Bob Lord Posted by Bob Lord We've been vacationing "down under" for the last few weeks, hence the title of this post. I'll save Australia for a separate post, but for those of you considering a visit to New Zealand, by all means go soon. The countryside is spectacular and largely unspoiled, including hundreds of miles of … Read more
Posted by Bob Lord In today's lead editorial, The Real Spending Problem, the New York Times gets it right, but I doubt anyone's listening. Tax expenditures are the economic equivalent of spending, in the form of direct subsidies, mostly to wealthy taxpayers. The Times points out that (1) the carried interest loophole allows income that … Read more
Posted by Bob Lord
Not much time to compose today. But I did get to read Paul Craig Roberts' latest post, When Truth Is Supressed Countries Die. When the offshoring of manufacturing was in its early stages, the shills for corporate America explained how we didn't want those jobs anyhow; we wanted to be create "innovation jobs." Roberts contended that when you offshore manufacturing, you ultimately offshore innovation as well. Turns out, Roberts is being proven correct, but that reality is being hidden from the public.
Roberts then sets forth a related truth, also being hidden by corporate America:
Two years ago in 2011 a Nobel prize-winning economist, Michael Spence, confirmed my decade-old conclusion that the US economy no longer had the capability to create any jobs except low-wage domestic service jobs that do not produce tradable goods and services that can be exported to reduce the massive US trade deficit. Spence validated my argument that the “new economy” was the offshored economy. Spence concluded that the outlook for the US economy and US employment is dire. The US faces “a long-term structural challenge with respect to the quantity and quality of employment opportunities in the United States.
Of course, a country that hides the truth is a country built on lies, as Roberts so eloquently explains:
Posted by Bob Lord So, I stumbled onto this piece over at TomDispatch, Exodus from Phoenix, and couldn't not read it, even though I have a ton of work sitting on my desk. Then, I couldn't not share. Here's the teaser: If cities were stocks, you’d want to short Phoenix. Of course, it’s an easy … Read more
Posted by Bob Lord
Ever hear the one about the guy who walks into a casino? He hits a few jackpots playing the slots and pockets $5,000, but returns the next night and gives it all back, plus another $1,000.
So what's the punch line? Well, if you're a member of Congress, it's that he lost more in income tax then he did gambling. Because when the guy stepped into that casino, he also stepped into one of the "potholes" Congress has devised.