Recommened viewing: The Queen of Versailles

I recently saw this movie about this rich guy named David A. Siegel whose timeshare business, Westgate Resorts was very badly impacted by the 2008 economic collapse.

Near the beginning of the movie Mr. Siegel mentions that he had a hand in George W. Bush  winning the 2000 Presidential election.  The same President whose economic policies that led to the "Great Recession" at the end of his second term in office.  Based on what he said in the movie, I think Mr. Siegel should be subject to a criminal investigation, but I doubt anyone would take up that cause thirteen years after the alleged fact.

Now Mr. Siegel  is a guy that in my opinion should wake-up and realize the importance of Keynesian economics, which basically states that the masses need to be employed and have enough money to feel confident enough to make purchases in order to pump more money into the economy which allows the economy to then in turn grow.  When they do not have money, they cannot afford to invest in things like timeshare resorts and no bank will give them a loan no matter how desperately they want to do so.

Mr. Siegel and the other heads of businesses and industries that depend on the fact that the masses need money to spend in order for their businesses to be profitable should be lobbying the American government to return to Keynesian economics to keep people employed and ready to spend money.  Instead they are just riding things out and hoping that the governments usual supply-side response (or non-response in some cases) will rectify things.  Well, it hasn't in five years and most likely won't any time soon.

According to his wife Mr.Siegel's wife, Jackie, in an August 27, 2013 Orlando Sentinel article written by Hal Boedeker, Siegel was able to salvage his business by selling one of his properties, therefore he was able to come out if this with only some damage to his business and the mega-mansion that he is building will continue to be built in spite of the minor setback depicted in the film.  Therefore I am very doubtful that Mr. Seigel or any person of means will come out on the side of Keynesian economics anytime soon.

If you have a Netflix streaming subscription, at the time of this posting, the movie is currently available for streaming.

You can also buy it from Amazon.com here:




or the physical DVD from Amazon here:



Really worth checking out, if you are interested in finding out more about what is really wrong with this country.

Recommended Reading: "Pity the Billionaire" by Thomas Frank.

Here is another book by Thomas Frank that explores the crazy political and economic situation we are in now.  Frank deftly explains how after the 2008 economic crash many people expected a return to Keynesian economics.   You know John Maynard Keynes, he basically said that in order to have a strong economy the common folk have to remain employed in order to in turn have the money to spend to pump up the economy and create economic growth.  This has to be done at all costs, even if the federal government has to be the employer of last resort, creating jobs where the private sector just won't.   Of course the government would have to tax the wealthy to pay for all this, and this has now become a taboo topic.

What happened after 2008 was pretty much the opposite the bailout was a supply side solution basically giving money to banks and other financial institutions that were too big to fail.  This of course never trickled down to the common folk an we still have high unemployment today. 

Frank illustrates how adamantly the right-wing yahoos and the wealthy wan to keep the United States on the same course of tax cuts for the wealthy, a government that is shrunk down into an ineffectual peanut, and big business given a wide berth to do what every the hell it wants. 

Recently the Huffington Post had a blended picture of George W. Bush and President Obama calling him George W. Obama to illustrate how the Obama administration is pretty much just a continuation of the Bush administration.  Obama certainly wasn't the agent of change he promised to be.  So are Titanic of an economy is not getting turned around we are just headed for the same iceberg over and over again. 

I wish more people would read Frank's book.   You can buy a copy from Amazon.com here:

Pity the Billionaire by Thomas Frank.

Recommended reading: "The Wrecking Crew" by Thomas Frank.

I am going to try to recommend books on this blog since there are many people who can understand and explain the predicament the United States is in much better than I can.  Even if you do not want to read my stupid blog, you should really check-out the authors that I will be recommending as required reading.

I am not a professional writer, I am not a professional anything really.  I am a poor working schlub who is disheartened by the current economic decline and how the wealthy bullies of the world have stacked the cards of the game of life against us.

I wanted to start a blog because I felt that not enough people are talking about these issues and the corporate controlled media is disturbingly silent about the causes of our economic decline. 

Also I felt that there are not enough people who are looking to help working class people and/or shine a light on the devious right-wing activities that have the United States as we know it on a path to ultimate destruction.

I have found an author who is trying to do just that, it is Thomas Frank.  And the only talk show that I have seen him on is on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.  I wonder why he is not on more main stream talk and news shows.

