Must See TV

Poor or Spent?  HuffPost Live forum

This is a panel discussion on financial (il)literacy and the challenges that people face trying to become (or to remain) gainfully employed in today’s economy.  I can’t recall seeing a better panel discussion.  It was great.  No blathering denzens of the Beltway – no “sabbathday gasbags”, as Calvin Trillin used to call them.  Instead, here are four smart, thoughtful people bringing different perspectives to an important subject.  If you only watch a half hour of TV/internet this week, make it this.  (FWIW, my wife’s friend Taifa is one of the panelists.  That’s how I heard about it.)

Economic Inequality and Its Consequences

Inequality is Holding Back the Recovery by Joseph Stiglitz

“…with inequality at its highest level since before the Depression, a robust recovery will be difficult in the short term, and the American dream – a good life in exchange for hard work – is slowly dying.”

Inequality and Recovery by Paul Krugman

“Joe Stiglitz [argues] that inequality is a big factor in our slow recovery… I’d like to agree.  But … I’ve thought about these issues a lot, and haven’t been able to persuade myself that this particular morality tale is right.”

More On Inequality by Paul Krugman

“Inequality is a huge problem — but not for employment growth in 2013 or 2014.  OK, there have been some interesting points made in relation to that statement, most of which I agree with.”

Krugman versus Stiglitz on Inequality and Economic Growth by Dean Baker

“[Do the facts I note in this commentary] prove Stiglitz’s point? I wouldn’t go quite that far, but it does suggest that Krugman’s case is not as solid as it may first appear.”

The Smartphone Have-Nots by Adam Davidson

“Much of what we consider the American way of life is rooted in the period of remarkably broad, shared economic growth, from around 1900 to about 1978. Back then, each generation of Americans did better than the one that preceded it. Even those who lived through the Depression made up what was lost. By the 1950s, America had entered an era that economists call the Great Compression, in which workers — through unions and Social Security, among other factors — captured a solid share of the economy’s growth.

…

Since 1979, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bottom 80 percent of American families had their share of the country’s income fall, while the top 20 percent had modest gains.

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The change came around 1978, Mishel said, when politicians from both parties began to think of America as a nation of consumers, not of workers.”

President Obama’s Inaugural Speech

I didn’t listen but I understand it was very good.

President Obama’ Second Inaugural Speech by Jared Bernstein

“I thought the President gave a strong and progressive second inaugural speech today, one that resonantly underscored the most important themes he’s been promulgating since before anyone even knew who he was.  What I don’t see so clearly is the path that goes from our budget constraints to meeting the aspirations the President articulated today.”

Obama’s Inauguration Speech: A Primer by Charlie Pierce

“The problem I’ve always had with Barack Obama’s endless paeans to how everyone in politics should get together and devise bipartisan solutions to our most difficult problems is that it always seemed to me to be so formless, a wish rather than a plan. Martin Luther King talked about dreams and visions, but he wasn’t shy about marching children into the fire hoses, either. He knew exactly where the opposition’s pressure points were, and exactly how hard to push them to get them to do what he wanted.

…

The speech was a bold refutation of almost everything the Republican party has stood for over the past 40 years. It was a loud — and, for this president, damned near derisive — denouncement of all the mindless, reactionary bunkum that the Republicans have come to stand for in 2013; you could hear the sound of the punch he landed on the subject of global warming halfway to Annapolis. But the meat of the speech was a brave assertion of the power of government, not as an alien entity, but as an instrument of the collective will and desires of a self-governing people.

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We will wait and see, of course, what happens once the scaffolding and the bunting come down, bearing in mind always the scriptural caution about faith without works being dead. But, for an afternoon, anyway, a Democratic president reclaimed the language of freedom from those for whom it means merely lower taxes and more guns. He reclaimed government as a manifestation of a country’s aspirations, and not as an anchor on its progress. And he refuted, with precision and neatly camouflaged contempt, many of the most destructive ideas that have poisoned out politics for nearly four decades now.”

Miscellaneous Politics

Diplomacy is Dead by Roger Cohen

“Effective diplomacy — the kind that produced Nixon’s breakthrough with China, an end to the Cold War on American terms, or the Dayton peace accord in Bosnia — requires patience, persistence, empathy, discretion, boldness and a willingness to talk to the enemy.  This is an age of impatience, changeableness, palaver, small-mindedness and an unwillingness to talk to bad guys.”

