Monday, June 29, 2015

RICK SANTORUM ON OBAMA'S LA RAZA'S ONGOING INVASION - Revealed: Feds predicted surge of illegals, see another 127,000 this year | WashingtonExaminer.com

Revealed: Feds predicted surge of illegals, see another 127,000 this year | WashingtonExaminer.com


“Yet nothing that happens on these borders imperils America so much as what is happening on our own bleeding border with Mexico.” Patrick Buchanan

SEN. RICK SANTORUM:

“Part of the problem, Santorum said, has been the arrival of millions of unskilled immigrants — legal and illegal — in the United States. "American workers deserve a shot at [good] jobs," Santorum said. "Over the last 20 years, we have brought into this country, legally and illegally, 35 MILLION  mostly unskilled workers. And the result, over that same period of time, workers' wages and family incomes have flatlined." SEN. RICK SANTORUM

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/05/where-does-american-worker-stand-in.html


THIS MAY BE ONE OF THE  MOST SHOCKING THINGS YOU WILL READ ABOUT THE MEX INVASION!
SOMEDAY IS HERE TODAY!

A NATION SURRENDERS TO LA RAZA SUPREMACY!


HOW MANY ILLEGALS WERE DEPORTED FROM YOUR COUNTY?

A county by county chart:


Perhaps because of all of these factos, a Reuters poll found that 70% of Americans, including 86% of Republicans, believe illegal immigrants "threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs," while 63% believe that "immigrants place a burden on the economy."

 

Byron York: What is the real number of illegal border crossings?

                                                                                                                                                                                  


 
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???
AN AMERICAN SEES and SPEAKS…
REALITY OF THE LA RAZA SUPREMACIST OCCUPATION:
I'm half Mexican, I live on the U.S. / Mexico international border - exactly 1.6 miles from the International bridge.
Listen, the VAST majority of these ILLEGAL SQUATERS do NOT - I repeat - DO NOT want to become U.S. citizens.
They see the U.S. as a MEAL TICKET, they DON'T want to pay taxes, wave an American flag, learn our language or follow our laws.
Mexico - far, far away from the fancy seaside resorts some of you all may have visited is a HELL HOLE.
These ILLEGAL ALIENS see the U.S. as an extension of "their area" with NO CONCERN or aspirations to be "Americans."
REALITY CHECK:
"The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."  --- Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico
40% of Federal Criminal Cases in 2013 Were
 
in Districts on Mexican Border
Non-deportation rate drops — to 99.2 percent
By Stephen Dinan             
Saturday, May 18, 2013
The Homeland Security Department has granted legal status to 99.2 percent of all illegal immigrants who have applied under President Obama's new non-deportation policy for young adults, according to the latest numbers released Friday.
DEPORTATION LIES: Obama’s conspiracy to surrender to our borders to Mexico as he fights for the borders of Muslim dictators over there.
 
 
 
 
 
 

THE LA RAZA INVASION BY INVITATION CONTINUES - Revealed: Feds predicted surge of illegals, see another 127,000 this year | WashingtonExaminer.com

Revealed: Feds predicted surge of illegals, see another 127,000 this year | WashingtonExaminer.com


SEN. RICK SANTORUM:

“Part of the problem, Santorum said, has been the arrival of millions of unskilled immigrants — legal and illegal — in the United States. "American workers deserve a shot at [good] jobs," Santorum said. "Over the last 20 years, we have brought into this country, legally and illegally, 35 MILLION  mostly unskilled workers. And the result, over that same period of time, workers' wages and family incomes have flatlined." SEN. RICK SANTORUM

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/05/where-does-american-worker-stand-in.html



THIS MAY BE ONE OF THE  MOST SHOCKING THINGS YOU WILL READ ABOUT THE MEX INVASION!


SOMEDAY IS HERE TODAY!

A NATION SURRENDERS TO LA RAZA SUPREMACY!
HOW MANY ILLEGALS WERE DEPORTED FROM YOUR COUNTY?

A county by county chart:



Perhaps because of all of these factos, a Reuters poll found that 70% of Americans, including

86% of Republicans, believe illegal immigrants "threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs,"

while 63% believe that "immigrants place a burden on the economy."

 

Byron York: What is the real number of illegal border crossings?

                                                                                                                                                                                  




PATRICK BUCHANAN: OBAMA’S ASSAULT  ON AMERICA BEGINS AT OUR BORDERS

 
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/06/patrick-j-buchanan-when-obama-turned.html


“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???


