All Politicians "In the Hands of the Super Wealthy,"

[SHRED]

But to listen to the radio and TV you'd think it was the less fortunate, minority groups, and the struggling working-class that are to blame.

---

The New Robber Barons: All Politicians "In the Hands of the Super Wealthy," Sachs Says
Posted Mar 16, 2011

~~SNIP~~

But Sachs says the "real story" is much bigger than Wisconsin: It's about stagnant wages of public and private sector workers alike, and the increasing and increasingly pernicious role of big money in politics.

The following statistics speak to Sachs' first point:

Since 1973, the median take home pay of full-time workers is virtually unchanged on an inflation-adjusted basis.
The top 11,000 households in America have more income than the bottom 25 million.
Since 1976, 58% of real income growth has gone to the top 1% of Americans.
"We've reached the greatest income wealth inequality in history," Sachs says. "This is a new ‘Robber Baron' era, of course."

And just like the titans of industry in 19th century America, "the people at the top buy the politicians," he laments. "All of them - all parties. Everyone is in the hands of the super wealthy." (See: D.C. Disconnect: Congress Represents Big Interests, Not YOUR Interests, Sachs Says)

Decrying a "shocking game that got out of hand," Sachs notes President Obama is seeking to raise $1 billion for his presumed reelection bid. "He's not going to get it from poor people, he's going to get it from rich people," Sachs says. "So when push comes to shove and rich people say ‘we want our taxes cut', that's what happened."

SOURCE


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[DCKit]

1. I'll assume this quote isn't from "G. Sachs". Goldy, to his friends. nt

[Scuba]

2. This certainly explains why they want us to hate France....

[Octafish]

3. Not quite ''all of them,'' but it's close.

As much as religion, there should be separation of cash and state.

Until there is, it's he with the gold, rules.

Thank you for a great post, SHRED. K&R.

[Divernan]

4. This Sachs is Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs

"It's pretty clear there's an agenda nationwide: Republican governors backed by the Koch Brothers extreme right wing money want to crush the unions," says Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs. "The public is against it, but public opinion doesn't count much in this country these days." (Editor's note: The Koch Brothers have denied our repeated requests for an interview.)


"We've reached the greatest income wealth inequality in history," Sachs says. "This is a new ‘Robber Baron' era, of course."

And just like the titans of industry in 19th century America, "the people at the top buy the politicians," he laments. "All of them - all parties. Everyone is in the hands of the super wealthy." (See: D.C. Disconnect: Congress Represents Big Interests, Not YOUR Interests, Sachs Says)

So Who Is this guy? Pretty damn impressive credentials.
Full Bio from Columbia University


Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs

Director, Earth Institute at Columbia University
Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development
Professor of Health Policy and Management
Biographical Information

Jeffrey D. Sachsis the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015. Sachs is also President and Co-Founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at ending extreme global poverty.

Professor Sachs is widely considered to be the leading international economic advisor of his generation. For more than 20 years Professor Sachs has been in the forefront of the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and enlightened globalization, promoting policies to help all parts of the world to benefit from expanding economic opportunities and wellbeing. He is also one of the leading voices for combining economic development with environmental sustainability, and as Director of the Earth Institute leads large-scale efforts to promote the mitigation of human-induced climate change.

He is internationally renowned for his work as economic advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa, and his work with international agencies on problems of poverty reduction, debt cancellation for the poorest countries, and disease control. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Sachs has been an advisor to the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Development Program, among other international agencies. During 2000-2001, he was Chairman of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health of the World Health Organization, and from September 1999 through March 2000 he served as a member of the International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission established by the U.S. Congress.

Professor Sachs was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2004 and 2005, and the World Affairs Council of America identified him as one of the 500 most influential people in the United States in the field of foreign policy. In February 2002 Nature Magazine stated that Sachs "has revitalized public health thinking since he brought his financial mind to it." In 1993 he was cited in The New York Times Magazine as "probably the most important economist in the world" and called in Time Magazine’s 1994 issue on 50 promising young leaders "the world's best-known economist." In 1997, the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur cited Professor Sachs as one of the world's 50 most important leaders on globalization. His syndicated newspaper column appears in more than 50 countries around the world, and he is a frequent contributor to major publications such as the Financial Times of London, Scientific American and Time magazine.

Sachs's research interests include the links of health and development, economic geography, globalization, transition to market economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, international financial markets, international macroeconomic policy coordination, emerging markets, economic development and growth, global competitiveness, and macroeconomic policies in developing and developed countries. He is author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books, including the New York Times bestsellers Common Wealth (Penguin, 2008) and The End of Poverty (Penguin, 2005).

Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. In 2007, he received the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution International Advocate for Peace Award and was also awarded the Padma Bhushan, a high civilian honor bestowed by the Indian Government. He is also the 2005 recipient of the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. He is a member of the Brookings Panel of Economists, the Board of Advisors of the Chinese Economists Society, among other organizations. He is the First holder of the Royal Professor Ungku Aziz Chair in Poverty Studies at the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur from 2007-2009.



