I'm a little nervous doing this, but I'm gonna kick off today's Underbuzzed with a story I'm undrestanding only tenuously. Wish me luck and if I go astray, set me straight in the comments...
- When I first saw that Pres. Obama had decided to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, my first thought was that this was a mistake--that Pres. Obama was implicitly endorsing the mistaken claim that supply-and-demand were behind the recent run-up in gas prices. However, I've since been advised by someone on the finance end, that the amount coming out of the SPR is virtually insignificant--less than a day's worth of global demand. So why should such a tiny amount bring down the price of crude by $8 / barrel? Because it flushed out speculators...which means tapping the SPR has demonstrated the role of speculators in driving the price around. That, my adviser suggested, is good news because it proves the speculative impact. But that's only good news if decision-makers are open to recognizing hard proof. And recent history makes that far less than a given.
- Michigan's economy is starting to gain strength from the auto industry, post-government bailout. When government creates jobs, those jobs create more jobs and those jobs create more jobs. Oh, Mitt, what will you do now?
- Graphic of the day: Shared sacrifice my ass. Since the alleged recovery, which has left so many worse off, the rich have gotten richer. That's redistribution of wealth.
- A handful of endangered-species Republicans dare to push for tougher fuel-efficiency standards. Remember moderate, reality-based Republicans?
- Ben Smith of Politico writes that Obama's speech last night felt like the end of an era, the era of American militarization. I don't think so. Obama hasn't shown himself to be that kind of president, I don't think. And it's hard to talk about the end of militarization when we're still in Iraq, will remain in Afghanistan for years and are embarking on new ventures in Libya, Yemen and elsewhere.
What are your Underbuzzed stories of the day? Post 'em in the comments.
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Drastically underbuzzed this week: HR 1249 - the humorously named "America Invents Act". This GOP backed, special industry legislation will cripple innovation in America and dismantle the system that has made our country great - because America's largest companies want to block independent inventors from getting patents - that they might want to infringe later. There are too many things wrong with this legislation to list here, but a light needs to be shined on this before it's too late! The GOP is pushing this bill through silently and stealthily - with presidential support! Interesting that the GOP and Obama are together on this one, but the Dems in Congress are not in favor of it! Worth a look! Please talk about this now before it's late!
This is drastically important. So much for our hard work and determination if these bastards pass this bill. Then we independent inventors can't protect ourselves form the big bad companies like HALIBURTON STEALING oru intellectual property. What a crock of crap. Sounds like a communist act to me. These people should be shot for treason against the American Citizens and this may happen at some point if they do not stop their treasonous acts. The laws are not on the average citizens side anymore and your ideas are theirs if this happens. This sounds so much like a Chinese philosophy, share all knowledge as long as you are a citizen, keep it as secret if you are a company or government.
It hard to think this Prez support this.
Underbuzzed, This little tantrum that Cantor did today would have worked a few years ago, but the electorate is more informed now than they have ever been. It was about saving the tax brakes for the rich. I'm tired of these Republican turds, pissing down our backs and telling us it's raining. An informed public should scare these Republicans to death, the death of their political career, that is.
You are absolutely right Bill. Maybe the Dems should take up psycho bachman's idea of investigating congress for un American activities. They'd find a TON of it coming from the nopublicons. And you're right about them being scared. The politicians might not be scared YET. But their lackeys sure are. Why do you think they keep coming on this blog, and posting their BS? Their time is running out.
Cantor turns tail and runs, and didn't stay long enough to learn anything. The Democrats are ready to do business and Cut $2 trillion dollars out of the deficit and get the economy back on track. He runs back to the safety of the Republican Wrecking Crew, who are not interested in saving the economy or America. They are playing politics to keep Obama from a second term....Republican dirty politics as always.
How about an Underbuzzed issue? Today's game plan for stealing Social Security/Medicare is essentially the same one that was used for stealing welfare. We were told that welfare (specifically, AFDC) was unsustainable, causing taxes to soar, draining the budget, etc.,etc. Never mind that benefits were well below the poverty line, and that AFDC used a mere 6% of the fed budget at its highest, back in the 1970s. So, where did this supposedly massive amount of money go, after aid was cut off? We're back to square one, poverty has increased dramatically, and the right wingers repeating the same old garbage against Social Security. I can assure you that no matter how much taxpayer money we give the rich, it will never be enough. The only danger to Social Security is the insatiable greed of the few.
