Making Money Program

By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger

Meet the new global elite. They're pretty much the same as the old global elite, only richer and more smug.

Laura Flanders of GritTV interviews business reporter Chrystia Freeland about her cover story in the latest issue of the Atlantic Monthly on the new ruling class. She says that today's ultra-rich are more likely to have earned their fortunes in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street than previous generations of plutocrats, who were more likely to have inherited money or established companies.

As a result, she argues, today's global aristocracy believes itself to be the product of a meritocracy. The old sense of noblesse oblige among the ultra-rich is giving way to the attitude that if the ultra-rich could do it, everyone else should pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

Ironically, Freeland points out that many of the new elite got rich from government bailouts of their failed banks. It's unclear why this counts as earning one's fortune, or what kind of meritocracy reserves its most lavish rewards for its most spectacular failures.

Class warfare on public sector pensions

In The Nation, Eric Alterman assails the Republican-controlled Congress's decision to scrap the popular and effective Build America Bonds program as an act of little-noticed class warfare:

These bonds, which make up roughly 20 percent of all new debt sold by states and local governments because of a federal subsidy equivalent to some 35 percent of interest costs, ended on December 31, as Republicans proved unwilling even to consider renewing them. The death of the program could prove devastating to states' future borrowing.

Alterman notes that the states could face up to $130 billion shortfall next year. States can't deficit spend like the federal government, which made the Build America Bonds program a lifeline to the states.

According to Alterman, Republicans want the states to run out of money so that they will be unable to pay the pensions of public sector workers. He notes that Reps. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) are also co-sponsoring a bill to force state and local governments to "recalculate" their pension obligations to public sector workers.

Divide and conquer

Kari Lydersen of Working In These Times explains how conservatives use misleading statistics to pit private sector workers against their brothers and sisters in the public sector. If the public believes that teachers, firefighters, meter readers and snowplow drivers are parasites, they'll feel more comfortable yanking their pensions out from under them.

Hence the misleading statistic that public sector workers earn $11.90 more per hour than "comparable" private sector workers. However, when you take education and work experience into account, employees of state and local governments typically earn 11% to 12% less than private sector workers with comparable qualifications.

Public sector workers have better benefits plans, but only for as long as governments can afford to keep their contractual obligations.

Who's screwing whom?

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is calling for a sense of perspective on public sector wages and benefits. In AlterNet he argues that the people who are really making a killing in this economy are the ultra-rich, not school teachers and garbage collectors:

Public servants are convenient scapegoats. Republicans would rather deflect attention from corporate executive pay that continues to rise as corporate profits soar, even as corporations refuse to hire more workers. They don't want stories about Wall Street bonuses, now higher than before taxpayers bailed out the Street. And they'd like to avoid a spotlight on the billions raked in by hedge-fund and private-equity managers whose income is treated as capital gains and subject to only a 15 percent tax, due to a loophole in the tax laws designed specifically for them.

Signs of hope?

The economic future looks pretty bleak these days. Yes, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4% from 9.8% in December, but the economy added only 103,000, a far cry from the 300,000 jobs economists say the economy really needs to add to pull the country out its economic doldrums.

Andy Kroll points out in Mother Jones that it will take 20 years to replace the jobs lost in this recession, if current trends continue.

Worse yet, what looks like job growth could actually be chronic unemployment in disguise. The unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of people who are actively looking for work. Kroll worries that the apparent drop in the unemployment rate could simply reflect more people giving up their job searches.

For an counterweight to the doom and gloom, check out Tim Fernholtz's new piece in The American Prospect. He argues that the new unemployment numbers are among several hopeful signs for economic recovery in 2011. However, he stresses that his self-proclaimed rosy forecast is contingent upon avoiding several huge pitfalls, including drastic cuts in public spending.

With the GOP in Congress seemingly determined to starve the states for cash, the future might not be so rosy after all.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the economy by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Audit for a complete list of articles on economic issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Mulch, The Pulse and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

The Chinese are way better Capitalists then we are.

