Friday, April 29, 2011
How Wall Street Made The Mortgage Crisis Worse
I’m going to cut to the chase and tell you our conclusion first.
We believe we can show that some Wall Street bankers had evidence, a year or two before the financial crisis hit, that there were serious problems with subprime mortgage investments.
Rather than wind down this business, they sped it up using financial trickery. These people earned huge bonuses for their actions. They also made the crisis considerably larger and more damaging.
CDOs [collateralized debt obligations] were the combined mortgages, student loans, car loans, commercial loans and credit card debts rolled into a new currency that was sold, as well as, bet against, in a world that allowed 30:1 leverage.
The ratings agencies gave all these new CDOs untenable AAA ratings.
The fix was in on this game using fantastical “monopoly money” that these financial knew was bullshit.
And was was their punishment for the greed and avarice? Bonuses and bailouts.
(Source: NPR)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
One Big Lie
"Religion is one lie after another: the lie of original sin, the lie of eternal life, the lie of hell, the lie of answered prayer, the lie that life can have no meaning without religion, the lie that religion is the source of morality, the lie of creationism, the lie of a spy-in-the-sky who hears your every word and reads your every thought."Paula Kirby, “Woman, Know Thy Place”
One big lie you never have to prove.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Barack Obama Is Now The Biggest Tax Cutter In American History
Barack Obama Is Now The Biggest Tax Cutter In American HistoryMost Americans have no idea that Barack Obama has lowered taxes. According to a 2010 CBS News/New York Times Poll, only 12% of Americans knew that Obama has lowered taxes. 53% thought that he kept taxes the same, and 24% believed that Obama has raised taxes.
Not surprisingly, only 2% of Tea Party supporters knew that Obama had lowered taxes. 44% of them thought that the President has raised their taxes.
While the Tea Party takes to the streets to keep tax rates low for billionaires, Barack Obama has lowered their taxes to historically low levels.
The bottom line is that beneath all the GOP spin the fact remains. Barack Obama, not Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush is the greatest tax cutter in American history.
Obama administration: GET OUT THE WORD.
98% of Tea Bagger are wrong. Staggering. Pure politics.
As Unions Go, So Does The Middle Class Incomes
Since 1980, a major goal of the Republicans and Conservatives was to break unions, deregulate markets, and exploit American workers, as well as, workers around the world.
They have succeeded. Domestic manufacturing jobs are gone. Teachers are viewed as the problem. Collective bargaining is being stripped from groups around the country. Income have shrunk.
What is the 30-year goal of progressives to get the American worker better wages?
What does a modern union look like? More social media? Better public relations? Easier membership? The cliches of the past need to be replaced.
Corporations and their lobbyists have an inhuman amount of power these days. The American worker needs a successful updated system to protect and enable workers to have a fulfilling lifestyle. The race to the bottom needs to end.