Dakota Today

**Economist "Engineer" Robert Shiller finds danger in growing US wealth inequality

Recently, economist Robert Shiller was interviewed on the Charlie Rose show. It was an interesting hour based loosely on his new book "Animal Spirits" which is not quite what you might expect from the title. Robert Shiller correctly predicted the economic meltdown. He is an astute observer and listening to him, I really could not say if he particularly liberal or conservative. He considers himself an "economic engineer" who is not interested in destroying capitalism nor in destroying government, but in making them work better and in protecting them from future catastrophe.

I ordered his book "Animal Spirits" and a couple others on the economy. Hopefully, they can be the basis of some somewhat more informed posts here and elsewhere.

Shiller views the current economic meltdown as serious, but views the increasing concentration of more and more wealth in fewer and fewer hands as being even more serious in the long term. The inequality of wealth distribution has increased to historical highs. Shiller, I think, implies that such inequality and the government policies generating it breeds resentment and also a decline in effort on the part of those unable to accumulate wealth and finding that effort more and more difficult.. in short weakening of the "work ethic".

My question at this time for those conservatives and very rich and of politicians protecting the inequality of wealth and who often label any improvement proposals as "class warfare" or "economic war" follows.

At what point will conservatives be satisfied that the very rich have gotten control of enough of the wealth to satisfy them? 

This Tax Policy group, probably at Brookings Institution indicates the top marginal tax rates by year from 1919 to 2009.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213

This link provides multiple forms of information on personal wealth. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/listdocs.cfm?topic2id=49

Wealth estimates from 2001 estate tax filings. May not relate directly to current situation. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=556&Topic2id=49

Download a complex pdf from the federal reserve. Charts and graphs with lots of data manipulation aimed at providing a better picture of true wealth. http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2006/200613/200613pap.pdf

Easier to understand compilation from the federal reserve info above http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/04/change_in_the_d.html

More analysis of some of the data contained in above with additional info and perspective. http://www.wealthandwant.com/

This is a perhaps shaky source, but suspect the income data on the "Fortunate 400" if not the interpretation is correct anyway.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/rich-m07.shtml

Some information on actual control of wealth: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

This from census data may be unbiased if you have time to download and dig through it

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/wealth/wealth.html

This may indicate the problems with large family size and wealth accumulation and may thus suggest that the mal-distribution of wealth is related to family..I read only the abstract.

http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpma/0004051.html

This might have the most interesting and useful information.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/4Inequality.htm

You may choose to be ignorant of income disparity if you wish, but the information is available and sticking your head in the conservative wingnut sand pile does not change anything for the better or even change the information. We may however disagree on the future impact of continued worsening of wealth disparity based on our ideology. 

[[Note: Most of the above post was apparently viewed as too controversial to be posted at Mt. Blogmore for reasons I don't understand. ]]

**Stay tuned, paw through the data, and please report back with comments-- Doug Wiken

** Guilt by association: McCain and the Viet Cong, Palin and Secessionists

Either explicitly or implicitly, the McCain campaign or its surrogate mudslingers have been trying to claim Sen. Obama is some kind of a terrorist because he knows Bill Ayers who about 40 years ago was in the Weather Underground which took radical action in the misguided belief that was a way to convince our government to get our men out of Vietnam and stop wasting young men and women there. Palin has been fanning the flames on this to make it appear that Sen. Obama is somekind of "other".

Well, if they think that guilt by association proves anything, they better start worrying about Sen. McCain being labeled as a Viet Cong since he associated with them ..also forty years or so ago and for all we know is some kind of "Manchurian Candidate". If that isn't enough, he may also be a white collar criminal since he associated with Charles Keating and the "Keating Five".  [A bit more info on that association both with McCain and with the current financial debacle  here ].

 As for Palin, she has been sleeping with a guy who was in a secessionist party in Alaska. If that isn't sufficient guilt by association proof, nothing is.