In his book "The Wrecking Crew," Frank describes how the wealthy corrupt government with their money and then turn around and complain that the government is corrupt and must be reduced in size or come as close as possible to be eliminated altogether.  Ronald Regan and the two Bushes ran up big spending deficits, cut taxes on the wealthy and then complained that government spending was out of control and big government needed to be reigned in.   And as James Carville put it, "The rich want small government for the same reason criminals want fewer cops on the street, so they can get away with murder. [This quote I got from the Internet and is probably paraphrased]" 

Frank goes on to explain how the lobbyists of Washington DC's K Street are the ones who are truly running the United State government and through this abuse of the constitutional rights America has become a plutocracy.

He also tells of the horror story of Saipan, a small island that is a United States territory.  In the 1990's was turned into basically a corporate controlled labor camps where guest workers had no rights and extremely low wages.  And all to keep the "Made in America" label on clothing.  The factories were eventually shut down for humanitarian reasons.  I believe what happened in Saipan is what the rich have planned for all American citizens eventually.

You must read this book is order to see the horrors that right-wingers like John Boehner have planned for us.  Even if you do not care for my blog, Please read this book.   The link to purchase it from Amazon is below:

Buy a Copy of "Wrecking Crew" from amazon.com

My baby boomer retirement conspiracy theory...

Could it be possible that Republicans want Barack Obama to win?  Could it be that the wealthy powers-that-be know that the American economy is not salvageable in the immediate future and they want to see a Democrat in the White House for at least another four years to prove to Americans that the Democrats are incompetent and they cannot run this country?

I have a theory involving the dreaded baby boomers and the upcoming massive retirement that we are going to see probably coming around 2017 or sooner.  At least by 2017 there will be so many of them retired that there is bound to be some impact on the economy. 

I myself believe (and I bet the top 1% of earners believe this as well) that the economy will continue to flounder for quite some time.  There is no point in getting a Republican in the White House because then the blame will be put back on the Republicans for the perpetually sagging economy.

Now if the Republicans win the 2016 election, and at least the employment situation recovers thanks to the retiring boomers, they will look like they have solved the employment crisis and due to their diligence and good economic policy. America is making a comeback thanks to them.  Of course all the time it will really be the retiring baby boomers we will have to thank and not the Republicans. 

However, the baby bommer retirement may not be enough to open up the job market.  Automation has been and will continue to eliminate jobs probably more quickly than off-shoring will.  I already see that a lot companies are not replacing retirees because there are now more efficient ways of doing buisness mainly thanks to computers, the Internet, and the Information Technology revolution. 

I have also conisdered the possibility that the ecomomy is being deliberately screwed with in order to keep employment costs down.  The goal of the wealthy always seems to be to increase the labor supply to make labor costs go down. 

There is no way to tell if any of my theories are correct until we get to 2017, but whatever the outcome is it will be interesting to see what kind of impact the baby boomer retirement will have.

Offshoring of American jobs: What the US government needs to do, but won't.



Taken from Wikimedia Commons

 The massive off-shoring of jobs from the United States has only been around for less than ten years but we already have national unemployment rate of over eight percent.  If the United States government continues to take no action, having a totally liassez faire attitude towards business and economics, unemployment will continue to rise inexorably. 

The United States government needs to take action now, by making a law that forces American companies or companies that do business in the United States to pay off-shored workers at least the current federally mandated minimum wage.  They also need to add high taxes to overseas telecommunication in order to make off shoring less attractive and give American workers a chance to compete for jobs.

This kind of action will be labeled protectionism, which the right-wing yahoos have tried to label as a taboo, worse than incest or bestiality.  But it is not a taboo.  We don't try to protect what we have?  The rich don't try to protect what they have by off-shoring their money and refusing to pay taxes? You don't try to protect what you have by having locks on your doors?

Protectionism is not a bad thing.  We need to put the brakes on off-shoring and free trade.  We need balanced trade and jobs paying livable wages for anyone who wants to work.  We will not get this by letting the wealthy live tax-free or letting business do anything they want without regard to the law.  We will not get this by allowing federal debt to exceed our GDP.   We desperately need to stop big business and special interests running this country into the ground by taking away jobs from Americans.

We can only do this if American politicians start developing a conscience and start serving the American people and not serving big business and special interests who want to send your jobs overseas and see the American middle class completely disappear.

Job stimulus bill fails while a job crushing bill passes.

Although it is impossible for me to post here on a regular basis, I am compelled to write about the failure of the job stimulus bill that was recently voted on and rejected by the Senate and the free trade act with South Korea that sailed right through congress.

