We don’t normally get into editorial positions, especially on Friday with Miller time close at hand, and another weekend at long last in sight, but with the headline in the Washington Times that “Obama reverts to 2008 plan: Blame Bush.” I thought we ought to clear the air on some of this tax breaks for the rich crap that gets circulated. Even my deflation pal (Dr.) Jas Jain sees through it:
“Editorial–Top Individual Income Tax Rates and the GDP Growth: Exposing the Lies of Right-Wing Republicans
I am sick and tired of propagandist (redacted) claim, almost on a daily basis, that lower taxes, and he means the rate on the top individual income tax bracket, or marginal tax rate, leads to higher growth. Most right-wing Republicans believe in his lies and never bother to check the facts with the benefit of the hindsight. There is no subject related to the economy in America that has more propaganda than taxes because over time trillions are at stake.
I have known that (redacted) and other Right-wingers have been lying and finally decided to present the facts in graphical form, as shown in Fig. 1. As you can see, as the top rate has fallen from 90% to 35%, the annual GDP growth rate for the following 8 years has fallen from 5% to 1.5%.
Since the GW Bush tax cuts, all the GDP growth, and lot more, has been bought by $12.5Tr in additional federal govt and household debt. But for the growth due to borrow-and-spend the annual GDP growth in the US since 2001 would have been close to –4% (minus four percent). Can you spell g-r-e-a-t-e-r d-e-p-r-e-s-s-i-o-n? The cost of postponing the greater depression is simply a much worse and longer lasting depression in the future. The time bomb is ticking.
Jas
While Jas and I disagree on some things, I never question his data. With a PhD in digital signal processing (and some of his work in most routers, FWIW) I have to take his criticism pretty seriously. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting to be us. America has only three ways out of the economic prison we’re in:
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Dial-back lifestyle (government spending) expectations.
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Pay more in income taxes
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Or blow up the debt to where it’s unsustainable.
We’re tacking #3 and half-assing #1. #2 is untouchable.
For now, thanks to the corporate complicity of both political parties, everyone’s bitching about how we need to lower taxes, but nobody (as Jas points out) wants to address the hard-core economic reality: For a given lifestyle of government (spending on thus and such) you either pay more tax, or you load up more debt. Is that too complicated for voters? The republicorps thus become the More Borrowing party (lower taxes mean more borrowing) and the democorps become the Restrain Spending party…well, maybe.
Since both sides lap the swill of the corporate trough, no one touches marginal tax rates. Hello?
When crash comes to shove, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say “It’s all Greek to me…” because it isn’t.
Our US Debt to GDP ratio is higher than Greece’s and if the republicorps and democorps can’t at least be honest with the public about their conspiracy to support the corporate coup in America, then both parties are undeserving of votes or money.
Not that it will stop them, of course, but it’s a thought.
Ties That Blind
A lot of eyes are on the US-Latin America summit going on in Colombia.
Doesn’t seem to me like a lot of summitting is required: They have energy, rare earth metals, cheap labor, hookers, and plentiful drugs. Our side of the equation is unquenchable energy demand, high tech mania, debt-driven spending, secret service agents, and a porous border. So: Do we really need to “summit” to figure this shit out?
Watch Bahrain & Britain
…figures our Canadian news analyst up near Winnipeg:
Dear Mr. Ure,
While the Formula 1 racing series is gearing up for a weekend race at Sakhir, Bahrain, “The Bahrain Freedom Movement” remains pitted against the government in power. Interestingly their website appears founded in 2007, pre-dating recent clashes by years, and bears a London address.
As an aside, The Islamic Centre of England issued a disturbing report on February’s “Global Islamic Awakening” conference. It is surprising that this anti-Western, pro-Iranian rhetoric emanated from London and not Tehran?
No, not surprising at all, given that as immigration of Islamic peoples has increased into the UK (the upper-crust Brits seem intent on large servant classes, not being bright enough that such policies circle-back and bite the ass) they stand to reap the consequences of a non-homogenous population, but you see, in the grand reality of ‘Everything’s a business model‘ that’s where cameras on every corner and the rest of the UK terrornoia is coming from. Well done, old chaps.
Definition: Terrornoia: A psychological condition which drives organizations to monetize all aspects of crime imaginable. Also: Inability to distinguish between infractions, misdemeanors, crime, organized crime, racketeering, and terrorism.
Previous linguistic iterations lacking sufficient budgetary oomph included “subversives, gangs, mobsters, hoods,” etc. Condition is terminal when “speeding” or having a joint in your pocket on a train is classified as act of “terrorism.”
