Recent comments

  • yeah, but we're littered with holes anyway from the other bullets we might just be dead.

    As it is they privatized U.S. retirement by denying pensions, now routinely practicing age discrimination and firing people when they turn 50 at the olders, in tech, it can be as young as 30 (yes unreal but true!), then no 401k matching funds even, never mind a damn investment account, called a 401k is simply not a retirement plan.

    Pensions are now non-existent and the generation who have been denied retirement benefits....have yet to retire.

    Talk about the ultimate financial tsunami that will happen, I think this one is it.

    Reply to: Italy's failed experiment with privatizing the national pension   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • I think there's nothing wrong with it... they need the workers (as what have said, "to do the work we can't perform")..
    why laid off workers?

    Reply to: Chrysler fires Union, keep H-1b guest workers   15 years 10 months ago
  • I'm quite impressed with the discussion here regarding immigration loopholes. These opened a lot of new issues for me. I'm forwarding these to my friends. Overpopulation is indeed a double whammy on the current state of economy. Thanks for the space, Dr. Gene.

    Reply to: Offshoring and Outsourcing Commentary for the New Year   15 years 10 months ago
  • It's obviously unenforceable, but I don't think that was the intent. To me it looks rather like a ham-handed attempt to give the upper hand to corporate management during the upcoming negotiations (and anyone is surprised?). But as is typical for this bunch of goof-balls, it's pointless and ineffective...rather much like most everything they've done. The UAW gains no leverage from a strike when the product they're manufacturing isn't selling. Seriously, what's the point of that? And if management tries to force some unpalatable negotiating positions on the UAW, all they need to do is wait until Feb 17.

    While I agree that people need to get into the streets to do something about the rampant looting and pillaging of the treasury, this is one example where laughter and jeering are the most appropriate response.

    As an afterthought, if they're trying to establish some bogus precedent for a future mal-administration (way too much forward thinking for this group), once Jan 20 rolls around, the Obama team should simply nullify the provision as illegal and presto, no precedent.

    Reply to: Auto bailout requires union concessions   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • periodically but I'm much more interested in EP and increasing readers/participants here. I also find the quality of discussion and readers here more interesting.

    DK is highly partisan, political blog whereas we are strictly economics, not partisan (although obviously a lot of cross over!).

    So, our goals are to get everyone, regardless of political flavor to think about econ and base their analysis on actual facts, statistics. I cannot say that about either party where things seemingly get clouded with philosophy. We're about evidence, results, stats, what works but of course our bias is an economy that works for the national interest and most importantly working America's interests.

    Reply to: The unemployment number to watch: 525,000   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • Why do I not see you on DailyKos? Have you a different user name there?

    Reply to: The unemployment number to watch: 525,000   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • Because through contract law, corporations force workers to train their replacements or be denied severance and then do confidentiality agreements which have "injunction relief" if a workers squeals on this abusive treatment.

    I don't know if any of these contracts have been challenged, they sure should be and odds are they are not challenged because so often anything revolving around employment/contractor law it seems no attorney will take the case, the EEOC will not unless it's "harassment" or "discrimination" (cough) and the award amount won't cover attorney fees.

    It seems to me that use of contract law is done all of the time to circumvent employment law, at least in California.

    Reply to: Auto bailout requires union concessions   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • THEY DO NOT CONTRIBUTE TO OUR ECONOMY!! WE NEED MORE MIDDLE CLASS JOBS FOR PEOPLE LIVING AMERICAN LIFESTYLES. PERIOD!!

    Please stop giving away our jobs! You are killing us!

    Reply to: Named DOL Secretary Pushed to Labor Arbitrage U.S. Workers - Congress Rep. Hilda Solis   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • If you have the legal right to do something (like go on strike), the right cannot be taken away from you by a contract between two other parties. The agreement between the Administration and GM does not have the force of law, it is just a contract.

    At worst, there may be a provision by which GM forfeits the aid if the UAW goes on strike. Somehow I doubt such a provision, if crucial, would survive past January 20.

    Reply to: Auto bailout requires union concessions   15 years 10 months ago
  • Robert Rubin resigns from Citigroup.

    Long time coming, of course he made out with the store and now all of his proteges are in place in high government positions.

    Looks like he slightly gave token admittance to some of the woes at Citigroup. Lest we not forget the role Citigroup payed in IPOs and serious insider stock options during the dot con era.

    Reply to: They will NEVER be held accountable!   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • The question is how to generate enough outrage for people to hit the streets. Honestly. From Katrina and funneling the money to their pals to the bail out to this, if someone isn't greasing the palms of our "officials" then they get shafted and especially anything to do with the middle class gets the shaft.

    To make matters worse, the AFL-CIO seems to think the new Labor secretary is the cats meow. They are nuts! She cosponsored the STRIVE act, which targets Professional workers for labor arbitrage! That is supposed an AFL-CIO issue yet magically someone pushing a corporate agenda through Congress is Pro Labor???? I don't think so!

