Consult Consultants Consulting

Earle: "The job of a consultant is to restate the client's question in such a way that the problem states its solution."

Problem:
At present we have a depressed economy with too little demand.
Unemployment is unconscionably high.
Major corporations are awash in cash.
Income inequality is at the highest level in generations.
Manufacturing has moved offshore.
Research is moribund.
Our greatest innovations are fraudulent financial instruments.
Infrastructure -- roads, bridges electric grids, water supplies and sewage systems, et. al. -- are antiquated and crumbling.

So: Government should tax the rich to get money to build infrastructure, providing demand to employ people, increase investment in manufacturing, spur innovation by increasing research, and regulate the banks to make them the servants of capitalism they are meant to be rather than the piratical bosses they claim to be now.

Plutocrats own the government.

Geez! It was working so well until that last line!

So maybe the real solution is to get new elected officials -- ones who serve the public rather than the plutocrats?
--ml

Fatalism is Lazy

Paul Krugman complains about the fatalism which pervades the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box.
I would add that there is also an element of laziness which prevents a more active approach.
Much of the work that needs doing is boring, stupid and dumb stuff. Like rebuilding old bridges, replacing sewer lines, upgrading water works or remaking the various highways for power, data, goods and people into more efficient 21st century models. How about insulating houses for an exciting job? How about cleaning up urban streams for rugged outdoor activity.
Yeah. Right. Not sexy like writing up a derivative trading algorithm to make a ton of money for the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box.
We've ignored maintenance for two generations too long. It isn't romantic work. It is hard back breaking labor. You have to wear work clothes to do it, not fashionable whatevers from Armani.  So the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box have ignored it. They kept the money to pay for maintenance in their own pockets. With more than five applicants chasing every job opening I bet it's easy to find workers willing to do the jobs. I don't think there are too many non-tea party mayors who would refuse the offer. All that lacks is a bit of can do from the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box instead of the fatalism we get.
The lazy fatalism that won't sully its hands with anything less filthy than money.
--ml

Solstice Meditation

DaveJ at Open Left poses a discussion topic:

What are some things that a real, honest-to-goodness "far left" would be agitating for, and why isn't anyone doing just that?
Here's a start:

• Nationalize the oil companies.
• Guaranteed job or income for everyone, put to work on infrastructure investment projects, alternative energy projects, retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient, etc.
• Cradle-to-grave Medicare-For-All.
• Child care for all.
• Eldercare for all.
• 6 week paid vacation for everyone.
• Triple Social Security's payments, lower retirement age to 55.
• Worker representatives on Boards of Directors.
• Limits to the how much of larger companies can be owned by a person or entity.
• When companies reach a certain size they become public entities. (Because they have so much effect on everything.)
• Companies responsible for externalized cost payback.
• A person whose job is replaced by technology receives for life a share of the savings.
• Bring back 90% top tax rates.  (OK I have been agitating for that one.)
• Very very high estate taxes on very large estates.  Maybe up to 99% on estates over $1 billion.
• Freedom from distraction.  We have a right to our own attention, free from advertising and commercialization.  The right to public spaces free from commercialization.

How many of these are even "far left" ideas? I'd agree with most of these.  Basically I'm describing Europe here, not Maoist China.  

I like most of these ideas. They seem somewhat left of center in the real world. Too bad I'm stuck in this one where we're taught to consider these ideas a far radical fantasy of socialism bent so far left its fascism, or something.
Some things I'd add:

• A six hour work day in a four day work week at twice the current pay.
• Political advertising provided free by communications media companies as a cost of their license to use our public airwaves.
• Nationalization of all grids: telephony, power, rails etc. with a mandate to improve and maintain the best technology.

These dreams do not mark me as barmy. I have other signifiers for that. And so does everybody else. But dreams they are. That is my current point: As a Free society dedicated to freedom, equality, and technological progress we must provide a firm foundation to every member of our society. FDR called it the Four Freedoms. Truman called it the Fair Deal. JFK called it the New Frontier. LBJ called it The Great Society. But the point is for society to provide what is necessary to every member of our community so that they are able to contribute their best to our culture.
Now the American dream is a perversion of our national goals. We work harder to maintain less than our parents -- oh so briefly -- had in the fifties and sixties. Our children must accept even less because the surplus we make goes to the 2%.
The American dream requires Freedom. Who is free who is a paycheck away from foreclosure? Freedom begins when one's need for food and shelter are satisfied.  Freedom demands the best infrastructure to furnish basic needs with minimal effort; To provide the tools to make what mind can imagine. Freedom requires a well stocked and cultivated mind in a healthy body.
The American dream requires Equality. Equality does not happen when 2% of the people inherit more than 50% of our assets. It requires free education for all to the highest level they can achieve because that way we all can benefit from their best efforts.

