”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.”
If the truth were laid bare, it would expose the Obama Administration, Hillary Clinton, the Senate and House, and many executive departments for these abuses of power, corruption, bribery, frauds, and thefts of public funds.
Book Bombshell: Start-up Linked to Hunter Biden’s Firm Bagged $3 Million from Government Program Run by Biden Adviser
6:23
An investment fund connected to Hunter Biden received three million dollars in taxpayer cash from a federal program run by one of his father’s top advisers, according to revelations in Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite—a new book by Peter Schweizer, a senior contributor at Breitbart News and the president of the Government Accountability Institute.
In December 2013, Hunter Biden along with his long-time business associate Devon Archer invested in a Hawaii-focused venture capital fund called mbloom. The investment in mbloom, meant to provide seed capital for technology startups, was the result of a public-private partnership between Biden’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Technology (RST) Partners, and the state of Hawaii.
As part of the agreement, RST would provide five million for the fund, with the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation (HSDC) matching the same amount. Little-known at the time, however, was that more than half of HSDC’s contribution would come from a federal program controlled by a confidant of the Biden family.
As Schweizer reveals in Profiles in Corruption, three million of HSDC’s matching funds came from the Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. The program, which expenses more than $1.5 billion to state economic development agencies, was administered by then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Don Graves.
Complicating matters is that while Graves was overseeing the Small Business Credit Initiative, he was also informally advising Biden on economic and domestic policy as the executive director of the president’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. That role took on a more official form shortly after mbloom received its contribution from HSDC, with Graves leaving the treasury department and joining the vice president’s office.
“It is hard to find someone tighter in the Biden orbit than Graves,” Schweizer writes in the book. “Over the course of his career, he has served as counselor to Vice President Biden, his domestic and economic policy director, and as his traveling chief of staff.”
Since then, the two men’s personal and professional lives have continued to intertwine. Graves, now the head of corporate responsibility and community relations at KeyBank, has not only donated to Biden’s 2020 campaign, but has also taken an active role in the former vice president’s philanthropic pursuits.
“After Joe Biden left the White House, he appointed Graves to the policy advisory board of the Biden Institute,” Schweizer notes.
In that role, Graves was tasked with overseeing the former vice president’s cancer “moonshot” initiative.
Graves’ success in leveraging his relationship with the Biden family sharply contrasts with that of taxpayers in the state of Hawaii.
Within months of HSDC inking the mbloom deal with Hunter Biden’s firm, the fund was embroiled in scandal. Most notably, two of the companies that first received capital from mbloom were owned by individuals, Arben Kryeziu and Nick Bicanic, tasked with managing the fund.
The scandal only grew when the company owned by Bicanic went under, without ever reporting a profit, and Kryeziu fell afoul of the Securities and Exchange Commission. HSDC, which initially saw mbloom as an opportunity to diversify Hawaii’s service-centered economy, stepped in to stabilize the fund.
Those efforts proved futile, especially when Archer was indicted for defrauding a Native American tribe in May 2016. The charges against Archer stemmed in part from allegations that he and a business associate conspired to use tribal bonds under their control to drive up the stock price of Code Rebel, a technology company also owned by Kryeziu.
In the aftermath of the indictment, RST Partners agreed to give up its stake in mbloom to an investor lined up by HSDC. It remains unclear if Hunter Biden’s firm recouped its initial five-million-dollar investment.
Despite hopes of salvaging mbloom, further investment never materialized. In June 2016, HSDC opted to shutter the fund in an effort to prevent any more tax dollars from going to waste. Hunter Biden, for his part, would continue benefiting from his father’s political ties. Other members of the Biden family did as well.
The bombshell revelations contained within Profiles in Corruption emerge as the U.S. Senate weighs whether or not to convict President Donald Trump of wrongdoing. The impeachment imbroglio stems, in part, from Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine look into Hunter Biden’s ties to another shadowy entity.
As Schweizer detailed in his previous bestseller, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, Hunter joined the board of directors of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, in 2014. His appointment to the post, which paid $83,000-per-month—despite no expertise in the energy sector, came around the same time his father was tapped to lead Obama administration policy towards Ukraine.
Hunter’s ties to the company, troubling by themselves, took on an added dimension when Joe Biden, in his capacity as vice president, pushed for the ouster of Ukraine’s top prosecutor in 2016. The prosecutor was known to be investigating Burisma.
Democrats have accused Trump of soliciting foreign help in taking down a domestic political opponent by suggesting Ukraine look into the potential conflicts of interest between Joe Biden’s political influence and his son’s business ventures. Joe Biden, himself, admitted on Wednesday that while he did not believe his son did anything wrong, the optics were not good.
“There’s nobody that’s indicated there’s a single solitary thing he did that was inappropriate or wrong—other than the appearance,” the former vice president said while campaigning in Iowa. “It looked bad that he was there.”
Hunter Biden also seems to agree. The Daily Mail reported on Thursday, the former vice president’s youngest son is allegedly “prepping” his story in the event he is called to testify at the impeachment trial.
The list of predicate crimes is extensive and includes bribery, embezzlement,
fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
Secretary Hillary Clinton and the Deep State: A RICO Criminal
Conspiracy
We who elected President
Trump understood our elected officials and the Deep State were sandbagging Trump and self-dealing
public funds. It was no secret that President Trump is no angel,
unpresidential, blunt, and crude, and a disruptor. Trump was hired to drain the
swamp.
I watched this kabuki theater unfold over the
last several years. Through my eyes as a shopworn gumshoe, I will explain what
is happening. My investigative curiosity was first piqued by the ATF Fast and
Furious scandal and continues through the recent House impeachment show trial.
There is a common element running through all of these cons —
the actions of an organized crime conspiracy. A group of people
either acting alone or in concert with others committed crimes with a common
purpose - a criminal enterprise as described in
"CRIMINAL RICO: 18 USC. §§1961-1968 A
Manual For Federal Prosecutors."
