The Fed is complicit with the Republican agenda. The driver of inflation is record corporate profits, and the global environment (which reflects geopolitical and climate issues), and will not be solved by shifting the inflation burden onto the backs of workers and the middle class, by driving up interest rates. The Fed should have REFUSED to use its weapon of monetary policy in order to force Congress to do its job and pass windfall profits taxes and price controls. Of course, given the dysfunctonality of Congress, and right-wing politicians knee-jerk recoiling in horror to even the mere suggestion of taxes and market control (with the exception of Fed intervention, of course), this won't happen either. So guess who gets to pay the price for inflation? You and me. But never, never, never the sacrosanct corporation and their plutocrats. Throw them out!
Professor has been stalwart in his beliefs regarding how we’re all being played by the
Fed and corporate greed. I too believe our economic pain is coming from calls “inside the House”. This rubbish that inflation is being caused by anything other than corporate greed and the Fed is like banging your head against a wall! Eventually, when we’re all hurting bad enough, we’ll realize two things; first there aren’t simple solutions to complicated problems. Second, Republicans have no interest in the general well-being of anything other than their bank accounts. Not you, me, my 92 y.o. mother, the neighborhood, our communities or who lives and dies. It’s just not in their purview to take into account anything but corruption and power. It’s their platform. They’ll happily tell you all about it.
I also believe that too many in the Democratic party are complicit in the Republican agenda, and not just Manchin and Sinema. Why haven't Schumer and Pelosi been crying out against the Fed's policies and making the windfall profits tax a priority? Why haven't they been explaining all this to the public, instead of having a single-minded focus on Trump and Dobbs? Not that those two issues aren't critically important and worthy of an all-out battle, but limiting themselves to that agenda leaves the conversation about the economy to the Republicans
Even if Schumer and Pelosi were doing so, I would probably hear little about it. The media would not have much on it if anything at all. The Democrats should have upped their game months ago and the media has been lacking good coverage for years particularly broadcast news.
Yes, You're very right. The corporate monopolized media is definitely restricting access to ideas that counter the establishment discourse. They have a vested interest in keeping us in the dark
I blame the right-wing news outlets. All news outlets are right-wing. We’ve purposely been denied coverage, fed false information, been constantly bombarded with skewed polls to reflect MAGA hate and discredit our lawful elections.
I’ve been calling this out for about a year and a half. Why is hate and divisive comments from the right receiving overblown attention while real progress like pressing anti-trust laws into use against corporations engaging in illegal financial practices that are driving inflation? That IS a big deal! You can find that at the bottom of the classifieds.
I agree, and also, in my opinion, If Pelosi and Shumer go too old school democratic (the current progressive agenda), they'll be smeared by the corporate media as AOC lovers. because y'know, commies. or fascists. or antifa. or something. ask marjorie, she'll tell ya
Somebody say Amen! AMEN ! Somehow, some way, we Democrats must find a way to learn how to speak to our middle class - blue collar base. Monosyllabic words, not polysyllabic ones to be sure, but more than that a message that gets to the heart of the concerns of the abandoned rust belt. Ro Khanna is right to go among the misbegotten to apologize for the Democratic abandonment of them . Let us hope that the Party's efforts to come home are not too late. For that I say Amen twice. Amen, Amen !
Dean, it seems to me that is the way it always is. The folks with the least power in a society operating for the benefit of the rich are the ones who will keep making the rich richer. And, the out of power folks keep electing the big mouthed, lying rich guys who are doing it to them. That is just crazy!
I watch every form of debt interest rates go up everytime the fed raises its rates. Some arent directly related but all have gone up. The fed raising its rates is like a windfall profit for the banks. When all we do is pay and pay more and more. What income are we supposed to reduce? Its all credit card debt anyway. The fed rates are no longer about about income reduction. Its about wealth reduction for the poor and middle class.
ONLY A GENETICALLY ALTERED MENTAL MIDGET CAN REGURGITATE THE MASS FORMATION PSYCHOSIS PROGRAMMED TALKING POINTS LIKE THIS.
THERE IS NO REPUBLICAN NOR DEMOCRAT PARTIES! PARTIES ARE MEANT TO KEEP THE UNITED STATES SEPARATED BY HAVING "WE THE PEOPLE" FIGHTING EACH OTHER WHILE THE REAL CRIMINALS HIDE IN SAFETY AWAY FROM THE MOB!
THE KHAZARIAN JEWISH GLOBALIST ELITE MAFIA PUPPET MASTERS (KJGEMPM) USE EVERY MEANS OF DIVISION TO KEEP US FIGHTING EACH OTHER BECAUSE THE ONLY THING THEY ACTUALLY FEAR IS THE MOB ALL UNITED ANGRY AND FOCUSED ON ERADICATING THEM!
SO UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO DROP THE COMFORT OF YOUR POLITICAL TEAM, TRIBE, RELIGION, SOCIAL ECONOMIC CLASS, RACE &/OR GENDER/SEXUAL IDENTITIES & TRULY UNITE WITH THE MALE/FEMALE HUMAN RACE & ACTIVELY HUNT DOWN THE KJGEMPM CRIMINALS WE ARE DOOMED!
