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<channel>
	<title>The Left Bank - The Left Bank</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org</link>
	<description>An unconventional view of American politics, society, and history.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:32:05 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
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		<title>Slow Monday &#8211; Obama&#8217;s American Family Tree</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/slow-monday-obamas-american-family-tree/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/slow-monday-obamas-american-family-tree/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:38:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=493</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many Republicans are so obsessed with trying to paint Barack Obama as the &#8216;other,&#8217; an &#8216;outsider,&#8217; and a Kenyan they sometimes forget (are you reading this Dinesh D&#8217;Sousa?) that Obama&#8217;s mother&#8217;s family trace their lineage in America back to colonial days, well before the Revolutionary War.  As is true with just about every family that can trace their roots back to the mid-1700s or earlier, the list of Obama&#8217;s direct ancestors and collateral relatives is rather astonishing.  In 2008, from an official genealogy [source now forgotten], I wrote down the names of some of the famous people related either directly or collaterally to Obama.  BTW, Obama and George W. Bush are directly related to each other through Samuel Hinkley, 12 generations back.  In fact, since Obama&#8217;s first ancestors arrived here in the 1630s and Bush&#8217;s around the early-middle 18th century, their genealogies have a surprising number of common relatives.  Okay, here goes &#8211; relatives of Barack H. Obama through his mother: Lyndon Baines Johnson,  Park Overall (actress), Penelope Tree (model), Margaux and Murial Hemingway, Charles Addams, John Steinbeck, Christopher Reeve, Alfred Kinsey, Harold MacMillan (former PM of UK), The First Earl of Stockton, Howard Dean, Sarah Palin, Jimmy Carter, Katherine <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/slow-monday-obamas-american-family-tree/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Austerity &#8211; the Republican Path to a New Depression</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/austerity-the-republican-path-to-a-new-depression/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/austerity-the-republican-path-to-a-new-depression/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:54:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=488</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m amazed that, in both parties, there are so many people who believe that our financial crisis was caused by debt and the deficit (which has shrunk in each of the last 3 years and is projected by the CBO to shrink even more in 2013). You don&#8217;t try to pay down debt and the deficit when the economy is weak. This is basic Economics 101 &#8211; like the first day at airline pilot&#8217;s school when the instructor tells the students &#8220;Don&#8217;t shut off the engines while you are still in the air!&#8221; As England, Ireland, and other European countries are learning to their great pain, austerity has only deepened their recessions, lowered their GDP, and heightened joblessness. Austerity causes economic contraction and recession, and the only force that can cushion that contraction is monetary policy support from the FED. Given that interest rates are now, for all intents and purposes, zero, the FED has no room to maneuver to stave off the destructive consequences of austerity. Basic economic theory (as opposed to the fringe Austrian School, a heterodox economic philosophy that was considered pretty much a joke among economists until Ronald Reagan and succeeding Republicans embraced it) says that <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/austerity-the-republican-path-to-a-new-depression/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>A Tale of Two Constitutional Rights</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/a-tale-of-two-constitutional-rights/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/a-tale-of-two-constitutional-rights/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:16:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=480</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The reactionary Right in America are fanatical about the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, or at least their own interpretation of it as an absolute right (even though it  is the only Amendment in the Bill of Rights that begins with a qualifier).  If you were to parse it into today&#8217;s English from the convoluted 18th Century Noah Websterish phrasing, it would read something like: As long as a well-regulated militia is considered to be necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. The primary reason for the Second Amendment (for you Strict Constructionists and Original Intenters) is that the Founding Fathers did not want to have a standing army (its why Congress can only fund the Army for 2 years at a time). As an alternative to a standing professional army, they envisioned state &#8220;militias&#8221; the structure of which would be defined by Congress (Article I, Section 8) and could be called out in case of invasion and TO PUT DOWN SEDITIOUS INSURGENCIES (not to arm loonies to start a seditious insurgency).  In national emergencies, the President as Commander-in-Chief <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/a-tale-of-two-constitutional-rights/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Just What Is an Assault Rifle?</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/just-what-is-an-assault-rifle/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/just-what-is-an-assault-rifle/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:39:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[.223]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AK-47]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AR-15]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assault rifle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assault weapon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assault weapons ban]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aurora]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bushmaster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Columbine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[M-16]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Newtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[semi-auto]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[semi-automatic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spree killers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Virginia Tech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=474</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It is a widely-spread falsehood by the NRA and assault weapon supporters that the AR-15 civilian versions of the M-16 are not &#8220;military-style assault weapons&#8221; because they are semi-automatic (you have to pull the trigger for each single round), while military versions support full automatic fire.  