David Stockman: Republicans Have Abandoned Their Principles And Crippled The Economy

Any defenders of past GOP policies which led us down this perilous path?

I'm surprised you weren't overrun with trolls.

Awesome article!

GOP Destroyed the Economy

The above link is a bit simpler breakdown of the original article. A MUST read for everybody.

Here's some stats I like to share as to what these so called conservative policies have done to our economy and why 98% of us are hurting financially;

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Spot on, Tennis Mom2.

Even Greenspan has capitulated that the Chicago School of Economics and Trickel-Down (Tax Cuts for the Already Filthy Rich) are a chimera. What could top that?

Blue Archer and Rainbow Warrior, fantastic links/information.

Thank you.

Sent a friend request...

Is there an emoticon for making a confused face?

Not sure, TM2. Perhaps it looks like this { 8-} or ] 8-{

My local GOOPers here, are campaigning on the bat@!$%# crazy, "tea party approved", campaign slogan. Yesterday, they were out in full force - door-to-door - pledging to lower taxes, a constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets.

(My reactions were: lower taxes and fiscal responsibility? hmm... the GOP certainly dropped the ball on these ideas, haven't they; and free markets? markets have hardly ever been free. Fwiw - look at what financial deregulation and tax cuts have done - an ever further widened gap between the elite class and the under class, an outright wipeout of the middle class.)

I hope voters aren't so bat@!$%# angry - come the next first Tuesday in November - that an ever larger number decide to become a "silent majority" and stay home; or worse that many would think "tea party approved" slogans are something worth voting for. God help us.

• The shadow banking system grew from a mere $500 billion in 1970 to $30 trillion by September 2008 (see Gramm, above).

• Trillion-dollar financial conglomerates are not free enterprises — they are wards of the state, living on virtually free money from the Fed's discount window to cover their bad bets.

• From 2002 to 2006, the top 1% of Americans received two-thirds of the gain in national income.

This is a superb article. I wish I would have found it sooner.

I'm surprised you haven't been overrun with Right-wingers trying to say everything on the list is President Obama's fault!

I'm surprised you haven't been overrun with Right-wingers trying to say everything on the list is President Obama's fault!

Now that I've made a post, I'm sure they will come. I seem to have the wacko posse following me ; -)

Was it something I said ? LOL

TM2,

Well, if you thought "GOOPers" was funny (which I've borrowed from our pal Ken1014) ...then how 'bout "Loopy GOOPers". Now there's a campaign slogan!

Ha...there is no such thing as conicidence... most assuredly in this instance.