Sunday Roundup

This week, the continuing riots in London once again demonstrated the power of social media, for good and for bad: rioters used BlackBerry Messenger to organize their mayhem, but @riotcleanup on Twitter has drawn throngs of people to efforts to restore ravaged neighborhoods. In Wisconsin, voters gave walking papers to two Walker-aligned GOP state senators, but Democrats fell short of recalling the three Republicans needed to take control. In Iowa, all the GOP candidates indicated they would reject a hypothetical deficit reduction deal with a spending cut vs. revenue increase ratio of 10 to 1 -- even following a week in which jittery investors on Wall Street sent a clear message that they are more worried about a weak economy than reducing the deficit. And, in Washington, the announcement of the members of the Congressional debt-reduction "super committee" proved that truth in labeling laws don't apply to politics.

 

 

 

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[Chopin]

11:55 PM on 08/14/2011

This week's Sunday Review won't be complete without linking to, examining and exploring the full ramifications of the stockmarket plunge initiated this past week:--
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Chopin/worst-stock-market-crashes_n_926509_102841455.html

This is the beginning of the end of 30years of cascading waves upon waves of credit bubbles and financial market balloons popping.

[Alicia MalkemusWise]

09:29 PM on 08/14/2011

President Jimmy Carter asked what the word peace means to me. I replied: "Peace is only attainable through collective negotiations . LISTEN to the parties involved long enough and you will find the ONE common denominator that will at least start the peace process...Peace comes from within. If you walk a path of peace, people will follow." There is to much instant gratification in the world today due to advancing technology. The human brain can only process less than 3% of the input. We need to SLOW DOWN and LISTEN to all people in need and not use technology (cell phones) to start wars and rioting.. Like it or not, we are all on this "Big Blue Marble Together..

[Mat Biscan]

09:15 PM on 08/14/2011

"all the GOP candidates indicated they would reject a hypothetical deficit reduction deal with a spending cut vs. revenue increase ratio of 10 to 1 -- even following a week in which jittery investors on Wall Street sent a clear message that they are more worried about a weak economy than reducing the deficit."

Reminds me of when the moderator asked all the GOOPers during the 2008 primary if they didn't believe in evolution, more than half raised their hand. Who wants to vote for a bunch of no-nothings?

[Zentrist]

07:28 PM on 08/14/2011

Arianna did you Michele w/ David Gregory? Did you see her w/ Chris Wallace? Did y'all see her in the debate the other night?! Awesome! Totally off-the-charts amazing? She's in the "Bill Clinton" category of political performer--but without the "zipper" problem, without the shaky sexual morals. Her answer to Byron York's question was a stroke of genius! She is the real McCoy par excellence. I love her to pieces, and I'm not even a conservative. I just love an authentic, honest, reliable voice! She has that indefinable, ineffable, intangible quality. She has "it."

[cornelison]

10:18 PM on 08/14/2011

Bachmann's problem IS her morals. She can't tell the truth. She runs against govt. while she & her husband are on the govt. payroll. It's the same irony for ALL conservatives. They have gained through the socialism of paying taxes and receiving them.

[jabailo]

06:42 PM on 08/14/2011

The economy is not weak...it's simply growing in accordance with population. A zero growth economy can be great, in fact, it would be the ideal situation if we were increasing efficiency, and trading new technologies as we obsolesce old (shifting from coal to hydrogen, for example).

[Holymolly]

09:38 PM on 08/14/2011

I used to read, now I only write, I used to bike, and now I fly kites. The economy is not weak? I used to smoke! :)

[nornoralee]

10:55 PM on 08/14/2011

From the size of you, you're eating well. All that food going straight to the brain..........clogging
it up !!

[Rosey25]

06:12 PM on 08/14/2011

I am not enough of a constitutional scholar to judge whether the Super Committee is legal, but it clearly shows the people we elected to make the hard decisions are not up to the job. The creation of and reliance on ad hoc teams often means the underlying organization has failed.

Roger Rosenberg

[Whinerbozo]

09:22 PM on 08/14/2011

You don't have to be a constitutional scholar - it's not legal, it's an excuse! And, a lame one at that.

[LevanaKuriakos]

10:04 PM on 08/14/2011

well, as long as whatever they come up with is put before the house and senate for a vote it's constitutional. If, however, they come up with a bill, and it's not put forth to the entire congress for a vote, then most certainly it would be unconstitutional, b/c then it would be considered legislation without representation, b/c not all 50 states are represented in the decision. However, I do believe that the bill must meet final vote of both house and senate before passing. What I believe unconstitutional is the mandatory "legislation by default" if they don't come up with a bill in "such and such" a time frame. THAT is what I think is teetering on the fence of the constitution.

