Charlie Rose

charliesheep  02/02/2013 04:08 PM Report

"MIDDLE CLASS"-; DEFINITION; THOSE WHO "DIED" TRYING TO GET DECLARED LEGALLY HUMAN IN AMERICA-I.E. SPANS THE MASSES THAT DIDN'T REALLY PAY THEIR "FAIR" SHARE[SEE; KOCH BROS, A.L.E.C.] LEXICON FOR; YOU HAD TAX CLASSES DIVIDED; INTO TWO CLASSES 1986, BY REAGAN - THOSE ABOVE 5OK/ THOSE BELOW 50K--IF YOU ARE BELOW; THEN YOU AREN'T MIDDLE CLASS AND IF YOUR ABOVE YOUR CHUM---AND MIDDLE CLASS IS SPIN; FOR DEAD!

NeilMacCallister  07/22/2012 01:19 AM Report

Hah! Charlie has these two "Democrat Strategists" onto the show so they can apologize for Obama's diverting TRILLIONS of dollars from the economy in order to hire and pay above average salaries to a million more marginally-productive (..but Democrat-voting!!) government workers -- and then they all scratch their heads for the camera while mouthing the words "Gee, I wonder what ever happened to the productively working Middle-Class?"

It is NOT the productive-rich who cause the bubbles, crises, and "inequalities" we cry over. It is the ever-increasing number of City Captains, County Administrators, State Capitol staffers, and Federal "Pumpkin Czars" -- all being lavished with 3 times more in pay and benefits than the common standard of living costs -- that leaves so little money left to be competed for by the daily-diminishing Middle Class.

Let's let the Henry Fords of the world keep the money that they earn in the public market, for they will then roll that money over and open a new assembly plant which will then provide additional jobs for that struggling Middle Class.

Let us NOT vote to collect those private profits through yet higher taxes, only to allow the government to hand that collected money out solely to support the record-high salaries of sitting government position-holders. Because all that gets us is a loss of production facilities (and jobs!) and an increase of government employee cash hoards which are then flashed before the hedge-fund managers with begging requests to "Please find somewhere where I can hide all this money-- and keep it safe so that I can use it to cruise the Bahamas in luxury when I retire at 54 years old!"

That crush of loose and undisciplined cash -- being ladled upon the public workers, who then throw it at the fund managers -- creates the bubbles, crashes, and devaluations which have wrecked such havoc upon the American Middle Class today, and who these Democrat government employees then cry such crocodile tears for!

We should only elect to Congress, and into the Presidency, men and women who have EARNED the money they have -- and who know how to turn that money back into the workplace in a manner which will produce further profits and wages for yet more people!

Carville and Greenberg can then write the book 'It's Called Prosperity, Stupid!!!'

Gelles  07/16/2012 05:42 AM Report

Dear Sharks,

Health care cost as a percentage of total American costs will greatly diminish if we again produce at home what we need at home. It will be necessary to limit imports to what we can handle as we re-grow our manufacturing sector. This is not rocket science. It is logistics.

Free market doctrine must be reformed until our results match our goals. Their are no shortcuts based on faith in invisible mechanisms that will achieve results by magic. We say there is no free lunch. Using ignorance in place of intelligence is asking for free lunch, breakfast and dinner.

Gelles  07/16/2012 05:22 AM Report

Dear Ricardo Amaral,

I listened to your friend at Elite Trader. His presentation is slick and as it must be very self-serving. He now predicts the end of the American consumption binge and dollar advantage as new international trade exchanges develop steam and the dollar is facing better competition from wiser bankers than in the recent past. He predicts what I agree is likely. But I will not dump my dollars for any other store of value. I am not a currency trader or real estate expert. If I were, I might switch to a non-dollar store. But I would not find it easy to buy such store of value without a great risk of loss.

As to oil and fossil fuels, I believe green energy, especially solar based hydrogen systems, will replace these sources.

I also believe America will recapture its manufacturing power. This will require political unity not yet apparent. But such unity will follow the next Pearl Harbor -- especially an economic one, made of forecasts not bombs.

Peter Diamandis in his book "Abundance" has it right. We have to produce the things we want and need in super-abundance. And we have to reform all our law and language if we want to lead the continental nations into and era of peace and prosperity.