STOP YOUR PROGRAMMING & THINK FOR YOURSELF!
IF YOU NEED HELP, ASK SOMEONE LABELED “CONSPIRACY THEORIST” THEY MAY NOT BE ALWAYS CORRECT BUT THEY WILL GIVE YOU IDEAS TO RESEARCH ON YOUR OWN FROM SEVERAL SOURCES.
THINK LOGICALLY & RATIONALLY! DON'T LET PANIC OR FEAR RUSH YOU INTO MAKING ANY DECISIONS!
Yes, & those divisive, hateful parties & the corporations & billionaires that fund them to sow division & hate so that we peons fight each other rather than the true cause of our economic injustice, wealth & power disparity, priority of corporate profits over the sustainability of life on this planet, & erosion of our democracy, have apparently gotten to you, because your post is far from a uniting one.
I really don't understand why Biden kept and keeps him. He, Powell, is part of the reason we, the Democrats are losing in public opinion. Every person a President appoints is a representative of that President's thinking in the eyes of the public, yet both Obama and Biden have kept Republican appointees long after they had betrayed the trust of the citizens of the US
There are several Trump appointees in important positions that Biden has kept who seem to have been undermining this administration & our national welfare & cohesion, & that includes Powell, Wray & DeJoy.
Powell and Wray he can replace. Although I am not as sure about Wray. Biden cannot get rid of DeJoy, only the USPS Board of Directors can do that, and barring some act of malfeasance, he can only replace them a the end of their terms. He has already replaced two.
Umm. The purpose of the Fed is to control Banks, which are corporations. Fed members tend to be former Bank or investment firm Executives, since they have the needed knowledge. Having 'peoples representatives' has appeal, but one needs knowledge of economic and banking to be effective.
The big banks control the Fed. The Fed is pretty much just a name and a building. You should get a book called "The Creature from Jekel Island", explains how the Morgans, Fairchilds, etc. created the Fed for their own benefit. They make billions from AIR! Lol
Paul, in theory you are correct, but maybe having at least 2 members who don't know so much about banking who could ask questions and expect the FED members to explain what it is they are doing and why, trying to convince them of their point of view could help in the clarification process, a process I doubt is even going on right now. Inside jobs often do not work well for those outside even when the wellbeing of those outsiders is at stake.
Greg, wouldn't it be great to see our Congress do that! Then, they would find their donations dried up and their lies might come out and they might be voted out of office. Can't have that!
Derek Wessner : actually, at his SOTU address months ago, Biden threatened a windfall profits tax. He was looking over at the Republican side of the hall as he chastised the profiteering going on.
When Paul Vocker tamer inflation back in the Carter administration it cost Carter the Re election and we got the genius Ronnie Regan that spent every last penny on overpriced Defense. Working people got nothing in return unless you worked for a defense contractor.
Much more dangerous this time. Powell's effort, as hinted to by Larry Summers, is to raise unemployment so that wages can be kept in check. Historically, that usually means 7 to 10% unemployment.
When Volker did that we had a very different demographic with the Boomers in the middle of their productive years. Now we have smaller generations forming the bulk of the workforce and the Boomers in the exiting stage and reduction consumption with age. When we get to the desired unemployment of around 7%, the economy will collapse due to lack of demand.
They should have, but didn't, because when we say Democrats, we mean corporations. We mean donors. We don't have many real representatives. We have a collection of corporate-sponsored puppets who use the theater of politics to mask a system designed to exploit people and planet into non-existence.
The bad Ian left devastation in its wake. The good Ian leaves rational analysis and keen insight for us to follow. The ones who pass laws to tell us what we may and may not do legally have been compromised by self-interest, ego and the urgency to keep their cushy positions at the feet of the corporatocracy. Blame it all on money, because that's where it starts. And yes, they will use and are using the power that WE afforded them as they keep us relatively complacent with full fridges and bellies, to bring everthing crashing down - with them the last to feel the pain.
It is infuriating how even some of my most politically aware friends do not realize the extent to which the COVID debacle is just a proxy for the climate change battle. Corporations just showed us exactly who they are and how they will respond when life itself is on the line. They will, at no point, admit to their role in getting us to that point through lobbying to gut education, to leave us with weak systems of actual national security outside of the war machine, to promote the "antigovernment down with regulation of all kinds" perspective that we've been force-fed year after year. They will make ads about how much they care about us, about how the flooding and water scarcity and lung problems from poor air quality will all be a little bit easier if we just use their brand of shampoo. The media will ignore any remotely challenging questions to the elected officials who continue to espouse climate change denying nonsense while standing in front of their own cities destroyed by increasingly powerful hurricanes.
We simply MUST stop talking about politicians like the term means anything real anymore. They are, as study after study has shown, a series of pretend-representatives who implement the will of the rich independent of science, logic, reason, morality, public opinion, and the former ability of our species to prioritize existence.
