Krugman: "Revolting" Europeans

Paul Krugman's Op-Ed piece in the New York Times today looks at the failure of Europe's leaders to address their unemployment and other economic woes, opting instead to rely on austerity measures to restore "confidence" in the markets.

"What’s wrong with the prescription of spending cuts as the remedy for Europe’s ills? One answer is that the confidence fairy doesn’t exist — that is, claims that slashing government spending would somehow encourage consumers and businesses to spend more have been overwhelmingly refuted by the experience of the past two years. So spending cuts in a depressed economy just make the depression deeper."

Krugman has been harping on Europe's economic problems for some time now, and it seems the voters in many European countries are taking notice and "revolting." You can read the entire article here.

Krugman: "How Stupid Does Romney Think We Are?"

Paul Krugman's Op-Ed piece today in the New York Times asks this question in response to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's appearance last week in front of a closed Ohio factory and Obama's handling of the economy.

From the piece:

"For the Bush era didn’t just end in catastrophe; it started off badly, too. Yes, Mr. Obama’s jobs record has been disappointing — but it has been unambiguously better than Mr. Bush’s over the comparable period of his administration.

This is especially true if you focus on private-sector jobs. Overall employment in the Obama years has been held back by mass layoffs of schoolteachers and other state and local government employees. But private-sector employment has recovered almost all the ground lost in the administration’s early months. That compares favorably with the Bush era: as of March 2004, private employment was still 2.4 million below its level when Mr. Bush took office.

Oh, and where have those mass layoffs of schoolteachers been taking place? Largely in states controlled by the G.O.P.: 70 percent of public job losses have been either in Texas or in states where Republicans recently took control."

You can read the entire article here.

Wal-Mart Bribe Scandal: Company Shifts to PR Focus

The Wal-Mart bribe scandal uncovered by the New York Times on Saturday is causing some headaches for the world's largest employer. The Times revealed a massive investigation into $24 million in bribes paid to local officials in Mexico to secure building and construction permits reported to top management in both the Mexican and American offices, but Wal-Mart's top brass attempted instead to cover-up the bribes and never alerted authorities. It's highly likely Wal-Mart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, adopted in 1977 to help hinder and hold accountable bribery in foreign markets.

Predictably, on Sunday, Wal-Mart went into damage-control and released a statement and uploaded a video to YouTube. The company's VP of corporate communications, David Tovar, says Wal-Mart "voluntarily" approached the Department of Justice, but cannot yet discuss what happened "in Bentonville more than six years ago."

Of course, this "voluntary" approach to the DoJ was only after the Times informed them of the bribery investigation it was conducting. Also, this "more than six years ago" bit seems a feigned attempt to excuse themselves if maybe they 'don't remember everything because it was so long ago'. And this is the whole problem in the first place. Wal-Mart not only didn't follow through on the allegations coming from their Mexico headquarters, but top officials in America explicitly told internal investigators not to be "aggressive" in their search.

New York Times Uncovers Wal-Mart Bribery Scandal

A thorough investigation by the New York Times reveals top executives at Wal-Mart de Mexico's corporate headquarters used bribes to illegally obtain building permits in nearly every corner of Mexico. Not only are top officials in Wal-Mart's largest foreign subsidiary named, but the allegations show widespread corruption and a cover-up attempt by top executives at the American offices as well, including then-CEO H. Lee Scott Jr, and current CEO Michael Duke.

Wal-Mart has been conducting an internal investigation into the bribes and the alleged cover-up for the past 6 months, but only began to do so when they were informed of the Times investigation.

As the world's largest employer, and with 1 in 5 Wal-Mart stores in Mexico, this could prove a devastating blow to the company. We can only hope so...

Jhumpa Lahiri: "My Life's Sentences"

This Opinionator piece in the New York Times from Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Interpreter of Maladies, talks about the power of sentences. This is just an amazing piece so I had to post it. Here's a glimpse:

via Princeton.com

"[Sentences] remain the test, whether or not to read something. The most compelling narrative, expressed in sentences with which I have no chemical reaction, or an adverse one, leaves me cold. In fiction, plenty do the job of conveying information, rousing suspense, painting characters, enabling them to speak. But only certain sentences breathe and shift about, like live matter in soil. The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace. Style and personality are irrelevant. They can be formal or casual. They can be tall or short or fat or thin. They can obey the rules or break them. But they need to contain a charge. A live current, which shocks and illuminates."

Continue reading here.

Krugman: "Lobbyists, Guns, and Money"

Paul Krugman's New York Times Op-Ed this morning glanced at the Trayvon Martin case, calling into question the 'Stand Your Ground' law in Florida and the political organization(s) that conspired to get the law, or ones similar to it, enacted, not only in Florida, but in numerous other states across the country. Specifically, he looks at ALEC and questions the lobbying efforts behind the bills, which, in essence, are written by the organization and introduced in state legislatures almost verbatim. So, who exactly is in office here? Elected officials? It doesn't quite seem that way.

"What this tells us, in turn, is that ALEC’s claim to stand for limited government and free markets is deeply misleading. To a large extent the organization seeks not limited government but privatized government, in which corporations get their profits from taxpayer dollars, dollars steered their way by friendly politicians. In short, ALEC isn’t so much about promoting free markets as it is about expanding crony capitalism..." continue reading here.

Budget Woes

Here's an interesting Op-Ed from back on July 23, 2011 in the New York Times. With the release of House Republican's budget today by Paul Ryan, it's important to remind ourselves that GOP initiatives (such as tax cuts and two wars) got us into this deficit mess and that cutting government programs will never balance the budget.

"Despite what antigovernment conservatives say, non-
defense discretionary spending on areas like foreign aid, education and food safety was not a driving factor in creating the deficits. In fact, such spending, accounting for only 15 percent of the budget, has been basically flat as a share of the economy for decades. Cutting it simply will not fill the deficit hole..." continue reading here.

Elitists Vs. The 1%

I was reading through Paul Krugman's piece today in the New York Times and was struck by a sudden realization. We hear quite a bit in the media about these "elitists" who are these privileged, upper class, intellectuals that have ruined the country in numerous, countless ways. Now, there are "Right Wing Elitists" such as former President George W. Bush. And then there are "Left Wing Elitists" such as our current president, Mr. Obama. But I believe there is a discordant variation of the way the media portrays these two "different" groups.

If you were to Google "Michelle Malkin elitist" you'd find a few links to her blog and the above image will come up. These blog entries chastise the President for his apparent hypocrisy of pointing out other elitists while trying to play himself off as an average American. And we hear all the time on Fox News of "liberal elites" who are subverting the country and have taken it over(!) already. Just refer back to Glenn Beck's satirical, conspiracy-theorist run on Fox for plenty of reference material. And these elitists must be stopped at all costs from further damaging the country.



What we have from the other side of the aisle is a fixation on the 1%, the wealthiest Americans who have siphoned money for the last 30 years from the middle and lower classes, who have bought elections, and silenced the press and freedom of speech. But these are the "job creators" and hence are sacrosanct in GOP rhetoric. And therein lies the hypocrisy of the Right's defense of the 1% in light of the Occupy Wall Street protests. The right cannot stand that a contingent of the population is protesting the abuses of the wealthy, but it is the wealthy 1% who are the "elitists" the right seems to believe have destroyed the fabric of America. They can't have it both ways. Either the elites are helping the country by creating jobs, or the elites are hurting it by fundamentally stripping away our freedoms and luring us into a socialist state. The GOP needs to come to this same realization: elitists are the 1%. The funny thing is: I tend to agree with the assessment that elites have thrusts this country into a tailspin of corruption and greed.