dissociatedpress.com » Economic Crisis

Food Stamps Feel A Lot Classier On A Credit Card

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:54:31 +0000

I joke sometimes about being a socialist, but in reality, I’m the type of person who’s more inclined to work within the system I’m born into. Since I was born in one of the most capitalism-obsessed nations on Earth, and raised in an intellectual, bleeding heart liberal college community, I’ve always had an odd mix of values. I’ve never applied for “welfare” of any kind, including unemployment (okay, 3 months when I was 18!), food stamps, or other kinds of assistance, but I think “the poor” are entitled to such help. In the past, I’ve always found it easy to balance these vaguely conflicted values, mainly because the overall economic situation in the states made it possible for me to go get some kind of work in thin times. I think a lot of “average” Americans feel the same way, but recently I was surprised to find that several “average” friends of mine were using something I’d never heard of to defray expenses: a Michigan Bridge Card. Suddenly being broke seemed a lot less shameful to me. Somehow “defraying expenses with a bridge card” sounds a lot better than “buying hot dogs with food stamps“. And apparently this is a national trend; the New York Times has a whole series called The Safety Net, where I ran across this interactive map that made me realize that in the county I live in (home to the relatively prestigious University of Michigan), one in ten people are collecting food stamps. This kind of blew me away, and when I add that to my ongoing ire over the secretive bailouts of billionaire bankers and the impending commercial real estate crash , I start thinking a little differently. As a self-employed person, I made some financial mis-steps over the last couple of years that I’ve struggled to bounce back from. I’m sure this is the basis for my anger about bank bailouts; no one came along to bail ME out and wipe the credit slate clean. But maybe it’s time to revise my strategy. I mean the NYT is literally advising us that walking away from our mortgages is okay. So why shouldn’t we “strategically default” and go on government support? How about you? Are you struggling? Would you accept government assistance if you were? Let’s not forget that the banking industry did, and they’re money experts!

Poll: Are You A Healthtard Like Me?

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:29:52 +0000

I must confess that in spite of reviewing the current proposed health care legislation in its original forms, and reading a variety of summaries from both sides of the issue , I am still completely mystified as to what’s being decided. This is one instance in which I’m not going to play armchair quarterback and criticize Barack Obama (whom I once fervently supported) when this legislation ends up failing to serve the best interests of the US citizenry, because what I DO understand is that he is confronting a hopelessly corrupt and greed-driven industry with literally billions of dollars at its disposal, and hundreds of politicians fully in its pocket. I haven’t been fully insured since 1998, mostly because I simply don’t believe in the very foundations of of our health care system, and the way the insurance industry (which is really just an investment gambit) first parasitically attached itself to our right to health and well being, and later helped drive the cost of medical care into an astronomical range that is simply absurd in the context of natural markets and prices, and finally played a central role in the global banking crisis. How can I possibly care about labyrinthine, Rube Goldbergian legislation involving a system I fundamentally don’t support? In spite of these feelings, I remain a little ashamed that I don’t feel better informed. How well do you feel like you understand the legislation? Vote below…

Want To Know Where Your Bailout Dollars Are Going? Too Bad.

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:31:51 +0000

Would you like to know which banks are getting the $23 Trillion bailouts you and your grandkids are paying for? TOO BAD. The Federal Reserve has insisted that Manhattan U.S. District Court Chief Judge Loretta Preska’s ruling in favor of Bloomberg News in a recent FOIA case would “would threaten the companies and the economy” adding that revealing the information “would stigmatize the banks and result in imminent competitive harm”. This is the second such case recently; Fox News lost one in July. Bet you didn’t know Fox cared so much about the common man, did you? Well, they apparently want to protect us from the evils of the BBC too. If you’ve been feeling better about the economy, we don’t want to dent your enthusiasm, but be aware that as of this writing, 81 more banks have failed this year, and from March to June the number of banks on the “Problem List” rose from 305 to 416. And all of this while banks repackage the same toxic investments that caused it all.

Living In America: It’s In Tents Lately

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:56:43 +0000

We were worried about that whole Econopocalypse thing for a while, but not anymore. For starters, Timothy Geithner said in June that the economy’s okay, and Ben Bernanke still says so this month. So why are several of my most intelligent, hardworking friends unemployed? And why are Americans living in tents? In spite of rather shocking numbers on unemployment, homelessness, and poverty assembled by The Centre for Research on Globalization, the popular media in this country continues to do a fantastic job of making things seem fine. Even the global headquarters for weepy liberal extremism otherwise known as the Huffington Post plays down the “Tent City” phenomena, claiming accuracy in reporting because they asked their readers to share stories about about tent cities in their towns across America, forgetting that the only people that actually read Huffington Post are liberal elitist media types living in gated communities, or people that got Rickolled into it. I had misplaced my righteous indignation briefly, but all of this is bringing it back. Especially when you consider the fact that all the legislators in DC battling to ultimately deny us healthcare already have theirs, and WE pay for 75% of it. This all creates an amusing and perhaps comforting paradox: If you’re jobless, homeless, and have no insurance, you can’t call in sick and stay home for a day, and even if you could, you’d never get well, so you could never return to work anyway.

