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Reagan’s OMB head: Wealth inequality is a problem
CNBC.com ^ | 01/29/2015 | Alex Rosenberg

Posted on 01/29/2015 5:20:04 PM PST by logi_cal869

It might be hard to imagine President Ronald Reagan agreeing with President Barack Obama's take on wealth inequality. But Reagan's first director of the Office of Management and Budget, David Stockman, says that the disparity in household wealth is a major problem that ought to be addressed. He just has very different ideas about how to deal with it. (snip)

But Stockman says blame lays not with the tax code (indeed, he pioneered a trickle-down approach to taxes under Reagan) but with the Fed.

Obama "is talking about a symptom, but he's clueless as to the cause. The cause is not capitalism. The cause is not some entrepreneur out there trying to invent something and improve the performance of his business. The problem is in the Eccles building [home to the main office of the Fed] and in the 12 people sitting there and thinking that interest rates are some magic elixir that'll cause this very troubled and difficult economy to revive," Stockman said. (snip)

"We've had two huge bubbles that collapsed already in this century," he said. "When this third bubble collapses—and surely it will—I believe that will be the day of reckoning. The credibility of all this central-bank-dominated, Wall-Street-coddling policy will be totally repudiated, and maybe then we can clean the slate and start over."

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: davidstockman; debt; economy; stockmarket
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To: ilovesarah2012

I don’t care who gates gives his wealth to, I just want to see him and the missus cut their personal income down to about $100,000 a year and one 1,600 sq ft house. If they want “equality” then they can start with making themselves middle class


21 posted on 01/29/2015 6:10:31 PM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: logi_cal869

And that was the purpose. Reagan no better than Obama.


22 posted on 01/29/2015 6:12:15 PM PST by Karl Spooner
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To: logi_cal869

In this case, Stockman is over the target, and the author (not Stockman) is a spink.


23 posted on 01/29/2015 6:20:48 PM PST by Sirius Lee (All that is required for evil to advance is for government to do "something")
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To: Alberta's Child

Hmmm. Thanks for the info. I’ve only made that statement in private conversations to much derision.

Nice to know it’s finally being discussed. First I’ve heard outside my own circle not sourced from my own lips.


24 posted on 01/29/2015 6:21:31 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: Karl Spooner

If that’s your takeaway, pity.


25 posted on 01/29/2015 6:22:21 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: logi_cal869
The next time you bring it up you can mention something else:

The U.S. government will stop at nothing to prop up those "unaffordable" prices. This is why both parties and almost every major public and private interest group is hell-bent on maintaining an open-borders policy ... because 25 Mexicans might be the only ones who can "afford" a home that a Baby Boomer couple is selling to support themselves in retirement.

26 posted on 01/29/2015 6:24:59 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: logi_cal869
If that’s your takeaway, pity.

Try not to be so specific.

27 posted on 01/29/2015 6:27:26 PM PST by Karl Spooner
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To: logi_cal869

We have such “wealth inequality” because we have economic mobility, allowing people to go from the bottom of the economic scale to the top and vice versa. Take Dr. Carson, or Bill Gates. This is capitalism, the free market, providing opportunity. What it is not is a problem.


28 posted on 01/29/2015 7:01:42 PM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: PlateOfShrimp

“And the two biggest of these are crony, rent-seeking capitalism, and the never-ending flow of low-wage workers from immigration”

Thank You for speaking the truth - love your post.

I would also add to the list of what is driving income inequality: The destruction of the family and our schools not teaching financial literacy.

All 4 of these issues are driven by bad policy. The only question is the bad policy due to ignorance or deliberate.

I think it is largely deliberate.


29 posted on 01/29/2015 7:35:45 PM PST by crusher2013
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To: logi_cal869
Wealth is nothing more than unspent money.

People who spend every cent they get their hands on the second they get their hands on it will never have "wealth," no matter how much of other people's earnings you give them.

30 posted on 01/29/2015 7:41:40 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the fascists.)
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To: logi_cal869

The problem is the fed artificially inflating the stock market through zero interest rates.


31 posted on 01/29/2015 8:18:10 PM PST by kaehurowing
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To: SoFloFreeper
my one disappointment with Reagan is that he didn't take the advice of Stockman about SS and the Grace report....

it was the revelation that money is just taken from some and given to others that have more power...the young and middle class workers being robbed to pay retired people....

same time this was happening, my husbands union was shafting most of the younger and middle aged workers at his plant with big takeaways and got it passed only because it gave big giveaways to the older workers close to retirement.....it turned out to be a $900 a month turnaround disparity...

32 posted on 01/29/2015 8:33:47 PM PST by cherry
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To: logi_cal869

I agree that the FOMC is a problem, but I don’t think Stockman knows why.


33 posted on 01/29/2015 8:37:56 PM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: logi_cal869

Imagine a 5% Annual Cost for covering a $20,000,000,000,000 National Debt. Better yet, imagine 10%.

Obama will be building his Presidential Library when this Fiscal Bomb lands and he will bear no blame, count on it.


34 posted on 01/29/2015 8:40:26 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (If you think the Mulatto Marxist is bad, just wait until the Menopausal Marxist shows up.)
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Tinfoiled Again!



Tinfoiled Again!

35 posted on 01/30/2015 5:26:42 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Kickass Conservative

I do. Without pleasure. And with much derision and contempt for the ignorant that will continue to defend the policies that led us here even after reality hits home.


36 posted on 01/30/2015 6:03:27 AM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: Karl Spooner

It is patently obvious that bias exists in media.

Pointing out the obvious is one thing; emphasizing it as focus is another.

I am capable of filtering that bias for the content.

THAT is my specificity; yours is the bias. Again, ‘pity’.


37 posted on 01/30/2015 6:09:20 AM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: PGR88
IMHO Stockman is 100% correct about the Federal Reserve and the massive (and usually unconsidered) effects its debt creation

The Fed doesn't create debt.

38 posted on 01/30/2015 6:09:45 AM PST by Toddsterpatriot (Science is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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To: SoFloFreeper

Yeah, he’s been a whiny bitch ever since Reagan canned his ass.


39 posted on 01/30/2015 6:10:35 AM PST by Toddsterpatriot (Science is hard. Harder if you're stupid.)
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To: Sirius Lee

“Ding, ding, ding, DING”

Exactly.


40 posted on 01/30/2015 8:21:39 AM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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