The Outrage Factor

I just saw this issue on the newstand at my grocery store. I would like to point out to the Newsweek staff, who probably will never read this, that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "man" means an adult male human, and hasn't meant "an adult human of either gender" since the 12th century. So when you title your article "The Thinking Man's Populism" and put it on the front cover, you are in effect saying that women are irrelevant. If you would like to address your magazine to all adults, let me introduce you to the word "person". It means a human being of either gender.

A threat to capitalism? Perhaps the author should check the definition of capitalism. It will always contain the word "Production" and the words "the production and sale of goods".
I have no idea what to call the American economic model and those Wall Street bankers and corporate CEO's.
Nothing comes to mind that is fit for print in a public forum and none contain the word capitalist other than the possibility of Elitist Capitolism as a replacement for trickle down economics.
This country lost its right to claim Capitalism when Nixon declared America a "Service economy and the effort to remove the manufacturing infrastructure from the American scene began. A decline hastened and facilitated by both Reagan and Bush.
Just because these people call themselves capitalists doesn't mean they even understand the word, because they don't. No more than the wearing of a flag pin suddenly magically endows one with Nationalistic pride because it doesn't.

I am just as outraged as everyone else about these bonuses, but it is the reaction on Congress that outrages me the most. All those pompus windbags trying to out do each other with regard to their level of outrage. How about taking a little accountability for a change? They are the ones that passed out the money with no strings attached.

The Democrats howl in outrage, with the doofus Barney Frank at the head of the pack - what a joke. And then the Republicans try to take the high ground and claim they had a provision in the stimulus bill to prevent this but it got taken out of the bill. Another joke. Guess what, it should have been taken out of the bill.

One of the cornerstones of our culture is a deal is a deal, and if you negotiate a bad one, you still have to live with it. And that is exactly what Congress did - they negotiated a bad deal, but rather then hold themselves accountable for it, they are going to blame everyone else.

I voted for Obama because I thought he was a strong leader, and I think he is. But leadership does not start and stop with the President. Members of Congress need to show some leadership too. And they are not - and that criticism is leveled at both Democrats and Republicans.

Don't Wait for them to fix things. JOIN THE ' PROFITSHARING UPRISING'.
It is happening all over the world. A grassroots movement to implement
generous, regular, prompt, cash-back profitsharing is underway.
Allow the business to get a tax credit for returning up to 20% of net profits.
This is the only remaining option. Join the "Profitsharing Uprising" NOW.
This is the ultimate solution to the economic crisis.

The only answer to the current debacle is complete failure of the system because these so-called derivitives that started the whole thing (not the housing bubble that's just what they want you to think) these derivitives where put forth by the very companies now profiting from the bailouts. So just wipe it all out and start over. The derivities where just gambling peices chips in a game that has failed miserably and why have the people who created the game continue to profit from there greed just greed.

Do you even realize that many of these executives were brought in after the fall to fix that unit. In fact, the man who heads up the unit was brought over from Merrill and guess what yes, you have to give him money in order for him to take the job since he is good enough to go somewhere else. Who would go there now? You own the company, it is losing value everyday. You can't blame Matt Lauer, who is getting ratings and making money for NBC, for the problems GE is having in their financial unit. Would it make sense not to pay him and then have him go to ABC? No, you would end up hurting the division that is making money! This is a conglomorate and there is plenty of good business units there that are now going to lose value because of the demonization of the parent. This FP unit is a fly speck on the Company as a whole but if we keep this up the whole company goes down along with all value the taxpayer could possibly reap from a sale. Your lack of understanding of how business works is fine, the problem is that Congress shares your ignorance.

hmmmm....most of these people were put together by ACORN using taxpayer money to rent buses....and most do not even pay taxes. while i too am disturbed why are not these people complaining about the bonuses that are going to be paid to Freddie Mac executives?? How about the shady dealings of Barney Frank....Charlie Wrangel's tax cheating...Senator Dodd's wife works for AIG in Bermuda which is a tax write off....and how about Maxine Water's investment in a black bank that got bailout funds from her and her husband is an employee of that bank....look folks it is bigger than AIG

There has always been greed , there will always be greed but our country is built on Capitalism. and stuff happens when no one is looking. But small business has the chance to turn into big business . We as Americans all have opportunity the only place in the world that we can look into the mirror and say whats next and how am I going to get there.In the worst of times is when we need to be creativly positive

..........................The problems happened during the 8 years of the Bush Administration looking the other way and letting the greedy and wealthy do whatever the wanted in this Country until the pasta hit the fan................now we are enraged with the mess that Bush left behind....with justification!!!!!!

Attributing the economic improvements to the Obama administration, congress or any one group of people is simply not reasonable - and reason is something that has been in short supply because everyone's "mad." Looking for some one (or someones) to blame is as counterproductive as looking for an economic savior (i.e. Obama). We are all responsible for the mess we're in and we'll all have a part to play in fixing it. If you invested in a fund you didn't understand because you didn't read the prospectus, you are partly to blame if your 401K has tanked. If you overbought on your house speculating that property values would increase forever, you are partly to blame. Congress and the current/previous administrations shares the blame for not enforcing the laws that are already in place, hastily crafting new policies without thinking them through...

The fact is there are A LOT of moving parts of our economy. Some percentage of the recovery might be attributable to the stimulus plan, or the treasury's moves, or whatever, but some of the recent improvements would likely have taken place if congress were out of session and Obama was on vacation. Correlation is not causation people...

The problem with capitalist is that it is based on greed and it has no soul. That is why, the system continue asking for money, money and more money, it can't tolerate losses. It has come to stage where it holds the government hostage and repressing the population.Capitalism failed because the system did not even conceive of the possibility of losing.

Fair Trade will be better for America than Free Trade:
http://otrans.3cdn.net/85f488aefc73fd4930_xvm6byy4k.pdf

I know this is off topic, but man, I finally agree with those who said Saddam had WMDs, then transferred them to Syria. Where did that yellowcake go, anyway?

Israel, if you're watching - be more worried about Syrian nukes than Iranian ones.

I think anyone who takes a bonus at these companies should have their assets repossessed, melted down, and turned into solar panels.

Hell, at this point, I think anyone who takes a bonus at these companies ought to be repossessed themselves, melted down, and turned into solar panels.

Start the Neo-Progressive Era.

Populism always exists. It only becomes noticeable when the public decides that their government is not representing them. What is happening now is that the government (ALL of government, not any one party or just one person) is now acting on their own agenda, not that of the people. Congress and the Administration jump on the the bonus scandal mainly in order to divert the public attention from the fact that they spend our money in a bill that they did not even read; that the bonus payments were protected by a clause in the bill that only Sen. Dodd knew was there (and he denied responsibility before being forced to acknowledge that he approved it). There is a reason that Congress exempted themselves from application of the RICO statutes. The only reason that they passed laws making organized crime illegal was that they did not want the compeitiion. Every one of them should be defeated and replaced by new people when they run for re-election...And, by the way, Jon Stewart is no Will Rogers.