This isn’t Socialist firebrand Kshama Sawant, or “near insane” zillionaire Nick Hanauer, or tour d’ivoire economist Thomas Piketty, or even some do-gooding liberal thinker at some do-gooding liberal think tank talking—this is Standard & Fucking Poor’s, the non-partisan for-profit ratings service whose job it is to provide reliable research to big-money investors! And they’ve concluded that extreme inequality is hurting the US economy:
Our review of the data, as well as a wealth of research on this matter, leads us to conclude that the current level of income inequality in the U.S. is dampening GDP growth, at a time when the world’s biggest economy is struggling to recover from the Great Recession and the government is in need of funds to support an aging population.
[…] The challenge now is to find a path toward more sustainable growth, an essential part of which, in our view, is pulling more Americans out of poverty and bolstering the purchasing power of the middle class. A rising tide lifts all boats…but a lifeboat carrying a few, surrounded by many treading water, risks capsizing.
Modern capitalists are producing their own gravediggers. The question remains whether mainstream politicians and journalists can admit what mainstream economists have already concluded—that trickle-down economics has failed—before it’s too late to save our economy from steady decline and eventual collapse?
We can argue over the numbers—what kind of rate is too high or too low—but it is now clear that it is in all of our interests to both raise the minimum wage, and to raise the top marginal tax rates on income and wealth, as well as invest in the public infrastructure necessary to support and maintain economic growth.
On Tuesday, Joe Maguire, one of two editors in charge of markets coverage at Reuters, handed his bosses the galleys of his new book, “Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter.” On Wednesday, Mr. Maguire discovered he would have plenty of free time to promote his book, which comes out this week. Neither side in this dispute would say that he was fired.
Reuters confirmed that Mr. Maguire was granted conditional approval to write his book on Ms. Coulter — a conservative lightning rod, author and TV talking head. When asked what changed once the book was ready, a company statement pointed to Reuters’ principles of “integrity, independence and freedom from bias.”
http://crooksandliars.com/2006.....ulter-book
Let’s see, I’m supposed to add commentary so I don’t get deleted.
It took me a few seconds to google the author. Something didn’t seem right.
Have a nice evening, everyone.
Not even an attempt to address the topic of the post, eh Travis? Or is S&P 2014 sounding a bit too much like ol’ Charlie Marx, 1843?
Raising the marginal tax rate — anyone recall what happened after Clinton did so? Tell us all about the widespread poverty of the late 1990’s, Travis. We know you can do it!
Goldy, this is clearly another example of the Liberal Media, as all God bothering true Murikans from the Heartland understand reality has a well known liberal bias; especially now with the Obummer raging a war on white people.
What we need the Republican teabagger heroes to do is ignore all of this Data and fight for Glibertarian FREE Markets and drown the government “of the people, for the people and by the people” in a bathtub of tax cuts, block grants and foreign wars.
In your heart, you know their right.
Or at least they do.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/.....urrencies/
By Pam Martens: August 4, 2014
Here’s one for the Sloppy Solipsist and the nihilist puddypussypissypants….their oligarch masters at work.
@ 2
Thread topic author seemed to make something of the non-partisan nature of the source. I was responding to that and not to content.
Regarding content, it does seem like income inequality might get the left further, this year, than the war on women meme will.
Gosh! You mean the Employer Class is finally figuring out that when they make people work for $7.25 an hour, those people don’t have money to buy “stuff” from them?
When working doesn’t pay, people don’t work. It isn’t rocket science.
@5 “war on women meme”
A Republican is someone who thinks criminals and psychopaths have a right to their guns but women have no rights over their bodies.
I won’t work for $7.25 an hour. Or $10.10 an hour. I have better things to do with my time than spend it making some greedhead rich.
@ 5
“Thread topic author seemed to make something of the non-partisan nature of the source. I was responding to that and not to content.”
Obviously, that’s because you’re simply too stupid to respond to the content. If you’re going to do an ad-hominem argument, at least try to get the right guy: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-maguire/5/852/335
@5, Well if it is ‘the Left’ you fear then you should be very frightened with the War on Women battle victory you won with Hobby Lobby. With the corporate veil having been pierced by your side the collapse of corporate oligarchy is just a matter of time.
Clinton got his ASS kicked in the mid term elections. People reacted to their taxes going up. So who later said this tensor?
