The millennial generation in the US: Life on the brink
For the American ruling elite, life has
never been better.
The father of US Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin just completed the most expensive
purchase of a living artist’s work in US
history, spending over $91 million on a three-
foot-tall metallic sculpture. Ken Griffin, the
founder of hedge fund Citadel, recently
dropped $238 million on a penthouse in New
York City, the most expensive US home ever
purchased. And Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the
world’s richest man, has invested $42 million
in a 10,000-year clock.
The stock market is booming, and President Donald Trump is boasting at every turn that the unemployment rate is lower than it has been in five decades.
However, the working class, the vast majority of the population, is confronting an unprecedented social, economic, health and psychological crisis. The same processes that have produced vast sums of wealth for the ruling elite have left millions of workers on the brink of existence.
Perhaps no segment of the population reflects the devastating consequences of these processes so starkly as the generation of young people deemed the “millennials,” those born roughly between the years 1981 and 1996. More than half the 72 million American millennials are now in their 30s, with the oldest turning 38 this year.
A recent exposé by the Wall Street Journal noted that millennials are “in worse financial shape than prior living generations and may not recover.” The article, “Millennials Near Middle Age in Crisis,” concludes by stating that people born in the 1980s are at risk of becoming “America’s Lost generation.”
The older side of this generation was born at the beginning of the Reagan years, which heralded in an era of social counter-revolution against the working class that saw the dismantling of much of the industrial infrastructure of the country, and the restructuring of economic life to benefit the banks, hedge funds and other financial firms, with the collaboration of the trade unions.
By the time these youth reached the job market, the 2008 financial crash hit, vastly accelerating all of the processes begun in the 1980s. The Obama administration organized the bailout of the banks and a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich.
The results have been devastating.
Education
More millennials have a college degree than any other generation of young adults. In 2013, 47 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds received a postsecondary degree. For most, however, getting a college education has not led to a significant increase in quality of living.
Instead, millions of young people are working jobs for which they are vastly overqualified and are shackled with unprecedented levels of debt. For the millennials who did not go to college, the situation is even worse.
- Millennials have taken on 300 percent more student debt than their parents’ generation. [Source: The College Board, Trends in Student Aid 2013]
- The number of hours of minimum wage work needed to pay in-state tuition and fees for each year of a four-year public college for the “Baby Boomer” generation (born between 1946 and 1964) was 510. For millennials, it is 1996. [Source: National Center for Education Statistics. Calculations based on four-year public universities from 1973–1976 and 2003–2006]
- Since 2010, the economy has added 11.6 million jobs, and 11.5 million of them have gone to workers with at least some college education. In 2016, young workers with only a high school diploma had roughly triple the unemployment rate and three-and-a-half times the poverty rate of college grads. [Source: America’s Divided Recovery, Georgetown University]
- Average college debt for millennials that have debt is around $33,000, with the median household income remaining the same since 1999. [Source: PEW Research and USA Today]
- National college debt is now at $1.3 trillion, and college tuition has increased by 1,140 percent since the late 1970s. [Source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts]
- By 2014, 48 percent of workers with bachelor’s degrees are employed in jobs for which they’re overqualified. [Source: Labor Economist Stephen Rose, published by Urban Institute.]
"While America’s working and
middle class have been subjected to compete for jobs against
a constant flow of cheaper foreign workers — where more than 1.2
million mostly low-skilled immigrants are admitted to the country annually
— the billionaire class has experienced historic
salary gains." Sen. Josh
Hawley
Graph from
the Economic Policy Institute
Decades of
decaying capitalism have led to this accelerating divide. While the rich
accumulate wealth with no restriction, workers’ wages and benefits have been
under increasing attack. In 1979, 90 percent of the population took in 70
percent of the nation’s income. But, by 2017, that fell to only 61 percent.