The party that makes policies of these ideals is worthy of votes by the 98%. Any party whose policies increase the 2% primarily -- not so much.
--ml
UPDATE: 12/22/2010 I am reliably informed by The Kid^tm, in the full glow of her newly minted A.B.Hist., that I blew it. (Did not use the in-house fact checker. Am lower than -- Ah-ah! be civil.) Indeed the synapse slipped and are now corrected above. Mr. Truman offered us the Fair Deal. It was the first President Roosevelt who demanded the Square Deal. As the French probably don't say: Chagrin c'est moi.
--ml

Economics

I can do stuff.
You can do stuff.
Others can do stuff.

But not always
the same stuff.

Sometimes
I want your stuff.
Sometimes
you want my stuff.
Sometimes
We want other's stuff
Or they want ours.

If I have something you want
and you have something I want
We can trade.

But Others can too.

But
If I don't want to trade ...

You can beat me up
And take my stuff.
Or I can do that to you.

Or we can do it to someone else.
Together.

Maybe there are more
Than us
Who make stuff.
Who want stuff.
Who trade stuff.
Maybe there are many.

Not all want to trade
at the same time.
But at some time.
So we have money.

So We can make stuff.

That creates money.
so we can spend money

Later

To buy stuff we want.

Then.

Or I can blow you up.

I don't want to do that.

You better do what I say.

or.

or.

or.


And so it goes.
--ml

What Krugman Wrote

An old friend from high school was commenting on his career in Economics which spanned NGOs, government and currently a major bank on Wall street.

"And the money is just stupid."

--ml

I Did It Not For Myself, But For You

Brenda Rosser at Econospeak begins a series which exhumes the roots of the current global financial crisis. Amply sourced and throughly footnoted as it is, the actual prose is pellucid. It is tempting to call the perps pirates! as is my wont. Yet there is a distinct glimmer in events of earnest but flawed persons hoping to ride a whirlwind to the aid and benefit of, at least, their masters, but also as many others nearby as possible. The worst flaw, perhaps, was a compulsion to justify an action as beneficial to those damaged by it.

Statecraft's most carefully tended tool is dissembly.

--ml

Half Don't Pay?

Various noise machines are trumpeting that the median income ($50,000) and below families don't pay any income taxes.  This proves that the wealthy are bearing all us free loaders on their back.
Uhm....
Well. Not pre-xactily.

Median Income: $50,000

Personal exemptions for 4 people

(Ma, Pa and 2 kids):   $3650 x 4 = $14,600

Standard deduction: (Married filing jointly) $11,400

Taxable Income : $24,000

Tax on $24k 

(from 2009 Tax Tables): = $2,769

Better than $200 a month. Not in the CEO league, maybe, but not nothing either.

To avoid taxes the taxable income would have to be less than $5. Per year.
[A living wage!]
And of course we aren't talking about the other taxes we pay. No. That would con fuze our ittle brains.

Those who don't pay taxes are those wealthy enough to avoid taxes by hiding their income.
Meh and triple Meh.
--ml

Grieve And Suffer.... So Long as You Tax

In Canada they call this the GST. The Mnemonic I prefer for this is Grief and Suffering Tax. Vat for Value Added Tax sorta works as in "all a youse step into this snake pit and we's see which one is whicher than the rest."
But the question I stumble over is why does a consumption based economy think that punishing consumption will result in profit? Yet 'K' street wants this. Meh.
--ml

Rewrite for Digby

Seriously, if the shiftless welfare CEO queens would just stop stealing all this money from hardworking white people, we wouldn't have all these problems. I don't see why all everyone always jumps to the conclusion that it has anything to do with race.

Yep.
--ml

Ponder #7310

Re: Krugman, 3/7/10:
Consumer Protection is too important to multi-task.
--ml

Digby's View Point

Digby concludes:

You know, when I wrote at the beginning of this post that deficits were worse than terrorists, I was exaggerating. Now, I realize they are actually going to go there. Oh boy.