[SoylentGreenIsPeople]

05:35 PM on 08/14/2011

Notice how Obama's tracking polls have tanked since he and the rest of his administration started stating this crap? See below.

Herein Lies the Problem, by Jared Bernstein: There’s an article in today’s NYT on the economic debate within the White House. The print version—not the online one—contains this quote from an admin official:

" It would be political folly to make the argument that government spending equals jobs."

[Si1ver1ock]

04:44 PM on 08/14/2011

What did the Democrats run on other than not being Republicans?

Maybe they should get a plan, like state-banks proposed by Ellen Brown.

Read more here-->http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/how-wisconsin-can-turn-au_b_831873.html

[Whinerbozo]

09:24 PM on 08/14/2011

You may have hit on the title for 'Bama's new rap album. 'What's the Plan Man?'

[mydangself]

04:21 PM on 08/14/2011

Republicans know that no matter what they actually do, they will be able to convince their base that it was because of Obama. So yes, they would reject any actual measures that could get our economy going even if it was a 10-1 package. Why? Because in the aftermath, they will tell their base that the reason the economy tanked was the EPA, was restrictions on wall street using our money to gamble with, and that the market just wasn't really given a chance without government intervention. In short, it's a Republican wet dream of the market run amok..of people begging for sweatshop wages, of anything for a buck right now and be damned with the consequences later because they won't be here to face them.

[weathergirl]

04:56 PM on 08/14/2011

F and f!

[Holymolly]

05:23 PM on 08/14/2011

You have no idea what Republicans think, nor what their motives are.

[mydangself]

05:42 PM on 08/14/2011

They've stated their motives and what they think, so what exactly did I miss here?

That Obama is really a muslim, and is somehow ineligible to be president (pick your conspiracy of choice for that one)
That the reason we don't have jobs is because of unions rather than that Republicans created tax incentives for corporations to offshore jobs
That if we just got rid of all regulation somehow it would magically get better even though deregulation is what got is into this mess.
That Barney Frank forced banks into subprime mortgages and into making high risk gambles with CDO's instead of banks doing that to chase record profits and leave us all holding the bag.
That wealth will still 'trickle down' even while we've watched 30 years of wealth only moving to the top
That the actions of man can't possible be impacting the environment
That christians are the ones being persecuted in the US and that if we only enforced christian morality and religion that it would be all better
You want me to keep going here?

[Phed Up]

06:56 PM on 08/14/2011

And hope I never do.

[theeconomicfractalist]

03:45 PM on 08/14/2011

Saturation Macroeconomics (a bit more)

Great hardships are coming that are not necessary.

As the Federal Reserve has shown over the last 3 years, it is, afterall, but an accounting game of those one's and zero's, of those who have the one's and zero's as assets and those who have the one's and zero's as liabilities.

Americans can change those rules thru the ballot box and likely a third party which represents the working people and the rules of the new system should create useful jobs for all citizens. Retirement at 70 to salvage social security works better if the system is designed to allow a useful job for everyone willing to work.

America is a country rich with resources. There is no need to have the coming collapse due to a money/debt system whose usefulness comes considerably short of its liabilities.

[theeconomicfractalist]

03:44 PM on 08/14/2011

The Validated Science of Saturation Macroeconomics

Ultimately it is a contracting global money supply that is producing the collapsing Wilshire and global composite equity daily fractal pattern.

The ideal daily Lammert fractal pattern x/2.5x/2x/1.6x is 3/8/4 of 6-8/5 days. The last few days of 'bipolar' volatility with 500 point swings represent a skeletalized 4 of 6-8 day third growth fractal.
As is nature of fractals, the hourly charts have shown a first and second fractal with expected downward nonlinear 'volatility' on Monday to complete the second fractal with upward 'volatility' on Tuesday and Wednesday. The follow-on fourth fractal will evidence a dramatic drop in global equity valuation.

The news is an epiphenomenon of a global collapsing money supply - as debt that was counted as repayable wealth in one's and zero's is being relegated to defaulted zero's only.

Observe the global equity charts.The global money/debt system that supports global composite valuations is confluent.

