Wall Street is scared shitless of De Blasio and Warren.

[kpete]

Cowan and Kessler: Economic Populism Is a Dead End for Democrats
The de Blasio-Warren agenda won't travel. Colorado is the real political harbinger.

By JON COWAN And JIM KESSLER
Dec. 2, 2013 6:57 p.m. ET

If you talk to leading progressives these days, you'll be sure to hear this message: The Democratic Party should embrace the economic populism of New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Such economic populism, they argue, should be the guiding star for Democrats heading into 2016. Nothing would be more disastrous for Democrats.

While New Yorkers think of their city as the center of the universe, the last time its mayor won a race for governor or senator—let alone president—was 1869. For the past 144 years, what has happened in the Big Apple stayed in the Big Apple. Some liberals believe Sen. Warren would be the Democratic Party's strongest presidential candidate in 2016. But what works in midnight-blue Massachusetts—a state that has had a Republican senator for a total of 152 weeks since 1979—hasn't sold on a national level since 1960.

The political problems of liberal populism are bad enough. Worse are the actual policies proposed by left-wing populists. The movement relies on a potent "we can have it all" fantasy that goes something like this: If we force the wealthy to pay higher taxes (there are 300,000 tax filers who earn more than $1 million), close a few corporate tax loopholes, and break up some big banks then—presto!—we can pay for, and even expand, existing entitlements. Meanwhile, we can invest more deeply in K-12 education, infrastructure, health research, clean energy and more.

Social Security is exhibit A of this populist political and economic fantasy. A growing cascade of baby boomers will be retiring in the coming years, and the Social Security formula increases their initial benefits faster than inflation. The problem is that since 2010 Social Security payouts to seniors have exceeded payroll taxes collected from workers. This imbalance widens inexorably until it devours the entire Social Security Trust Fund in 2031, according to the Congressional Budget Office. At that point, benefits would have to be slashed by about 23%.


More Dribble:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304337404579213923151169790?KEYWORDS=jon+cowan

[cali]

1. It's drivel alright, but sadly, I don't think that Wall Street is intimidated are frightened

by Warren or de Blasio though they certainly want to keep the lid on economic populism. the smug fucks know that they control the political system to such a large degree that that's very doable. hell, they've been doing it successfully for years and years.