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I have so much to say in the next few essays about the onrushing, lower-class crushing (big, big boulders) coming at us full speed, courtesy of our most polite and savvy representatives (watch their cast-down eyes as they coyly relate their latest nightmare program for our further disenfranchisement) . . . and I am fricking sick and tired of hearing about 9-dimensional (or even higher) chess subtlety.
It ain't subtle. It's in our faces.
And we're expected to lap it up like it's our first helping of caviar. (Oooh. The taste is soooo strange. It reminds me of s . . .)
Fricking hall of mirrors. Again! (And do not tell me such smart guys don't know what they are doing. AGAIN!!!)
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism is our lead-off batter.
Why You Should Hate the "Jumpstart Obama's Bucket Shops" Act
Obama seems determined to roll back the few remaining elements of the New Deal. As we've recounted, he's keen to cut Medicare and Social Security; he said as much in a dinner with leading conservative luminaries shortly after his inauguration. And his JOBS Act, which guts securities law protections on smaller stock offerings, is touted as a way to increase employment by helping to fund smaller businesses. In reality, the only jobs it is likely to create will be due to the resulting explosion in stock scamsters and bucket shop operators.
. . . Simon Johnson and Bill Black have attacked the other obvious flaw of this bill: it's terrible for the U.S. capital markets.
. . . Professor Ritter, a leading expert on IPO's . . . argued that the measures under consideration "might be to reduce capital formation."
. . . Professor John Coates hit the nail on the head: . . . you will be ripped off more.
. . . Professor Bill Black . . . is more curt:
. . . the comically forced effort to create a catchy acronym, is the most cynical bill to emerge from a cynical Congress and Administration. It is an exemplar of why Congressional approval ratings are well below those of used car dealers. The JOBS Act is something only a financial scavenger could love. It will create a fraud-friendly and fraud-enhancing environment. It will add to the unprecedented level of financial fraud by our most elite CEOs that has devastated U.S. and European economies and cost over 20 million people their jobs. Financial fraud is a prime jobs killer.Deregulation was the root of the financial crisis just past, but no one in the Administration seems to have gotten the memo. This bill is astonishingly wrong-headed, which means it is par for the course for Team Obama.
The Angry Bear gives us more ammunition from Professor Simon Johnson:
As it currently stands, the JOBS bill now before the Senate would gut investor protection in the U.S. The title of the bill is a complete misnomer - anything that weakens investor protection makes it more risky to invest in companies and increases the cost of capital to honest entrepreneurs.
Has it just about gotten under your skin for the last time that if you hear one more word about the brilliant Paul Ryan (who evidently lacks any meaningful educational background as well as natural ability), particularly from the Pete Peterson Institute that wants to destroy Social Security, etc., you will start screaming like the guy in Network and never quit? (See video above for a refresher.)
Representative Ryan Calls for Eliminating Park Service, FDA, Justice Department, and Just About Every Thing Else in Government, and Media Don't Notice
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is supposed to be a brave and serious thinker. That's how the Washington punditry treats him. Last year, the Peter Peterson gang gave Ryan a "Fiscy Award" for "leading the way in promoting fiscal responsibility and government accountability." Politico made Representative Ryan its "health care policymaker of the year." Ryan is a regular guest on the Sunday talk shows and he can always count on a warm reception from the very serious people.
For this reason when Representative Ryan again proposed a budget that would shrink non-defense spending outside of Social Security and health care programs to zero by 2050 the proposal deserves real attention.
According to the projections of the Congressional Budget Office (Table 2), Representative Ryan's budget would shrink the category of defense and non-defense discretionary spending, plus non-health entitlements to 3.75 percent of GDP by 2050.
Since Representative Ryan has said that he wants to keep military spending near its current level of 4.0 percent of GDP, this would leave no money to pay for the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration, Education, the National Institutes of Health or anything else that the government does.
This shrinking of non-defense spending to zero was also in Representative Ryan's budget last year, however he could have been credited with an honest, if incredibly foolish, mistake. However he has now gone on record with the same proposal in 2012, presumably indicating that this budget does in fact reflect his views and the views of the Republicans in the House, if they again approve the budget, as they did last year.
It is remarkable that this extraordinary proposal by Representative Ryan has not gotten more attention from the people who think so highly of him in official Washington. Apparently they consider the elimination of most of the government to be a very reasonable suggestion.
I can't imagine that many (after witnessing this particular performance) aren't also thinking that he'll probably rank among the first candidates to be considered (after the banksters and political asshats/media foghorns) for a brilliantly high position suspended from the roof of a gas station.
And you may have noticed that after the recent lessons I've absorbed from the Designated-Rethug-Soon-To-Be-In-Charge-of-the-Nation (again), that I'm getting to be a severe liberal.
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