If we fail to out-produce and out-reform other continental powers, then many of the predictions in the video you helped me watch will begin to come true. Will they amount to a Pearl Harbor event (without death)? Will we retain our leadership role on Earth? I hope so. Economic and political democracy may depend on America's best efforts. Russian TV and Chinese engineering may be less capable than they appear to the Elite Trader.

Ricardo_Amaral  07/15/2012 04:42 AM Report

Gelles, you will enjoy watching these videos at:

Central Banks and the US Dollar

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=84aaf2ec560b5f49f85d79ad25010d3d&threadid=81958&perpag e=6&pagenumber=103

.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/13/2012 03:09 AM Report

Yes, health care costs are rising to 20% of GDP.

What great things would happen if we only spent 15% of GDP.

How do we do it?

Limit profits of health insurance companies (done--13 million folks are getting rebates that total over a billion dollars).

Cut waste and fraud and find the 5% who cost us 50% of the money and get them under cost containment.

Export Medicaid and Medicare patients to MDs in other countries to bring in lower costs and competition (call it the reverse Wal-mart plan since about 80% of what Wal-mart sells comes from China).

Yes, let's hear some more on this please.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/13/2012 02:45 AM Report

The Great Divergence In Pictures: A visual guide to income inequality.

10 slides:

http://www.slate.com/slideshows/news_and_politics/the-great-divergence-in-pictures-a-visual-guide-to- income-inequality.html#slide_1

Slide 10 supports Carville's claim about Republican and Democratic Presidents.

A massive increase in Washington's corporate lobbying sector since the 1970s with the growing power of big business in Washington has been a major contributor to the Great Divergence in income.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/13/2012 02:21 AM Report

Charlie, if Karl Rove is the architect (guns, gays, God) then what is James Carville?

You can watch his amazing shaping of our country on his website slide show: http://www.carville.info/

Perhaps Carville and Rove at the table?

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/13/2012 02:13 AM Report

Obama's first term was putting out fires—banks blew up the world, auto industry crashed and 750K jobs lost.

That might sell--Obama the first responder.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/13/2012 02:11 AM Report

Yes, I am very angry about our bought and paid-for government:

Stahl: How many congressional offices did you actually own?

Abramoff: We probably had very strong influence in 100 offices at the time.

Stahl: Come on.

Abramoff: No.

Stahl: A hundred offices?

Abramoff: In those days, I would view that as a failure. Because that leaves 335 offices that we didn't have strong influence in.

Stahl: Did he own you?

Bob Ney: Oh, I don't believe Jack Abramoff owned me. But were we involved in the culture of corruption together? Absolutely.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57319075/jack-abramoff-the-lobbyists-playbook/?pageNum=3&tag=co ntentMain;contentBody

Now we are talking about the Middle Class--with lack of representation.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/13/2012 02:05 AM Report

We heard that 40% of the Stimulus Package was tax cuts.

Politifact says 28 percent of the bill could be described as tax cuts http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/feb/10/jon-stewart/stewart-claims-stimulus-bi ll-one-third-tax-cuts/

In either case, excellent work was done to obfuscate this.

Gelles  07/12/2012 06:28 PM Report

www.manifestoforeconomicsense.org -- as reported in post Max83 07/11/2012 03:27 PM, below -- has it right; global monetized demand is the problem. It must be raised by avoiding political opponents where possible.

Once raised by printing money, for example, supply must also be raised at all points of sale.

This requires authority outside the market but inside national spheres of economic theory-based law.

Let's all sign/support/shorten the MANIFESTO.

..... E.G. ... RAISE DEMAND AND SUPPLY TOGETHER TO REACH FULL EMPLOYMENT, RATIONALLY COMPUTED LIVABLE MINIMUM WAGES, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS CORRECTED TO REMAIN SUSTAINABLE IN THE LONG RUN.

The 20th Century rationalized continental-sized super-power potentials. No empire building to prepare for global conquest, such as that, that drove Germany and Japan to attempt to enslave every neighbor, as well as their own people, remains in sight. (Except Islamic fascism.)

So, the 21st Century can afford to create universal human individual rights the will depend on cooperative national strategies to make practical FREEDOM FROM WANT.

