September 2010 archive

I see the Democrats are finally beginning to understand that the key to winning is the need to frame their own message. It’s about time:

“The Obama tax cuts for the middle class”

Call them “the Obama tax cuts for the middle class.”

Top Democratic leaders in the House are discussing using that phrase to rebrand President Obama’s proposed extension of the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $250,000, senior leadership aides tell me.

The use of the phrase has the informal support of Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip James Clyburn, and Pelosi has used the phrase in private meetings, leadership aides tell me. Rank and file House Dems are privately discussing the phrase. Top Senate aides also like the idea.

Right on. Take the bull by the horns and start taking the credit for the really good ideas. Don’t even mention the name of that President who initiated those cuts that will benefit the middle class if they are extended. Only invoke his name for the deficit inflating cuts for the wealthiest. Remind voters that even the middle class tax cuts will still benefit the rich.

Keeping money in the hands of people who will spend it one of the best ways to stimulate the economy. The House and Senate Democrats on the campaign trail need to make this their top message as a way to stimulate job growth and the economy which will reduce the deficit even further. Take back the word “stimulus” as a positive part of that message.

Make “The Obama Tax Cuts the message” the Democratic message.

Cross posted @ GOS

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the t internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Paul Krugman: China, Japan, America

Last week Japan’s minister of finance declared that he and his colleagues wanted a discussion with China about the latter’s purchases of Japanese bonds, to “examine its intention” – diplomat-speak for “Stop it right now.” The news made me want to bang my head against the wall in frustration.

You see, senior American policy figures have repeatedly balked at doing anything about Chinese currency manipulation, at least in part out of fear that the Chinese would stop buying our bonds. Yet in the current environment, Chinese purchases of our bonds don’t help us – they hurt us. The Japanese understand that. Why don’t we?

Some background: If discussion of Chinese currency policy seems confusing, it’s only because many people don’t want to face up to the stark, simple reality – namely, that China is deliberately keeping its currency artificially weak.

Robert Reich: The Two Categories of American Corporation — and Why it Matters

Some giant American corporations depend on a buoyant American economy and a world-class industrial base in the United States. Others are far less dependent. What comes out of Washington in the next few years will reflect which group has most political clout — especially if Republicans take over the House and capture more of the Senate this November.

The first group includes national telecoms like Verizon and AT&T that need a prosperous America because most of their sales are here. Same with finance companies like Bank of America and Travelers Insurance whose business strategy has been built around U.S. consumers. Ditto for certain giant chains like Home Depot. Naturally, all these companies were especially hard hit by the Great Recession and its devastating impact on American consumers.

The second group includes companies like Coca Cola, Exxon-Mobil, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and McDonald’s, that get substantial revenues from their overseas operations. Increasingly this means China, India, and Brazil. Ford and GM are still largely dependent on US sales but becoming less so. GM sold more cars in China last year than in the US. Not surprisingly, American companies that are less dependent on American consumers have been showing the biggest profits.

Monday Business Edition

Monday Business Edition is an Open Thread

I don’t believe it.  I think this is pre-election posturing.  Still, as some have suggested, it’s possible this administration may be forced to make some policy promises that are not so easy to walk away from.

Geithner Urges Action on Economy

By DEBORAH SOLOMON, The Wall Street Journal

September 12, 2010

“If the government does nothing going forward, then the impact of policy in Washington will shift from supporting economic growth to hurting economic growth,” Mr. Geithner said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal in his U.S. Treasury office, citing the example of countries who “shift too quickly to premature restraint” after a crisis, including the U.S. in the 1930s.

…

On Sunday, a top Republican lawmaker signaled there might be room to compromise on extending the Bush tax cuts for high-income earners but, in a sign of how fraught the issue is, his words drew immediate skepticism from Obama administration officials. “I want to do something for all Americans who pay taxes,” House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “If the only option I have is to vote for some of those tax reductions, I’ll vote for it. But I’ve been making the point now for months that we need to extend all the current rates for all Americans if we want to get our economy going again, and we want to get jobs in America.”

[The] typical error most countries make coming out of a financial crisis is they shift too quickly to premature restraint. You saw that in the United States in the 30s, you saw that in Japan in the 90s. It is very important for us to avoid that mistake. If the government does nothing going forward, then the impact of policy in Washington will shift from supporting economic growth to hurting economic growth.

Mr. Geithner, in the interview, rejected the view of many economists that allowing taxes to rise is unwise at this point in the recovery. The White House estimates the one-year cost of extension at $35 billion and the 10-year cost at $700 billion.

