"We are paying oligopolistic prices for Health Care services." Dual oligarchy double whammy - service provider and insurer.

"Corporate welfare isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some of these giveaways arguably do a lot of good." They don't, for they diminish the importance of a good worker and paying him to competence and contribution, because the corporation is protected from ruin. In this case, a worker gets reduced to an Employee ID with some Qualification, not distinguished (no need!) from another that is exact same on Qual and position given. http://economiccircuit.blogspot.com/2012/06/top-down-keynesianism-has-run-its.html

Remove the suspension of Mark to Market, Reverse ZIRP, Apply Dodd Frank on failing institutions - let the Street shrink to rightsize with the withdrawal of Corpirate and Bankster Welfare....That's where Deficit Reduction needs to start, not start-and-terminate with Schools and Entitlements.

Well observed: "they, of course got where they are with 'hard work, brains, skill, etc.', not a rigged system, family connections, inheritance, the Harvard buddy system, etc. If you weren't as 'talented' as they are, that's your problem." ! In my thinking, it's not as much as getting there via the routes available at the time that is the big problem, the issue is State power and money keeping you there, inspite of your proving your unworth in your work and delivery, in the interest of "stability". Pray, that was the justification for the regimes of Mubarak and Qadafi and many others. Stability is no substitute for fairness, justice, proven merit, and allowing the fall, at least shrinkage, of the unmeritorious. the Auto companies screwed up, and had to undergo restructuring and compensation shrinkages against the savioring by Govt. Wall Street just used their entrenchment and intertwinings to stay put in all their booty collections. THAT's the outrage, and I am surprised it is, at present, seen as a mere Leftist groundswell. Why isn't the Tea Party joining this demanding action on the exact same things OWS is?

"As a whole, America does not want to have a serious dicussion as to what it wants government to provide, what it is willing to pay for those things, and how the government is to collect revenue." I think, that's exactly it. Hope 2012 contest will force the options on this to get crystallized and presented for voting: An Obama v/s Bachmann contest is the best chance for such a crystallization to occur. An Obama v/s Romney or Pawlenty or Sentorum, blah blah, will keep things confused and muddled on this important matter.

"But if he refuses to play, and the nation defaults, with the utter madness that will ensue" Can we go over what exactly USA will most likely default on? So...the Gov will have less money than all the revenues it will have, then what will, most likely, end up getting defaulted on, and what will be paid? Not saying, debt ceiling should not be raised, but i don't see anyone sketching out in detail any more than saying "Interest rates will rise and all hell will break lose". Won't the scenarion still be one of a Liquidity Trap, so will interest rate on US debt rise on mere technicality that USA could not timely agree on a new debt limit leading to some delay in certain payments? Guess, under the bullet point details on what exactly is likely to get defaulted upon might point who will/shld play in what way from this point forward...

RE: American Immigration System. American Immigration System is absolutely ridiculous. An uneducated village bum from the Punjab comes over on a tourist visa sponsored by a relative, files an asylum petition, and puts up a fraudulent show of religious persecution to the "judge", all with tears and hysteria, and lo! straight green card....with financial assistence to eventually become....a cab driver! If you can manage to show you came from Cuba, I believe it's direct citizenship. While, for someone that comes over as a Software or Engineering professional, it takes YEARS. All the while, the American Gov pretends that America doesn't need the guy, while the Company exploits him/her on salary and promotion because the Green Card petition is tied to the Company and what the Company represented about his skills and their relevance for the Company. At a minimum, make Educated immigration independent of employer, and make the choice FAST....In a maximum of 3 Years: In or No.....

http://www.nolanchart.com/article6125_'RiskSterilization'_of_'PinStriped'_'quotMarketquot_Careers'__Its_Consequences.html

The prices of homes cannot be resurrected back to frenzy levels by Gov policies. But you are right about the " rapacious financial sector that is incompetent at its real job of managing risk, but wildly successful at risking OPM and getting a bonus no matter what the outcome." Question is how to make them pay for their sins like regular people are paying for their stupidity of biting at nonsense home prices. BigFin should've been seized like BigAuto and restructured, rightsized and rightcomped and then reprivatized. A housing bubble, deliberate via action of Gov or bankers or inadvertent or by mass hypnosis, is no substitute for wage progress. In the bubble and "eat thy house" path, there is misery whenever the hysteria snaps.

....by proactive, I meant, the defense needs to occur as soon as the aggressor advances as opposed to after he has captured. By proactive I did not imply depend on "intelligence" that an aggression is being plotted.