Conservatives Have Their Worst Week Ever by Matt Taibbi

“Watching America’s political conservatives try to counter-maneuver opposite Barack Obama’s re-inauguration over the course of the last week has been an incredible comedy – like watching the Three Stooges try to perform a liver transplant on roller skates.

Let’s review the basic timeline. First, Political Media, a conservative action group, decided to try to make an appeal to win the hearts and minds of Americans everywhere by declaring January 19th – previously known as Martin Luther King Day, to the rest of us – to be “Gun Appreciation Day.””

‘Brave, Honest Conservatives’ and Social Insurance by Mark Thoma

“Economic systems differ in their ability to provide goods and services and in the level of economic risk faced by a typical household. Socialism is a low mean, low variance economic system. With a planned economy, cycles in unemployment do not occur unless mandated by planners. Worker income, though low, is not subject to substantial variation over time.  Other economic risks, such as access to housing and risks related to healthcare are also very low since these services are provided by the state. Economic risks for workers are low in such a system, but so is average income.

Under capitalism the average level of income is much higher, but economic risk is higher as well. In a capitalist system, workers can be involuntarily displaced as new products are invented, new production techniques are implemented, production moves outside the country, or inevitable business cycle variation occurs. These are shocks that affect workers independent of their own behavior. A worker who has shown up to work every day and worked hard to support a family can be suddenly unemployed for reasons unrelated to anything connected to his or her own behavior.

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Drawing a rough analogy, socialism is like investing in T-Bills. Low risk, but low return. Capitalism is like the stock market. There is a higher average return accompanied by higher risk. Financial theory tells how to insure against such risks and there is no reason why this cannot be applied in the social insurance arena to smooth variations in income.  There is a need for social insurance under capitalism.”

Miscellaneous Economics

Real Spending Cuts in the Real World by Jared Bernstein

“The factoid I think I’ve been touting the most in cable TV arguments lately is that when it comes to spending cuts, we’ve already cut government spending by $1.5 trillion over ten years ($1.7 with interest savings) by lowering discretionary spending caps.  Yet, Republicans—and too many moderators—deny that these cuts occurred.”

Disability Rolls and the Makers/Takers/Fakers Nonsense by Jared Bernstein

“So while these data show some growth in the DI rolls that may reflect folks getting DI who ought not to, much of the increase appears to be explainable by known, legitimate factors…  In fact … more than 90% of entitlement dollars go to people who are either elderly, disabled, or working.  In other words, the makers/takers frame is factually wrong not to mention mean-spirited and divisive.”

Disenfranchisement and Vote Suppression

Rig the Vote by Charles Blow

“If you can’t win by playing fair, cheat… Republican lawmakers in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin are considering whether to abandon the winner-take-all approach to awarding Electoral College votes and replace it with a proportional allocation.  That change would heavily favor Republican presidential candidates — tilting the voting power away from cities and toward rural areas — and make it more likely that the candidate with the fewest votes over all would win a larger share of electoral votes.”

Uncategorized

‘How To Talk To Scared, Condescending, Misinformed, Old White Dudes’ With Your Host, Hillary Clinton by Adam Mordecai

“At the Senate hearings looking into the Benghazi attack, Secretary of State Clinton was given the unique opportunity to be yelled at by some vitriolic old white dudes with a loose grasp on the facts, and a firm goal of making her look bad, regardless of what really happened. They did it in a very special way, a way we like to call “mansplaining.”

So our friend Zerlina Maxwell, over at Feministing, wrote up a delightful explainer on how to handle mansplainers, reprinted here with her permission.”

The Wakhan Corridor by Michael Finkel

“Afghanistan’s Kyrgyz nomads survive in one of the most remote, high-altitude, bewitching landscapes on Earth. It’s a heavenly life—and a living hell.”

Rail service between Boston and Bedford ended 36 years ago this month, The Bedford Citizen

“Thirty-six years ago this month, a passenger train struggled over icy rails to reach Bedford. When a small group of commuters stepped onto the snow-covered Depot platform, a century of railroading here came to an abrupt end.”