"This
is how they will destroy America from within. The leftist
billionaires who orchestrate these plans are wealthy. Those tasked
with representing us in Congress will never be exposed to the
cost of the invasion of millions of migrants. They have nothing
but contempt for those of us who must endure the consequences of
our
communities being intruded upon by gang members, drug dealers and
human
traffickers. These
people have no intention of becoming Americans; like the Democrats
who welcome them, they have contempt for us." PATRICIA
McCARTHY
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government
owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To
destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between
corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of
today.” THEODORE ROOSEVELT
"But what the Clintons do is criminal because they do it wholly at
the expense of the American people. And they feel thoroughly entitled to do it:
gain power, use it to enrich themselves and their friends. They are amoral,
immoral, and venal. Hillary has no core beliefs beyond power and money. That
should be clear to every person on the planet by now." ----
Patricia McCarthy - AMERICANTHINKER.com
“The couple parlayed lives supposedly spent in “public service”
into admission into the upper stratosphere of American wealth, with incomes in the top 0.1 percent bracket. The source of this vast wealth was a political machine that might well be dubbed “Clinton, Inc.” This consists essentially of a seedy money-laundering operation to ensure big business support for the Clintons’ political ambitions as well as their personal fortunes."
into admission into the upper stratosphere of American wealth, with incomes in the top 0.1 percent bracket. The source of this vast wealth was a political machine that might well be dubbed “Clinton, Inc.” This consists essentially of a seedy money-laundering operation to ensure big business support for the Clintons’ political ambitions as well as their personal fortunes."
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.
Watch–Josh Hawley Rips ‘Aristocratic Elite’ for Engineering U.S. Economy Against American Middle Class
JOHN BINDER
16 May 2019184
6:00
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) ripped what he called the country’s “new
aristocratic elite” for engineering the United States economy against the
American middle class.
For
his first major speech on the Senate floor, Hawley slammed the “big banks, big
tech, big multi-national corporations, along with their allies in the academy
and the media,” whom he said have created an economic structure in which they,
the well-connected, benefit while the American working and middle class
increasingly struggle to get ahead.
Hawley
said:
The chattering class often tells us that all of this—the jobs,
the despair, the loss of standing—is the result of forces beyond anyone’s
control. As if that’s an excuse to do nothing. But in fact,
it’s not true. [Emphasis added]
Today’s society benefits those who shaped it, and it has been
shaped not by working men and women, but by the new aristocratic elite. Big
banks, big tech, big multi-national corporations, along with their allies in
the academy and the media—these are the aristocrats of our age. They live
in the United States, but they consider themselves citizens of the
world. [Emphasis added]
They
operate businesses or run universities here, but their primary loyalty
is to their own agenda for a more unified, progressive—and profitable—global
order. These modern aristocrats often claim to be a meritocracy. And many
of them truly believe they are. What they don’t see, or won’t acknowledge, is
that the society they have built works mainly for themselves. They’ve
effectively run this country for decades. And their legacy is national division
and national decline. [Emphasis added]
Defending
the needs of the American middle class against a growingly powerful
“aristocratic elite” is the “crisis of our time,” Hawley asserted.
“After
years of sacrifice, the great American middle is being pushed aside by a new,
arrogant aristocracy,” Hawley said. “The new aristocrats seek to remake society
in their own image: to engineer an economy that works for the elite but few
else, to fashion a culture that is dominated by their own preferences.”
“This
town has embraced a politics of elite values and elite ambition rather than
building opportunities to thrive in the great and broad American middle. This
has left middle America—the great American middle class—under siege: battling
the loss of respect and work, the decline of home and family, an epidemic of
loneliness and despair,” Hawley continued. “This is the crisis of our time.”
Specifically,
Hawley blasted multinational corporations for outsourcing American middle class
jobs overseas — wreaking economic, cultural, and social havoc on rural and
small town American communities in the process — and both political
establishments for treating American citizens as mere consumers.
“In
places like the one where I grew up, in middle Missouri, good-paying jobs that
you can raise a family on are going away,” Hawley said. “The jobs go overseas
or south of the border or to cities on the coasts. And once-vibrant towns
decline, taking with them the network of schools and neighborhoods and churches
that make up middle class life.”
Hawley
continued:
Rural
America has been particularly hard hit. Rural Americans’ life
expectancy has not just leveled off, its actually dropped, and for women
without a high school degree, that drop has been staggering. In some rural
places, residents struggle with outright deprivation. [Emphasis added]
My home state contains some of the poorest counties in America,
all in rural places that once boasted thriving small towns. As those
communities struggle, want sets in. But the crisis reaches well beyond
economics. [Emphasis added]
The message that Washington has sent our whole society is loud
and clear: our elites are the people who matter—and those
who aspire to join them. Everyone else is unimportant or backwards.
