Luigi, So Confusing

Luigi didn’t have to murder anyone. Still, he had an amazing plan up until he left New York state and stalled in Pennsylvania. I’ll explain that there’s a great, less violent way to bring down health insurance companies. But first I have some analysis.

I am shocked it took this long for a radicalized individual to kill an American CEO. I was waiting for an oil company CEO to be attacked in the early 1990s. Then, I thought maybe someone would go for a tobacco company CEO in the late 90s. But of course it eventually happened to the CEO of a private healthcare payment corporation - the behemoth, cruel middle man that destroys both families and hospitals by denying coverage and reimbursement. This company has killed both people and smaller hospitals that are just doing their damn jobs to heal people.

The assassination of United Heathcare CEO Brian Thompson reminded me of cyberpunk literature, in which people have to buy all sorts of supplemental subscriptions to get healthcare, and corporate executives ('Corpos') have their own police forces and hit squads. Oh wait, that's our world now! Chapo Trap House and Trashfuture are going to go wild with this story.

This assassination, to a degree, was a huge victory for the left. Why? Because for a few days, the corporate executive class was scared. That's the very definition of terrorism. Kill one, frighten thousands. Since the rise of Reagan in 1980, have they ever been scared? No. They have been acting like they can do whatever they want to us, and get away with it.

Here’s a young billionaire, NYPD Comissioner, Jessica Tisch, scolding us not to celebrate this radical murder. She starts talking here at 3:10. Try, if you can, to think of her saying this about ‘wanted’ posters for abortion providers, or about any school shooting. But no. This is what she gets furious about. Someone broke one of the biggest rules in our society. You don’t do violence to the oligarch class.

Jessica Tisch -a billionaire who ought to be enjoying her inherited fortune rather than buy her way into senior positions in government- is here to tell us that the murder of a CEO is one of the worst things to possibly happen in our society. If you ever have any doubt over the role of the police, remember this. The police are not here to protect little people. They are to protect property and oligarchs like Jessica Tisch. And that’s why I have never called the police, and will never call them.

Things will settle down. Regular order will be restored. Only little people will be victims of mass shootings. Only abortion providers will be assassinated. But for a few days, we little people had a win.

And to the Democratic leaders who wag their finger at me and say "don't be the joker," or "come on now, we go high and murder is wrong," please shit the fuck up and let the vilified 'far left' enjoy this small moment in history. Of course murder is wrong. But even acknowledging that, this is an assassination for the history books. For a few days, Luigi Mangione was the DB Cooper of corporate terrorism. For a few days, I really thought he had fled to Fiji or some other island nearly 8,000 miles away.

And yeah, about that terrorism charge. I agree that this crime had a key element of terrorism. One was murdered, and thousands rethought their security. But not thousands of little people. Senator Elizabeth Warren seemed to understand this when we said, “people can only be pushed so far.” Does that make her a terrorist? Famed Los Angeles artist Cola Corporation put Mangione’s slogan on a t-shirt. Does that make the artist a terrorist?

And let’s be crystal clear, the charges against Briana Boston should be dropped.

I wish I could have consulted Luigi Mangione on a better plan that didn’t involve phones, bus rides, a hostel, unmasked IP addresses, or even card transactions. He could arrive in the city with a beard, and leave clean shaven on his way to the Mexican or Canadian border, with a fresh phone and alibi in-hand. From there, he’d be a few days away from a ride on a freighter or plane to a nation that has no extradition treaty with with the US. But that would require multiple people to help him. And they would have been caught.

As I think about it, murder was not the tactic to use here. But before I write what I want to see instead, allow me to say that it’s not going to be very easy for District Attorney Bragg’s prosecutors to fill a jury box of New Yorkers willing to convict. If a New York jury let Daniel Penny walk, surely there are those including myself who would return a not guilty verdict for Mangione. Both are clear murderers. If the disgusting boy with a ratty perm and who’s sponsored by the far right can walk, then surely there is a chance for the far more relatable and likable Luigi Mangione to walk. His conviction is in no way assured.

Mangione terrorized corporate America. He didn’t terrorize me or people like me. He and his victim were both visitors to New York City. We New York residents didn’t know them nor really care.

