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Cut the Payroll Tax on Workers and More than Make it Up on Incomes Over $250,000

By Robert Reich
RobertReich.org

Republicans are calling the Democrat's proposal to end the Bush tax cuts on the richest 3 percent a "tax increase," and demagoging that it will hurt the economy and small business. This is baloney, to put it politely. Let me count the ways:

* Bush's ten-year tax cut was designed to end this year, so it's not a tax increase.

The idea that companies have a duty to address social ills is not just flawed, argues Aneel Karnani. It also makes it more likely that we'll ignore the real solutions to these problems.

By ANEEL
Wall Street Journal

Can companies do well by doing good? Yes—sometimes.

But the idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed.

Think Progress

On Friday, the News & Observer in North Carolina reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina — the largest insurer in the state — would be increasing premiums to keep up with medical inflation and the requirements of the new health care law:

"'With everything that’s been added, you can’t really expect costs to go down,' he said.

"The situation isn’t likely to improve any time soon. As more provisions of the health overhaul law take affect in 2014, Blue Cross officials said they expect rates to rise further.

Congressional Budget Office

Economists View

Those who argue that "small businesses create the most jobs" have it partly right, but they also destroy the most jobs so that the net contribution of small firms isn't so clear.

We Killed The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg 

The Economic Collapse

The Economic Collapse

BY ALAN ZIBEL and J.W. ELPHINSTONE, Associated Press

Sales of previously occupied homes plunged last month to the lowest level in 15 years, despite the lowest mortgage rates in decades and bargain prices in many areas.

July's sales fell by more than 27 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. It was the largest monthly drop on records dating back to 1968, and sharp declines were recorded in all regions of the country.

By Lester R. Brown
Earth Policy Institute

As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. Despite the global economic crisis, this energy transition is moving at a pace and on a scale that we could not have imagined even two years ago. And it is a worldwide phenomenon.

Credit-Card Rates Climb
Levels Hit Nine-Year High as New Rules Limiting Penalty Fees Help Fuel Rise

By RUTH SIMON
Wall Street Journal

Interest rates continue to tumble for the U.S. Treasury, companies and home buyers alike. But for a large portion of 381 million U.S. credit-card accounts, borrowing rates have been moving only one way: up.

And average rates are likely to climb further in the near future.

Agence France-Presse

Thousands of dead fish surface at mouth of Mississippi RiverThousands of fish have turned up dead at the mouth of Mississippi River, prompting authorities to check whether oil was the cause of mass death, local media reports said Monday.

The fish were found Sunday floating on the surface of the water and collected in booms that had been deployed to contain oil that leaked from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Times-Picayune reported.

By Sahil Kapur
Raw Story

GOP 'quite frankly lying' about program’s impending insolvency, DNC spokesman says

socialsecurity Democrats raise prospect of tweaking Social SecurityFears about the national debt among Washington insiders have reignited debate about the future of Social Security, and a Democratic spokesman on Monday dismissed calls for privatization but conceded the program may need to be "tweaked" in order to ensure long-term solvency.

Poll: Public still bewildered by healthcare reform

By Mike Lillis
The Hill

Americans are more worried about losing access to health services this summer than they were two seasons earlier, before health reform was enacted, according to a new Reuters poll released Monday.

But that trend is probably the result of the many public criticisms of the bill, pollsters said, not what the bill itself contains.

By IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN
Wall Street Journal

Cities and states across the nation are selling and leasing everything from airports to zoos—a fire sale that could help plug budget holes now but worsen their financial woes over the long run.

California is looking to shed state office buildings. Milwaukee has proposed selling its water supply; in Chicago and New Haven, Conn., it's parking meters. In Louisiana and Georgia, airports are up for grabs.

Dallas privatized the operation of its zoo and now wants to sell the Farmers' Market and Fair Park.

Dreams of average Americans dashed by taxes, higher costs and little job security

By MICHAEL T. SNYDER
New York Post

The 25 statistics below prove that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate.

Press TV

The American middle class is on the verge of disappearing, while the United States, itself, is in danger of becoming a third world country, a leading German newspaper says.

According to an article appearing in the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, the negative consequences of the global financial crisis include a widened social class rift and the elimination of the middle class in the US.

By Sarah H. Wright
National Bureau of Economic Research

Within countries, negative shocks to wealth and employment are strongly associated with reductions in routine medical care.

By Chrystia Freeland
Huffington Post