Quote of the Day
December 17, 2010

‘Not many senators in Congress can claim in their time
to have made C-Span, the cable equivalent of BBC
Parliament, the hottest topic on Twitter. Such was
Bernie Sanders’ achievement when he spoke for eight and
a half hours on the Senate floor. His fire was aimed at
President Obama’s Faustian pact with the Republicans
which allowed the Bush tax cuts for the rich to
continue for two more years. It was not technically a
filibuster because Mr Sanders did not hold up Senate
business. But he did generate an audience for his
principal theme that America’s besetting sin is to make
the richest people richer still. And a marvellous
performance it was too. It was not simply that he spoke
from the heart. It was also that he was manifestly and
abundantly right. One of the worst elements of the deal
was an estate tax that would affect just 3,500
families. Government of the people, by the people, for
the people ? Hardly. Mr Sanders is sui generis, as is
the state of Vermont, which he has represented for 20
years. In a nation where liberal can be used as a term
of abuse, he has no hesitation calling himself a
socialist. He is an independent but caucuses with the
Democrats and has been an Obama supporter. For all
these reasons, no one should kid themselves that the
Democrats will turn as a result of this intervention
into a progressive party. But in a climate where
congressmen are expected to mouth the lines their
funders feed them, Mr Sanders reminds us that there are
still people around who refuse to be bought.’

Editorial
The Guardian (UK)
December 15, 2010

 

Quote of the Day
December 12, 2010

‘On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine
members of an elite Wall Street society gather in
Midtown Manhattan.

‘The men share a common goal: to protect the interests
of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of
the most profitable – and controversial – fields in
finance. They also share a common secret: The details
of their meetings, even their identities, have been
strictly confidential.

‘Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs
and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful
committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives,
instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge
risk.

‘In theory, this group exists to safeguard the
integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In
practice, it also defends the dominance of the big
banks. ‘

New York Times
December 12, 2010

Quote of the Day
December 6, 2010

‘In my view, it is an obvious conflict of interest for
C.E.O.’s of banks and large corporations who serve on
the Fed’s board of directors to have received cheap
loans from the Fed.

‘While they got a huge amount of government support,
small businesses are going bankrupt because they can’t
receive affordable credit, workers are losing their
homes to foreclosure, and consumers are being charged
25 percent to 30 percent interest rates on their credit
cards by the very same banks that were bailed out,’

Senator Bernard Sanders, a Vermont
independent who wrote the legal
provision requiring the Federal Reserve
to disclose which companies received
government support during the economic
crisis.

Quote of the Day
December 2, 2010

“We’ll put up decorations, but we just don’t have the
money for a Christmas tree.’

Shawn Slonsky, a 44-year-old
union electrician and
father who is one of nearly
2 million Americans whose
extended unemployment benefits
will run out this month

Associated Press
December 1, 2010

Quote of the Day
November 27, 2010

‘We are trying to reclaim our sovereignty before it’s
lost and before the IMF sell our natural resources and
assets to the highest bidder.’

Feilim Wakely, from County Louth,
holding a sign that read
‘EIRE NOT FOR SALE’ at a demonstration
today against the Irish government’s
proposed austerity budget, as trade
union protesters marched on the
General Post Office building, the
headquarters of a nationalist
uprising against British rule in 1916

Quote of the Day
November 13, 2010

‘The current federal budget deficit was caused mainly
by unnecessary wars and related military spending, the
worst economic downturn since the 1930s, and large tax
cuts and bailouts for the rich, all stemming from the
Bush administration.

‘Now a bipartisan commission proposes that we solve the
long-term deficit “problem” by cutting back Social
Security, Medicare and other social welfare programs.
Thus the poor, the sick and the elderly would pay for
the tax breaks and bailouts for the already wealthy.

‘The Republicans have made it clear that they have only
one economic goal: making the rich richer. Are there no
Democrats left with any backbone?

‘Robert Ortner ‘Short Hills, N.J.’

The writer was chief economist and under

secretary of commerce during the Reagan

administration and is the author of “Voodoo

Deficits.”