The players acted
together – in the usurpation of power, the abuse of power by public officials,
bribery, thefts by fraud including federal funds, money laundering, perjury and
the obstruction of justice, the violations of fundamental of civil rights,
aided and abetted in the commission of these crimes and or to conceal these
crimes. Criminals will lie and can't keep their lies straight. Their methods
and behaviors are the same, whether engaging in street crimes or elaborate
white-collar financial schemes. The only difference is when more money is
involved, the perps are more adept in concealing, covering up their sins, and
hiding where the money went. Many of these scandals are well known to the American
Thinker readers. I will focus my comments on Hillary's home brew
sever and the Clinton Foundation as an example of how RICO can be used to prosecute
the players.
FBI Director James Comey
indicted Hillary Clinton for her home brew server at his press conference.
Comey then egregiously concluded that there was no evidence of criminal intent
purportedly “required” to prosecute. Comey bastardized the Federal Espionage Act in absolving
Hillary Clinton. FBI's investigation of Clinton's emails was low-balled. There
was never a real search for the truth. The outcome was preordained. My jaw
dropped wide open. I knew the fix was in. FBI Director Comey lied to the people
with a straight face. Why?
The chance meeting of
Bill Clinton and AG Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac was no mere
coincidence. This chat was not about the grandkids. Bill Clinton was there to
convey a specific message to Lynch that there would be no indictment of
Hillary. Hillary Clinton's email case must tank. This would have
constituted bribery, if AG Lynch was assured she would continue as AG in
Clinton Administration. This meeting took place only weeks before Comey's press
conference dumping Hillary Clinton's email case.
The Deep State needed
Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 presidential election, or the dike holding back
the truth would burst. Trump, the disruptor, was an immediate threat to both
the Republicans, Democrats, and the Deep State. If the truth were
laid bare, it would expose the Obama Administration, Hillary Clinton, the
Senate and House, and many executive departments for these abuses of power,
corruption, bribery, frauds, and thefts of public funds.
High-level government
officials and the Deep State committed many serious felonies either in
furtherance of or to conceal the crimes committed in the pay to play scam.
In exchange for favorable consideration by Secretary Clinton, those who
benefited would donate to the Clinton Foundation. The FBI
started and stopped investigations into the Clinton Foundation at least twice
as reported by the Washington Post. Peter Schweizer's book, Clinton Cash, is the most damning. Dinesh D'Souza slammed the
Foundation in the National Review, as did The Federalist.
The status of the investigation of the Foundation
by US Attorney John Huber's is unknown. Rudy Giuliani said there was enough to
pursue "Clinton Inc" as
racketeering under RICO. The Foundation and its affiliated nonprofits require a real
investigation with an in-depth forensic audit to determine where the money
went. In financial crimes investigation, the prime rule is "follow the
money, honey." Illicit nonprofits have many ways to divert funds by
inflating salaries, expenses, and money laundering.
Illegal nonprofit schemes
are difficult to prosecute without hard evidence and the testimony of insiders.
The motive of Hillary Clinton's use of the home brew server was to conceal
emails from FOIA requests that would provide the hard evidence. Hillary Clinton
destroyed the data on her server and cell phones with the knowledge of the FBI.
It took years for Judicial Watch and others to pry
and recover some of these damning emails from the foot-dragging executive
departments that were complicit and knew what was going on.
RICO initially was used
to target mob families. RICO is also a useful tool to fight white collar
conspiracies. They both have the same hierarchy of low-level crooks led by the
top players, linked together with a common purpose. RICO has tools to squeeze the
low-level operatives to gather evidence to prosecute, jail, and seize assets of
the conspirators. The critical element required is a pattern of
criminal or racketeering activity. This pattern is proved by showing two
predicate crimes were committed within ten years. The list of predicate crimes is extensive and
includes bribery, embezzlement, fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction
of justice. The typical five-year statute of limitations for most federal
felonies is extended to ten years from the last criminal act or acts committed
to conceal the conspiracy, i.e., lying under oath and similar actions to
obstruct justice. The prison sentences are steep. The effect is to cut off the
head of the organization and not just the low-level players.
The criminal activity
extends back to the ATF's Fast and Furious program through the House
impeachment show trial to cover up the illegal acts of the Obama Administration,
Hillary Clinton, the Department of State, the DOJ, the FBI, and the CIA. A
telltale sign that the DOJ under US Attorney General Barr is willing to play
hardball and may use RICO, came when he spoke to the Federalist
Society: "Barr accuses liberal 'resistance' of
trying to 'sabotage' Trump." AG Barr said this, "shows FBI launched Trump campaign
investigation on the 'thinnest of suspicions." AG Barr is the new sheriff in town,
he wears a badge, has guns and will travel, can impanel grand juries, indict
and arrest people, and is not limited in his jurisdiction, like DOJ IG
Horowitz.
The collective actions of
the Deep State are and were a silent coup to delegitimize a Presidential
candidate. Once elected to impede and resist the duly elected President. The
President's law enforcement and intel agencies were corrupted at the highest
level and went rogue.
Organized crime can't
exist without corrupt law enforcement. As I wrote in a letter to President
Trump earlier this year:
. . . I believe you
understand the gravity of the situation and of its importance to the very
survival of our Country as we know it. If the people involved are not held
accountable for their actions, we will be no different than some Third World
Banana Republic.
Failure to act will
destroy our founding principle of the Rule of Law as stated by President John
Adams, "We Are a Nation of Laws, Not of Men" and we cannot allow a
two-tiered justice system to prevail.
Ron Wright is a retired detective from Riverside PD, CA. BA in
political science CSUF, M. Adm. University of Cal, Riverside. Facebook at Ron
T. Cop.
“Our entire crony
capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy
approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This is the way a great
country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN
THINKER.com
Peter Schweizer, author of “Secret Empires: How the American
Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,”
Obama Portraits to Tour the Country in 2021
1:38
Portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama will tour the nation from June 2021 through May 2022 so more people can make the “pilgrimage” to see them.
Artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald are the first black artists ever included in the National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) official roster of presidential portraits. Their work has proven extremely popular, to the point of National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet characterizing visits to see them as a sort of “pilgrimage.”
In a 2019 article for The Atlantic, Sajet wrote: “Viewing these paintings was turning into a form of secular pilgrimage, and the museum was becoming even more popular as a communal gathering place.” According to an NPG security guard, identified only as “Rhonda” in the piece, one woman even fell to her knees and prayed before the pictures.“No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever,” Sajet said she was told.
