Working Life

It is always a curious phenomena to watch people pretend as if facts don’t matter. Ideology trumps reality. The debt crisis is a great example.

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The barrage against Mitt Romney’s record as the chief executive of a hedge fund is head-shaking. Not because it isn’t legitimate to probe his record of job creation or destruction while at the helm of Bain Capital. Rather, there is a more fundamental question: why would anyone think a business executive is qualified to run a country?

This is a common choice voters are being offered around the world. Unemployment is high, governments appear incapable of charting a course for economic security and people feel afraid.

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   If you are one who is already bored by the 2012 elections and the rhetorical, mind-numbing repetition, here’s a little taste of what you can expect all the way into the distant future of 2016. The poodle-for-the-rich governor of New York has determined that his path to the White House in 2016–and, despite the [...]

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   A few months ago, I spent 5-6 hours interviewing Paul Krugman for Playboy magazine. It’s now on-line here. He speaks candidly–surprise–about the economic misdeeds of Wall Street, the foolishness of the current austerity obsession and focus on the non-existent debt crisis, and a whole range of topics including his view that the Obama Administration [...]

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   One of the things I’ve said, only half-jokingly, to a bunch of radio stations and in numerous posts (including just a couple of days ago) is that I am not a religious person but I get down on my hands and knees every day and pray, pray, pray that the Catfood Commission II fails [...]

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   Paul Krugman wasn’t actually writing directly to the Catfood Commission II (speaking for myself, I decline to use a superlative being used by many to describe the Congressional fool’s gathering because the superlative implies higher quality). But, his message, looking at the debacle in Europe, is very clear: austerity is a loser.    In [...]

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   Billions of dollars can buy you a lot–for example, a little toy called New York City that you pocket for yourself and, then, keep for yourself even when the rules say it’s time to go (hey, if you’ve got billions, you can buy off politicians to let you keep the toy for a little [...]

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    I am continuously amazed by the reverence accorded company bosses. Put aside the incompetent ones, who get huge severance packages when they leave, or those who have looted their companies of tens of millions of dollars in pay and benefits, even when the companies lose money or collapse. I’m talking about even the ones [...]

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  A number of people–including your truly–have been making the point for a long time that there is no debt and deficit "crisis". The problem is that there is a bi-partisan obsession with the phony "crisis", helped by the transcribers of press releases (formerly known as "journalists") that has drowned out any rationale discussion–a discussion [...]

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   For all of those people who criticize empire and for those out there who correctly worry about the unequal distribution of economic power, come close and absorb another truth: the obsession around keeping the dollar high is not healthy. In fact, a lower dollar would be better for most of us–and for the environment… [...]

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   For those of you who might remember the days of the Carter Administration when the U.S. embassy workers in Teheran were held under lock and key for a very long time–"Nightline" got its ratings boost, and made its name, from the nightly graphic trumpeting how many days America had been "held hostage". Well, we [...]

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   Some random notes on the debate over reforming the financial system. The Brits continue to lead the charge on the bank tax–perhaps driven by the fast-approaching elections in which, if you believe the polls, the ruling Labor Party is going to lose its governing majority…perhaps a harbinger of things to come here. So, Gordon [...]

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   I will continue to post and argue, until proven otherwise, that there is no recovery–that it is a myth. I am an optimist by nature but I also believe in dealing with actual reality (I know, that is so 1960s). Here is why I love Paul Krugman: But there’s an even bigger problem: while [...]

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   The obsession with the value of the dollar is kind of goofy. More than three years ago, not for the first time, I suggested that it would actually be a good thing if the value of the dollar declined significantly, particularly as it relates to the trade relationship with China. People in political circles [...]

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   This guy–Allan H. Meltzer, a political economist at Carnegie Mellon University–is seriously delusional: Mr. Meltzer says the risk lies not in pulling back too soon but dithering too long. And he would scrap the stimulus program immediately and replace it with cuts in marginal tax rates for individuals and businesses. "It’s certainly not a [...]

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   I remember quite clearly a very honest discussion I had with a Member of Congress at an event about six months before the 2008 mid-term elections. I’ve known this person for a few years and I remarked that it looked like the Democratic Party was poised to make significant gains in the House in [...]

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