Apocalypse, New Jersey

  As her young man dies,
On a cold and gray Chicago morning,
Another little baby child is born
In the ghetto 
--In the Ghetto, Elvis Presley
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Matt Taibbi has a good piece at Rolling Stone on societal degradation outside of the Rust Belt in his, "Apocalypse, New Jersey." Go read if you'd like to understand how a good portion of your fellow Americans live.

An excerpt:

Any reporter who's been embedded in Iraq or Afghanistan will find these scenes extremely familiar - high-speed engagements backed by top-end surveillance technology, watched by crowds whose reactions range from bemusement to rage to eye-rolling disappointment. 

In that latter category is Bryan Morton, a fortysomething community leader of sorts who still lives in the North Camden house where he was born. Morton went away in his youth for eight and a half years for armed robbery and drug dealing, got out, went straight, got his college degree, worked for years running local re-entry programs, founded a North Camden Little League, and had things looking up for himself, before he was laid off last May. Fortunately, he'd bought a food cart six years before that, which he left in his backyard as a backup plan; he now drives across town before dawn every day, setting up next to the McDonald's in Camden's pinhead-size "downtown."

.  .  .

Borrowed Time

Gay people here won't come out of the closet
[in Texas] for fear people will think they are Democrats 

--Shrub, Molly Ivans

Bullets change governments
far surer than votes 
--Lord of War (2005)

 __________________

Our congressman Southerland has hopped on the austerity bus hawked by Republicans from presidential candidate Mitt Romney all the way down the line, and he has done so in the down-home way the locals love, surrounded my mom and girl kids, but the main problem is not the corn pone -- it is that it is a totally disingenuous position in direct opposition to the tenets of our Founding Fathers.

His daughter says that daddy (Southerland) won't allow them in Congress to spend money that they do not have.  It sure sounds good, and it is even fine practice to teach young 'uns who put their pennies in the piggy bank.  People can and should live within their means, and so many of their financials woes might have been avoided by more prudent financial behavior.  But governments are a different beast.

The American Revolution was funded and executed on borrowed money.  The Revolutionary War was fought on deficit spending, though that term was not in vogue.  We borrow to survive; we always have and always will.  Sometimes we are in the black, but often in the red. The current  focus should be on reviving our economy, not cutting spending, which motivates naught in the homeland.

If we borrow money, it should be for growth and not retrenchment. Spending money "we don't have" can lead to growth, if the money is soundly used and provides a good return.  Investment does not equal irresponsible spending.

War spending reaps nothing but loss and destruction, save for the builders of the war machine.  The people cannot eat war.

Note: If The People have their wits about them, the destruction from this week's storm should give them pause regarding the Romney campaign stance of off-handing disaster relief efforts to states and private agencies.  Such disasters require quick, coordinated response; they are national in impact. 

Oh, and they require a National Guard at home and on-station.

Lisa has betting in her blood, and will revise her earlier election forecast based on storm Sandy: Obama gets the bump for acting Presidential and the nation sees itself, if only for a moment, as a union; Obama will score 54% and win a second term. Forward.

Lost Man Years

Wherever the standard of freedom and independence
has been or shall be unfurled, there will [America’s] heart,
her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.
She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
--John Quincy Adams
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We recently received a very considered letter from an esteemed reader and business owner on the state of our economy. His story is repeated many times over, throughout our nation. His thinking about "Man Years" and how to keep them being wasted was all the more impressive knowing that this man's politics hew to the conservative.

Yet for the good of his country, he concedes that government infrastructure projects may be necessary, and would be preferable to the crippling unemployment with which the country now struggles. Not only are the skills of otherwise productive members of society lying fallow, but the self-esteem garnered from participation in meaningful work is missing -- an intangible essential for a thriving economy.

Here is our friend's letter:

Both my wife who is in her early 50's with a BA and my daughter who recently graduated with a BA in business are both looking for jobs. Both are totally employable and have long job histories.

We deal with small specialty manufacturers in a progressive technological niche. Private sector business disappeared this time last year. DOD work was all that was available. Also banks pulled their small business credit lines.

Finally we are starting to see some signs of life though barely. Still even though last quarter saw a rise in economy due to inventory adjustments, most US distributors of electronic equipment are keeping minimum stocks and we are having to directly to manufacturers in Germany and China to get parts quickly. Liquidity has vanished from the economy as has any parts inventory or surpluses in people or capital. …. US manufacturing went on a going out of business sale about 15 months ago and it hasn’t really ended – just not going down as fast.

If I were in DC right now, I’d be advocating a press to full employment (5-6%) at any cost. Dry dusty economists forget the social impact of loss of a job to a family, the lack of reward for constructive work, the side ills of alcoholism, food stamps, etc that come when work ends.

We need to focus on Man Years in my opinion. The one thing that can never be recovered – time. I’d prefer people have private sector jobs, but failing that I’d prefer a government funded job, even a temporary one to unemployment. This is what is getting lost in the statistics – we pay people to work or not to work but bridges get fixed, kids get educated and so on only when work – not unemployment – is subsidized.

The tax credit/cut plans for small business aren’t going to have the desired effect because so many companies are operating at a loss right now. Given the paper thin margins contractors are willing to bid for jobs right now, I’d suggest we purchase long lived asset government programs – highways, building repair, build reconstruction, etc.

In DC recently I was at the Supreme Court building. It was built in the depression for 9.5 million and since it came in under budget they furnished it with the leftovers. We are at a similar point in time and if we think multi-year about our investments we can benefit for decades with the work – the lost man years – we invest in right now. … A similar return would come from education – investment in our kids – but that is another chapter.

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

Look here, Mr. Hoover, it's see what you done
You went off a-fishin', let the country go to ruin.
Now he's gone, I'm glad he's gone.
--White House Blues (1932)

Why are we here? Where are we going?

It's time that we found out

We're not here to stay;

we're on a short holiday

--Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries,

Brown/Henderson (1931)

Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,

Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,

Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,

And I was the kid with the drum!

--Brother, can You Spare a Dime?,

Harburg/Gorney (1931)

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The banking behemoth Citigroup lost billions this last quarter. . .despite $45 billion in bailout monies. The $700 billion TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program") is looking like it's a day late and a dollar short.

Throwing good money after bad is how they used to say it. People who had been through The Great Depression coined all kinds of quaint monetary phrases to help keep one's financial house neat -- "penny wise, pound foolish, "A stitch in time saves nine," "A penny saved is a penny earned." It amounts being thrifty, but not miserly. They could form the nucleus of a good introductory finance course for college business students.

If change is what we are after, why not implement the economic stimulus in reverse? Give the money to the lower echelons of the societal food chain. We know they would spend the money on consumer goods, and not try to buy banks with it.

Instead, we are giving 100's of billions to the wealthy and it is not trickling down. Why not try a "trickle-up"? Senator Tom Harkin (IA) sees the only solution to the economic crisis as getting Americans back to work and insured. He doubts that, "If we just put it in at the top, it’s going to trickle down.” As coulumnist Bob Herbert wrote, "Been there. Done that. Didn’t work" (Obama's Biggest Challenge.)

However, the highly entitled top of the economic food chain will not allow anything but the old paradigm. Sorry Mr. Bentham, but we are not a nation of the greatest good for the greatest number, though it makes us feel righteous to think so. We are a nation that shovels $100's of billions to the very banks and corporations that cause the problems, thus passing for a solution in the "greatest democracy" in the world.

NYT Economist Paul Krugman says pshaw to talk of "jump-starting" the economy via business and payroll tax cuts. Reviving the economy will be long-haul business.

"Money not squandered on ineffective tax cuts could be used to provide further relief to Americans in distress — enhanced unemployment benefits, expanded Medicaid and more. And why not get an early start on the insurance subsidies — probably running at $100 billion or more per year — that will be essential if we’re going to achieve universal health care? (Ideas for Obama.)"

Krugman quotes a report released by Obama's future head of the Council of Economic Advisers and the vice president’s chief economist who wrote, “a dollar of infrastructure spending is more effective in creating jobs than a dollar of tax cuts.”

