“The larger fear is
that Obama might be just another corporatist, punking voters much as the
Republicans do when they claim to be all for the common guy.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders – America’s answer to
Wall Street’s
looting, the war on the American middle-class and jobs for
legals!
looting, the war on the American middle-class and jobs for
legals!
“At this point, Clinton is the choice of most multimillionaires
to be
the next occupant of the White House. A recent CNBC poll of 750
millionaires found 53 percent support for Clinton in a contest with
Republican Jeb Bush, 14 points better than Obama’s showing in the
2012 election with the same group.”
the next occupant of the White House. A recent CNBC poll of 750
millionaires found 53 percent support for Clinton in a contest with
Republican Jeb Bush, 14 points better than Obama’s showing in the
2012 election with the same group.”
BANKSTERS J.P. MORGAN CHASE, BANK of AMERICA
and WELLS FARGO RAKED IN A TOTAL OF $1.14 BILLION
FROM OVERDRAFT FEES IN THE FIRST QUARTER, 2015
ALONE.
and WELLS FARGO RAKED IN A TOTAL OF $1.14 BILLION
FROM OVERDRAFT FEES IN THE FIRST QUARTER, 2015
ALONE.
SOURCE: SNL FINANCIAL, A
FINANCIAL-INFORMATION FIRM.
CEO WAGES SOAR UNDER OBAMA.
POVERTY FOR AMERICANS SOARS EVEN
MORE!
POVERTY FOR AMERICANS SOARS EVEN
MORE!
THE OBAMA DOCTRINE: The Rich Must Get Richer
Or Be Bailed Out by the American Middle-Class!
Transfer America’s economy to the richest.
Destroy the
American middle-class and expand Mexico’s welfare state on
the backs of the American people to keep wages depressed!
American middle-class and expand Mexico’s welfare state on
the backs of the American people to keep wages depressed!
AMERICAN
BANKS and the CATASTROPHIC DEATH OF AMERICA
The
2008 crash and subsequent developments have revealed certain fundamental
realities about American society. All of the official institutions, including
the presidency, the courts, Congress and the financial regulators, have worked
single-mindedly to shield the banks and the financial elite and enable them to
grow even richer.
THE OBAMA ASSAULT
ON OUR PENSIONS
BIGGER PROFITS FOR
HIS WALL STREET DONORS IF PENSIONS ARE SLASHED
“Feinberg, who as the
Obama administration’s “pay tsar” rubber-
stamped multimillion-dollar executive bonuses to Wall Street
banks bailed out with taxpayer funds, will now be given power to
slash workers’ benefits at his discretion.”
stamped multimillion-dollar executive bonuses to Wall Street
banks bailed out with taxpayer funds, will now be given power to
slash workers’ benefits at his discretion.”
OBAMA-CLINTONomics:
the never end war on the American
middle-class. But we still get the tax bills for the looting of their
Wall Street cronies and their bailouts and billions for Mexico’s
welfare state in our borders.
middle-class. But we still get the tax bills for the looting of their
Wall Street cronies and their bailouts and billions for Mexico’s
welfare state in our borders.
While the wealth of
the rich is growing at a breakneck pace, there is a stratification of growth
within the super wealthy, skewed towards the very top.
In 2014, those with over $100 million in private wealth saw
their wealth increase 11 percent in one year alone. Collectively, these
households owned $10 trillion in 2014, 6 percent of the world’s private wealth.
According to the report, “This top segment is expected to be the fastest
growing, in both the number of households and total wealth.” They are expected
to see 12 percent compound growth on their wealth in the next five years.
In 2014 the
Russell Sage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2013, the
median household net worth of those in the United States fell from $87,992 to
$56,335—a drop of 36 percent. While the rich also saw their wealth drop
during the recession, they are more than making that money back. Between
2009 and 2012, 95 percent of all the income gains in the US went to the top 1
percent. This is the most distorted post-recession income gain on record.
median household net worth of those in the United States fell from $87,992 to
$56,335—a drop of 36 percent. While the rich also saw their wealth drop
during the recession, they are more than making that money back. Between
2009 and 2012, 95 percent of all the income gains in the US went to the top 1
percent. This is the most distorted post-recession income gain on record.
OBAMA: SERVANT OF THE 1%
Richest one percent controls nearly half of global wealth
The richest one percent of the world’s population now controls 48.2 percent of global wealth, up from 46 percent last year.