And millions of Americans are left with the sense that the people who
run this country view them with nothing but contempt and value them as nothing
but consumers. [Emphasis added]
Indeed,
working and middle class Americans have been hit the hardest from decades-long
political consensus between the Republican establishment and Democrats.
Recent research revealed that while coastal, elite metropolis cities have flourished in the last decade, small town and rural American communities have suffered depopulation, mass job loss, and continued economic strain since the Great Recession.
For
instance, by 2016, elite zip codes had a surplus of 3.6 million jobs,
which is more than the combined bottom 80 percent of American zip codes. While
it only took about five years for wealthy cities to replace the jobs lost by
the recession, it took “at risk” regions of the country a decade to recover,
and “distressed” U.S. communities are “unlikely ever to recover on current
trendlines,” the report predicts.
Economic
growth among the country’s middle-class counties and middle-class zip codes has
considerably trailed national economic growth. For example, between 2012 and
2016, there were 4.4 percent more business establishments in the country as a
whole. That growth was less than two percent in the median zip code and there
was close to no growth in the median county.
While America’s working and middle class have been subjected to
compete for jobs against a constant flow of cheaper foreign workers — where
more than 1.2 million mostly low-skilled immigrants are admitted to the country
annually — the billionaire class has experienced historic salary gains.
A
study by the Economic Policy Institute found that the country’s
top 0.01 percent have enjoyed more than 15 times as much wage growth as the
bottom 90 percent of wage earners. Between 1979 and 2017, working and middle
class Americans’ wages grew by only 22 percent. On the other hand, the
plutocrat class saw their salaries grow by more than 155 percent over the same
period.
Likewise,
free trade deals like NAFTA — supported by Republicans and Democrats — as well
as China’s entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) has eliminated nearly five
million American manufacturing jobs across the country,
devastating steel towns and U.S. autoworkers. One former steel town in
West Virginia lost 94
percent of its steel jobs because of NAFTA, with nearly 10,000 workers in
the town being displaced from the steel industry.
Billionaire Class
Enjoys 15X the Wage Growth of American Working Class
AFP
3:00
The billionaire class — the country’s top
0.01 percent of earners — have enjoyed more than 15 times as much wage growth
as America’s working and middle class since 1979, new wage data reveals.
Between 1979
and 2017, the wages of the bottom 90 percent — the country’s working and lower
middle class — have grown by only about 22 percent, Economic Policy Institute
(EPI) researchers find.
Compare that
small wage increase over nearly four decades to the booming wage growth of
America’s top one percent, who have seen their wages grow more than 155 percent
during the same period.
Breitbart TV
The top 0.01
percent — the country’s billionaire class — saw their wages grow by more
than 343 percent in the last four decades, more than 15 times the wage
growth of the bottom 90 percent of Americans.
In 1979,
America’s working class was earning on average about $29,600 a year. Fast
forward to 2017, and the same bottom 90 percent of Americans are earning only
about $6,600 more annually.
The almost
four decades of wage stagnation among the country’s working and middle class
comes as the national immigration policy has allowed for the admission of more
than 1.5 million mostly low-skilled immigrants every year.
(Public
Citizen)
In the last
decade, alone, the U.S. admitted ten million legal
immigrants, forcing American workers to compete against a growing population of
low-wage workers. Meanwhile, employers are able to reduce wages and drive up
their profit margins thanks to the annual low-skilled immigration scheme.
The
Washington, DC-imposed mass immigration policy is a
boon to corporate executives, Wall Street, big business, and multinational
conglomerates as every one percent increase in the immigrant composition of an
occupation’s labor force reduces Americans’ hourly wages by 0.4 percent. Every one percent
increase in the immigrant workforce reduces Americans’ overall wages by 0.8
percent.
Mass
immigration has come at the expense of America’s working and middle class,
which has suffered from poor job growth, stagnant wages, and increased public
costs to offset the importation of millions of low-skilled foreign nationals.