For as long as we use MONETARY SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION, money must be created to match commercial output.

tabs  07/12/2012 02:04 PM Report

Point Of Clarification:

Is it part of 'lack of vision', or is it quite INTENTIONAL, following a MASTER PLAN?

Globalization was an unintended consequence of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe and Japan after WW2 in order to counteract the expansion of Communism... or in other words to CONTAIN the spread of Communism. In this sense it was intentional but otherwise NO!

From that point on it morphed into Capital from the USA being invested across the Globe. This was the progenitor of the American Empire, in which the US military is the guarantor of Globe Security so that business can be conducted unimpeded by the "bad guys" who would cause trouble and thus destabilization.

The unintended consequences of Glkobalization is that America and its people have ot compete for jobs, resources and capital

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/12/2012 02:20 AM Report

Charlie, last month you said:

'There is nothing I think more to be scared about than what has happened to the middle class in America. They are the essence of America. They are the majority. They are the essence of America. (This was your essence night.) And yet their standard of living, their sense of the future is shrinking. They are shrinking. Their numbers are shrinking.'

'What are we doing wrong? This is the essence of one of the great questions in America today.'

So then what do we do Charlie?

Henry-Ford it with manufacturing wages and manufacturing jobs--nope past that time. GM has reduced wages to get out of bankruptcy. Wal-mart has about 80%+ of the goods they sell manufactured in China.

Globalization has brought people out of poverty but it has also concentrated great wealth. We can't get rid of globalization though.

However, we can NOT let the wealth continue to concentrate. We have to get it back into the system. The rules have to favor circulation of the money in our capitalist system and not to send it to the sidelines or to foreign countries or to the hands of the 1%.

As Paul Krugman wrote: 'Has there ever before been a major presidential candidate who had a multimillion-dollar Swiss bank account, plus tens of millions invested in the Cayman Islands, famed as a tax haven?'

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Krugman-Time-to-clear-up-Romney-s-gray-areas-3694331.php

Romney's finances are an example of the problem.

EyesOnYou  07/12/2012 01:37 AM Report

Not only the Democrats and Republicans have contributed to today's events, but they have directly caused it. They have sold America for pittance in campaign contributions. They are treasonous for directly enabling the LOOTING of America. Check their voting records and prosecute.

EyesOnYou  07/12/2012 01:26 AM Report

tabs, re Obama and America's rise

America is suffering from 2 problems:

1 - internet enabled Global Workforce and the resulting pressure on US wages

2 - the law of diminishing returns

The first doesn't need explanation. As for the 2nd, it's like Microsoft, they grew fast in the beginning and now are too big to grow at the same rate. No President can fix the fix we are in. It will take 20-30 years to attain global wage parity. Till then, we will decline.

EyesOnYou  07/12/2012 01:19 AM Report

tabs wrote:

"What truly amazes is the lack of vision on the part of ALL the economists, politicos and media."

Is it part of 'lack of vision', or is it quite INTENTIONAL, following a MASTER PLAN?

EyesOnYou  07/12/2012 01:15 AM Report

Everybody seems to be writing a book without much research to substantiate their claims. If I hear one more praise of Clinton, I am going to puke.

Clinton was lucky enough to Preside over the internet boom. The number of businesses that moved online, the number of major companies (aside from Facebook, every single major web co) born, the number of billionaires created absolutely had ZERO to do with anything Clinton did. At best, we can say he didn't prevent it and even that, I am not sure he could if he tried.

Clinton also presided over the biggest DEREGULATION of financial markets that brought us to 2008 FINANCIAL MELTDOWN. Credit for that collapse and today's economic decline is SOLIDLY on Clinton's shoulders. He also presided over the massive OUTSOURCING of American jobs. That too could've been stopped or slowed down, but he didn't do it.

CLINTON WAS AND IS IN BED WITH WALL STREET.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/11/2012 11:33 PM Report

What does it mean to be middle-class?

Owning a car that was made in the same decade your living?

Sharing a bedroom?

Sharing a bathroom?

Painting your own house?

Cutting your own grass?

Scrubbing your own toilet?

Owning a refrigerator, microwave, oven, stove, dishwasher, clothes washer, clothes dryer, hot water heater, furnace, air conditioner . . .?

Taking a vacation?