With all of the media coverage about the failed job stimulus bill and the Wall Street occupation, the media somehow forgot to cover the free trade agreement with South Korea that was just approved by congress. No one was on TV debating this issue, how disgusting.

Let me tell you something about South Korea, with this free trade agreement the United States will be importing tons of stuff from Korea, but the Koreans will probably import next to nothing of American goods. The Korean government will tell its people to only buy Korean made goods and don't touch American made products. In his book, "Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and The Secret History of Capitalism" Korean-born economist Ha-Joon Chang illustrates how South Korea pumped up its economy by forcing its people to buy only Korean made products and nothing else. They did before and they most certainly will do it again. They couldn't care less about the collapse of the United States economy. They will flood our markets with tons of cheaper Korean made goods and they will not want to buy any American products in return.

I will be surprised if the Koreans will buy even one American car. But you are going be kissing even more manufacturing jobs good-bye, if there are any left in the United States to say good-bye to. And then this is only the beginning. South Korea is the starter county for free trade with all of Asia which will pretty much spell the economic end of the middle class as we know it. You think unemployment is bad now, just wait...

And while all of this is going on President Obama couldn't get much needed jobs stimulus bill passed because it increases taxes on the wealthy. Shame on the two democrats that voted against this bill. I hope they loose their Senate seats, of course the monsters who replace them will not be any better.

I just saw another article from npr that said that the Senate doesn't want to pass this bill because over 50 percent of them are millionaires themselves, and I believe that close to 100 percent of them have nothing approaching a conscience.

Congresses actions are just throwing gasoline on the economic collapse fire. This is why we so desperately need clean elections. Elections that are state run, where candidates cannot take money from outside sources for their campaigns. Everything is paid for by the state and everyone is given an equal shot to be elected.

Regardless of what your social studies teacher told you, the United States is not a democracy, it is a plutocracy, and these recent congressional actions prove it.

Congress and Budget Blithering

I can't believe I haven't posted here at all this year. Just like many of the people who would take the time to read this post, I am a working stiff. I have work off-the-books overtime just to keep my job, and I have to enroll in courses and study just to prepare for the time when I may no longer have a job, which may be soon. The economy isn't getting any better, and I need to brace myself for when I have to start collecting unemployment just like many of you are or will be.

I am only posting here now because I am so upset about the banter between President Obama and Speaker of the House John "Bonehead" Boehner over raising the debt ceiling and passing a budget. President Obama has been very weakly trying to get across the message that we need to tax the wealthy, while Boehner very loudly states he just wants budget cuts, cuts and more cuts.

Boehner's Congressional District suffers over 9% unemployment just like the rest of the country, how high does unemployment have to get before someone runs against this Bozo and takes his seat away from the Nazi Republicans out to destroy this country.

Federal budget cuts will just amount to more unemployment. The government needs to step in an create jobs, not take more jobs away. Already the US Post Office plans to cut thousands of jobs, and if Boehner gets his way more Federal jobs will just disappear, but no one is calling him a "job killer" the label that House Republicans put on the health care reform bill. Let's face it private industry is not going to pick up the slack for all of the government jobs we are going to loose with the substantial budget cuts that Republicans pose.

Actually, private industry will wind-up suffering as well, as budget cuts result in the end of government contracting, and laid-off federal employees will stop spending money in the retail and food markets which will beget more lay-offs. The unemployment that the budget cuts will create will cause such a great feedback loop of more unemployment that the economy will have no other recourse but to crash again, this time probably harder than before.

In their book "Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Next Global Meltdown," authors, David and Robert Wiedemar and Cindy Spitzer predict that government jobs will be a safe haven from the next big ecnomic downturn which they predict will befall us within the next couple of years. (They were right about the real estate bubble in a previous book published before the crash, but who couldn't see that coming?) With all of the Federal spending cuts coming their will be no save haven in Federal jobs or any government jobs for that matter.

Let's face it, there is a huge budget deficit and the only way to close the gap is raise revenue and tax the crap out of the rich and add large tariffs to imported goods, something Congress and the President are very reluctant to do because the rich have them in their pockets.

You know the wealthy have Boehner in their pocket because he comes from a fairly rural district with 9% unemployment. A few of his siblings are even unemployed according to Wikipedia. With his background he should really be a Democrat, but you know the wealthy and the corporate interests are bank rolling him, so he will keep fighting to run this country into the ground.

If the Republicans have their way and all we have is cuts, cuts and more cuts to the budget in a time where the Federal government really needs to step in and spend money to create jobs, you are going to see an economic collapse greater than the one we saw in 2008.