Letter to the Editor
Re “Some Fiscal Reality”
(editorial, Nov. 11)
New York Times
November 13, 2010

Quote of the Day
November 11, 2010
‘The chairmen of the Deficit Commission just told
working Americans to ‘Drop Dead.’ Especially in these
tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be
proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines for
working people, Social Security and Medicare.

‘Some people are saying this plan is just a “starting
point.” Let me be clear, it is not.

‘This deficit talk reeks of rank hypocrisy: The very
people who want to slash Social Security and Medicare
spent this week clamoring for more unpaid Bush tax cuts
for millionaires.

‘What we need to be focusing on now is the jobs
deficit.Working families already paid for Wall Street’s
party that tanked our economy. If we actually want to
address our economic problems, we need to end tax
breaks that send American jobs overseas and invest in
creating jobs by rebuilding our crumbling
infrastructure and green technologies.’

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
AFL-CIO blog
November 10, 2010

Quote of the Day
November 9, 2010

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” – Thomas Jefferson in 1802 in a letter to then Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin

Quote of the Day
November 8, 2010

‘Republican leaders have made clear they have no plans
to use the power of government to stimulate the
economy, invest in job creation and spur job growth.
The Fed’s plan is to give banks more money to finance
the private sector job creation. But banks have ample
cash now; they aren’t lending, and the private sector
is not creating the jobs. That is why we have 15
million people unemployed.

‘Without a plan to add jobs to the economy so that
businesses have consumers to sell to, the Fed takes a
real risk that the money being introduced will simply
be hoarded by banks unwilling to lend.

‘The Fed should be financing government investment in
badly-needed infrastructure repair. This would create
jobs and help the Fed fulfill its mandate of promoting
low unemployment, instead of being an elite,
unaccountable institution that exists solely for the
benefit of bankers.’

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Common Dreams
November 4, 2010

Quote of the Day
October 30, 2010

‘Israelis might dismiss the Palestinian threats to go
to the United Nations as theatrics. Today they might
be. But the Israelis cannot bet on the infinite
patience of the Palestinian people – or the
international community.’

Editorial
New York Times
October 30, 2010

Quote of the Day
October 18, 2010

‘Charting a new course for our economy requires that we
understand the causes behind wage stagnation and
growing inequality over the past 35 years. And
prominent among those causes is the free market
orthodoxy that has served the interests of our nation’s
wealthiest families and most powerful institutions but
left the vast majority of working families behind.

‘We have to wage a sustained war of ideas to challenge
free market fundamentalism and fight for our own
strategy to recover, rebalance and rebuild an economy
that works for all.’

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
afl-cio blog
October 18, 2010

Quote of the Day
October 16, 2010

“We’re prepared to demonstrate under the snow if it
takes that long. We’re mobilised, everyone seems
motivated. With right-wing governments, we know you
have to resist,”

Airbus worker Stephane Thibault, 37,
at a pension demonstration in the
southern French city of Toulouse.

AFP
October 16, 2010

Quote of the Day
September 26, 2010

‘China is doing moon shots. Yes, that’s plural. When I
say “moon shots” I mean big, multibillion-dollar, 25-
year-horizon, game-changing investments. China has at
least four going now: one is building a network of
ultramodern airports; another is building a web of
high-speed trains connecting major cities; a third is
in bioscience, where the Beijing Genomics Institute
this year ordered 128 DNA sequencers – from America -
giving China the largest number in the world in one
institute to launch its own stem cell/genetic
engineering industry; and, finally, Beijing just
announced that it was providing $15 billion in seed
money for the country’s leading auto and battery
companies to create an electric car industry, starting
in 20 pilot cities. In essence, China Inc. just named
its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move
China off oil and into the next industrial growth
engine: electric cars.

‘Not to worry. America today also has its own
multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing
moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.’

Columnist Thomas L. Friedman
‘Their Moon Shot and Ours’
New York Times
September 26, 2010

Quote of the Day
July 17, 2010

‘With 96 closures nationwide so far this year, the pace
of bank failures far outstrips that of 2009, which had
been a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last
year, regulators had closed 57 banks. The rate has
accelerated as banks’ losses mounted on loans made for
commercial property and development.

