Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s interview on 60 minutes is proof positive of the necessity for the middle class to peacefully revolt against our form of capitalism. How else can one explain that when banks and major corporations needing a helping hand for their liquidity, our system created in excess of nine trillion dollars to loan at obscenely low or relatively non-existent interest rates while many small businesses and consumers were and in many cases still are unable to get loans or other forms of liquidity themselves.
President Obama is about to give another portion of the country away, a seventy billion dollar a year tax break, to the very wealthy in exchange for a pittance to the unemployed and middle class. While President Obama is between a rock and a hard place, it is the “voting” American citizens buying into Right Wing propaganda that tax cuts to the wealthy will actually help the unemployment rate that is tying his hands.
The President has said he would much prefer to be an effective one term President as opposed to an ineffective two term President. Given the number of substantive legislation passed in the last two years, more so than most presidents in 8 year terms, his social programs while not perfect lay the blue print for progressive programs. In that light he should be willing to let all taxes expire and hold firm to only tax cuts to the middle class.
The above stance will require that Progressive launch a constant and protracted education campaign given likely Republican misinformation campaign to mislead the middle class. The Republicans are used to Progressives being responsible and simply getting the best deal so as not to hurt their constituents punitively.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies
Ben Bernanke: Income Inequality Is ‘Creating Two Societies’
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes the growing income gap is "creating two societies" in America.
The central bank chief weighed in on income inequality during an interview Sunday with "60 Minutes" reporter Scott Pelley:
Pelley: The gap between rich and poor in this country has never been greater. In fact we have the biggest income disparity gap of any industrialized country in the world. And I wonder where you think that’s taking America.
Bernanke: It’s a very bad development. It’s creating two societies. And it’s based very much, I think, on educational differences. The unemployment rate we’ve been talking about. If you’re a college graduate, unemployment is 5 percent. If you’re a high school graduate, it’s 10 percent or more. It’s a very big difference. It leads to an unequal society, and a society which doesn’t have the cohesion that we’d like to see."
In September, new Census figures showed that the income gap between America’s richest and poorest was the widest on record.
"The top-earning 20 percent of Americans – those making more than $100,000 each year – received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line," according to The Associated Press.
The topics of income inequality and public education have followed Bernanke in a personal way since he began his tenure as the leader of the nation’s central bank.
In 2009, Bernanke’s boyhood home was sold at foreclosure and the junior high school he attended became so dilapidated and worn down, that a student decided to write to Congress and ask for help.
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Bernanke’s hometown of Dillon, South Carolina, has been hit hard by the recession. According to the latest figures, Dillon County’s unemployment rate is 14.8 percent.
In addition to his comments about income inequality, Bernanke also called for reform of the nation’s tax code. Most of the interview was devoted to Bernanke’s defense of the Fed’s decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities, a move intended to hold down interest rates.
Ben Bernanke: Income Inequality Is ‘Creating Two Societies’