Similar to McCarthyism but with much larger budgets.
New Plague
May be in the offing in the central highlands of Vietnam.
Memo to self: Stay home.
CFTC Semi-Work
OK, yes, the CFTC announced:
“Federal Court Orders $14 Million in Fines and Disgorgement Stemming from CFTC Charges against Optiver and Others for Manipulation of NYMEX Crude Oil, Heating Oil, and Gasoline Futures Contracts and Making False Statements”
But my question is still “WHY NO ACTION AFTER FOUR YEARS OF PROBING SILVER AND GOLD MANIPULATIONS?” Can’t rush into these things?
Government Sterilization Programs
There’s been a huge story percolating around Uzbekistan’s reported female sterilization program over the past few days. Citing the country’spresident Islam Kaimov’s orders (state-dictated sterilization) there’s a huge backlash growing including now a site which has set up a petition for people to sign demanding change…a petition destined for SecState Hil Clinton.
Don’t hold your breath on anything changing anytime soon but it is outrageous.
How Crazy is Medicine Getting Department
Looks like DNA is now obsolete…or, at least that’s one possible take-away from the article “XNA is synthetic DNA that’s stronger than the real thing.”
Now, whether this kind of thing even qualifies for patent protection under my thesis that anything re-building the existing prior art is merely reassembling something into obvious iterations, is not the main concern. What is the main problem is where innovative and technically alien lifeforms can take the whole planet, willing or otherwise.
As the above story about sterilization demonstrates, we can’t even manage the basic chemistry of estrogen and testosterone, the mechanics of economics, or agree to globally ban weapons of mass destruction, land mines, and goodies like that.
Still, with those obvious short-fallings all over the place (*check under the local freeway overpasses for more human sharing/caring victims) we toss people in jail for breeding better marijuana and honor those who propose patentable forms of life. Am I missing something, or have humans gone crazy/crazier here lately?
It’s Bellingham’s Fault
Up north of Seattle: Looks like some new fault line discoveries are showing how the Strait of Juan de Fuca was once (and may still be) something extensible
Quake Window?
From Patrick Geryl:
Hi George,
Found no relationship between lunar phases and BIG earthquakes… However on April 21 it is new moon… You never know…
Prediction for April 22, 2012
April 19, 2012: Opposition Venus – Uranus across the Sun starts
April 20 – 24, 2012: Opposition Mars – Uranus across the Sun (strong)
April 21, 2012: Triple Line Up: Venus – Mercury – Neptune
April 22, 2012: Conjunction Mercury – Pluto and the Sun
Triple Line Ups:
April 22, 2012: Neptune – Earth – Mars (almost) Earth – Mercury – Uranus
April 22 – 23: Conjunction Venus – Mars and the Sun
April 22 – 23: Opposition Uranus – Venus – Mars across the Sun
Trapezium like configuration (parallelogram) from Earth – Mars – Venus – Mercury…
Conclusion: For April 22, 2012… Because of the trapezium (parallelogram) like configuration, the conjunctions, oppositions and the 3 Triple Line Ups… Large scale effects are possible on the Sun… One of these will happen: X flare, filament eruption or CME. But a powerful X flare combined with a big filament eruption(s) or big CME(s) is possible… This is one of the strangest Line Ups from the planets for the first half of the year…. Will the effects be visible from Earth? That is a difficult question to answer… The Triple Line Ups with Neptune and Uranus end at the back from the Sun and are therefore not viewable from Earth… However, the positions from Venus and Mercury are on the Earth facing side of the Sun… The trapezium configuration looks perfect around April 25… We have seen X flares appear days to weeks after the perfect trapezium (see: Study of Largest X Flares Ever Recorded)…
Patrick’s predictions are online here (33 pages, plan on more coffee)…
And it looks like we have a lot of sunspots….
http://obs.astro.ucla.edu/cur_mag_fe1b.png
Here you can follow the X flares in real time…
http://spaceweather.inf.brad.ac.uk/
So the chances for this calculated(!) prediction becoming true are growing rapidly… and also the end of our civilization….
That’s OK, though. Only real question is in how it ends, isn’t it? Global quakery or financial chicanery…might be leading to the same place anyway…
Picture This
Decmocracy.info has a graphic on global derivative debt worth looking at here…be sure to scroll down.
WTF Department
“Austrian village “F*cking to vote on name change.”
Shoot, we’re always willing to lend free marketing ideas. How about “Bitemein?”
WTF, II
Say, you don’t think chickens are on the verge of becoming mammals, do you?
More after this…