Ian, though by the time our disasters get to that point, there will be so much destruction there will be no fresh water, even for those whiny rich guys and the farmers will not be able to work. A few rich men might survive, but they don't have skills to make it without being waited on "hand and foot." Maybe we need to push that image of them wandering with no skills that can help them survive and since everything crashed, money would too. I think a lot of the older ones are thinking they will be gone by the time it gets that bad, so they might as well live it up now. It seems it is up to us to force them to wake up and work on stopping their addiction to money and power that is killing us and them too.
I do agree with you, Ian as an overall, statement. But, there are a few, admittedly, very few persons serving in both houses who are there as a sense of duty to the Country and their constituents. These few enter legislature to help right wrongs as they see it. Let's try to weed out the overwhelming majority of self-interested only "politicians" but not until we have recruited decent, 'Constitution' aware persons who are willing to spend 2 to 20 years of their lives 'giving back' serving the Country and its ordinary citizens to the best of their ability. This, if you read the Federalist Papers, is what the 'founding fathers' had in mind when they wrote the Constitution. They could not perceive the likes of trump, mcconnell, mccarthy, graham, manchin, and others who go into politics as an "easy path to riches"
Except when legislation is presented to Congress by the Dems, for taxes on big oil or Pharma, or for price gouging laws, it's voted DOWN by Republicans... So, who's protecting corporations?
What about ManchinSynema and other, lesser known 'democrats' who are on the take? You know : 'centrists' who sell out and pretend to be bipartisan or something.
Well now that you put it that way.I can't argue with you.after all I believe that we have collectively created the perfect killing machine in our system of capitalism. Carbon dioxide just works slower than carbon monoxide the Nazis used.
Except when legislation is presented to Congress by the Dems, for taxes on big oil or Pharma, or for price gouging laws, it's voted DOWN by Republicans... So, who's protecting corporations?
msbch2u ; Everyone on the take is. From 'representatives' to judges, to the Fed and maybe even the Parliamentarian hiding in the bowels of the Senate. They protect corporate and wealthy interests and get rewarded.
Except when legislation is presented to Congress by the Dems, for taxes on big oil or Pharma, or for price gouging laws, it's voted DOWN by Republicans... So, who's protecting corporations?
If we put the GOP in power this November, the winter of our discontent will only be exacerbated. They will no doubt double down on their failed trickle-down paradigm further squashing the middle class into poverty.
We need to reign in corporate greed and until we do ... we will continue toward an abyss where low wages will hinder manpower, will hinder production, will hinder logistics, will exacerbate inflation, will impact not demand but only decrease prosperity for the bulk of us; such disparity will eventually reach the uber wealthy ... but too late for them to realize the depth of the peril they are placing us all in.
We are acting too little to late when it comes to how corporate greed is impacting us all.
Until wages are competitive to the point that the "sweet spot" is struck with a normal investment worthy inflation at a much slower pace than now ... this circumstance will exacerbate.
I hope President Biden, and the rest of the Democratic Party are listening ... I hope to the some of those in the GOP can figure out that the Trickle down paradigm is always a failure.
Growth comes from the middle (not the extremes) ... when extremes are grown it all collapses over the base ... everything eventually collapses.
Suggested talking points for closing out the election campaigns:
People have forgotten just how bad things were in this country when Joe Biden took office and the Democrats took over the Senate. Under Trump and the Republicans, unemployment was at 6.8% and rising. Hundreds of thousands of people were lined up to get free food baskets in order to feed their families. [SHOW VIDEO OF CARS LINED UP FOR BLOCKS AT FOOD DISTRIBUTION CENTERS]
Trump had also miserably failed in responding to the worst health pandemic in 100 years. Over 3,000 people were dying from COVID every single day. [SHOW COVID HOSPITAL VIDEO]
In short, Biden and the Democrats inherited two of the worst crises in U.S. history.
They immediately got to work to respond to both crises. Lets start with COVID. When Biden took office, only 2% of adults were vaccinated. He immediately went to work and had the federal government provide free and easily available vaccines everywhere in the country. In a little over 1 year, 70% of the public was vaccinated…and anyone who was unvaccinated was that way entirely by their own choice. [SHOW CLIP OF A SMILING PERSON GETTING A VACCINE SHOT]
As for the economy, the Democrats passed (without a single Republican vote in the Senate) the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provided immediate financial assistance to families and businesses around the nation. Tens of millions of families received much-needed cash to get through the crisis. They next passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the first major infrastructure bill in decades, which has stimulated good paying jobs all over the nation. In less than two years, Biden and the Democrats have added a record 10 million jobs, and brought unemployment from 6.8% down to a historic low of 3.5%. [SHOW A COUPLE CLIPS OF WORKERS IN ACTION] How on earth can anyone say the Republicans are better on the economy???