Oh man. Brian Thompson’s family din’t care about him, did they? They have said nothing about what a good father he might have been. They released just one shitty home photo of him. That speaks volumes. Johnson was a fucking ghoul. Maybe good, decent people shouldn’t work for private healthcare companies. He sure as hell wasn’t decent.

But our police commissioner, who doesn’t have any more police and investigatory experience than I do, has spoken, folks. Get back to regular order, or else. We little people will deal with the national firearms crisis, mass shootings, and target assassinations of doctors.

Here’s what I think should happen next. I don’t want a wave or bombings and murders, like this is 1970s Germany or The Troubles. What I want is for activists to use the PETA playbook. Shock and shame. Throw animal blood at CEOs. Splatter them. Shame them. Recruit a few celebrities to speak publicly how awful private health insurance is, and how single payer, presented as vastly expanded Medicare for everyone, is the answer.

I want United Healthcare and companies like it to be put out of business by single payer. No one has to die. People just need to lose their jobs. The healthcare middleman payer industry needs to die. Start throwing blood around. Put blood at their entrances. Connect these evil companies to the pain and suffering they inflict on the majority of Americans.

We hate this paradigm. We hate this industry. We need to shut ‘em down. Do to the healthcare middleman what PETA did to the fur trade and private zoos.

Here’s Hasan Piker to take us home and explain this entire issue, including his take on terrorism, morality, and special classes of citizens, in just 36 minutes:

‘Mom And Pop’ Is Meaningless

Becoming a landlord is a choice. And while capitalism requires some people to be landlords, being a landlord is somewhat evil. I don't know any good people who are landlords. I don't judge too harshly. And I don't cant to cause butthurt for people who protest and say, "but I'm really a KIND person!" I look at it like the "Circle of Life" song in The Lion King. Some of us are prey, and some of us are owners. That's the nature of capitalism! But the "mom and pop" label. Isn't that sweet? For me, it does nothing to soften the fact that landlords are evil. There are mom and pop gun shops. There are mom and pop chemical factories. And there are mom and pop money launderers and financial criminals. And many many more evil things are are "mom and pop."

JFK Airport Is One Giant Economic Stimulus Machine

New York State has officially started to construct a new Terminal 6 at JFK airport.

Over $4 Billion for a small International terminal with just 10 gates? That terminal had better include an AirTrain station!

And I'm sorry, 'final phase'? JFK is always being demolished or built. The governor said so. Nothing in NYC is a final phase.

A Symptom Of Our Late Capitalism Dystopia

I have a few observations about this latest explosion of male consumer rage.

First, that’s his girlfriend following him in this video, holding her phone and his.

Second, his walk is shitty, because he’s a shit.

Third, I strongly believe he needs to be banned from commercial flights for life.

Fourth, now I understand why the American Airlines CEO spoke about this. The kid became furious, walked all the way to the rear galley, and punched the attendant. That’s particularly egregious.

And fifth, I suspect that his lawyer will use the “angry Asian male defense.” I am both aware of and very sympathetic to how male Asian Americans cannot cope with the pressures that a white supremacist society places on them, on top of the unreasonable expectations of their parents and sometimes their romantic partners. You might be saying ‘what the fuck?’ but this is a real thing that was covered over at Jezebel. Expect that defense. He’s under a lot of pressure, but because our white supremacist society treated him like shit, he had to break someone’s face.

The Chapo Trap House podcast has nailed it in recent weeks. Americans are pigs who are addicted to treats. And if they don’t get their treats, they are going to get violent.

Newcastle Are Finally Going To Be Relegated, For Real This Time

After years of close calls, season after season, Newcastle are finally on their way down.

There's actually no shame in going down, considering how much time we’ve had to prepare. This club has been warned repeatedly that this was going to happen. Newcastle has been skirting the relegation zone throughout Steve Bruce's tenure. Now it's unavoidable. Amazingly, this collapse has come just as the sale of the club was finalized. If the sale had to wait until January, would it still be on at this point?

In a way, this is fair to all parties. Previous owner Mike Ashley got his asking price. The new ownership still got a good deal. They thought they were buying into the EPL at a low price. They were mistaken. They were buying into the Championship at a low price. But they will still get richer. Worry not.