“Since the unveiling of these two portraits of the Obamas, the Portrait Gallery has experienced a record number of visitors,” Sajet said in a statement, “not only to view these works in person, but to be part of the communal experience of a particular moment in time.”
Sajet described the tour as “an opportunity for audiences in different parts of the country to witness how portraiture can engage people in the beauty of dialogue and shared experience.” Next year’s tour will begin at the Art Institute of Chicago and wrap up the next year at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.
(BELOW WORKING)
New Federal Reserve report
US median income has plunged, inequality has grown in Obama
“recovery”
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.
New Federal Reserve report
US median income has plunged, inequality has grown in Obama
“recovery”
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.
The report makes clear that the drop in a typical
household’s income was not merely the result of what is referred to as the 2008
recession, which officially lasted only 18 months, through June 2009. Much of
the decline in workers’ incomes occurred during the so-called “economic
recovery” presided over by the Obama administration.
In the three years between 2010 and 2013, the annual income
of a typical household actually fell by 5 percent.
The Fed report exposes as a fraud the efforts of the Obama
administration to present itself as a defender of the “middle class”. It has
systematically pursued policies to redistribute wealth from the bottom to the
very top of the income ladder. These include the multi-trillion-dollar bailout
of the banks, near-zero interest rates to drive up the stock market, and
austerity measures and wage cutting to lift corporate profits and CEO pay to
record highs.
The Federal Reserve data, based on in-person interviews,
show a far larger decline in the median income of American households than
indicated by earlier figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population
Survey.
In line with the figures on household income, the report
shows an ever-growing concentration of wealth among the richest households. The
Fed’s summary of its data notes that “the wealth share of the top 3 percent
climbed from 44.8 percent in 1989 to 51.8 percent in 2007 and 54.4 percent in
2013,” while the wealth of the “next 7 highest percent of families changed very
little.”
The report states that “the rising wealth share of the top
3 percent of families is mirrored by the declining share of wealth held by the
bottom 90 percent,” which fell from 33.2 percent in 1989 to 24.7 percent in
2013.
The ongoing impoverishment of the population is an
indictment of capitalism. There has been no genuine recovery from the Wall
Street crash of 2008, only a further plundering of the economy by the financial
aristocracy. The crisis precipitated by the rapacious, criminal practices of
the bankers and hedge fund speculators has been used to restructure the economy
to the benefit of the rich at the expense of everyone else.
Decent-paying jobs have been wiped out and replaced by
low-wage, part-time and temporary jobs, with little or no benefits. Pensions
and health benefits have come under savage attack, as seen in the bankruptcy of
Detroit.
Not surprisingly, the Fed report has been buried by the
American media, confined to the inside pages of the major newspapers.
Measured in 2013 dollars, a typical household received an
income of $53,100 in 2007. By 2010, this had fallen to $49,000. It hit $46,700
by 2013. At the same time, the average income for the wealthiest tenth of
families grew by ten percent.
While median income fell between 2010 and 2013, mean
(average) income grew, from $84,100 to $87,200. The report noted that, “the
decline in median income coupled with the rise in mean income is consistent
with a widening income distribution during this period.”
For the poorest households, the drop in income has been
even more dramatic. Among the bottom quarter of households, mean income fell a
full 10 percent between 2010 and 2013.
The report reveals other aspects of the social crisis. The
share of young families burdened by education debt nearly doubled, from 22.4
percent to 38.8 percent, between 2001 and 2013. The share of young families
with more than $100,000 in debt has grown nearly tenfold, from 0.6 percent to
5.6 percent.
These statistics reflect both a historic and insoluble
crisis of the profit system and the brutal policies of the American ruling
class, which is carrying out a relentless assault on working people and
preparing to go even further by dismantling bedrock social programs such as
Medicare and Social Security. The data undercuts the endless talk of “partisan
gridlock” in Washington and the media presentation of a political system
paralyzed by irreconcilable differences between the Democratic and Republican
parties.
There has, in fact, been a seamless continuity between the
Bush and Obama administrations in the pursuit of reactionary policies of war
abroad and class war at home. The two parties have worked hand in glove to make
the working class pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
The Federal Reserve has itself played a critical role in
the growth of social inequality in the US. The bailout of the banks, estimated
at $7 trillion, has been followed by six years of virtually free money for the
banks.
Every facet of American life is dominated by the immense
concentration of wealth at the very top of society. The grotesque levels of
wealth amassed by the parasites and criminals who dominate American business,
and the flaunting of their fortunes before tens of millions struggling to pay
their bills and keep from falling into destitution, are fueling the growth of
social anger. This anger will increasingly be directed against the entire
economic and political system.
The figures released by the Fed reflect a society riven by
class divisions that must inevitably trigger social upheavals. The explosive
state of social relations is itself a major factor in the endless recourse by
the Obama administration to military aggression and war, which serve to deflect
internal tensions outward.
The growth of inequality likewise underlies the relentless
attack on democratic rights in the US, including the massive domestic spying
exposed by Edward Snowden and the use of militarized police to crack down on
social opposition, as seen most recently in Ferguson, Missouri.
THE OBAMA devastation of America (wall street's poster boy
for corruption)
THE SPEEDING TRAIN WRECK TO DESTRUCTION: BARACK OBAMA'S
CRONY CAPITALISM, WALL STREET'S UNFETTERED LOOTING AND THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION
OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA. . .. one man's utter destruction of
America!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/crony-capitalism-serving-banksters-that.html
Year-low US job growth in August
By Andre Damon
6 September 2014
The US economy added fewer jobs last month than any other
month this the year, according to the latest US jobs report, published Friday
by the Labor Department.
US employers added 142,000 jobs in August, far lower than
the average of more than 200,00 for the prior twelve months, and below the
230,000 that had been forecast by economists.
In addition to the worse-than-expected statistics for
August, the report revised down estimates for job growth in earlier months by
28,000.
Stocks rallied at the dismal jobs report, reflecting the
perverse relationship between the real economy and the financial markets, which
interpret any worsening of the economic situation as a signal that the Federal
Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates and slow its “Quantitative
easing” asset purchases.