Of course we now face a bad case of global inflation - - caused by global factors like the COVID disruption of international supply chains and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But who should you trust to solve it in a way that helps average citizens? Democrats have already passed the Inflation Reduction Act (again without a single Republican supporting it) which will cap prescription drug costs for seniors, cap insulin costs at $35 a month, and allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs with the drug companies. And they pay for those and other solutions by having large corporations that currently pay no federal taxes pay a minimum of 15% income tax. Republicans have vowed to overturn each of those policies if they take control… plus cut Social Security and Medicare! [SHOW DARKENED IMAGE CLIP OF TRUMP AND MCONNEL AND SO FORTH] Those Republican policies would hurt people, not help them.
If people can remember these facts, the choice this election should be easy. Vote Democratic! [CLOSE WITH CLIP OF HAPPY VOTERS]
Martin I’d pay to see your words acted out in a must see tv commercial. Not enough has been said of all the good things Biden has done despite being thwarted every which way by the republicans. People have very short memories and even shorter attention spans. God save this country if the Dems don’t win!
Thanks. I share your concern! I also posted it on Daily Kos yesterday, and asked for help in getting something like that script into a tv commercial. I haven't heard from anyone who could do so yet.
Has anyone thought about how many working people lost their lives to Covid, as a factor in the "Where are the workers?" conversation? Probably around 600,000 or so.
Biden should definitely have acted sooner on this, and Dems should have been shouting this from the roof tops. I continue to be mystified as to why Biden retained Powell. My conclusion is Dems are owned by the major corporations, too, and are hesitant to cross them.
Doctors have given up bleeding their patients to cure disease, why are men such as Powell and Simak continuing to apply a comparably antique and discredited solution to inflation?
Seymour Hamilton : Powell and Simak know that is what the greedheads want : more and more and more wealth. Plus it helps them win elections, when John Q public is convinced that Democrats are the ones hurting them.
Yes, insanity. Billionaires AND big corporations HAVE to pay much, much more in taxes if we want to see a more just playing field. But how? Sure, fire Powell to start with, but how? I feel so helpless at times.
Jessica that is what they want. When is the last time you e mailed any of your elected officials? Start there. What I feel it that the rich and super rich and some middle class have disproportionately gained from our county and I applaud that. But with that they need to disproportionately give back. Now I don't want to tax at 80% but if tax brakes were done based on paying living wages then they would seek that relief. See. Don't give up get active with your e mails. If you need help finding who are your elected officials let me know i will help you
I live in New Mexico, so currently I'm quite content with my elected officials: they're FOR the environment, FOR reducing fossil fuels, FOR education, FOR social programs, etc. The GOP candidates here fight tooth and nail to change this. As a lifelong progressive I'm not giving up; just felt despondent momentarily. Thank you for offering help. But I think it takes more than emails...
That is why the keep screwing us. They get more than they deserve, and the voters are weakened and in a Citizens United world have no voice or confidence. Money is speech!.
The Fed by its own definition is referred to as a Quasi government Agency. It's under private control. So we also have the 6 biggest US banks,"Too Big to Fail," and together they have the foundation for corporate socialism for the 1% and austerity for the rest.
The government has been privatized and runs by corporate contracts. If FDR is right, "When your government is controlled by private money you have fascism," then we are already ruled by fascism!
Putting Americans on the street so that demand will decrease and prices fall is the cruelest economics ever. Why don't we just go out and euthanize a bunch of people. Can anyone get some traction for fair profit capitalism where those who do the work are rewarded at the fair rate! Make the corps aware that they can really do trickle down economics and increase wages or the government can regulate the unfairness and bring things around so all working people can benefit!
Powell needs to be replaced and a more sensible, and sensitive, individual put in his place. What's he going to do, squeeze all Democrats and independents until they vote Republican? Powell is going to cost us the House of Representatives.
The Fed is complicit with the Republican agenda. The driver of inflation is record corporate profits, and the global environment (which reflects geopolitical and climate issues), and will not be solved by shifting the inflation burden onto the backs of workers and the middle class, by driving up interest rates. The Fed should have REFUSED to use its weapon of monetary policy in order to force Congress to do its job and pass windfall profits taxes and price controls. Of course, given the dysfunctonality of Congress, and right-wing politicians knee-jerk recoiling in horror to even the mere suggestion of taxes and market control (with the exception of Fed intervention, of course), this won't happen either. So guess who gets to pay the price for inflation? You and me. But never, never, never the sacrosanct corporation and their plutocrats. Throw them out!
Professor has been stalwart in his beliefs regarding how we’re all being played by the
Fed and corporate greed. I too believe our economic pain is coming from calls “inside the House”. This rubbish that inflation is being caused by anything other than corporate greed and the Fed is like banging your head against a wall! Eventually, when we’re all hurting bad enough, we’ll realize two things; first there aren’t simple solutions to complicated problems. Second, Republicans have no interest in the general well-being of anything other than their bank accounts. Not you, me, my 92 y.o. mother, the neighborhood, our communities or who lives and dies. It’s just not in their purview to take into account anything but corruption and power. It’s their platform. They’ll happily tell you all about it.