This club is going down. I have accepted this already. I suggest we all do. If Newcastle were to earn 35 points starting after the November international break, it would be a historic season save. A surge in points that would be remembered for years. But that's not happening.

What we should be passionate about is the rebuilding of the club and the plan to get it back into the EPL as a strong contender for cups. We won't just come back. We will dominate the lower half of the table and get back into the Europa League.

The next 20 months and beyond are going to be entertaining and very enjoyable compared to the Ashley era. Enjoy it, Lads. We will fall and rise together. Enjoy the ride. Alan Shearer will, despite his slightly intoxicated gaffe, below:.

The Death Of Retail Is Also The Death Of The Middle Class

Jason Del Rey wrote a great article in Vox recently about the death of the department store and how that is directly linked to the demise of the American middle class. It remined me of Sears. The story of Sears illustrates his point. Fifty years ago, young married couples went to Sears to buy their appliances, furnish their new "starter houses," buy baby clothes and furniture, and, of course, buy lawn mowers, garden tools and even have the "family car" fixed. A credit card from Sears was a passport to lower middle class status. You were on the escalator to the middle class. But since the advent of the Reagan Revolution in 1980, that middle class has been shrinking steadily, as the economic escalator has gone into reverse. The anchor stores in the typical American mall were Sears, JCPenny, Lord & Taylor and Macy's. And where are those stores, and malls, and employees now? The same place the robust American middle class has gone: oblivion.

Generation X Thrown Into The Garbage Heap

Generation X never had a chance. We’re finished. Some of us got famous. A few of us became right wing politicians like Ted Cruz. Some of us became legendary athletes like Ichiro Suzuki or Scott Dixon. And a few of us become billionaires like Elon Musk and Larry Page. But overall, Generation X became what it feared it would become, an overlooked generation that followed the Baby Boomers. And the Baby Boomers stayed in the workforce for too long because (and I’m being sweepingly general here) they supported economic policies that forced a majority of Boomers to work past age 65. It’s a fucked-up, late capitalist situation.

And now the purge of Generation X from the workforce is well under way. And sadly, it is legal, thanks to the weakening of US labor laws over the decades. A quick note about that: This arbitration dodge has been abused for years. Congress should restrict this corporate abuse of the right of employees, and broaden their right to seek class action judicial remedy for such outrages. Silicon valley must no longer be the "Wild West" of capitalism. It's begging for regulation, and I hope the US House can pass a bill this year to at least signal that it is time to re-regulate.

Generation X was a little smaller than the generations before and after it. But as good American consumers, they sure punched above their class. They went all-in on borrowing for college and borrowing to buy houses. They kept the US economy humming by going into deep debt. And that debt has dampened their overall wealth. We were correct. We were the first generation from the 20th century to fail to match the living standard of the generation before.

And now, as my generation nears retirement age, we realize that we had moire missed opportunities and denied chances than most other contemporary generations. In 2021, Generation X is properly having a moment. It was 30 years ago that we had some of the defining events and cultural touchstones of the generation: Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls winning their first NBA title, the arrest of Jeffrey Dahmer, the fall of the Soviet Union, Mazda winning at Le Mans, seminal albums from Massive Attack and Nirvana, The Black Album, Achtung Baby, the Gulf War and even the original Star Trek’s swan song.

It will be interesting if the Generation X call-outs and retrospectives continue in 2021. So far, the collective responses from my generation have been eyerolls, cursing and awkward silence, which is what I cherish.

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Daria

There Will Be No 'Roaring Twenties'

American mainstream news thinks it is so smart. It knows history! It knows that after the flu pandemic of 1918-1919, the US economy boomed into what we call the Roaring Twenties. If we ignore suppression of freedom in the form of segregation and prohibition, the 1920s were a damn good time! And it had to be triggered by the end of the pandemic, right? And history is going to repeat perfectly, 100 years later, right?

If only it was that simple. Thankfully, plenty of people still understand that economics is adjacent to history as a field of study. Some might argue that they are inseparable. How could you describe the rise or decline of an empire or nation without addressing its economy?