The S&P 500 hit a new record Friday, closing up by 10
points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,007. The NASDAQ also rose by .45 percent, to
4,582, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose by 0.4 percent, to 17,137.
While the stock market sets record after record, fueled by
zero-interest rate policies and cash infusions from the world’s central banks,
the real economy and conditions for working people show no signs of
improvement.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, as 268,000
people gave up looking for jobs and left the workforce. The number of such
“missing workers” grew to 5.91 million last month, according to figures from
the Economic Policy Institute.
The labor force participation rate fell to 62.8 percent,
its lowest level in three-and-a-half decades, as the number of adults not in
the labor force hit a new record.
Wages were flat over the previous twelve months, with a 2.1
percent nominal wage increase wiped out by a 2 percent inflation rate over the
same period.
While there were zero jobs added in manufacturing, the
economy added 112,000 jobs in the service sector, which pays significantly
lower median wages than goods-producing industries. The healthcare sector added
42,000 jobs, while bars and restaurants added 21,500.
Temporary help services added 13,000 jobs. Earlier this
month, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) reported that both the number
of people working for labor contractors and the percentage of the workforce
employed by such companies have hit record highs.
New Federal Reserve report
US median income has plunged, inequality has grown in Obama
“recovery”
By Andre Damon
6 September 2014
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.
The report makes clear that the drop in a typical
household’s income was not merely the result of what is referred to as the 2008
recession, which officially lasted only 18 months, through June 2009. Much of
the decline in workers’ incomes occurred during the so-called “economic
recovery” presided over by the Obama administration.
In the three years between 2010 and 2013, the annual income
of a typical household actually fell by 5 percent.
The Fed report exposes as a fraud the efforts of the Obama
administration to present itself as a defender of the “middle class”. It has
systematically pursued policies to redistribute wealth from the bottom to the
very top of the income ladder. These include the multi-trillion-dollar bailout
of the banks, near-zero interest rates to drive up the stock market, and
austerity measures and wage cutting to lift corporate profits and CEO pay to
record highs.
The Federal Reserve data, based on in-person interviews,
show a far larger decline in the median income of American households than
indicated by earlier figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population
Survey.
In line with the figures on household income, the report
shows an ever-growing concentration of wealth among the richest households. The
Fed’s summary of its data notes that “the wealth share of the top 3 percent
climbed from 44.8 percent in 1989 to 51.8 percent in 2007 and 54.4 percent in
2013,” while the wealth of the “next 7 highest percent of families changed very
little.”
The report states that “the rising wealth share of the top
3 percent of families is mirrored by the declining share of wealth held by the
bottom 90 percent,” which fell from 33.2 percent in 1989 to 24.7 percent in
2013.
The ongoing impoverishment of the population is an
indictment of capitalism. There has been no genuine recovery from the Wall
Street crash of 2008, only a further plundering of the economy by the financial
aristocracy. The crisis precipitated by the rapacious, criminal practices of
the bankers and hedge fund speculators has been used to restructure the economy
to the benefit of the rich at the expense of everyone else.
Decent-paying jobs have been wiped out and replaced by
low-wage, part-time and temporary jobs, with little or no benefits. Pensions
and health benefits have come under savage attack, as seen in the bankruptcy of
Detroit.
Not surprisingly, the Fed report has been buried by the
American media, confined to the inside pages of the major newspapers.
Measured in 2013 dollars, a typical household received an
income of $53,100 in 2007. By 2010, this had fallen to $49,000. It hit $46,700
by 2013. At the same time, the average income for the wealthiest tenth of
families grew by ten percent.
While median income fell between 2010 and 2013, mean
(average) income grew, from $84,100 to $87,200. The report noted that, “the
decline in median income coupled with the rise in mean income is consistent
with a widening income distribution during this period.”
For the poorest households, the drop in income has been
even more dramatic. Among the bottom quarter of households, mean income fell a
full 10 percent between 2010 and 2013.
The report reveals other aspects of the social crisis. The
share of young families burdened by education debt nearly doubled, from 22.4
percent to 38.8 percent, between 2001 and 2013. The share of young families
with more than $100,000 in debt has grown nearly tenfold, from 0.6 percent to
5.6 percent.
These statistics reflect both a historic and insoluble
crisis of the profit system and the brutal policies of the American ruling
class, which is carrying out a relentless assault on working people and
preparing to go even further by dismantling bedrock social programs such as
Medicare and Social Security. The data undercuts the endless talk of “partisan
gridlock” in Washington and the media presentation of a political system paralyzed
by irreconcilable differences between the Democratic and Republican parties.
There has, in fact, been a seamless continuity between the
Bush and Obama administrations in the pursuit of reactionary policies of war
abroad and class war at home. The two parties have worked hand in glove to make
the working class pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
The Federal Reserve has itself played a critical role in
the growth of social inequality in the US. The bailout of the banks, estimated
at $7 trillion, has been followed by six years of virtually free money for the
banks.
Every facet of American life is dominated by the immense
concentration of wealth at the very top of society. The grotesque levels of
wealth amassed by the parasites and criminals who dominate American business,
and the flaunting of their fortunes before tens of millions struggling to pay
their bills and keep from falling into destitution, are fueling the growth of
social anger. This anger will increasingly be directed against the entire
economic and political system.
The figures released by the Fed reflect a society riven by
class divisions that must inevitably trigger social upheavals. The explosive
state of social relations is itself a major factor in the endless recourse by
the Obama administration to military aggression and war, which serve to deflect
internal tensions outward.
The growth of inequality likewise underlies the relentless
attack on democratic rights in the US, including the massive domestic spying
exposed by Edward Snowden and the use of militarized police to crack down on
social opposition, as seen most recently in Ferguson, Missouri.
THE OBAMA devastation of America (wall street's poster boy
for corruption)
THE SPEEDING TRAIN WRECK TO DESTRUCTION: BARACK OBAMA'S
CRONY CAPITALISM, WALL STREET'S UNFETTERED LOOTING AND THE INVASION AND
OCCUPATION OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA. . .. one man's utter
destruction of America!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/crony-capitalism-serving-banksters-that.html
Year-low US job growth in August
By Andre Damon
6 September 2014
The US economy added fewer jobs last month than any other
month this the year, according to the latest US jobs report, published Friday
by the Labor Department.
