Speaking with us today at Left Ahead, Alan Khazei remains astonishingly energized and optimistic. He is convinced that as a nation we shall find our way out of the economic and political messes we are in today. He does think that doing so … [Read more...]
Past Time for Sharing Pain
Transferring tax money to the richest is so reprehensible because its proponents base it entirely on a lie. Despite nearly a century of experience, they would have it that letting the filthy rich pay no or tiny taxes, these billions of … [Read more...]
National Thanksgiving Blues
"The long-term trend is toward a small group of financiers, chief executives, professional athletes, entertainers, and other earnings titans pocketing much of the wealth generated by society."After the largely forgotten two wars we are … [Read more...]
So what’s the big idea? … or maybe now’s not the time for big ideas!
I tend to agree with the Patrick strategy so far. In the current political climate, and with an uncertain economic trajectory to contend with (and of course another sizeable budget shortfall in the offing next year,) making a lot of hard … [Read more...]
Who will be able to buy all this stuff?
Reich says that all that has been done to pull us out of the recession, those things that have worked in previous recessions, have not worked. That's because the real problem has to do with the structure of the economy, not the business … [Read more...]
Credit card interest WAS deductible and what if the academic economists are dead wrong?
Prior to 1986, consumer debt, like credit card interest was tax deductible. Credit card rates of about 8% -10% were the norm. I was there; I actually remember those days. It was Ronald Reagan and the Tax Reform Act of 1986 … [Read more...]
G20 Summit actually agrees on “Clawbacks” for excessive bonuses
BBC Report on the G20 Summit As some may recall, Merrill Lynch paid 3.6 BILLION in bonuses despite receiving more than 20 billion dollars of taxpayer bailout money. AIG and others were just as free in giving out a plethora of multi-million … [Read more...]
Thank you, Senators Eldridge and Chang Diaz for the courage to talk about taxation in public
Today's Boston Globe contains an Op Ed written jointly by Senator Eldridge and Senator Chang-Diaz. Their courage and straight talk makes me proud to be a democrat. Among other things, they point out that a 1% increase in the personal … [Read more...]
Getting through this economic mess requires a different trajectory
While many economists will tell you this crisis came out of nowhere, economic theory actually could have pointed the way. A fundamental reality of our economy that economists across the spectrum have repeated in recent months is that … [Read more...]
The Human Cost of the Recession
Here's a chilling article about the spike in child abuse, ostensibly due to the recession: [These] cases reported by Boston hospitals are part of a spike in child abuse in United States during a recession that has driven some families to … [Read more...]