I also believe that too many in the Democratic party are complicit in the Republican agenda, and not just Manchin and Sinema. Why haven't Schumer and Pelosi been crying out against the Fed's policies and making the windfall profits tax a priority? Why haven't they been explaining all this to the public, instead of having a single-minded focus on Trump and Dobbs? Not that those two issues aren't critically important and worthy of an all-out battle, but limiting themselves to that agenda leaves the conversation about the economy to the Republicans
Even if Schumer and Pelosi were doing so, I would probably hear little about it. The media would not have much on it if anything at all. The Democrats should have upped their game months ago and the media has been lacking good coverage for years particularly broadcast news.
Yes, You're very right. The corporate monopolized media is definitely restricting access to ideas that counter the establishment discourse. They have a vested interest in keeping us in the dark
Quit attacking Democrats. We are in the middle of an election cycle. Our enemies are Republicans -- if you want change vote them out.
Besides, Schumer and Pelosi are innocent of your charges.
I blame the right-wing news outlets. All news outlets are right-wing. We’ve purposely been denied coverage, fed false information, been constantly bombarded with skewed polls to reflect MAGA hate and discredit our lawful elections.
I’ve been calling this out for about a year and a half. Why is hate and divisive comments from the right receiving overblown attention while real progress like pressing anti-trust laws into use against corporations engaging in illegal financial practices that are driving inflation? That IS a big deal! You can find that at the bottom of the classifieds.
Exactly
Good response Rose
I agree, and also, in my opinion, If Pelosi and Shumer go too old school democratic (the current progressive agenda), they'll be smeared by the corporate media as AOC lovers. because y'know, commies. or fascists. or antifa. or something. ask marjorie, she'll tell ya
Somebody say Amen! AMEN ! Somehow, some way, we Democrats must find a way to learn how to speak to our middle class - blue collar base. Monosyllabic words, not polysyllabic ones to be sure, but more than that a message that gets to the heart of the concerns of the abandoned rust belt. Ro Khanna is right to go among the misbegotten to apologize for the Democratic abandonment of them . Let us hope that the Party's efforts to come home are not too late. For that I say Amen twice. Amen, Amen !
Agree!!!
Dean, it seems to me that is the way it always is. The folks with the least power in a society operating for the benefit of the rich are the ones who will keep making the rich richer. And, the out of power folks keep electing the big mouthed, lying rich guys who are doing it to them. That is just crazy!
Vote Blue!!!!!
So unfortunately true, Ruth
you said it!
I watch every form of debt interest rates go up everytime the fed raises its rates. Some arent directly related but all have gone up. The fed raising its rates is like a windfall profit for the banks. When all we do is pay and pay more and more. What income are we supposed to reduce? Its all credit card debt anyway. The fed rates are no longer about about income reduction. Its about wealth reduction for the poor and middle class.
Methinks those corporations have many tentacles in Washington. They would smoosh a political foe in an instant.
ARE YOU VAXXED?
IT SURE SOUNDS LIKE YOU ARE!
ONLY A GENETICALLY ALTERED MENTAL MIDGET CAN REGURGITATE THE MASS FORMATION PSYCHOSIS PROGRAMMED TALKING POINTS LIKE THIS.
THERE IS NO REPUBLICAN NOR DEMOCRAT PARTIES! PARTIES ARE MEANT TO KEEP THE UNITED STATES SEPARATED BY HAVING "WE THE PEOPLE" FIGHTING EACH OTHER WHILE THE REAL CRIMINALS HIDE IN SAFETY AWAY FROM THE MOB!
THE KHAZARIAN JEWISH GLOBALIST ELITE MAFIA PUPPET MASTERS (KJGEMPM) USE EVERY MEANS OF DIVISION TO KEEP US FIGHTING EACH OTHER BECAUSE THE ONLY THING THEY ACTUALLY FEAR IS THE MOB ALL UNITED ANGRY AND FOCUSED ON ERADICATING THEM!
SO UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO DROP THE COMFORT OF YOUR POLITICAL TEAM, TRIBE, RELIGION, SOCIAL ECONOMIC CLASS, RACE &/OR GENDER/SEXUAL IDENTITIES & TRULY UNITE WITH THE MALE/FEMALE HUMAN RACE & ACTIVELY HUNT DOWN THE KJGEMPM CRIMINALS WE ARE DOOMED!
STOP YOUR PROGRAMMING & THINK FOR YOURSELF!
IF YOU NEED HELP, ASK SOMEONE LABELED “CONSPIRACY THEORIST” THEY MAY NOT BE ALWAYS CORRECT BUT THEY WILL GIVE YOU IDEAS TO RESEARCH ON YOUR OWN FROM SEVERAL SOURCES.
THINK LOGICALLY & RATIONALLY! DON'T LET PANIC OR FEAR RUSH YOU INTO MAKING ANY DECISIONS!
ALWAYS QUESTION AUTHORITY!