‘The number of bank failures is expected to peak this
year and be slightly higher than the 140 that failed in
2009.’

Associated Press
July 16, 2010

Quote of the Day
June 18, 2010

‘German deficit hawkery seems more sincere. But it
still has nothing to do with fiscal realism. Instead,
it’s about moralizing and posturing. Germans tend to
think of running deficits as being morally wrong, while
balancing budgets is considered virtuous, never mind
the circumstances or economic logic. “The last few
hours were a singular show of strength,” declared
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, after a special
cabinet meeting agreed on the austerity plan. And
showing strength – or what is perceived as strength -
is what it’s all about.

‘There will, of course, be a price for this posturing.
Only part of that price will fall on Germany: German
austerity will worsen the crisis in the euro area,
making it that much harder for Spain and other troubled
economies to recover. Europe’s troubles are also
leading to a weak euro, which perversely helps German
manufacturing, but also exports the consequences of
German austerity to the rest of the world, including
the United States.

‘But German politicians seem determined to prove their
strength by imposing suffering – and politicians around
the world are following their lead.

‘How bad will it be? Will it really be 1937 all over
again? I don’t know. What I do know is that economic
policy around the world has taken a major wrong turn,
and that the odds of a prolonged slump are rising by
the day. ‘

Columnist Paul Krugman
New York Times

Quote of the Day
February 11, 2010

‘At the very least, though, we should make the return
to a more normal jobs environment an unflagging
national priority. The stock market has rallied, the
financial system has stabilized, and job losses have
slowed; by the time you read this, the unemployment
rate might be down a little. Yet the difference between
“turning the corner” and a return to any sort of
normalcy is vast.

‘We are in a very deep hole, and we’ve been in it for a
relatively long time already. Concerns over deficits
are understandable, but in these times, our bias should
be toward doing too much rather than doing too little.
That implies some small risk to the government’s
ability to continue borrowing in the future; and it
implies somewhat higher taxes in the future too. But
that seems a trade worth making. We are living through
a slow-motion social catastrophe, one that could stain
our culture and weaken our nation for many, many years
to come. We have a civic-and indeed a
moral-responsibility to do everything in our power to
stop it now, before it gets even worse. ‘

Don Peck
The Atlantic
March 2010

Quote of the Day
January 18, 2010‘If you’re a retiree who relies on interest income, you
know that the tap is running dry. In fact, many
investors in certificates of deposits, savings accounts
and money market accounts are losing money once taxes
and inflation are subtracted from today’s extremely low
yields.

‘Less well known is that measly savings yields are
central to the government effort to buy time for the
banks to earn their way back to health. It is important
to rebuild the banks. But more attention must be paid
to the collateral damage from that effort. ‘

Editorial
New York Times
January 18, 2010

Quote of the Day
January 13, 2010

‘… the widening gulf between Wall Street and Main
Street – a big bail-out for the former, unemployment
checks for the latter; high profits and giant bonuses
for the former, job and wage losses for the latter;
buoyant expectations of the former, deep anxiety and
cynicism by the latter; ever fancier estates for
denizens of the former; mortgage foreclosures for the
rest – is dangerous. Americans went ballistic early
last summer when AIG executives got big bonuses after
taxpayers had bailed them out. They will not be happy
when Wall Street hands out billions in bonuses very
soon. Angry populism lurks just beneath the surface of
two-party politics in America. Just listen to Sarah
Palin or her counterparts on American talk radio and
yell television. Over the long term, the political
stakes in reforming Wall Street are as high as the
economic.’