The Middle Class is not ready to revolt just quite yet but the sleeping giant has been disturbed.

richard-lipscombe  07/11/2012 09:26 PM Report

James and Stan are absolutely right the problem is the middle class - it has been for a generation now...the middle class know that these two are absolutely wrong in advocating 'big government' as the answer to the problem...

if 'big government' had been the answer then this problem would have gone away a long time ago - this problem has been around for at least 30 years... how do we build the middle class? asks James... his answer (blah, blah, blah, blah) is all about how much America needs a big government essentially because Americans can no longer look after themselves...thus, James and Stan are good examples of why America's middle class continues to decline...if their ideas are implemented this decline will go into top gear...it will be a case of how did America decline? the answer will be slowly at first but then James and Stan got control and it happened quickly...

this conversation explains exactly why Romney will be the next US President...

the middle class is in trouble but it is not stupid (to use a James and Stan term)...the middle class know that big government is part of the problem not part of the solution for them...cheers richard.

tabs  07/11/2012 04:24 PM Report

Now comes Part Three:

One has long thought that there are two distinct reasons why people should know and understand their history. First is to know when someone just doesn't know what they are talking about or are blowing smoke up your....Second and more importantly if one does not understand from whence they came they have no point of reference in understanding where they are now at, nor where they are going.

To this end one finds that Mr Carville and Mr Greenberg are woefully behind the times in their now apparent zeal to rectify a failing American Middle Class. It was readily apparent for decades that the American Middle Class was under pressure to maintain its status and was in fact shrinking. Yet Mr Carville and Greenberg were facilitators of a President and as such were operatives in maintaining an ongoing fiction that everything was just hunky dory. This fiction ended in the fall of 2008 and we are now faced with the reckoning of decades (40 years) of mismanagement by the government and political process. So there are no accolades nor admiration for either of these two characters from one on that score.

NOW let us move on to more current events. What should be being paid more attention to and is not, is the fact that 3 cities in CA have declared Bankruptcy in the past two weeks. They are Stockton, Mammoth and now San Bernardino. One has stated as far back as 09 that it is likely that a relatively minor event such as a State, County or City muni bond failure could cause the domino's to cascade into a major sovereign debt crisis. So while all the attention is being paid to the macro crisis in Europe scant attention is being paid to our own backyard.

Further let one state a fact of life. Again one has outlined this as far back as early 2009. The US Congress and under direction of the President the Treasury has embarked upon a fiscal policy of Stimulus and and deficit spending including an expansion in the role of government into the provision of HC. At the same time the Federal Reserve has embarked on a monetary expansion (provision of liquidity) via the QE's and Twist programs in order to jump start a moribund economy.

After 3 years of following a policy of providing a sea of liquidity the "Green Shoots" of spring have withered in the summer sun. It seems that once the sugar high of stimulus wears off the economy again begins to falter. The question now becomes will the economy be able to sustain itself with out stimulus or will it continue to falter without further stimulus. If it is the later, then sooner or later the economy will fail as the law of diminishing returns applies to further stimulus programs or the Sovereign Debt Bubble bursts. If it is the former the economy will continue to muddle along with scant growth as the debt will continue to put a drag on the economy by consuming resources that could promote growth. This will continue until the condition of being overleveraged is ameliorated. To expect a return to the halcyon days of the Post War Prosperity Boom is not a realistic expectation and as such Mr Carville and Greenberg are trying to blow smoke up your.....

Max83  07/11/2012 03:27 PM Report

From The Young Turks Network from yesterday:

Romney's Pricey Fundraisers in Hamptons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkYTSzVeKRY

Mitt Romney held three very pricey fundraisers last weekend in the Hamptons. Cenk Uygur discusses where these fundraisers were held and who attended. Some of the attendees of were quoted in the New York Times & Los Angeles Times, Cenk Uygur discusses their quotes. Tell us what you think of their quotes in the comment section below.

and

Dear All,

Thank you so much for signing our Manifesto. It does seem to have struck a chord and so far over 8,000 have signed.

Please share the Manifesto as widely as possible (we have now made this easier on the website www.manifestoforeconomicsense.org), and do encourage others to sign so that between us we can send out a real signal.

More importantly, please do all you can to keep this debate alive, by writing, lobbying, holding meetings and the like. We will also keep the website alive and are adding a blog feature where comments can be added and a news section. Do let us know what you are doing and continue sending your helpful suggestions to info@manifestoforeconomicsense.org.

