Monthly Archives: September 2012

Cutting Off Our Nose to Spite Our Face

Posted on September 20, 2012 by | 6 comments

By Joel David Palmer

We tie ourselves in knots developing strange moral equations to demonstrate why it’s ok to punish with impoverishment those we think don’t deserve an income. And we do it almost exclusively to rationalize a desire to not pay taxes. Our lives are hard enough, we say, without paying someone else’s way too. We suffer all kinds of anxieties – bad bosses, low wages, fear of layoffs, worry about having enough for retirement – and we are prone to resenting anyone who seems to have gotten even a slight advantage on us without, apparently, working so hard. Continue reading →

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Where does money come from?

Posted on September 20, 2012 by | 13 comments

By Paul Meli

An explanation of how money is created in the U.S. in easy to understand terms.

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Romney: The Little People Don’t Pay Taxes

Posted on September 19, 2012 by | 18 comments

By L. Randall Wray & Pavlina R. Tcherneva
(Cross posted at Huffington Post)

Everyone recalls the quip by Leona Helmsley: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes…”. By “we”, of course, she meant the likes of Mitt Romney. By little people, she meant Romney’s 47% – those not worth the bother. As President, the Mitt made clear, he will not be serving them.

Continue reading →

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Candid Candidates – HuffPost Live

Posted on September 19, 2012 by | 5 comments

NEP’s William K. Black appeared on Candid Candidates over at HuffPost Live. The topic of discussion was Romney’s off the cuff remarks and whether or not we should applaud this kind of honesty from the candidates.

 

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The WSJ Conflates Lending to Blacks with Imprudent Lending

Posted on September 19, 2012 by | 4 comments

By William K. Black

The Wall Street Journal has written a revealing editorial entitled:  A Fine for Doing Good: The Justice Department sues a bank for prudent lending.

The WSJ appears to have forgotten the concept of a poll tax as a means to exclude most blacks from voting.  Continue reading →

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Pink Slime: What we have here is a failure to communicate

Posted on September 18, 2012 by | 6 comments

By William K. Black
(Crossposted from Benzinga.com)

BPI, the corporation that sold the “pink slime” that was secretly added to our hamburgers has now brought a $1.2+ billion tort suit against ABC News, individual ABC journalists, two former USDA scientists, and a former BPI employee.  BPI claims that the defendants defamed it by, for example, calling its meat product, which it calls “lean finely textured beef” (LFTB), “pink slime.”  It’s not clear from BPI’s complaint why the ABC defendants wanted to harm BPI.  Continue reading →

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Romney dooms his Candidacy by doing the full Murray

Posted on September 18, 2012 by | 11 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Huffington Post)

Charles Murray’s newest book:  Coming Apart: The State of White America proves two classic truths.  First, it is impossible to compete with self-parody.  Second, be careful what you ask for; for you may receive it.  Charles Murray asked right-wing plutocrats (he dismissed left-wing plutocrats as disloyal to their class and to capitalism) to drop what he derided as “political correctness” and denounce Americans who received governmental support as immoral failures.  Continue reading →

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Fiat Justitia? Breuer fires blanks on elite financial frauds

Posted on September 17, 2012 by | 20 comments

By William K. Black

Beurre blanc is the classic white butter sauce of France.  Americans who hate the French claim that they became adept at saucing to cover up the rot in their meat in earlier times.  A beurre blanc does not remove the rot.  It masks the bad taste and the bad color of bad meat.  Indeed, the sauce makes the dish even less healthy.  If the rotten meat doesn’t get you, the sauce’s cholesterol will.

Continue reading →

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Alan Grayson’s Right; But He Misses the Larger Point

Posted on September 14, 2012 by | 9 comments

By Joe Firestone

Alan Grayson’s e-mail on Moody’s warning that it might reduce the US’s AAA rating, suggested that Moody’s was either threatening a downgrade because it wants to get the Bush tax cuts for the rich extended, or, alternatively, that “Moody’s is living in what Aristophanes called “Cloud Cuckoo Land.”” He says this because Moody’s is upset about the possibility that the US may go over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” even though if it did, it would theoretically result in $560 Billion of deficit reduction annually, without further legislative changes, and it makes no sense on the surface for a ratings agency to think that the risk of US bond default is greater when the annual deficit is being reduced by $560 B per year, than by some lesser amount, which is likely to happen if Congress doesn’t take us over that “cliff.”

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Modern Money and Public Purpose

Posted on September 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on Modern Money and Public Purpose

Randall Wray and Michael Hudson both presented at the inaugural session of Modern Money and Public Purpose. This seminar series is held at Columbia University’s Law School and is organized by the Workers’ Rights Student Coalition. Over the coming months, several MMT proponents will be presenting as part of the series including Stephanie Kelton and Warren Mosler on September 25th. Continue reading →

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