Is It Barack Obama’s Fault You’re Broke?

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:09:48 +0000

This image has little to do with the article.
We just thought it might get your attention.

I think it’s obvious if you take a quick look at the Politics section here on Dissociated Press that I’m no political science expert. But I do think I’m a little more aware than the average Bible-thumping Palin supporter, or all-bark-no-bite liberal intellectual. Which is why, although I feel comfortable in saying that politicians by and large are a bunch of money hungry, morally decrepit philanderers, I can still take a broader view and realize that although the media is already trying to link Obama administration policy to the economy, that this is patently absurd. So who’s to blame for the economic situation? Well, Time Magazine has 25 suggestions. But maybe it’s testosterone, or a glitch in our brains. Or maybe mathematics is to blame. Personally, I think it’s all at once both a little simpler, and a little more complex than all of this. I think it’s greed, and a long-term crisis of values. At least with Enron, there was a feeling that someone was going after the bad guys. And as a result, Enron no longer exists. In the case of the recent massive financial industry failures though, we’ve mostly sat back as citizens and coughed up the loot while the responsible parties move through the magic revolving door of business and government. This Vanity Fair piece about Joseph Cassano is one of the few in-depth looks at the real people behind this catastrophe that I’ve seen, and Cassano is just one of dozens of his type. I don’t know about you, but I’m broke, a little angry, and a little confused. Part of me wants to make an updated Leave Barack Alone video, and part of me wants to join Jon Stewart in saying “That’s great. Now fix the economy!” What do you think?

Whatever Happened To The Econopocalypse?

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:01:48 +0000

Whatever happened to that Econopocalypse they were promising us? I’m from the generation who grew up thinking NORAD would mistake a piece of space junk coming over the horizon for a Russian nuclear missile, and we’d all die as a result of accidental “Mutual Assured Destruction”. So in spite of the fact that I’ve since somehow managed to become a disturbingly happy, emoticon-using utopian, when you talk about the coming apocalypse, I for one will be getting ready. Which is why I’ve rounded up some tips for you. There are plenty of lists like this one, which suggests ridiculously obvious things like accepting a job below your expectations, growing a garden, or managing your money better. And this one , which sounds like it must’ve been written by the same mortgage jockeys that got us into this mess. But I especially liked this one, which includes tips like “Stockpile Drugs” and “Buy a Gun”, or my personal favorite “Blow your credit cards”. You also might want to pick up some cooking tips from Clara, the sweet 91-year-old grandma that’s being exploited to create the Depression Cooking series on YouTube. Although you better hurry; I don’t see how we’ll have broadband if we’re standing in food lines. And for those motivated enough to keep looking for work, don’t be surprised if the interview process evolves to adapt to the new climate as well. See the clip featured here for some insight. Personally, I figure if I can survive cold war paranoia, eight years of Bush, and a culture that that seems to revolve around reality TV, I can survive this. See you in the dole line!

Are You A Psychopath?

admin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:53:57 +0000

Investment bankers
have all the fun…

No, all my rage has a perfectly rational foundation, thank you very much. For some reason, the recent economic crisis reminded me of the idea floating around back in 2004 that maybe corporate culture was breeding and encouraging actual psychopaths. Thanks to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, I keep running into articles that suggest that this is indeed the case. What else could explain the audacity of the inclusion of a $140 Billion windfall tax in the Treasury Department’s economic bailout package? Or the aberrant behavior of individuals in the finance industry described in this lengthy but well-written Portfolio.com piece? The election was a nice distraction, but is anyone out there still even slightly angry? If we turned the tables and went all American Psycho on investment executives, would it be justifiable homicide? Anyway, to answer the original question: if whether or not you’re a psychopath is an area of doubt for you, here’s a quick quiz * . Turns out that I’m 59% empathic, 24% delusional, 64% sociable, and 37% law-abiding. Which raises the question: If I’m 24% delusional, is it possible I only took 76% of the quiz?

*29 questions, and don’t fall for the checkbox trick at the end.

Silly Billionaire Doesn’t Realize Economy Was Fixed Last Weekend

admin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:10:36 +0000

In these troubled financial times, it’s refreshing to hear a successful financial expert (George Soros is worth about $7 billion) talk commonsensically about the current economic crisis. Except that he’s basically saying that we’re completely screwed. If you have about six minutes, watch this Bill Moyers interview, in which Soros basically says that the extreme form of capitalism that we’ve been playing with (he calls it free-market fundamentalism) could lead to the end of the human race. He balances that seemingly extreme notion with more common-sense talk about how capitalism and socialism have something in common that could make either one succeed or fail catastrophically, i.e.: the human element. He distills that “human element” down to the sense of social responsibility possessed by the leaders of a given society, not only during a time of crisis, but in the ongoing management of the society.