So much nonsense is talked that there is ample scope for debate - you may have seen the letters in the FT. If we all keep at it, we can surely change the climate.

Original piece in the FT (You will need to register to access FT pages)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c1d7960-bee6-11e1-8ccd-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1zSCub6Py

Letter from Josef Joffe, Editor, Die Zeit, Hamburg, Germany

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b203f9f6-bbc9-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1zSCub6Py

Paul Krugman and Richard Layard reply

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/822cbd60-c1e8-11e1-b76a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1zSCub6Py

Letter from Marcus Miller and Robert Skidelsky

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/823cb698-c1e8-11e1-b76a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1zSCub6Py

With best wishes,

Richard Layard and Paul Krugman

Richard_DeBiase  07/11/2012 03:10 PM Report

Carville says he cannot think of an aspect of American life that was not better after Clinton, than it was before Clinton. I can. The Drug War.

tabs  07/11/2012 03:01 PM Report

Now Comes Part Two:

Mr Obama is a smooth talking Pied Piper who has led the American people down the garden path of Hope and Change. He has deftly let the American people hear and think what they want to hear in his rhetoric without spelling out exactly what he really thinks. What Mr Barrack "Barry " Obama really thinks is that a bigger and better central government activism will put America back on the road to prosperity. Yet he is mistaken in that belief because America achieved its being the largest economy in the world in an era (by 1920), when the role of government in the economy was negligible . Further Mr "Barry" Obama is unable to appreciate that fact even in the face of his failed policies. Mr "Barry" rather keeps on doing the same thing over and over always expecting a different result by saying, "If only the Republicans didn't stand in the way of "going forward" with an expanded program of governmental activism we could all be enjoying a new found prosperity.

Mr Romney on the other hand seems to be an opaque figure who lacks authenticity. People just don't know who the real Mr Romney is? One begins to wonder if Mr Romney fully understands who he really is underneath that plastic veneer. While Mr Romeny is no bargain for the American people it is certain that he understands the dynamic of business, and that is reason enough to vote Mr Hope and Change "Barry" Obama out of office.

SandyKellermann  07/11/2012 01:17 PM Report

FINALLY some horse sense...it is the middle class and single Mothers like me and military Moms like me get it. Well done !! Now who's listening?????

BENEZRAA  07/11/2012 12:34 PM Report

WHEN THE LEVY IS BUSTED, IT MUST BE FIXED

Anyone from Cajun Country ought to get that....

Indeed, an Institute for the Study of the Middle Class might be fascinating (or not). We could do better.

Printing money is like sandbagging; just as sandbagging may provide some damage control along the banks and in the flood plains where a river has overflown due to a busted levy or the absence of a levy, printing money may provide some damage control to a flooded out economy. But, the "levy" still remains to be fixed. Studying the damage is the job of the insurance adjusters.

As for European economics in relation to the US and the larger World, it is important that Britain and the EU do not unite to excess in their expectations of Germany to bankroll EU economic stability. Here US participation is highly relevant. The model to favor in terms of main elements is the post-WW2 model of the Marshall Plan -- not the pre-WW2 model of Versailles.

Perhaps the apparently imminent entry of Russia into the WTO harbingers for good? Will Russia trade Syria and Iran for a bigger stake in Europe? One thing to watch is the current Putin clampdown on the internet in Russia, which Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia has publicly spoken to this week (and Wikipedia has gone dark in Russia in protest).

tabs  07/11/2012 12:32 PM Report

Mr Carville and Mr Greenberg in particular have compromised credibility as observers of the American scene as they are partisan ideologues. Sometimes one begins to wonder if it takes a "burning bush" to catch Mr Roses attention as the following was a e-mail missive that was sent on or about the date indicated and has been posted to this Board several times since. However it remains completely revelant and appropriate as to causality in any discussion about the American scene.

YA Can't Put Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again

Thu, 08/05/2010 - 11:14 — tabs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You don't have to tell me things are bad, worse than bad. But the sky isn't going to fall, the end isn't nye and we are not doomed. What is going to happen and we are well on the road to this end, is that the USA is just not going to be as prosperous nor as powerful as it once was.

