Regular readers may recall we suspended our 2012 fundraiser, which started right before Hurricane Sandy. We want to express our deep appreciation to those of you who have donated thus far.
Many of the things we talked about when we launched our first fundraiser last year are still true: the elites, who have shown little regard for how their misrule has hurt ordinary citizens, still have a firm grasp on the reins of power. The global financial crisis imposed tremendous costs on investors and society at large, via unemployment, a housing bust, plunging tax revenues, cuts in government services and increasing political discord. No one in a position of influence before the crisis has been punished or even suffered much. In fact, as Matt Stoller has pointed out, the rich became even richer, with 93% of the gains in income under Obama going to the top 1%.
So it isn’t surprising that what passes for leadership in the US is gearing up to provide us with more of the same, since it has worked out so well for them. Obama, after winning a supposedly populist mandate, is moving smartly towards executing what Bill Black has aptly called a Grand Betrayal. Obama intends to weaken critical safety nets for the aged, Social Security and Medicare, despite the fact that the public overwhelmingly wants them preserved. Even worse, well respected analysts, including budget experts at the Federal Reserve, dispute the forecasts used to rationalize this attack on the middle class. But billionaire Pete Peterson and his allies on Wall Street, who have long sought to gut these programs so as to force people to put more of their savings into securities markets, continue their plutocratic land grab.
NAKED CAPITALISM
And from Naked Capitalism, a post from Neil Barofsky
