How Warren Buffett and his ilk are raping America, a must listen too

KPFA ^ | November 21, 2012 | David Cay Johnston

[Abiotic]

"The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use Plain English To Rob You Blind" with Pulizer Prize-winning David Cay Johnston.

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[Abiotic]

Corporate Socialism in a nutshell: US Internet speeds are only 29th in the world, yet Americans pay more than almost anyone else, due to corporate and government collusion. Numerous other examples in this show how robber barons and banks use big government to enforce monopolies and duopolies, all at a cost of billions in outright fraud, theft, and economic inefficiencies. Will make you see red.....

[molson209]

Warren Buffett is selling off stock ,is it to avoid the new taxes coming soon ,insider info LOL

[RJS1950]

I think Warren has always wanted to become like the old Soviet Oligarchs. He has always been the ultimate corporate weasel who strives to build his cult following; like his butt-buddy obama.

FUBO & FAD

[dfwgator]

Corporate Socialism = Fascism

[throwback]

Warren Buffett. Age 82. Average lifespan of American white male, 75. If there is no God, Warren just has his portfolio reduced to zero soon. If there is, well he may lose more than his portfolio.

[griswold3]

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”- Mussolini

We’re outnumbered by looters (Uncle Warren) and moochers (Peggy) who plan to pillage this country. The question is, who will rebuild and restore our freedom and the rule of law?
‘Stealing from Each Other’ Edgar K Browning

[nascarnation]

How’s his prostate cancer doing? I know he was diagnosed this spring.

[Dr. Sivana]

Corporate Socialism in a nutshell: US Internet speeds are only 29th in the world, yet Americans pay more than almost anyone else, due to corporate and government collusion.

The speed issue largely has to do with the vast amount of land the U.S. has to cover compared to densely packed countries like S. Korea and the Netherlands. If you are remote and have to use satellite or tower based wireless, you aren't gonna get the same throughput as you are in Seoul.

[ozzymandus]

I never though of Buffett as anything but a parasite. What did he ever produce?

[Carriage Hill]

Soros Lite.

[IDFbunny]

Warren Buffet agrees that the filthy rich are under taxed. Still not sure why conservatives don’t think so.

[beandog]

Maybe because they are not under taxed. I hardly consider a married couple making $250,000 a year the “filthy rich”.

If Warren Buffet thinks he’s under taxed he can certainly cough up more of his own money for taxes.

[IDFbunny]

I wouldn’t either; probably more like the working rich like doctors, professionals and business people. The Warren Buffets, Soros’, and their ilk. I can’t defend them with the same zeal you do.

[generally]

Good point. Maybe what we need is a parasite tax. Produce things, fix broken things (doctors, engineers, farmers, mechanics) - low taxes. Produce hot air (lawyers, money manipulators, tv anchors) - high taxes.

[Abiotic]

No, this issue is covered in the interview. Here in Sweden (just like Korea, Finland, Norway, Germany etc), even in very remote areas the internet speeds are vastly superior to even central major US cities. The major telecoms simply have not built out the infrastructure they said they would. Another telling sign is that so many in the US still have to use dial-up modems. This is unheard of here, even with a much smaller scale of economy and even given vast distances of remoteness, especially in Norrbotten.

In addition, as is covered in the mp3, the prices charged for broadband holistic telecom packages are extremely high in the US compared to much, if not all of the industrailized world. I pay roughly 60 US dollars a month for 250mbps speed internet and hundreds of premium cable channels from all over the globe. In the US, this would be hundreds of, if not over a thousand dollars US per month. 250mbps net speeds are pretty much unavalable there unless you go to a fractional T-1, for well over a grand per month. Also, the mobile net speeds are years behind most of the EU and Asia.

The state of the critical national infrastructure overall in America is appalling, be it trains, roads, telecom, power grid, water grid, etc. It will take tens of trillions of dollars to rebuild, and I cannot see this happening with the current sovereign debt system, headed by the private Federal Reserve. The ‘peace dividend’ was long ago mortgaged for the sake of the systemic controllers. This is composed of an alliance of privately controlled global central banks, the multinational private media-military-pharma-agra-prison-industrial-banking complex, a fascist government for population control/enforcement, and multivariate empiric war projections to prop up the petrodollar matrix that funds much of this wealth/resouce/power consolidation.

[Abiotic]

The ultimate ‘parasite tax’ that is needed is a Tobin tax. But that is just a start.

Re-institute the Glass-Steagall firewall to separate banks, brokerages, and insurance. Ban credit default swaps and adjustable rate mortgages.

