I guess this election IS going to be about immigration after all.
There’s a reason why hourly wages haven’t gone up in a while, and it has to do with importing cheap labor illegally, or legally through HB1 visas.
Only from the Times.........
No agenda here, nope, nope, nope.......
imagine this guy in charge of the Fed in a Obama presidency
Like a tax cut? Sign me up.
Trashing the economy, just like the Clintons did in ‘92 to get elected. “Worst economy in 50 years”.
Not even the famous ROBERT B. REICH is willing to say the country has been in a Great Depression since 1970 and it will go on forever. The only solution is to open outer space for development and that means to repeal the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty.
Has this idiot ever been right on anything?
I heard an interesting theory, that if the US did two things at the same time, that it could dig itself out of the hole quickly.
The first is an iron clad constitutional balanced budget amendment, with no wiggle room for “off budget” items, and the ability to spend for emergencies only during a mutually declared state of war with a foreign nation, ending as soon as either nation ends the declared war, even if fighting continues.
The second, which is announced as soon as the amendment becomes part of the constitution, is to renounce all foreign holdings on our national debt. Only the debt held by US citizens would then exist.
Now, ordinarily, if the US renounced part of its national debt, it would destroy the equivalent of our “credit rating”. However, any future debt would have to be backed with 100% collateral, maintained in escrow outside of the jurisdiction of the US.
While this would mean that foreigners would no longer invest deeply in US treasury bonds, used to finance a debt we no longer would have or wanted; we could still develop debt for the purposes of foreign trade. It just means that we would have to pay cash in advance, instead of “We’ll owe you.” So no more “trade imbalance”, either.
Nationally, it would also mean no more pilfering of the Social Security trust fund. Once in the constitution, Congress could neither remove SS funds, nor make debts using those funds as collateral. This would mean a great big pot of money, instead of a box filled with useless IOUs.
No more laws for future generations to pay for, either. If a law wasn’t fully funded, then the parts of it not fully funded would not get done. Hey, if they aren’t willing to pay for it, why did they pass it?
I’m sure there are lots of holes in the idea, but it sure is fun to contemplate.
Is this exultation on the Times' part? After all, they've been talking about consumerism as the "engine of the economy" for decades.
Perhaps they're cheering that it finally worked.
Yeah consumers were only following Congress's lead on spending beyond their means, now consumers have to cut back will congress? LOL...
An EPI Board member says we’re doomed.
The key line here is about all of us “adjusting to a lower standard of living”. It’s about eliminating the middle class, just aa all his pro-illegals drivel is about eliminating the middle class. That will make the kind of totalitarianism that Bobby “Third (or Fourth) Reich” desires far easier to impose on us serfs. Maybe we could send a fourth-grader to go kick his midget ass?
“The underlying problem has been building for decades. America’s median hourly wage is barely higher than it was 35 years ago, adjusted for inflation.”
JUST ABOUT THE TIME YOUNG BABY BOOMER WOMEN DECIDED THAT A CAREER IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN A FAMILY.
A GENERATION AGO, THE AVERAGE MAN’S PAYCHECK WAS ENOUGH TO BUY A SUBURBAN HOUSE AND RAISE A FAMILY OF 3+ KIDS. TODAY IT TAKES BOTH SPOUSES, A HOME EQUITY LOAN, AND MAXED CREDIT CARDS TO LIVE (SORT OF) LIKE OUR PARENTS USED TO. AND THATS WITH FEWER KIDS.
THANKS, FEMINISTS, FOR GLUTTING THE LABOR MARKET AND PERMANENTLY LOWERING THE VALUE OF WAGES.
True, and illegal immigration supporters like it that way.
And predictably enough, his answers to the immediate problems that he poses are leftist bilge: increase the EITC and up the number of people receiving it, and make labor unions more powerful and abundant. I wonder why he just didn't suggest a straight-up negative income tax system instead, since that is a purer form of socialism?
He also suggests that to improve our future prospects that it would be wise to improve our educational system --- I would assume that he means to do so by increasing funding of our ridiculous federal "Department of Education" although he doesn't actually suggest in what manner this should be done.
While I agree that we could improve our educational system, my solution would start with shutting down the federal Department of Education, a monumental waste of federal money.
States should instead look at systems that increase competition among schools for students, and should strongly examine creating more vocational options for students that want to study them.
I agree pretty much with him as to what caused the problem, and totally disagree on the solution.
I agree pretty much with him as to what caused the problem, and totally disagree on the solution.
It bothers me when snakes like Reisch spew their venom during an election cycle! This jackass has to remember that he was responsible for much of the last two decades of economic activity.
A larger earned-income tax credit”
The lower 3/4 are not really taxed to death but have had their wages frozen by cheap imported labor and massive losses in the industrial job market.
China works for $7.00 a day and illegals work for about 1/2 of legal wages.
At some point we need to decide if we want to make anything here. We no longer make T/v, flat screens,motherboards,hard drives,memory chips,capacitors,transistors, most home furnishings, almost all home appliances, light bulbs and ballast , steel, wire just to name a few things.
I would propose no taxes on any product that was manufactured with around 80% USA components. total protection from most lawsuits and no unions allowed. Give all environmental over-site to the state Governor.
This year is the first year China will be allowed to import autos. They are junk right now but Toyota has a 49% share of one of the companies and they will get much better.
Should we give up the auto industry too?