I have been highlighting the unequal treatment meted out by the Obama administration’s justice department, where extremely harsh treatment is given to low-level criminals and whistleblowers and hackers while those who commit massive damage to the financial system that cause immense hardship t many, and even acknowledge major wrongdoing, are given slaps on the wrist. It is telling that as yet, not a single high-level official in the financial sector has gone to jail, or even faced the threat of jail, for their actions. [Read more…]

The Wall Street Journal had a story on the impact of the recently concluded ‘fiscal cliff deal’ on people’s taxes that was passed by Congress and signed by president Obama. It was accompanied by this infographic.

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The so-called ‘debt crisis’ has spawned a lot of groups ostensibly for the purpose of suggesting ways to reduce it. But as this news report suggests, the members of one such group known as ‘Fix the Debt’ may not be as disinterested as they claim to be, because they simultaneously serve other businesses that are directly affected by the measures they propose. [Read more…]

When the great financial bailout of 2008 was rushed through with almost no discussion, I said in a series of six posts that it looked like a massive swindle perpetrated on ordinary taxpayers to benefit the wealthy and the financial sector and that we should vigorously oppose it. As I said in the first post in that series: [Read more…]

One has to hand it to the Democrats. They have been fairly successful in masking their allegiance to the oligarchy. The GOP is far more open about whose interests they really care about. As the fiscal cliff Kabuki theater played itself out towards the end of the year. I did not follow the details of the maneuvering that led up to the final agreement but was intrigued by the suggestion put forward by speaker John Boehner of something known as ‘Plan B’ as a stop-gap measure. This came and went fairly quickly and so did receive much scrutiny but its details show the priorities of the GOP. [Read more…]

I haven’t been able to digest all the features of the fiscal cliff deal as yet. The White House has put out a fact sheet on what the deal contains. My initial reaction is disappointment that does not seem to go nearly as far in taxing the rich as I would have liked but also relief it did not hammer the poor and the safety net as much as I had feared. [Read more…]

Paul Krugman has a good analysis of the current state of affairs, and says that what we have is not a debt crisis. [Read more…]

There was recently a big fuss about how the Hostess company was going out of business, because many people seemed to have a sentimental childhood attachment to its products though I personally had never eaten any, perhaps because I had not grown up in the US. Much of the media spread the message that the cause was that the workers were not willing to grant huge concessions in salary and benefits for the company to stay in business. [Read more…]

An excellent animation that tells, in a remarkably accurate and understandable way, the story of how we got where we are today and what we should do about it. (Thanks to reader Tim.) [Read more…]