[mydangself]

04:24 PM on 08/14/2011

No need for 'fractal patterns', but yes in a debt based economy under the fractional reserve system any contraction of debt leads to massive losses throughout the economy. The problem is that capital based on actual assets was allowed to be leveraged at rates sometimes exceeding 600 to 1 to place unrestricted bets...and when that collapsed so did the fractional reserves that were holding it all up.

[mashtoe]

03:30 PM on 08/14/2011

End the extraction: end free trade, end NAFTA, end all work visa programs, and secure the borders (enforce E-Verify with punishments automatic for employers with no exceptions). That is what it will take to turn this around. Later we can relax these but for now we dramatic action. The longer we wait the more dramatic things will get.

[mydangself]

04:27 PM on 08/14/2011

You can only have free trade with those who trade back under the same set of rules. Why we try to allow free trade in from countries that don't allow the US the same access under the same rules to their market is beyond me.

Why allow unlimited Japanese or Chinese purchase of companies here when we can not do the same there? Why allow subsidized imports from their country to compete in our market when our goods are not allowed a chance there?

[Holymolly]

05:27 PM on 08/14/2011

U are so right, but you know, that you might be called a right winger and a bigot right? F&F.

[ashcom]

03:28 PM on 08/14/2011

One of the most interesting things of the past week was the media's increasing infatuation with Perry. As the darling of the mainstream media, he is the obvious pick for the Republican candidacy for President in 2012 -- unless he steps on a big rake that whacks him out of the race. In that case, Palin is poised to step in and save the day.

Big money controls mainstream media news, and right now, big money is having a hard time deciding between Romney and Perry. Time will tell.

[mydangself]

04:28 PM on 08/14/2011

When Palin is supposed to be our savior from anything is the day we might as well all just say the hell with it.

[strohm]

06:16 PM on 08/14/2011

Big money controls everything.

[bngood40]

02:53 PM on 08/14/2011

It must be difficult for the wealthy and the Wall Street barons to give their support to the Republicans when they know the conservatives in the House Of Representatives do not intend to compromise on anything the Democrats want ,even raising the Debt Ceiling, when it downgrades the U.S. rating and causes volatility in the stock market. But how can they support the Democrats who want to legislate oversight and transparency in the markets and take away money from the rich and the wealthy corporations by raising the tax percentages. The Wealthy have such heavy burdens to bear.

[weathergirl]

04:15 PM on 08/14/2011

LOL! Had to become fan #10 and marked as favorite too! Are you sure that you do not write for Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert!

[JOEL1954]

04:58 PM on 08/14/2011

Don't forget if republicans get their way, the country will go into a depression and their profits will disappear. Eventually paying everyone slave wages will cause economic collapse because no one will be able to afford to buy anything,,
Seems like the super rich are screwed either way.

[gomezrules]

02:29 PM on 08/14/2011

"...they would reject a hypothetical deficit reduction deal with a spending cut vs. revenue increase ratio of 10 to 1..."

That's an easy one to explain there Ms. H, your (Dem) party provided talking points not withstanding. It's because the one reality that WILL happen is the tax increases. What nobody can count on are the spending cuts! They have been promised before, and always lied about (ask Reagan about that!). There is certainly no basis for trusting your beloved Dems about that! Until every last penny of wasteful, duplicate, and unnecessary spending is removed, nothing involving taxation should be attempted, because until that spending is addressed, no amount of taxation will matter! It IS that simple..

[bngood40]

03:09 PM on 08/14/2011

Another commentator who doesn't know anything about Ronald Reagan,George W. Bush, or the Democrats except what he hears. The entire accumulated National Debt from George Washington to Jimmy Carter was 909 BILLION dollars. By the time Ronald Reagan left office in 1988 the National Debt was 2.6 TRILLION dollars. Now Gomez, what part of the Math don't you understand.

[gomezrules]

03:50 PM on 08/14/2011

What part of NOT getting promised spending cuts do YOU not understand? Reagan had a hostile Congress, controlled by the other party. Reagan actually 'inherited' a greatly understrength and demoralized military, and the Congress held funding for it hostage to increasing spending on domestic (read, welfare) programs. And that AFTER they had negotiated a deal where spending was supposed to be cut $# for every dollar in tax increases. The tax increases happened, the spending cuts did not. Reagan was a fool for believing a falling down drunk like then House Speaker Tip O'Neil would deliver on anything.

[smr3226]

05:06 PM on 08/14/2011

Both tax increases and spending cuts will be required - and not in a 10 to 1 ratio. That was offered to demonstrate how unreasonable and unrealistic was the Rep. response.