Economist Robert Reich
Financial Times
January 13, 2010

Quote of the Day
January 10, 2010‘The window for change is rapidly closing. Health care,
Afghanistan and the terrorism panic may have exhausted
Washington’s already limited capacity for heavy
lifting, especially in an election year. The White
House’s chief economic hand, Lawrence Summers, has
repeatedly announced that “everybody agrees that the
recession is over” – which is technically true from an
economist’s perspective and certainly true on Wall
Street, where bailed-out banks are reporting record
profits and bonuses. The contrary voices of Americans
who have lost pay, jobs, homes and savings are either
patronized or drowned out entirely by a political
system where the banking lobby rules in both parties
and the revolving door between finance and government
never stops spinning.’

Columnist Frank Rich
New York Times
January 10, 2010

Quote of the Day
January 7, 2009‘It’s a very blunt instrument. It makes far more sense
on policy and political grounds to tax the top 1
percent rather than sweep in so many people that are
paying more for health care, not because they are
getting more health care but because they’re older or
working for small businesses.’

Economist Robert Reich,
on the proposal to impose
a new tax on more generous
health insurance plans

Washington Post
January 7, 2009

Quote of the Day
January 4, 2010‘So the odds are that any good economic news you hear
in the near future will be a blip, not an indication
that we’re on our way to sustained recovery. But will
policy makers misinterpret the news and repeat the
mistakes of 1937? Actually, they already are.

‘The Obama fiscal stimulus plan is expected to have its
peak effect on G.D.P. and jobs around the middle of
this year, then start fading out. That’s far too early:
why withdraw support in the face of continuing mass
unemployment? Congress should have enacted a second
round of stimulus months ago, when it became clear that
the slump was going to be deeper and longer than
originally expected. But nothing was done – and the
illusory good numbers we’re about to see will probably
head off any further possibility of action.’

Columnist Paul Krugman
New York Times
January 4, 2010

 

Quote of the Day
January 1, 2010‘In Yemen the US will be intervening on one side in a
country which is always in danger of sliding into a
civil war. This has happened before. In Iraq the US was
the supporter of the Shia Arabs and Kurds against the
Sunni Arabs. In Afghanistan it is the ally of the
Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara against the Pashtun
community. Whatever the intentions of Washington, its
participation in these civil conflicts destabilises the
country because one side becomes labelled as the
quisling supporter of a foreign invader. Communal and
nationalist antipathies combine to create a lethal
blend.

‘Despite sectarian, ethnic and tribal loyalties in the
countries where the US has intervened in the Middle
East, they usually have a strong sense of national
identity. Yemenis are highly conscious of their own
nationality and their identity as Arabs. One of the
reasons the country is so miserably poor, with almost
half its 22 million people trying to live on $2 a day,
is that in 1990 Yemen refused to join the war against
Iraq and Saudi Arabia consequently expelled 850,000
Yemeni workers.’

Patrick Coburn
The Independent (UK)
December 31, 2009

Quote of the Day
December 31, 2009

‘The delegation concluded that a unit of international
forces descended from a plane Sunday night into Ghazi
Khan village, in Narang District of the eastern
province of Kunar, and took 10 people from 3 homes, 8
of them school students in grades 6, 9 and 10, one of
them a guest, the rest from the same family, and shot
them dead.’

Statement from the office of
President Hamid Karzai
concerning allied raid in a
remote district of eastern
Kunar Province in which 10
civilians were reported
killed

New York Times
December 31, 2009

Quote of the Day
December 25, 2009‘No doubt the president is one of the most compelling
figures in American political history, perhaps more
interesting as a person than any occupant of the White
House since his moral opposite, Richard Nixon. His
combination of political skill, intellect, discipline,
confidence, and command of language is unprecedented,
and his theory of politics, which brought with it the
first actual Democratic electoral majority since 1976,
may have changed the parameters of political
possibility. It’s hard to take your eyes off that
phenomenon.

‘But even world-historical figures color within lines
that they do not draw themselves. What presidents,
governors, or even legislators are willing and able to
do is defined by forces and efforts outside of
themselves. And for progressive politicians, those
factors include the condition and power of the
progressive coalition and its organizations — its
ability to generate and refine ideas, as well as its
organizational capacity to bring pressure to bear on
the political system. Every success or failure can be
seen as a measure of the strength or weakness of that
infrastructure. ‘

Mark Schmitt
The American Prospect
January/February 2010

Quote of the Day
December 10, 2009‘Mr. Obama rightly called the apparent conflict between
stimulating job creation and reducing the fiscal
deficit “a false choice.” The budget gap cannot be
closed in a sustainable fashion without first achieving
robust job growth. He also criticized Republicans who
eagerly championed budget-busting tax cuts under
President George W. Bush, only to pose as deficit hawks
now.