“We don’t have unlimited resources,” Mr. Geithner said. “We just don’t think it would be responsible for this country, given the size of our future deficits, and given the substantial burden the middle class has been bearing over the past decade in particular, to go out and borrow $700 billion from our children so we can sustain those Bush tax cuts that only go to the wealthiest 2% of Americans.”

He said the U.S. can no longer rely on consumer spending, which has long powered the economy, to be the growth engine that leads the recovery this time around and said Washington needed to plant the seeds for business investment and exports.

In the mean time here at The Stars Hollow Gazette we’re going to keep teaching Samuelson and not Snake Oil Salesmen.

• Economics 101
• Striking Right at the Capillaries
• The Economic Damage of Republican Obstructionism
• Economics 101: Tonight’s Reading Assignment
• Aggregate Demand
• Goolsbee: Chair Council of Economic Advisors
• Magical Thinking

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 109 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1814, Francis Scot Key pens Star-Spangled Banner

“The Star-Spangled Banner“ is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song, written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men’s social club in London. “The Anacreontic Song” (or “To Anacreon in Heaven”), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Key’s poem and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner“, it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today, with the fourth (“O thus be it ever when free men shall stand…”) added on more formal occasions. In the fourth stanza, Key urged the adoption of “In God is our Trust” as the national motto (“And this be our motto: In God is our Trust”). The United States adopted the motto “In God We Trust” by law in 1956.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889 and the President in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.

Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom. “Hail, Columbia” served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee“, whose melody was derived from the British national anthem, also served as a de facto anthem before the adoption of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Following the War of 1812 and subsequent American wars, other songs would emerge to compete for popularity at public events, among them “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Well, summer will be officially over on or around 20100921, the autumnal equinox.  This is the day when the nights begin to grow longer than the days, just like the vernal equinox, when the nights grow shorter than the days.  It all has to do with the unique orbit of our wonderful spaceship earth as it orbits the sun.  Perhaps near that date I cam elaborate.

This time, however, we shall discuss the beginning of the cold and flu season, and how to deal with it.  I have only two rules, and they are important.  Observe them and you will have fewer of them, I suspect.

Sunday Night Throwball, Dallas Cowboys @ Washington Redskins.  On examining my feelings I don’t hate the ‘skins quite as much as the ‘boys.  Tonight Turner Classic is showing 2 films that perfectly illustrate my contention of rampant cultural misogyny in the 60s that sadly persists to this day.

• ABC Family– Cars x 2
• AMC– Broken Arrow, Rubicon and Mad Men (both premiers)
• Bravo– Top Chef marathon (including Season Finale)
• Disney– New Hannah Montana, Good Luck Charlie, Jonas L.A. (gag me with a spoon)
• Discovery– Man v. Wild x 2 (including Fan v. Wild), Mysteries of the Mediterranean (premier)
• ESPN– Cards @ Braves
• Food– The Great Food Truck Race (premier, 3 teams left), Iron Chef America (premier)
• FX– Cloverfield, Jumper
• History– Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People (premiers)
• MTV– 2010 MTV Video Music Awards (umm… who cares?)
• TBS– Last Holiday, My Boys x 2 (premiers)
• Turner Classic– Sex and the Single Girl, Bachelor in Paradise
• Adult Swim– Delocated (premier)
• TNT– The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King x 2

Later-

• Comedy– Futurama (3peat), Ugly Americans (repeat of Series Premier)
• FX– Cloverfield (again)
• SciFi– Carny
• Turner Classic– The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (shhhh)
• USA– National Treasure

The Venture Brothers 2nd half Season Premier night on Adult Swim– The Diving Bell vs. the Butter Glider.  Childrens Hospital– Give a Painted Brother a Break.

You think you are wise, Mithrandir. Yet for all your subtleties, you have not wisdom. Do you think the eyes of the White Tower are blind? I have seen more than you know. With your left hand you would use me as a shield against Mordor, and with your right you would seek to supplant me. I know who rides with Theoden of Rohan. Oh, yes. Word has reached my ears of this Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and I tell you now, I will not bow to this Ranger from the North, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship!

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 35 Top Stories.

1 Moving NY mosque would boost Islamic extremism, imam warns

by Maxim Kniazkov, AFP

2 hrs 9 mins ago

223 Stories served.  31 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

• Sunday 9/5
• Monday 9/6
• Tuesday 9/7
• Wednesday 9/8
• Thursday 9/9
• Friday 9/10
• Saturday 9/11