1. If they see a obstacle, they just ignore it and run it over.

2. What's yours, is them to copy it.

3. Humans are nothing more then cheap slaves.

4. More is More.

5. The great wall of China is build on bones, and they would build it again on bones if it would turn out a profit.

6. When you do business with the Chinese, you're fucked either way to turn it.

 

The best reference ever of the Chinese was in Deep Space 9: The Chinese where portraied by the Ferengi and their 'Rules of Acquisition'

1. Once you have their money ... never give it back.


2. Never pay more for an acquisition than you have to.


3. Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity.


4. A man is only worth the sum of his possessions. (From Enterprise, episode "Acquisition"; sloppy script-writing, as rule 6 (see above) was already given in DS9)


5. Keep your ears open.


6. Small print leads to large risk.


7. Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.


8. Greed is eternal.


9. Anything worth doing is worth doing for money.


10. A deal is a deal ... until a better one comes along.


11. A contract is a contract is a contract (but only between Ferengi).


12. A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all.


13. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.


14. Never place friendship above profit.


15. A wise man can hear profit in the wind.


16. Nothing is more important than your health--except for your money.


17. There's nothing more dangerous than an honest businessman.


18. Never make fun of a Ferengi's mother ... insult something he cares about instead.


19. It never hurts to suck up to the boss.


20. Peace is good for business.


21. War is good for business.


22. She can touch your lobes but never your latinum.


23. Profit is its own reward.


24. Never confuse wisdom with luck.


25. Expand, or die.


26. Don't trust a man wearing a better suit than your own.


27. The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife.


28. Never ask when you can take.


29. Good customers are as rare as latinum -- treasure them.


30. There is no substitute for success.


31. Free advice is seldom cheap.


32. Keep your lies consistent.


33. The riskier the road, the greater the profit.


34. Win or lose, there's always Hyperian beetle snuff.


35. Home is where the heart is ... but the stars are made of latinum.


36. Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.


37. Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge.


38. The flimsier the product, the higher the price.


39. Never let the competition know what you're thinking.


40. Ask not what your profits can do for you, but what you can do for your profits.


41. Females and finances don't mix.


42. Enough ... is never enough.


43. Trust is the biggest liability of all.


44. Nature decays, but latinum lasts forever.


45. Sleep can interfere with profit. (DS9 season 2, episode 7 - "Rules of Acquisition")


46. Faith moves mountains ... of inventory.


47. There is no honour in poverty.


48. Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.


49. Treat people in your debt like family ... exploit them.


50. Never have sex with the boss's sister.


51. Always have sex with the boss.


52. You can't free a fish from water.


53. Everything is for sale, even friendship.


54. Even a blind man can recognize the glow of latinum.


55. Wives serve, brothers inherit.


56. Only fools pay retail.


57. There's nothing wrong with charity ... as long as it winds up in your pocket.


58. Even in the worst of times someone turns a profit.


59. Know your enemies ... but do business with them always.


60. Not even dishonesty can tarnish the shine of profit.


61. Let others keep their reputation. You keep their money.


62. Never cheat a Klingon ... unless you're sure you can get away with it.


63. It's always good business to know about new customers before they walk in the door.


64. The justification for profit is profit.


65. New customers are like razortoothed grubworms. They can be succulent, but sometimes they can bite back.


66. Employees are rungs on the ladder of success. Don't hesitate to step on them.


67. Never begin a negotiation on an empty stomach.


68. Always know what you're buying.


69. Beware the man who doesn't make time for oo-mox.


70. Latinum lasts longer than lust.


71. You can't buy fate.


72. Never be afraid to mislabel a product.


73. More is good ... all is better.


74. A wife is a luxury ... a smart accountant is a necessity.


75. A wealthy man can afford anything except a conscience.


76. Never allow doubt to tarnish your love of latinum.


77. When in doubt, lie.


78. Deep down everyone's a Ferengi.


79. No good deed ever goes unpunished.


80. [Quark's rule] When Morn leaves, it's all over.

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

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