But, of course! The terraists are merely a toy to distract the so smalls. But deficits? Sacre Bleu! They steal from the Noblesse! From, oui, Me.
--ml
Classified ad:
Bijou oil can shack. Magnificent view of  all invaders. Willing staff available for peanuts. Ready to move in for right rentier. Contact Peter Peterson for details.

Ad Copy Revision

As published the headline reads:

In the past seven years
the dollar is down 40%.
Gold is up over 400%.
What's in your Pocket?

Bills, and lint.
--ml

Ten Years On

Goldy at HorsesAss.org fulminates over Joel Connelly's column in the PI which is rather dismissive of the WTO demonstrations in Seattle on Novomber 30, 1999. The title here links to that post which is worthy of attention.
Diana and I were among the demonstrators that breezy fine Northwest fall day. That Christmas I circulated the following account of the experience to friends and far flung relations.

By and large and by training, I am a free trader. That is, I believe that all would be better served if there were no governmental impediments to the movement of ideas, people and goods from any country to any other. Such a world would find the best widgets made in one place, perhaps; but readily available, and affordable, everywhere because every other place specalized in what they did best of all the world.
Best product naturally includes consideration for the environment, for a widget made in a dirty manner is less good than one made cleanly.
In my naivete I did my small best to support, the GATT, NAFTA and the WTO Treaty.
Since when I have looked about me and discovered that the promises of free trade do not appear. Yes we “boom” and have “low” unemployment. Prices have not fallen. The world is not cleaner. The ratio of worker wages to boss wages has not risen equally. Looking further I discover that these agreements have little to do with free trade. Rather they set the rules by which capitalists pillage the rest of us and the planet.
The US supports free trade, yet we pay more than three times the world price of sugar in order that some few dozens of agri-businesses will continue to grow sugar beets at a loss made good by corporate welfare in the belief that thereby we save the family farm.
Free trade is not the layoff of a US worker at $25,000 per year to be replaced by two Mexican workers at $5,000 per year each, with the $15,000 savings going to top up the CEO’s million dollar bonus.
Free trade is about raising the standards of the world to the very best we have anywhere on the globe, and then finding ways to make that standard higher. The WTO does not have that goal anywhere in its agenda.
So Diana and I went to the AFL/CIO demonstration to protest that fifty years of “free” trade has brought so much to the veriest few at the cost of all of us.
We: trade unionists, environmentalists and other interested groups filled the stands and field at Memorial Stadium to oveflowing. One of the parking lots, more than a city block in size, was filled with busses. Perhaps more were, I didn't see all of them.
At the rally before the march we heard from the heads of Green Peace, The Sierra Club and other groups. Trade unionists from Europe, Africa, India and China spoke of the devasation caused by the world’s present un-free trade.
The people present were not just from around Seattle. They came from 144 countries in ones, tens, or hundreds. Over 40 of the busses were from Canada.
In all I believe the AFL/CIO estimate of 50,000 people. The published figures, which in two days dribbled from “35,000 non-violent demonstrators and 5,000 violent activists”, to “20,000 demonstrators of whom 5,000 caused the trouble,” were edited to suit editorial fears.
At one point I decided to find the porta-facility before the long march began. By the time I came out, everyone was flowing out of the stadium towards the street. Guess leadership just shines through. This meant that Diana and I were separated by a sea of bodies. We spent the next half hour hunting for each other. We joined up before the March had ambled more than a block or two.
I had expected a parade with folks marching under the banners of their affiliation. Didn’t get it. This was free form. At one point we found ourselves marching under an immense green “condom” promoting “safe” trade. Before long we were engulfed in a scurry of teen age turtles speaking Canadian.
A mother carried a babe asleep. “Now he’ll sleep through anything!” says she.
Longshoreman and pilots, just one pair in contrast marched side by side. Technicians and performers from AFTRA marched alongside Amerindians in full fig. The juxtapositions were so many and so varied that the cammeraderie of longhairs and hard hats passed as unexceptional solidarity.
Not all was up beat and “safe”. We were joined briefly by a “good Soldier Schwenk”, as I called them. These were students, exuding Europeaness, in khaki fatigues and ex army trench coats with Deutch flag patch. And there was the knapsack. Probably this contained nothing more threatening than skivies and lunch. But we had heard about tear gassing of other demonstrators — not part of our group — the day before. The pack might contain something a bit more threatening. No doubt that was my paronia.
It was chilling to look up at eyes peering over a black bandana over the face of a lean, dark young man sitting on his heels atop a signal control box surveying the crowd with contempt.
It was more chilling, as we neared the first route turn just a block or two from the meeting hall, To see a side street blocked by about 30 jack booted motorcycle cops staring coldly at us through their dark goggles. They were armed with batons, mace, tear gas and side arms.
At 4th and Pine the march planned to turn. There was confusion. Some marched on down 4th towards the convention center. Speakers exhorted us first one way then the other. As soon as we understood that the march route turned, the Turtles, Diana and I turned. This was the first time that there appeared to be spectators on the sidewalk. Though they may have been reserves for the rowdys down the street. At least three of them urged us to stop being abortions and find Jee-sus.
Turned again onto 5th, glad that the march had been no more vigorous. We were poohed. Then we saw the Westin hotel. City transit busses used as barracades are an impressive sight — one more associated with international news than us. Yet it gave me a surge of energy when I thought, mistakenly, alas, that we had so threatened them with our peaceful protest that this was the responce when we were so tired a line of yellow tape stopped us easily.
Back home we learned how a wonderful experience had been co-opted by an unholy alliance among a handful of rowdys whose purpose was destruction, and the media whose conception of news begins and ends in a body count.
Thanks to Bill Clinton some measure of perspective was restored. No one else, not the WTO, The rowdys, nor the police will thank him.
But I do.
Now if he would stop defending our non-exeistant family farmers, and our inefficient industries, walking on water would be a non-event for him.

