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Corporate Profits' Share of Pie Most in 60 Years
By MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — It’s not news that Wall Street is doing much better than Main Street, but we didn’t know just how much better until the government updated the economic statistics going back to 2008.
Here’s the grim report that will surprise no one who’s been paying attention the past three years: The fat cats are fatter than we thought, and the incomes of regular folk are worse than we thought.
Profits account for a larger share of GDP than at any time in the past 60 years.As part of its regular revisions to the national income accounts, the Commerce Department told us Friday that corporate profits in 2008, 2009 and 2010 were actually $343 billion higher than earlier estimated.
And personal incomes of American families were $265 billion lower over those three years than previously estimated.
One more thing: the gross domestic product was also revised lower. Read our story: “GDP grows a slender 1.3% in second quarter.”
According to the latest data, profits of U.S. corporations are at record levels even as the U.S. economy gasps for air. Profits have been totally divorced from the economic fortunes of the American people.
America's Cratering Economy
by Stephen Lendman
Slow-motion fiscal collapse perhaps explains its current state after decades of mismanagement, accelerated under Bush and Obama. The chickens are now coming home to roost big time, hitting ordinary people hardest, suffering under a protracted Main Street Depression. More on that below.
Last April 18, Standard & Poor (S & P) downgraded its rating on America to negative, saying:
S & P "affirmed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the US. (It also) revised its outlook on the long-term rating of the US sovereign to negative from stable....(W)e now believe (US strengths may) not fully offset the credit risks over the next two years at the 'AAA' level...."
The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
Ellen Brown
It used to be that when the Fed Chairman spoke, the market listened; but the Chairman has lost his mystique. Now when the market speaks, politicians listen. Hopefully they heard what the market just said: government cutbacks are bad for business. The government needs to spend more, not less. Fortunately, there are viable ways to do this while still balancing the budget.
Escalating Israeli Street Protest
by Stephen Lendman
Ongoing since mid-July, Israeli street protests are unprecedented in size, scope, and (so far) determination to stay the course for social justice.
Two previous articles discussed them, accessed through the following links:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/08/israel-rogue-state-land-of-inequality.html
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/08/israeli-street-protests-suppressed-by.html
What began as a Tel Aviv middle class protest for affordable housing, mushroomed to include all segments of Israeli society (except its super-rich) to include many other social justice issues.
Destabilizing Syria
by Stephen Lendman
What began in January escalated to an uprising in March. Ever since, it's been violent, disruptive and widespread, killing hundreds, and injuring many more.
The stakes are high. The entire region is affected. It's very similar to what began in Libya, pitting imperial powers against ruling governments for destabilization and control.
In Libya, it's by war for regime change, colonization and plunder. In Syria, it's to establish another client state, no matter who heads it. More on that below.
Colombia: Pillage, Promise and Peace
James Petras
Invited paper to be presented to the “Encuentro Nacional de comunidades Campesinas, Afrodescendientes e Indigenas por la Tierra y la Paz de Colombia”
“El dialogo es la Ruta”
12 al 15 de agosto 2011
Barrancabermeja – Colombia
Introduction:
We live in a time of great destruction and grand economic opportunities and Latin America is no exception. In the global context, the US Empire is engaged in destructive wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Haiti). In contrast China, India, Brazil, Argentina and other “emerging economies” are expanding trade, investments and reducing poverty. The European Union (EU) and the United States (USA) are in deep economic crises. The EU “periphery” (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain) are totally bankrupt. The US “dependencies” in North America (Mexico), Central America and the Caribbean are virtual narco-states plagued by mass poverty, astronomical crime rates and economic stagnation. The US dependencies are plundered by foreign multi-nationals, local oligarchs and corrupt politicians.
Colombia stands at the crossroads: it can follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, narco-President Alvaro Uribe and remain a military dependency, a lone outpost of the US Empire in South America. Colombia can remain at the margin of the most dynamic world markets and at war with its people or via a new socio-political leadership it can effect a profound reorientation of policy and consummate a transition toward greater integration with the dynamic markets of the world.
Vilifying Muslims in America
by Stephen Lendman
Judge nations by how they treat all people, whether equally, or advantaging some over others. Judge them harshly if they persecute some for political advantage.
In America, people of color and Muslims are fair game. It's longstanding policy based on prejudicial attitudes, stereotypes, deep-seated racism, and notions of corrupted Western values, high-mindedness, and moral superiority.
Post-9/11, in fact, Muslims are perceived as barbaric, violent, uncivilized, gun-toting terrorists, easily targeted, accused, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned - not for wrongdoing, for their faith in American at the wrong time. As a result, it's no surprise that when suspects are named, media reports automatically convict them in the court of public opinion.
Still Positive After All These Years!
By Tim Murray
Yes, you too can be optimistic and successful in this Post-Apocalyptic World!
Having trouble coping with the collapse of our civilization?
Has terrorism, biological, chemical and nuclear war ruined your day?
Has the die-off of your friends, loved ones and 6.99 billion other people gotcha down?
Has the fact that you are now living in Cormac McCarthy’s nightmare (“The Road”) made you depressed because you refused to see it coming two decades ago and that as a consequence you might end up on somebody’s menu?
Has the fact that you were complicit in these events by imbibing the idiot techno-optimism of the green movement made you wracked with guilt and moral culpability?
Permaculture ends meat-vegan debate, promotes anarchy
By Rady Ananda
Review of Meat: A Benign Extravagance by Simon Fairlee (2010, 322 pp.); and
Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale Integrative Farming and Gardening by Sepp Holzer (2011, 232 pp.)
Notice: PBS is rebroadcasting Food, Inc. on Tuesday, August 9 and is kicking off its new Food site. Check local listings here.
While the Bush reign may be described as a war on privacy, Obama’s is clearly a war on food freedom.* As his Monsanto administration arrests organic farmers and distributors, seizing and destroying healthy foods privately contracted and sustainably grown, this tyranny is not unique to the United States. All over the world, organic, sustainable farmers are under attack by large agribiz actors who, through government and trade agreements, are regulating them out of business and destroying the environment in the process.
Two farmers arguing against ecocidal hyper-regulation and “conventional” and “orthodox organic” farming are Simon Fairlee of England and Sepp Holzer of Austria. Both have written seminal books that should grace the bookshelves of everyone who gardens, farms or cares about the impact of agriculture on the biosphere.
Rude Awakening
by Stephen Lendman
In 2008, a protracted global depression began, criminally manufactured by Wall Street and Washington scoundrels, complicit with major European partners.
Why? To permit greater financial and other corporate consolidation, more power, and ability to buy favored assets cheap, profiting hugely at the expense of millions of working households.
At the same time, Washington's got it own agenda. As White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel (now Chicago's mayor) told the Wall Street Journal on November 6, 2008:
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