Category: Economy
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We Can Raise Taxes
The Politics and Economy are Aligned A survey of tax history, arguments for and against raising taxes, and an exhortation to tax the rich. Why We Need Taxes Unless you’re a disciple of Grover Norquist and want to drown government in a bathtub, you might see taxes as necessary for certain community needs like law and order,…
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Black Veterans Denied Benefits
UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES Education and Homes One of the greatest benefits from ongoing versions of the GI Bill has been support for college and vocational school enrollment. “As a result, almost 49 percent of college admissions in 1947 were veterans. The GI Bill opened the door of higher education to the working…
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Lost Generational Wealth
The growing gap between worker productivity and pay has been a new source of wealth since the early 1970’s. A much older but similar source of wealth was pocketed by slave owners. A Citigroup historical review of ties to slavery shows at least indirect profits. The company acknowledged that slavery and slave labor “most likely”…
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Productivity, Inequality, and a New Gilded Age
©2002 Ted Rall, Universal Press Syndicate This Ted Rall cartoon of business malfeasance was written after the Enron scandal and the Dot-com market crash, but there has also been quieter profiteering before and since from lagging wages in the entire economy. When I look at the productivity and pay chart below, I see my working…
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The Effects of Asset Allocation
Stock funds for growth, bond funds for stability The Vanguard Total Bond Fund VBTLX passed through the Great Recession in good shape, even though it typically holds about 25% mortgage-backed securities. First and foremost, it’s a bond fund with low stock market correlation. But it also held higher quality bonds and more U.S. Government securities than other…
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The Great Recession, Condensed
and with Glossary Subprime mortgages, side bets, greed, and fraud. The causes of the Great Recession were subprime adjustable-rate mortgages, and speculation using financial instruments that leveraged the actual market a thousandfold. In other words, greed and fraud. This is a bare-boned explanation of the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression. The housing bubble that preceded…
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John Bogle on Corporations
From “The Modern Corporation and the Public Interest,” a speech by John C. Bogle, Founder of the Vanguard Group, to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, December 7, 2017, pp. 13-14 “. . . The enterprises that will endure are those that generate growing profits for their owners, something they do best only when they take…
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Enron and Others
Collected Quotes The genius of capitalism December 28, 2002 I want to assure you that I have never felt better about the prospects for the company. 1— Enron CEO Ken Lay, after selling $160 million of his own company stock (August 14, 2001) Enron used its political clout to create what one of its own executives…
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Malefactors of Great Wealth
Collected Quotes The Genius Of Capitalism Andrew Jackson on the Rich and Powerful It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be…
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Healthcare in America
Collected Quotes Do You Want Fries with That? Taco Bell competes with Beverly [Enterprises] for those people.26― William R. Floyd, Chairman of the nation’s largest nursing home chain, referring to his low-wage nursing assistants, July 7, 2002 There really are an enormous number of similarities between this and the world I came from.26― Chairman Floyd again, on his…