NorthSideSox72 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 09:39 AM) Bruce Bartlett on the "Regulatory Uncertainty" canard Faulty use of data again. Author is indicating that a lack of directly-related layoffs means it is a non-factor, except we aren't really talking about layoffs. We are talking about a lack of expansion. I can't speak for everyone here, but I've stated over and over again, regulatory uncertainty is absolutely an issue in some specific industries. It is also true that it is not, by a long shot, the biggest reason why expansion isn't occurring at a large enough rate. Lack of demand for goods and services, plain and simple, is the biggest reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 10:24 AM) Faulty use of data again. Author is indicating that a lack of directly-related layoffs means it is a non-factor, except we aren't really talking about layoffs. We are talking about a lack of expansion. I can't speak for everyone here, but I've stated over and over again, regulatory uncertainty is absolutely an issue in some specific industries. It is also true that it is not, by a long shot, the biggest reason why expansion isn't occurring at a large enough rate. Lack of demand for goods and services, plain and simple, is the biggest reason. You're not arguing with me on your position, you're arguing with the conservative claims that "regulatory uncertainty" and mean words from Obama are what's tanking the economy, not demand, and that if we just deregulated everything, we'd be right back in the boom times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Suit alleges banks and mortgage companies cheated veterans and U.S. taxpayers Some of the nation’s biggest banks and mortgage companies have defrauded veterans and taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars by disguising illegal fees in veterans’ home refinancing loans, according to a whistleblower suit unsealed in federal court in Atlanta. The suit accuses the companies, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage, of engaging in “a brazen scheme to defraud both our nation’s veterans and the United States treasury” of millions of dollars in connection with home loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 4, 2011 -> 11:07 AM) I saw one of their marches on Friday. 15 was about right. The problem was they marched back to the school and didn't really stay with the protests. Today there was a grand total of six of them out there, assuming all of the people standing there were with the protest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:50 PM) Today there was a grand total of six of them out there, assuming all of the people standing there were with the protest. Chicago doesn't allow sleeping on the sidewalks so there have been a lot of shifts in and out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 12:51 PM) Chicago doesn't allow sleeping on the sidewalks so there have been a lot of shifts in and out. I have been by there for at least once a day for a week now. Usually it has been 25ish. Today it was deserted. There was literally more signs than people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Signs are people too, my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:14 PM) Signs are people too, my friend. Well, I guess if a corporation is a person... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:14 PM) Signs are people too, my friend. We are the 0.000002% doesn't have the same ring to it, does it/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:19 PM) We are the 0.000002% doesn't have the same ring to it, does it/ Oh god, now I have "We are the World" stuck in my head. I blame you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigSqwert Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 via the daily dish Over the last few days you’ve been posting a fair number of emails from people with opinions about the Occupy Wall Street protests, but nothing, so far as I can tell, from anyone who has been spending actual time there. I’m not any kind of authority, but I’ve been going down to Zucotti Park on lunch breaks and after work and during the evenings, whenever I can, and I wanted to respond to your reader who thinks the whole thing is a culture-jamming prank orchestrated by AdBusters. First: yes, the idea came from AdBusters, but nobody who had actually been to Zucotti Park could ever think that AdBusters is orchestrating anything. This protest is being run by the people who are there. Its concerns emerge organically from those who participate at its general assembly, and as the protest has grown and grown—remember your reader who said this would all be forgotten in two weeks?—they’ve been taking more advice and assistance from experienced organizers. AdBusters hasn’t put its name on anything: no signs, no “brought to you by” messages, no nothing. If a reader wants to be enraged by a particular magazine, that’s his or her choice, but just because you’ve seen a few issues of a magazine doesn’t mean you get to pretend like you know what’s going on in lower Manhattan. Second: the idea that nobody knows that these people are protesting about is willfully ignorant. The protesters are there because they believe that the financial institutions that comprise “Wall Street” exercise too much power in the country’s political and social life. That’s it. That’s what the message is. The reason this seems so obvious is because it is so obvious. “But where are their proposals?” I have heard people complain. “Do they want to put a tax on financial transactions, or do they just want to raise the income tax for wealthy people?” Are you kidding? Technocrats don’t make for good activists. Technocrats should be in Congress, or working at think tanks, or helping Congressmen to craft policy. Protests should do three things: they should express anger, through marches and targeted civil disobedience, at a particular political or social situation. They should give people the opportunity to see that other people, even people different from themselves, share that anger. And they should provide a vision of how life would be better if the world were different. Occupy Wall Street is doing all three of those things. Finally: I’ve heard a lot of people complain that those currently occupying Zucotti Park are “white college kids” with “dreadlocks” or “safety pins through their noses,” and that this is alienating or disgusting to people who wear button-down shirts and work full-time jobs. Since I’m someone who wears button-down shirts and works a full-time job, this unease is something I’m familiar with. But you know what? You don’t pick protests like you pick restaurants or nightclubs. Nobody wants to read your Yelp review of Occupy Wall Street. The great thing about protest activism