The report found that the growth of global inequality has accelerated sharply since the 2008 financial crisis, as the values of financial assets have soared while wages have stagnated and declined.
He’s got WALL STREET’S BIGGEST CRIMINALS
PUMPING MONEY INTO THE
CLINTON – JEB BUSH MACHINES!!!
CLINTON – JEB BUSH MACHINES!!!
HILLARY CLINTON – SERVANT of the
1%, her FIRST FAMILY of CRIME, MUSLIM DICTATORS and the MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY
of LA RAZA…. can we really afford more OBAMANOMICS?
THE CRONY CLASS:
OBAMACLINTONOMICS was created by
BILLARY CLINTON!
BILLARY CLINTON!
Income inequality
grows FOUR TIMES FASTER under Obama than Bush.
“By the time of Bill Clinton’s election in 1992, the
Democratic Party had completely repudiated its association with the reforms of
the New Deal and Great Society periods. Clinton gutted welfare programs to
provide an ample supply of cheap labor for the rich (WHICH NOW MEANS OPEN
BORDERS AND NO E-VERIFY!), including a growing layer of black capitalists, and
passed the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, with its notorious “three strikes”
provision that has helped create the largest prison population in the world.”
*
“Calling income and wealth inequality the "great
moral issue of our time," Sanders laid out a sweeping, almost unimaginably
expensive program to transfer wealth from the richest Americans to the poor and
middle class. A $1 trillion public works program to create "13 million
good-paying jobs." A $15-an-hour federal minimum wage. "Pay
equity" for women. Paid sick leave and vacation for everyone. Higher taxes
on the wealthy. Free tuition at all public colleges and universities. A
Medicare-for-all single-payer health care system. Expanded Social Security
benefits. Universal pre-K.” WASHINGTON
EXAMINER
OBAMA’S WALL
STREET and the LOOTING of AMERICA – SECOND TERM
The corporate cash hoard has likewise
reached a new record, hitting an estimated $1.79 trillion in the fourth quarter
of last year, up from $1.77 trillion in the previous quarter. Instead of
investing the money, however, companies are using it to buy back their own
stock and pay out record dividends.
Megan McArdle Discusses How America's
Elites Are Rigging the Rules - Newsweek/The Daily Beast special correspondent
Megan McArdle joins Scott Rasmussen for a discussion on America's new Mandarin
class.
PATRICK
BUCHANAN: OBAMA’S ASSAULT ON AMERICA
BEGINS AT OUR BORDERS
“Yet nothing
that happens on these borders imperils America so much as what is happening on
our own bleeding border with Mexico.” Patrick Buchanan
JUDICIAL WATCH SOUNDS THE ALARM!
THE ILLEGALS’ CRIME TIDAL WAVE in our
OPEN and UNDEFENDED BORDERS!
“In
all, the newspaper identified 424 released illegal immigrants convicted of
sex-related crimes in the records obtained under the lawsuit. Around half
appeared in the national public sex offender registry as required by law. Of the
registered sex offenders, 53 failed to re-register after ICE released them and
the agency didn’t bother to follow up.” JUDICIAL WATCH
AMERICA’S
THIRD-WORLD INVASION… isn’t it really ONLY about keeping wages depressed???
HOW OBAMA-CLINTONomics made the RICH much RICHER and handed
us the tax bills for their crimes and bailouts!
"There
is a populist and conservative revolt against Wall Street and financial
elites, Congress and government," Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg
warned in an analysis this week. "Democrats and President Obama are seen as
more interested in bailing out Wall Street than helping Main Street."
elites, Congress and government," Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg
warned in an analysis this week. "Democrats and President Obama are seen as
more interested in bailing out Wall Street than helping Main Street."
JUDICIAL WATCH:
BARACK OBAMA and the DEATH of the AMERICAN
MIDDLE-CLASS.
Planning for the
looming OBAMA GREATER DEPRESSION:
In the aftermath of
the 2008 financial crisis, on the other hand,
none of the basic causes of the crash, including the ENORMOUS
SIZE OF THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SECTOR AND ITS
PERVASIVE CRIMINALITY, have been even remotely
addressed. Rather, under the guidance of the Obama administration,
the dominant position of Wall Street in economic, social and
political life has only been entrenched and expanded.
none of the basic causes of the crash, including the ENORMOUS
SIZE OF THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SECTOR AND ITS
PERVASIVE CRIMINALITY, have been even remotely
addressed. Rather, under the guidance of the Obama administration,
the dominant position of Wall Street in economic, social and
political life has only been entrenched and expanded.
