Bloomberg reports that TARP recipients may be getting the message. Goldman Sachs certainly has. Top Goldman execs are giving up many tens of millions of US dollars in 2008 year-end bonuses. Not the hundreds of billions that the industry has lost but, it's a start. This is proof positive that Fed "emergency" loans are counterproductive: Fed "emergency" loans are undermining efforts to hold executives responsible for their decisions. (Is Ben Bernanke acting Bush's fool; or, is something... Read Full Story

Previously, I wrote a little note (“A Note on Innovation”) in which I argue that US-style “free-”market capitalism is collaboration inhospitable; that so-called “performance-based” pay is profit-driven; and, as such, innovation-irrespective “performance-based” pay packages favor cheap, outmoded and proprietary goods and services (what some might call “crap”). To fill the gaps left in this short note, I submit that “free-”market capitalism is just a feature on the US-economic landscape – a... Read Full Story

By August, 2007, it had become clear to some (namely, me, and I wrote about it here) that (among developing crises) US middle-class profit shares might be insufficient to continue to drive the US economy – that US middle-class profit shares were too small to continue to effect general prosperity. The so-called “credit crisis” unfolded throughout 2008. Rates of default rose. Home prices plummeted. Banks failed. Credit froze. Markets tanked. One million jobs were lost. And so on. Ad hoc... Read Full Story

It is oft observed that it’d be great to assemble a sort of “Manhattan Project” to tackle energy requirements within a context of changing climate. This, however, is unrealistic in the present environment. As incentive, capitalism offers pay. Pay is, presently, a function of the value of profit shares – not performance based except insofar as performance increases profitability. When pay is proportional to some finite profit, it pays to keep the profit-sharing coterie small because as the... Read Full Story

Sen. McCain gave a most gracious and magnanimous concession speech. And, though I am one of about five people who voted Nader, I swell with pride in my country and hope for our future: Barack Hussein Obama, a black American with about the worst possible name in history, is President-Elect! A million backward racists go to sleep crushed. JOY. Tears well in my eyes. Read Full Story

I begin to think that politics and voting likewise have become the art of power consolidation. Modern US politicians have appropriated language to stir powerful emotions and in so doing (1) imply that they are the opposite of whatever they trash, (2) build trust, (3) emotionalize susceptible constituents against the other guy and (4) justify policies of power consolidation. So-called “conservative” constituents on the “right”, for example, conflate socialism and fascism (probably because... Read Full Story

Imagine that! Giving money to people/municipalities/states who/that need it (the same who/that are most likely to spend it) and funding projects to improve our failing infrastructure may have the added benefit of increased liquidity. Indeed, as Mr. Nicolaci da Costa of Reuters has it, All stimulus plans are not created equal. Moreover, the affects of making the Bush tax cuts permanent and further corporate tax cuts (many corporations don't pay taxes, by the way) will be minimal or regressive... Read Full Story

The following is cross-posted at We Op-Ed in reply to a comment on "Descent into Fascism". That said, I submit to you: Socialism and fascism are associated to a purpose; socialism and democracy are not mutually exclusive; and socialization of democracy improves citizens' lives demonstrably. Conflation of socialism and fascism is a politico's game. On the one hand, it is "half a lie" (in the A. L. Tennyson meaning: dissembling). The US government is collecting assets but socialism... Read Full Story

Intelligence and police agencies regularly violate our civil rights (often with impunity). The Department of Justice selectively enforces the law and continues to seek power to detain “enemy combatants” indefinitely having recently sought a stay to avoid compliance with Judge Ricardo M. Urbina’s right to summon prisoners and release them following his review in . Read Full Story

A few weeks ago, Jim Cramer, in whom I don’t usually put a lot of stock, screamed, “Deflation!” or some such thing. “What the hell are you talking about,” I hollered back. It took about ten seconds to realize: While though we had continued to see extraordinary year-on-year inflation, we had, in fact, already seen huge price-drops on a month-to-month basis. This is deflation. Gold is down (uhm… buy it???) Oil is down. Stocks are down. “Everything” is down (or on a downward trajectory... Read Full Story