🦍📡🇺🇸👁️👁️🤬
SWING BRUTALLY HONEST 24/7/365
🌴🌴🌴🌴
https://bio.site/RichLDNRDGorillaBroadcast
Yes, & those divisive, hateful parties & the corporations & billionaires that fund them to sow division & hate so that we peons fight each other rather than the true cause of our economic injustice, wealth & power disparity, priority of corporate profits over the sustainability of life on this planet, & erosion of our democracy, have apparently gotten to you, because your post is far from a uniting one.
FIRE POWELL AND THE REST OF THE FED'S CORPORATE LACKEYS! RECONSTITUTE THE FED TO SUPPORT PEOPLE, NOT CORPORATIONS!
I really don't understand why Biden kept and keeps him. He, Powell, is part of the reason we, the Democrats are losing in public opinion. Every person a President appoints is a representative of that President's thinking in the eyes of the public, yet both Obama and Biden have kept Republican appointees long after they had betrayed the trust of the citizens of the US
There are several Trump appointees in important positions that Biden has kept who seem to have been undermining this administration & our national welfare & cohesion, & that includes Powell, Wray & DeJoy.
Powell and Wray he can replace. Although I am not as sure about Wray. Biden cannot get rid of DeJoy, only the USPS Board of Directors can do that, and barring some act of malfeasance, he can only replace them a the end of their terms. He has already replaced two.
Umm. The purpose of the Fed is to control Banks, which are corporations. Fed members tend to be former Bank or investment firm Executives, since they have the needed knowledge. Having 'peoples representatives' has appeal, but one needs knowledge of economic and banking to be effective.
But we also need public officials who are not corporate whores or lackeys.
Double thumbs up!👍🏻👍🏻
The big banks control the Fed. The Fed is pretty much just a name and a building. You should get a book called "The Creature from Jekel Island", explains how the Morgans, Fairchilds, etc. created the Fed for their own benefit. They make billions from AIR! Lol
So have fed board make up of some economist who support community and some who support banks.
It's not as clean cut as that. And what does 'support community' mean wrt an economist?
Paul, in theory you are correct, but maybe having at least 2 members who don't know so much about banking who could ask questions and expect the FED members to explain what it is they are doing and why, trying to convince them of their point of view could help in the clarification process, a process I doubt is even going on right now. Inside jobs often do not work well for those outside even when the wellbeing of those outsiders is at stake.
Greg, wouldn't it be great to see our Congress do that! Then, they would find their donations dried up and their lies might come out and they might be voted out of office. Can't have that!
“Never be deceived that the rich will permit you to vote away their wealth.”
— Lucy Parsons, IWW founding convention, 1905
Thanks for that quote, Greg, it is as true 117 years later as the day Lucy spoke it.
I learned that from the late, great Utah Phillips.
True, true, true !!! Robert Reich for chairman of the Federal Reserve!
Yes
Biden’s windfall profits tax message should have come months ago.
Derek Wessner : actually, at his SOTU address months ago, Biden threatened a windfall profits tax. He was looking over at the Republican side of the hall as he chastised the profiteering going on.
Of course, there was little, if anything, mentioned on msm. About his remarks about such a remedy. Some tiny taxation has happened. Not enough.
He should have kept reminding the people because as you pointed out the media ignores such things.
He has brought it up in relatively recent speeches. It just does not get the coverage.
The bill was offered in March. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7061
Note the date: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Biden-Administration-Considers-A-Windfall-Tax-On-Oil-And-Gas-Profits.html
You owe Biden an apology.
Apparently I do, but he still needed to shout it from the rooftops literally every chance he got, start naming names (in this case corporations.)
He called out Exxon at the time.
Fair point, but they are far from the only ones reaping massive profits.
When Paul Vocker tamer inflation back in the Carter administration it cost Carter the Re election and we got the genius Ronnie Regan that spent every last penny on overpriced Defense. Working people got nothing in return unless you worked for a defense contractor.
J
Probably Bush in 1992 too (he did not forgive Greenspan for raising rates)...
Much more dangerous this time. Powell's effort, as hinted to by Larry Summers, is to raise unemployment so that wages can be kept in check. Historically, that usually means 7 to 10% unemployment.
When Volker did that we had a very different demographic with the Boomers in the middle of their productive years. Now we have smaller generations forming the bulk of the workforce and the Boomers in the exiting stage and reduction consumption with age. When we get to the desired unemployment of around 7%, the economy will collapse due to lack of demand.
They should have, but didn't, because when we say Democrats, we mean corporations. We mean donors. We don't have many real representatives. We have a collection of corporate-sponsored puppets who use the theater of politics to mask a system designed to exploit people and planet into non-existence.
The bad Ian left devastation in its wake. The good Ian leaves rational analysis and keen insight for us to follow. The ones who pass laws to tell us what we may and may not do legally have been compromised by self-interest, ego and the urgency to keep their cushy positions at the feet of the corporatocracy. Blame it all on money, because that's where it starts. And yes, they will use and are using the power that WE afforded them as they keep us relatively complacent with full fridges and bellies, to bring everthing crashing down - with them the last to feel the pain.