BANKSTERS and the ongoing looting of the
American people…..
“I’m
not here to punish banks!” Barack Obama – State of the Union Message
Not a single major bank has been
closed down or broken up since the 2008 crash, triggered by reckless and
illegal speculative activities. Not a single bank CEO or top official has been
prosecuted or jailed for crimes that have led to the impoverishment of
countless millions of people.
Wednesday’s
settlement is further evidence of the reassertion of the aristocratic principle
in
contemporary capitalist society: there is one set of laws for the vast majority, the working people, and
an entirely different legal framework for the financial oligarchs—one that can be summed up with the
phrase “Anything goes.”
contemporary capitalist society: there is one set of laws for the vast majority, the working people, and
an entirely different legal framework for the financial oligarchs—one that can be summed up with the
phrase “Anything goes.”
“The answer: Any tool that increases Washington's involvement in
big business — here and abroad — creates opportunities for
politicians to demand tribute from corporate and government
coffers and increase political control over business. Ex-Im is a
goldmine for a transactional politician like Hillary.” ---
TIMOTHY P. CARNEY, Washington Examiner
Goldman Sachs is part of this story, too. In the summer
of 2011, Goldman Sachs hired a K Street firm to lobby the State Department on
Ex-Im. That fall, Ex-Im approved a $75.8 million loan to a state-owned Chinese
bank so it could buy private jets from Hawker Beechcraft, a jetmaker owned
largely by Goldman at the time. Secretary Clinton at that time praised her
deputy, former Goldman vice president Robert Hormats, for "coordinating
with the Export-Import Bank," on international trade and development
issues.
THE CRONY CLASS:
“By the time of Bill Clinton’s election in 1992, the
Democratic Party had completely repudiated its association with the reforms of
the New Deal and Great Society periods. Clinton gutted welfare programs to
provide an ample supply of cheap labor for the rich (WHICH NOW MEANS OPEN
BORDERS AND NO E-VERIFY!), including a growing layer of black capitalists, and
passed the 1994 Federal Crime Bill, with its notorious “three strikes” provision
that has helped create the largest prison population in the world.”
*
“Calling income and wealth inequality the "great
moral issue of our time," Sanders laid out a sweeping, almost unimaginably
expensive program to transfer wealth from the richest Americans to the poor and
middle class. A $1 trillion public works program to create "13 million
good-paying jobs." A $15-an-hour federal minimum wage. "Pay
equity" for women. Paid sick leave and vacation for everyone. Higher taxes
on the wealthy. Free tuition at all public colleges and universities. A
Medicare-for-all single-payer health care system. Expanded Social Security
benefits. Universal pre-K.” WASHINGTON
EXAMINER
HILLARY CLINTON: A
dedicated disciple of
OBAMANOMICS – Why else would his
banksters invest so much in her???
OBAMANOMICS – Why else would his
banksters invest so much in her???
“That her candidacy is announced without calling for
any particular policies underscores the fact that the election is not about the
American people deciding the course of policy, but rather the vetting of
candidates to serve the interest of the financial oligarchy.”
“There is, of course, no acknowledgment that Clinton was part
of an administration that oversaw and continues to oversee the greatest
transfer of wealth from the bottom to “those at the top” in US history.”
One in four workers earn poverty wages
"The politicians don’t
care about the working and young people. We have billions in student loan
debts, but they don’t help us, but they give billions to the wealthy."
By Douglas Lyons
2 September 2013
2 September 2013
One
in four n workers, and two out of three workers under 24, are paid poverty
wages according to a recent report released by the Keystone Research Center.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/09/obamanomics-at-work-soaring-poverty-in.html
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/09/obamanomics-at-work-soaring-poverty-in.html
THE “HOPE and CHANGE” CLOWN’S LIES ON
UNEMPLOYMENT as more illegals jump our borders
In
fact, The Obama Administration’s policies have been aimed at reviving US
manufacturing on the basis of a significant reduction of workers’ wages.
