How Propagandists for the 1% Are Manipulating Christian Teachings to Rob the Middle Class 

Continued from previous page

Given the billions in Super PAC money now available to Republicans, (23) this utopian strain in US politics is not likely to fade away irrespective of November's election results, and that is a troubling realization in a nation more heavily armed with weapons of mass destruction than any other in history. (24)

 Endnotes

1) Tobin isn't enough now, Le Monde Diplomatique, February 2012

2) The Bill Daley Problem, from BaselineScenario.com.

3) International Swaps and Derivatives Association.NOTE: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) actually reported a much higher total of $708 trillion for "notional amounts outstanding of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives..." in a detailed 28 page analysis released November 2011 for the first half of 2011. To stay conservative, I have used the ISDA figure of $470 trillion. The BIS report can be found here: . GDP from Wikipedia Public Data.

4) External government debt is actually $11.2 trillion. Getting to $15 or $16 trillion depends upon how one accounts for intra-governmental obligations. For the purposes of this article, the point is to show the orders of magnitude, not up to the minute totals, which are difficult to get in any event and tend to vary widely depending upon who is doing the calculations. Concord Coalition. 

5) Bloomberg Media."Follow the $7.4 Trillion: Breakdown of US Government's Rescue Efforts.". NOTE: The real total of federal bailouts may be much higher. For example, a July 2011 GAO report documents over $16 trillion in secret loans to both US and foreign financial institutions.

6) Joseph Stiglitz estimated the total cost of Iraq and Afghanistan as high as $5 trillion in 2008, and in Sep. 2011 opined that this figure was too low. Project Syndicate, Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of 9/11.  . A June 2011 Brown University study reported by Voice of America, estimates the total for Iraq and Afghanistan at nearly $4 trillion with a projected interest cost of an additional $1 trillion. Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Cost US Nearly $4 trillion. A detailed Sept. 2011, report by the Fiscal Times (more than a year ago) estimated the total US cost of war since 9/11 at over $5 trillion, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still in progress when the analysis was published. Fiscal Times, 9/11 and the $5 Trillion Aftermath. 

7) Washington Post, Revisiting the cost of the Bush tax cuts. 

8) For simplicity, I am using the CEPR figures below. While a more complicated case could be made for a higher total of lost citizen wealth, the main point is to show the logic of the process and the general orders of magnitude in the losses, which the CEPR figures conveniently encapsulate. Center for Economic and Policy Research, Paper Wealth and the Economic Crisis.

9) Other sources documenting US losses to citizen wealth. Reverse Mortgage Daily, Home Equity Declines more than 60% During Great Recession Says Fed Report. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Household Debt and Saving During the 2007 Recession. American Progress, The Consequences of Conservatism (Estimates total losses at $12.8 trillion)

Urban Institute, How is the Financial Crisis Affecting Retirement Savings? ($3.4 trillion loss from 2007 to 2009).  Reverse Mortgage Daily, Home Equity Declines more than 60% During Great Recession Says Fed Report. Dr. John Rutledge, Rutledge Capital, Total Assets of US Economy $188 trillion, 13.4 x GDP (Calculated $13 trillion loss to"household net worth" in 2008.) Don Shelton, The Great Recession of 2008-10.

10) Center for Economic and Policy Research, The $1 trillion wage deficit.

11) Don Ritholtz, The Big Picture.com, Big Bailouts, Bigger Bucks.

12) See Raymond Plant, The Neoliberal State, Oxford University Press, 2009.
See also, David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford University Press, 2005.