The Roaring Twenties, like any economic boom, was brought about by a variety of factors. We had a continued immigration surge (immigration surges almost always lead to economic growth), widespread electrification, the rise of corporations, the dawn of the modern consumer culture, the rise of the US labor movement, and American culture began to define itself.

A note on the last part: popular culture came of age. The rise of the music recording industry and radio went hand in hand, and great American music genres like blues, bluegrass and jazz were the main beneficiaries. Also, it has to be said that American culture is black. We can give white men some credit for the original American spirits. applejack and bourbon (although black people have been involved with those from the start in one form or another). But blues, bluegrass, jazz, barbecue cuisine, and (later) rock n’ roll, R&B, soul, funk, hip hop and rap are distinctly American and all black. And in the 1920s, only a lucky few black men and women could get a taste -a tiny serving- of prosperity and freedom that came with being an accomplished music artist. Later, some black artists would find more freedom in Paris, especially after the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. Let’s be clear. American culture is driven by black American culture. But black people are not allowed to be prosperous or be free. Still.

On the economic side of things, there really was a sea change. Publicly-traded corporations became powerful in the 1920s. But so did a new labor movement, which led to the standard five-day work week. The 1920s gave us weekends, right before the stock market crash and depression. And incredibly, the depression didn’t take our weekends away. Consumers in the late 19th century would often have to buy goods at a general store, and occasionally order products from a catalog (like a proto-Internet). In the 1920s, consumers still used mail order, but more of what they wanted was immediately available in bigger grocery stores and brightly-lit department stores. The American consumer themes of bigger faster and more had come of age. Automobiles were beginning to be owned by every family. Travelling from coast to coast was now possible in 4-5 days by train. The United States was starting to flex its industrial and technological muscle.

We still have a few intelligent people who know that history won’t be repeated simply because a pandemic is ending. Assuming we are just a few months away from this pandemic bing downgraded to an endemic, there can’t be a long-term surge in prosperity after what we’ve just seen in 2020. There are a few reasons for this.

First, last year was a windfall for the billionaires. The wealth transfer in 2020 alone was shocking, even compared to the overall wealth transfer over the last 40 years. Some individuals just ran away with all the wealth. Kanye West (!) entered the billionaire club. And four of the wealthiest Americans alive saw their net worth grow by a combined $229 Billion. There is no catching up for the rest of humanity. This bigger wealth gap simply sets the stage for stagnant wealth creation for the global middle class, and the greater probability of political and social turmoil over wealth inequality. We can’t have a roaring 2020s if the only ones partying are 5,000 US families with a net worth over $100 Million. That’s a wealth gap on the scale of the Philippines, Russia or Brazil.

Second, there doesn’t appear to be a technological revolution to supercharge wealth creation. Autonomous driving isn’t it. Machine learning (marketed as AI) isn’t it. Billionaires buying tickets to low Earth orbit or the Moon isn’t it. Even the vaccines and biotech, as amazing as they are, aren’t it. Free broadband Internet access for all would be significant. But most municipalities aren’t on-board with that idea. Either that or they’re broke.

Third, did I mention we’re broke? We aren’t rebuilding infrastructure. We’re letting municipal water systems fail and die. We aren’t putting money into the hands of builders. We aren’t making public university free of charge. We aren’t forgiving college debt. We aren’t expanding Medicare for all. We aren’t even trying to house the homeless. And where is our shift to clean, renewable energy? What moon shot do we have in us to kick-start a decade of strong economic growth?

Fourth, American manufacturing will never disappear, but the days of a healthy manufacturing sector are long gone. Manufacturing jobs have been replaced by Amazon warehouse and gig delivery jobs that pay a fraction of what the manufacturing jobs paid. Millions of Americans are working just as hard for less, and half of all Americans are poor. We’re going into to 2020s with the poverty, wealth gap and despair of the Great Depression.

Fifth, after the partial recovery of the travel, live entertainment, hospitality and dining sectors, we will still have a black hole in commercial real estate, as many workers are not returning to office spaces full-time. Working from home is now the norm for many, especially in information technology and information security. Some companies are learning to trust their remote workers to maintain their productivity, and are ending their leases for office space. A lot of commercial office space is going to have to convert to residential apartment space. Oh, and while we’re on the topic of buildings, did anyone notice how many vacant retail spaces there were in cities like New York and San Francisco back when the economy was growing? Brick and mortar retail is dead. All the cash is flowing to Amazon.