Was he forced to say that tensor?
Then in 1997 when the tax cut took effect the economy boomed and Clinton took all the credit! Need to see the CNN analysis on Clinton’s economy again tensor? Yeah CNN, Clinton’s News Network! It’s in the Open Link!
http://economix.blogs.nytimes......ax-reform/
Reagan raised taxes 11 times — presumably because he thought it would help the economy.
@12, glad to see you carefully picking Heritage Foundation cherries, but don’t you truly believe the S&P analysis missed the real cause?
Benghazi, Benghazi! BENGHAZI!!
What’s the point? it’s like global warming. Everyone knows it is happening and everyone knows it’s going to be terrible disruptive if we don’t anything, and yet we never do anything.
Income inequality? Yeah right… it’s DUMMOCRETINS who enjoy the income inequality! All one needs to know are the Gordon Gekko type $Billionaires who jock strap DUMMOCRETINS! From Forbes and other sources…
Bill and Melinda Gates $79 billion
Warren Buffett $63 billion
Larry Ellison $49 billion
Mark Zuckerberg $33 billion
George Soros $27 billion
Michael Bloomberg $21 billion
Larry Page $16.7 billion
Sergey Brin $16.7 billion
Paul Allen $15 billion
Jeffrey Epstein $10 billion
Eli Broad $6 billion
Michele Chan $5 billion.
Laura and John Arnold $4 billion
John Doerr $2.5 billion
Gerry Lenfest $2 billion
John Morgridge $1.6 billion
Barry Diller $1.2 billion
Eric Schmidt $1.2 billion
So Puddy has something for the libtard low information voter class on HA DUMMOCRETINS to think about…
If the currently filthy rich DUMMOCRETIN loving spawn like those above can make it way more problematic for the next person to become billionaire wealthy as they are now as we’ve seen Bill Gates and Warren Buffet scream about recently and very publicly, then Warren and Bill’s total wealth becomes a lot more valuable because of less competition! Remember through screaming for more and varied increased taxes, regulation, and/or decreased opportunities they keep themselves in financial power. They are richer now and will be even more in the future. They can make hell of a lot more money without doing anything anymore by sitting on their wealth and look down their noses at the little people like the DUMMOCRETINS on this blog screaming about this S&P report.
So, let’s say the only way they can increase their wealth is to cut off poorer people’s access and opportunity to wealth in order to increase their “buying power” of their own riches! Seems that’s exactly what these DUMMOCRETINS are saying and doing. So where is OWS Racist Fraggy on this? Wait… OWS Fraggy givea a pass to DUMMOCRETINS!
Overall, the Top 20 richest in America is 60% DUMMOCRETIN and 40% Republican. Take out family member duplications and it becomes 75% DUMMOCRETIN and 25% Republican!
And more DUMMOCRETINS in Congress are millionaires. http://www.ijreview.com/2014/0.....arty-rich/
BTW 52% of Americans earning above $200,000 voted for Obama in 2008!
FlubScout,
Ummm no. It was a Clinton speech he decided to tell the truth except when deposed on Monica Lewinsky BJs!
http://www.gallup.com/poll/151.....ative.aspx
Of the 1%, Identify as
Republican 57%
Democrat 36%
Of course in a poll Americans lean Republican… That’s good because most non DUMMOCRETIN Americans want growth! And from everyone Puddy knows, they also want to be richer than they are now. Somehow DUMMOCRETINS enjoy being poor!
It’s mindsets like that.that is going to fight any mechanism to reduce income inequality. I think they are incapable of seeing that wide income inequality is destructive.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/201.....ed-wealth/
So much for that prosperity gospel horse shit.
@16 “Overall, the Top 20 richest in America is 60% DUMMOCRETIN and 40% Republican.”
A reflection of the fact that Republicans are so bad even those who benefit most from Republican policies can’t stand them.
@22
“A reflection of the fact that Republicans are so bad even those who benefit most from Republican policies can’t stand them.”
Or, a reflection of the fact that far too many low and middle income folks are too stupid to figure out that the Republicans are screwing them far worse than the Democrats ever did.
Look at HA’s trolls. Puddy Alan-Greenspan-was-a-liberal Buddy and Sloppy There-can’t-be-more-than-one-Joe-Maguire-in-the-world Travis aren’t exactly founts of knowledge and rhetorical insights.