 It might be wise for McCain, Palin, and their rabid loon sympathizers to cease and desist in their attempt to make Sen. Obama into some kind of a radical terrorist with strained guilt by association tales. The loudmouth jerk at a McCain meeting worrying loudly about the socialistic takeover of government might want to learn what socialism really is and then do a check on McCain's position on the Banker/broker bailout debacle.  The McCain/Palin "meetings" are taking on the character of mobs bent on burning down buildings.  A McCain Mob is not a pretty thing.  Time to cool the outrageously distorted rhetoric.

Guilt by association is a mediocre form of logic. It is stock and trade perhaps of the truly desperate dreadfully short of actual issues.  Repeating it over and over again is the big lie technique of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. 

 In the meantime, the Bush administration and the Wall Street Market fundamentalists have driven the US economy and country into a huge hole. Sure wouldn't want McCain and Palin to be talking about an actual issue however.

**Stay tuned and remember there will be Sabbath Gasbags spinning full speed in the morning-- Doug Wiken

***AIG needs faster horses, younger massagers, corrupter politicans, MORE MONEY

A month or so ago, AIG got a truckload of taxpayer money in a bailout. A few days ago they got even more. You can find some of the information with links on more of this following the ad below which was on the back page of the June 20, 2005 The Week  magazine. The above is most of a scanned image, but not an exact copy. Some of the small nearly unreadable text has been moved and enlarged. The really fine print listing AIG addresses, subsidiaries, etc has been cropped. The essence of the ad is there however, but in a form readable on the internet. Click on the image for a slightly larger version.

 Events seem to have shown that our great, great .... grandchildren may still be paying for the bailout and might be the kind of ad propaganda to make potential parents think about getting their tubes tied or having a vasectomy.

 Some links which just don't seem consistent or are very ironical with the implicit promises in the ad above.
 The Big Picture-- AIG Bailout facts DU--Two weeks after Big Bailout
 AIG Execs Party in Style..at your expense

And below from AIG to Get Additional Funds More at this link.

A.I.G. to Get Additional $37.8 Billion By BARRY MEIER and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH Published: October 8, 2008 The Federal Reserve Board said Wednesday that it would provide up to $37.8 billion to the embattled insurer the American International Group to help it deal with a rapidly dwindling supply of cash. The additional assistance is on top of $85 billion in a bridge loan that the Federal Reserve extended to A.I.G. in September, but it will take a different form. A spokesman for A.I.G., Nicholas Ashooh, said the new assistance was intended to keep the company from having to draw down the Fed loan so quickly. The Fed threw A.I.G. the $85 billion lifeline shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when the financial markets were reeling and there were doubts the system could weather the demise of another big financial services company. At the time, the Fed's loan was the most radical intervention ever by the central bank in a company's affairs.

**Stay tuned even if you can never waste the huge amounts of money fast enough to justify a bailout to pay for your manicures at a spa--- Doug Wiken

**Nothing behind the $700 Billion Curtain, worry about important issues

When real issues fail or baffle the Republicans, they get all interested in religio-politico "issues" with the greatly appreciated feature of diverting attention from the gross governmental incompetence of the GOP.

 So, forget about that $700 Billion. It was a large dollar amount pulled out of some treasury official's rear end anyway...barely qualifying as a rough guess even. So get serious about the abortion issue (also known as Rapist Rights) and start waving a bloody shirt for the NRA to make sure militias are never short of weapons for killing deer and fish in barrels.

 Forget about losing your house or car, you might have a third cousin contemplating women's rights to choice and you know how serious that is. And by golly, your redneck cousin who likes to shoot coons in trees is damn sure that when liberals get done putting diapers on all the cows and horses, they will come around in the middle of the night to grab his shotgun and deer rifle. So keep your powder dry and your eyes on all the important issues. Never mind the curtain.

