Is Raising Taxes on Millionaires and Billionaires Good for the Nation?

What happened to Unemployment When the Effective Tax Rate Went Down?

Take a look at the graphs above and below. Do you think there’s a relationship between the two? You better believe there is. The more money the rich have, the more money they have to control both political parties, the more money they have to redistribute income and wealth from the 99 percent to themselves. They do this legislatively. That’s precisely what has happened during the last thirty-two years.

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US Economy Contracts in the Fourth Quarter of 2012

It’s never a good sign, but it’s not always bad. The U.S. economy shrank for the first time in more than three years in the fourth quarter, suggesting massive weakness in the economy caused by the massive redistribution of income during the last 32 years. The strength of consumer spending and business investment may suggest that the economy will grow, albeit slowly, this year.

Gross domestic product—the broadest measure of goods and services churned out by the economy—fell at a 0.1% annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the government’s initial estimate out Wednesday. However, these early estimates are often revised, so it’s too early to tell if the contraction is ominous.

Some alleged experts suggest the contraction was caused by a curtailment of government spending, which is possible. If true, it goes to show that an economic policy of austerity is blatantly stupid, but Republicans like because it will tank the economy.

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Record Corporate Profits? How’d they Do That? The Inflation Income Redistribution Scam

By the third quarter of 2012 (which are the latest available data), according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, corporate profits were on pace to exceed the record earnings of 2011, despite a pathetic economy. How did they do it? It’s simple. They shipped jobs overseas and redistributed the difference between the higher paying jobs in the US and the new lower wage jobs elsewhere into the pockets of the already rich via higher dividends and share prices. But CEO’s have discovered a more sinister way to increase profits at the expense of the 99 percent.

They jacked up their prices, and the government deliberately hides those increases by understating inflation.

Three years ago, I could purchase three cans of generic label tuna for a dollar. Two years ago, I could purchase two cans for a dollar. Now I’m lucky to get one can of the same tuna for a dollar, although sometimes I can get a can for .79 cents. Same thing has occurred with gasoline, lettuce, milk, bread, meat and other items. Okay, it’s true sometimes prices for certain items don’t rise, perhaps I-Phones, but you can’t eat them, nor can you put them in your gas tank.

Just using the tuna as an example, the price per can rose from .34 cents to .50 cents to .79 cents, or roughly 45-50 percent per year. Take a look at most things you purchase. Prices are rising rapidly. The difference between the old, lower, prices and the new, higher, prices go into the pockets of the rich via higher corporate earnings, rising dividends and share prices. And the government is covering it up by understating inflation. that’s because of the massive corruption of the federal government.

The government says the US inflation rate for 2012 was 1.7 percent. On the other hand, the Everyday Price Index calls it closer to eight percent, which is probably closer to the truth, which is something our government and corporate media no longer provide us, unless it is convenient for them.

Last summer, Harper’s Magazine pointed out that the government’s measurement of inflation for 2010 was slightly higher than three percent, but the government has changed the way it measures inflation twenty times since 1980. If the old method of measuring inflation from 1980 was used, inflation for 2010 would be almost 11 percent. We would be outraged and demand the government do something about this serious problem. But we can’t be outraged, so the media and government simply lie to us, thus ensuring that we don’t know there’s a problem since the government is covering it up. We’re like frogs in a slowly heating pot of water.

Below is an example of how the corporate lies to us.

“The combined earnings of the Fortune 500 corporations rose 16 percent from 2010 to a record high of $825 billion in 2011, Fortune magazine said.”

“Given the sluggish recovery and a strapped consumer, you’d expect to see corporate America trudging along, not racing for glory,” Fortune’s senior editor-at-large, said.

“In fact, the Fortune 500 are thriving as a group. Unlike the US economy, they’ve shown quicksilver agility, rapidly shifting their product mix and producing more goods at little new cost.”