In sum, I just don’t see years of strong economic growth ahead. A return to the slow growth seen under Obama and Trump would be welcome. But long term, we are still in late capitalism. And man, does it suck. It’s a dystopian capitalist nightmare, frankly.

There Won't Be Much Bounce

People are gullible. People are naïve. People thought that COVID-19 would just go away last summer. Now they are thinking that it will just go away once they are vaccinated. It’s no use trying to educate anyone. Let them believe what they want. But know this: the economy will not simply return to summer 2019 levels at the flip of a switch. That isn’t how macroeconomics works. It will take years -two at the earliest.

On a related topic, our big cities will come back to life. But it will also take years. I’m not really living it up all over Manhattan (although I am making better cocktails at home and plan to resume outdoor dining in March). But I am keeping the city warm until the good times return. Someday.

And while the pandemic will end, the SARS-CoV-2 virus will remain in the human population for centuries. How do I know this? Because I used the Google and learned that what we call seasonal influenza can be traced back to the 1918 flu pandemic. Also H1N1 is a descendant of the 1918 flu. It has been over 120 years. Has influenza gone away? No. Therefore this SARS virus isn’t going away either. How many Americans do we think will die of COVID in 2030? Maybe 20,000? That’s my guess.

So while there won’t be a very strong economic bounce, pandemics continue to bounce like super balls year after year.

Continue To Be Extra Nice To The Rich People

More than any other rule in our society, we cannot break this one: be extra nice to the rich people. Even as society seems to fall apart, the rule is actually enforced more aggressively.

New York State seems to be on the verge of financial ruin. But please, whatever you do, don’t raise taxes on the rich who live in the state. Any politician who dares utter the three words, “tax the rich” is branded a dangerous left-wing extremist. The second, and presumably final COVID-19 stimulus / rescue package just passed by Congress contains many tax cuts. One of them is a ridiculous expansion of the tax deductions for corporate business meals, known since the 1950s as the “three martini lunch deduction.”

We have the best government money can buy, and it's very rare when any politician looks the big shots in the eye and says we're going to raise your taxes. The last president who did was Clinton, and his party was severely punished for it in 1994. Remember the Newt Gingrich revolution? It was about working people. It was all about protecting low taxation for the rich under the banner of deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility.

Right now, the virus has pauperized at least 50,000,000 Americans, and the rich are literally feasting on the fallen. They've bought up the assets of the bankrupt, they're buying more property, and their stocks have more than recovered. They're richer and more powerful than ever. We live in glorious times!

The New World Trade Center Is An Even Bigger Failure Now

The plan to build the most architecturally interesting tower is dead. 2 World Trade Center, if it is ever built, will not be the Bjarke Ingels design shown above.

Norman Mailer once said that modern architecture is “collective sightlessness for the species.” He included all of the 20th century greats in his assessment. I wouldn’t go that far. I think a lot of architecture becomes misguided when it attempts to make a statement on our relationships to buildings, landscapes and cites. Maybe if we just designed buildings that were appropriate for their environment and purpose, we’d have generally better architecture. There’s no need to have elaborate themes or statements. Architecture is not filmmaking. Yes, it is art and engineering. But let’s not overthink what it means.

I have architect friends and surly they will disagree with what I wrote above. So let me me make a less controversial and more obvious point: the new World Trade Center (2006-) was a failure the moment it was decided to rebuild the square footage of office space that was lost in 2001. And now, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is even more of a failure.

New York City will never die. But it is no longer a port town. It is no longer a manufacturing town. It has a thriving real estate industry, tourism, financial services, and still has healthy legal, advertising and marketing sectors. It also attracts film and television productions, but long lost its film production edge to Hollywood and London. Most people in the city are employed by hospitals, restaurants, banks or the city itself, which operates within a social service economy. The city spends what it collects, and when the economy goes south, the city and its people go broke.

The shift to online retail dominance has been ongoing since Amazon launched 25 years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic has instantly changed some corporate HR policies to allow permeant remote work agreements. Again, New York City won’t die. But the corporate real estate landscape in the city has changed and may remain in this state for a generation or more.