In fact, M-14s, Most versions of M-16s, and several versions of the newer M-4, do NOT support full automatic fire. The M-14 (predecessor to the M-16) was originally fully automatic, but due to the extreme difficulty soldiers had in controlling the weapon under full auto (due to the large 7.62 x 51 NATO round it was chambered for), the full automatic option was disabled. Making its appearance during the Vietnam era, the M-16 came in several models, only some of which supported full auto on their selector switches. The M-16 was chambered for the smaller, lighter 5.56 x 45 NATO round, so the lighter ammo was easier to carry and the weapon easier to control on full auto. M-16 rifles were made in several models, some of which did NOT support full auto. The original M-16 and M-16A1 had a 3-position selector switch for safe/semi/full automatic. Concerned with the tendency of all but the <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/just-what-is-an-assault-rifle/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>One Group Will Suffer Immediately If We Go Off The Cliff</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/one-group-will-suffer-immediately-if-we-go-off-the-cliff/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/one-group-will-suffer-immediately-if-we-go-off-the-cliff/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 29 Dec 2012 21:42:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=415</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While there are a number of governmental tricks that can be employed to delay many of the cuts in spending and rises in taxes if we go over the cliff, there is one critical group who will feel immense deprivation immediately &#8211; with no recourse to fiscal or parliamentary tricks.  Many of these people were only informed through their State UI centers in the past week or two that 12/31/2012 is their absolute cut-off date (no matter how much money is still in their &#8220;tier&#8221; to be disbursed). As one would expect, they are the most vulnerable group in the country &#8211; the over 2 million people who are currently collecting federal Unemployment Insurance.  All EUI will be cut off completely at the stroke of midnight on Monday, December 31, 2012.  This will leave the 2+ million who rely on UI as their sole source of survival.  Remember, these are not the GOP&#8217;s &#8220;lazy takers,&#8221; but people who have worked, consumed, and contributed taxes their entire lives, who are currently out of work through no fault of their own, primarily as a result of the economic crash of 2008 that the GOP brought about themselves. People on UI are the <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/one-group-will-suffer-immediately-if-we-go-off-the-cliff/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>RIP John Boehner</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/rip-john-boehner/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/rip-john-boehner/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 29 Dec 2012 21:05:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boehner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fiscal cliff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[house]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McConnell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[senate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=408</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Right now, the minority of Republicans who are in or supporting the Tea Party mentality are in complete control of the party.  And, as long as John Boehner and other (relatively) sane GOP Reps don&#8217;t find sufficient stones to stand up to them, they are the tail that wags, not just the GOP dog, but the entire country.  The shrinking group of non-fanatic members of the GOP are terrified that, if they displease this dogmatic, absolutist group of reactionary ideologues even once, they will find themselves &#8220;primaried&#8221; in the next election.  The Right keeps its rule by fear because it can summon up many millions of dollars from right-wing oligarchic billionaires to finance primary challenges against any Republican from a candidate far to the right of the incumbent. After 36 years in the Senate, in a seat that was such a shoo-in that Dems sometimes didn&#8217;t even bother to run an opponent against him, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) will be leaving the Senate in a couple of days having lost a primary to an unknown Tea Party loony named Richard Mourdock by 61/39%.  Mourdock went on to make a major embarrassment of himself, and was beaten by the Democrat Joe <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/rip-john-boehner/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Guns&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/guns/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/guns/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:16:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assault weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bushmaster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gun control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lanza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mass shooting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[massacre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Newtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NRA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sandy Hook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[second amendment]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=399</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One thing is obvious from the start &#8211; we are NEVER going to be able to implement a rational solution to