On March 1st, Bill Moyers gave his first public speech in three years, as the final speaker in the Dowmel Lecture series. In his speech, he addressed what he feels is "the greatest threat" to our country: the staggering inequality of wealth and the death of the middle class.

Read the full six-part report in one post. You can also download the full report with links and graphics or as a print-friendly document. HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

David DeGraw appeared on the Keiser Report to discuss his new book, "The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the USA." DeGraw: "The American public needs to understand that we have been attacked. We are in an economic war right now and all economic indicators say that things are going to get worse...."

These are the core common-ground issues that we must urgently rally around and support. Unless we organize and take decisive action on all these issues, we will all suffer the consequences of our collective inaction.

The entire bailout is strategically designed to eliminate the US middle class. Every time you hear the word "bailout," you should think "coup d’état."

Now that we have a better understanding of how the Economic Elite dominate our lives, let’s take a look at exactly who they are…

As a record number of US citizens are struggling to get by, many of the largest corporations are experiencing record-breaking profits, and CEOs are receiving record-breaking bonuses. How could this be happening; how did we get to this point?

AmpedStatus Report: It's time for 99% of Americans to mobilize and aggressively move on common sense political reforms. This is the first part of a six-part report. Introduction & Part I: Casualties of Economic Terrorism, Surveying the Damage.

AmpedStatus Report: The economic elite have escalated their attack on the U.S. public by surging military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. The economic elite have launched an attack on the U.S. public and society is unraveling at an increased rate.

The implosion of Lehman Brothers was in part triggered by excessive capital demands from JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, and in part by the manipulation of its balance sheet by leading directors, a wide-ranging official report into the investment bank's collapse has found. With JP Morgan Chase requesting $5bn (£3.3bn) just three days before Lehman's bankruptcy filing. At the same time, Lehman directors, including chairman Dick Fuld and former finance director Erin Callan, failed to disclose key practices, and certified misleading statements. The astonishing claims are made in a 2,200-page, nine-volume report written by court-appointed examiner Anton Valukas, which Judge James Peck admitted read "like a best seller". Tags: JP Morgan Citigroup Economic Death Squad Posted by: ampedstatus

There's no doubt that Fannie and Freddie now enjoy an explicit guarantee, according to most observers. "This means that the U.S. Taxpayer now stands behind $5 trillion of GSE debt," according to the Congressional Research Service. The problem is that $5 trillion of so-called agency paper is not treated as if it is a debt of Uncle Sam for accounting purposes, says Richard Suttmeier, chief market strategist at Niagara International Capital and ValuEngine.com. "Get it on the balance sheet - that's where it belongs," Suttmeier says. "Add it to the $14.2 trillion in [federal] debt and let's move on." Another Time Bomb Ticking: But $5 trillion is a lot of money - even by government standards -- and moving on may be the problem because of ongoing problems in the housing market, Suttmeier says. "There's a general concern on Main Street U.S.A. that ‘my neighbors are throwing in their keys, there's more for sale signs in my community...do I want to buy a new home, risking there's still downside risk to housing?' " Tags: Economic Death Squad Debt Posted by: ampedstatus

Chances of a broad overhaul of U.S. financial regulation dimmed after bipartisan Senate talks collapsed, helping boost bank share prices and jeopardizing a top Obama administration priority. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, warning that time was running out to pass legislation this year, said he would unveil his own bill on Monday and aim to get it to the Senate floor by Easter. "The real problem I am facing is the clock," Dodd said at a news conference. Earlier, Senator Bob Corker, a Republican who had tried to hammer out a compromise with Dodd, said a simultaneous White House push to get healthcare reform through Congress had thrown a wrench into their effort. Tags: Economic Death Squad Economic Reform Congress Posted by: ampedstatus