He has received honorary degrees from many universities including Pace University, State University of New York, Cracow University of Economics, Ursinus College, Whitman College, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Ohio Wesleyan University, the College of the Atlantic, Southern Methodist University, Simon Fraser University, McGill University, Southern New Hampshire University, St. John’s University, Iona College, St. Gallen University in Switzerland, the Lingnan College of Hong Kong, and Varna Economics University in Bulgaria, and an honorary professorship at Universidad del Pacifico in Peru. In 2007 Sachs was awarded the Centennial Medal from The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University for his contribution to society. Distinguished lecture series include the London School of Economics, Oxford University, Tel Aviv, Jakarta, Yale and the BBC Reith Lectures 2007.

Prior to his arrival at Columbia University in July 2002, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development and Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade.

Sachs was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1954. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Harvard College in 1976, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1978 and 1980 respectively. He joined the Harvard faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1980, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982 and Full Professor in 1983.
Download biographical information in PDF format:

[cali]

5. that's the trouble with saying "all of them"- it's not all of them and

making a claim dims the truth- that it's most of them. I mean honestly, does anyone think Bernie is in the hands of the wealthy?

[Divernan]

6. Amazing how you out of hand, summarily trash ANYONE

whom you perceive to disagree with Obama.
Let's see, I mean honestly, who should we believe? You, or "probably the most important economist in the world"?

Professor Sachs was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2004 and 2005, and the World Affairs Council of America identified him as one of the 500 most influential people in the United States in the field of foreign policy. In February 2002 Nature Magazine stated that Sachs "has revitalized public health thinking since he brought his financial mind to it." In 1993 he was cited in The New York Times Magazine as "probably the most important economist in the world" and called in Time Magazine’s 1994 issue on 50 promising young leaders "the world's best-known economist." In 1997, the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur cited Professor Sachs as one of the world's 50 most important leaders on globalization. His syndicated newspaper column appears in more than 50 countries around the world, and he is a frequent contributor to major publications such as the Financial Times of London, Scientific American and Time magazine.

[cali]

8. what on earth are you talking about. Me? Constantly defend Obama?-

yeah, right. Like here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=630075&mesg_id=630075

and here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x664177

and in too many other threads to enumerate.

And I wasn't trashing anyone. I have great admiration for Sachs and I'm quite familiar with him, dear.

I wasn't pointing out that a rhetorical point made for emphasis (I presume) detracts.

Grow up and stop making shit up and flinging it about with such abandon.

have a blessed day.

:rofl:

[Divernan]

12. Your examples were from this week. I was remembering your earlier posts.

According to this week's posts, you've recanted your support for Obama, and I think that's great. And quoting from your link above, you acknowledge that for the first year and a half:
"I was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Obama's. I thought his background and intelligence were attributes that he could utilize to make some needed changes. For the first year and a half I supported him through what I felt were some bad policy and personnel decisions."

Such was not always the case. I connected your screen name with those earlier enthusiastic posts supporting Obama"s "bad policy and personnel decisions."
Our history follows us and when we do a 180 degree turn in our position, there is no email sent to all members making that announcement.
I looked up some of your older posts. However, I'm not going to copy and paste those, with the one following exception, because, as you once posted, in reply to a request for proof:

Cali: Response to Reply #22
23. That's against the rules as you well know. And no, I wouldn't do it anyway. I'm sorry, I'm not going to search for comments; anyone barely observant who was present during the primary season could easily see the overlap.
dog, I hate stupid."

[cali]

14. try over a year since I've been increasingly critical and disillusioned

I make no apologies about having supported him initially or for having to reluctantly coming to a place where I can't support him. And over a year- and even YOU should be able to figure this out- is a lot more than the past week. duh.

Of course YOU won't post those older posts. It would be far too honest a thing for YOU to do.

[cali]

9. come on, have the courage to deal with your being flat wrong and making

accusations that don't have an iota of truth to them.

[ixion]

7. Stating the obvious...

[denverbill]

10. I agree. In CO, the drive to defeat Romanoff was bigger than the one to get Bennet elected.

At least that's the way it seemed to me. The DNC spent millions keeping Bennett in his seat in the primary.

[closeupready]

11. Of course they are; in cases where they aren't, such as the Kennedy's, they have their own money.

Government is no longer seen as the problem; it is the prize. You can use it to force consumers to buy your product, you can use it for force taxpayers to subsidize your profits, you can use it to force taxpayers to absorb your losses - what's not to like about that?

[Courtesy Flush]

13. We need candidates who will be like those 50 nuclear reactor workers

If we could get a handful of candidates who would sacrifice their political futures for the future of the country, it might make a difference. With no thought of re-election, they could have the dogged resolve that the Wisconsin Republicans seem to posses these days. Push for progressive laws, come what may, and then go back to private life after a single term. That's what the Founding Fathers envisioned in the first place, isn't it?