The trouble with revisiting past documents is facing the amount of change I required to arrive at my present state of near enlightenment.
Right.
--ml

Inept Marketing?

An e-mail just arrived from a service company, that shall be anonymous here, that tracks various stats. Included was the following:

Here's what we've found for your account:

Now, on to the updates…

This is a true statement so far as I know. But might it not be more productive, for the marketing, to include a loop in the mail merge that deletes this in the case of null fields? After all, it isn't as if their product can do something about the situation.
--ml

Saturday Games!

--ml
h/t: Sandwichman

Revised Lincoln

... A government of the corporatists, by the corporatists, and for the corporatists ...
--ml

Atrios is Surprised

The Republicans were always going to oppose whatever the Democrats came up with, I just didn't know the Dems would let them do that while also letting them work to make sure anything they came up with is really unpopular.

--atrios

This thought only surprises if one thinks that the politicians elected support the central aspirations of the health care plank of the Democratic Party. Attempts to achieve universal health care have been attempted in just about every decade since the thirties. Each attempt has been repulsed by cries of "Socialism! Booga-booga-booga!" The nature of the political election process tends (not 100%) to eliminate the stoopid and poorly advised. No matter how idiotical a pol may appear -- and most are superb actors -- it is a fatal error to believe that they are indeed idiots. Consider the results of (in)actions by a dem majority congress 2006-2008. Any thing Mr. Bush wanted passed. Dem proposals -- not so much.
Our congress critturs are not too inarticulate to answer the charge of socialism with a well framed justification of single payer; maybe "get the greed out of our health care!" or another simple phrase that resonates. That they don't do so indicates that they are paid not to.
--ml

S.A.T.S.Q.* MMCXXVII

Paul Krugman asks:

The question is, what is that higher truth? What do these people really believe in?

Pharaoh.
Glad to help Paul.
--ml
*simple answers etc. ^tm Duncan Black

Deep Thought #47509

The world is a closed system.
As presently operated, there are too many people for it to sustain. A very few have considerably more than enough. Most have less than enough.
The solution is not to eliminate the excess.
The solution is to change the system to create a means to support all who are here.
And to increase that number only if the new system supports it.
--ml

Dum Luks Stockpot, economics, politics

Come One! Come All!

Tom Walker, a.k.a. the Sandwichman, invites us to join him in a Facebook group dedicated to the care and feeding of The Greenest Elephant in the Room!.
Walker, a noted Vancouver economist, expounds on the value of working less to gain full employment, a more productive economy, a better comity and a happier society in a greener environment. It is rumored he also contains lanolin. Read through his posts at  Econospeak for a fascinating account of an economic idea that has been shunted aside in as errant an act of piracy as any that festered the Gilded Age. It is that part of Keynesianism that dare not speak its name -- at least in the Halls of Conventional Wisdom.
Do -- please -- check it out.
--ml

Dum Luks Community, economics, Politics