The Middle Class is going to shrink, there is going to be a relatively large underclass of working people and unemployed. Wages for the American worker are going to more closely parallel that of the worlds wage structure and the living standard is going to decline. The economy of the USA is going to more closely resemble 1910 than its post war heyday of 1960.

What truly amazes is the lack of vision on the part of ALL the economists, politicos and media. These people don't seem to understand the historic inevitability of this end. It does seem that they are stuck in the present and when trying to remedy problems are trying to formulate some grand plan that will "fix" America so that it can retain its supremacy in the world. What these people fail to realize is the fact that it took one step, one decision at a time over a number of decades to reach the situation America now faces. To "fix" the problem a grand plan of action or legislation is not going to work for any plan is based on present knowledge and conditions and can not foresee future conditions or problems. One gets themselves into trouble one step at a time and one gets one self out of trouble the same way. Anything else is simply not going to work. That is not to say that one can not have a direction or policy to move towards.

Further all the efforts to rectify America's problems is like the kings men trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again for these same economists etal also fall to understand the arc of history. Again they seem rooted in the moment or at best looking back a mere decade. To get a truly accurate assessment of Americas current status one has to look at its economic and political history going back 65 years.

After WW2 America entered into an unprecedented wealth building Post War Prosperity Boom that lasted roughly 20 years. This prosperity boom was fueled by 5 main ingredients

1. America was the only unscathed industrial power in the world and the world needed rebuilding.

2. The GI's returning from WW2 started families and needed everything refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, cars and houses.

3. After WW2 there was a dearth of consumer goods as very few were produced from 1930 to 1945 due to the Great Depression and the World War. Thus there was 15 years worth of pent up demand.

4. The rise of the large middle class, where a man without an education could attain middle class status was due to corporations thinking that they were making so much money that they could meet Union demands for higher wages. These corporations felt they would lose more money by going on strike than paying its workers higher wages and benefits.

5. The Cold War demanded that higher military budgets be kept in place. This one might say was a continual government stimulus program.

By 1965 this unprecedented status began to change first with competition from Europe and Japan and later Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, India and Brazil. If one remembers the first of the American industries to fall to foreign competition was the American ship building industry, followed by autos, steel and electronics..remember those American icons of American electronics Zenith,, RCA, and Westinghouse? This trend has continued on to this very day.

Also one has to mention the inflection point where the US government and society in general began to feel that as a "Rich" nation we could afford it all without consequence and that was the day LBJ put the SS Trust into the General Account in 1968. This act merely disguised the true national debt by using an accounting gimmick of placing that debt into accounts payable.

By examining the causative factors that led to the Great American Prosperity Boom of the post war period one has to realize those conditions that created it no longer exist, there is a new paradigm at work. America is saturated with consumer goods, debt and is faced with continually steeper competition in the world. The mere fact that American politicians are trying to resurrect the past is in of itself a causative agent for failure. America has to face this new reality and not try and delude itself into thinking Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again.

REMant  07/11/2012 11:25 AM Report

The question has never been what is happening to the middle-class, but WHY. Here libertarians part company from both Democrats and Republicans, because they know that only individual responsibility will make a difference and the only way to enforce and empower it is to stop printing and spending money. Unfortunately there seems nearly no one left anywhere, anymore, who agrees with this. That Germany largely does speaks for itself. And I suspect the rebellious Arabs have come to that conclusion. Printing and spending money increases inflation, which works to separate owners from laborers, that is, when an economy is working. When it is not, it prevents work altogether.

Speaking of responsibility, it's hard for me to imagine Mr Carville in a position of any kind of it. On the advice of Greenspan, Clinton balanced the budget by 1996 and with Rubin maintained a strong dollar policy. China was then less of a problem, tho probably played a part in pricking the tech bubble.

Obama ran to a great extent on the middle-class issue four years ago. No doubt these gentlemen think he can win again on it, and we have recently heard noise in this direction, but it seems doubtful to me, since the middle-class knows that they are worse off today than then.

BTW, the allusion to the LIBOR rate-fixing referred in fact to 2007-2008, not the present.

I think Romney's main problem is his periodic saber-rattling, which I believe he would do better to avoid. But, of course, libertarians part company with both parties on that, too.

All of this will probably be moot, because the indication is that the economy slipped back into recession in May, and looks to become worse by Election Day.