is that it becomes meaningful once you stop thinking of yourself as a consumer and start thinking of yourself as a participating citizen. So if you have a problem with all of the ripped jeans and Birkenstocks that you’ve been seeing wandering around Zucotti Park, get your buttoned-down ass on a train or subway, and go there yourself, and start talking to people. Invite your buttoned-down friends. You’ll find, first of all, that the protest begins to look more like something you’re comfortable with. And you’ll find, also, that those people who seem so foreign or naïve to you on television actually want the same things that you want, and that it’s easier to get those things once you get over yourself and start making noise about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Sorry, but that is hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:30 PM) Sorry, but that is hilarious. :sips champagne, lights cigar with $100 bill: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 How To Occupy An Abstraction This rentier class is an oligopoly that makes French aristocrats of the 18th century look like serious, well organized administrators. If the rhetoric of their political mouthpieces is to be believed, this rentier class are such hot house flowers that they won't get out of bed in the morning for less than a thousand dollars a day, and their constitutions are so sensitive that if anyone says anything bad about them they will take their money and sulk in the corner. They have, to cap it all, so mismanaged their own affairs that vast tracts of public money were required to keep them in business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigSqwert Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:30 PM) Sorry, but that is hilarious. You better take that back before I get greg to perform a random poll of people attending 'Occupy Wall Street - Lawrence, KS'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:47 PM) You better take that back before I get greg to perform a random poll of people attending 'Occupy Wall Street - Lawrence, KS'. I will counter that with Occupy Wall Street - Michigan City, IN. though our Wall Street is kind of run down, so I don't know that there will be much in the way of protests there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 #occupyPNCbankbranchWoodridge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/bre...0,7237935.story Sears Holdings Corp. is pitting Ohio and Texas against its home state of Illinois in a bidding war that has states clamoring for its headquarters. A source close to the matter said a small group of leaders from Sears visited Columbus, Ohio, and Austin, Texas, last month to visit potential sites for their headquarters. Company leaders met with economic development leaders from those states and business and municipal leaders, as well as gubernatorial staff looking to woo the company, the source said, and were offered incentives to relocate. The Hoffman Estates-based company is among several Illinois ones, including CME Group Inc. and Caterpillar Inc., that have raised the possibility of moving after a temporary increase in the state corporate income tax rate in January. Sears has said it would like to work with Illinois legislators to stay here. "Our commitment to our associates and shareholders is to be thorough in our review of our opportunities in the hopes of resolving this matter in the near future," Chris Brathwaite, a spokesman for Sears, said in a statement. "We have received offers from a number of states and recently conducted site visits and facility tours at a pair of them. We also look forward to continuing our productive and positive discussions with officials here in Illinois." Sears would like to see its tax incentive package extended; legislation before the Illinois Senate would extend special tax treatment for Sears that makes it cheaper for the company to stay in the state. These tax incentive programs have been around for years, and many -- including ones given to companies like Sears -- are expiring. Critics say extending the incentives undermines the intent of these benefits, which is to boost an area's economic and fiscal health. The idea is that the taxes generated by the companies who receive incentives eventually flow to the local community and the state. Tribune reporters Alejandra Cancino and Kathy Bergen contributed. jwernau@tribune.com | Twitter @littlewern Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 I also didn't realize CBOE was talking about leaving as well... http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-...0,2756194.story CHICAGO— Chicago-based CBOE Holdings Inc., parent of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, is holding talks with officials of several states about a possible move of its headquarters. With its action, the CBOE joins the CME Group Inc., the world's largest futures exchange operator, in considering relocating its headquarters because of an increase in Illinois' tax rate to 7 percent from 4.8 percent. CBOE chairman Bill Brodsky told the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/nidXRu) the exchange does not want to leave, but the state's tax structure as it relates to the exchange "is virtually punitive." CME Group has held discussions with at least five states about moving its headquarters and several hundred staff members. However, its main trading floor and other functions would remain in Chicago. Both exchange operators are talking with Illinois officials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 03:20 PM) http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/bre...0,7237935.story The 1% extorting government to support their largess! #occupyHoffmanEstates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 03:25 PM) The 1% extorting government to support their largess! #occupyHoffmanEstates #MovetoIndianaWehavelowertaxes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 03:26 PM) #MovetoIndianaWehavelowertaxes #RaceToTheBottom Isn't Indiana still struggling pretty bad, even after selling their souls to their corporate masters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 04:26 PM) #MovetoIndianaWehavelowertaxes #andRoute20mightaswellbecomeadirtroaditwouldbeaneasierdrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 03:27 PM) #RaceToTheBottom Isn't Indiana still struggling pretty bad, even after selling their souls to their corporate masters? Eh, its been better than any of our neighbors, that is for sure. I think the State of Michigan is in Foreclosure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 03:29 PM) #andRoute20mightaswellbecomeadirtroaditwouldbeaneasierdrive. #Route20isaUSHighway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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