TruthSavvy. - Reforms

The Real Causes Of Our 'Jobless Recovery'

Dr. B. — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:45:31 +0000

There is a lot of untapped potential for addressing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure when 9 million Americans are picking up June unemployment checks. So what’s missing? When the financial crisis hit in 2008, Wall Street’s biggest concern was a survival plan for Wall Street bettors, not Main Street jobs. Inscrutably, when the Obama administration took power it veered toward the financial intelligentsia’s “recovery” plans, not a technologically robust infrastructure overhaul vision.

marketwatch.com article: "Jobless claims fall 21,000 to 454,000", by Jeffrey Bartash

An Increased Retirement Age Solves Nothing Without Real Reform

Dr. B. — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:52:12 +0000

Many taxpaying Americans are understandably concerned about a congressional leader’s trial balloon proposal to hike the normal Social Security retirement age to 70. (The proposal would apply to workers at least 20 years from retirement.) Millions of Americans over age 55 cannot find suitable full-time work. A higher retirement age may mean more years of trying to get by on marginal employment.

marketwatch.com article: "Fix social security by hiking retirement age", by Robert Powell

Illegitimacy Of Wall Street Profits Exposed By Financial Reform Bill

Dr. B. — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 11:06:18 +0000

The emerging bank reform legislation might be viewed in a singularly positive light if the reforms were not the byproduct of a skewed capital system that made several million Americans undeservedly powerful and rich while Congress slept. One could feel downright hopeful about the future of American banking if moral hazard had not contaminated the land. But too much polluted water has gone under the bridge. The good in the reforms is counteracted by the poisons that produced the need for remedial interventions.

marketwatch.com article: "Big banks face 'jarring shake-up' from new regulations", by Alistair Barr

Are "Free Markets" Really Free Without Morality?

Dr. B. — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:09:02 +0000

If the truth sets people free, why is America becoming less free on the heels of twenty-five years of “free market capitalism”? Granted, banks could not do every last thing they pleased (although hedge funds pretty much could). But banks did receive enormous breadth of latitude for self-regulation. The theory was that the free market profit motive would facilitate naturally functioning checks and balances. Instead, the whole world got a taste of what happens when virtue sits on the sidelines while greed is empowered as the referee.

marketwatch.com article: "Rand Paul's brand of finance reform", by David Weidner

Does Wall Street's 'Free Market' Promote Real Freedom?

Dr. B. — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:26:07 +0000

Free markets and their attentive politicians are always serving up something new. May’s service — an 872 point Dow Jones blowout — clearly dampens recovery hopes. Is it right that financial markets impact the underlying economy so remarkably? Could a different financial architecture help mitigate this problem — an architecture that does not shortchange honorable merit when it comes to financial rewards?

marketwatch.com article: "Free-market forces have politicians on the run", by David Callaway

The High Price Of Wall-Street's 'Puffed-Up' Money Machine

Dr. B. — Tue, 25 May 2010 06:00:00 +0000

The market’s recent plunge to new closing lows complicates the recovery picture for many market bulls, including people who believe the regulatory reforms underway will eventually cure whatever ails us. Recent market action — including the May 6 ‘Flash-Crash’ — should be unsettling to individuals who think free market mechanisms are all we need.

marketwatch.com article: "U.S. stocks drop into correction on global growth worries", by Kate Gibson

Financial Experts Have Let Us Down; It's Time For Ethical Rebirth

Dr. B. — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:50:33 +0000

If experts are ruining the world, to whom do we turn? Plutocrats? Special interests and their politicians? The uneducated masses? Organized religion run amuck? Ancient philosophers? Or something else? It’s time for America and the world to get serious about the foundations of good governance. Change is coming like a locomotive. We need to understand good governance before the momentum of confusion railroads us to disaster.

marketwatch.com article: "The Invisible Sledgehammer", by Rex Nutting

EU Has Greece, US Has California; Will We Learn Perils Of Moral Hazard?

Dr. B. — Sat, 15 May 2010 16:08:16 +0000

How much time will elapse until California becomes America’s Greece? If the EU thinks it necessary to bail out one of Europe’s most profligate state economies, will the U.S. face the same perceived necessity with one of our wayward state governments?

marketwatch.com article: "Greek debt bailout makes no sense in any language", by Jon Markman

In An Age Of Unsustainable Global Debt, How Should You Invest?

Dr. B. — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:02:58 +0000

Is there a global debt bomb waiting to be detonated? If so, will it create rampant anarchy in America? Maybe in Great Britain, too? Does an apocalyptic world await? Is the coming world worth fighting for? Increasingly, people believe these questions are worth exploring, evidenced by the size and nature of audiences generated by writers like Marketwatch’s Paul Farrell.

marketwatch.com article: "How to invest for a global-debt-bomb explosion", by Paul Farrell

Is America's Addiction To Debt Like Its Civil War Era Addiction To Slavery?

Dr. B. — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Several prominent economists continue to support economic recovery ideas that increase government debt. Dr. B. shows the hazard of these ideas, and draws the link between the United States' toleration of slavery in the 1800's and its dependence on unsustainable government debt today.

Darrell Delamaide argues that President Obama must stimulate the U.S. economy sufficiently to boost employment figures in the near-term, otherwise Democrats will court a political disaster next year. However, the idea of America is far more consequential than today’s interest group driven party goals. In reality, Delamaide is not arguing for stimulus as much as he is arguing against the GOP. A better argument is to replace both reckless, feckless political parties and get the nation’s budgetary affairs in order.

marketwatch.com article: "Hoover vs. Keynes", by Darrell Delamaide