So, as the skiers race downhill, also going downhill is US relations with Russia and Venezuela where an opposition leader backed by the National Endowment for Democracy is now in jail as street protests escalate.
A face-saving deal in the Ukraine is not being given a chance to work as the US backed opposition goes on the offensive consolidating control after the government stupidly opened fire on the protests. Increasingly, it looks like a coup.
Back in the USSA, as debate about raising the minimum wage festers, major institutions continue to raise the maximum wage. Writing on Baseline Scenario, James Kwak takes Google to task for giving its Chairman Eric Shmidt $106 million. (JP Morgan's Jamie Diamond only got $20 mill.)
Writes Kwak, "voting the chairman of the board enough money to buy a Gulfstream 650 and an entourage of 550s is not a good use of shareholder money. And it's shockingly tone-deaf in this age of rising inequality and cuts to food stamps."
This charade in the suites is accompanied by more misery downhill in the streets, as the Economic Policy Institute reports-- facts yet to be cited by media cheerleaders at the Olympics.
Before we cut for another commercial, here's a reality fans have nothing to cheer about, but are mostly not told.
"Though six years have passed since the Great Recession officially began in December 2007 and four-and-a-half years since its official end in June 2009, U.S. workers continue to feel the impact of the recession and the very weak recovery through elevated unemployment and through suppressed wages . . . low-wage earners-- wage-earners at the 20th percentile-- have experienced wage erosion in nearly every state."
Back to Sochi: oops, have another Coke: time for more flag waving!
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