New York Times editorial "gets it" - Why does the electronic media claim it doesn't have a clue??

by: Jan A

Sun Oct 09, 2011 at 17:35:58 PM EDT

As the Occupy Wall Street protests spread from Lower Manhattan to Washington and other cities, the chattering classes keep complaining that the marchers lack a clear message and specific policy prescriptions. The message - and the solutions - should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening.

At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people. On one level, the protesters, most of them young, are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity.

In Egypt, it was educated, unemployed young people who took to the streets for the Arab Spring.  Guess who's in the streets of New York?  

Joan Vennochi nails the reason why the tax cuts won't help with jobs

by: Jan A

Thu Dec 09, 2010 at 10:48:08 AM EST

PROFITS ARE up, so it's time to slash the workforce.

That's the story at State Street Corp., which recently announced the elimination of 1,400 jobs, including 400 in Massachusetts. Those jobs are gone, even though State Street last reported profits of $427 million, up about 20 percent from a year ago. Operating revenue also rose 8.4 percent. . .

By cutting loose 1,400 workers, State Street shifts the burden of keeping them solvent from the private sector to the public. Now, it's the taxpayers' job to underwrite them, via unemployment benefits.

And that's only the start of the ripple effect on a still-fragile economy. How many of the newly unemployed will no longer be able to pay their mortgages, or keep up with cable and credit card bills? Without employer-backed health insurance, how many will turn to state-subsidized insurance?

While workers hit the streets, management hits the jackpot. According to Forbes.com, Hooley's 2009 compensation package totaled $13.9 million. And that was before he took over as State Street's CEO last March. Asked if management would be taking pay cuts or forgoing bonuses, Carolyn Cichon, a State Street spokesperson, said only that 2010 compensation, including executive incentive compensation, "will be determined in the first quarter of 2011.''

Gag me.  These are not people.  These are not citizens.  These are profit making machines that are killing the middle class.  Yeah, they deserve tax cuts and "free" speech protection . . . not.

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This is what all incumbents should be doing something about

by: Jan A

Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 17:25:26 PM EST

From American Observer website:

Check out this map of the U.S. showing changes in unemployment rates by county from 2007 to 2009.  It is frightening.  There is a gap in numbers - it leaves out indices for 7-9% which might make it a bit less dire - but it shows what all our so-called representatives should be "focused like a laser beam" on - jobs, jobs, jobs.