As
a result of these policies, the National Employment Law Project concluded in
2014 that “While the manufacturing sector has grown in recent years, wages are
lower, the jobs are increasingly temporary, and the promised benefits have yet
to be realized.”
OBAMA: SERVANT OF THE 1%
Richest one percent controls nearly half of global wealth
The richest one percent of the world’s population now controls 48.2 percent of global wealth, up from 46 percent last year.
The report found that the growth of global inequality has accelerated sharply since the 2008 financial crisis, as the values of financial assets have soared while wages have stagnated and declined.
Sage Foundation: Wealth "Inequality" Will Continue to Worsen.
The richest one percent of the world’s population now controls 48.2 percent of global wealth, up from 46 percent last year.
The report found that the growth of global inequality has accelerated sharply since the 2008 financial crisis, as the values of financial assets have soared while wages have stagnated and declined.
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS DESTROY THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
OBAMANOMICS:
The escalation of global financial parasitism
OBAMAnomics:
OBAMA AND HIS WALL STREET CRONIES LOOTING AMERICA!
These are only the most striking of a barrage of numbers reported in
recent weeks, demonstrating that for the US financial aristocracy, the Crash of
2008 has been used to engineer a historic redistribution of wealth.
OBAMAnomics at
work: How Barack Obama looted America for his Wall Street paymasters:
In
all, the research team behind the Forbes Billionaires list found a total of
1,645 billionaires worldwide as of February 12, with a combined net worth of
$6.4 trillion, an increase of $1 trillion from 2013. The number of new
billionaires, at 268, was the highest figure in the report’s history.
WILL OBAMA CAUSE THE IMPENDING GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN?
"Notwithstanding these powerful trends, the stock
markets continue to power on, providing a graphic demonstration of the degree
to which the accumulation of wealth by global financial elites has become
divorced from the actual process of production."
Wall Street profits and the widening social divide in America
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/07/crony-capitalism-how-obama-looted.html
The profits of the biggest US banks continued to swell in the second quarter of this year, even as the impact of five years of mass unemployment, stagnant economic growth and brutal cuts in social spending produced a further rise in poverty, homelessness and hunger.
Obama’s “recovery” and the social crisis in America … the recovery that
NEVER was!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/08/america-under-obamas-crony-capitalism.htmlNEVER was!
Sage Foundation: Wealth "Inequality" Will Continue to Worsen.
Wealth inequality increased significantly from 2003 through 2013; by some
metrics inequality roughly doubled…. that’s music to the ears of Hillary’s
WALL STREET CRONIES!
metrics inequality roughly doubled…. that’s music to the ears of Hillary’s
WALL STREET CRONIES!
POLL:
OBAMA NOT HONEST… Obama is what happens when illegals vote!
SCUMBAG-IN-CHIEF – most Americans (Legals) have finally
caught on that Obama is simply a CON MAN!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/06/gallup-majority-says-obama-not-honest.html
POLL: MOST INCOMPETENT AND DISHONEST PRESIDENT SINCE…. Well, isn’t Obama merely Bush’s THIRD and FOURTH TERMS??
POLL: MOST INCOMPETENT AND DISHONEST PRESIDENT SINCE…. Well, isn’t Obama merely Bush’s THIRD and FOURTH TERMS??
OBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM – A NATION
RULED BY CRIMINAL WALL STREET BANKSTERS AND OBAMA DONORS
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His
Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies
by Michelle Malkin
In her shocking new book, Malkin digs deep into the records of President
Obama's staff, revealing corrupt dealings, questionable pasts, and abuses of
power throughout his administration.
PATRICK BUCHANAN
After Obama has completely destroyed the
American economy, handed millions of jobs to illegals and billions of dollars
in welfare to illegals…. BUT WHAT COMES NEXT?
PATRICK BUCHANAN: The day Barack Obama
destroyed America
THE
MAN THAT CALLED HIS HOAX “HOPE & CHANGE”
'Incompetent' and 'liar' among most frequently used words to
describe the president: Pew Research Center
OBAMA’S WALL STREET-FUNDED WAR on the AMERICAN PEOPLE:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/02/barack-obama-and-wall-streets-war-on.html
The Democrats’ proposal for a trivial increase in
the minimum wage comes as social inequality is hitting unprecedented levels.
The net worth of America’s billionaires reached $1.2 trillion last year, more
than double what it was in 2009. Meanwhile, median household income in the US
plummeted by 8.3 percent between 2007 and 2012.