The forensic autopsy of Lehman Brothers appears to have found the many causes of death. The scathing report details a series of balance-sheet shenanigans that could land the former top brass and their auditor, Ernst & Young, in court. Among the toxins discovered was something called Repo 105. This accounting gimmickry masked the size of Lehman’s balance sheet as the pressure grew for investment banks to reduce their leverage at the end of 2007 — which Lehman also was doing at the time. Even if Repo 105 wasn’t lethal it was certainly poisonous. Lehman had been abusing it as far back as 2001, using repurchase agreements to finance assets but, unlike with typical repo transactions, treating them for accounting purposes as sold. This enabled Lehman to cover up its true leverage, making it seem lower than it actually was. Lehman even needed its overseas subsidiary to make it work sometimes. Bart McDade, the Lehman executive in charge of shrinking the balance sheet disparagingly referred to Repo 105 as “another drug we r on.” Tags: Economic Death Squad Lehman Brothers Posted by: ampedstatus

Alan Greenspan had a dream, or rather a nightmare. Greenspan seems to have woken up in a cold sweat one morning in fear that the period of "disinflationary pressures" that had kept inflation low since the 1990s was about to end. This was 2007, when he published his autobiographical economic treatise, The Age of Turbulence. Despite his well-known love for economic data, and poring over the latest reports from every statistical agency, he did not realise that he was sitting on a housing bubble of epic proportions. Not seeing the bubble (he also missed the prior stock market bubble that accumulated and burst on his watch, causing the 2001 downturn), he could not know that it would soon collapse and cause a very ugly recession, in which inflation would be irrelevant." Tags: Economic Reform Economic Death Squad Posted by: ampedstatus

A wave of fiscal austerity is rushing over Europe and America. The magnitude of budget deficits -- like the magnitude of the downturn -- has taken many by surprise. But despite protests by yesterday’s proponents of deregulation, who would like the government to remain passive, most economists believe that government spending has made a difference, helping to avert another Great Depression. Most economists also agree that it is a mistake to look at only one side of a balance sheet (whether for the public or private sector). One has to look not only at what a country or firm owes, but also at its assets. This should help answer those financial-sector hawks who are raising alarms about government spending. After all, even deficit hawks acknowledge that we should be focusing not on today’s deficit, but on the long-term national debt. Spending, especially on investments in education, technology and infrastructure, can actually lead to lower long-term deficits. Faster growth and returns on public investment yield higher tax revenues, and a 5 to 6 percent return is more than enough to offset temporary increases in the national debt. A social cost-benefit analysis (taking into account impacts other than on the budget) makes such expenditures, even when debt-financed, even more attractive." Tags: Debt Economic Predictions Economic Reform Posted by: ampedstatus

A quintet of Democratic senators introduced legislation to specifically prohibit investment maneuvers that have been likened to "selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars". Senators Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Ted Kaufman (Del.) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) are pushing the Obama administration's proposal to rein in banks' Wall Street-like practices, such as trading securities for their own profit, while they enjoy the protections afforded by U.S. taxpayers through deposit insurance and access to cheap funds courtesy of short-term loans from the Federal Reserve. Their legislation also attempts to sever the ties between banks and largely unregulated hedge funds and private equity funds -- firms that invest and bet for the benefit of their investors." Tags: Economic Justice Congress Economic Reform Goldman Sachs Posted by: ampedstatus

Ours is now a Ponzi nation. There is a new mood in the land. A sense of having been conned is still spreading -- as if not just surprising numbers of investors, but the whole country had experienced the last days of a giant Ponzi scheme. With it goes a feeling that what we’ve been living through, even in “the best of times,” wasn’t an American dream, but pure nightmare. Welcome to America, sucker. Tags: Economic Death Squad Stock Market Posted by: ampedstatus

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development released a report on the gender wealth gap to mark International Women’s Day. The report found: Nearly half of all single black and Hispanic women have zero or negative wealth meaning their debts exceed all of their assets.The median wealth for single black women is only $100, for single Hispanic women $120. This compares to just over $41,000 for single white women. We speak with the chief author of the report, Mariko Lin Chang and C. Nicole Mason, Executive Director of the Women of Color Policy Network." Tags: Economic Inequality racism Posted by: ampedstatus