Four million
young Americans enter the workforce every year, but their job opportunities are
further diminished as the U.S. imports roughly two new foreign workers for
every four American workers who enter the workforce. Even though researchers
say 30 percent of the workforce could lose their jobs due to automation
by 2030, the U.S. has not stopped importing more than a million foreign
nationals every year.
For
blue-collar American workers, mass immigration has not only kept wages down but
in many cases decreased wages, as Breitbart News reported. Meanwhile, the U.S.
continues importing more foreign nationals with whom working-class
Americans are forced to compete. In 2016, the U.S. brought in about 1.8 million
mostly low-skilled immigrants.
Study: Elite
Zip Codes Thrived in Obama Recovery, Rural America Left Behind
Getty Images
4:49
Wealthy cities and elite zip codes thrived
under the slow-moving economic recovery of President Obama while rural American
communities were left behind, a study reveals.
The Economic
Innovation Group research, highlighted by Axios, details the massive economic
inequality between the country’s coastal city elites and middle America’s
working class between the Great Recession in 2007 and Obama’s economic recovery
in 2016.
Between 2007
and 2016, the number of residents living in elite zip codes grew by more than
ten million, with an overwhelming faction of that population growth being
driven by mass immigration where the U.S. imports more than 1.5 million illegal
and legal immigrants annually.
The booming
44.5 million immigrant populations are concentrated mostly in the country’s
major cities like Los Angeles, California, Miami Florida, and New York City,
New York. The rapidly growing U.S. population — driven by immigration — is set
to hit 404 millionby 2060, a
boon for real estate developers, wealthy investors, and corporations, all of
which benefit greatly from dense populations and a flooded labor market.
The economic
study found that while the population grew in wealthy cities, America’s rural
population fell by nearly 3.5 million residents.
Likewise, by
2016, elite zip codes had a surplus of 3.6 million jobs, which is more than the
combined bottom 80 percent of American zip codes. While it only took about five
years for wealthy cities to replace the jobs lost by the recession, it took “at
risk” regions of the country a decade to recover, and “distressed” U.S.
communities are “unlikely ever to recover on current trendlines,” the report
predicts.
A map
included in the research shows how rich, coastal metropolises have boomed
economically while entire portions of middle America have been left behind as
job and business gains remain concentrated at the top of the income ladder.
(Economic Innovation Group)
(Economic Innovation Group)
Economic
growth among the country’s middle-class counties and middle-class zip codes has
considerably trailed national economic growth, the study found.
For example,
between 2012 and 2016, there were 4.4 percent more business establishments in
the country as a whole. That growth was less than two percent in the median zip
code and there was close to no growth in the median county.
The same can
be said of employment growth, where U.S. employment grew by about 9.3 percent
from 2012 to 2016. In the median zip code, though, employment grew by only 5.5
percent and in the median county, employment grew by less than four percent.
“Nearly
three in every five large counties added businesses on net over the period,
compared to only one in every five small one,” the report concluded.
Elite zip
codes added more business establishments during Obama’s economic recovery,
between 2012 and 2016, than the entire bottom 80 percent of zip codes combined.
For instance, while more than 180,000 businesses have been added to rich zip
codes, the country’s bottom tier has lost more than 13,000 businesses even
after the economic recovery.
(Economic Innovation Group)
(Economic Innovation Group)
The gutting
of the American manufacturing base, through free trade, has been a driving catalyst for
the collapse of the white working class and black Americans. Simultaneously, the
outsourcing of the economy has brought major wealth to corporations, tech
conglomerates, and Wall Street.
The dramatic
decline of U.S. manufacturing at the hands of free trade—where more than 3.4 million American jobs have been
lost solely due to free trade with China, not including the American jobs lost
due to agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the
United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS)—has coincided with growing
wage inequality for white and black Americans, a growing number of single
mother households, a drop in U.S. marriage rates, a general stagnation of
working and middle class wages, and specifically, increased black American
unemployment.
“So, the
loss of manufacturing work since 1960 represents a steady decline in relatively
high-paying jobs for less-educated workers,” recent research
from economist Eric D. Gould has noted.
