Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- April 24, 2011

Poll shows Americans oppose entitlement cuts to deal with debt problem - The Washington Post - By Jon Cohen and Dan Balz, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - The survey finds that Americans prefer to keep Medicare just the way it is. Most also oppose cuts in Medicaid and the defense budget. More than half say they are against small, across-the-board tax increases combined with modest reductions in Medicare and Social Security benefits. Only President Obama’s call to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans enjoys solid support.

The Magnetar Trade: How One Hedge Fund Helped Keep the Bubble Going - ProPublica - Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein - April 9, 2010 - In late 2005, the booming U.S. housing market seemed to be slowing. The Federal Reserve had begun raising interest rates. Subprime mortgage company shares were falling. Investors began to balk at buying complex mortgage securities. The housing bubble, which had propelled a historic growth in home prices, seemed poised to deflate. And if it had, the great financial crisis of 2008, which produced the Great Recession of 2008-09, might have come sooner and been less severe.

And This is How the Republic Will End… - TheNoisyRoom.Net - Terresa Monroe - Apr 20th, 2011- Hamilton - We see that 7 out of the 10 tax avoiders were big contributors to Obama: 1 is leaving the U.S. (the global elites are undoubtedly happy the de-industrialization of America is moving right along), 1 sells its assets (more de-industrialization) and 1 has a Board Director that receives a co-chair appointment by Obama. Looks pretty cozy, but Obama’s comrades are the ones who are calling these companies out.

BRICS poised to pick up the pieces from the rubble of America’s collapsed empire - Strategic Culture Foundation - Wayne Madsen -  4/18/2011 - The American empire is faltering from within and abroad. In an attempt to preserve its empire, the United States has adopted an aggressive military posture, starting a war in Libya and continuing its military occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington’s military planners are stepping up drone attacks in Pakistan and using NATO forces to extend America’s hegemony over resource-rich Africa, not only in Libya but also in Cote d’Ivoire. U.S. Special Operations forces are engaged in military adventures from Colombia and Honduras to Yemen and the Philippines... With the collapse of America’s imperial global empire, there will be a new “multi-polar” world order.The term “multi-polar” and “economic independence” was on the lips of every BRICS leader and their advisers in Sanya. And Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Hailong said in Sanya that many other countries have signaled an interest in joining BRICS. Nations around the world want to get as far away from the sinking United States lest they get pulled down by the drowning empire.

Pick your poison: A look at Dem, Repub budget plans - Both offer more borrowing, skyrocketing debt, not cuts - WorldnetDaily - Posted: April 23, 2011 - While the White House claims its budget plan will cut $4.2 trillion in spending and the Republicans claim a $5.8 trillion reduction, neither proposal cuts anything from the national debt – in fact, both plans increase it from $14.3 trillion to at least $23 trillion by 2021, some 10 years from now.

A Morally Untenable Corporate System - Truthout - Jim Hightower - April 20, 2011 - Now, after the collapse, what has changed? Nothing. One survey of nine of the big banks we taxpayers bailed out shows that two-thirds of their failed board members are still there, and once again, they are shoveling inexplicably huge bonuses at the same old CEOs, who have returned to playing the same old casino games that caused the crash.... A system that enriches executive elites while crushing the middle class is worse than an embarrassment -- it's morally untenable.

An "Oh Please!" Moment: Is S&P Running Interference for the Right to Help Crush Social Security and Medicare? - Truthout - Dave Lindorff , This Can't Be Happening - April 20, 2011 - The problem will come when the dollar starts to seriously erode against other currencies because too much of the currency has been put into circulation. When that happens, there may be a shift away from the dollar as the world’s “reserve currency.” Looking further, one could then imagine the US being unable to issue debt to foreign investors, because they would no longer want to be left holding dollars, and the US would have to either drastically reduce its debt, or borrow in foreign-denominated debt--say Yen or Euros or Renminbi.

That future may come, but what S&P is talking about--a risk of default on current US debt--is simply absurd, and does raise questions about behind-the-scenes pressure from some nefarious actors on the right anxious to do away with Medicare and Social Security before today’s Baby Boomer population becomes the biggest retirement and Medicare-entitled voting bloc--both numerically and proportionally --in the nation’s history.

Oil lifted by weak dollar in volatile trade - Reuters - Robert Gibbons - April 21, 2011 - Investors bought oil as a hedge against a tumbling dollar as the dollar index .DXY hit its lowest since 2008 against a basket of currencies and had its all-time low in sight... Disappointing reports on factory activity and U.S. initial jobless claims cast doubt on the pace of U.S. economic recovery and energy demand growth, limiting oil's gains.