January 9, 2014

Wind Power's Growth Blown Away by Tax Uncertainty

http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/wind-power-s-growth-blown-away-by-tax-uncertainty-20131209

January 9, 2014

Chris Christie Denies Knowledge Of Bridge Payback Scheme

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/08/chris-christie-bridge_n_4563921.html

WASHINGTON -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) denied any involvement in a political payback scheme carried out by some of his top aides on Wednesday, saying the whole thing was "inappropriate and unsanctioned."

"What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable," Christie said in a statement. "I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge."

"One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions," he added.

The emails released Wednesday showed that Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, deliberately plotted to wreak havoc on Fort Lee, N.J., once it became clear that the borough's mayor, Democrat Mark Sokolich, wasn't going to publicly back Christie in his reelection bid.

January 9, 2014

The President's To-do list and Repugnants responsible behavior

January 8, 2014

66% of 38 economists polled by AP said Income Inequality was holding back the economy

... this was reported on various web-sites (including CommonDreams) and mentioned here by Judy Lynn but all the articles stated "a majority of" economists said income inequality was holding back the economy. I checked a number of articles to see if I could find out what 'a majority of' meant. Even on the AP site I could not track down hard numbers ( http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-survey-us-income-gap-holding-back-economy-0 ) although interestingly enough, other numbers from the survey were specified in the AP article. All the AP article said re the poll participants was: "The AP survey collected the views of private, corporate and academic economists on a range of issues." - but nothing on the actual number surveyed or the numbers on each side of the question re income inequality.

Finally, on Yahoo News I found an article that stated the actual numbers of economists polled and how they answered the question re income inequality and the economy. Mafority could mean 51% which is pretty much evenly split. But 66% is a STRONG majority. Very surprised other websites (like CommonDreams) didn't track that down to emphasize the strength of the attitude on the part of the economists polled.


http://news.yahoo.com/ap-survey-us-income-gap-holding-back-economy-170643637--finance.html

A key source of the economists' concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low- and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.

"What you want is a broader spending base," says Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. "You want more people spending money."


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The economists forecast that growth will average 2.9 percent in 2014. That would be the healthiest annual pace since 2005.


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— The Obama administration's health care law will make little or no difference to the job market. About two-fifths said the law would cost jobs. None said it would increase hiring.




If anybody else can find out more on this, like who exactly was polled, I would appreciate it. I want to refer to this in comments around the web - (like Corporate- M$M sites and more open political discussion sites, like Politico, or Huffington Post). All the info anybody can find on the poll would be of interest to me.



NOte: the AP article did include the following statement which frankly surprised me as it is very relevant but not something the GOP powerstructure would want mentioned in the article:

"Income inequality has steadily worsened in recent decades, according to government data and academic studies. The most recent census figures show that the average income for the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. households, adjusted for inflation, has surged 17 percent in the past 20 years. By contrast, average income for the middle 20 percent of households has risen less than 5 percent."

January 5, 2014

Accidental (?) Tax Break Saves Wealthiest Americans $100 Billion

[font size="4"] Here's one worth emailing and calling your Senators and Representative about......
[font color="red"]
"These tax shelters may have cost the federal government more than $100 billion since 2000, says Richard Covey, the lawyer who pioneered the maneuver."[/font]
[/font]


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-17/accidental-tax-break-saves-wealthiest-americans-100-billion.html
(emphasis my own)

January 4, 2014

Dark Money Groups Have Already Spent Way More Than You Think

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/04/dark-money-2014-election_n_4533132.html?ref=topbar
(emphases [font color="red']my own[/font]

January 4, 2014

Poll: Congress Risks Voter Backlash For Letting Unemployment Benefits Expire

YOu would think the people responsible for putting all these people outof work by creating the Trickle Down - Deregulation disaster - and then by fighting and filibusering every stimulus bill offered by the Dems to get us out of this Republican Economic Dystopia - would line up to vote for extending Unemployment Insurance benefits. but the Repugnunts are incapable of feeling shame or guilt. They are sociopaths who do not know what shame or guilt is. They are devoid of any values of which they often preach. They believe in nothing. They have no philosophy only tactics. A mass of moral zombies.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/23/3099611/unemployment-voter-backlash-poll/

Republicans could face voter backlash in their home districts for failing to extend long-term unemployment benefits expiring at the end of the month. According to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, a clear majority of voters in five Republican districts support continuing unemployment benefits for Americans unemployed for longer than six months. PPP found that most Republican voters are at odds with GOP lawmakers who are letting funds dry up. Without congressional action to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation fund, 1.3 million Americans are about to lose their only income lifeline.