"If a decline in its value relative to the renminbi would be beneficial, a fall relative to the currency of many countries would help even more..." Only those currencies are important to cause devaluation against as have a significant Trade Surplus. Even here exception has to be made for countries from where Oil is imported. Trade with them could be balanced by selling protection against aggressors, like Kuwait was saved from Saddam...only the paid protection has to be proactive not reactive.

..Cont'd) worker productivity in US, I suspect, has peaked. What has a big scope for improvement is middle manager and 'work-broker' productivity.

Have to agree. One has to experience the air in China to believe how polluted it is. It's a health hazard just to breathe, You venture out for 1 hr and you get covered with a layer of soot that comes out when you wash! All the more reason that the cost "advantage" cannot be neutralized by devaluation of the dollar alone. There's a huge price to too much dollar deval, e.g. in the price of imports from other countries, such as Gasoline.

There are three things to a location's cost: Worker wages Worker Productivity Company Hierarchy Whereas US is relatively High Cost on the first item, it is relatively Low Cost on the second.....Although the low costness of countries like China on item 1 can be projected to reduce in not too distant future, the current net cost differential from item 1 and 2 can be narrowed in the interim by rightsizing Corporate hierarchies and over-departmentation.

Read: Pvt Sector in place of "Oct sector"!

In a deficit neutral/non public works/ pure Oct sector play, employment takes off when there are one or more sectors that Add something to the World. In recent past, these were Housing Construction and Loans, before that the dot.cons and Telecom. Going fwd, there is hope from Business Systems and New Leap Technology such as Virtual Reality, Robotics et al. Now new leap technology comes about when it comes about, Gov can't do much about it. And these areas are heavily dependent on legal, skilled immigration, while it is falling, even reversing, for a multitude of reasons including too many years long cycles to receive Permanent Resident, having to keep one's head down and take whatever position and money company offers while the process is still going on no end. Obama's plan (assuming anyone's listening!) to popularized Science and Math will take a generation (read: 25-30 years) to bear any fruit. Meanwhile, fraudulent Asylum grantees and illegals add up in numbers for State support. Without massive expansion of Public Works and Services (eg Education) there might be no salvation for the UE issue.....given the conditions.

Capital Appreciation in market instruments is fraught with risks. It is not for the retiring...or let's just say, very dangerous.

"some lot value 'recovery' will also happen" well, assuming they are done correcting in the first place.

In the post modern world where, for the most part, the young do not take care of their old parents - except perepherally, there still is need for some limited protection and help towards making some return on one's savings, methinks. http://economiccircuit.blogspot.com/2011/02/savers-spenders.html

For what it's worth, it's not just you. The attempted invocation of this confidence fairy hasn't't been cheap either. We are all paying in ~ negative real interest rates in our bank accounts, and lot of money has been spent on additional tax breaks and credits for homebuyers. The whole idea of rebuilding an economy around home "values" is a loser. Better to build money flow around public facilities, infrastructure and utilities, including natural disaster preparedness and management. Employ people in these with reasonable pay and Accountability, guard against build up of a stifling procedure-bureaucracy, and some lot value 'recovery' will also happen.

2010 was essentially a mandate against inverted socialism - against Executive bailouts and welfare, of the very """leaders""" that failed the World. Only the Tea Party reflected that outrage with sincerity, so it emerged with the most impressive election gains. However, TP seems to have taken a wild notion that it were their extreme and core positions on zero tax and zero deficit and no_social_safety_net_Bottom-or-Top that were ratified by the electorate. So it is pushing the parts that actually have little traction generally -- that's why its rallies now get mere 300 people out of which 100+ are contributed by the media! However, neither mainstream Conservatives nor Liberals have really taken on reverse Socialism, there isn't even a sincere sounding outrage against GE's effectively NEGATIVE taxation from any political block...so 2010 mandate actually stands lost. Nobody's gained from it for 2012 (bcos everyone has ignored it), while the ~ centre types voters that joined the Tea Party for 2010 are now so-to-speak the losers.

To complete the example, if I am qualified to be a school teacher and the Gov employs me for 70c, while Sam gets 30c as modest unemployment that helps him survive and no more, there is one guy less unemployed, value added into society, and there's a *possibility* that Sam might get employment in the business desire to grab that 70c. If status-quo effective taxes are at a low ebb as they are (Jon Stewart says many companies are paying MINUS 60% of their income!), it is not a bad option to raise 40c more in taxes to employ Sam in Infrastructure rebuild.