Funny thing about this election is that the media seems to think that Barack Obama’s challenge of appealing to both Black and White voters is somehow new.  Consider, as evidence, the following opening sentence of the John McCormick and Rick Pearson’s July 15th cover story in the Chicago Tribune.

"When it comes to African-American audiences, some have called Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential bid a ‘dual-track’ candidacy, one that seeks to prove he is in tune with the needs of the black community while also not alienating whites."

Really?!!  Then I suppose that makes McCain a dual-track candidate too, since he presumably has to prove that he is in tune with the needs of the white community while not alienating African Americans and other people of color.  After all, Latinos and African Americans alone comprise over 30% of the U.S. population.  Doesn’t McCain face the exact same challenge of appealing to voters across racial lines?  Hasn’t every single Presidential hopeful in modern times?  

crossposted from unbossed

For years, I have warned that pensions are at high risk A few months ago, unbossed noted that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) was engaged in a dangerous strategy for financing pension shutdowns. Now it is ready to take additional actions you need to be aware of. They will affect defined benefit pensions and most likely have an impact on other retirement benefits.

Why the Bush Tax Cuts to the Rich
need to be rescinded and the Middle
Class need tax equality.

June 25, 2008
A Sean Lewis Rant!

Ending the tax cuts to the rich will lower the debt, which will strengthen the US dollar, which will mean oil will cost less, which means inflation will go down, which means core inflation including food and fuel  will diminish, which means the economy will become stronger because US workers will be able to afford to buy discretionary products, which will employ other Americans who will now have jobs so they will not lose their homes which means the housing market will stabilize, which means banks will be more solvent, which means money will once again become liquid which means loans for investments will once again become available which means industry will grow which means increasing GDP growth and more jobs.

It is a general pattern in the empirical literature that researchers find that, not only to African Americans act like poorer people than White Americans but that race has an independent effect even when they control for income.

For example Mattyew Yglesias notes "studies show that race exhibits a substantial, income-independent influence on school achievement,"
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.c...
(don't blame Matt.  He's just the messenger).

This sort of result probably gives comfort to racists and causes some discomfort to normal people who talk about culture and stuff.  However, all it means is that current income is a poor measure of average income over long periods of time, which is what matters.

But you know what else ?  Race exibits a substantial, income-independent influence on consumption -- Black households consume less than White households with the same income.

The simple explanation of how little these facts tell us is below the fold.

I've seen so many ignorant comments from people saying "Hillary has $109 million; she can pay off her debt herself."  But the truth is at a time when you need a net worth of $1.1 billion to makes #400 on Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans, $109 million is no longer enough to be considered rich.  In addition, Hillary does not appear to be worth anywhere near $109 million.  The sad truth is that Hillary is not a rich woman. Not even close.

More below:

   There are two simple graphs which together brutally show the steady, slow erosion of the Standard of Living of middle class America.  That occurred to me yesterday when I realized that even if  there is ZERO percent inflation in the price of unleaded gasoline in the next year, what does that mean?  It means that gasoline will sell for $4 a gallon for the entire next year!  Those who have little choice but to drive to and from work, and to and from the grocery store (which is unfortunately the case in most any suburb that has been built in the last 25 years) will find that the Standard of Living they thought they had, went flying away.  That's why it's worthwhile to post those two simple graphs again ....

I wrote this diary before, and per reader request am reposting with an update.

America is facing its deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Unfortunately for us, no one in our government seems ready to acknowledge the problems we're facing.

Below is what America faces, and some prescription for it.  I have divided the diary into sections of the economy that are relevant to the discussion.

We should demand that all the local, state, and federal candidates address these issues.  I hope you find this diary informative.

With all the babble regarding the collapse of the housing bubble, that house prices are dropping, interest rates are dropping, why is it that I still can't afford to buy a house?

Well, I got some news for ya, being a single income earner sucks in today's economic environment. Today, after the big shift in the 1970's of women entering the workforce, 30 some years later, the effects of the dual income household has taken a huge toll on the ability for a single person to compete in the marketplace to purchase a home for themselves.  This is my predicament.  I'm not bashing the female workforce, heck I'm one of them, but at 42, single, and spent my life building a career, I would think that at this point I could swing it - NOT!

In honor of today being tax day, this week's Demographic Tuesdays Community Poll asks: What is your household income by U.S. quintile groupings?

Not asking for anybody's actual income! As is common when asking sensitive questions, just using broad categories. In this case, the income ranges that define the 5 equally sized groups of households in the U.S., with the top quintile further subdivided into the highest 5%.

Some topics for discussion:

1. Taxes & government

1. Poverty

2. Stagnant income

3. Disparity & inequality

4. Current Economic Insecurity (fear of job/income/housing/health loss)

5. Future Insecurity (not enough to retire on; what to live on when elderly; 1st generation with children less well off than parents)

6. Too much emphasis on the material; bad for spiritual values and real happiness

7. Too much emphasis on growth & consumption, bad for planet

As always, it would be nice if this poll stayed up as a "Recommended Diary" for a full 24 hours, so that it will get an equivalent sample of us - morning to night, west & east coast.