    After watching those CBO numbers I am more just so disgusted. They are determined to run the U.S. into plain bankruptcy and destroy it. Seriously, if this continues that is what is going to happen.

    Reply to: Auto bailout requires union concessions   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • Your article mirrors that of Kevin Phillip's in his book Wealth and Democracy. The US is going through what Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain all went through as economic empires. They declined because of the overconcentration of wealth in the hands of a few.

    Reply to: Welcome Huffington Post Readers   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • I think this is just trying to drive traffic to some site that is trying to be an aggregator of other site's content.

    On the other hand, his site, Newsladder is just the 1st paragraph and does link over to the original site where it was found. Other sites, most famous is Technorati, do precisely this, pull in RSS feeds and have tools to read numerous blogs and "bubble up" the good writings.

    I'm fine with other people wanting to get some traffic to their various web efforts and so on, but it's a fine line between that and then plain getting some free advertising.

    What do others think? Remember if you think this is a bad post, if you rate it down, it will be removed from the front page.

    Reply to: How We All Get To Vote On The Stimulus Plan.   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • The Right Monetary and Fiscal Policy Can not Get Us Out of the Depression

    DIE ZEIT: Can the right monetary and fiscal policy keep the US out of a recession?

    Alan Greenspan:

    "Probably not. Global forces can now override most anything that monetary and fiscal policy can do. Long-term real interest rates have significantly more impact on the core of economic activity than the individual actions of nations. Central banks have increasingly lost their capacity to influence the longer end of the market.

    Two to three decades, ago central banks were dominant throughout the maturity schedule.

    Thus, the more important question is the direction of long-term real interest rates."

    Alan Greenspan
    The Great Irony of Success
    © ZEIT online, 30.1.2008

    A Credit Free, Free Market Economy will correct all of those dysfunctions.

    The alternative would be, on the long run, to wait for the physical destruction (through war or rust) of most of our productive assets. It will be at a cost none of us can afford to pay.

    This Age of Turbulence People Want an Exit Strategy Out of Credit,
    An Adventure in a New World Economic Order.

    A Specific Application of Employment, Interest and Money
    http://edsk.org/interest.html

    Press release of my open letter to Chairman Ben S. Bernanke:

    Sorry, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, But Quantitative Easing Won't Work.
    http://www.prlog.org/10162465.html

    Yours Sincerely,

    MC Shalom P. Hamou AKA 'MC Shalom'
    Chief Economist - Master Conductor
    1776 - Annuit Cœptis.

    Reply to: Henry C K Liu: Monetarism enters bankruptcy   15 years 10 months ago
  • Via Washington Post.

    1. Broadband
    2. unemployment insurance
    3. tax cuts
    4. no earmarks
    5. cut "spending" (entitlements)

    Am I hallucinating or could we take this straight from John McCain's campaign?

    It's ridiculous! That whole "retraining" and "portable" worker B.S. has been run since the 1990's and it's pure bullshit. Look at the trade deficit these idiots, it's clear their great global arbitrage agenda simply doesn't work.

    That's what they are saying, to extend unemployment benefits, COBRA (which is always way too expensive for laid off fired workers to afford) and "retraining" when they should be doing something immediately about infrastructure, trade policy and revamping manufacturing.

    Hell, they could cancel their offshore outsourcing contracts on Federal and State jobs and probably that alone would create millions of jobs very quickly in the U.S.

    Reply to: Obama makes disturbing noises about entitlements   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • but one cannot tell these days! One would have thought great balls of laughter would have occurred when Congress was supposed to hand over $700 billion dollars.

    Reply to: Porn industry seeks federal bailout   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • I hate that joe francis fucker... All he wants to do is make money out of doing nothing. He films girls and doesnt pay them and then he doesnt pay taxes... which is why he got arrested.. now hes asking to be bailed out?? That is the most ridiculous thing that Ive ever heard.

    Reply to: Porn industry seeks federal bailout   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • He has economic fairies! Awesome! Sorry I love the graphs and the data but when someone takes the time to also add economic fairies, well, I'm tickled pink! ;)

    Reply to: The Great Depression, Part 4   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • Good for you for nailing that book. I watched Lou Dobbs who normally has some book authors on who deserve to be read and are based in some sort of reality and I couldn't believe he didn't challenge her on the spin pouring out of her mouth on that show. It was a "WTF"?

    Reply to: The Great Depression, Part 4   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:
  • I saw this too and am glad others are not ignoring it and that's when I put up the new poll (bottom right corner).

    I'm not an Obamanut in the first place but these moves have shocked even me, for they are "far off" from even the campaign rhetoric.

    Great post Tony and I love David Kay Johnston for his investigative journalism, especially on the tax code.

    Reply to: Obama makes disturbing noises about entitlements   15 years 10 months ago
    EPer:

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