It is infuriating how even some of my most politically aware friends do not realize the extent to which the COVID debacle is just a proxy for the climate change battle. Corporations just showed us exactly who they are and how they will respond when life itself is on the line. They will, at no point, admit to their role in getting us to that point through lobbying to gut education, to leave us with weak systems of actual national security outside of the war machine, to promote the "antigovernment down with regulation of all kinds" perspective that we've been force-fed year after year. They will make ads about how much they care about us, about how the flooding and water scarcity and lung problems from poor air quality will all be a little bit easier if we just use their brand of shampoo. The media will ignore any remotely challenging questions to the elected officials who continue to espouse climate change denying nonsense while standing in front of their own cities destroyed by increasingly powerful hurricanes.
We simply MUST stop talking about politicians like the term means anything real anymore. They are, as study after study has shown, a series of pretend-representatives who implement the will of the rich independent of science, logic, reason, morality, public opinion, and the former ability of our species to prioritize existence.
Ian, though by the time our disasters get to that point, there will be so much destruction there will be no fresh water, even for those whiny rich guys and the farmers will not be able to work. A few rich men might survive, but they don't have skills to make it without being waited on "hand and foot." Maybe we need to push that image of them wandering with no skills that can help them survive and since everything crashed, money would too. I think a lot of the older ones are thinking they will be gone by the time it gets that bad, so they might as well live it up now. It seems it is up to us to force them to wake up and work on stopping their addiction to money and power that is killing us and them too.
I do agree with you, Ian as an overall, statement. But, there are a few, admittedly, very few persons serving in both houses who are there as a sense of duty to the Country and their constituents. These few enter legislature to help right wrongs as they see it. Let's try to weed out the overwhelming majority of self-interested only "politicians" but not until we have recruited decent, 'Constitution' aware persons who are willing to spend 2 to 20 years of their lives 'giving back' serving the Country and its ordinary citizens to the best of their ability. This, if you read the Federalist Papers, is what the 'founding fathers' had in mind when they wrote the Constitution. They could not perceive the likes of trump, mcconnell, mccarthy, graham, manchin, and others who go into politics as an "easy path to riches"
Except when legislation is presented to Congress by the Dems, for taxes on big oil or Pharma, or for price gouging laws, it's voted DOWN by Republicans... So, who's protecting corporations?
What about ManchinSynema and other, lesser known 'democrats' who are on the take? You know : 'centrists' who sell out and pretend to be bipartisan or something.
Well now that you put it that way.I can't argue with you.after all I believe that we have collectively created the perfect killing machine in our system of capitalism. Carbon dioxide just works slower than carbon monoxide the Nazis used.
Except when legislation is presented to Congress by the Dems, for taxes on big oil or Pharma, or for price gouging laws, it's voted DOWN by Republicans... So, who's protecting corporations?
msbch2u ; Everyone on the take is. From 'representatives' to judges, to the Fed and maybe even the Parliamentarian hiding in the bowels of the Senate. They protect corporate and wealthy interests and get rewarded.
Except when legislation is presented to Congress by the Dems, for taxes on big oil or Pharma, or for price gouging laws, it's voted DOWN by Republicans... So, who's protecting corporations?
If we put the GOP in power this November, the winter of our discontent will only be exacerbated. They will no doubt double down on their failed trickle-down paradigm further squashing the middle class into poverty.
We need to reign in corporate greed and until we do ... we will continue toward an abyss where low wages will hinder manpower, will hinder production, will hinder logistics, will exacerbate inflation, will impact not demand but only decrease prosperity for the bulk of us; such disparity will eventually reach the uber wealthy ... but too late for them to realize the depth of the peril they are placing us all in.
We are acting too little to late when it comes to how corporate greed is impacting us all.
Until wages are competitive to the point that the "sweet spot" is struck with a normal investment worthy inflation at a much slower pace than now ... this circumstance will exacerbate.
I hope President Biden, and the rest of the Democratic Party are listening ... I hope to the some of those in the GOP can figure out that the Trickle down paradigm is always a failure.
Growth comes from the middle (not the extremes) ... when extremes are grown it all collapses over the base ... everything eventually collapses.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Suggested talking points for closing out the election campaigns:
People have forgotten just how bad things were in this country when Joe Biden took office and the Democrats took over the Senate. Under Trump and the Republicans, unemployment was at 6.8% and rising. Hundreds of thousands of people were lined up to get free food baskets in order to feed their families. [SHOW VIDEO OF CARS LINED UP FOR BLOCKS AT FOOD DISTRIBUTION CENTERS]
Trump had also miserably failed in responding to the worst health pandemic in 100 years. Over 3,000 people were dying from COVID every single day. [SHOW COVID HOSPITAL VIDEO]
In short, Biden and the Democrats inherited two of the worst crises in U.S. history.