WALL STREET LOOTS!
THE STAGGERING COST OF OBAMA’S CORPORATE WELFARE PROGRAM:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-staggering-cost-of-obamas-crony.html
LIKE HIS CRONY BANKSTERS, Tech CEOs literally got
access to the Oval Office while the bill was being shaped, the New York Times reported in
those heady early days of Hope and Change, while the CEOs’ lobbyists met down
the hall with top economics aide Jason Furman.
OBAMA and his CRONIES BANKRUPT AMERICA… then send the bills for their LOOTING to the AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/02/obama-bankrupts-america-while-his_19.html
Over seven in 10 Obama voters, and 55 percent of Democrats, regret voting for President Obama's re-election in 2012, according to a new Economist/YouGov.com poll.
“They knew Obama was an unqualified crook;
yet they
promoted him. They knew Obama
was a train wreck waiting to happen; yet they
made him president, to the great injury of
America and the world. They
understood he
was only a figurehead, an egomaniac, and a
liar; yet they made
him king, doing great
harm to our republic (perhaps irreparable.)”
THE
OBAMA YEARS – THE GOLDEN AGE OF BANKSTER LOOTING AND BANKSTER WELFARE…
INCEST!
The case of bankster-owned Barack Obama and crony Jamie Dimon of JP MORGAN…
their looting continues!
“In reality, the
settlement falls far short of holding JPMorgan accountable for its fraudulent
sale of mortgage-backed assets, which netted the bank tens of billions of
dollars in profits while exacerbating the sub-prime mortgage crash that led to
over ten million foreclosures in the US and a global economic downturn that
thrust many millions more into unemployment and poverty.”
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS PARTY UP AND STILL GIVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE
MIDDLE FINGER
'Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people
in the form of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment
crisis.'
MASSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA AS
OBAMA and the DEMOCRAT PARTY PUSH OUR BORDERS OPEN, SABOTAGE E-VERIFY, AND
PROMISE ILLEGALS NO ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT of ILLEGALS…
it’s all about buy the Mexican vote and keeping wages depressed for DEM POL
paymasters!
There are mounting warnings by economists that the US confronts
long-term economic stagnation and high unemployment into the indefinite
future….
"We could cut
unemployment in half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal
workers," said
Representative Lamar Smith
"During the month, some 432,000 people in the US gave up looking for a job." EVEN AS JEB BUSH, HILLARY CLINTON and BERNIE SANDERS PREACH AMNESTY! AMNESTY! AMNESTY!
"The American phenomenon of record stock values fueling an ever greater concentration of wealth at the very top of society, while the economy is starved of productive investment, the social infrastructure crumbles, and working class living standards are driven down by entrenched unemployment, wage-cutting and government austerity policies, is part of a broader global process."
HILLARY CLINTON'S BIGGEST DONORS ARE OBAMA'S CRIMINAL CRONY
BANKSTERS!
"A defining expression of this crisis is the dominance of financial speculation and parasitism, to the point where a narrow international financial aristocracy plunders society’s resources in order to further enrich itself."
Federal Reserve documents stagnant state of US economy
Federal Reserve documents stagnant state of US economy
By Barry Grey
21 July 2015
The US Federal Reserve Board last week released its semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress, providing an assessment of the state of the American economy and outlining the central bank’s monetary policy going forward. The report, along with Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony before both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as a speech by Yellen the previous week in Cleveland, present a grim picture of the reality behind the official talk of economic “recovery.”In her prepared remarks to Congress last Wednesday and Thursday, Yellen said, “Looking forward, prospects are favorable for further improvement in the US labor market and the economy more broadly.”
She reiterated her assurances that while the Fed would likely begin to raise its benchmark federal funds interest rate later this year from the 0.0 to 0.25 percent level it has maintained since shortly after the 2008 financial crash, it would do so only slowly and gradually, keeping short-term rates well below historically normal levels for an indefinite period.
This was an expected, but nevertheless welcome, signal to the American financial elite, which has enjoyed a spectacular rise in corporate profits, stock values and personal wealth since 2009 thanks to the flood of virtually free money provided by the Fed.
"But as Yellen’s remarks and the Fed report indicate, the explosion of asset values and wealth accumulation at the very top of the economic ladder has occurred alongside an intractable and continuing slump in the real economy."