Voting for a Republican in the privacy of a voting booth, where no one really knows that you voted for a Republican, is one kind of stupid. But to publicly announce one’s support for Republicans is rather like wearing a self-painted sign on one’s back that reads, “I”m a Moran.”
@16
“BTW 52% of Americans earning above $200,000 voted for Obama in 2008!”
You still haven’t figured it out yet? Republicans are the party for people who want to get rich.
@16 you seem to assume that among politicians, Democrat = Liberal but unfortunately the reality is that Democrat/Republican = Wall Street Stooge. Now I’ll grant you that there are differences in rhetoric between the two parties, but when push comes to shove, when bills are being written and votes taken, Wall Street wins the day far more often than not, regardless of which party is running the show in Washington DC. Just look at Obama’s key advisers if you doubt it, especially in his first term. Sure the likes of Larry Summers, Rahm Emanual, Tim Geithner are obvious Wall Street cronies, but dig deeper and you will find a whole ecosystem of Wall Street connections: Mary Schapiro, Peter R. Orszag, etc.
See:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/20.....&_r=0
His current team is not much better. I wish the Dems were economically progressive/liberal in Washington DC – the country would be far better for it, but that is just not the reality.
“Apart from minimum wage discussions, a recent report from the OECD suggested that carried interest–the share of profits that money managers take in from an investment or fund–should be taxed as regular income rather than as returns on investment. Ian Ayres, professor of law at Yale, and Aaron S. Edlin, professor of law and economics at the University of California, Berkley, proposed an automatic extra tax, the so-called Brandeis tax, on the income of the top 1% of earners that would limit the after-tax incomes relative to median household income (61). ”
I’m not sure what this proposal means. Can someone translate?
“That said, some degree of rebalancing–along with spending in the areas of education, health care, and infrastructure, for example–could help bring under control an income gap that, at its current level, threatens the stability of an economy still struggling to recover. This could take the form of reallocating fiscal resources toward those with a greater propensity to spend, or toward badly needed public resources like roads, ports, and transit. Further, policies that foster job-rich recoveries may help make growth more sustainable, especially given that rising unemployment correlates with rising income concentration. Additionally, effective investments in health and education promote durable growth and equity, strengthening the labor force’s capacity to cope with new technologies. ”
Invest in health and eduction, transit and infrastructure, Isn’t this what Dems are trying to do, and republicans are blocking?
The Standards and Poor’s article seemed to say it would be good if we had a more robust method of income transfers but wasn’t willing to go into details.
Did I miss their recommendations.
Another viewpoint of the same thing
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....mic-growth
“Regarding content, it does seem like income inequality might get the left further, this year, than the war on women meme will.”
Please feel free to ask John “the rape thing” Koster about the efficacy of “the war on women meme.” (Or ask his fan-boy, pudge, assuming the latter will engage you on his most painfully-sensitive topic in a forum where he cannot deceptively edit your comments, or delete them outright.)
Notice how neither Silly Bicker nor puddybore will engage on-topic? Reality, how does it work?!?
Another take on the same thing and Puddy sees Daily Kooks!
Yes worser, such a great source!
tensor,
No tensile strength in that mind. The S&P report is being screamed about because income inequality is something DUMMOCRETINS need to scare people with for the election cycle. The economy surely isn’t working for y’all! Income inequality is promoted by DUMMOCRETINS while Republicans want everyone to have more money than they had the previous year.
Hey Don Joe, the 52% was the anti-Bush vote. Don’t let it go to your small head! In 2004 over 60% of those making 200K voted for Bush! http://www.forbes.com/sites/ec.....ey-voters/
For 2012 Obummer only got 45% of the richy rich! http://www.newrepublic.com/blo.....ed-verdict
See Don Joe, Obummer sucks!
Poor poor rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout@4,
Truth and FACTS Citigroup leaders Are Obummer’s friends. Puddy been trying to tell y’all rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout is a really stoooooooooopid moron butt y’all just don’t listen. He’s just like his cousin with the crazed databaze, see something and throw it on HA! Proof coming below…
You see when Puddy really wants to make an jackASS out of rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout, just use one of rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout’s favrit sources. Puddy realizes rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout is a DUMMOCRETIN. DUMMOCRETINS have 24 hour memory spans. Puddy names it 24 hour mindless moonbat memory malady! So let’s visit one of rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout favrit sites and have some fun! Here it is rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout!