Today at about 2:30 p.m. central time, a Ron Paul grassroots campaigner "visited" the grounds of Burlington High School (a school of about 1500), located in Burlington, Wisconsin (a town of about 15,000). At the end of the school day, he stood outside the side entrance of the school, where the majority of students leave to get into their cars or buses, handing out fliers and blank discs to passing students.  

The release of Clinton income tax figures and the grand total of over $100 million made since Billary left the Presidency was broken down by one network to $41,000 a day income. At least the selling out of American workers and working class, a deal that must have included surrendering future right to one’s own soul, does pay well. Of course I am referring to the passage of the seminal NAFTA trade agreement, once heralded as the greatest achievement of the entire Clinton administration, which opened the flood gates for the US losing its jobs.  

And yes I am not unmindful of CAFTA, GATT and all of the other so called free trade agreements that have followed, let alone the ones that are still pending. And I admit that probably not every dollar earned is true "quid pro quo" for the deed done, but a lot of blood is on the money and the millions of workers who have no job now should remember who opened the gates for the "giant sucking sound."

And therefore it is not the lie Hillary concocted about landing under fire in Bosnia, but the out and out falsehood that she always opposed NAFTA that riles my ire. And I do not understand how the blue state hard hat voters can vote for Hillary, when she and Bill have been so richly rewarded to ship out our jobs.

From the What If Post
As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in America, the gap between the healthy and the unwell also widens. Several weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released data showing that life expectancy for the most affluent group of Americans exceeds that for the poorest Americans by nearly 4.5 years or 6% on average.

I was better off in 2000 than I was in 1992 and I am now.  I suspect most people in this country can make that same statement.  And that is an important standard to use to view a president. I realize it is an applause line for Sen. Clinton, but what part of the 90's did we not like? The peace or the prosperity?  I would request that everyone here ask that question and then ask if they expect a return to that with a McCain presidency?

ABC News is reporting that the Clintons have made "well over" 50 million in personal income since leaving the White House, mostly from Bill Clinton's speaking arrangements. Here's a snippet from the article:

An independent review by ABC News has found that since leaving the White House seven years ago, the senator and her former president husband have made well over $50 million, much of it from paid speeches made by Bill Clinton.

A review of Sen. Clinton's annual ethics filings found that her husband has earned $47 million in fees from more than 280 speeches he has made around the world.

NYT published details of a new government study that measured income and life expectancy from the 1980s to present. Perhaps the results aren't surprising, but it's just another reason why electing a good Democrat for President is so important this year.

Religion aside, today (Easter) is about self-renewal. Our nation needs a substantial self-renewal to reverse this dangerous and dismal trend. The article demonstrates the effects of unequal economic policies in real terms. People are living shorter lives than their rich counterparts; from healthcare to education to dietary information, we're leaving the poor behind in greater and greater numbers.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is America, mind you.

Now, I'm not what you would call a Hillary Clinton supporter, far from it, but this is one case where I think this individual has actually done something well.

Divorce, as we know it, is an awful thing, and many parents are using their children to get even with the other parent.  The problem lies partly on child support.

Ok, this is a hot topic.  Many people actually need the support and don't receive it from their ex-spouses.  While others, who have little education or a high paying job, are required to pay an extreme amount of money to their ex-spouse and can't pay it.  While others just think that their ex is using the money to watch the Boston Red Sox play in the Tokyo Egg Dome with front row box seats, so they don't want to pay.

Neither is correct, the parent should pay and be part of the child's lives.  The children see what's going on and suffer.  This has to stop.

Hillary Clinton is supporting legislation to help low income people, especially African Americans, who cannot pay their child support obligations and ensure that what they do pay goes directly to the parent.

    And unfortunately it's not a good one.  The Bush crack-up-debt-boom (2002-2007) has expired.  And that economic expansion will mark the first time in 75 years that the American middle class has not made any progress during an economic expansion; to the contrary, the average American household is earning less income now than it was in 1999, the  peak of the last economic expansion.  It appears that the 1999 level may mark the crest of a long term era of expanding middle class wealth, and we may be a decade into a long-term decline in American living standards.    

    Below, I lay out the facts for you.

At this point, there are few Republican economic talking points that should withstand scrutiny as we near the general election. My goal in this diary is to briefly confront the claims we are hearing from the White House.


1. On whether we’re in a recession, we’re told:

"I’m still not saying that there is a recession." -- Edward P. Lazear, the chairman of Mr. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers

In truth:

Shortly after 8 a.m., the Fed announced yet another measure meant to unlock the struggling credit markets. At 8:30, the Labor Department released the unexpectedly poor jobs report. Almost immediately, the economists at JPMorgan Chase — who only last week had told clients they thought the economy was still growing — reversed course and said a recession appeared to have started earlier this year.