Fast-forward
to the modern economy and the wage trend has been the opposite of what it was
during the peak of manufacturing in the U.S. An Economic Policy Institute studyfound this year that been 2009 and 2015, the
top one percent of American families earned about 26 times as much income
as the bottom 99 percent of Americans.
Record high income in 2017 for top one percent of wage earners
in US
In 2017, the top one percent of US wage
earners received their highest paychecks ever, according to a report by the
Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
Based on newly released data from the
Social Security Administration, the EPI shows that the top one percent of the
population saw their paychecks increase by 3.7 percent in 2017—a rate nearly
quadruple the bottom 90 percent of the population. The growth was driven by the
top 0.1 percent, which includes many CEOs and corporate executives, whose pay
increased eight percent and averaged $2,757,000 last year.
The EPI report is only the latest
exposure of the gaping inequality between the vast majority of the population
and the modern-day aristocracy that rules over them.
The EPI shows that the bottom 90 percent
of wage earners have increased their pay by 22.2 percent between 1979 and 2017.
Today, this bottom 90 percent makes an average of just $36,182 a year, which is
eaten up by the cost of housing and the growing burden of education, health
care, and retirement.
Meanwhile, the top one percent has
increased its wages by 157 percent during this same period, a rate seven times
faster than the other group. This top segment makes an average of $718,766 a
year. Those in-between, the 90th to 99th percentile, have increased their wages
by 57.4 percent. They now make an average of $152,476 a year—more than four
times the bottom 90 percent.
Graph from the Economic Policy Institute
Decades of decaying capitalism have led
to this accelerating divide. While the rich accumulate wealth with no
restriction, workers’ wages and benefits have been under increasing attack. In
1979, 90 percent of the population took in 70 percent of the nation’s income.
But, by 2017, that fell to only 61 percent.
Even more, while the bottom 90 percent
of the population may take in 61 percent of the wages, large sections of the
workforce today barely pull in any income at all. For example, Social
Security Administration data found that the bottom 54 percent of wage earners
in the United States, 89.5 million people, make an average of just $15,100 a
year. This 54 percent of the population earns only 17 percent of all wages paid
in America.
However unequal, these wage inequalities
still do not fully present the divide between rich and poor. The ultra-wealthy
derive their wealth not primarily from wages, but from assets and
equities—principally from the stock market. While the bottom 90 percent of the
population made 61 percent of the wages in 2017, they owned even less, just 27
percent of the wealth (according to the World Inequality Report 2018 by
Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman).
The massive increase in the value of the
stock
market, which only a small segment of the
population participates in, means that the top 10
percent of the population controls 73 percent of all
wealth in the United States. Just three men—Jeff
Bezos, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates—had more
wealth than the bottom half of America combined
last year.
Wages are so low in the United States
that roughly half of the population falls deeper into debt every year. A
Reuters report from July found that the pretax net income (that is, income
minus expense) of the bottom 40 percent of the population was an average
of negative $11,660. Even the middle quintile of the
population, the 40th to 60th percentile, breaks even with an average of only
$2,836 a year.
As the Social Security Administration
numbers show, 67.4 percent of the population made less than the average wage,
$48,250 a year in 2017, a sum that is inadequate to support a family in many
cities—especially, with high housing costs, health care, education, and
retirement factored in.
For the ruling class, though, workers’
wages are already too much. The volatility of the stock market and the deep
fear that the current bull market will collapse has made politicians and
businessmen anxious of any sign of wage increases.
In August, wages in the US rose just 0.2
percent above the inflation rate, the highest in nine years. Though the
increase was tiny, it was enough to encourage the Federal Reserve to increase
the interest rate past two percent for the first time since 2008. Raising
interest rates helps to depress workers’ wages by lowering borrowing and spending.
As the Financial Times noted, stopping wage growth was
“central” to the Federal Reserve’s move.
Further analysis of the Social Security
Administration data shows that in 2017, 147,754 people reported wages of 1
million dollars or more—roughly, the top 0.05 percent. Their combined total
income of $372 billion could pay for the US federal education budget five times
over.
These wages, however large, still pale
in comparison to the money the ultra-rich acquire from the stock market. For
example, share buybacks and dividend payments, a way of funneling money to
shareholders, will eclipse $1 trillion this year.