Obviously it hasn’t run through the legislative wringer yet, but the Local Jobs For America Act proposed by House Education and Labor Secretary George Miller looks like an exceedingly good piece of policy. It would provides through the community development block grant program $100 billion dollars to create local jobs through state and municipal budgets. Miller claims he could create or save a million jobs with that money, and I have no reason to doubt him. "Specifically, the Local Jobs for America Act invests: $75 billion over two years to local communities to hire vital staff Funding for 50,000 on-the-job private-sector training positions The bill also includes provisions already approved by the House: $23 billion this year to help states support 250,000 education jobs $1.18 billion to put 5,500 law enforcement officers on the beat $500 million to retain, rehire, and hire firefighters" Tags: Unemployment Congress Posted by: ampedstatus

The sour economy is producing a bumper crop of cash-strapped consumers, business owners and shady agents who're fueling a wave of insurance fraud that's keeping regulators and law enforcement officials busy from coast to coast. Whether it's worthless health plans peddled by fax, staged auto accidents, arson or slip-and-fall accidents at the local mall, insurance fraud of all kinds is booming in the recession and consumers are paying the price in higher premiums. To keep it in perspective, roughly 48 million insurance claims are made each year in the U.S. and less than one-quarter of 1 percent are referred to the nonprofit National Insurance Crime Bureau for investigation of possible fraud. " Tags: Economic Death Squad Posted by: ampedstatus

"Today on C-Span, Robert Johnson, Director of the Project on Global Finance at the Roosevelt Institute, reviews necessary financial reforms outlined in the recently-released Make Markets Be Markets report. Johnson warns that another crisis is on the way unless we get serious about reform. He warns that deceptive accounting practices, complexity, excessive leverage, regulatory capture, and no system to handle too big to fail institutions still pose a giant threat to our economy." Tags: Economic Predictions Economic Reform Posted by: ampedstatus

US corporations are beginning to release figures on CEO pay for last year. Multi-million dollar packages are the norm in a year that saw the continued deterioration in the living conditions of the vast majority of the population. Each of the top five executives at Wells Fargo at least doubled their compensation last year over 2008. The five men each received over $11 million in 2009, while Wells Fargo’s chief executive, John Stumpf, took home $21.3 million, far higher than his 2008 package of $8.8 million. Mark Oman, the head of consumer business for Wells Fargo, nearly quadrupled his previous pay package to $13.5 million. Howard Atkins, the chief financial officer, received $11.6 million. The other Wells Fargo executives who received huge payouts were David Carroll, the head of the brokerage unit ($14.3 million), and David Hoyt, the head of wholesale banking ($13.5 million). Tags: Economic Death Squad Bonuses Economic Inequality Posted by: ampedstatus

A rash of new layoff announcements and government reports on job losses give the lie to the claims of the Obama administration and the media that the employment situation is “stabilizing.” Last Friday, the administration hailed the Labor Department’s report that US payrolls shrank by “only” 36,000 jobs in February and the official jobless rate remained at 9.7 percent as proof that its policies are working and the economy is recovering. In fact, the so-called “recovery” is limited to the big banks and major corporations, which are profiting from trillions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts, virtually unlimited and cheap credit, and the use of mass unemployment to drive down wages and increase the exploitation of the working class. An unprecedented assault on the living standards of the vast majority of the American people is being carried out under the direction of the Obama administration, creating a social crisis without parallel since the Great Depression. Tags: Unemployment Obama Illusion Posted by: ampedstatus

Change will happen only if we, the people, demand it -- from our politicians, our economists, our financial institutions and our businesses. The future of our economy is simply too important a question to leave to Washington or Wall Street. Main Street America has to take the lead in getting our economy in shape for the next fifty years. Our politicians and business leaders seem to think they can ignore this wake up call, so it is going to be up to the rest of us to demand real, far-reaching change, now -- and, where we can, through what we do with our own money, to make the change happen ourselves. In our next blog post we will launch our Road From Ruin action plan for every citizen to take back control of our economic system. This economic catastrophe has proven that there are fundamental flaws in the way we do capitalism. Yet all of these flaws can be fixed. Let's get to work. Tags: Economic Justice Economic Reform Posted by: ampedstatus

