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News Release Archive - The U.S. Economy

The Real “National Security” Budget: $1.2 Trillion a Year

March 1, 2011

CHRISTOPHER HELLMAN
Hellman just wrote the piece “The Real U.S. National Security Budget” (for TomDispatch.com), which gives a breakdown and states: “What if you went to a restaurant and found it rather pricey? Still, you ordered your meal and, when done, picked up the check only to discover that it was almost twice the menu price.

“Welcome to the world of the real U.S. national security budget. Normally, in media accounts, you hear about the Pentagon budget and the war-fighting supplementary funds passed by Congress for our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. That already gets you into a startling price range — close to $700 billion for 2012 — but that’s barely more than half of it. If Americans were ever presented with the real bill for the total U.S. national security budget, it would actually add up to more than $1.2 trillion a year.”

Hellman is budget analyst and communications liaison at the National Priorities Project.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: , Tagged With: military spending,

“Deficit Fears Irrational, Cuts Will Impede Recovery”

March 1, 2011

JAMES K. GALBRAITH, THEA HARVEY
Chair of Economists for Peace and Security, Galbraith (available for a limited number of interviews) is Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. chair in government/business relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. His latest book is The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. Harvey is executive director of Economists for Peace and Security.

MICHAEL INTRILIGATOR
Intriligator is a professor of economics, political science and public policy at UCLA. He is also a senior fellow of the Milken Institute in Santa Monica and at the Gorbachev Foundation of North America in Boston. (He is unavailable Wednesday morning.) He is one of the signatories to a statement distributed by Economists for Peace and Security, which states in part:”The budget cuts being proposed will impede and may end the recovery. If the recovery fails, unemployment will increase and the financial crisis could re-emerge. The premise that the U.S. government is broke is false. The U.S. government has never defaulted and will not default on any of its financial obligations. Deficit spending is normal for a great industrial nation with a managed currency, and it has been our normal economic condition throughout the past century. History proves, and sensible economic theory confirms, that in recessions, increased federal spending — not balancing the budget — is the tried and true way to return to a path of sustained growth and high employment.

“Eliminating waste in government spending is desirable. But that is not what the House proposes; indeed the House budget failed to address the largest waste in federal government, namely in the military, and the House failed to remove our most egregious subsidies, such as to oil companies. To adopt a policy of deep budget cuts at this stage of recovery is to surrender to irrational fears in the service of a political, not an economic, agenda.” PDF of full statement with list of signatories

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: budget, deficit, Korea,

Wall Street Criminality: Origin of State Crises

February 28, 2011

Last night Charles Ferguson, director of “Inside Job” (about Wall Street’s wrongdoing), upon receiving the Oscar for best documentary, said: “Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong.” See video at 11:50.

WILLIAM BLACK
Black is an associate professor of economics and law at the University oof Missouri, Kansas City and the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One. He said today: “This is the third financial crisis in 25 years driven by an epidemic of fraud led by the CEOs of seemingly legitimate firms. In the S&L debacle, prompt reregulation, intense supervision over the ferocious opposition of powerful politicians, and courageous prosecutions led to the felony convictions of over 1,000 ‘major’ S&L executives and their cronies. In the current crisis, not a single senior executive of the major frauds that drove the crisis has been convicted. The story is partially resources (we have one-sixth the FBI agents assigned to this crisis as were assigned to the far smaller S&L crisis), but it far more the collapse of regulation. Regulators must make the criminal referrals and serve as the ‘Sherpas’ if there are to be successful prosecutions of thousands of elite, sophisticated white-collar crimes. The regulators have to do the ‘heavy lifting’ (conducting the detailed investigations) and serve as the ‘guides’ because the FBI cannot possibly have the industry expertise.  S&L regulators made over 10,000 criminal referrals — the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision made none during the current crisis. Without support from the regulators, the FBI formed a ‘partnership’ with the Mortgage Bankers Association — the trade association of the ‘perps.’ The MBA created a definition of mortgage fraud that defined out of existence fraud by mortgage bankers — the leading cause of fraud.

