Category: Working Class Economist

Let me explain exactly what that title means: On the one hand I will absolutely miss being able to go into the second largest book retailer in the country and wade through an ocean of celebrity memoirs to get to a handful of quality fiction books. On the other hand, this one time book behemoth…

Last week, Mitt Romney said corporations are people. So this week I decide to formally declare myself a corporation. I will now be known as Brody Incorporated. I will pay no taxes. Particularly if I have a very rich year as the more I make, the less I pay. I will actually be GIVEN corporate…

Sometimes I enjoy impossible tasks like squeezing blood from a turnip. So today I attempt the near impossible task of trying to make Standard & Poors (that stalwart watchdog company that was totally on top of the mortgage crisis and has never had any questionable calls before…sarcasm dripping from computer screen) credit downgrade sexy. Well,…

“I don’t want to eliminate government. I want to shrink it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it.”–Grover Norquist, current Republican “thinker”/former Confederate soldier. Over and over again, we’ve been told by Republicans that government is inefficient, wasteful, harmful, dangerous, a thief, and pretty much everything but a…

1. Legalizing Marijuana: No true list of deficit reduction ideas would be complete without it. I didn’t even waste time by putting a preamble paragraph before getting right down to the business of getting high. It’s impossible to know for sure how much taxable revenue the US is missing out on by moving such a…

This weekend was that most hallowed of American holidays, the 4th of July. And while I was watching some of the different celebrations of American independence on Television (i.e. blowing the fuck out of some clouds with fireworks) a definitive trend emerged. Over and over again we were told to “Salute the Troops” “Pray for…

Republicans like to pretend that the private sector can solve any and every problem. The post office loses one of your packages? Privatize it. Public education getting you down? Dismantle the whole budget and give out private school vouchers. Ron Paul even believes the Civil War wasn’t necessary and the private sector could have solved…

Recently, Alabama’s Republican legislature passed the most restrictive immigrant legislation since the Japanese saw the inside of an internment camp. The real reasons are politically cynical (most families that are illegal have kids or relatives that are legal, if the whole family uproots to a different state none of them will be able to vote…and…

If I’ve said it once in this feature, I’ve said it a hundred times: low paying jobs with no benefits created at McDonald’s and Wal-Mart aren’t worth layoffs for decent paying government jobs with respectable benefits. In a previous WCE titled “Why the Bush Tax Cuts Actually COST Jobs” I debunked the myth that tax…

So lately we’ve heard a lot about unemployment figures and we’ve especially heard that they’re the President’s fault. That he has to do more to create jobs. That he has to eat lightening and crap rainbows. Wait…we haven’t heard that last one? Well it’s about as realistic as saying the President can singlehandedly stop companies…

I’ll try to keep this post short as my head is still spinning from yesterday’s self-debate. First, congratulations to Obama on killing Osama Bin Laden. Second, now maybe he could work on America’s real enemy number 1: outsourcing. Instead of bombarding you with statistics you might not believe, I’ll just put what’s happened to America…

So last night I watched the HBO TV film Too Big Too Fail, and even though I was already well versed in what led to the economic disaster of 2008, some things still surprised me. 1. Exactly what went into the behind the scenes negotiations the days of and how much power the banks actually…

“Socialist.” That one word is thrown around more than any other by the right wing trying to dismiss or slander anyone from me to President Obama. And since it’s hard to factually shoot down–unlike Obama not being born in the US–it lingers a lot longer, existing in that nebulous region of rumors you don’t have…