Archive for 'Economy' Category

States most likely to REJECT austerity to lower unemployment are Republican

Rope-A-Dope: a boxing term coined by heavyweight prize-fighter George Foreman in his 1974 “Rumble-in-the-Jungle” with Muhammad Ali. Foreman… clearly winning… repeatedly pinned a battered Ali against the ropes, landing dozens of punches on the weary ex-champ. But the joke was on Foreman. While exhausting himself by pounding away at his opponent, Ali was “resting up” against [...]

GOP “Austerity” is Crippling Economic Recovery. And more IOKIYAR. (UPDATED)

Okay, this is going to be another brief but “numbers-heavy” debunking session, so let’s wrap this thing up for all you NeoCons douchebags out there who stumbled across this page in a Google search for the “Numbers-porn” that masquerades as “facts” on the Fox News website. As I surmised Friday night, this insane Republican adherence to [...]

BULLETIN: Public sector job cuts continue to cripple recovery

SPECIAL BULLETIN: The employment figures for April were released today, reporting that the economy barely broke even, creating just 115.000 new jobs… or so the story goes. When broken down between private and public sector job creation, once again, the NET number of new jobs created is dragged down by cuts in the PUBLIC sector [...]

“Just the facts, Ma’am.” Important numbers for the Water Cooler Wars.

Now that this election year is in full swing, we keep hearing a lot of “pseudo-facts” being tossed about “like Godzilla with a railroad car” (h/t to TV’s Dan Castinella for the metaphor.) Bush’s former economic adviser Mitch Daniels had the gall to (falsely) claim “Ronald Reagan inherited a bigger economic mess than President Obama did” and yet [...]

Paying Your Taxes used to be Patriotic

It’s Tax Day, America! Listening to Republicans today, you’d be forgiven for thinking that making ANYONE pay taxes… especially wealthy people… was borderline Communism. “You can’t tax ‘the job creators’!” we’re told. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Republican candidate George W Bush was telling everyone across the country that the fact the government was running a surplus [...]

Privatizing the Good News, Socializng the Bad. When the GOP takes credit and when they don’t.

A little over a year ago, I predicted that the moment the economy started to show signs of improvement, despite not being in office long enough to pass ANY legislation that might impact jobs, Republicans would be quick to dismiss the presidents policies of the past two years and take full credit for the improved [...]

The Truth About the Keystone XL Pipeline: Few jobs, higher gas prices, eco disaster (updated)

BREAKING NEWS: Frequent readers of M.R.S. already know how I feel about the proposed “Keystone XL pipeline” and the absurd level of hyperbole from Conservatives regarding the supposed windfall of jobs it would produce along with its ability to bring down gas prices, while downplaying the environment consequences. With the deep pockets of BigOil and [...]

So much stupid (part 2). The Kingmakers, Global Warming denied and the key is not Keystone

Continuing from Monday, there was plenty of stupidity to report last week. A man that had no business even being in Afghanistan was overextended to the point tragedy. And there was the stupidity of a Media that inflicts John McCain upon us for yet one more Sunday show appearance to critique the man he lost to. Do [...]

So much stupid, so little time (part 1). Afghanistan, the Kingmakers & John McCain (again)

[PopUpFad=GROUP=widget:RANDOM=NO:SESSION=NO] (REMINDER: If you haven’t yet signed up to Follow the M.R.S. Twitter feed, I encourage you to do so know. Breaking news, insights and Wisdom with our own touch of humor.) I had great difficulty deciding on just one topic to focus on in this week. A week that saw a U.S. soldier go [...]

Obama On Track to Surpass Reagan’s Jobs Record

Two years ago, I posted the job-creation stats for every president since Jimmy Carter, making the point that Democrats have been FAR better for the economy than Republicans. Despite being repeatedly vilified by the Right as “an abject failure”, Jimmy Carter actually created MORE jobs annually (2.6million) than Ronald Reagan (2.0million) (second only to Bill Clinton – 2.9million). Reagan [...]

It Couldn’t Be More Clear: GOP running against fictional president with fictional record

Super Tuesday is now history, and the Republican presidential candidates have all given their “victory” speeches (not Ron Paul, who won no states). And it is clear from listening to them that each one of them absatively-posalutely believes they will be running in November against some fictional “un-American” president with a record that bears no resemblance [...]

Anyone else remember why gas hit $4 in ’08? It was saber-rattling over Iran’s nukes.

I find the short memory of the average voter endlessly frustrating. The Bush Presidency was an unmitigated disaster, from a DOW that had plunged over 1,000 points by September 10th, 2001; the refusal of the Bush Administration to focus on al Qaeda until it was too late; to the Iraq War itself launched under false pretenses, plunging an already weak [...]