A Friday Payday Post

Not much to say here, but I only want to recommend three good articles…

In today’s Bucks County Courier Times, Guest Opinion writer Joseph M. Kraher discusses three American Prospect articles by former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich here, including this excerpt…

Reich notes IRS data showing the bottom 50 percent of all Americans combined are earning just 12.8 percent of all income. The richest 1 percent earn more than 21 percent of all income. He faults Democrats and Republicans alike for their political unwillingness to raise taxes on those making over $500,000 a year, as the leading factor resulting in this increasing inequality seen since the late 1970s.

He notes that under Eisenhower, Republican, in the 1950s, the top tax rate was 91 percent for the richest, and the middle class didn't complain. People who lived through the Depression were seeing their take-home incomes rise, even with these high taxes for the rich. A one-worker family could afford the middle class American dream.

Reich simplifies the two economic theories in America as Trickle-Down (Friedman) and Bottom-Up (Keynes). Everyone should remember Reagan's “Trickle-Down,” which Republicans have been fooling us with since. This assumes the rich get richer with lower taxes and use their extra income to invest in America. Investments don't trickle down to the middle class; they trickle out to wherever on the planet the rich can get the highest return. If trickle down worked, inequality wouldn't be rising so fast.

Kraher also refers to Adam Smith as “America’s first conservative president,” which is incorrect by a mile, though Smith, an economist, is possibly the most influential one of all concerning this country’s economic policy.

Paul Krugman weighs in on what McBush, Hillary and Obama have proposed concerning the mortgage crisis (here), telling us…

Mr. McCain, we’re told, is a straight-talking maverick. But on domestic policy, he offers neither straight talk nor originality; instead, he panders shamelessly to right-wing ideologues.

Mrs. Clinton, we’re assured by sources right and left, tortures puppies and eats babies. But her policy proposals continue to be surprisingly bold and progressive.

Finally, Mr. Obama is widely portrayed, not least by himself, as a transformational figure who will usher in a new era. But his actual policy proposals, though liberal, tend to be cautious and relatively orthodox.

Good stuff, as always.

Finally, the Inquirer had no trouble yesterday trashing trial lawyers Melvyn I. Weiss, “Dickie” Scruggs and William Lerach here for convictions related to bribe and kickback schemes, which was justified I know, but here is an example of trial lawyer Cliff Rieders writing about income inequality also (though the war is the number one issue, it’s good that the economy is getting the proper focus also, though it’s a tragedy that it took the slow disintegration of our financial underpinnings to make that happen).

And yes, for anyone inclined to comment accordingly, Lerach made a donation to the John Edwards for President campaign, but it was donated to charity upon Lerach’s conviction (as noted here).