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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President Obama’s Views on the Banksters Who Destroyed the Economy

“Go free, very free,” is the Obama motto for his campaign contributors at Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan, Bank of America and other banks and bankers that tanked the economy. So not one Wall Street criminal has gone to jail. Instead of going to jail, the bankers, the banks, and their investors got bailed out to the tune of $26 trillion dollars given to them by the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, the 99 percent got the shaft.

See related article below.

Breakdown of the $26 trillion the Federal Reserve Doled Out to Save Rich Incompetent Investors

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How Stupid Are Republicans That They Didn’t Get the Message? In particular about Immigration Reform?

Republican Party leaders are stupid enough to believe they don’t appeal to Hispanics because of the party’s position on illegal immigration and opposition to comprehensive immigration reform. Apparently, the Republican leadership believes that if they help to pass some form of immigration reform, Hispanics will vote for more jobs destroying, middle class exploding, tax breaks for the rich. They must believe that Hispanics will vote for more war, privatizing public schools, the military and other government services; that they will vote for destroying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, shipping more jobs overseas and redistributing more income from the 99 to the 1 percent. Somehow, the Republican leadership believes Hispanics will vote for people who deny science if it happens to present bad news for corporate profits, like global warming; and that they’ll vote for nut jobs who believe in “legitimate rape.”

Here’s how stupid the Republican leadership is. Before the November 2012 election, a Fox Latino poll found that only 6 percent of Hispanics listed immigration reform as their number one priority, compared to 45 percent who listed the economy as their number one issue. A Latino Decisions election eve poll found 53 percent of the respondents thought the economy was their number one priority, compared to 35 percent who thought immigration reform should be number one. On a national level, Republicans tend to get between 17 and 35 percent of the Hispanic vote. Helping on immigration reform isn’t likely to change that.

In other words, the economy is the number one priority for most US Hispanics. They generally tend to vote Democratic, and there’s nothing the Republicans can do about this, since the positions espoused by the Republicans are aimed primarily at destroying the middle class.

In fairness to the vast majority of Republican politicians, the bulk of the national Democratic establishment has the middle class in their cross hairs, as well. Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden is classic example.

Maybe the Republicans should stop nominating far right, and ultra-right politicians for national offices. Maybe they should oppose the Democrats in their income redistribution plans, rather than aid and abet it. Maybe the Republicans should nominate people to national office with a platform for aiding the middle class, rather than redistributing middle class income to the rich. Maybe that would get more Hispanics to vote for the GOP.

Click below for more on this story from the Guardian of the UK.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/29/five-reasons-republicans-wont-win-over-latino-voters/

Click below for another lesson the Republicans didn’t learn from the election of 2012.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/26/maddow-republicans-taking-all-the-wrong-lessons-away-from-2012-drubbing/

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The Koch Brothers Tea Party and the war against the middle class

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Corporations are not People!

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Do Americans Want Shared Prosperity?

By a wide margin, a recent study showed that American citizens want shared prosperity. Moreover, the vast majority of workers—85% to 90%–wanted a greater collective say at the workplace than they had. Moreover, most workers thought that greater representation and voice to employees at their workplace would be good for their firm as well as for them. Perhaps that’s because most CEO’s are clueless idiots.

The problem with shared prosperity is simple; the 1 percent have bought off corrupt politicians like Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden. The senator goes out of his way to ensure that income is redistributed to his corporate masters and the rest of the 1 percent via things like free trade treaties and privatizing Medicare. That’s why economist Paul Krugman calls Wyden a useful idiot of the right. But Wyden isn’t an idiot, not completely, he’s just a Wall Street fetch boy.

In another finding, the proportion of workers who want unions has risen substantially over the last 10 years, and a majority of nonunion workers would vote for union representation if they could. This is up from the roughly 30% who would vote for representation in the mid-1980s, and the 32% to 39% in the mid-1990s.

Click on the link below for the full study.

Do Americans Want Shared Prosperity?

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Science Versus Republican Party Science

An interesting truth above. However, I should point out that when science is profitable to corporations, the Republicans can correctly answer one plus one. On the other hand, when the profits aren’t there, or profits might be hindered, the Republicans refuse to believe in science.

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How Happy Are US Citizens Compared to the Citizens of Other Nations?

How happy are United States citizens compared to citizens of other nations? Not as happy as you might think, especially given the massive amount of income redistribution from the 99 to the 1 percent that has been conducted by the US government for thirty-plus years.

Iceland rates in at first place. The people of Iceland recently revolted against the banksters. The United States is far down the list. There are several interesting features about the list. One of them is that the lower income inequality, the happier people are. This, of course, is a no-brainer.

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President James Madison Said What About Concentrated Wealth?

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Labor Unions and Middle Class Incomes

What is shown above should be obvious, but what is more important is what is not shown. As the number of labor union jobs go down, the more income and wealth are redistributed to the top. In the graph, this would be represented by a line rising from right to left as union membership declines. There’s a reason for this correlation.

Many union jobs are shipped overseas, and the difference between the old wages in the US and the new lower wages overseas are placed squarely into the pockets of the affluent via higher corporate earnings, rising share prices and surging dividends.

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