You’d think the amount of time rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout lives on Daily Kooks rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout would have remembered this missive and said wait a minute.. I, rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout, shouldn’t post this as it would make me look like a jackASS… TOO LATE! You’re a jackASS!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....up-Clique#
For DUMMOCRETINS it’s only the rich and powerful from Wall Street these days!
And still nuthin from OWS Racist Fraggy! Now why is that again… Oh yeah they are DUMMOCRETIN lovers so they get a pass!
Speaking of REICH WING idiocy, the KANSAS EXPERIMENT in how to run a state government is producing results:
Standard & Poor’s downgrades Kansas
For the second time in two months a major credit rating agency downgraded Kansas’ finances. Standard and Poor’s downgraded Kansas from and AA+ to an AA. This comes after Moody’s downgraded the state in May.
Analysts for Standard and Poor’s say the downgrade was because of “a structurally unbalanced budget, following state income tax cuts that have not been matched with ongoing offsetting expenditure cuts in the fiscal 2015 budget.”
Just what we need here. Some good ol’ RETHUG budget management.
You see rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout http://greencorruption.blogspo.....-Oaal0RKQc
And y’all wonder why income inequality prevails… Just look what happens when DUMMOCRETINS speak with forked-tongue! Wall Street prevails!
As was written above… “but a lifeboat carrying a few, surrounded by many treading water, risks capsizing.” DUMMOCRETINS love lifeboats carrying the few. Jack Lew is one of them with his Cayman Island “fund” and where was OWS Racist Fraggy?
M I A!
GOATSEBOY: “RETHUGS want everyone to have more money than they had the previous year.”
And that is why RETHUGS favor eliminating the minimum wage, because you know, that keeps people at the bottom from earning more money.
I’m puzzled, can anyone find the logic in…
democrats have ties to bankers, or
democrats didn’t do enough in the past, or
some democratic leaning 1% are take advantage of the system like republican 1%ers
is justification in NOT addressing extreme income distribution, in continuing to do nothing?
ekimgoatsucka is a moron like rujaxoffallthetimebutnothingdribblesout… Puddy suggests Republicans want ALL people to be better off and what does HA’s resident animal abuser offer? USELESS and IDIOTIC commentary!
worser@38,
You still don’t get it. As Travis Bickle kicked your ASS on the illegal aliens coming in during the Reagan vs Obummer years… Now it’s Puddy’s turn.
It’s the DUMMOCRETINS all over (libtard slobbering msm, Congress, left wrong web sites) who claim Republicans are the party of the rich. WRONG ANSWER! It’s DUMMOCRETINS. Even your left wrong web sites are admitting this; yet most HA DUMMOCRETINS on this blog will NOT admit it! Witness the horse manure from jackASSes above!
Puddy has proven time and again on this blog through link after link:
– who are the party of rich in Congress – DUMMOCRETINS!
– which party has the BIG DUMMOCRETIN money people jock strapping them – DUMMOCRETINS!
– who is the party of class warfare – DUMMOCRETINS!
Until your DUMMOCRETIN party comes clean nuthin will ever happen worser! The blame game fails except with the low information voter crowd. People who can figger it out will still call your bluff.
Thanks for playing worser!
– who are the party of rich in Congress
Who is the richest guy in the klownservative House?
Isn’t it the wet Dreamboat of our local trolls??? That car thief, car alarm guy? The moron who throws shit against the wall and can’t make ANY of it stick..
Like this for example..
And the last idiot they put up for Prez.. Coined the 47 percent stupid idiocy. Not exactly in poverty was he? Oh but the worst our village idiot troll could say about him (MONTHS after the R-Money defeat) was.. “not that great a candidate” after “jock-strapping” him right up to his defeat.
Damn does our village idiot suck on his “party of rich” stupid!
@ 33
“Hey Don Joe, the 52% was the anti-Bush vote.”
Apparently, in Puddy-land, 52% of the people were voting against a guy who wasn’t running for office.
@ 38
“I’m puzzled, can anyone find the logic in…”
Don’t. You won’t find an ounce of logic in Puddy’s reasoning. For some reason, Puddy seems to think that being rich means that one would inherently favor increasing income inequality. The concept of a counter-factual is completely beyond his comprehension.