“The mortgage fraud epidemic, roughly a million frauds annually in the peak years, caused the financial crisis and the Great Recession. The Great Recession, in turn, caused the federal deficit to grow rapidly and caused a financial crisis in nearly every state and locality. The fruits of that crisis are being seen now in the political struggles in Wisconsin.”

RUSSELL MOKHIBER
Mokhiber is editor of Corporate Crime Reporter. He said today: “Why have there been no convictions of those Wall Street corporations and executives responsible for the phony financial boom? Over the past 25 years, the corporate lobbies have watered down the corporate criminal justice system and starved the prosecutorial agencies. Young prosecutors dare not overstep their bounds — for fear of jeopardizing the cash prize at the end of the rainbow — partnership in the big corporate defense law firms after they leave public service. The result — if there are criminal prosecutions, they now end in deferred or non-prosecution agreements — instead of guilty pleas. If executives are criminally prosecuted, they tend to be low level executives. Often — as in the case of the Wall Street collapse — the easy out is to seek civil fines and restitution.” Mokhiber’s books include Corporate Predators: The Hunt for Mega-Profits and the Attack on Democracy.

See trailer for “Inside Job”

See interview with Ferguson and Black, where Black recommends firing Obama’s economic team as the first step toward meaningful reform.

Also, see recent piece by Matt Taibbi, “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: Wall Street,

The Attack on Unions

February 23, 2011

NELSON LICHTENSTEIN
Lichtenstein is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy. He is the author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor and The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business.
He recently wrote the piece “Why Everyone Needs Unions” for Politico.

BILL FLETCHER
Fletcher is co-founder of the Center for Labor Renewal and author of the book Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice.
He just wrote the piece “Modern-day Pirates: the Republicans vs. the Public Sector.”
Fletcher has been a critic of unions as well, see this interview: YouTube.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: labor, unions,

Wisconsin and Egypt: Waves of Protests and Solidarity

February 22, 2011

KAMAL ABBAS, TAMER FATHY
Abbas is general coordinator for the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services in Egypt. Fathy is international relations coordinator for the group, which is an umbrella advocacy organization for independent unions in Egypt. It has been awarded the French Republic’s Human Rights Prize, suffered repeated harassment and attacks by the Mubarak regime and critically joined the protests against Mubarak in early February. Labor mobilization has been a driving force against the Mubarak regime for several years; the April 6 movement gets its name from labor support actions among Egyptian youth. Abbas has recorded a video statement in solidarity with the protesters in Wisconsin.

ROBERT KRAIG
Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. He is at the Capitol in Madison and is closely following developments. He recently wrote the piece “Walker’s National Guard comments a thinly veiled threat against workers.”

BEN MANSKI
Manski is executive director of the Liberty Tree Foundation and a spokesperson for the new umbrella group Wisconsin Wave. He is a lifelong Wisconsinite and a public interest attorney. Manski said today: “This is what Wisconsinites face: the loss of our unions, the selling off of our universities, the elimination of our health services, the end of our middle class. No wonder Wisconsinites are rising in a wave of protest.”

KABZUAG VAJ
Vaj is a co-founder and current co-executive director of the group Freedom Inc. She is a long-time advocate for women of color and a Hmong refugee. Vaj and her family have been active community members in Madison for more than 25 years. She said today: “This anti-union bill includes serious threats to Medicaid — it would give broad authority to the Department of Health Services and supersede statutory provisions, which is expected to limit eligibility. On its heels, we expect further cuts to life-saving services, discriminatory voter ID legislation and Arizona-type anti-immigrant proposals.That’s why we are part of a wave of resistance with union workers, low-income families and communities of color across this state.”

STANLEY KUTLER
Kutler just wrote the piece “What Gov. Walker Won’t Tell You,” which states: “There is a kernel of truth in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s claim of a ‘budget shortfall’ of $137 million. But Walker, a Republican, failed to tell the state that less than two weeks into his term as governor, he, with his swollen Republican majorities in the Wisconsin Legislature, pushed through $117 million in tax breaks for business allies of the GOP. There is your crisis.”
Kutler is the author of The Wars of Watergate and other writings. He taught constitutional and legal history for 35 years at the University of Wisconsin.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: , Tagged With: Egypt, labor, protest, unions, Wisconsin,

“No Taxation Without Demilitarization”

February 17, 2011

JOHN FEFFER
Feffer is a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies. He said today: “The United States is facing a huge budget deficit. Many in Congress are calling for deeper cuts in social services. States and cities are being forced to cut back. Ordinary Americans are being asked to tighten their belts.

