The price of a do-nothing Congress – Government layoffs, budget cuts making matters worse

The latest employment data indicate that the U.S. job market is in a holding pattern – the price we pay for a do-nothing Congress focused more on austerity than job creation.

Our economy added 69,000 new jobs in May, for an average of 96,000 over the past three months, with a downward revision of 49,000 for March and April’s data. While this pace of job creation is fast enough to keep unemployment from rising, it remains well below that necessary to bring our economy back to full employment anytime in the near future.

Look no further than Congress for the reasons why this is the case. Last year, Congress refused to put in place the American Jobs Act, which would have helped to reduce unemployment and create jobs. By not acting Congress and the states are instead cutting off the long-term unemployed from any additional benefits and shrinking government spending. While the private sector has been adding jobs for 27 months, for a total of 4.3 million jobs since February 2010, state and local governments have been shedding workers in most months since the fall of 2008, for a total loss 660,000 jobs. These layoffs are pro-cyclical, meaning that they are dragging down economic growth.

http://tinyurl.com/8a59rul

Is income inequality stalling the US economy?

Austerity in the US came in a different form. We passed a massive stimulus bill (40 per cent of which was a middle-class tax cut). But by last summer, the debate over budgets and deficits rose to a fevered pitch. Since then, we have been stuck on and off in phony debates over taxes (which are historically low), “entitlements” (which are not going broke), regulation (which is also weak) and debt (which is a canard). It all seems like an attempt to redirect our attention from measures that could help all of us to measures that would help only some of us – meaning debt and regulation and taxes are the obsessions of the rich, not the rest of us poor bastards trying to get on in life. Last week, President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney were competing for the title of Mr Austerity. But it’s all campaign rhetoric, as it has been since this silly debate began.

Even Republicans, most of whom have pledged to shrink government down to a size suitable for drowning in a bathtub, know increased spending is better for the economy in the short term. Last week, just in case the GOP’s radical wing continued resisting, our non-partisan congressional budget office released a frightening reminder.

http://tinyurl.com/7t7s4zh

Liars abound as greed gains a bit more luster

It’s been five years since the global financial crisis first shook the foundations of the world economy. One spin-off from the crisis has been intense scrutiny of the ethics of the wealthy. At first it was the reckless and indifferent Wall Street bankers that were the focus of attention. Then the Occupy movement started to ask bigger questions about the privileges and influence enjoyed by the ”1 per cent”.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, tensions over wealth and class have been exposed by the European debt crisis. Even here in Australia the actions and motivations of some vocal billionaires have been in the spotlight.

Against this background, a team of researchers, led by Paul Piff from the University of California, Berkeley, posed a controversial question for investigation. Who are more likely to behave ethically: the privileged or the disadvantaged?

http://tinyurl.com/6muopy2

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 6/3/12” »

Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return?

“We’re in for a period of sustained chaos whose magnitude we are unable to foresee,” [Professor Dennis] Meadows [systems policy] warns. He no longer spends time trying to persuade humanity of the limits to growth. Instead, he says, “I’m trying to understand how communities and cities can buffer themselves” against the inevitable hard landing.

http://tinyurl.com/cnrf8an

Scientist to climate-change-denying politicians: ‘You can’t legislate the ocean!’

State lawmakers are considering a measure that would limit how North Carolina prepares for sea-level rise, which many scientists consider one of the surest results of climate change.

Federal authorities say the North Carolina coast is vulnerable because of its low, flat land and thin fringe of barrier islands. A state-appointed science panel has reported that a 1-meter rise is likely by 2100.
. . .

Longtime East Carolina University geologist Stan Riggs, a science panel member who studies the evolution of the coast, said the 1-meter estimate is squarely within the mainstream of research.

“We’re throwing this science out completely, and what’s proposed is just crazy for a state that used to be a leader in marine science,” he said of the proposed legislation. “You can’t legislate the ocean, and you can’t legislate storms.”

http://tinyurl.com/7ex6vtn

Occupy Providence plans round-the-clock sidewalk vigil at Netroots conference; police say sleeping bags prohibited

Occupy Providence activists say they plan to maintain a 24-hour presence, including sleeping bags, outside a “Netroots Nation” conference that begins Thursday at the Rhode Island Convention Center and runs for four days.

Nearly 3,000 progressive bloggers, grassroots and union activists and political leaders are expected to attend the four-day event.

Occupy Providence member Jared Paul said the protest is against economic injustice, not Netroots Nation.

http://tinyurl.com/cadhegs

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 6/2/12” »

Occupy Wall Street Spawns DIY Solar Power

Back in the Fall of 2011, during the first wave of Occupy protests, a team from Revolt Labs apparently built solar-powered chargers for Occupy Boston protesters to help them charge their portable electronics. This was done using what I used to construct my own 5-volt USB charger: a 5-volt 7805 voltage regulator which is capable of charging all USB devices using a vehicle’s cigarette lighter outlet, or most cordless phone chargers.
. . .

The DIY Revolt Labs project generates 10 watts of power, sufficient to sustain small electronics such as cellphones. And, of course, cellphones and socket-free recharging are particularly important to protesters. Another even more portable and helpful device for charging portable electronics, which can fully sustain cellphones, is a 12-watt solar-powered foldable charge available from Wagan Tech for $130. The price is $11 per watt of power generation capacity, which is high, but can be expected from foldable solar panels.

For protesters who are on the move, the portability may be worth it, and they can use it personally at home too. For protesters who need more to power their laptops and other devices, and who need extra energy storage capacity, there is an 80-watt power cube I took a look at in a local store recently, also available on Amazon.

http://tinyurl.com/d8zaqcv

FBI Works to Taint the Occupy Movement

(video)

Two recently foiled “terrorist plots” that the U.S. government and mainstream media connected to the Occupy movement turned out to have been facilitated by federal agents. But that fact has “not stopped many from branding Occupy with an unfavorable stain,” RT reports.

http://tinyurl.com/cvbeu7d

NYPD Unconcerned With Actually Convicting Occupy Wall Street Protesters

As hundreds of protesters arrested during months of Occupy Wall Street demonstrations get their day in court, their arresting officers aren’t even bothering to show up. When they have, as in the first two cases to go to trial, the NYPD testimony was disproved with photographic and video evidence, resulting in both protesters getting acquitted. Many of the others charged, most often with disorderly conduct (a violation, not a crime), will have to wait until at least September to go before a judge because the prosecution doesn’t have their police witnesses ready. As with contesting a traffic ticket, it’s often difficult to get cops to court, but when it comes to protesters, there’s probably more to it than busy schedules.

“Mass arrests were being used as a tactic, as a weapon to stop the expressive activity and to chill people from participating in OWS,” Norman Siegel, an Occupy attorney and former head of the NYCLU, told Daily Intel. “You deal with the protest at that moment and you limit future activity. Even if the city arrests people and there’s no conviction, so what?”

http://tinyurl.com/7g8k3ww

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 6/1/12” »