gun violence. We can, of course, pass laws preventing (most of) the sale of assault-style weapons and semi-automatic handguns with magazines capable of holding, say, more than 7 or 8 cartridges. These would have to be federal laws, because many states have no inclination to do it themselves. Still and all, with the exception of the mass killer phenomenon, most gun deaths are caused by people with ordinary handguns, most of which would not fall under any ban we could conceivably get through Congress. We could drastically improve identity checks for criminal histories and a history of mental instability, but that is, at best, a weak sieve, as many people buy guns before their first criminal act (often a murder with said handgun) and, since many thought disorders do not manifest themselves before late teen or young adult years, perhaps years after a person purchases a gun. And, as in the Newtown shootings, the murderer simply appropriated his mother&#8217;s guns (legally bought in a state with reputedly the strongest gun laws in the country), shot his mother, and took <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/guns/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>If It Were Up To Me&#8230;From Columbine to Newtown</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/if-it-were-up-to-me/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/if-it-were-up-to-me/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:27:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=387</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Maybe it&#8217;s the movies, maybe it&#8217;s the books Maybe it&#8217;s the bullets, maybe it&#8217;s the real crooks Maybe it&#8217;s the drugs, maybe it&#8217;s the parents Maybe it&#8217;s the colors everybody&#8217;s wearin Maybe it&#8217;s the President, maybe it&#8217;s the last one Maybe it&#8217;s the one before that, what he done Maybe it&#8217;s the high schools, maybe it&#8217;s the teachers Maybe it&#8217;s the tattooed children in the bleachers Maybe it&#8217;s the Bible, maybe it&#8217;s the lack Maybe it&#8217;s the music, maybe it&#8217;s the crack Maybe it&#8217;s the hairdos, maybe it&#8217;s the TV Maybe it&#8217;s the cigarettes, maybe it&#8217;s the family Maybe it&#8217;s the fast food, maybe it&#8217;s the news Maybe it&#8217;s divorce, maybe it&#8217;s abuse Maybe it&#8217;s the lawyers, maybe it&#8217;s the prisons Maybe it&#8217;s the Senators, maybe it&#8217;s the system Maybe it&#8217;s the fathers, maybe it&#8217;s the sons Maybe it&#8217;s the sisters, maybe it&#8217;s the moms Maybe it&#8217;s the radio, maybe it&#8217;s road rage Maybe El Nino, or UV rays Maybe it&#8217;s the army, maybe it&#8217;s the liquor Maybe it&#8217;s the papers, maybe the militia Maybe it&#8217;s the athletes, maybe it&#8217;s the ads Maybe it&#8217;s the sports fans, maybe it&#8217;s a fad Maybe it&#8217;s the magazines, maybe it&#8217;s the internet Maybe <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/if-it-were-up-to-me/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Whither Critical Thinking?</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/whither-critical-thinking/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/whither-critical-thinking/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2012 20:05:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=385</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why do so few Americans seem capable of exercising the skill of critical thinking? In the past decade, neuro-scientists have made immense strides in understanding how the various parts of the brain collaborate to create a personal identity and the ability to think and reason. The process of &#8220;critical thinking&#8221; involves several steps.  First is deciding on premises and ruthlessly analyzing them to be as sure as possible that they are supported by factual and objective data and are as free of bias as we can make them.  The key here is understanding scientific skepticism &#8211; questioning what we think, how we think, and what we think we know.  We must always be prepared to correct or update our knowledge and thought processes as new data comes in or data that is better analyzed.  Critical thinking is a methodology &#8211; a process to increase understanding, a form of the scientific method. Secondly, we reason from this foundation, constructing a chain of logic that will take us to a conclusion.  We must understand logical thinking and be aware of the array of formal and informal logical fallacies that can lead us to unwarranted conclusions and keep in mind the potential biases <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/whither-critical-thinking/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>RIP Susan Rice</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/rip-susan-rice/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/rip-susan-rice/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:34:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ayotte]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benghazi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cabinet appointment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CIA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[confirmation. smear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grassley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Kerry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[libel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McCain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scott Brown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secretary of State]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[slander]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Susan Rice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[terrorists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[under the bus]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=382</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am reminded of that old cartoon featuring a male porcupine jumping from a limb onto a female porcupine below him while decrying &#8220;So many Porcupines, so little time.&#8220;  The sheer number of issues crying out to be discussed in the current political, economic, and societal arenas is so overwhelming, it&#8217;s hard to decide what to deal with next. I&#8217;ll start with some thoughts on the shameful destruction of Susan Rice.  