Day: December 19, 2013

Then There’s A Farm Bill

Since the economy is today’s big issue….I would like to say something about the new Farm Bill.  You probably remember this from a month or so ago……it was more about the cuts in SNAP (food stamps) than it was about the farmers…..so the question that was asked is ….why should the poor suffer to help agribusiness?

An excellent question…..but a better question is why do we need a farm bill in the first place?  What happened to all the rhetoric about the free market mechanisms?  Do farms work outside the rules and laws of economics?  All good questions……is there good answers?

(Newser) – In what is being hailed by many as a sign of progress in DC, House and Senate negotiators are finally poised to pass a farm bill next month. But at the Washington Post, Charles Lane has a fundamental question: Why does the US even need a farm bill? The answer, in the days of the Great Depression, used to be food security. But in an era of ultra-cheap food in which farms produce tons more output than farms of yore, that’s “preposterous” now.

“Is there something about farming, as opposed to other businesses, that makes market economics uniquely inapplicable?” asks Lane, who thinks the bill is more about the “hammerlock” that the agriculture lobby has on the Capitol. Yes, the farm bill also includes the nation’s food-stamp program, called SNAP. But that’s simply the result of an old congressional deal that makes little sense anymore. Surely, Congress can find a way to help the poor without providing “corporate welfare for agribusiness.” Click for his full column.

My next question is…….if welfare is such a horrible word and those using the program are slackers and such…..what are the farmers that get a form of corporate welfare?  If ‘welfare’ is such a dirty word why is corporate welfare acceptable?

Anyone have good clear answers?  Lay’em on me!

That Taxes Thing

The focus of the day is the economy and what is more controversial than taxes?

We can mark the day….taxes will be all over the web come 2014….it will be a major stepping stone for campaigns….the conservs will be all over this issue especially the need to lower taxes, especially for corporations……they will argue that the US has the highest corporate tax rate in the civilized world……but after they take all their deductions and special dispensations it is one of the lower…..(we can argue that later)…..I have a problem with the whole tax thing in general……the argument is that if we lower taxes we will create more jobs which in turn will increase revenue and make the skies blue and the angelic chorus sing……to me it is a total bullsh*t belief.

Jobs will be #1 issue for Dems……but will they follow Bubba Clinton and cave to the conservs on taxes?  BTW, we have been lowering taxes for 20+ years and how many jobs has it made?  How many good paying jobs?  I have been writing on politics and economics for 40 years and I have yet to see any benefit for the nation by lowering taxes……it does nothing to solve poverty…if anything it makes it worse……

But back to the con job…..lower corporate taxes…….from an op-ed written by Nathan Proctor…….

For years, business lobbyists have advanced the theory that lowering corporate tax rates would create jobs in the U.S. Their argument is that any effort to close corporate tax loopholes would have to be coupled with legislation to lower overall taxes for corporations. This argument, with the help of its powerful backers, has become the prevailing theory in Washington.

The report, released earlier this month by the Center for Effective Government (CEG), examined the tax rates paid and jobs created by 60 large, profitable companies. The companies were not cherry-picked. Rather, they came from a larger group of 280 corporations and CEG examined the 30 companies that paid the highest effective tax rate and the 30 companies that paid the lowest effective tax rate.

The report’s conclusion? The 30 companies that paid the highest tax rates created nearly 200,000 jobs over a five-year period. Conversely, the companies that paid little in taxes or no taxes whatsoever shed about 51,000 jobs during that same period.

But rather than avoiding taxes and lobbying for even lower rates, the report’s authors argue that corporations should pay their fair share for the national public structures that allow their businesses to be profitable in the first place. Their argument is that corporations enjoy a number of benefits that clearly are the result of taxes all of us pay: a workforce educated at public expense, roads and transit systems that allow employees to get to work and goods to reach customers, and consumer safety standards and inspections that give consumers confidence in products.

Closing loopholes is not the answer…….changing, not reforming, the tax code is the only way to be sure that equity is practiced in our method of taxation.  And there is the rub……Washington will reform, not change….and that will accomplish only one thing….make life for the middle class worse….maybe 2 things…..reform will make the wealthy pay less and make more profit and in the end…that is the job of Washington…protect the wealthy.

They, meaning the conservs, still cling rabidly to the notion that trickle down economics works…..that has been proven to be a mindless belief with no foot in reality.

Thinking about the taxes thing I have come to the realization……with tax cuts and the loss of revenue will make the deficit raise then they use that to drive the move to cut social programs to help the deficit….and then once they have that accomplished they return to the tax cut thing which they will get and the deficit will raise and then the programs are cut…..it is a vicious cycle……a cycle that the Dems allow to continue….looks like all the special interests money is well spent.

Trickle-Down Economics and Broken Promises | Center for American Progress

For over 30 years we have heard all the spin how if we just cut taxes the economy will grow and everyone will prosper.  Trickle Down economics was the open salvo.

Now after all that time and all the cuts here and there trying to establish a great economy….trickle down economics has proven to be a con job on the highest order….Bush I when running against Reagan called the concept as Voodoo Economics……we should have listened.

This trash science has done nothing but kill the Middle Class and make inequality the call of the day.

Trickle-Down Economics and Broken Promises | Center for American Progress.

Economics–The Primer

Today is Thursday and the fourth day of my touching on the issues that should be at the forefront of politics and the mid term election……today’s fare……the Economy.

Oh boy!  I can hear all the heavy sighs and see the eye rolling……at this point anyone not interested in economics will go into a catatonic trance and veg out……am I wrong?

This is for those that think knowledge of economics is essential to understanding the politics of the nation.  Economics is one of those subjects that few enjoy and even fewer understand……and that is Why I Am Here!  I try to give a simple definition or explanation….I dumb down, if you will, the complexities of a science that will make your eyes bleed.

There are many theories in the field of economics……Marx will make you catatonic, he should have been a Russian……..then there is micro and macro economics….not the same thing at all…..and then there are the ones, if you know anything about the field will make laugh hysterically….like the Laffer Curve or better known as trickle down economics……..(just saying the term makes me bust into raucous laughter)……..and there is the rub…..which one of these is the true form of economic analysis?

Now we come the the field that has done more to complicate the field than anything……the media and its so called experts that are interviewed……..I read a great piece that helps people understand what is happening when news is reported…..

(Newser) – The next time you hear an economist make a bold pronouncement, you should probably be a bit skeptical, because the entire field “is desperately in need of a paradigm shift,” argues Mark Buchanan at Bloomberg. Why? Because most economic models are based on the idea that individuals make decisions rationally—which is to say, based “on the same unbiased, probabilistic view of the future.” Which is basically crazy. “It’s like a physics teacher assuming that students already know by instinct the exact mathematical form of Einstein’s relativity theory.”

Want evidence? In a recent study, economics students were asked to forecast outcomes in an economy governed by simple equations—without knowing those equations, and given that the students themselves could affect things. Their predictions were all over the map. “Include realistic behavior in your models, and you get a realistically complex economy that is very hard to predict and control.” And that’s what we desperately need, because “in such chaos lies economic reality.” Click for Buchanan’s full column.

Economics is NO different than any other issue in the news…….they have a premise and they will find people to reinforce that view……in other words, it is ALL spin……..they do not talk to the people….the very ones that will make an economy work…….why is that?

Basically and simply put…this is how they can control the economy completely…..if the people have NO idea what is happening until it is too late then it is a worthwhile endeavor…..and the MSM does nothing to enhance the people’s knowledge of the economy or economics in general…….people need to grasp the understanding of how stuff works and the economy is one of those…..and that is Why I Am Here!