Tag Archives: Middle Class Dismissed

Wendy McElroy: Don’t Like My Article? I Will Sue!

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“Some effects of America’s hyper-litigiousness are obvious. For example, when a corporation announces a change in its customer policies as a response to a substantial payout. Or when your neighbor declares bankruptcy because he cannot afford the damages from someone slipping on his icy driveway.  Less visible effects can be ‘chilling’ as well. A chilling effect occurs when people avoid the legitimate exercise of their rights because they fear repercussions. A common political example is a journalist who avoids criticizing the government because he fears reprisals, such as being audited by the IRS. An insidious aspect of chilling is that its consequences are often invisible.”

http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2014/1/16/dont-like-my-article-i-will-sue.html

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This Chart Explains Why Politicians Aren’t Like The Rest of Us

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“Members of Congress have always been rich, and today they’re even richer.  In fact, a new study from the Center for Responsive Politics suggests, it’s possible more than half of them are millionaires.  The Center for Responsive Politics, which runs the money-in-government website OpenSecrets.org, calculated the maximum and minimum possible net worth of each member of Congress, by adding up the high and low ends of the value ranges for each asset and liability listed. They then averaged the two and found that, for more than half of members, that average is over $1 million.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/01/this-chart-explains-why-politicians-arent-like-the-rest-of-us/

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Janet Yellen, the Nation’s New Chief Slumlord

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“Janet Yellen is the nation’s new top slumlord. Her policies of unlimited liquidity, QE and zero interest rates directly enable financial Elites to beat out Mom and Pop rental housing investors and buy tens of thousands of rental properties at will.  Access to free money and near-zero interest rates gives institutional buyers a built-in advantage over Mom and Pop rental property owners: no collateral and free profits from super-low rates available to those closest to the Fed’s QE money spigot.  Institutional ownership turns the rental housing stock into a Fed-enabled financial monoculture.  To Fed-enabled Institutional landlords, you are an income stream to be skimmed.”

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan14/slumlord-Yellen1-14.html

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Two Numbers: The Housing Market Breathes Under Water

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“Five years after the housing bubble collapsed, a staggering one in five mortgage holders still owe more than their home is worth.  At its worst in early 2012, almost 16 million Americans were under water on their mortgage.  11 million out of a total of 50 million mortgage holders remain in what financial folks call a negative equity position. ‘This is the new normal in the housing market,’ said Svenja Gudell, director of economic research at Zillow, an online real estate database, ‘We will have high levels of negative equity for some time.’  Out of the 75 million homeowners around the country, about one in seven stay trapped in their homes, unable to move or sell.”

http://www.newsweek.com/two-numbers-housing-market-breathes-under-water-225429

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Robert Rector: How the War on Poverty Was Lost

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“According to a variety of government sources, including census data and surveys by federal agencies, the typical American living below the poverty level in 2013 lives in a house or apartment that is in good repair, equipped with air conditioning and cable TV. His home is larger than the home of the average nonpoor French, German or English man. He has a car, multiple color TVs and a DVD player. More than half the poor have computers and a third have wide, flat-screen TVs. The overwhelming majority of poor Americans are not undernourished and did not suffer from hunger for even one day of the previous year.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303345104579282760272285556

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Bill Bonner: Time for a Cease-Fire In the War on Poverty

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“Meanwhile, the 50th anniversary of the feds’ ‘War on Poverty’ came and went last week, without much notice.  As in many other of the feds’ wars, we don’t know which side we should be on. We’ve got nothing against poverty. Then, again, we’ve got nothing against wealth either. People should be able to decide for themselves what they want out of life.  But during the Johnson administration the rich got the idea that they should exterminate poverty… or at least gain a political advantage by appearing to try to do so.  So it was that on January 8, 1964, LBJ declared war: ‘This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.’  That was 50 years and $20 trillion ago.”

http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/time-for-a-cease-fire-in-the-war-on-poverty/

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States turn against electric cars as gas tax revenues fall

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“As of this year, Coloradans driving electric, alternative fuel and high-efficiency vehicles will pay a $50 registration fee to capture more revenue from vehicles that use less traditional gasoline. This is part of a growing trend by which states are looking to recoup declining gas tax revenues as vehicles become more fuel efficient and drivers buy more electric vehicles.  Colorado is one of at least five states that have special fees on hybrid and electric vehicles — Colorado, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington.  On the federal level, gas tax revenues have lost one-third of their value since 1993; the federal Highway Trust Fund could face insolvency in 2015 if this trend continues.”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/06/states-turn-against-electric-cars-as-gas-tax-revenues-fall/

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Highway Robbery: How Your Taxes Subsidize the California Lifestyle

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“The next time you swipe your debit or credit card at the gas pump, you’ll be doing more than filling your tank. You’ll also be helping to finance parks, bike paths, pedestrian walkways, overlooks, viewing areas, parking lots, turnouts, ‘stack-and-pack’ housing and government land grabs in California.  ‘Sustainable communities’ advocates have captured the Highway Trust Fund to finance their lifestyle choices and political agenda. And it’s not just in California. Property owners in a seven-county area of South Florida—including Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties—currently are fighting a scheme similar to Plan Bay Area, called Seven50.  The fever has spread from coast to coast.”

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=4837

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All-Time High Unemployment: Depression In Europe Getting Deeper

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“This week we learned that eurozone unemployment came in at an all-time high of 12.2 percent for September.  Back in January 2012, it was sitting at just 10.4 percent.  The funny thing is that the mainstream media will barely call what is going on in Europe a ‘recession’ even though the unemployment rates in both Spain and Greece are now much higher than anything that the United States ever experienced during the ‘Great Depression’ of the 1930s.  A 25-year-old Spanish man with three college degrees that moved to London in a desperate search for a job is now cleaning up poop for a living.  The economic collapse of Europe continues to march on, and there is no end in sight.”

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/all-time-high-unemployment-the-economic-depression-in-europe-just-keeps-getting-deeper

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Paul Craig Roberts: The Case of the Missing Recovery

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“What the Treasury and Federal Reserve have done, with the complicity of the White House, Congress, economists, and the media, is to focus on rescuing a half dozen banks ‘too big to fail.’ The consequence of focusing economic policy on saving the banks is rigged financial markets and massive stock and bond market bubbles. To protect the dollar’s exchange value from quantitative easing, the price of gold has been forced down in the paper futures market, with the consequence that physical gold is shipped to Asia where it is unavailable as a refuge for Americans faced with currency depreciation. It remains to be seen whether the chickens can be kept from coming home to roost.”

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/01/03/case-missing-recovery-paul-craig-roberts/

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