We should house the homeless with all the unused square footage we have.

Before We Lost, The Billionaires Won

It’s been over 10 years since the “great recession.” Since then, we had a period of modest growth, followed by a depression. Let’s catch up with the Billionaires and how they have been doing since 2009. Like this Russian family, who tried to get richer just before the pandemic struck.

• In 2009, the world had 793 billionaires with a combined wealth of $2.4 trillion. There were 98 members of a more exclusive club: $5 billion or more.

• As of 2019, the world had 2,153 billionaires with a total net worth of $8.7 trillion. Membership of the $5 billion club quadrupled since 2009 to 424, and 166 people now have at least $10 billion.

• To qualify as one of the world’s 100 richest people, you now need a minimum net worth of $14.4 Billion. Ten years ago it was $4.9 Billion.

Karl Marx pointed out in Das Kapital the capitalism  was the most successful  economic  system yet devised, if measured by the ability to create vast quantities of  wealth. It was in distribution of wealth that capitalism  failed spectacularly . Only when government  heavily taxes concentrated  wealth, and redistributes  it through public programs  like universal health care , free public education through  college, massive, job-creating infrastructure spending and the like, does capitalism produce a system in which every social class sees a steady rise in income and living standards. The United States had such a  system for both corporations and individuals between 1945 and 1980. The rich, as always,  got richer, but a huge middle  class was created,  and with relatively few exceptions, the general standard of living improved in every category. This period came to a crashing end with Reagan, who pursued an unambiguous policy of transferring  wealth to the very top of the income scale through huge tax cuts, the evisceration of  labor unions, and draconian cuts in redistribution  programs. And so here we are. The wealthy waged war on the rest of us, and they won.

In the Trump years, corporations were known for having too much cash and too few investments. It wasn’t a big economic boom as the GOP says. It was a time of amassing cash and not hiring people.

The French economist, Thomas Pickety, wrote a well received book a few years ago that thoroughly analyzed the reasons that capitalism tends to create ever greater wealth and income inequality. The short answer is because, absent a tax policy directly aimed at redistribution, the investor class will do what it's currently doing. Unchallenged by strong unions, which would give workers some leverage in demanding higher wages and benefits, and coddled by a tax cutting and corporate contribution dependent government, investors can simply keep more and more of the earnings that increased productivity and inexpensive labor created. Of course the capitalists keep nearly all of the wealth created in the economy. It isn't taxed for redistribution to the society that makes it possible, and it doesn't go to increased wages and salaries, because workers have no bargaining power. The rich inevitably get richer, and that will not change unless fundamental social and political changes take place. Between 1945 and 1980, the west kept taxes, especially on the rich, very high, and pursued policies which strengthened unions and redistributed wealth through increased home ownership and educational opportunities. But with Reagan and Thatcher, all that changed. Massive tax cuts benefited the already rich, unions were deliberately decimated, good jobs were shipped to low wage countries, and the inherent tendencies of capitalism toward ever greater concentration of wealth at the top reappeared. As Yogi Berra once said, it's like deja vu all over again.

All Local Governments Are Broke

Back in 1975, New York City almost went broke. Quite a few people, myself included, thought it did. But actually, New York was able to narrowly avoid a city bankruptcy in a famous 11th hour move that is still studied by urban scholars today.

However now, in 2020, as we reel from the first wave of the global SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, we find that the vast majority of city and state governments across the United States are running out of cash. As I see it, it’s not a matter of if municipalities and states declare bankruptcies, but how soon. Once in a while. Democrats remember this looming crisis. and ask for bailouts. But just like the looming collapse of the US Postal Service, it is quickly forgotten.

The COVID-19 crisis is only beginning. Most of us escaped death in the first round. Nearly 40% of us lost their jobs. Some of us are on the brink of a mental breakdown. Now our governments are running out of cash as a second wave of the pandemic creeps closer.

We’re in a world of hurt, and the pain is going to get worse. And very few outlets are reporting it.

It's Time For New York State To Own Its Electric Power Grid

Here’s another post that sat for months as a draft. No reason to sit on it, other than being distracted and engaging in video game playing and beer drinking.

