The Post-Partisan Emporium

Read the CODE... I wrote it specially for YOU! Now the boring part... Right now, a tremendous awakening is happening as people all over the world become educated about the tools that the elite use to enslave us to their system.  The number one tool that they use to enslave us is debt.  The financial powers of the world use it to enslave individuals, corporations and governments.  For thousands of years humanity has been taught the proverb that “the borrower is the servant of the lender”, and yet today billions of people around the globe have willingly made themselves servants of the money powers.  You see, when you borrow money from a financial institution, you not only have to pay that money back, but you also have to pay a significant amount of interest.  In fact, often the interest ends up being much more than the principal of the loan.  Thus the borrower ends up devoting a great deal of his or her labor to earning money for the lender.  Yes, t...

Criticisms of pro-market policies, such as lower corporate taxes and deregulation, are often rooted in a form of discrimination rarely acknowledged: upward classism. This prejudice against people of higher socio-economic status misrepresents the contributions of “the rich” and distorts discussions about public policy. While these policies are castigated as benefiting the wealthy, they have demonstrable benefits for broader economic growth and living standards. For example, research by Suárez Serrato and Zidar—“Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts?”— reveals   that reducing corporate taxes encourages business expansion, resulting in job creation and improved local economies. Similarly, Gordon and Young, in another paper,   emphasize   that efficient tax systems, including lower corporate rates, are essential for sustaining long-term economic growth. Far from being self-serving, pro-market policies are foundational to fostering an environment in which businesses and, ...

  Almost 10,000 U.S. Banks Have Disappeared Since 1985, Leaving 4 Mega Banks Controlling 39 Percent of Bank Assets By  Pam Martens and  Russ Martens According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) data, there were 14,417 federally-insured banking institutions in the U.S. in 1985. As of December 31, 2023, the  FDIC reports there are only 4,587 remaining . The vast majority of the 9,830 banks that have disappeared since 1985 did not fail – they were merged with other banks. Today, just four banks control $9.3  trillion  in consolidated bank assets or 39 percent of all bank assets. Those four banks are JPMorgan Chase with $3.395 trillion in consolidated assets; Bank of America with $2.540 trillion; Wells Fargo with $1.7 trillion; and Citigroup’s Citibank with $1.685 trillion. (All asset figures are as of December 31, 2023 and come from  the Federal Reserve’s statistical release of the largest banks .) The political clout of these mega banks is s...

 Thanks to Saint Jimmy (Russian American) for recommending this article... 2024: Too Many Things Going Wrong by   Gail Tverberg It will be an interesting year. We know that the age of peak performance for humans varies, depending upon the activity. Peak performance for an athlete tends to come between ages 20 and 30, while peak performance for a person writing academic papers seems to come between  ages 40 and 50 years . By the time people are 80 years old, they have a strong suspicion that health and other aspects of performance will deteriorate in the next 20 years. Economies, in physics terms, are similar to human beings. Both are dissipative structures. They require energy of the appropriate kinds to keep their systems growing and operating normally. For humans, the main source of this energy is food. For an economy, it is a mixture of energy that the economy is specifically adapted to. Today’s economy requires a certain mixture of energy directly from the sun, plus e...