She is a longtime friend and associate of President Obama as well as an honored member of the Clinton State Department, in charge of the baroquely complex issues of diplomacy between the United States and the nations of Africa. She has also spent the last four years as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, a Cabinet position, dealing with all of the member nations. She is supremely qualified, both by experience and by education. She was valedictorian at her elite Catholic private academy, had a perfect GPA at Stanford, where she also won a highly prestigious Truman Scholarship in her junior year and was awarded Phi Beta Kappa on graduation.  She was then awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to New College, Oxford, where she earned a M.Phil followed by a <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/rip-susan-rice/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Arguing AGAIN for alternatives to a market-based health insurance system.</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/arguing-again-for-alternatives-to-a-market-based-health-insurance-system/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/arguing-again-for-alternatives-to-a-market-based-health-insurance-system/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:47:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entitlements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[for-profit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grand bargain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[healthcare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[market values]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medicare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medicare for all]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[off the cliff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Single-payer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=366</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Market Values vs Morality (first published as a comment in the Daily Kos). There is a fascinating new book out by Harvard Professor Michael Sendel (creator of the course &#8220;Justice&#8221;) called &#8220;What Money Can&#8217;t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets.&#8221; He points out that &#8220;Market Values&#8221; are devoid of any morality and that this is inherent in any market-based system. The 800-lb gorilla is the mistaken idea that the only way to distribute goods and services for maximum &#8220;social utility&#8221; is the market mechanism. All of the free-market cultists out there believe (as do most economists &#8211; who are not, after all, interested in morality, but in the mechanisms of supply and demand, profit and loss, cost/benefit ratios as motivators) that the &#8220;market mechanism is the best &#8211; indeed, the only &#8211; proper mechanism for determining how goods and services can best be distributed to those who have shown they want them the most &#8211; hence &#8220;social utility.&#8221; However, the only mechanism that the market uses to make this determination is the willingness of people to pay the most for the goods and services. If you have 100 widgets to sell, you set the price high enough so that there <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/arguing-again-for-alternatives-to-a-market-based-health-insurance-system/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Are we being &#8216;jobbed&#8217; again?</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/are-we-being-jobbed-again/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/are-we-being-jobbed-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:32:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[austerity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt reduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit reduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[demand]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grand agreement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[job creation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[job growth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[joblessness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Keynes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Keynsian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[middle class]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recession]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stimulus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[supply]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the cliff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unemployment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[working class]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=361</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When President Obama was re-elected, he stated that JOBS would be his &#8216;job&#8217; one. Yet, the moment the celebration ended, he turned back to fencing with the Republicans (though with a much stronger hand, now) over debt and deficit reduction (aka &#8216;Austerity&#8217;). Deficit reduction will NOT create the necessary new jobs, nor will it make the economy healthier, whether with Obama&#8217;s mild (relatively speaking) approach, or with the GOP&#8217;s vicious austerity measures (rejected in the election and by even 67% of Republicans in the last poll dealing with taxing the rich and reducing or delaying benefits and entitlements from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security). Hasn&#8217;t anybody inside the Beltway realized that EVERY attempt to get out of a recession through austerity tactics (specifically attacking the deficit and overall debt) has failed miserably. It not only has driven numerous European economies deeper into joblessness, but has heightened their recessions. Before FDR (in the pre-Keynsian days), this was tried again and again, producing the various &#8220;Panics of &#8230;&#8221; every 10 years or so in the 19th century, culminating in the Stock Market collapse of 1929 and the Great Depression. From 1933 through 1980, Keynsian economics, which dictates that, in a recession, you <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/are-we-being-jobbed-again/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Good Debt vs Bad Debt</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/good-debt-vs-bad-debt/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/good-debt-vs-bad-debt/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:25:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[austerity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debt reduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit reduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fiscal responsibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stimulus]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=354</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Republicans are always whining about the federal debt and telling the rest of us that we should live within our means as do businesses and families.  