Whatever the immediate source, the
wealth of the rich derives from the great mass of people who do the actual
work. Across the United States and around the world, workers, young people, and
students have entered into struggle this year over pay, education, health care,
immigration, war and democratic rights. This growing movement of the working
class must set as its aim confiscating the wealth and power of this tiny
parasitic oligarchy. Society’s wealth must be democratically controlled by
those who produce it.
THE STAGGERING ECONOMIC INEQUALITY UNDER OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION SERVING THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS.
THE ENTIRE REASON BEHIND AMNESTY IS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED AND
PASS ALONG THE REAL COST OF "CHEAP" MEXICAN LABOR TO THE AMERICAN
MIDDLE CLASS.
AND IT'S WORKING!
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS
“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
YOU THOUGHT OBAMA INVITED OBAMANOMICS and started the assault on
the American middle-class?
NOPE!
“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.”
Clinton Foundation Put On Watch List
Of Suspicious ‘Charities’
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.
Millionaires projected to own
46 percent of global private wealth by 2019
By Gabriel
Black
Households with more than a million (US) dollars in private
wealth are projected to own 46 percent of global private wealth in 2019
according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
This large percentage, however, only includes cash, savings,
money market funds and listed securities held through managed
investments—collectively known as “private wealth.” It leaves out businesses,
residences and luxury goods, which comprise a substantial portion of the rich’s
net worth.
At the end of 2014, millionaire households owned about 41
percent of global private wealth, according to BCG. This means that
collectively these 17 million households owned roughly $67.24 trillion in
liquid assets, or about $4 million per household.
In total, the world added $17.5 trillion of new private wealth
between 2013 and 2014. The report notes that nearly three quarters of all these
gains came from previously existing wealth. In other words, the vast majority
of money gained has been due to pre-existing assets increasing in value—not the
creation of new material things.
This trend is the result of the massive infusions of cheap
credit into the financial markets by central banks. The policy of “quantitative
easing” has led to a dramatic expansion of the stock market even while global
economic growth has slumped.
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.
Those families with wealth between $20 and $100 million also
rose substantially in 2014—seeing a 34 percent increase in their wealth in
twelve short months. They now own $9 trillion. In five years they will surpass
$14 trillion according to the report.
Coming in last in the “high net worth” population are those with
between $1 million and $20 million in private wealth. These households are
expected to see their wealth grow by 7.2 percent each year, going from $49
trillion to $70.1 trillion dollars, several percentage points below the highest
bracket’s 12 percent growth rate.
The gains in private wealth of the ultra-rich stand in sharp
contrast to the experience of billions of people around the globe. While wealth
accumulation has sharply sped up for the ultra-wealthy, the vast majority of
people have not even begun to recover from the past recession.
An Oxfam report from January, for example, shows that the bottom 99
percent of the world’s population went from having about 56 percent of the
world’s wealth in 2010 to having 52 percent of it in 2014. Meanwhile the top 1
percent saw its wealth rise from 44 to 48 percent of the world’s wealth.
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.
As the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) has noted, in the United States “between 2007 and 2013, net wealth fell
on average 2.3 percent, but it fell ten-times more (26 percent) for those at
the bottom 20 percent of the distribution.” The 2015 report concludes that
“low-income households have not benefited at all from income growth.”
Another report by Knight Frank, looks at those
with wealth exceeding $30 million. The report notes that in 2014 these 172,850
ultra-high-net-worth individuals increased their collective wealth by $700
billion. Their total wealth now rests at $20.8 trillion.
The report also draws attention to the disconnection between the
rich and the actual economy. It states that the growth of this ultra-wealthy
population “came despite weaker-than-anticipated global economic growth. During
2014 the IMF was forced to downgrade its forecast increase for world output
from 3.7 percent to 3.3 percent.”
HILLARY CLINTON: CRONY CLASS’ “Hope and Change”
huckster’s successor!
“I serve Obama’s cronies first, illegals second and together we
will loot the American middle-class to double our figures. It’s called
BAILOUTS! Evita Peron Clinton
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.
Sen. Bernie Sanders – America’s answer to Wall Street’s 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 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
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.
