A Country of Serfs By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

[Crewleader]

Feb. 16th, 2010

Rule by Oligarchs

The media has headlined good economic news: fourth quarter GDP growth of 5.7 percent ("the recession is over"), Jan. retail sales up, productivity up in 4th quarter, the dollar is gaining strength. Is any of it true? What does it mean?

The 5.7 percent growth figure is a guesstimate made in advance of the release of the U.S. trade deficit statistic. It assumed that the U.S. trade deficit would show an improvement. When the trade deficit was released a few days later, it showed a deterioration, knocking the 5.7 percent growth figure down to 4.6 percent. Much of the remaining GDP growth consists of inventory accumulation.

More than a fourth of the reported gain in Jan. retail sales is due to higher gasoline and food prices. Questionable seasonal adjustments account for the rest.

Productivity was up, because labor costs fell 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter, the fourth successive decline. Initial claims for jobless benefits rose. Productivity increases that do not translate into wage gains cannot drive the consumer economy.

Housing is still under pressure, and commercial real estate is about to become a big problem.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02162010.html

[Don Caballero]

1. This guy is a right wing nutcase. He worked for Reagan.

Ignore him and move on.

[Crewleader]

2. He covers the outsourcing of jobs well

here's more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts

[DJ13]

3. His message on this is right

Even the insane can have lucid moments.

[Crewleader]

4. LOL... I agree DJ13

Thanks for the laugh...we sure need it these days! :hi:

[ixion]

6. He spoke the Truth against BushCo

and was popular on this board until Obama got elected and the DLC showed up and started telling everyone who was readable. :eyes:

[rudy23]

9. Bingo. The DLC/Chicago crew is putting out lots of fires today.

I really can't wait until some of these folks get real jobs.

[Jim__]

7. Do you see something specific wrong with what he says in this column?- n/t

[girl gone mad]

12. Your post reminds me of a kindergarten fight.

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"Eww, Paul has cooties and if you talk to him you'll get cooties, too!!"

"Paul and Reagan sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.."

Those were simpler days. Then we grew up and realized that humans are rarely one-dimensional characters. Well, most of us did, anyhow.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. The man has made some very relevant points in the past couple of years...despite his RW origins.

Here, he seems to be taking on the views of the ACLU.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24634.htm



It Is Now Official:
The U.S. Is A Police State

By Paul Craig Roberts

February 09, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Americans have been losing the protection of law for years. In the 21st century the loss of legal protections accelerated with the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” which continues under the Obama administration and is essentially a war on the Constitution and U.S. civil liberties.

The Bush regime was determined to vitiate habeas corpus in order to hold people indefinitely without bringing charges. The regime had acquired hundreds of prisoners by paying a bounty for “terrorists.” Afghan warlords and thugs responded to the financial incentive by grabbing unprotected people and selling them to the Americans.

The Bush regime needed to hold the prisoners without charges because it had no evidence against the people and did not want to admit that the U.S. government had stupidly paid warlords and thugs to kidnap innocent people. In addition, the Bush regime needed “terrorists” prisoners in order to prove that there was a terrorist threat.

As there was no evidence against the “detainees” (most have been released without charges after years of detention and abuse), the U.S. government needed a way around U.S. and international laws against torture in order that the government could produce evidence via self-incrimination. The Bush regime found inhumane and totalitarian-minded lawyers and put them to work at the U.S. Department of Justice (sic) to invent arguments that the Bush regime did not need to obey the law.

The Bush regime created a new classification for its detainees that it used to justify denying legal protection and due process to the detainees. As the detainees were not U.S. citizens and were demonized by the regime as “the 760 most dangerous men on earth,” there was little public outcry over the regime’s unconstitutional and inhumane actions.

As our Founding Fathers and a long list of scholars warned, once civil liberties are breached, they are breached for all. Soon U.S. citizens were being held indefinitely in violation of their habeas corpus rights. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui an American citizen of Pakistani origin might have been the first.

<snip>

[jtuck004]

8. He understands what is needed, just no idea of how to get there

Or maybe he know, but can't write that we need more taxes on the wealthy, with that money funneled to people who will spend it.

"Without growth in consumer incomes, the economy can go nowhere." He is correct. Our economy is based on demand. Scared people, especially those with still too much debt (like now) don't spend. Jobs are typically created in response to demand, but what is being tried is to create some jobs in hopes that such wages will be spent, creating demand. Without demand job creation is a fool's errand. The latest jobs stimulus, however, is designed to "create" 180,000 jobs at my last reading. We need 10,000,000 (yes, that's million), with the most at $12-$20 per hour, just to get back to 7% unemployment. Hopefully that would make people feel comfortable enough to spend. Without that we continue our downhill slide. But without suggestions for a increasing the money consumers have, making them feel safe, his article doesn't add much to a lot of other's writing.

I don't particularly care who someone works (or worked) for, though I take it into account to help me look at bias. But simply attacking the person is an error, a logical fallacy, and costs me awareness of good ideas.

[upi402]

10. Redistribute wealth via indexed taxation?

Why do you hate America?


















:sarcasm:

[jtuck004]

11. I don't, at least not all the time ;)