that then saddles it with debt, cuts wages and worker benefits, outsources jobs overseas and leaves the company foundering after having made a fortune for investors.

Americans are all about hard work. We’ve increased productivity by 80 percent since 1979, but with almost no corresponding income gains for average workers. It nearly all flowed to the top 1 percent. Shhh, don’t tell the working stiffs.

Obama does better among white women and minority voters because they never bought into the self-made-man myth. After all, for them, no matter their work ethic or ability, longstanding societal barriers stood in the way of climbing the economic ladder. It took antidiscrimination and fair-pay laws to wrench open opportunities. Government was an essential player in making the marketplace fairer.

Read the whole thing.

Just the numbers. Speculation at the link:

Jobless claims unexpectedly dropped by 6,000 to 361,000 in the week ended Aug. 4, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 43 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an increase to 370,000. A spokesman for the agency said there was nothing unusual in the data.

(snip)

The four-week moving average for jobless claims, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, rose to 368,250 last week from 366,000.

(snip)

Today’s report showed the number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits climbed by 53,000 in the week ended July 28 to 3.33 million.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

The outlook for process servers continues strong:

More U.S. homes started on the foreclosure path in July, as lenders tackled a backlog of mortgages gone unpaid even as they pulled back on home repossessions.

The number of homes that received an initial notice of default – the first step in the foreclosure process – increased 6 percent in July compared to the same month last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Warning: More language than usual.

When done on a much larger scale, this is called a “leveraged buy-out” and the seller gets his own house in the Hamptons.

The suspect, later identified as 59-year-old Christopher John Prew, advertised a 2011 Nissan Altima for sale on Craigslist, but he didn’t own the car, Belmont police Lt. Pat Halleran said. He’d only rented it from Hertz Rent-a-Car.

Heh.

Via A Generate Elite.

Via C&L.

No change of significance. Bloomberg thinks things will be a little better next week as the summer shutdown of auto plants draws to a close.

Jobless claims climbed by 8,000 to 365,000 in the week ended July 28, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an increase to 370,000. Starting next week, the data should be clear of any influence from the annual auto plant retooling closures that make it difficult to adjust the data for seasonal variations, a Labor Department spokesman said as the report was released to the press.

(snip)

Today’s report showed the number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 19,000 in the week ended July 21 to 3.27 million, a two-month low.

The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments decreased by about 46,500 to 2.55 million in the week ended July 14.

Twits win on appeal.

Down somewhat, but still oscillating in the same general area:

Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 35,000 in the week ended July 21 to 353,000, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 380,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Changes in the annual auto plant shutdowns that occur this time of year have made it difficult to adjust the data for seasonal variations, the Labor Department has said.

(snip)

The volatility may last one more week, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released to the press. The four-week moving average, a less-volatile measure of jobless claims, fell to 367,250, the lowest since March, from 376,000.

The number of people continuing to collect jobless benefits shrank by 30,000 in the week ended July 14 to 3.29 million.

Bloomberg’s experts still not able to pick the ponies irrelevant unless you’re running their numbers.