US employers added 142,000 jobs in August, far lower than
the average of more than 200,00 for the prior twelve months, and below the
230,000 that had been forecast by economists.
In addition to the worse-than-expected statistics for
August, the report revised down estimates for job growth in earlier months by
28,000.
Stocks rallied at the dismal jobs report, reflecting the
perverse relationship between the real economy and the financial markets, which
interpret any worsening of the economic situation as a signal that the Federal
Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates and slow its “Quantitative
easing” asset purchases.
The S&P 500 hit a new record Friday, closing up by 10
points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,007. The NASDAQ also rose by .45 percent, to
4,582, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose by 0.4 percent, to 17,137.
While the stock market sets record after record, fueled by
zero-interest rate policies and cash infusions from the world’s central banks,
the real economy and conditions for working people show no signs of
improvement.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, as 268,000
people gave up looking for jobs and left the workforce. The number of such
“missing workers” grew to 5.91 million last month, according to figures from
the Economic Policy Institute.
The labor force participation rate fell to 62.8 percent,
its lowest level in three-and-a-half decades, as the number of adults not in
the labor force hit a new record.
Wages were flat over the previous twelve months, with a 2.1
percent nominal wage increase wiped out by a 2 percent inflation rate over the
same period.
While there were zero jobs added in manufacturing, the
economy added 112,000 jobs in the service sector, which pays significantly
lower median wages than goods-producing industries. The healthcare sector added
42,000 jobs, while bars and restaurants added 21,500.
Temporary help
services added 13,000 jobs. Earlier this month, the National Employment Law
Project (NELP) reported that both the number of people working for labor contractors
and the percentage of the workforce employed by such companies have hit record
highs.
The Obamas tackle
climate change and wealth inequality
Sharing with the less fortunate: During the five years from
2000-2004, a period when they earned $1.2 million, Barack and Michelle
Obama donated less than one percent of their income to
charity, ten times less than the tithing guidelines of their professed
Christian faith. Only when Obama decided to run for president did the
couple’s charitable instincts improve.
Nolte: Michelle Obama Condemns ‘White Flight’ After Purchasing
Home in Martha’s Vineyard
Former first
lady Michelle Obama condemned white people for fleeing minority neighborhoods
just weeks after she and her husband purchased a $15 million
estate in
Martha’s Vineyard.
Diamond Life: Michelle Obama rents out $23-million Hollywood
Hills mansion for a night
OBAMAnomics:
Billionaire
Class Enjoys 15X the Wage Growth of American Working Class
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.
Study: Elite Zip Codes
Thrived in Obama Recovery, Rural America Left Behind
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.
Record
high income in 2017 for top one percent of wage earners in US
Graph from the Economic
Policy Institute
THE STAGGERING ECONOMIC INEQUALITY UNDER OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION SERVING THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS.
OBAMA: SERVANT OF THE 1%
Richest one percent controls nearly half of global wealth
Millionaires projected to own 46
percent of global private wealth by 2019
Millionaires projected to own 46 percent of global private
wealth by 2019
By Gabriel Black
Millionaires
projected to own 46 percent of global private wealth by 2019
By
Gabriel Black
"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
Obama’s State of Delusion ... OR JUST ANOTHER "Hope &
Change" HOAX?
22 January 2015
”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.”
OBAMANOMICS:
The report observes that while the wealth of the world’s 80
richest people doubled between 2009 and 2014, the wealth of the poorest half of
the world’s population (3.5 billion people) was lower in 2014 than it was in
2009.
In 2010, it took 388 billionaires to match the wealth of the
bottom half of the earth’s population; by 2013, the figure had fallen to just
92 billionaires. It fell to 80 in 2014.
THE OBAMA ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS
“The goal of the Obama administration, working with the Republicans
and local governments, is to roll back the living conditions of the vast
majority of the population to levels not seen since the 19th century, prior to
the advent of the eight-hour day, child labor laws, comprehensive public
education, pensions, health benefits, workplace health and safety regulations,
etc.”
“In response to the ruthless assault of the financial oligarchy,
spearheaded by Obama, the working class must advance, no less ruthlessly, its
own policy.”
(BELOW WORKING)
New Federal Reserve report
US median income has plunged, inequality has grown in Obama
“recovery”
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.
New Federal Reserve report
US median income has plunged, inequality has grown in Obama
“recovery”
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.
The report makes clear that the drop in a typical
household’s income was not merely the result of what is referred to as the 2008
recession, which officially lasted only 18 months, through June 2009. Much of
the decline in workers’ incomes occurred during the so-called “economic
recovery” presided over by the Obama administration.
In the three years between 2010 and 2013, the annual income
of a typical household actually fell by 5 percent.
The Fed report exposes as a fraud the efforts of the Obama
administration to present itself as a defender of the “middle class”. It has
systematically pursued policies to redistribute wealth from the bottom to the
very top of the income ladder. These include the multi-trillion-dollar bailout
of the banks, near-zero interest rates to drive up the stock market, and
austerity measures and wage cutting to lift corporate profits and CEO pay to
record highs.
The Federal Reserve data, based on in-person interviews,
show a far larger decline in the median income of American households than
indicated by earlier figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population
Survey.
In line with the figures on household income, the report
shows an ever-growing concentration of wealth among the richest households. The
Fed’s summary of its data notes that “the wealth share of the top 3 percent
climbed from 44.8 percent in 1989 to 51.8 percent in 2007 and 54.4 percent in
2013,” while the wealth of the “next 7 highest percent of families changed very
little.”
The report states that “the rising wealth share of the top
3 percent of families is mirrored by the declining share of wealth held by the
bottom 90 percent,” which fell from 33.2 percent in 1989 to 24.7 percent in
2013.
The ongoing impoverishment of the population is an
indictment of capitalism. There has been no genuine recovery from the Wall
Street crash of 2008, only a further plundering of the economy by the financial
aristocracy. The crisis precipitated by the rapacious, criminal practices of
the bankers and hedge fund speculators has been used to restructure the economy
to the benefit of the rich at the expense of everyone else.