At least 63 percent of voters for district seats held by Mike Coffman (R-CO), Dan Benishek (R-MI), Rodney Davis (R-IL), and Gary Miller (R-CA), support continued benefits for the jobless. Constituents in House Speaker John Boehner’s district likewise support the program extension 63-34. These incumbents also face backlash from their own party. Not only do voters support unemployment benefits, but they also said it would factor into voting decisions. In each district, a plurality of voters answered they are less likely to vote for representatives who fail to extend the program.

While the unemployment rate has fallen in the last year, people who have been out of a job for several months face an especially harsh situation. More than one-third of unemployed people have been out of work longer than 27 weeks. Long-term unemployment rates are particularly high in California and Michigan, where 215,000 and 189,700 unemployed people will be affected.

Congress’ short-term budget deal does not touch the Emergency Unemployment Compensation fund, and Boehner has demanded matching cuts to other federal programs before the House considers an extension. Yet in the past, even GOP lawmakers have argued that the program is vital to the nation’s economic health.

January 4, 2014

Raising The Minimum Wage To $10.10 Could Lift Nearly 5 Million Out Of Poverty

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/01/03/3115831/minimum-wage-poverty/


Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could lift about 4.6 million people out of poverty directly, according to a new study from economist Arindrajit Dube. Longer-term effects could reduce the number of people living below the poverty line by 6.8 million.

That wage level “would reduce the poverty rate among Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 by as much as 1.7 percentage points,” Jillian Berman explains in the Huffington Post. Poverty increased by 3.4 percent during the recession, a rate that has not improved since, but a $10.10 wage would erase more than half of that uptick. Dube’s findings come from an analysis of 23 years of data on minimum wage increases as well as a review of previous findings.

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The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and it has stayed at that level for more than four years. That’s not enough to keep a parent who works for that wage full-time, year-round above the poverty line, nor is it enough to make market rent in any state. But the wage used to be enough to keep a family of two above the poverty line, and in the 1960s it was even enough to keep a family of three out of poverty.

[font size="+1"]
A $10.10 wage makes sense in other ways. It would bring it in line with where it would be if it had kept up with inflation over the past half century. (To keep up with increases in all other workers’ wages, it would have to be $10.65, and to keep up with increases in worker productivity it would be $18.30.) Given that low-income workers are likely to spend a large portion of any extra pay, putting the money back into the economy, a $10.10 wage would boost GDP by $22.1 billion, supporting the creation of 85,000 new jobs. And Americans support such a wage: one poll found 80 percent support for it, including two-thirds of Republicans, and another found that two-thirds support a raise to $10.25 an hour.[/font]

January 4, 2014

Closing The Hedge Fund Manager Tax Loophole Would Raise $4 Billion Annually From The 25 Richest Mgrs

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/06/261268/closing-hedge-fund-manager-loophole-billions/

During the negotiations regarding raising the nation’s debt ceiling, congressional Republicans have gone to the mat to defend all manner of unwarranted tax breaks, including those for oil companies and corporate jet owners. Despite the drain on the Treasury caused by these tax breaks — and the negligible benefit they provide — Republicans have threatened to allow the nation to default on its obligations rather than abandon them.

One of the tax breaks upon which President Obama has focused is a provision that allows hedge fund managers — who make billions annually — to receive a substantial tax break. This particular tax break, known as the carried-interest loophole, allows hedge fund managers to treat the money they receive from investors as capital gains, subject to a 15 percent tax rate. Though this money is a paycheck received for services, just like a movie star receiving a bonus if her movie does well, it’s treated as investment income.

Since hedge fund managers are some of the richest people in the country, this tax break actually causes a significant loss of revenue. In fact, according to calculation by RJ Eskow, closing this loophole would raise more than $4 billion per year just from the 25 richest hedge fund managers:

"The top 25 hedge fund managers in the United States collectively earned $22 billion last year, and yet they have their own cushy set of tax rules. If they operated under the same rules that apply to other people — police officers, for example, or teachers — the country could cut its national deficit by as much as $44 billion in the next ten years."

That may seem like a lot of revenue to raise from just a few people, but it’s simply what would happen if the income hedge fund managers receive to manage other people’s money was treated the same as income earned by other workers. It would take the combined income of 441,000 middle-class families to equal the income made by just the 25 richest hedge fund managers. The top hedge fund manager at the moment, John Paulson, makes more hourly than most Americans will earn in a lifetime, while paying a lower tax rate. This is an egregious loophole, but the GOP refuses to consider it as part of a deal to avoid default and an economic catastrophe.

January 3, 2014

Climate Change Worse Than We Thought, Likely To Be 'Catastrophic Rather Than Simply Dangerous'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/31/climate-change-worse_n_4523828.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular