It's that time of year. As we say goodbye and good riddance to 2011, it is time to review what grabbed the most attention here at The Economic Populist. From ridiculous political tricks to protesting people, 2011 saw more of the same.
As we type out the new year, here at The Economic Populist we're forever grateful to our readers and participants who make the site happen.
Economic report overviews & statistical analysis were skipped in the below list, even though some of them are the most popular posts of 2011. Click the title to read the entire post. Happy New Year and without further ado, here are this years most popular articles.
$1.2 Trillion to Banks, You 0 - August 22, 2011
Bloomberg News has researched a bombshell story, the Federal Reserve gave $1.2 trillion in secret loans to banks during the financial crisis, from August 2007 until April 2010. This is in addition to the TARP bail outs which was publicly known.
82560 readers
Time for a Bailout for the American Workforce - January 02, 2011
As the third year of recession ends, the scale of the task of undoing the social and economic damage of the recession is now made plain. It is already well-known that 15 million Americans are officially unemployed, with another 15 million unofficially unemployed. But the scope of the recession goes far beyond their ranks - more than half of the U.S. labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the recession began in December 2007.
65405 readers
Volcker Resigns and Goldman Sachs Moves In - January 06, 2011
The Obama administration is having a shake up. Former Federal Reseve Chief Paul Volcker is quitting. His final act? Trying to get real financial reform, known as the Volcker Rule and was beaten down at every turn.
Now here comes Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, straight into the White House.
38911 readers
Gaddafi Regime Collapses - People Hold Line Despite Brutal Attacks - February 22, 2011
Libya is a nepotistic cult focused on Muammar al-Gaddafi, his family, and friends. The erratic and eccentric leader, known as the Guide of the Revolution, has ruled since he helped lead a military coup against King Idris in 1969. He developed his own style of Arab revolution outlined in The Green Book.
21008 readers
Showdown at the Occupy Wall Street OK Corral - November 13, 2011
Oregon knows how to throw a police state eviction of Occupy Portland. Last night, as the bell struck the magic midnight hour, this is what Portland's Occupy Movement Protestors did, cheered and popped champagne!
14789 readers
Corporate Profits Soaring Thanks to Record Unemployment - February 25, 2011
In a January 2009 ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos, then President-elect Barack Obama said fixing the economy required shared sacrifice, "Everybody’s going to have to give. Everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game."
For the past two years, American workers submitted to the President’s appeal—taking steep pay cuts despite hectic productivity growth. By contrast, corporate executives have extracted record profits by sabotaging the recovery on every front—eliminating employees, repressing wages, withholding investment, and shirking federal taxes.
13016 readers
Occupy Wall Street Protests Gaining Steam - September 27, 2011
Occupy Wall Street is a protest movement, but beyond a few reports on macings and arrests, you'd never know it from the main stream press.
10989 readers
Bank of America: Too Big to Obey the Law - September 08, 2011
If you’ve watched the collapse in Bank of America’s stock this past month, you’ve probably read that investors are concerned about the bank’s legal liabilities from the devastation of the housing market. Analysts usually cite the raft of lawsuits filed by just about anybody who had anything to do with the bank or Countrywide, which was bought by Bank of America when Countrywide was on the verge of bankruptcy. Analysts, however, don’t tell you the details behind these legal claims – what exactly did Bank of America do to earn its position as poster child for banking industry fraud?
9484 readers
Post Nuclear Japan, Pre Disaster United States - March 13, 2011
The Japanese disaster at Fukushima I is a human tragedy of striking proportions. As many as ten thousand citizens may be dead from the general catastrophe, with many more at risk for radiation poisoning at levels yet to be determined. The fact that Japan is a highly organized and wealthy nation in no way diminishes the intensity of the losses and pain experienced by the victims.
8803 readers
Outsourcing Is Not Good For America - January 30, 2011
Who can forget that infamous declaration by Greg Manikiw, Outsourcing is good for America, backed up by fictional economics from an an offshore outsourcing group. gechina Despite the never ending alarming U.S. unemployment rate, the jobs crisis and the stagnant wages, it seems Obama is touting the same philosophy.
8665 readers
The Top 10 Worst Tax Avoidance Corporations - April 02, 2011
Everybody knows multinational corporations are not paying U.S. taxes. Yet instead of making corporations cough up, our government is busy planning more screw jobs on the U.S. middle class and labor force, all under the guise of reducing spending.
