Comments on: What Stories Aren’t Being Told?

By: George Baker

George Baker — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:25:24 +0000

I think the big untold story is the fact that monopolies have taken over and that to get back to the American dream we need to engage in some trust-busting while at the same time reconciling the need to compete with huge (sometimes nationalized) foreign competitors.

By: Abe

Abe — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:05:25 +0000

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch

By: bgreen

bgreen — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:42:24 +0000

Scott from Oregon. you have picked up the most avoided story of all-

Scott said-
Misrepresenting what you sell is FRAUD. WHERE ARE ALL the indictments?

Bags of trash with triple A ratings? That’s fraud.

Expensive, whwite collar fraud that resulted in common folk losing their life savings…

Where are all the indictments?????

By: Sandy from CA

Sandy from CA — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:04:33 +0000

Mexico is collapsing- does anyone care?

Many of our cities and towns are probably on the edge of insolvency- what is the “new normal” for municipal services going to look like?

By: Ryan M

Ryan M — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:28:45 +0000

The disintermediation of education by online schools and alternative credentialing/accredidation institutions.

Every major sector in our society has undergone some form of deregulation and restructuring because of new information technologies: finance; transportation; retailing etc. The one exception: education. Almost NOTHING has changed there, but its beginning to. Higher ed (not to mention most of K-12) is just a bad deal, and people are starting to wake up to that fact.

See here for example:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/college_for_99_a_month.php?page=all&print=true

By: DaveinHackensack

DaveinHackensack — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:12:59 +0000

“Low birthrate among the most educated/educable means that future workers will not be as productive.”

Here’s a solution, that I haven’t heard anyone on the left or right propose: Get rid of the $1k child tax credit, and instead lower the parents’ income tax bracket by 1% for every child they have. In practice, this will remove the tax incentive for low income parents to have children and it will add a big financial incentive for the highest earners to have more children.

By: sg

sg — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:02:54 +0000

Seems everything is a symptom of the demographic/human capital bubble.

Low birthrate among the most educated/educable means that future workers will not be as productive. Too few skilled/productive people trying to hold it all together. The system could be overwhelmed by a disproportionate number of social service consumers. The taxes on the public generate less revenue than the cost of their social services when too many people are low skilled/low wage yet legally entitled to services provided by highly compensated professionals.

By: Wally K

Wally K — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:10:08 +0000

Good article and lots of good comments. My observation is we started with problem mortgages, exposed a lot of deficiencies in the financial system (especially unregulated credit default swaps), and essentially switched from a capitalist system to a semi-socialist government controlled system. Lately, I see all the pundits patting each other on the back telling us we have “saved” the system. With trillion dollar deficits and 10% unemployment, the average person says Huh, what system did we save?

By: Scott from Oregon

Scott from Oregon — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:06:46 +0000

Misrepresenting what you sell is FRAUD. WHERE ARE ALL the indictments?

Bags of trash with triple A ratings? That’s fraud.

Expensive, whwite collar fraud that resulted in common folk losing their life savings…

Where are all the indictments??????

By: DaveinHackensack

DaveinHackensack — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:13:59 +0000

In response to the poster above who compared Brazil invidiously to the U.S., it’s worth noting that although Brazil has its share of social issues, it also:

– Is energy independent, thanks partly to an innovative alternative energy program launched decades ago.

– Is more pragmatic about natural resources production. Who in Brazil is arguing that the country shouldn’t drill its huge new find offshore?

– Is more fiscally responsible than us now, posting primary budget surpluses (at least until the recession hit).

– Runs a trade surplus as well.

– Has been growing its economy faster with far less leverage than we’ve been using.