Rep. Keith Ellison’s “Inclusive Prosperity Act” by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

Image by Seabeak via Flickr

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
April 17, 2013

Citizens concerned about our national debt and wheeling and dealing on Wall Street should energetically support Rep. Keith Ellison’s (D-Minn.) “Inclusive Prosperity Act.”

The “Inclusive Prosperity Act” would enact a speculation tax that could help shrink our nation’s deficit while safeguarding and reducing runaway speculative trading on Wall Street.

A small financial transaction tax of 0.5 percent or less – depending upon the financial instrument being taxed – could produce hundreds of billions of dollars annually, perhaps as much as $350 billion.

On Wall Street by Ed Ciaccio

by Ed Ciaccio
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 22, 2013

Image by David Paul Ohmer via Flickr

(to the tune of “On Broadway” by Barry Mann, Mike Stoller, Jerry Leiber & Cynthia Weil)

They say there’s profit to be made on Wall Street (on Wall Street).
That’s what the banksters & fraudsters, they all say (on Wall Street).
But when their schemes and bubbles burst,
It’s always us who get hurt the worst,

The Delicious Irony of Morris Greenberg’s AIG Suit Against the US Treasury by Michael Hudson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
January 12, 2013

Image by codepinkhq via Flickr

When the financial bubble burst in September 2008, U.S. and European governments responded by shifting bank losses onto their own balance sheets. The pretense is that real growth cannot resume until the banks and speculators are “made whole.” To cover the cost of bailing out the banks, governments now are trying to run budget surpluses. This adds fiscal deflation to the debt deflation left in the bubble’s wake, shrinking the economy at large. Governments are to raise taxes (or simply print new debt to swap for the financial sector’s bad loans and gambles) to reimburse financial institutions whose lending and outright gambling (not to mention the excursion into financial fraud) caused the crisis.

America’s Deceptive 2012 Fiscal Cliff by Michael Hudson

Image by peoplesworld via Flickr

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
December 28, 2012

How today’s fiscal austerity is reminiscent of World War I’s economic misunderstandings

When World War I broke out in August 1914, economists on both sides forecast that hostilities could not last more than about six months. Wars had grown so expensive that governments quickly would run out of money. It seemed that if Germany could not defeat France by springtime, the Allied and Central Powers would run out of savings and reach what today is called a fiscal cliff and be forced to negotiate a peace agreement.