Sen. Bernie Says It Like It Is

... on michaelmoore.com:

...

Most important, in the coming weeks and months, the Democrats must demand that deficit reduction is done in a way that is fair — and not on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. At a time when real unemployment remains close to 15 percent, we must also focus on creating the millions of jobs that our people need.

In America today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on Earth. Incredibly, the top 1 percent owns 42 percent of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 60 percent owns just 2.3 percent. In the last study done on income distribution, we learned that 93 percent of all new income generated between 2009 and 2010 went to the top 1 percent while the bottom 99 percent split the remaining 7 percent. This extraordinary unfairness is not only morally reprehensible, it is bad economics. It will be very difficult to create the jobs that our people need when so many Americans have little or no money to spend.

...

Please read the whole post.

Erskine 'Catfood' Bowles For Treasury Secretary? Seriously?

Paul Krugman, in "Deficit Hawks and Hypocrites":

A large white cat menaces Erskine Bowles,
possibly seeking catfood

I don’t know how seriously to take the buzz about appointing Erskine Bowles to replace Timothy Geithner. But in case there’s any reality to it, let’s recall his record. Mr. Bowles, like others in the deficit-scold community, has indulged in scare tactics, warning of an imminent fiscal crisis that keeps not coming. Meanwhile, the report he co-wrote was supposed to be focused on deficit reduction — yet, true to form, it called for lower rather than higher tax rates, and as a “guiding principle” no less. Appointing him, or anyone like him, would be both a bad idea and a slap in the face to the people who returned President Obama to office.

Erskine Bowles (wiki) is a board member at GM and Morgan Stanley. In August he spoke in praise of Paul Ryan and in particular of the latter's "serious budget." I cannot think of a more archetypal representative of The 1%... or a worse choice for Treasury secretary. Appointing him to that post would be a sharp stick in the eye of everyone less conservative... more economically sane... than Newt Gingrich.

Krugman quotes the late great John Maynard Keynes: “The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity.” The deficit scolds with their one-track minds would be only too happy to give us more austerity, packed full and running over... just what we don't need as we begin to claw our way out of the Great Recession. Obama must be strongly discouraged from appointing any of them to anything. Their way has been tried; their way has failed. It is time for them to leave.

Full disclosure: I have some money invested through Morgan Stanley, from back in the days 30+ years ago when they had the only broker in Houston specializing in "socially responsible investing." I kept my conscience clear about what I was invested in, but I didn't make much money. A shoebox would have served me better. Oh well.

Corrected: I inadvertently substituted a link from a different Krugman post.

Corrected: I substituted "Newt Gingrich" for "Genghis Khan" as an archetypal radical conservative. May be better; may not be...

Afterthought: speaking of an "austerity bomb," look at Europe's unemployment. Jeebus!

Update 11/16: Bowles has said he will not serve as Treasury Secretary.