 

** Stay tuned even if you have a terrible time keeping your priorities straight and your money in your mattress with the distraction caused by all the gays trying to get married --- Doug Wiken

**Whoa, pull the blinders off and put the brakes on. Haste makes waste.

Millions and billions and billions but it is not astronomy and stars, it is a blind government bailout of the very, very rich by the many more poor and middle class. The Bush Administration has been driving the economy into the gutter over the past nearly eight years and now "all of a sudden" we have a looming economic catastrophe?

Nothing that can't wait until Congress figures out ways to ensure that not one nickle of the bailout disappears as if it is money dumped from a plane in Iraq. There must be real accountability coupled to stringent accounting. This bailout or more correctly "free lunch for the very rich" appears to be on the way to costing between $2400 and $3000 for every man, woman, and child in the US. Got four in your family? Think about setting fire to $12,000 because George Bush tells you that you just must do it and do it now.

 Let the government take over the good debt first and see what appears to be left. Then see what these corporations can do to clean up their own messes. A corporate executive who was paid $190 million last year is right in the middle of the collapse. There is no necessary correlation between high pay and competence. There may be a correlation between obscene greed and compensation however.

 The government should not allow oligopolies and monopolies to grow to the point they are "too big to let fail". The government  also ought not save any corporation in a condition that leaves it too big to fail again in the future. Executive compensation in the US should be limited to no more than that paid the US president unless corporations or other entities pay matching immediate direct taxes dollar for dollar to the Treasury with every regular paycheck or bonus payment that exceeds the salary of the US President. If corporation boards of directors are so insane they are willing to pay more than twice the salary of the president, then a triple immediate tax should be paid. Huge executive salaries drive excessive risk and excessive growth.

Unlimited capitalism is a bubble waiting to burst. Unlimited government control is constriction to the point of stagnation. Somewhere in between is a medium which may work without the danger of nearly sure collapse or the reality of sure stagnation. Our Congress must get control over any bailout with details nailed into concrete legislation. To give the rotten Bush administration uncontrolled and unmanaged opportunity to dump money into corporations so shaky and flaky they can't be trusted by other business or investors is insanely irresponsible.

 Congress let Bush lie with near impunity about the excuses for going to war with Iraq. They should know better this time. No more war powers, no more economic powers given without regard to the interests of the actual people these congress critters represent and within boundaries constitutionally defined. Haste will uncertainly be waste.

Found a link at Salon TT to a Krugman article that relates a bit to above:

Paul Krugman NYT OP ED-- No Deal

***Stay tuned, somebody will start totaling up salaries and losses and see what the connections really are--- Doug Wiken

**Sen. Obama, please apologize. There are limits.

Here is a straightforward message to Senator Obama related to his lipstick on a pig remark.

 

Sen. Obama apologize to all the pigs of the USA for associating them with the dreadful Bush-McCain Economic Policy failures and absurd proposals of McCain and Palin.

There, had to get that message out of the way much as I now hate to complain about Obama  since he has been attacked by Lindsey Graham, Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson, and  Mrs. Sarah Palin unknown woman governor and mayor from the of the frigid northlands: but, after all, there just are limits on porcine invective.

Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more lies and distortions from McCain and Palin..after all, truth is not on their side--- Doug Wiken

**When is a terrorist not a terrorist? Depends on whether or not the target is a Democrat or Republican

All kinds of things done stupidly have been considered terrorism by the Bush administration and even wearing anti-Bush teeshirts got women stuck in jail. But, plan to kill Barrack Obama, have guns, masks, etc. and ..oh well..no sense prosecuting these guys. Details and comments at FiredogLake Blog:
 Firedog Lake on the shackling of the FBI by Rove appointee

Sort of like the difference the way Republican hacks attack Blacks and lowerclass Whites having children out of wedlock as parental failure, etc. etc., but when it is a GOP Governor's daughter, keeping the child is a matter of family honor and outstanding moral virtue.