In her prepared testimony to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen noted the following features of the performance of the US economy over the first six months of 2015:
* A sharp decline in the rate of economic growth as compared to 2014, including an actual contraction in the first quarter of the year.
* A substantial slackening (19 percent) in average monthly job-creation, from 260,000 last year to 210,000 thus far in 2015.
* Declines in domestic spending and industrial production.
In her July 10 speech to the City Club of Cleveland, Yellen cited an even longer list of negative indices, including:
* Growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) since the official beginning of the recovery in June, 2009 has averaged a mere 2.25 percent per year, a full one percentage point less than the average rate over the 25 years preceding what Yellen called the “Great Recession.”
* While manufacturing employment nationwide has increased by about 850,000 since the end of 2009, there are still almost 1.5 million fewer manufacturing jobs than just before the recession.
* Real GDP and industrial production both declined in the first quarter of this year. Industrial production continued to fall in April and May.
* Residential construction (despite extremely low mortgage rates by historical standards) has remained “quote soft.”
* Productivity growth has been “weak,” largely because “Business owners and managers… have not substantially increased their capital expenditures,” and “Businesses are holding large amounts of cash on their balance sheets.”
* Reflecting the general stagnation and even slump in the real economy, core inflation rose by only 1.2 percent over the past 12 months.
The Monetary Policy Report issued by the Fed includes facts that are, if anything, even more alarming, including:
* “Labor productivity in the business sector is reported to have declined in both the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015.”
* “Exports fell markedly in the first quarter, held back by lackluster growth abroad.”
* “Overall construction activity remains well below its pre-recession levels.”
* “Since the recession began, the gains in… nominal compensation [workers’ wages and benefits] have fallen well short of their pre-recession averages, and growth of real compensation has fallen short of productivity growth over much of this period.”
* “Overall business investment has turned down as investment in the energy sector has plunged. Business investment fell at an annual rate of 2 percent in first quarter… Business outlays for structures outside of the energy sector also declined in the first quarter…”
The report incorporates the Fed’s projections for US economic growth, published following the June meeting of the central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. They include a downward revision of the projection for 2015 to 1.8 percent-2.0 percent from the March projection of 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent.
That the US economy continues to stagnate and even contract is indicated by two surveys released last week while Yellen was testifying before Congress. The Fed reported that factory production failed to increase in June for the second straight month and output in the auto sector fell 3.7 percent. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales unexpectedly fell in June, declining by 0.3 percent.
These statistics follow the employment report for June, which showed that the share of the US working-age population either employed or actively looking for work, known as the labor force participation rate, fell to 62.6 percent, its lowest level in 38 years. During the month, some 432,000 people in the US gave up looking for a job.
The disastrous figures on business investment are perhaps the most telling indicators of the underlying crisis of the capitalist system. The Fed report attributes the sharp decline so far this year primarily to the dramatic fall in oil prices and resulting contraction in investment and construction in the energy sector. But the plunge in oil prices is itself a symptom of a general slowdown in the world economy.
Moreover, a dramatic decline in productive investment is common to all of the major industrialized economies of Europe and North America. In its World Economic Outlook of last April, the International Monetary Fund for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis acknowledged that there was no prospect for an early return to pre-recession levels of economic growth, linking this bleak prognosis to a general and pronounced decline in productive investment.
The American phenomenon of record stock values fueling an ever greater concentration of wealth at the very top of society, while the economy is starved of productive investment, the social infrastructure crumbles, and working class living standards are driven down by entrenched unemployment, wage-cutting and government austerity policies, is part of a broader global process.
The economic crisis in the US and internationally is not simply a conjunctural downturn. It is a systemic crisis of global capitalism, centered in the US. A defining expression of this crisis is the dominance of financial speculation and parasitism, to the point where a narrow international financial aristocracy plunders society’s resources in order to further enrich itself.
While the economy is starved of productive investment, entirely parasitic and socially destructive activities such as stock buybacks, dividend hikes and mergers and acquisitions return to pre-crash levels and head for new heights. US corporations have spent more on stock buybacks so far this year than on factories and equipment.
The intractable nature of this crisis, within the framework of capitalism, is underscored by the IMF’s updated World Economic Outlook, released earlier this month, which projects that 2015 will be the worst year for economic growth since the height of the recession in 2009.
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