‘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."

The Park Is Fine

Washington Square Park is fine. There is no out of control noise, drugs, violent crime, nudity or sex problem in the park. A minority of residents near the NYU campus, who are mostly white and wealthy, seem to have a problem with young people - particularly brown young people - having some fun in a public park.

Yes, there are lots of young people. Yes, there are artists. Yeah, there are people putting on dancing and music performances. There are tons of sunbathers. Some people play chess. Others smoke pot. A tiny minority of people shoot up. None of this is a reason to shut the park down at 22:00 with the iron fist of the NYPD.

The park is fine.

Know what isn’t fine? The wealthy people who claim to live near Washington Square Park and want it cleared out. Let’s take this resident as a prime example:

Alan Silverstein, a 59-year-old who lives near Union Square, told Gothamist that police were right to exclude dissenting voices from the “Build the Block” meeting.

He lives “near Union Square.” So at minimum, he lives four street blocks up University place, some 0.2 miles away, and out of earshot of Washing Square Park. And he thinks that the police were right to commandeer a community meeting on June 16, and keep defenders of public space out.

People who say that Washington Square Park is "unsafe" with a straight face are either arguing in very bad faith, or they weren't alive in the 1980s. They also equate 'dirty' with 'unsafe.' I moved to NYC 26 years ago, just after Kids was filmed in the park. While I, like anyone, was approached by a weed seller ("smoke, smoke"), I was never not safe. It is ridiculously safe today. I repeat: it is safe.

I am not surprised but still disgusted by the comments from most of the local, millionaire residents. They drop the word "skateboards," as a code for brown people. Also they speak of skateboards as if they are a new phenomenon- as if there hasn't been a skate culture since the late 1960s. No one has been killed in the park. The park is one of the safest places to be in the city. I prefer a city that has people outdoors into the night hours. Washington Square Park is world famous. It's up there with the best public outdoor spaces in Paris (the French love Washington Square Park, by the way). Leave our young people alone. They are keeping the neighborhood safe simply by being there. I've seen sunbathers, not "crack" (Crack!!! What a lie). And if you are so sensitive to the noise, please move to another ZIP code.

Some light Google searches shows that the battle against young people and their skateboards in the park made the news in 2019. This is not news, nor is it a big problem.

Now if the noise and drugs are a real problem, I'd have officers handing out noise citations, and make sure the 8th Street area has a safe injection site. The overall problem of noise in the park, which isn’t a big deal, will simmer down, as it does with each NYU semester cycle. The park is both public and is a part of the small NYU campus. In terms of wealth to campus acreage, NYU has to have one the highest ratios in the world.

Do none of the olds complaining about drug use remember Needle Park? Or even Washington Square Park in the 1980s? What's happening now is cheerful and positive in comparison. In the objectors’ alternative reality, attractive young sunbathers are described as naked hooligans having public sex. Pot smokers are crack addicts. Skateboards are tools of menace and intimidation. These NIMBYs are exaggerating, embellishing, and making stuff up.

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!

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.

She's Beyond Embarrassing

If we're not embarrassed by Donald Trump being president, why would his ignorant and arrogant daughter's lame attempt to intrude in the conversation of world leaders bother us? The Trumps assume they're our royal family, and they can't imagine that they're not welcome everywhere. And Ivanka can't imagine that her banal chatter isn't fascinating to serious people. Of course she doesn’t do policy or activism. She’s doing precisely what she planned to do in her role as princess of America.

My advice is that we need to forget she exists. Same for all of Trump’s children. Focus on removing Trump from office.

US Alcohol-related Deaths Have Doubled Since 1999

In a paper published yesterday in the Alcoholism journal, it was revealed that the number of Americans who died of alcohol-related causes doubled between 1999 and 2017.

I have no clue why this happened. Surely it can't have something to do with a poor majority being ruled by a rich minority, right? That would be irresponsible to point out as a cause, correct?

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?

Chris Rock: Most Americans Oblivious To Class Inequality

None of this is news to Americans who live in our largest cities. Chris Rock is probably correct about most middle Americans being oblivious to class inequality. There, the reality of inequality is right in your face, unambiguously  and apologetically slapping you, just in case you might miss it. In the small towns and suburbs, where most Americans live, the arrogance and entitlement of our plutocrats -and yes, our kleptocrats too- is more abstract, out of sight, and almost never encountered in person. The great and mighty fly in their private jets, to their palaces in the sky, or their private islands. Out of sight, and out of mind, they float above the rest of us, supremely confident and protected. 

The Wonders of Capitalism

I'm afraid this post is going to be a mess. There is no easy way to report on the disappointment that is our capitalist system without writing a book about it. Fortunately, that book was published last summer.

