The Middle Class Loses Unless It Makes $200,000 Per Year

I know that the poor people have refrigerators and cell phones. Therefore, according to some, they should just chill and call someone who cares.

This chart from Andrew Sullivan's blog shows that it's not just the poor who are falling behind; it's everyone not in the upper 20 percent.

Sullivan also quotes Jared Bernstein who points out that the chart shows that for many growth has been a spectator sport.

Bernstein invokes one of my favorite debate phrases when he calls the chart "stark reminder that when it comes to the living standards of middle- and low-income families, overall economic growth is necessary but not sufficient."

I'll add another favorite phrase that has become repeated so often that it is being reduced to a cliche: "insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results." The policies that led to these results have been in place for decades, but no one seems willing to change them. At best, politicians from both sides of the aisle come up with new names for legislation that will continue this trend.

I'm sure Mitt Romney will want to bet me $10,000 dollars that I'm wrong. He'll also tell me that middle income is $250,000 when that figure really puts one in the top 5%, the cohort that actually has experience growth

Romney Got A Federal Bailout For Bain And A $4 Million Consulting Fee

The Daily Beast sums up a Rolling Stone article that will be on my evening reading list:

Mitt Romney helped secure a federal bailout to keep Bain & Company from collapsing, according to government documents obtained by Rolling Stone – then had the company pay Bain Capital a cool $4 million consulting fee for his services. According to the documents, the bailout Romney cobbled together cost the FDIC $10 million, and came at a time when the company had “no value as a going concern.” The documents from the FDIC indicate that Bain & Company, where Romney began his hugely profitable business career, got into trouble around the same time it spun off Bain Capital. Romney has taken credit for saving Bain & Company, saying that he did it out of a “sense of obligation and duty” to the company where he cut his teeth.

When the budget deficit is trillions, $10 million is the equivalent of pocket lint.  When the recipient is a venture fund that destroyed jobs and businesses for profit, the $10 million reeks of waste, fraud, and abuse. When a Presidential candidate who campaigns on the fact that he did indeed "build that" without government help, takes 40% of the bailout for a "consulting fee," the hypocrisy is, to steal a great tagline, priceless.