U.S. now has the highest income inequality in the developed world

Very ignominious achievement.

So how did America get so darn great at ratcheting open the chasm between the haves and have-nots? Thank the dynamic duo of Wall Street and Washington, which have been working so well together for the past few decades to make laws that favor banks. Turns out this Axis Of Making It Rain has also been making laws that favor the exorbitantly wealthy. Win-win. Unless you are poor, in which case: Sorry, be born to richer parents next time, maybe?

The higher the dot, the higher the income inequality.

Read rest of the story here.

Reuters — CEOs Slam Fiscal Cliff 'Disaster,' Call For Specific Deficit Reduction Plan

Some in the business community are calling for a change in strategy due to the meager results of the fiscal cliff deal.

"It doesn't work talking to the politicians, obviously," former Wells CEO Kovacevich said. "What we've got to do is educate the American public that our country is going to hell."

There are questions about how meaningful of a contribution Corporate America can make, especially if they do not deliver a unified voice on hard decisions such as industry-specific tax breaks.

Republican Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee said on CNBC on Wednesday morning that the business community could play a great role by pushing for concrete entitlement changes.

The business community appears reluctant to provide lawmakers with specific proposals.

Jon Romano, a spokesman for the Fix the Debt campaign, said the group has set out principles for a long-term deal, but it doesn't want to prescribe what the policy should look like.

"We're really looking to our elected leaders on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue to come up with that solution to this issue," Romano said.

Mark Kennedy, who heads George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management and served in Congress from 2001 to 2007, said business leaders need to do more.

He said executives should identify "sacred cows" that should no longer be protected, be more specific about how big a deficit reduction deal should be, and get specific about what they want included.

"It's more helpful to get parameters as to what should be done than to just say, do something," Kennedy said.

The Huffington Post
CEOs Slam Fiscal Cliff 'Disaster,' Call For Specific Deficit Reduction Plan
Reuters

Of course, no CEO wants to get specific and reap the whirlwind of angry customers whose benefits they want to cut, anymore than politicians want to angry voters by advocating unpopular policy. They want to force the president to do the dirty work for them and take the blame.

Paul Krugman calls this correctly in Battles of the Budget

For the reality is that our two major political parties are engaged in a fierce struggle over the future shape of American society. Democrats want to preserve the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — and add to them what every other advanced country has: a more or less universal guarantee of essential health care. Republicans want to roll all of that back, making room for drastically lower taxes on the wealthy. Yes, it’s essentially a class war.

Meanwhile the IMF admits, sort of, that their prescription for austerity hurt some countries in the EZ.

Eurozone Spending Cuts Hurt Economies During Height Of Financial Crisis, IMF Admits

Is This Why Most CEOs Won't Make Good Policy Leaders?

Lack of situational awareness?

Romney on disaster relief: ‘We can’t afford to do those things’

They don't recognize altered context? Isn't that rather like walking outside ... and noticing that you're no longer inside? What's more basic than noticing context?

In this case, a Presidential candidate doesn't know the difference between the ISSUER & the USERS of sovereign, fiat currency. That's more than a bit surprising. Unfortunately, the other candidate doesn't either, and neither party's platform illustrates adequate understanding of that basic, operational point.  Ergo, it's up to the electorate.

How, pray tell, does a group run out of fiat?  Just as a point of logic.  Can we resurrect dictionaries, and agree upon terms?

There's a better way to mix domain expertise into policy development. We need to find it. FAST!

Otherwise, watching policy development will continue to be like watching old Wile E. Coyote & Roadrunner cartoons.

Join the corporate elite and rule the world!

This says it all!