82% of the American public wants tougher regulation of Wall Street. Most top independent financial experts say that we need to break up the big banks and otherwise rein in the financial giants in order to save the economy. But Summers, Geithner, Bernanke and Congress like things just the way they are. Of course they do … they’re bought and paid for: * Lobbyists from the financial industry have paid hundreds of millions to Congress and the Obama administration. They have bought virtually all of the key congress members and senators on committees overseeing finances and banking. The Congress people who receive the most money from lobbyists are the most opposed to regulation. See this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. * Obama received more donations from Goldman Sachs and the rest of the financial industry than almost anyone else" Tags: Economic Death Squad Economic Justice Economic Reform lobbying campaign finance Posted by: ampedstatus

The Kansas City school board narrowly approved a plan Wednesday night to close nearly half the district's schools in a desperate bid to avoid a potential bankruptcy. The board voted 5-4 after parents and community leaders made final pleas to spare the schools even as the beleaguered district seeks to erase a projected $50 million budget shortfall. The approved plan calls for shuttering 29 of 61 schools _ a striking amount even as public school closes rise nationwide while the recession eats away at academic budgets. "The urban core has suffered white flight post-the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education, blockbusting by the real estate industry, redlining by banks and other financial institutions, retail and grocery store abandonment," Kansas City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks said to applause from a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 people. Tags: Education Economic Death Squad Debt Posted by: ampedstatus

[Editor's Note: The bonus tax failed Tuesday.] Few topics have generated as much political heat between Main Street and Wall Street as the billions of dollars in bonuses handed out at financial companies that received federal bailouts. But Washington’s efforts to claim some of that money for taxpayers continue to falter. The latest attempt is a measure authored by Democratic Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia and Barbara Boxer of California. It would impose a one-time 50 percent tax on 2009 bonuses of more than $400,000 paid by the 13 firms receiving the most federal bailout money. The plan appears to be crumbling amid opposition from two financial industry-lobbying powerhouses and hesitation among moderate Democrats and key New York politicians, including Sen. Charles Schumer. It has little chance of surviving a procedural vote expected late Tuesday, according to legislative aides and industry lobbyists. Tags: Economic Death Squad Congress Bonuses Economic Inequality Economic Reform Posted by: ampedstatus

The Senate Wednesday passed a $137.9 billion package aimed at helping jobless people get more benefits and businesses to hire more workers, but only after controversy about the bill's cost and impact. The rare bipartisan vote was 62 to 36. "We're starting to talk real money," said Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group. The measure, which still needs approval by the House of Representatives — which could take some time — largely would extend programs that normally would have been funded last year. Its progress was stymied as the Senate became embroiled in the health care debate and concerns about the deficit mounted. The bill would provide extra unemployment benefits for people out of work. In hard-hit states, workers could qualify for up to 99 weeks of aid. The higher a state's jobless rate, the more benefits a laid-off worker could receive. The cost is estimated at $70 billion over 10 years. Also in the bill is about $25 billion to help states with the cost of Medicaid, the state-federal health program for lower-income people, through June 30, 2011. The bill also would extend at a cost of $11 billion over 10 years the government subsidy for health care coverage for laid-off workers. Tags: Unemployment Congress Posted by: ampedstatus

There is a pathetic quality to our discussion of deficits and fiscal responsibility because we never face up to how much we need government to do. Our debates are also characterized by a politically convenient amnesia. Just a decade ago, we were running surpluses so big that Alan Greenspan worried about what would happen once our national debt was liquidated. We had this problem well in hand until we started waging wars and cutting taxes at the same time. What would a rational approach to the budget look like? It would begin by accepting that running deficits at a time of high unemployment is a good thing. We would celebrate the fact that the world’s governments were far wiser in this downturn than their counterparts were during the Great Depression. It is a hugely underrated achievement of international cooperation that the world’s 20 leading economic powers pumped trillions of dollars into the global economy to prevent collapse. Catastrophe was averted, and growth, although sluggish, has resumed." Tags: Debt Posted by: ampedstatus