Posts filed under “Crapitalism”
Since Corporations Aren’t People
I’m certainly perplexed to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor‘s grammar, but I’m even more perplexed to his deep-throated full-throated defense of offending mortgage lenders. This was the slightly misnamed Cantor (by one extra syllable, and one wrong vowel), on Fox Sunday, responding to Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s call for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures: CANTOR: I’m [...]
Foreclosure Crisis, Take Two
There’s probably a full-fledged foreclosure crisis looming. Because the foreclosure problems faced by mortgage lenders go well beyond the issues of forgery and flawed paperwork I talked about last week. It turns out that there’s a whole other dimension to the mortgage industry’s foreclosure problems. One that smacks of poetic justice, actually. When you buy [...]
More Mortgage Industry Shenanigans
The Washington Post brings us news of the mortgage industry’s latest shenanigans: J.P. Morgan Chase, one of the nation’s leading banks, announced Wednesday that it will freeze foreclosures in about half the country because of flawed paperwork, a move that Wall Street analysts said will pressure the rest of the industry to follow suit. I’m [...]
If Size Matters, How Big Is Small?
For months and months (and months), everyone in the Republican Party claimed that if the Bush tax cuts — expiring by Republican design (that is to say, as a result of legislative games played by Bush, et al) — were not extended for the top tax brackets, economic recovery would be jeopardized because small businesses [...]
Depends On The Definition Of “Hit Hardest”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday, on the possibility (brought up by House Minority Leader John Boehner on Sunday) of giving up on extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans: We can’t let the people who’ve been hit hardest by this recession and who we need to create the jobs that will get [...]
Boehner’s Inexplicably Sane Statement on Tax Cuts
Yesterday morning, John Boehner unexpectedly declared on “Face the Nation” that if push came to shove, he would be willing to drop the demand that Republicans have been holding firm on: that they would allow the expiring Bush tax cuts to be extended for middle class Americans only if they were also extended for the [...]
When Polls Collide And Minds Explode
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll on Sunday: A new national poll released Sunday indicates that eight in 10 Americans say that the economy is in poor shape, and the number that says conditions are very poor is on the upswing after steady declines through the spring. And according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, more [...]
Adding Unemployment Insult To Unemployment Injury
Steve Benen writes today: Nevada’s Angle believes unemployment benefits doesn’t help anyone; Alaska’s Joe Miller believes unemployment benefits are unconstitutional; Kentucky’s Rand Paul thinks it’s time to cut the jobless off before we’re worse than Europe; and a wide variety of Republican lawmakers have said the aid to the unemployed is encouraging laziness. It’s ironic, [...]
CEO Compensation, Obscene Disparities And The Expropriation Of Stockholder Wealth
The title of the post is in the style of academic research studies. It’s not a generally accepted practice for such a long title to be followed by a subtitle. But if I were inclined to disregard such niceties, the subtitle would be “Robbing The Buggers Blind”. (1) Regular readers know what a numbers nerd [...]
A Disingenuous And Dishonest Collaboration Between Mark Zandi And The Washington Post
(1) The Washington Post has a report alleging that: …some senior Democrats are having second thoughts about raising taxes on the nation’s wealthiest families and are pressing party leaders to consider extending the full array of Bush administration tax cuts, at least through next year. Here’s the rationale put forward (by the WP, I should [...]