 
AN AMERICAN SEES and SPEAKS…

REALITY OF THE LA RAZA SUPREMACIST OCCUPATION:


I'm half Mexican, I live on the U.S. / Mexico international border - exactly 1.6 miles from the International bridge.

Listen, the VAST majority of these ILLEGAL SQUATERS do NOT - I repeat - DO NOT want to become U.S. citizens.

They see the U.S. as a MEAL TICKET, they DON'T want to pay taxes, wave an American flag, learn our language or follow our laws.

Mexico - far, far away from the fancy seaside resorts some of you all may have visited is a HELL HOLE.

These ILLEGAL ALIENS see the U.S. as an extension of "their area" with NO CONCERN or aspirations to be "Americans."

 

REALITY CHECK:

"The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."  --- Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico

40% of Federal Criminal Cases in 2013 Were in Districts on Mexican Border



Non-deportation rate drops — to 99.2 percent

By Stephen Dinan             

Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Homeland Security Department has granted legal status to 99.2 percent of all illegal immigrants who have applied under President Obama's new non-deportation policy for young adults, according to the latest numbers released Friday.

 


 

DEPORTATION LIES: Obama’s conspiracy to surrender to our borders to Mexico as he fights for the borders of Muslim dictators over there.




LOS ANGELES, WHERE LA RAZA LOOT FIRST – The LA RAZA WELFARE STATE THE DEMOCRAT PARTY CREATED IN JUST ONE COUNTY COST LEGALS MORE THAN A BILLION!


Know any Americans (Legals) that voted to expand Mexico’s looting??? It’s your county  property taxes at work…. FOR MEXICO!

 “With $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $444 million in welfare allocations, the total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year – not including the millions of dollars for education.” Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

Twenty five percent of the all welfare and food stamps benefits is going directly to the children of illegal aliens. Illegals collected over $20 million in welfare assistance for November 2007 and over $16 million in monthly food stamp allocations for a projected annual cost of $444 million.

JERRY BROWN HANDS ANOTHER $132 MILLION IN “FREE” GRINGO-PAID WELFARE TO ILLEGALS…. more to come!


“Californians bear an enormous fiscal burden as a result of an illegal alien population estimated at almost 3 million residents. The annual expenditure of state and local tax dollars on services for that population is $25.3 billion. That total amounts to a yearly burden of about $2,370 for a household headed by a U.S. citizen.”
 
REPORT: ALIEN NATION – How the American people permitted the U.S. tax supported Mexican Fascist Party of LA RAZA “The Race” invade, occupy and loot America.



AMERICA’S THIRD-WORLD INVASION… isn’t it

really ONLY about keeping wages depressed???


 





 

THE LOOTING of AMERICA - American CEOs paid 300 times more than workers


OBAMA-CLINTONomics and the death of the American middle-class they looted

“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.”




”The delusional character of Obama’s State of the Union

address on Tuesday—presenting an America of rising living

standards and a booming economy, capped by his declaration

that the “shadow of crisis has passed”—is perhaps matched

only in its presentation by the media and supporters of the

Democratic Party.”



 
“The general tone was set by the New York Times in its lead

editorial on Wednesday, which described the speech as a

“simple, dramatic message about economic fairness, about

the fact that the well-off—the top earners, the big banks,

Silicon Valley—have done just great, while middle and

working classes remain dead in the water.”

THE ENTIRE REASON FOR AMNESTY IS TO KEEP WAGES

DEPRESSED AND PASS ALONG THE REAL COST OF ALL

THAT "CHEAP" MEXICAN LABOR TO THE BACKS OF THE

AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS THROUGH TAXES FOR

WELFARE!


ROBERT RECTOR: Importing poverty…. WE ALSO IMPORT ALL THEIR CRIMINALS




JUDICIAL WATCH: 165,000 MEX CRIMINALS ON THE LOSE.
IT’S ALL PART OF OBAMA’S CATCH, RELEASE, LOOT AND VOTE DEM PROGRAM!


“Until lawmakers end the catch-and-release policies of the Obama administration,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies, “any infrastructure improvements, new strategies, and better metrics are pointless.”
 