“But one sector is only getting fatter. Congress is currently debating a continuing resolution for the 2011 budget that would add $8 billion to Pentagon funding. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is requesting a 3 percent increase in Pentagon spending for 2012: $553 billion in base-line spending. Military spending accounts for 58 percent of discretionary spending.

“Even though it’s doing better than other sectors in this season of budget-cutting, the Pentagon is still complaining. President Obama recently ordered the Pentagon to cut $78 billion over the next five years. This comes on top of about $100 billion that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates identified as savings that could be reinvested in ‘boots on the ground.’

“But the Pentagon won’t actually have to shrink its overall budget, which will continue rising until 2015. The Pentagon will likely have to give up some items, such as an amphibious landing craft and a surface-launched missile system. But in exchange for giving up a few token weapons systems, the $100 billion of redirected savings will mean more money for other big-ticket items. Raytheon will receive funds to build missile defense systems in Europe; Northrop Grumman is looking at a new long-range strike bomber; Boeing will likely get more orders for launch vehicles. [Read more...]

Filed Under: , Tagged With: military spending,

Wisconsin: “Closest Thing to a General Strike”

February 17, 2011

Reuters is reporting: “Amid increasingly vocal protests, Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature was poised to vote on Thursday on a budget measure that would strip away most collective bargaining rights for public employees.

“Many schools throughout the state closed Thursday — Madison’s for the second day in a row — after the state’s largest teachers’ union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, urged members to come to Madison and join thousands of others protesting around and inside the state capitol.”

MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD
Editor of The Progressive magazine, based in Madison, Wisconsin, Rothschild said today: “The people of Wisconsin have risen up against Governor Scott ‘Hosni Walker,’ as some of the signs say. He and his Republican henchmen in the legislature want to destroy public sector workers and in the process they intend to inflict maximum pain on teachers, nurses, child care workers, secretaries. I talked with a secretary at the University of Wisconsin who has worked there for 30 years and is still making less than $40,000. With Walker’s cuts, she’d lose $5,500 a year in salary. We are witnessing in Wisconsin the closest thing to a general strike that this country has seen since the 1930s.”

Rothschild just wrote the piece “Glorious Rallies in Madison, Ground Zero of the Fight Back.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Tagged With: labor, unions, Wisconsin,

Obama’s Budget and Women

February 15, 2011

GWENDOLYN MINK
Available for a limited number of interviews, Mink is co-editor of the two-volume “Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy” and author of “Welfare’s End.” She just wrote the piece “Obama Sends Mom’s Beloved Program to the Gallows,” which states: “Among the many social programs the Obama FY 2012 Budget targets for elimination is the Women’s Educational Equity Act. This program historically has been underfunded — and some years it has received no funding at all. But it has remained on the books and as such has expressed the federal government’s commitment to promoting gender equity in education. In his 2012 budget, the president puts this program in the termination column. This cut stings –  the savings it earns is a paltry $2 million, so it feels more like a slap in women’s faces than a tough decision in favor of deficit reduction.

“The fate Obama has assigned Women’s Educational Equity also stings because my mother, the late Congresswoman Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii), was the original sponsor of WEEA in 1974 and fought for it throughout her years in Congress. …What my mother loved about WEEA was that it put government in a positive role, nurturing and supporting efforts at all levels of education to improve the educational context for women and girls. … Title IX requires educational institutions to avoid and remedy discrimination. WEEA gives educational innovators tools to eliminate cultural and ideological barriers (such as sex stereotyping in classroom materials and curricula) to the full participation of girls and women in educational processes while also encouraging programs that advance the incorporation of girls and women into fields that historically have excluded them — math, science, and engineering, for example.