Decent-paying jobs have been wiped out and replaced by
low-wage, part-time and temporary jobs, with little or no benefits. Pensions
and health benefits have come under savage attack, as seen in the bankruptcy of
Detroit.
Not surprisingly, the Fed report has been buried by the
American media, confined to the inside pages of the major newspapers.
Measured in 2013 dollars, a typical household received an
income of $53,100 in 2007. By 2010, this had fallen to $49,000. It hit $46,700
by 2013. At the same time, the average income for the wealthiest tenth of
families grew by ten percent.
While median income fell between 2010 and 2013, mean
(average) income grew, from $84,100 to $87,200. The report noted that, “the
decline in median income coupled with the rise in mean income is consistent
with a widening income distribution during this period.”
For the poorest households, the drop in income has been
even more dramatic. Among the bottom quarter of households, mean income fell a
full 10 percent between 2010 and 2013.
The report reveals other aspects of the social crisis. The
share of young families burdened by education debt nearly doubled, from 22.4
percent to 38.8 percent, between 2001 and 2013. The share of young families
with more than $100,000 in debt has grown nearly tenfold, from 0.6 percent to
5.6 percent.
These statistics reflect both a historic and insoluble
crisis of the profit system and the brutal policies of the American ruling
class, which is carrying out a relentless assault on working people and
preparing to go even further by dismantling bedrock social programs such as
Medicare and Social Security. The data undercuts the endless talk of “partisan
gridlock” in Washington and the media presentation of a political system
paralyzed by irreconcilable differences between the Democratic and Republican
parties.
There has, in fact, been a seamless continuity between the
Bush and Obama administrations in the pursuit of reactionary policies of war
abroad and class war at home. The two parties have worked hand in glove to make
the working class pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
The Federal Reserve has itself played a critical role in
the growth of social inequality in the US. The bailout of the banks, estimated
at $7 trillion, has been followed by six years of virtually free money for the
banks.
Every facet of American life is dominated by the immense
concentration of wealth at the very top of society. The grotesque levels of
wealth amassed by the parasites and criminals who dominate American business,
and the flaunting of their fortunes before tens of millions struggling to pay
their bills and keep from falling into destitution, are fueling the growth of
social anger. This anger will increasingly be directed against the entire
economic and political system.
The figures released by the Fed reflect a society riven by
class divisions that must inevitably trigger social upheavals. The explosive
state of social relations is itself a major factor in the endless recourse by
the Obama administration to military aggression and war, which serve to deflect
internal tensions outward.
The growth of inequality likewise underlies the relentless
attack on democratic rights in the US, including the massive domestic spying
exposed by Edward Snowden and the use of militarized police to crack down on
social opposition, as seen most recently in Ferguson, Missouri.
THE OBAMA devastation of America (wall street's poster boy
for corruption)
THE SPEEDING TRAIN WRECK TO DESTRUCTION: BARACK OBAMA'S
CRONY CAPITALISM, WALL STREET'S UNFETTERED LOOTING AND THE INVASION AND OCCUPATION
OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA. . .. one man's utter destruction of
America!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/crony-capitalism-serving-banksters-that.html
Year-low US job growth in August
By Andre Damon
6 September 2014
The US economy added fewer jobs last month than any other
month this the year, according to the latest US jobs report, published Friday
by the Labor Department.
US employers added 142,000 jobs in August, far lower than
the average of more than 200,00 for the prior twelve months, and below the
230,000 that had been forecast by economists.
In addition to the worse-than-expected statistics for
August, the report revised down estimates for job growth in earlier months by
28,000.
Stocks rallied at the dismal jobs report, reflecting the
perverse relationship between the real economy and the financial markets, which
interpret any worsening of the economic situation as a signal that the Federal
Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates and slow its “Quantitative
easing” asset purchases.
The S&P 500 hit a new record Friday, closing up by 10
points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,007. The NASDAQ also rose by .45 percent, to
4,582, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose by 0.4 percent, to 17,137.
While the stock market sets record after record, fueled by
zero-interest rate policies and cash infusions from the world’s central banks,
the real economy and conditions for working people show no signs of
improvement.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, as 268,000
people gave up looking for jobs and left the workforce. The number of such
“missing workers” grew to 5.91 million last month, according to figures from
the Economic Policy Institute.
The labor force participation rate fell to 62.8 percent,
its lowest level in three-and-a-half decades, as the number of adults not in
the labor force hit a new record.
Wages were flat over the previous twelve months, with a 2.1
percent nominal wage increase wiped out by a 2 percent inflation rate over the
same period.
While there were zero jobs added in manufacturing, the
economy added 112,000 jobs in the service sector, which pays significantly
lower median wages than goods-producing industries. The healthcare sector added
42,000 jobs, while bars and restaurants added 21,500.
Temporary help services added 13,000 jobs. Earlier this
month, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) reported that both the number
of people working for labor contractors and the percentage of the workforce
employed by such companies have hit record highs.
New Federal Reserve report
US median income has plunged, inequality has grown in Obama
“recovery”
By Andre Damon
6 September 2014
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.
The report makes clear that the drop in a typical
household’s income was not merely the result of what is referred to as the 2008
recession, which officially lasted only 18 months, through June 2009. Much of
the decline in workers’ incomes occurred during the so-called “economic
recovery” presided over by the Obama administration.
In the three years between 2010 and 2013, the annual income
of a typical household actually fell by 5 percent.
The Fed report exposes as a fraud the efforts of the Obama
administration to present itself as a defender of the “middle class”. It has
systematically pursued policies to redistribute wealth from the bottom to the
very top of the income ladder. These include the multi-trillion-dollar bailout
of the banks, near-zero interest rates to drive up the stock market, and
austerity measures and wage cutting to lift corporate profits and CEO pay to
record highs.
The Federal Reserve data, based on in-person interviews,
show a far larger decline in the median income of American households than
indicated by earlier figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population
Survey.
In line with the figures on household income, the report
shows an ever-growing concentration of wealth among the richest households. The
Fed’s summary of its data notes that “the wealth share of the top 3 percent
climbed from 44.8 percent in 1989 to 51.8 percent in 2007 and 54.4 percent in
2013,” while the wealth of the “next 7 highest percent of families changed very
little.”
