Posted: 10/4/2011 12:46:24 PM EDT
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When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest of police persecution in Tunisia, I don’t think anyone would have suspected that the Arab Spring had started. How does a street vendor’s action topple regimes in Egypt and Libya?
When the Tea Party started, I don’t think anyone would have believed that the world’s largest economy would come to the verge of a default on its debt due to a new debate on excessive government spending. There are protests all over Europe, there were riots recently in London, and with 700 people arrested in a Wall Street protest this past weekend, are we facing our own Arab Spring? The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Unemployment is not likely to go down substantially for years, but whose fault is it? Our policy of low interest rates benefits the banks and the rich –– the two groups vilified by the same people who are making the policies. Mortgage rates are at a historic low, but they could go to zero and home sales would not increase significantly. People don’t have money and can’t get credit –– except for the rich. The rich can get refinancing and easy money, the poor can’t. Seniors who need yields for income no longer have it. Home ownership had gone from its long-term average of 64-65% to 70% through lax lending standards; encouraged by the government, it currently stands around 67%. Until we revert to the mean home ownership will not stabilize and neither will prices. The corporate tax rate is the highest in the world but who really pays that rate? It’s the small- and medium-sized businesses that pay it. The bigger businesses take advantage of the 72,000-plus pages of tax codes and regulations to hide money legally. Small businesses can’t afford that. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/10/04/our-own-arab-spring/#content |
the fuck