To generate revenue and discourage speculation, levy a 1% Tobin tax with a $1 million per annum exception (securities transfer tax or trading tax) on all financial transactions including derivatives (futures, options, indices, and over the counter derivatives), stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, and commodities, especially program trading, high-frequency trading, and flash trading.

Set up a 15% reserve requirement for all OTC derivatives. Use Tobin tax revenue and a revived corporate income tax to provide immediate tax relief to individuals, families, the self-employed, and small business by increasing personal exemptions and standard deductions.

Set a 10% maximum rate of interest on credit cards and payday loans. Re-regulate commodities markets with 100% margin requirements, position limits, and anti-speculation protections for hedgers and end users to prevent oil and gasoline price spikes. Enforce anti-trust laws against monopolies and cartels. Restore individual chapter 11.

End all bailouts of banks and financial institutions. Claw back the TARP and other public money given or lent to financiers. Abolish the notion of too big to fail; JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Wells Fargo and other Wall Street zombie banks are insolvent and must be seized by the FDIC for chapter 7 liquidation, with derivatives eliminated by triage.

Seize the Federal Reserve and bring it under the US Treasury as the National Bank of the United States, no longer the preserve of unelected and unaccountable cliques of incompetent and predatory bankers.

The size of the money supply, interest rates, and approved types of lending must be determined by public laws passed and debated openly, passed by the congress and signed by the president.

Stop US government borrowing from zombie banks and foreigners — let the US government function as its own bank. Reverse current policy by instituting 0% federal lending with preferential treatment for tangible physical production and manufacturing of goods and commodities, to include industry, agriculture, construction, mining, energy production, transportation, infrastructure building, public works, and scientific research, but not financial services and speculation.

Issue successive tranches of $1 trillion as needed to create 30 million union-wage productive jobs and attain full employment for the first time since 1945, reversing the secular decline in the US standard of living. Provide 0% credit to reconvert idle auto and other plants and re-hire unemployed workers to build modern rail, mass transit, farm tractors, and aerospace equipment, including for export.

Extend 0% federal credit for production to small businesses like auto and electronics repair shops, dry cleaners, restaurants, tailors, family farms, taxis, and trucking. Maintain commercial credit for retail stores. Create an unlimited rediscount guarantee by the National Bank for public works projects to provide cash to local banks for bills of exchange pertaining to infrastructure and public works.

Revive the US Export-Import Bank. Repatriate the foreign dollar overhang by encouraging China, Japan, and other dollar holders to place orders for US-made capital goods and modern hospitals.

[Dr. Sivana]

The major telecoms simply have not built out the infrastructure they said they would. Another telling sign is that so many in the US still have to use dial-up modems. This is unheard of here, even with a much smaller scale of economy and even given vast distances of remoteness, especially in Norrbotten. In addition, as is covered in the mp3, the prices charged for broadband holistic telecom packages are extremely high in the US compared to much, if not all of the industrailized world. I pay roughly 60 US dollars a month for 250mbps speed internet and hundreds of premium cable channels from all over the globe. In the US, this would be hundreds of, if not over a thousand dollars US per month. 250mbps net speeds are pretty much unavalable there unless you go to a fractional T-1, for well over a grand per month. Also, the mobile net speeds are years behind most of the EU and Asia.

I was unable to listen to the mp3 as I replied at work, and most Flash/YouTube content is filtered out. The amount of dial-up is way down, since Obama used stimulus money to spend thousands of dollars per new broadband customer. Some oldsters may stick with it simply out of inertia.

$100 for Phone/Internet/Cable is common around here, but certainly the speeds are nowhere near 250 mbps (I get 20-30 mbps). Do note, that while a T-1 offers superior latency, it is 1.5 mbps. A whole T-1, not just fractional, can be had for far less than $1,000 per month. I've seen as low as $250, but business phone packages are so purposefully complicated and contingent, that I do not know if that is a legitimate number.

I think we all agree that the mobile phone oligopoly is a huge problem here. As more spectrum gets reallocated, that should improve. I do agree that the Buffets (and the Gates, etc.) are infatuated with population control, and are moving large levers in that direction, calling it charity.

[DBeers]

Warren Buffet agrees that the filthy rich are under taxed. Still not sure why conservatives don’t think so.

Taxing wealth as a means of redistributing wealth has never been American. Taxing income as a means of redistributing income has never been American.

Government involvement in redistributing to supposedly attain a Utopia and or attain an equality of outcomes lends itself to among other things favoritism of special interests while pursuing its social engineering path.

Taxes premised upon anything not legitimately tasked the limited government should be voluntary OTHERWISE government is no longer limited -much is the problem with a government that can borrow without constraint with taxes but a necessary afterthought required to pay for the illegitimate.