The report states that “the rising wealth share of the top
3 percent of families is mirrored by the declining share of wealth held by the
bottom 90 percent,” which fell from 33.2 percent in 1989 to 24.7 percent in
2013.
The ongoing impoverishment of the population is an
indictment of capitalism. There has been no genuine recovery from the Wall
Street crash of 2008, only a further plundering of the economy by the financial
aristocracy. The crisis precipitated by the rapacious, criminal practices of
the bankers and hedge fund speculators has been used to restructure the economy
to the benefit of the rich at the expense of everyone else.
Decent-paying jobs have been wiped out and replaced by
low-wage, part-time and temporary jobs, with little or no benefits. Pensions
and health benefits have come under savage attack, as seen in the bankruptcy of
Detroit.
Not surprisingly, the Fed report has been buried by the
American media, confined to the inside pages of the major newspapers.
Measured in 2013 dollars, a typical household received an
income of $53,100 in 2007. By 2010, this had fallen to $49,000. It hit $46,700
by 2013. At the same time, the average income for the wealthiest tenth of
families grew by ten percent.
While median income fell between 2010 and 2013, mean
(average) income grew, from $84,100 to $87,200. The report noted that, “the
decline in median income coupled with the rise in mean income is consistent
with a widening income distribution during this period.”
For the poorest households, the drop in income has been
even more dramatic. Among the bottom quarter of households, mean income fell a
full 10 percent between 2010 and 2013.
The report reveals other aspects of the social crisis. The
share of young families burdened by education debt nearly doubled, from 22.4
percent to 38.8 percent, between 2001 and 2013. The share of young families
with more than $100,000 in debt has grown nearly tenfold, from 0.6 percent to
5.6 percent.
These statistics reflect both a historic and insoluble
crisis of the profit system and the brutal policies of the American ruling
class, which is carrying out a relentless assault on working people and
preparing to go even further by dismantling bedrock social programs such as
Medicare and Social Security. The data undercuts the endless talk of “partisan
gridlock” in Washington and the media presentation of a political system paralyzed
by irreconcilable differences between the Democratic and Republican parties.
There has, in fact, been a seamless continuity between the
Bush and Obama administrations in the pursuit of reactionary policies of war
abroad and class war at home. The two parties have worked hand in glove to make
the working class pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
The Federal Reserve has itself played a critical role in
the growth of social inequality in the US. The bailout of the banks, estimated
at $7 trillion, has been followed by six years of virtually free money for the
banks.
Every facet of American life is dominated by the immense
concentration of wealth at the very top of society. The grotesque levels of
wealth amassed by the parasites and criminals who dominate American business,
and the flaunting of their fortunes before tens of millions struggling to pay
their bills and keep from falling into destitution, are fueling the growth of
social anger. This anger will increasingly be directed against the entire
economic and political system.
The figures released by the Fed reflect a society riven by
class divisions that must inevitably trigger social upheavals. The explosive
state of social relations is itself a major factor in the endless recourse by
the Obama administration to military aggression and war, which serve to deflect
internal tensions outward.
The growth of inequality likewise underlies the relentless
attack on democratic rights in the US, including the massive domestic spying
exposed by Edward Snowden and the use of militarized police to crack down on
social opposition, as seen most recently in Ferguson, Missouri.
THE OBAMA devastation of America (wall street's poster boy
for corruption)
THE SPEEDING TRAIN WRECK TO DESTRUCTION: BARACK OBAMA'S
CRONY CAPITALISM, WALL STREET'S UNFETTERED LOOTING AND THE INVASION AND
OCCUPATION OF THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA. . .. one man's utter
destruction of America!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/crony-capitalism-serving-banksters-that.html
Year-low US job growth in August
By Andre Damon
6 September 2014
The US economy added fewer jobs last month than any other
month this the year, according to the latest US jobs report, published Friday
by the Labor Department.
US employers added 142,000 jobs in August, far lower than
the average of more than 200,00 for the prior twelve months, and below the
230,000 that had been forecast by economists.
In addition to the worse-than-expected statistics for
August, the report revised down estimates for job growth in earlier months by
28,000.
Stocks rallied at the dismal jobs report, reflecting the
perverse relationship between the real economy and the financial markets, which
interpret any worsening of the economic situation as a signal that the Federal
Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates and slow its “Quantitative
easing” asset purchases.
The S&P 500 hit a new record Friday, closing up by 10
points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,007. The NASDAQ also rose by .45 percent, to
4,582, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose by 0.4 percent, to 17,137.
While the stock market sets record after record, fueled by
zero-interest rate policies and cash infusions from the world’s central banks,
the real economy and conditions for working people show no signs of
improvement.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, as 268,000
people gave up looking for jobs and left the workforce. The number of such
“missing workers” grew to 5.91 million last month, according to figures from
the Economic Policy Institute.
The labor force participation rate fell to 62.8 percent,
its lowest level in three-and-a-half decades, as the number of adults not in
the labor force hit a new record.
Wages were flat over the previous twelve months, with a 2.1
percent nominal wage increase wiped out by a 2 percent inflation rate over the
same period.
While there were zero jobs added in manufacturing, the
economy added 112,000 jobs in the service sector, which pays significantly
lower median wages than goods-producing industries. The healthcare sector added
42,000 jobs, while bars and restaurants added 21,500.
Temporary help
services added 13,000 jobs. Earlier this month, the National Employment Law
Project (NELP) reported that both the number of people working for labor contractors
and the percentage of the workforce employed by such companies have hit record
highs.
The Obamas tackle
climate change and wealth inequality
In
a remarkable commitment to their tireless fight against climate change and
wealth inequality, Barack and Michelle Obama reportedly are purchasing a magnificent $15-million oceanfront
mansion in
Martha’s Vineyard, presumably as a much-needed retreat to supplement the
$9-million mansion they already own in one of the most exclusive areas of the
nation’s capitol.
A
fierce opponent of fossil fuels and wealth inequality, the former president has
harshly criticized rich people for the oversized, carbon-gluttonous houses they
buy. On April 25, 2010, the president who would become fabulously wealthy
in retirement scolded Wall Street CEOs with this
admonition:
I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough
money.