“White House documents that accompany the 2012 Budget state that WEEA objectives will be advanced in other programs. I hope that’s true. But in my cursory reading of the itemized Department of Education budget, the word ‘women’ appears only once — with reference to terminating WEEA. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Tagged With: women,

Budget

February 14, 2011

THOMAS FERGUSON
Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a senior fellow of the Roosevelt Institute. He just wrote the piece “Obama’s Budget Speaks to Wall Street, Ignores Voters” for New Deal 2.0.

KEVIN GRAY
Gray is author of Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics and a regular contributor to The Progressive magazine and CounterPunch. He said today: “The proposed $4 trillion budget targets cutting ‘non-defense discretionary spending,’ or programs that benefit low-income Americans, which makes up less than one-quarter of the overall budget.

“An earlier deal was struck to extend the Bush tax cuts for just two years, which increased the deficit by $858 billion. More than $500 billion of that deal constituted tax cuts, with billions more funding business tax breaks and a reduction in the estate tax. Roughly $56 billion went to reauthorize emergency unemployment benefits.

“So, less than two months after signing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans into law, Obama proposes a budget that attacks programs that help the working poor and the most needy heat their homes, expand their access to graduate-level education, put their kids in Head Start, [and fund] summer jobs for youth, career development, after-school programs, child care, GED programs, affordable housing through cuts in Section 8 vouchers and public housing assistance, homelessness prevention, housing court advocacy, food pantries, access to tax credits, senior programs and more.”

JO COMERFORD
Comerford is executive director of the National Priorities Project. She said today that military spending, “which accounts for roughly 58 percent of discretionary spending and 20 percent of total federal spending (both based on FY 2011 estimates), will continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace than in recent years. The administration proposes funding reductions of $78 billion over the next five years within the Department of Defense. The $553 billion base-line Department of Defense request is approximately 3 percent higher than current funding levels. This figure does not include funding for nuclear weapons or $117.6 billion for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: , Tagged With: budget,

Egypt: Frank Wisner and the Nexus of U.S. Interests

February 8, 2011

Envoy to Egypt Frank Wisner stated this weekend that “President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical.”

PRATAP CHATTERJEE
Chatterjee is a regular columnist for the Guardian. He has used documents obtained via the Sunlight Foundation and WikiLeaks to highlight the nature of the relationship between the U.S. government and American firms and the Mubarak regime. He recently wrote the piece “Egypt’s military-industrial complex,” which states: “The Livingston Group [of Bob Livingston, former chairman of the appropriations committee in the U.S. House of Representatives] made the largest number of contacts with the U.S. government for the Egyptians to make sure that this money [from the U.S. Congress to the Egyptian regime] continued to flow, but they were not the only ones. Tony Podesta, the brother of a former White House chief of staff, and Toby Moffett, a former Democratic Congressman, joined forces with Livingston to create the PLM Group to represent Egypt in Washington, according to foreign-agent records at the Justice Department. Sunlight records show that the joint venture was paid $1.1 million a year. …

“Nor is PLM the only Washington lobbyist for the Egyptian government. Frank Wisner, the former U.S. ambassador that President Barack Obama dispatched to Cairo earlier this week to advise President Hosni Mubarak, is employed by Patton Boggs, a law firm and registered lobbyist. On its website Patton Boggs summarises the contracts that it has won in the last 20 years to advise the Egyptian military, leading ‘commercial families in Egypt,’ as well as ‘manage contractor disputes in military sales agreements arising under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Act.’”

Chatterjee also wrote “Lobbyists Help Egyptian Officials Get Aid, Support From U.S.,” which fleshes out information about Wisner and Omar Suleiman, who was recently installed as vice president by Hosni Mubarak.

Said Chatterjee: “Wisner is just one example of the revolving door between U.S. diplomacy and the Egyptian elites in which words whispered by Mubarak and his cronies like Omar Suleiman have become National Security Council policy.” Chatterjee is author of Halliburton’s Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War. He is also a fellow at the Center for American Progress.

VIJAY PRASHAD
Prashad recently wrote the piece “Frank Wisner in Cairo: The Empire’s Bagman.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: , , Tagged With: Egypt,
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