The Republicans believe that putting a former business executive into the White House would be enough to solve the problem. Note:  Both Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush were ex-CEOs and they presided over the Great Depression and the Great Recession.  So much for business&#8217;s contribution to federal fiscal responsibility. Even Malcolm Forbes of Forbes Magazine recognized the vast divide between running a business and running a society&#8217;s government when he warned: &#8220;Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don&#8217;t understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or [sic] the depth it takes. Democracy isn&#8217;t a business.&#8221; Almost every family and business carries a debt load.  It is impossible for all but a few to function without it.  Whether it is the young couple buying a home with a mortgage, a farmer borrowing from the bank to buy seed, fertilize, and machinery in the Spring so that he can produce a crop large enough to pay off the loan in the coming Fall, or the company that borrows to expand <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/good-debt-vs-bad-debt/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Buyer&#8217;s Remorse?</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/buyers-remorse/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/buyers-remorse/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Nov 2012 03:47:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boehner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bush taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cantor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit reduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[filibuster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grand bargain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McConnell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[off the cliff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax reform]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax the rich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=342</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, I wonder if the Obama voters are having buyer&#8217;s remorse.  Despite promising us this week that creating jobs would be Job One, Obama is back to haggling with Boehner, Cantor, and McConnell over just how and where to trim the deficit. Nothing has changed from the first four years.  As usual, Obama doesn&#8217;t take the discussion back far enough to it&#8217;s root, and thus eliminates the only sane alternative before even beginning the discussion &#8211; should we even be considering adopting disastrous austerity measures to shrink the deficit, or should we use the ability to borrow even more to create jobs and a healthy economy? Obama is assembling a group of Dem and GOP politicians (why bother with the GOP? They will just obstruct and try to water down any bill and Obama doesn&#8217;t need them).  He will include labor leaders and community groups, but, remarkably, says nothing about including any economists! That&#8217;s because any mainstream Keynsian economist can tell him that the discussion should be whether to cut the deficit or not &#8211; not what tweaking and twiddling the two parties will do to achieve cuts.  I thought Obama said that his FIRST concern was JOBS!  Any economist <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/buyers-remorse/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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		<title>Off the Cliff &#8211; Let&#8217;s Do It.</title>
		<link>http://www.leftbankblog.org/off-the-cliff-lets-do-it/</link>
		<comments>http://www.leftbankblog.org/off-the-cliff-lets-do-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Nov 2012 03:07:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Beartooth</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hot Topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boehner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[compromise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cut taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deficit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entitlements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[for the rich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grand bargain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Krugman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[off the cliff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sequester]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spending cuts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax cuts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax reduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.leftbankblog.org/?p=338</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many, including not a few in Congress and a considerable number of economists, have already come to the conclusion that &#8220;off the cliff&#8221; is the most (if not only) effective strategy.   It will kill the Bush tax cuts once and for all, while the Dems in Congress can then introduce a new bill on their first day back to work calling for a tax reduction back to the Bush-era levels for all income below $250,000.  They can put the Republicans in a position where they have already lost their tax cut for the ultra-rich and have no way to fight to preserve it, and then are confronted with the question of whether to vote for a tax cut for 98% of the people.  Let them declare where they really stand and who they really represent on taxes. The rest of the sequester cuts are not immediately going too cause a financial meltdown and Congress and Obama will have months to work out solutions to restore critical entitlement monies, while having a sent-from-heaven opportunity to put the defense budget on a diet and cut out the vast bloat that turns the Pentagon as merely a device for taking money out of <a href="http://www.leftbankblog.org/off-the-cliff-lets-do-it/">[More...] <span class="meta-nav">&#8594; </span></a>]]></description>
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