Democracy in America is a Wall Street orchestrated Ponzi scheme.

Bull Market

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
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Iran's President Ahmadinejad is addressing the United Nations this morning. Same-same President Bush.

Before either commence their bloviations, let's be clear that the words of neither will pull the U.S. bacon out of the self-immolating fire. And Ahmadinejad certainly couldn't put our bacon in the fire. We are not implying that Iran is a client terrorist state, but rather, that our crumbling economy far outstrips terrorism as a threat to the stability of the United States.

Ahmadinejad will not have to talk about the dismal state of the Iranian economy. All he has to do is talk. He doesn't have to destroy the Great Satan.

The Great Satan is doing a "heck of a job" self imploding.

Radical Chic

We should transition from being nation-builders
to nation-defenders.
But the nation we should be defending is our own
--Bob Beckel

I’ve had enough of watching
scenes of schizophrenic, egocentric
paranoic, prima donnas.
All I want is the truth
Just give me some truth
--All I Want is the Truth, John Lennon
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Top U.S. commander in Iraq General David Petraeus said last Thursday that Iraqi leaders have not made sufficient progress towards internal reconciliation. This downtick in enthusiasm was in contrast to his February report (Iraqi Leaders Not Making Sufficient Progress.)

Then, following the passage of laws on the budget, provincial elections and an amnesty for certain detainees, Petraeus had said, "(T)he passage of the three laws today showed that the Iraqi leaders are now taking advantage of the opportunity that coalition and Iraqi troopers fought so hard to provide."

General Petraeus should be advised that the passage of a law in Iraq is as meaningless as a mandate to love in a massage parlor. A law that can not be enforced is falderol.

In addition, the U.S. should be asking who benefits from these wondrous laws? Is it the American taxpayers picking up the tab and/or dying for this fiction?

"Petraeus credited both the mainly Sunni neighborhood patrols known as the Awakening and a cease-fire called by Shiite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr with helping to bring down violence. The Awakening fighters include former insurgents who say they have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq, a largely homegrown Sunni group that Petraeus said is in communication with al-Qaeda leaders abroad. The United States is now paying 88,000 members of the Awakening $300 a month to take part in the neighborhood patrols."

So al-Sadr's not quite so radical now that it appears he is benefiting U.S. interests. He even gets strokes from the good General. This re-branding is a joke. In fact, this cleric owns the country; Petraeus is but a breeze blowing across the palace balcony.

Another joke: the U.S. bribing paying militiamen -- former Sunni insurgents -- $26.4 million a month to tote AK's on city streets. [Meanwhile, we can't figure if our own 200+ year old Constitution allows U.S. citizens to bear arms.]

Texas tea:

"Sunni fighters in the western province of Anbar who have joined the Awakening 'are waiting for the next opportunity,' not the next war, Petraeus asserted. 'What they want to do is get more closely linked with Baghdad so they can continue to benefit from the enormous oil revenue wealth which is pouring into this country.'"

Can I link with Baghdad for a cut? While their oil revenue flows, our tax dollars continue to foot their bills. This is like being on a really bad date, for there will be no quid pro quo; she just wants to eat dinner and be gone.

Meanwhile, no one is staunching our bleeding as a result of the petro price-gouging. For one example of the trickle-down effect, the average grocery tab rose 5% in 2007 and is expected to increase by a higher percentage in 2008. No one is remunerating me for being on the Awakening Council to this fact.

Who is drawing the connection between the real costs of this war and the suffering of the average American? There is no cause for joy at a bottomless bucket of handouts for Iraqis while the economic thumbscrews are tightened on hardworking taxpayers daily. My life is not a whit better for George W. Bush's Holy Land crusade; in fact, it is much the worse.

The U.S. is rupturing at the seams, and there are people who care about Baghdad? The chickenhawk crew opposes "handouts" to the neediest U.S. citizens yet has no problem putting Iraq on a 100-yr. dole. The flow of dollars continues and democracy with an iron fist flourishes, everywhere except into our wallets.

Who is fighting for the average American struggling to get through the month?