In a summer full of bad news the world over, we in the US should be focused on the five biggest stories that directly effect us: our endless wars, our loss of the Fourth Amendment, our loss of women's reproductive rights, our ongoing water crisis / environmental crisis, and our unsustainable economy.

New York City increasingly relies on executive pay and Wall Street bonuses to keep its treasury full. Once any economy relies on the top 1%, it becomes unsustainable. Even Michael Bloomberg knew this. So the city has had to rely on tourism to make up the gaps. I don't think that is sustainable, either.

This post will focus on our current economy. Simply put, the rich get richer. Here's are just a few angles of the same overall story.

First up, CEO pay is ruining our economy. We now have proof. I can see you are not impressed. Occupy Wall Street tried to make us pay attention, but they didn't succinctly make their case. And now we have articles and books, like the ones above, to prove that Occupy was right, and those kids were on to something. But now we don't give a shit.

But let me elaborate on this a bit more. What does the economy of a city that relies on the top earners look like? How does it function? The answers are right above us, in the new supertall residential buildings going up. In a city in which there is an oversupply of office space, there is a bubble economy in the new luxury residential market.

Who is driving up the prices in new luxury construction? Mainly Wall Street managers and wealthy foreigners. And this price war has helped sustain a real estate appreciation across the whole city that has priced out the middle class. Millions of New Yorkers, whether they care or not, have lost their chance to buy.

Second up, Wall Street. The average Wall Street annual compensation with bonus is $369K. The average white collar NYC salary is $69K. The US median salary is $51K. And over half of New Yorkers make less than $40K. And what is our national economic policy? Be extra nice to those at the top. Given their contributions to the health of the economy, don't they obviously deserve such a large percentage of the income in the city? After all, consider what their taxpayer backed financial manipulations created in 2008. The world has staggered through the deepest recession since World War II, and the authors of this catastrophe have gotten richer every day since. Ah, the wonders of Capitalism.

And third is the current bubble. Looking up and down the Northeast Corridor, one can see that we are in the midst of a dangerous and destructive real estate bubble. While housing in Baltimore and Philadelphia remains affordable, comparitively speaking, the bubble is in full swing in Boston, New York, and Washington DC. Let's take a quick tour.

In Manhattan, the bubble is not done expanding. It wasn't long ago the average sales price of a Manhattan apartment (condo or co-op) exceeded $1 Million. This past fall, it surpassed $1.68 Million. 2014 was simply a blockbuster year for the borough. It marked the continued inflation of a real estate bubble that began in 2002, and survived the national sub-prime explosion. The average price per square foot in Manhattan is over $1,400. Units in Tribeca or those with a view of Central Park, are setting new records above $5,000 and $6,000 per square foot. On the rental side, it was about 15 years ago that we first saw studios pass the $1,000 per month mark. How does $90 per square foot per month sound?

And at the very top of the market, the properties for the top-half of the top 1 percent live in their own bubble that even Tokyo and London do not yet match. The epicenter of this bubble is the new row of super-tall residential towers in the 50s, with offer upper half residents views of Central Park. The entry-level building for this segment, Extell's One 57, has seen its sales grind to a halt while the elite wait for the completion of 432 Park Avenue, which offers more spectacular views and floorplans, and Extell's upcoming 225 West 57th Street, which will set a new height record for residential towers in the western hemisphere.

Outside of the new midtown skyscrapers, there are the blockbuster exotics, like the crazy triplex co-op at the Pierre Hotel, the new penthouse on top of the Puck Building, and the multi-level mansion at the top of our nation's first skyscrpaer, the Woolworth Building.

The Woolworth Building was once the crown jewel of downtown. In some ways, turning it into condominiums for plutocrats nicely summarizes what's happened to the economy, and the once great city of New York. 

There had to be a point where the prices in Manhattan would be out of reach for most dual $100K earners. Even the affluent are tiny compared to oligarchs and investment bankers. So they shifted their search to Brooklyn. Now Brooklyn is almost as ridiculous as Manhattan. Wait, did I say almost?

How about Queens, then? Nope. Not affordable any more.

The madness continues. When will the city realize it's sitting on a real estate bubble? And do we really have to be reminded of what inevitably happens to bubbles? But say this for bubbles, they can be fun until they burst.

The high end condos are driving the market, but the law of supply and demand will raise both prices and sales everywhere in New York. At least, until the current bubble bursts, and it hits the fan again. But in the meantime, isn't capitalism fun?
 

And we have a bonus stop on our tour: Boston. 

Have you seen the asking price for the penthouse in the yet unbuilt Millennium Tower next to Filene's in downtown Boston? It won't be finished until 2016, so there's still time to buy, if you can come up with $37,500,000. At that low price, it might attract a bidding war. The new apartment building at the TD Garden will feature apartments on the upper floors of $8,000 to $10,000 a month. IN BOSTON. I guess the Manhattanization of Beantown is nearly complete.