I have always felt that utilities should be public. Healthcare should be nationalized and treated as a public utility. Internet access should be a public utility. And I think residential and commercial electric power should be owned and maintained by taxpayers. I think it’s incredible that New York Governor Cuomo flirted with that idea last summer after a poorly handled transformer fire caused a localized blackout on Manhattan’s west side.

In this no-longer-young century, we have had several pandemics and several failures in our infrastructure. We need a new commitment to rebuild, and that includes making important pieces of infrastructure public. That includes our power grid.

Does Con-Ed know where the bodies are buried? How in the world does this corporation keep it's license? And by the way, wasn't Trump going to spend trillions on a massive infrastructure program, which would, at last, give us a 21st century power grid, among other modern wonders?

Exiting the EU Is A Suicide Pact

This has become a suicide pact. The UK had a great arrangement with the EU. They helped write the terms of the trade zone. They got to keep their own currency and manage their own immigration and visa system. The UK was a unique, powerful member of the Eurozone.. Now they are going to trigger an economic disaster, as well as lose Northern Ireland and Scotland. Simple as that. The Union is about to be broken, and they caused it themselves. And this Eton-Oxford elitist (who intentionally acts like a buffoon to disarm the UKs normally aggressive press) will go down in history as the man who killed-off the UK. 

New York Gives Away Too Much, Again

Last November, New York announced that it was going to take from its residents and give billions to Amazon.

If Amazon was going to open a large office in New York anyway to support its original programs ("streaming content"), then New York should never have offered incentives or tax breaks aside from the lease of city land. New York offered Amazon far too much. And we’ll be reading articles supporting that in the years ahead.

And that’s if this deal sticks. Perhaps it won’t.

New York attracts smart, energetic people to live there, just as it called me in 1995, when I was just 22. They know what New York has to offer. Pity Amazon didn’t see any value in my city without corporate welfare and publicly-financed handouts. Or maybe, New York isn’t as great as it thinks it is. Maybe having some of the best museums, parks, bars and cultural institutions in the US is not a draw at all. We don’t have the best hospitals and universities in the US. That’s Boston. We don’t have the best mix of dominant professional sports teams in the US either. That’s also Boston. Maybe New York doesn’t realize that it’s not number one in anything aside from population and local taxes. It’s just another desperate city begging corporations to rent space. That’s what this process revealed.

This is classic welfare for billionaires. States and cities should stop giving taxpayer money to the richest corporations and individuals on Earth, and spend it on public projects for the benefit of the people. Wouldn't that be a radical idea. Having a contest between cities intensified the madness and showed the intelligent among us how destructive it is..

This isn’t the first time that New York State has thrown taxpayer money away in trying to attract new companies. The Start Up New York program blew a big budget ad campaign and tax breaks to net either just over or under 1,000 new jobs, depending on which report you choose to believe.

Considering how much Albany was willing to give, one has to wonder if New York’s economy is not as strong as Albany tries to make it appear. Upstate unemployment is a Mississippi-like 11%. The city is now made up of luxury towers full of millionaire families and absentee billionaires built over crumbling infrastructure. New York is not well. And I think Albany showed its hand and its future economic forecast in this deal.

There is strong resistance to this deal. It has already exceeded exceptions in that it has forced Amazon to reconsider leasing land in Queens. And the resistance has proven that the Democratic base in New York has shifted to the left. Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blaso are not progressives, and the base knows it.

And as a footnote to this ordeal, I hope that Mayor de Blasio has killed one of the worst buzzwords of corporate America in the last 20 years: synergy. When he and Cuomo did their rare joint press conference to announce the Amazon deal, de Blasio was asked wouldn’t it be awkward for Amazon to build a corporate campus next to a public housing complex. He answered that having the rich and poor next to each other on the Long Island City waterfront would produce extraordinary “synergy.” In other words, both sides would benefit from each other. Bullshit. Get out of here with that word. That buzzword is now dead. And hopefully, so is the Amazon tax break and subsidy from Albany. Amazon can reconsider Virginia or North Carolina now.

General Motors Betrays The City Of Detroit (Again)

General Motors has done it again. They have shut down a Detroit plant. The last time they dealt a big blow to a Michigan town, it was Flint in 2017.