 

***Stay tuned, Have you heard yet that 40 years ago, John McCain was a POW? General Franco is still dead too--- Doug Wiken

**The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard meet Mrs. Palin

Isn't she just so perky? She rides horses, She has kids, her kid has a kid before she gets married, she hunts, and she was a mayor and also horsed around as Governor of Alaska. She appears to have all the qualifications of a few hundred South Dakota ranch women or even some of the citified horsey set around Sioux Falls.

 Shades of the The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard which was an interesting political soap opera on PBS a year or two ago and which will apparently be re-run again this fall. Mrs. Pritchard is a fantasy which has much in common with Mrs. Sarah Palin. Fantasy TV allows unexpected success to happen almost automagically. The real world isn't quite so forgiving.

 I see nothing in Sarah Palin that remotely suggests she has the experience, the intelligence, the knowledge, or the personality to be a good President should McCain croak.

 Now and then I am convinced that there are some South Dakota farm and ranch wives, farmers, and ranchers who would have more management ability than many of our politicians, but I would not bet any money on any one of them doing a good job as Governor let alone President.

 I welcome comments from South Dakota women who hunt, have had children, ride horses, etc who have a perspective on their or Gov. Palin's odds of having the knowledge and experience ready to be President.

 

** Stay tuned even if you just can't wait to hear the GOP convention tonight..incidentally, I'll be watching too--- Doug Wiken

**It is morning in Minneapolis, but it is 1968 for the cops there

Sounds like the federal government and the Minnesota state police are awfully worried that peace groups might point out that George Bush and John McCain support war in Iraq. Reporter Amy Goodman arrested in Minnesota

We don't need no stinking freedom of the press or right of peaceful assembly.

This morning there were stories about search warrants justifying SWAT team attacks on houses with masked police carrying automatic weapons breaking into houses and searching for computers and household cleansers, etc. which might be in every house, but which might be used to make bombs and Molotov cocktails.  The search warrant looked more like a grocery list multipurpose document that could be used to unleash police against any house anywhere in the country Children, can you all  spell "martial law"?

 Meanwhile the GOP is delaying their convention because of a storm in Louisiana. It seems that after 3 or 4 years of planning, the GOP and President Bush and co-conspirator Cheney can't walk up stairs and chew gum at the same time. Sending Homeland Security to Minneapolis and TV cameras to cover Bush in a storm area seems like a big wad of stale bubble gum stuck on the stairway to the November election.

 And, in Alaska, more evidence that abstinence may be good personal policy, but is terrible failure as public policy or education policy. The wingnuts don't seem to get the distinction. And, as Jeff Greenfield noted tonight on CBS evening news, "What would the rightwing religious groups be saying about this mess if it had been Chelsea Clinton who got pregnant at 17?"

So far, the GOP seems to have managed only to manage hypocrisy.

 

**Stay tuned, there just has to be more bread and circuses coming from Minneapolis and St. Paul-- Doug Wiken

*** A few of the reasons Bush-Cheney should be impeached

Nancy Pelosi has danced an obscene dance around the issue of impeaching George Bush.  One place she says it is off the table, in another she asks for evidence.  This poor woman is supposed to be a congressional leader and has resources none of us have.  She has easy access to perhaps a dozen lists of actual crimes that don't include misleading White House window peekers about sexual dalliances.  Below are some links.  One promises a $1000 to anybody asking Pelosi some tough questions and provides links to several documents which I will also include here.

First, the $1000 offer:

Democratic Underground on Pelosi, Impeachment Articles, etc.

Next, from links at above site, a congressional minority report with a summary on terror and torture relating to Bush adminstration deception:

Minority Report Summary on "Downing Street" deceptioon

And third, the Articles of Impeachment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich:

Articles of Impeachment for President Bush

There is enough information in those three links that they should catch the attention of our current and past South Dakota delegations even if they are intellectually and ideologically blind as deaf bats. Let them know. Save the PDF files for your own reference. Check PBS for the Bill Moyers transcripts of "Runup to the War".

***Stay tuned even if the only kind of impeachable offense you seem to care about involves sexually-challenged ethics ---- Doug Wiken