8513 readers
Killing Us Quickly - Ryan's Medicare Proposal - April 15, 2011
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) proposed a Medicare plan that combines Social Darwinism and a bailout for health insurance carriers, even larger than the one provided by the president's health care reform legislation.
The specific features of the program are less important than the overall effect. In summary, Ryan proposes a plan that will starve most of those sixty-five and older of health care.
8110 readers
We Can't Just Sit Here Doing Nothing - August 31, 2011
Early in his tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Ben Bernanke promised to make the workings of monetary policy more transparent. By golly – that’s exactly what he’s done! We no longer read the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee as if they contain hidden messages as to where policy might go in the future. We even bother to notice who is voting which way; gone are the days when every vote had to be unanimous because any no vote would be considered the equivalent of stabbing the Chairman in the back. These days, the people who vote no want their name out there in bright lights and their reasons spelled out in glorious detail.
8104 readers
What's the Real Unemployment Rate? - August 10, 2011
With each unemployment report release, pundits and press quote various unemployment rates ranging from 9.1% to 22.7%, and announce that is the real unemployment rate. What does that mean and how are they getting those other numbers?
7106 readers
ForeclosureGate Deal - The Mandatory Cover Up - April 13, 2011
The Federal government is about to settle the ForeclosureGate affair, according to a report in the New York Times on April 9. The Times noted that twelve million homes will be lost by 2012. Home equity values are down by $5.6 trillion since the real estate crash.
6899 readers
Defunct DLC - February 10, 2011
That great corporate driven lobbyist think tank, the Democratic Leadership Council or DLC, is disbanding. Yes, that lovely organization which brought you financial deregulation, NAFTA, the China PNTR, more income inequality, and Democrats jumping into bed with multinational corporate agendas is officially D.O.A.
6874 readers
Tax The Rich! - September 18, 2011
Oh those millionaires, they suffer so. Seems Obama has dusted off some past campaign rhetoric and is now proposing to tax millionaires to pay down the deficit.
6651 readers
Obama Signs Deal to Allow Mexican Truckers Onto U.S. Highways - July 07, 2011
In yet another blow to U.S. workers, the Obama administration has signed a deal for Mexican truckers to operate inside the United States.
6518 readers
Comments
I guess nobody cares
which were the most read posts on EP for 2011. Gez, I had to write up a little PHP script to get this list, so I guess it was most interesting to me as site owner/admin. Oh well.
This is a little biased. We have some posts from December, where if one took the monthly read averages, would be at the top of this list. Seems H-1B, "tech worker shortage" is a huge hit, as is the latest absurdity of the 1%.
Interesting to me
I've been trying to figure out people in aggregate ("the masses" or "the public") for a long time now.
I think that the big topics are jobs and financial sector corruption. That reflects what people on the ground around me think and talk about. Economic reality is something people pay attention to.
People don't talk a lot about politics -- not nearly as much as a few years ago. Talking politics is a sure way to become known as a AH, but if political corruption is mentioned, there's compete agreement that it's disgusting, horrible and beyond help. Almost no one believes that they are represented by Congress or by either of the major parties, although there are a few clinging desperately to the time-worn stereotypes. The problem with that is people are not much interested in following Congress or actual legislation, regulations coming out of the White House or decisions coming out of the SCOTUS. None of it is intelligently reported by corporate media and people apparently don't care. Thus, ignorance deepens, in that respect. However, there are exceptions -- like when '60 Minutes' exposed insider-trading by members of Congress.
People do care about the wars, but nobody has anything to say about that. Including me. What's the point?
There's a lot of pessimism.
Certain matters are surrendered to the media, and the invisibility of Buddy Roemer is a good example of that. There's no good reason, IMO, for people to surrender any aspect of life or politics to the media, but they do. So I talk about Buddy Roemer on occasion, and people always say the same thing ... "Who?"
Where's the critical mass? Somehow #Occugy managed it in 2011, and it ain't over 'til it's over, and it ain't over. A miracle.
Buddy Roemer
The pounding of cable pundit noise to the media blackout press obviously still controls public opinion. Else, Buddy Roemer would be projected to win the GOP primaries.
I think the apathy is from the discovery the people have no power, no choice. For me, it was financial reform where no matter what, corporate lobbyists would get their way, even when it came to economic Armageddon happening.