Over 50% of the US budget goes into only two things - war(s) and handouts to the rich/corporations. That's unprecedented. The rich don't need it, and they can leave if they don't wish to pay taxes. As for corporations, we have decades of proof that most of the handouts given to them have gone into building factories around the world, exporting our jobs. Restore pre-Reagan tax rates for the rich/corps. The sky won't fall.
The reason for the government control of essential resources and not in the hands of the businessman reinforces itself time and time again.
The rich have gotten too much richer through forces that have nothing to do with a market economy. The redistribution of wealth from the taxpayers to the filthy rich has prevented the most of the rest of us from having sufficient income to sustain a demand-driven market economy. That, in conjunction with increases in automation, prevents a need to create new jobs. The oligarchs can just sit on their billions upon billions of dollars that don't get invested or otherwise used except for where loopholes in the tax code makes it profitable to themselves without adding to the tax base.
With the exception of the Clinton years, since Reagan, the supply-side economic model that was in effect did not support any kind of trickle-down from the rich to the lower classes. For the most part it hasn't been merely trickle-up either. The redistribution of wealth from the lower classes to the rich has been such a catastrophic flood so that any self-correcting mechanisms the market was presumed to have had by the likes of Greenspan, Bush 43, and the Neocons simply could not work, presuming that such mechanisms did in fact exist.
The root problem with any free market working fairly is that market expansion doesn't happen in a vacuum. A Free Market can't prevent itself from being corrupted by greed. Therefore, the need for market regulations to prevent monopolies, collusion for price fixing, not providing supplies to satisfy demand because it's not cost-effective without being subsidized, etc. Not to mention that the Financial Markets have divorced themselves from any Capitalist backbone because it's more cost-effective to make money by gambling on money - until the market crashes.
What America needs, that the founding fathers had no way of knowing would become necessary, is Separation of Business and State, analogous to Separation of Church and State. It should be unconstitutional to pass any legislation designed to provide Business with an unfair advantage in the market, especially when that advantage is counter to the well-being of We the People. Subsidies to help make it profitable to develop business in new industries like Renewable Energy is one thing. Subsidies for well-established industries like Big Oil, Industrialized Farming, and so on is entirely different. The taxpayers get no benefit from providing subsidies to the most profitable industries there have ever been. We get no compensating reduction of cost and those taxpayer funds could be much more justifiable used elsewhere - paying against the debt or interest on the debt at the very least.
The same could be said for self-regulation or self-oversight. That's as useless as no regulation or no oversight. Such regulation must be enforced by those who have the best interests of the taxpayers as the dominant interest.
I'm 76 years old and I have never seen such a bunch of fools as these republicans. You are right .. they are trying to surpress this economy so they can blame President Obama and the dems for it. I think the american people are wise to this nosense... I say ... Democrats ..... Stand together and ruin this little plot the republicans have cooked up.. And I hope NJ can also get rid of that creep Christy........
"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government, that when ever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they maybe relied on to set them to rights." THOMAS JEFFERSON This just as true today as it was 200yrs ago. It amazes me how our founding fathers gave us direction on how to CORRECT the WRONGS of today. We will right these wrongs on election day if not before. We should never give the REPUBLICANS a minute of rest. Remind the people everyday what they are doing to OUR COUNTRY!
Clinton released oil reserves to drive the price of gas down. and it worked. When he left office gas was $1.25 a gallon.
You have to be an idiot to believe that release of the oil reserves does anything to the price of oil. It is 8 hours of our use of oil each day. Now think for just one second since a liberal can only think one thought for about ten seconds. It is for show and it will not work and it has nothing to do with the price since each day it takes over 100 million barrels to keep the world afloat. Wow I better go sell my 20 gold coins and watch the price of gold go down, same theory. Get real and start to use your own brain and stop listening to fools.