WHO REALLY PAYS FOR THE CRIMES OF
OBAMA’S CRONY DONORS???
LAST WEEK BARACK OBAMA CELEBRATED FIVE
YEARS OF THE LOOTING BY HIS WALL STREET BANKSTERS… now it’s back to cutting
social programs to pay for all that rape by the 1% he represents. The following
week it will be back to the AMNESTY HOAX to legalize Mexico’s looting of
America and make it legal that Mexicans get our jobs first… they already do!
As in previous budget crises under the
Obama administration, the events are being stage-managed by the two
corporate-controlled parties to give the illusion of partisan gridlock and
confrontation over principles—in this case, whether to go forward with the
implementation of the Obama health care program—while behind the scenes all
factions within the ruling elite agree that massive cuts must be carried
through in basic federal social programs.
OBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM – A NATION
RULED BY CRIMINAL WALL STREET BANKSTERS AND OBAMA DONORS
GET THIS BOOK
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?
OBAMANOMICS: IS IT WORKING???
Millionaires projected to own 46 percent
of global private wealth by 2019
By
Gabriel Black
Households with more than a million (US) dollars in private wealth are
projected to own 46 percent of global private wealth in 2019 according to a new
report by the Boston Consulting
Group (BCG).
This large percentage, however, only
includes cash, savings, money market funds and listed securities held through
managed investments—collectively known as “private wealth.” It leaves out
businesses, residences and luxury goods, which comprise a substantial portion
of the rich’s net worth.
At the end of 2014, millionaire households
owned about 41 percent of global private wealth, according to BCG. This means
that collectively these 17 million households owned roughly $67.24 trillion in
liquid assets, or about $4 million per household.
In total, the world added $17.5 trillion
of new private wealth between 2013 and 2014. The report notes that nearly three
quarters of all these gains came from previously existing wealth. In other
words, the vast majority of money gained has been due to pre-existing assets
increasing in value—not the creation of new material things.
This trend is the result of the massive
infusions of cheap credit into the financial markets by central banks. The
policy of “quantitative easing” has led to a dramatic expansion of the stock
market even while global economic growth has slumped.
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.
Those families with wealth between $20 and
$100 million also rose substantially in 2014—seeing a 34 percent increase in
their wealth in twelve short months. They now own $9 trillion. In five years
they will surpass $14 trillion according to the report.
Coming in last in the “high net worth”
population are those with between $1 million and $20 million in private wealth.
These households are expected to see their wealth grow by 7.2 percent each
year, going from $49 trillion to $70.1 trillion dollars, several percentage
points below the highest bracket’s 12 percent growth rate.
The gains in private wealth of the
ultra-rich stand in sharp contrast to the experience of billions of people
around the globe. While wealth accumulation has sharply sped up for the
ultra-wealthy, the vast majority of people have not even begun to recover from
the past recession.
An Oxfam report from January, for example, shows that the bottom 99 percent
of the world’s population went from having about 56 percent of the world’s wealth
in 2010 to having 52 percent of it in 2014. Meanwhile the top 1 percent saw its
wealth rise from 44 to 48 percent of the world’s wealth.
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.
As the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) has noted, in the United States “between
2007 and 2013, net wealth fell on average 2.3 percent, but it fell ten-times
more (26 percent) for those at the bottom 20 percent of the distribution.” The
2015 report concludes that “low-income households have not benefited at all
from income growth.”
Another report by Knight Frank,
looks at those with wealth exceeding $30 million. The report notes that in 2014
these 172,850 ultra-high-net-worth individuals increased their collective
wealth by $700 billion. Their total wealth now rests at $20.8 trillion.
The report also draws attention to the
disconnection between the rich and the actual economy. It states that the
growth of this ultra-wealthy population “came despite weaker-than-anticipated
global economic growth. During 2014 the IMF was forced to downgrade its
forecast increase for world output from 3.7 percent to 3.3 percent.”
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
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.
OBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM
A NATION RULED BY CRIMINAL WALL STREET BANKSTERS AND OBAMA
DONORS
OBAMANOMICS: IS IT WORKING???
