Wednesday, March 9, 2011

24 Economists Were Asked What They Thought the US Wealth Distribution Was

And every single one got it wrong. By an order of 7x.

Michael Norton of Harvard Business School, surveyed two dozen academic economists to check their findings. The pros got it wrong, too, although they did better than the random sample of Americans. The economists estimated the poorest two quintiles owned about 2 percent of wealth, seven times their actual share.

United in Our Delusion - David Cay Johnston

James O'Keefe Can Suck It

Please, if you are going to be cognizant of the Ron Schiller "sting fail", watch the entire uncut video, which has been posted online (kind of surprisingly by O'Keefe himself, a strategic feint I suppose). Schiller says NOTHING wrong...surprise???

The most outlandish thing he says is that he is a registered REPUBLICAN. Yes, the head of fundraising at NPR is a Republican.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Conservative Forbes Magazine Says Leave Obamacare Alone

Rick Ungar, policy analyst for Forbes magazine, says:

"If these small businesses found the new law to be so onerous, why have so many of them voluntarily taken advantage of the benefits provided in the law to give their employees these benefits? They were not mandated to do so. And to the extent that the coming mandate obligations might figure into their thinking, would you not imagine they would wait until 2014 to make a move as the rules do not go into effect until that time?

Of course, there is the nagging banter as to how Obamacare is leading us down the road to socialism.

Let it go, folks."




Will the GOP listen? Boehner is not. If you love your country, you will share this article far and wide as fast as you can before it is too late.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/06/more-small-businesses-offering-health-care-to-employees-thanks-to-obamacare/

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Krugman: Recognizes the Earth Has Shifted

Both validating and frightening at the same time when mainstream press finally realizes the earth has shifted.

"My sense is that most Americans still don’t understand this reality. They still imagine that when push comes to shove, our politicians will come together to do what’s necessary. But that was another country." - Paul Krugman, Novemeber 22 2010.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/opinion/22krugman.html

Friday, November 19, 2010

Top Tax Rates and Federal Debt 1950-2008

Patriotic Millionaires

From the Fiscal Strength project:


Only 375,000 Americans have incomes of over $1,000,000

Between 1979 and 2007, incomes for the wealthiest 1% of Americans rose by 281%

During the Great Depression, millionaires had a top marginal rate of 68%

In 1963, millionaires had a top marginal tax rate of 91%

In 1976, millionaires had a top marginal tax rate of 70%

Today, millionaires have a top marginal tax rate of 35%

Reducing the income tax on top earners is one of the most inefficient ways to grow the economy according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office

44% of Congress people are millionaires

The tax cuts were never meant to be permanent

Letting tax cuts for the top 2% expire as schedule would pay down the debt by $700 billion over the next 10 years

Also see http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/11/18/millionaires