If deficits matter at all....

... (and I believe they do, though not in the way the deficit peacocks proclaim), then those concerned about government deficits will let the Bush tax cuts lapse. End of discussion.


If they don't, then they are fucking hypocrites and have zero credibility. We should not listen to them. I would go so far as to invoke Miss Manners and apply the harshest social judgment and give them the cut direct. No op-eds, no time on the Sunday talk shows, no interviews, no citing their opinions. Anything they have to say on the topic is demonstrable bullshit. Why pay any attention to them whatsoever?

I mean, what part of that big swath of butterscotch in the chart above is unclear?


--the BB

Serving the overlords

The deficit is the bludgeon used by the wealthy bondholders to beat liberals into retreat on doing anything that might make average citizens feel that democratic government might be a better guarantor of economic security than their rich overlords (who are doing "God's Work" allegedly on their behalf.)

--Digby

Oh, and did you know?

Bloomberg:

Capital gains made up 63 percent of the richest 400 Americans’ adjusted gross income in 2006, or a combined $66.1 billion, according to the data. In all, the 400 wealthiest Americans reported a combined $105.3 billion of adjusted gross income in 2006, the most recent year for which the IRS has data.

Bill Donius at Huffington Post:

The richest 1% of Americans earned $1.3 trillion in 2004, an amount greater than the total national income of Canada. Further the top 1% of Americans has 33% of the country's wealth. The tax policy center estimates that 80% of the tax savings from the Bush tax cuts went to the top 10% of taxpayers and almost 20% went to the top one tenth of 1%! Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Frank in his very insightful book, "Richistan", reported these figures.
[Emphasis mine]

h/t to bubbanomics at Daily Kos for drawing my attention to these. Bubbanomics' post ended with this sentence: "During the 50's, a time fondly remembered by the GOP as one of prosperity (among other things), the top marginal tax rate was over 90%!" And h/t to budhydharma who referenced bubbanomics today. Budhydharma writes today: " In point of fact, the Republican Party is not much more than [the] Political Arm of The Ruling Class."

Oh, there's class warfare all right. The rich and powerful have been waging it against the rest of us, and quite successfully, for some time (especially the last eight years). They are terrified that their comfy arrangements may come crashing in around their ears. I can only hope so, because this nation and the world desperately need a more equitable economic arrangement.

Government of, by, and for the People is the last thing they want.
--the BB

A great silence

When a U.S. citizen receives a Nobel Prize in any field there is usually a great hoopla in the press (sort of like our fixation on Olympic medals which only seem to matter if we win them). So why is it that when Paul Krugman wins the Nobel for economics I don't see any mention of it in this evening's Google News?

We've got stuff about Levi and Bristol. Why not some delighted headlines about Krugman?

Is it because he has long been a fierce critic of the Bush administration and usually right about his critiques?

And, my fellow bloggers, Dr. Krugman is a blogger!

A very hearty congratulations, sir. Well done!

Prof Krugman lectures in economics and international affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey, and also writes a regular column for the New York Times.

He has long been a fierce critic of US President George W Bush's administration, arguing that its economic policies have helped spark the current financial crisis.

The Nobel jury said Prof Krugman's work had led to theories that could help explain the effects of free trade and globalisation and the driving force behind worldwide urbanisation.

"He has thereby integrated the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography," the academy said in its citation.

--the BBC

--the BB