They immediately got to work to respond to both crises. Lets start with COVID. When Biden took office, only 2% of adults were vaccinated. He immediately went to work and had the federal government provide free and easily available vaccines everywhere in the country. In a little over 1 year, 70% of the public was vaccinated…and anyone who was unvaccinated was that way entirely by their own choice. [SHOW CLIP OF A SMILING PERSON GETTING A VACCINE SHOT]
As for the economy, the Democrats passed (without a single Republican vote in the Senate) the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provided immediate financial assistance to families and businesses around the nation. Tens of millions of families received much-needed cash to get through the crisis. They next passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the first major infrastructure bill in decades, which has stimulated good paying jobs all over the nation. In less than two years, Biden and the Democrats have added a record 10 million jobs, and brought unemployment from 6.8% down to a historic low of 3.5%. [SHOW A COUPLE CLIPS OF WORKERS IN ACTION] How on earth can anyone say the Republicans are better on the economy???
Of course we now face a bad case of global inflation - - caused by global factors like the COVID disruption of international supply chains and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But who should you trust to solve it in a way that helps average citizens? Democrats have already passed the Inflation Reduction Act (again without a single Republican supporting it) which will cap prescription drug costs for seniors, cap insulin costs at $35 a month, and allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs with the drug companies. And they pay for those and other solutions by having large corporations that currently pay no federal taxes pay a minimum of 15% income tax. Republicans have vowed to overturn each of those policies if they take control… plus cut Social Security and Medicare! [SHOW DARKENED IMAGE CLIP OF TRUMP AND MCONNEL AND SO FORTH] Those Republican policies would hurt people, not help them.
If people can remember these facts, the choice this election should be easy. Vote Democratic! [CLOSE WITH CLIP OF HAPPY VOTERS]
Martin I’d pay to see your words acted out in a must see tv commercial. Not enough has been said of all the good things Biden has done despite being thwarted every which way by the republicans. People have very short memories and even shorter attention spans. God save this country if the Dems don’t win!
Thanks. I share your concern! I also posted it on Daily Kos yesterday, and asked for help in getting something like that script into a tv commercial. I haven't heard from anyone who could do so yet.
Insanity is the way of our Economy !!!
There is no labor shortage there is a Lack of LIVABLE WAGES. Flatten out the wage income pyramid so that our citizens can afford to live and prosper.
J
Has anyone thought about how many working people lost their lives to Covid, as a factor in the "Where are the workers?" conversation? Probably around 600,000 or so.
Biden should definitely have acted sooner on this, and Dems should have been shouting this from the roof tops. I continue to be mystified as to why Biden retained Powell. My conclusion is Dems are owned by the major corporations, too, and are hesitant to cross them.
Biden should have acted when big timber raised the lumber for no reason. He did nothing and every other big company jumped on board.
Doctors have given up bleeding their patients to cure disease, why are men such as Powell and Simak continuing to apply a comparably antique and discredited solution to inflation?
Seymour Hamilton : Powell and Simak know that is what the greedheads want : more and more and more wealth. Plus it helps them win elections, when John Q public is convinced that Democrats are the ones hurting them.
Yes, insanity. Billionaires AND big corporations HAVE to pay much, much more in taxes if we want to see a more just playing field. But how? Sure, fire Powell to start with, but how? I feel so helpless at times.
Jessica that is what they want. When is the last time you e mailed any of your elected officials? Start there. What I feel it that the rich and super rich and some middle class have disproportionately gained from our county and I applaud that. But with that they need to disproportionately give back. Now I don't want to tax at 80% but if tax brakes were done based on paying living wages then they would seek that relief. See. Don't give up get active with your e mails. If you need help finding who are your elected officials let me know i will help you
I live in New Mexico, so currently I'm quite content with my elected officials: they're FOR the environment, FOR reducing fossil fuels, FOR education, FOR social programs, etc. The GOP candidates here fight tooth and nail to change this. As a lifelong progressive I'm not giving up; just felt despondent momentarily. Thank you for offering help. But I think it takes more than emails...
I agree.
That is why the keep screwing us. They get more than they deserve, and the voters are weakened and in a Citizens United world have no voice or confidence. Money is speech!.
The Fed by its own definition is referred to as a Quasi government Agency. It's under private control. So we also have the 6 biggest US banks,"Too Big to Fail," and together they have the foundation for corporate socialism for the 1% and austerity for the rest.
The government has been privatized and runs by corporate contracts. If FDR is right, "When your government is controlled by private money you have fascism," then we are already ruled by fascism!
Putting Americans on the street so that demand will decrease and prices fall is the cruelest economics ever. Why don't we just go out and euthanize a bunch of people. Can anyone get some traction for fair profit capitalism where those who do the work are rewarded at the fair rate! Make the corps aware that they can really do trickle down economics and increase wages or the government can regulate the unfairness and bring things around so all working people can benefit!
Powell needs to be replaced and a more sensible, and sensitive, individual put in his place. What's he going to do, squeeze all Democrats and independents until they vote Republican? Powell is going to cost us the House of Representatives.
Break up the banks and get rid of the Fed. Electoral College and a few other un democratic 'agencies'!
Hey Republicans, hey Democrats if we continue fighting each other we will both lose.
Let's unit and get big money and privilege out of politics. If your representatives don't support this, vote them out.