Back in the halcyon days of the Reagan administration, corporations joined the late capitalist movement of putting the enrichment of the investor class above nearly every other consideration. This involved crushing what was left of industrial unions, stealing the pensions of retired workers through the perversion of bankruptcy laws, and, needless to say, the ruthless looting of public subsidies and tax breaks. Naturally, the public subsidies were delivered, but the promised jobs and prosperity somehow never arrived. GM was simply following the new rules of corporate citizenship when it took the public money, and then walked away when their promises came due. Surprised?

The USA Missed Its Chance To Make Room For High Speed Rail

High speed rail is not coming to the US in any sustained system, except perhaps in California.

Why? The USA missed its chance after World War II, when it had the capital and its rail corridors could have gotten the width they needed for freight and passenger trains on their own tracks. If the US tried to make room for high speed rail on the west and east coasts today, it would cost hundreds of billions. Of course, the US is still spending $2 Billion a week in Afghanistan. So I guess we can't afford it. 

In France, Germany Japan and China, where four of the world class train systems are found, the high speed passenger services were built from scratch, not piggybacked on an old, existing, mostly freight rail system. A world war helped, and that included a lot of bombing by the US and UK. But I don't think that's any excuse. The USA remained a wealthy nation through the space age. Just look at what happened to Penn Station. The French National Rail Corporation would die laughing if it ever got a good look at Penn Station and Amtrak. After all, France is a first world country, while the United States barely qualifies as a banana republic. And I wrote these words before news came out that the state of New York is considering yet another private company to manage the crumbling Penn Station.

This ties into the bigger, more obvious issue that mass transit in the US is generally terrible. The underlying reason is the same: the best chance for planning and funding was in the last century (either before the 1920 crash, or just after WWII). In my father's day, New York City took care of it's essential infrastructure. The automobile had not yet become the dominant means of transportation, and Robert Moses had not yet rearranged the city to accommodate millions of cars. Now, after decades of neglect, the bill is coming due. I hope the city gets the help it needs, because it's approaching a dangerous tipping point.

How's That DUP Partnership Going?

Splendidly, I see. When a minority party member delivers that much burn, you see just how outdated and terrible the DUP is. If anyone believes that Northern Ireland, in 2017, is "Britain," then he's really living in the past.

When the Conservative Party won the flash general election this past June, it was obvious that it will be difficult to form a stable government. The Tories, desperate to remain in power, had no choice but to let the Unionist tail wag the UK's dog. This deal with the backward Irish Orangemen promised to produce a hideous government in Westminster.

But as you might have seen today, the chances of that government holding together became more difficult. How a party looks can be just as important as how a party performs. That rule used to be true in the US, but it holds in the UK. 

As you probably recall, back in the 1990's, peace was impossible in Northern Ireland because the British Tories were absolutely dependent on Ian Paisley's Unionist Party for their parliamentary majority. It was only when Labour won in 1997 that the Good Friday agreement became possible. Because Blair's government was not in need of Unionist votes, he could use Clinton's good offices to broker a deal in Belfast.  

New York's Income Disparity Worsens

The income gap in New York City has gotten worse again. It's been particularly bad since the collapse of Enron and the 2001-2003 recession.

The most successful revolution of the past fifty years has been the "revolt of the haves". Between 1940 and 1970, taxes on the rich were very high. The marginal tax rate on incomes over $1,000,000 was at least 90%. Yet these were the years when the American economy grew steadily, and productivity gains were matched by solid increases in average wages and salaries, and a narrowing gap between the very rich and everyone else. So what happened? The Republican Party convinced millions of ordinary white Americans that black people were prospering off of them, and far too much money and effort was being diverted to the unworthy poor. By 1980, with the Pied Piper from California spinning his fantasies about out "bright, shining city on a hill", and how government was the problem, not the solution, the people were willing to buy the nonsense that massive tax cuts for the rich would translate into prosperity for all, as far as the eye could see. And here we are. The top 0.1% are taking in nearly ALL the additional GDP bring created by the economy. And Trump the simple wants MORE tax cuts, and yet less regulation! Sure, why not?