Millionaires projected to own 46 percent of
global private wealth by 2019
By Gabriel Black
18 June 2015
Households with more than a million (US) dollars in private wealth
are projected to own 46 percent of global private wealth in 2019 according to a
new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
This large percentage, however, only includes cash, savings, money
market funds and listed securities held through managed
investments—collectively known as “private wealth.” It leaves out businesses,
residences and luxury goods, which comprise a substantial portion of the rich’s
net worth.
At the end of 2014, millionaire households owned about 41 percent
of global private wealth, according to BCG. This means that collectively these
17 million households owned roughly $67.24 trillion in liquid assets, or about
$4 million per household.
In total, the world added $17.5 trillion of new private wealth
between 2013 and 2014. The report notes that nearly three quarters of all these
gains came from previously existing wealth. In other words, the vast majority
of money gained has been due to pre-existing assets increasing in value—not the
creation of new material things.
This trend is the result of the massive infusions of cheap credit
into the financial markets by central banks. The policy of “quantitative
easing” has led to a dramatic expansion of the stock market even while global
economic growth has slumped.
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.
Those families with wealth between $20 and $100 million also rose
substantially in 2014—seeing a 34 percent increase in their wealth in twelve
short months. They now own $9 trillion. In five years they will surpass $14
trillion according to the report.
Coming in last in the “high net worth” population are those with
between $1 million and $20 million in private wealth. These households are
expected to see their wealth grow by 7.2 percent each year, going from $49
trillion to $70.1 trillion dollars, several percentage points below the highest
bracket’s 12 percent growth rate.
The gains in private wealth of the ultra-rich stand in sharp
contrast to the experience of billions of people around the globe. While wealth
accumulation has sharply sped up for the ultra-wealthy, the vast majority of
people have not even begun to recover from the past recession.
An Oxfam report from January, for example, shows that the bottom 99 percent
of the world’s population went from having about 56 percent of the world’s
wealth in 2010 to having 52 percent of it in 2014. Meanwhile the top 1 percent
saw its wealth rise from 44 to 48 percent of the world’s wealth.
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.
As the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) has noted, in the United States “between 2007 and 2013, net wealth fell
on average 2.3 percent, but it fell ten-times more (26 percent) for those at
the bottom 20 percent of the distribution.” The 2015 report concludes that
“low-income households have not benefited at all from income growth.”
Another report by Knight Frank, looks at those with
wealth exceeding $30 million. The report notes that in 2014 these 172,850
ultra-high-net-worth individuals increased their collective wealth by $700
billion. Their total wealth now rests at $20.8 trillion.
The report also draws attention to the disconnection between the
rich and the actual economy. It states that the growth of this ultra-wealthy
population “came despite weaker-than-anticipated global economic growth. During
2014 the IMF was forced to downgrade its forecast increase for world output
from 3.7 percent to 3.3 percent.”
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.
INCOME PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA AND HIS WALL STREET CRONIES
collapse of household income in the US…
STILL BILLIONS IN WELFARE HANDED TO ILLEGALS… they already get our jobs and are
voting for more!
INCOME PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA… most jobs go to illegals.
AS HIS CRONY BANKSTERS CONTINUE TO
LOOT,
INCOMES PLUMMET FOR AMERICANS (LEGALS).
GOOD TIME FOR AMNESTY FOR MILLIONS OF
LOOTING MEXICANS?
MORE HERE:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/and-still-democrat-party-wants-millions.html
“The yearly income of a typical US
household dropped by a massive 12 percent, or $6,400, in the six years between
2007 and 2013. This is just one of the findings of the 2013 Federal Reserve
Survey of Consumer Finances released Thursday, which documents a sharp decline
in working class living standards and a further concentration of wealth in the
hands of the rich and the super-rich.”
"During the month, some 432,000 people in
the US gave up looking for a
job."
"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
Federal Reserve documents
stagnant state of US economy
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.
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.
DESTROYING
AMERICAN ONE INVADING ILLEGAL AT A TIME…
IS THE
U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
THE
GREATEST ENEMY OF THE
AMERICAN
(Legal) WORKER?
What this means is that what is good for
Main Street will not be good for Wall Street and Big Biz, at least not in the
short run. What benefits the American worker -- fair trade policy and tight
immigration control -- will initially hurt Big Biz and Wall Street.
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