That is total bull shit. These corporations haven’t “shown quicksilver agility, rapidly shifting their product mix and producing more goods an little new cost.” That’s a lie. They’ve achieved this result simply by raising prices and shifting jobs overseas. These actions have redistributed income and wealth from the 99 percent to the one percent.

The first duty of the editor of any corporate news media outlet is to lie to the American people. That way they can keep their corporate advertisers happy. That’s precisely what Fortune Magazine does.

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The Republican Party and the Economy

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The Fiscal Cliff Apolcalypse

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The Right to Work means Redistributing Income Upward

The Right to Work means the Right to Work for Less

If wages drift down in Michigan because of the new Right-to-Work-for-Less law, the difference between the old higher wages and the new lower wages will be redistributed into the already fat wallets of the super-rich via higher corporate profits, share prices and dividends. Some of that income will be redistributed to Wall Street CEO’s via higher bonuses and greater fees for stocks and bonds traded. Some of the income will be redistributed into the already fat wallets of other corporate CEOs via pay hikes and bonuses. In other words, right to work for less laws redistribute income upward by pushing wages down.

That redistribution of income means higher poverty rates for the 99 percent.

There is also a redistribution of political power going on here. A labor union is a union of labor. A publicly traded limited liability corporation is a collective of rich person’s money. The owners of that money usually don’t have a clue as to what is being produced by their corporation, but whoever controls that money wields much more political power than any one labor union. Essentially, our democracy is being purchased by a series of communist collectives for rich people, otherwise known as corporations.

The Reagan and Bush tax opened the floodgates of rich people’s money into politics, something that could not be matched by the 99 percent. The ability of the 1 percent to form collectives is at the heart of this matter. The floodgates had been carefully built by FDR, Truman and Eisenhower. Now rich people are using their tax breaks and collectives to break what little political power remains with the 99 percent.

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Confused? The Fiscal Cliff Explained

Are you confused about what the fiscal cliff is? Okay, here’s how we got there. Obama caved to the Republicans. Now the deal is going through. Anyway, click on the link below for what the fiscal cliff is.

fiscal-cliff-explained-spending-cuts-tax-hikes

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Warren Buffett Again Writes “Tax the UltraRich!”

Warren Buffett wrote on November 25, 2012 in the New York Times, “Between 1951 and 1954, when the capital gains rate was 25 percent and marginal rates on dividends reached 91 percent in extreme cases, I sold securities and did pretty well. In the years from 1956 to 1969, the top marginal rate fell modestly, but was still a lofty 70 percent — and the tax rate on capital gains inched up to 27.5 percent. I was managing funds for investors then. Never did anyone mention taxes as a reason to forgo an investment opportunity that I offered.

Under those burdensome rates, moreover, both employment and the gross domestic product (a measure of the nation’s economic output) increased at a rapid clip. The middle class and the rich alike gained ground.

So let’s forget about the rich and ultrarich going on strike and stuffing their ample funds under their mattresses if — gasp — capital gains rates and ordinary income rates are increased. The ultrarich, including me, will forever pursue investment opportunities.”

Buffett doesn’t suggest what is obvious. Tax cuts for the rich destroy jobs, which I’ve shown how in numerous articles in this blog and in my book, The Rigged Game.

Click below for the full op-ed by Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett Writes "Tax the Ultra Rich." New York Times

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Even the IMF Agrees with Europe’s Anti-Austerity Protests

“In a spectacular display of widening popular discontent, strikes and anti-austerity protests broke out across the eurozone on November 14—the first time there has been broad coordinated action in multiple countries simultaneously since the beginning of a crisis rooted in the design failures of the European Monetary Union. General strikes in Spain and Portugal closed car plants and shut down other industries, drastically curtailing mass transit from Barcelona to Lisbon. There were strikes and huge demonstrations in Greece and Italy. Even in France and Belgium, countries less immediately threatened by the creeping debt crisis, big rallies were staged.” –The Nation

Click the link below for the complete story.

The IMF Agrees With the European Anti-Austerity Protests–the Nation

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Workers at Walmart Are on Strike at Several Stores

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