MEXICO’S WELFARE STATE in AMERICA’S OPEN and UNDEFENDED BORDERS:



 
“THE AMNESTY ALONE WILL BE THE LARGEST EXPANSION OF THE WELFARE SYSTEM IN THE LAST 25 YEARS” Heritage Foundation
"The amnesty alone will be the largest expansion of the welfare system in the last 25 years," says Robert Rector, a senior analyst at the Heritage Foundation, and a witness at a House Judiciary Committee field hearing in San Diego Aug. 2. "Welfare costs will begin to hit their peak around 2021, because there are delays in citizenship. The very narrow time horizon [the CBO is] using is misleading," he adds. "If even a small fraction of those who come into the country stay and get on Medicaid, you're looking at costs of $20 billion or $30 billion per year." (THE STATE of CALIFORNIA PUTS OUT $30 BILLION IN SOCIAL SERVICES ON THE STATE LEVEL ALONE!)

THE CRONY CLASS:

OBAMACLINTONOMICS was created by 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



American CEOs paid 300 times more than workers

American CEOs paid 300 times more than workers

By David Brown
29 June 2015
A new study by the Economic Policy Institute showed that while

worker pay has stagnated since the economic crash of 2008, CEO

pay has skyrocketed. While the average worker made the same in

2014 as they did in 2009, CEO compensation rose by 54.3 percent

in the same period.

The average pay for CEOs at the largest US firms in 2014 was 303.4 times the pay of an average worker. CEOs averaged $16.3 million, up 3.9 percent from 2013, while the average worker in 2014 only made $53,200. In practical terms, that means a top CEO takes home more than a worker makes in a year after 8 hours on the job.

The standard justification for this obscene disparity is that CEOs are highly skilled individuals who significantly impact corporate productivity and ultimately “create” thousands and thousands of jobs. Then, so the myth goes, there is stiff competition among the largest companies to hire the best CEOs, which drives the exorbitant compensation packages.

The study examined compensation packages for CEOs at the top 350 US firms from 1965 to 2014. The authors then compared them with the average wages of workers, the wages of high-earning workers and stock market values. Researchers found that “CEO pay does not reflect greater productivity of executives but rather the power of CEOs to extract concessions.”

The report debunks the claim that growing CEO compensation is simply the result of a competitive market for skilled professionals, the argument advanced by the CATO institute and other think tanks. When compared to the top 0.1 percent of wage earners, CEOs make 5.84 times as much. Moreover, this gap is widening. Other measures of compensation relative to skill pale in comparison. College graduates, for instance, only earn 1.82 times as much as high school graduates.

Historically speaking, the rise in CEO compensation is tied to the global decline of American capitalism and the increasing financialization of the economy. In 1965 the ratio of CEO to worker pay was 20 to 1. By 1978 the ratio had only grown to 30 to 1. It was only in the 90s that CEO pay reached absurd heights, rising from 59 to 1 in 1989 to 376 to 1 in 2000.

By then CEO compensation was increasingly directly tied to stock

prices, such that the dot-com crash in 2000 saw the ratio drop to

189 to 1. CEO pay then rebounded with the growing financial

bubble to near record highs before crashing with the market in

2008. As a whole, between 1978 and 2014, CEO pay grew by 997

percent while worker pay grew by only 11 percent.

The current growth in CEO pay is directly tied to the quantitative easing program of the Federal Reserve, which has driven share buybacks and speculation, pushing markets to record highs while undermining the actual productive forces in the economy.

A report in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year showed that the companies in the S&P 500 index had “sharply increased their spending on dividends and buybacks to a median 36 percent of operating cash flow, from 18 percent in 2003.” This doubling in one decade was accompanied by a decline in investment in production.

A particularly sharp example of this occurred with the announcement by General Motors last March that they would buy back $5 billion worth of stock and increase dividend payouts by another $5 billion. GM stock shot up 4 percent immediately after the announcement.

While the maneuver netted massive profits for investors, senior autoworkers at GM have had their wages frozen since 2007 while the wages of new hires were cut in half as part of the 2009 bankruptcy and bailout. Rather than use any of their $25 billion cash hoard to invest in new production or raise workers' wages, that money went to padding the portfolios of investors and corporate executives.

Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, was given $16.2 million in compensation in 2014. That includes a $1.6 million salary, $2.1 million in other incentives and $11.8 million in company stock.




“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.”


Sen. Bernie Sanders – America’s answer to
Wall Street’s looting, the war on the American
middle-class and jobs for legals!




THE LOOTING 1% LOVE HILLARY AND OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS!

“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.”



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.”


 
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.

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.

OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS:

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.



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."

JUDICIAL WATCH:

BARACK OBAMA and the DEATH of the AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS.




"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.