MetaFilter posts tagged with KevinPhillips

The Politics of Radicalized Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money

Parallax.Error — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:25:08 -0800

Bush had Karl Rove. But the original wiretapping President needed brains too. Introducing Kevin Phillips. He predicted the prolonged Republican dominance of Washington 1970-present and advised the Ford and Reagan presidencies. He predicted a more liberal 1990s and when the Bushies killed his party he became uttery disgusted. Recently he spoke about the influence of the christian right, our addiction to oil, and America's debt (public and private) at the University of California Santa Barbara. Some Reviews of his work: New York Times on Phillip's books 1969-2005 Salon Review of American Theocracy Previously on Mefi in 06 and in 2004

Are US Inflation and Employment Underestimated?

salvia — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:55:16 -0800

"Hard Numbers: The Economy is Worse than You Know" [full article for Harper's subscribers, a different abridged version] discusses how the Consumer Price Index and other US economic statistics have been manipulated over time. Among other things, the article claims, these changes make Social Security checks 70% lower than they would otherwise be. According to Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture blog, "the longstanding official myth that [US] inflation is modest and contained is starting to be recognized for the fraud that it is." He believes that these bad statistics give false answers to even bigger questions, like "are we in a recession?" A New York Times graphic shows what's in this basket of consumer prices, which prices are going up, and which are not. To learn more about what's not counted, visit Shadow Government Statistics, which tracks (for subscribers) what inflation would be under earlier formulas. (Previously.)

God's Own Party

digaman — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 09:53:52 -0800

Former GOP senior strategist Kevin Phillips wrote the political Bible of the New Right, The Emerging Republican Majority. He coined the term "Sun Belt." He voted for Reagan twice and still considers himself a staunch Republican. But now Phillips, the author of a new book called American Theocracy, is warning that the party of George Bush and Karl Rove ("W brand Republicans," in the phrase of GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen) has become "God's own party" -- the champion of a convergence of "petroleum-defined national security; a crusading, simplistic Christianity; and a reckless credit-feeding financial complex." Phillips also cautions that the W-brand party's "sense of how to win elections comes out of a CIA manual, not out of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution." [Phillips was also discussed here.]

The Bush Dynasty

homunculus — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 12:51:43 -0800

The Bush family's history in the Middle East. "Between now and the November election, it's crucial that Americans come to understand how four generations of the current president's family have embroiled the United States in the Middle East through CIA connections, arms shipments, rogue banks, inherited war policies and personal financial links." So writes former Republican analyst Kevin Phillips, author of the new book American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush.

electro — Mon, 24 Jun 2002 12:47:18 -0800

High Finance Run Amok [latimes free reg req] is a Kevin Phillips editorial on the "financialization" of the US economy. "As the financial sector, in short, became too important to fail, the Fed and the Treasury abandoned market economics to embrace socialization of credit risk. No other sector of the U.S. economy, save possibly defense, received such governmental assistance."

y2karl — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 01:46:50 -0800

Plutocracy and Politics. Paul Krugman's musings upon reading Kevin Phillip's Wealth and Democracy: How Great Fortunes and Government Created America's Aristocracy, reviewed here by Bruce Reed of the Washington Monthly. Also, Three Questions For Kevin Phillips.

aflakete — Sun, 16 Sep 2001 14:15:51 -0800

Kevin Phillips on the U.S. economy and the War Ahead. Sobering historical context for where we're at now (short article via SmirkingChimp).