Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Monday, August 15, 2011

Shrinking Workers' Income

By John Ballard

I'm not sure why I'm posting this. It came from a Roubini tweet.
Readers here are mostly already in the choir. They already know the sermon.
So some of you try to spread the word elsewhere. This hand-wringing in a coccoon drives me nuts.

By now everyone has already read Warren Buffet's credo and insightful editorial in the Times.
Hell, when he can't get the attention of those who need to know, who can?

Fedgraph1[1]


Workers' share of U.S, national income is collapsing.

Two questions for the Republican presidential candidates:


  1. Is this a problem?

  2. If yes, what can be done about it?

As I said before, there's not much blood left in the turnip.   I was referring to  Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, particularly the latter,  who are already squeezed to the max and are in no position to shell out more.

But in this instance the blood supply itself is getting smaller. Payroll taxes are the revenue stream for both Medicare and Social Security. When Republicans argue that those programs are in trouble they are more right than they know. What they don't seem to notice is that the entire economy rests on the ability of workers to spend money.

GOP please note.  Ain't nothing coming out of empty pockets.
Hope, as they say, is not a plan.


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