The Money Game Wed 2010-06-09 18:11 EDT

How Deficit Hawks Will Keep Cutting Spending Until We're All On Food Stamps

Marshall Auerback

...Sovereign debt is not a problem as long as the nation's debt contracts is denominated in the nation's currency -- and the nation has control over its own currency (in contrast to the euro zone). The Greek problem is the equivalent of the California problem, where California does not print its own currency...Apparently, we do not yet have the guts to shift from the neo-classical orthodoxy. Chicago school economics is still too much our religion. It persists until we all go on food stamps. The country that detests ideology is too ideological to manage any kind of serious change prior to crisis. As a result, a new crisis is almost certain to come, which will force the change that our elites still refuse to contemplate.

deficit hawk; food stamps; Keep Cutting Spending; Money game.

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis Sat 2010-05-22 13:55 EDT

Richard Koo On Why This Recession Is Different; Mish On What To Do About It

Michael Shedlock

The Business Insider has a very interesting presentation by Richard Koo on The Real Reason Why This Recession Is Completely Different...The reason the recession is different is this is credit bubble busting depression not a recession. The effects are masked because of food stamps, unemployment insurance, and because of foreclosure policy...Koo blames cutbacks in fiscal stimulus in 1999 and 2001 as the reason Japan remains mired in deflation. I do not buy it...The real lesson is no matter how much money you throw around, economies cannot recover until noncollectable debts are written off...The moment fiscal stimulus stops economies are virtually guaranteed to relapse until the core problem is resolved. The problem is Asset Bubbles, Malinvestments, and debts that cannot possibly be collected...

different; Mish; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; Recession; Richard Koo.

Tue 2010-04-27 08:22 EDT

Anecdotal Economics: A Chicken in Every VAT

...The retail consumer is back, and she* is in the mood to shop, we reliably are told. The Census Bureau reported March 2010 Advance Retail and Food Service Sales improved 7.6 percent from a year ago, and for 1Q2010 are 5.5 percent above 1Q2009...So why do state sales tax revenues tell a different, disconnected story? In the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government's April 2010 State Revenue Report, which chronicles the woeful status of state tax collections, concludes that sales tax collections fell almost 9.0 percent in 2009, a statistically significant 2.8 percent more than the reported decline in retail and food service sales made up estimated by the Census Bureau...It's a significant disconnect between theory (Census Bureau) and reality (actual sales tax collections), much as the similar, significant disconnect between the Employment Situation reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (theory), which appears to be masking the true extent of unemployment in America with all those marginally attached and discouraged workers, and the meaningful decline in actual payroll tax withholdings (reality), as reported by the Treasury Department in its Daily Treasury Statements...

Anecdotal Economics; chickens; VAT.

Fri 2010-03-12 08:45 EST

AlterNet: The Richest 1% Have Captured America's Wealth -- What's It Going to Take to Get It Back?

David DeGraw, Amped Status

...while US workers are now working more hours and have become dramatically more productive and profitable, our pay is actually declining and all the dramatic increases in wealth are going straight into the pockets of the Economic Elite...the average US citizen is forced to give up approximately 30% of our income in taxes. This tax system is now strategically designed to flow straight into the hands of the Economic Elite. A huge percentage of our tax dollars ultimately end up in their pockets. The past decade proves that -- whether it's the Republicans or the Democrats running the government -- our tax money is not going into our community, it is going into the pockets of the billionaires who have bought off both parties...most every serious economist knows that due to so much theft and debt created in the tax system, the only way to fix things, other than stopping the theft and seizing the trillions that have been stolen, will be for the government to cut important social funding and drastically raise our taxes...Trillions more in our spending on food and fuel has been stolen due to fraudulent stock transactions and overcharging...we have the most expensive health care system in the world and we are forced to pay twice as much as other countries, and the overall care we get in return ranks 37th in the world...The American worker is screwed over every step of the way, and it all starts with the explosion in the cost of a college education. This is one of the Economic Elite's most devastating weapons...The American dream has turned into a nightmare. The economic system is a sophisticated prison cell; the indentured servant is now an indebted wage slave; whips and chains have evolved into debts...

AlterNet; Captured America's Wealth; Go; richest 1; s; take.

ClubOrlov Wed 2009-08-26 15:25 EDT

Local food: success is 100% possible

kollapsnik

This is a guest post from Tim, a city planner from sunny Moncton, NB. Tim has spent some time looking into the viability of local, small scale agriculture, and has come up with some results that give us every reason to be optimistic regarding our ability to feed ourselves through our individual and neighborhood-scale efforts, even as the systems of large-scale, industrial agriculture and food delivery unravel due to a combination of high input costs, epic droughts brought on by accelerating climate change, and a shortage of credit caused by the financial collapse. The remaining challenge is start doing it quickly enough: this summer, that is. "Russian households (inclusive of both urban and rural) collectively grow 92% of country's potatoes on their garden-plots, the size of which is typically...

100; ClubOrlov; local food; possible; Success.

Tue 2009-02-24 00:00 EST

AlterNet: Is America on the Brink of a Food Crisis?

by Robert Jensen

AlterNet; America; brink; Food Crisis.

Tue 2009-02-24 00:00 EST

naked capitalism: Credit Crunch Leads Nations to Barter for Food

bartering; Credit Crunch Leads Nations; Food; naked capitalism.

Fri 2008-11-07 00:00 EST

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Where Are Food Prices Headed?

2008-10-17; ``Judging from a broad basket of commodity prices, we are likely to see declining prices at the grocery stores in the weeks or months ahead''

Food Prices Headed; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

Tue 2008-07-22 00:00 EDT

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Sirens

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Sirens; Food processor Smithfield; corn versus hogs arbitrage

economic; Market; siren; watch; winter.

Fri 2008-07-04 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: World Bank: Biofuels Increased Food Prices 75%

Biofuels Increased Food Prices 75; naked capitalism; World Bank.

Fri 2008-07-04 00:00 EDT

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis | Environment | The Guardian

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis, by Aditya Chakrabortty | Environment | The Guardian; Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% says confidential World Bank report; report suppressed to avoid embarassing President George Bush; over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel.

biofuel caused food crisis; environment; Guardian; Secret Report.

Thu 2008-03-27 00:00 EDT

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Gonna Be a Mad Max Revolution?

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Gonna to be a Mad Max Revolution? "Historically food inflations and famines combined with corrupt, irresponsible government has been the spark to storming the palace gates and insurrection."

economic; Gonna; Mad Max Revolution; Market; watch; winter.

Tue 2007-12-18 00:00 EST

The Oil Drum | Food Price Inflation

by Stuart Staniford

Food Price Inflation; Oil Drum.

Thu 2007-08-16 00:00 EDT

Daily Kos: The Economic Upside To Lead Paint and Tainted Food? Value!

The Economic Upside To Lead Paint and Tainted Food? Value! by Hunter; Erin Burnett, Walmart, China; always low prices

Daily Kos; Economic Upside; lead paint; tainted food; valued.

Fri 2007-07-13 00:00 EDT

Poison for Profit

by David Goldstein; The Nation; food safety system collapse

poisons; profits.

Wed 2006-04-19 00:00 EDT

Mac, Jack, Carl and the Colonel Get Fried With the Facts / A journalist examines the real cost of fast food

(Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser)

Carl; colonel; fact; fast food; Fried; Jack; journalists examination; Mac; real cost.