Bad Deeds for 12-11-2010

 

Republicans Out-of-Touch with Americans on Programs and Taxes – A Bloomberg National Poll taken on December 4-7 shows that, “The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. … They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense. They want to maintain subsidies for farmers and tax breaks like the mortgage-interest deduction. And they’re against an increase in the gasoline tax.”

The poll further reveals that the number of Americans who describe the deficit as “dangerously out of control” has dropped from 53% to 48% since October, and out of a list of possible ways to balance the budget, none of the proposed spending cuts gained majority approval. Instead, 60% wanted to end tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and 70% favored a tax on Wall Street profits.

Even among Republicans, only 50% wanted to retain tax cuts for the wealthy, while 47% were opposed. Overall, 82% of responders were opposed to any cuts in Medicare and 72% were against cutting the Medicaid program for the poor.

There was also strong support for raising the cap on wages subject to the Social Security tax — with those earning over $100,000 being significantly more supportive than those making under $25,000. And although 2/3 of Americans would be willing to see means-testing for Social Security benefits, only about a third support either raising the retirement age or reducing cost-of-living increases.

Tea Party supporters were the only group which tended to favor major changes in entitlement programs, but only by narrow majorities or pluralities.

 

More Profits for Corporations Does Not Result in More Jobs – The Commerce Department reported that U.S. corporations posted the highest profits ever recorded during the third quarter of the 2010 fiscal year. Despite a combined $1.659 trillion in corporate profits, hiring remains scarce.

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago. At the corporate level, the Great Recession is a memory. Success for large companies has yet to trickle down. Since the end of 2008, when corporate America began enjoying the resumption of growth, profits have swelled from an annualized pace of $995 billion to the current $1.66 trillion as of the end of September. Over the same period, the number of non-farm jobs counted by the Labor Department has slipped from 13.4 million to 13 million.

 

How A Secretive Group Of Bankers Ensures That The Deck Is Stacked In Their Favor – On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.

The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.

Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.

In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.

The banks in this group, which is affiliated with a new derivatives clearinghouse, have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available.

 

Richard Nixon Was a Racist – Sixteen months before Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States, he was a fan of no one, especially not blacks, Jews, Italians or the Irish. We know this because much of it is on tape, but it’s just now that anyone is getting around to hearing the nastiness of his words thanks to new releases by the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. So far, 265 hours of tape have been released with another 400 to go. It’s sort of like all of those posthumous albums by the Notorious B.I.G., except Nixon’s recordings probably have more bad words. Click on link above for recordings.