Topic: It's the economy, stupid! (Read 73263 times)

Shinra · « **Reply #880 on:** November 19, 2012, 11:34:55 PM »

In predictable news, even as the SS Hostess Snackcakes sinks below the cold november waves, they are asking their bankruptcy court judge to approve paying out bonuses to their executives.

You know, the executives that presided over the company going bankrupt and being forced to liquidate. Because they couldn't afford to pay their workers a fair wage.

Hurray for our corporate culture.

Thad · « **Reply #881 on:** November 20, 2012, 11:43:22 AM »

Hopefully people can stay on THAT as the narrative -- I don't think the public at large has forgotten about the huge bank bonuses after the financial meltdown.

Salon has more -- CEO bonuses are part of it, and so is the simple fact that people don't want to eat WonderBread anymore.

Royal☭ · « **Reply #882 on:** November 20, 2012, 12:49:03 PM »

It's also important to emphasize the reason the Hostess bakers didn't want to accept management's deal is because these were people making $50k a year in 2000, and the court-approved offer they were given would have stripped them of all benefits and reduced their pay to $11.25 an hour by 2017.

Management was saying "Give us riches while sliding into poverty"

Also, I think the fact that Salon labels it "Vulture Capitalism" is a bit misleading. The "Shareholders and Management take all the profits while depressing wages" is pretty much how EVERY company works. The same story played out in Circuit City, GM, and really about any company that has "Grow the capital of investors at all other expense happy" as it's main driving line. Which is really every company, just in a competitive environment someone has to end up on top.

Brentai · « **Reply #883 on:** November 20, 2012, 01:50:03 PM »

I think the term refers specifically to the "swoop in on a struggling entity, pick off the valuable bits, and let the rest die" behavior, not general day-to-day Pullmanship.

Cait · « **Reply #884 on:** November 21, 2012, 02:25:13 AM »

Right. 'Vulture capitalism' is a term meant to resound and contrast with 'venture capitalism' and generally specifically refers to the acquisition of a company purely to gut it.

Catloaf · « **Reply #885 on:** December 05, 2012, 10:50:23 AM »

I was listening to the Diane Rehm show on NPR this morning and I couldn't help but get seriously pissed off at one of the guests, I can't remember the dumbfuck's name but he's an economist (and I really want to put quotation marks around that word) for the WSJ.

Note: the remainder of this post was written with the voice of my internal monologue as Lewis Black's.

He was arguing against food stamps and saying that ideally they should be eliminated, and that they should at least have a work requirement tied to them. Again, that's a work requirement to receive aid in buying food that one can't afford otherwise. But then he goes on to say outright that he didn't understand, and even attempted to implicitly deny the fact the food stamps are good for the economy with a $1.7 return for every $1 spent.

It's simple; if you give someone without money for food money for food that can only be spent on food with a time limit on it, they will buy food with it. Which means it's stimulating the economy! Money is being spent that otherwise wouldn't be!

If you clearly don't know what an economy even fucking is, you don't have a fucking right to preach about what to do about it!

François · « **Reply #886 on:** December 17, 2012, 08:52:46 AM »

Quote from: http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_wally_government/

I'm impressed by the trigger that Congress included in the Budget Control Act in 2011. The idea is that if Congress can't agree on a better way to balance the budget by year end, automatic and painful spending cuts and tax increases will go into effect. The hope was that members of Congress would act responsibly if there was a gun to the head of total strangers that they don't give a shit about.

[...]

There's a Wally-esque genius to this budget trigger concept. It actually solves Congress' biggest problem, namely that doing anything that is balanced and appropriate for the country renders a politician unelectable. Republicans can't vote for tax increases and get reelected while Democrats can't cut social services and keep their jobs. But don't cry for Congress because this isn't the sort of problem that can thwart a building full of lawyers. They put their snouts together and cleverly invented a concept - called a trigger - to take the blame for them. This way, both sides can screw their supporters while still blaming the other side. No one has to take responsibility for anything.

I find this whole fiscal cliff slash budget trigger idea to be much easier to wrap my brain around when it is put in context as the logical consequence of actions taken by lazy cowards.

Thad · « **Reply #887 on:** December 17, 2012, 10:54:21 AM »

Yep -- score one for Scott Adams, who as it turns out is still fairly insightful as long as he sticks to the subject of organizational incompetence.

It gets easier when you realize you can frame every single thing the US government does as "the logical consequence of actions taken by lazy cowards".

Brentai · « **Reply #888 on:** December 17, 2012, 09:24:45 PM »

Except it didn't work right and one party is going to get pretty much all the blame for it. Oops.

Thad · « **Reply #889 on:** December 17, 2012, 09:32:43 PM »

"Pretty much all the blame" is a bit of an exaggeration. A clear majority of the blame, but not all of it by any measure.

If the election had gone the other way then public opinion would be going the other way. (Or vice-versa.)

Thad · « **Reply #890 on:** January 01, 2013, 01:50:44 PM »

Ezra Klein has a bulleted list of the deal. As you might expect, it's mixed, but the worst stuff has been...well, delayed.

Taxes on single earners above $400K and couples over $450K are back to Clinton levels; earners under $400K are permanently at Bush levels. Capital gains is fixed permanently at sub-Clinton levels. Payroll tax holiday expires.

Sequestration is pushed back two fucking months, so we get to go through this same damn song and dance then. And then again the next time the debt ceiling comes up.

Assuming this even passes the House, which obviously is not guaranteed.

Mongrel · « **Reply #891 on:** January 01, 2013, 04:06:27 PM »

Annnnnd.... looks like the House Repiblicans are chucking it. Hoo boy, here we go.

Mongrel · « **Reply #892 on:** January 01, 2013, 08:16:43 PM »

Oh hey, the Republicans blinked after all, passing the bill as it came down from the Senate. That was a quick 180.

Mongrel · « **Reply #893 on:** January 04, 2013, 11:45:46 AM »

It's an incredibly crude oversimplification, but even so, I think this is a useful diagram for sharing:

Mongrel · « **Reply #894 on:** January 10, 2013, 04:03:45 PM »

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd the Debt Ceiling comedy show is already rolling again!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/opinion/an-escape-hatch-for-the-debt-ceiling.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=2&
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/lawyers-coins-and-money/

R^2 · « **Reply #895 on:** January 10, 2013, 04:08:46 PM »

I can't tell if that's stupid support (look how much it would take to pay off all our debt!) or a stupid counterargument (actually minting that hypothetical coin is implausible, because the value of a coin is exactly that of its component minerals!).

Royal☭ · « **Reply #896 on:** January 10, 2013, 04:27:34 PM »

The fiction of money is just too much for some people.

Friday · « **Reply #897 on:** January 10, 2013, 04:39:55 PM »

wait are you telling me that all this money I've been hoarding for the apocalypse is actually just paper

Büge · « **Reply #898 on:** January 10, 2013, 05:33:55 PM »

Technically cotton. But it makes good kindling.

R^2 · « **Reply #899 on:** January 10, 2013, 07:00:11 PM »

Don't worry, Friday. Those $20 bills are printed on $20 worth of ~~paper~~ proprietary US Mint 3:1 cotton/linen blend.

News:

Author Topic: It's the economy, stupid! (Read 73263 times)