‘There is other hypocrisy to be highlighted. A Congress
that agreed to spend hundreds of billions to rescue
enormous financial institutions should be willing to
spend far less to put Americans back to work. The
president can win this argument on the merits of
economic soundness and fairness. But he must be willing
to fight.’

Editorial
New York Times
December 10, 2009

 

Quote of the Day
December 9, 2009

‘… I believe we cannot and should not continue the
spilling of American blood with the consequent deaths
and casualties, and massive expenditure of funds we
don’t have. On the issue of expense, The Times reported
that “[t]he economic cost was troubling [President
Obama] as well after he received a private budget memo
estimating that an expanded presence would cost $1
trillion over 10 years, roughly the same as his health
care plan.”

‘We should defend our homeland from all enemies, no
matter the cost. However, we will be more effective in
our battles against terrorists in both Afghanistan and
Pakistan if we attack the terrorists from offshore
bases and do not continue to be involved in a land war
or, worse still, expand that land war. Next year, there
will be the bi-annual Congressional elections – the
entire House of Representatives and one-third of the
Senate. Two issues will dominate the election – loss of
jobs and the ongoing war. The Democrats will be held
responsible for both and will lose their majority in
both Houses if either or especially both continue.’

Former New York City
Mayor Ed Koch
Real Clear Politics
December 9, 2009

Quote of the Day
December 8, 2009

“In light of the failure to restore President Jose
Manuel Zelaya to the position for which he was
democratically elected by the Honduran people, we want
to express our total lack of recognition for the Nov.
29 elections held by the de facto government, which
were undertaken in an unconstitutional, illegitimate
and illegal atmosphere.’

Statement of a summit meeting
of leaders of of Argentina,
Brazil, Venezuela,  Uruguay
and Paraguay.

Bloomberg
December 8, 2009

Quote of the Day
December 6, 2009‘When President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into
law, he didn’t just end welfare as we knew it. For all
practical purposes, it turned out, he brought an end to
cash help of any kind for families with children in much
of the country. While welfare reform was long ago
declared a success in some quarters, it was deeply
flawed from the beginning. The recession has shown how
seriously unprepared it left us for hard times. ‘

Peter Edelman and Barbara Ehrenreich
Washington Post
December 6, 2009

Quote of the Day
November 26, 2009

‘Whatever they’re eating, the Obamas will undoubtedly
discuss the things they want to give thanks for this
year. You wonder what the president would say. He can
always mention his family. Not every man has daughters
loyal enough to accompany him through a cheesy turkey-
pardoning.

‘But when he tries counting his blessings, does the
specter of President Karzai rise up through the mashed
potatoes? Do the brussels sprouts all look like little
versions of Joe Lieberman threatening a filibuster? If
it turns out that there is a turkey, and someone
inevitably remarks that it looks like the biggest ever,
does Obama think they’re talking about the unemployment
rate?

‘It’s not really fair. The president knows he could
jump-start the economy, fix health care and do his
ambitious energy policy – if only the last
administration hadn’t cut taxes, started two wars and
created a new, large Medicare entitlement without
paying for any of it.

‘When he’s not making his way through Thanksgiving
photo-ops, he’s adding up the numbers over and over in
his mind, and sending mental daggers at the Republicans
who are yelling at him about deficits that they
created.

‘Although what else could he expect in a Washington
that thinks you can pardon your turkey and eat it, too?’

Columnist Gail Collins
New York Times
November 26, 2009

Quote of the Day
November 21, 2009

‘The recession has created a unique systemic risk that
threatens all parts of the African-American community,
including the poor and the middle class. I have always
been committed to addressing that risk and will
continue to do so. This is a critical issue for my
constituents.’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)
Politico
November 21, 2009

Quote of the Day
November 17, 2009‘As most of us are preparing for the holidays a small
clique in the Senate, with their collaborators in the
Washington punditry, are planning for a dramatic
hostage-taking event. Their target of opportunity is a
bill to increase the nation’s debt limit. The hostage-
takers propose to obstruct the bill’s passage unless
the rest of the country gives into their demands to cut
Social Security and Medicare and takes other steps to
meet their warped sense of fiscal responsibility.’

Economist Dean Baker
truthout
November 16, 2009

Quote of the Day
November 15, 2009‘It’s time to stop the verbal pretense. In the Near
East, there is no negotiation “process” underway.
Furthermore, there is also no prospect for peace. The
situation is nonetheless not in a state of status quo:
it is regressing. Dangerously. The United States bears
the primary responsibility. Several months ago, Barack
Obama had placed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at
the top of his priorities. He demanded that Israel stop
the expansion of settlements within Palestinian
territory on the West Bank. It was, if not a
prerequisite, at least a condition to allow the
reopening of negotiations with the Palestinians.

‘The Israelis said no: settlements will continue to
expand, but at a somewhat slower rate, replied Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States just
took it: speaking through Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, it flatly endorsed Mr. Netanyahu’s,
position…. Within a few weeks, Mr. Obama lost the
credit in the Arab world that his remarkable speech in
Cairo in June had gained him. Even in diplomatic
language, that’s called a monumental fiasco.’

Editorial
Le Monde (France)
November 12, 2009
 

Quote of the Day
November 10, 2009

‘Last Friday, a huge crowd of fans marched in a ticker-
tape parade in downtown Manhattan to celebrate the
Yankees’ World Series championship. More than once, as
the fans passed through the financial district, the
crowd erupted in rhythmic, echoing chants of “Wall
Street sucks! Wall Street sucks!”‘

Columnist Bob Herbert
New York Times
November 10, 2009

Quote of the Day
November 8, 2009

‘Five months after Barack Obama went to Cairo and
persuaded most of the Arab world, in a ringing
declaration of even-handedness, that he would face down
Israel in his quest for a Palestinian state, American
policy seems to have run into the sand. The American
president’s mediating hand is weaker, his charisma
damagingly faded. From the Palestinian and Arab point
of view, his administration-after grandly setting out
to force the Jewish state to stop the building of
Jewish settlements on Palestinian land as an early
token of good faith, intended to bring Israelis and
Palestinians back to negotiation-has meekly capitulated
to Israel.’

The Economist
November 7, 2009

Quote of the Day
November 7, 2009

‘Every day, it becomes more urgent that the federal
government step up to the plate with bold actions to
boost job creation.  Those actions should include
urgently needed fiscal relief to state and local
governments, community jobs programs, additional
investments in infrastructure and green jobs and credit
relief to small and medium-sized businesses.  Failing
to act puts us at very real risk of a lost generation
– of hard-working Americans who can’t put food on the
table and bright young people who never realize their
potential.

‘We must do better.’

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
November 6, 2009

Quote of the Day
November 5, 2009

‘Even though insurance companies make money not
providing health care, the so-called reform bill gives
so much power and money to the insurance companies that
we are giving far too much for the few benefits which
the bill may confer.

‘The insurance companies get at least another 26
million customers.

‘They will receive at least an extra $50 billion in new
revenue.

‘They will be able to raise premiums 25%, even though
in each of the last four consecutive years the industry
has raised premiums by double digits.

‘As long as there are for-profit health insurance
companies, there will be no effective way to protect
consumers against ever escalating premiums, co pays and
deductibles, unless the insurance companies know that
people at a state level will always have a choice to
reject the insurance companies and establish a single-
payer not-for-profit system.

‘That is why the Kucinich Amendment must be put back in
the health care bill, not just to protect the rights of
states to pursue single payer, but to protect the
rights of consumers to be free of the economic death
grip of the insurance companies.’

Congressperson Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
CommonDreams
November 4, 2009