His
views about the sin of making too much money haven’t changed. During a
speech last year in South Africa, this shining example of environmental stewardship
and unparalleled concern for the poor spoke passionately about the unfairness
of some people having more money than others in blasting rich people for their
excessively lavish lifestyles:
There’s only so much you can eat; there’s only so
big a house you can have; there’s only so many nice trips you can take. I mean,
it’s enough.
That
direct quote came from the lips of a man who, along with his wife, is sitting
atop a nest egg estimated at a meager $135 million. But don’t feel
sorry for them, because there’s much more to come: with money barreling their
way like a runaway train, the concerned couple is rapidly becoming a billion-dollar brand.
Protecting the planet: During his first full
day in the White House, President Obama was photographed without his suit
jacket. Senior advisor David Axelrod explained: “He’s from Hawaii, okay?
He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.” While
campaigning, Obama vowed to exhibit environmental leadership if elected: “We
can’t drive our SUV’s and eat as much as we want and keep our thermostats set
at 72 degrees. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen
[with me].”
In
decreeing that rich people make too much money and that global warming is an
imminent threat to our very survival, this ultra-wealthy man and his
ultra-wealthy wife decided to indulge themselves in another opulent mansion,
this one sitting on 29 oceanfront acres on one of the most exclusive islands in
the world. While homeless people are sleeping on the streets and our
planet is being destroyed by CO2, the Obamas are living large, a pitifully
small reward for two remarkable people who bend over backwards to show leadership
in the fight against climate change and wealth inequality.
An electrical engineering graduate of Georgia Tech and now
retired, John Eidson is a freelance writer in Atlanta. American Thinker recently
published related article of his titled "Harrison Ford, Climate Hypocrite" and "A $600 fill-up?"
HE OBOMBS HAVE ALWAYS
LIVED LIKE THE 1% WHOM THEY SERVED AND GROVELED AT THE FEET OF.
Nolte: Michelle Obama Condemns ‘White Flight’ After Purchasing
Home in Martha’s Vineyard
Gerardo
Mora/Getty Images
JOHN NOLTE
31 Oct 2019113
5:28
Former first
lady Michelle Obama condemned white people for fleeing minority neighborhoods
just weeks after she and her husband purchased a $15 million
estate in
Martha’s Vineyard.
Martha’s Vineyard is almost as white as an Elizabeth Warren
rally.
Martha’s Vineyard is whiter than my subdivision here in rural
North Carolina.
Martha’s Vineyard is whiter than MSNBC.
During a Tuesday appearance at the Obama Foundation Summit in
Chicago, she said, “But unbeknownst to us, we grew up in the period — as I
write — called ‘white flight.’ That as families like ours, upstanding families
like ours … As we moved in, white folks moved out because they were afraid of
what our families represented.”
“And I always stop there when I talk about this out in the world
because, you know, I want to remind white folks that y’all were running from
us.” She went on, “This family with all the values that you’ve read about. You
were running from us. And you’re still running, because we’re no different than
the immigrant families that are moving in … the families that are coming from
other places to try to do better.”
Did I mention that Michelle and
Barry just purchased a $15 million estate in Martha’s Vineyard, which is 95
percent white?
Oh, and did I mention the Obamas own
a second home, an $8 million mansion, in the exclusive DC neighborhood of
Kalorama, which is 80 percent white and
just four
percent black.
Oh, and did I mention the Obamas
have a third home, a $5.3 million mansion, in Rancho Mirage, California, which
is 89 percent white and just 2.6
percent black.
Oh, sure, the Obamas still own their
Chicago home in Hyde Park, which is at least 26 percent black. But you would
think they could do better than 26 percent!
I like Michelle Obama. I have always liked Michelle Obama. I’ve
never said an unkind word about her, quite the opposite, and while I find her
politics ignorant, she was a terrific first lady.
But this is nuts…
Not only is she attacking white people for seeking a better
standard of living, which I can assure you (as I will explain below) has little
to do with racism, she is also attacking whites after she herself “fled” to 95
percent white Martha’s Vineyard (I will never stop repeating this point) and
two other homes in areas where the black population is less than 5 percent.
Worse still, she is putting white people in a position where
they can never win, where they are damned if they do or don’t, where they are
always and forever racist.
If white people move out of a black neighborhood, they’re
racists engaging in white flight.
But…
And this is important…
If white people move into a minority neighborhood, they are also
racists for either engaging in gentrification — which is just another form of
cultural genocide, donchaknow — or cultural appropriation.
Now I’m going to tell you a little something about white flight,
from my own experience…
Because I was poor, back in the mid-eighties, I lived in the
inner-city of Milwaukee for two years. My wife and I did not flee (my wife is
not white, by the way) because of “icky minorities” (did I mention my wife is
not white?), we fled because it was not safe to live there. It was never safe.
Over those two years, we had been mugged, robbed, and had our car stolen.
That’s why we left.
And when we fled, it was to a community that was still not as
white as *ahem* Martha’s Vineyard.
In 2002, my wife and I moved to California for nine years and
lived in an East Los Angeles neighborhood that was just four percent white. For nearly
a decade, I was outnumbered 96-4 and never gave it a thought because I was not
outnumbered. A darker skin tone, an accent, and different religious traditions
did not make my neighbors any less American than me, and when I am among
Americans I am among my own. We left because predominantly white leftists are
destroying California.
Then there’s my poor dad…
He moved to the Northside of Milwaukee in 1980, and spent
decades, a lot of money, and a ton of sweat, remodeling his home, building a
garage, and paying that home off. He intended to retire there. And yes, there
were black people in his neighborhood when he moved in, and for most of his
adult life he worked in predominantly black institutions. He never intended to
move, and held on for as long as he could… He didn’t flee because of black
people. He was not forced to start all over at age 67 because he suddenly
decided he didn’t like blacks. He left because he was robbed, because gangs
started tagging his house and garage, because it was no longer safe to live
there.
You know…
If we’re going to shame people for such things, what does it say
to black people when other black people, especially the first black president
and his family, reject them? What the hell kind of message is this to send to
black Americans, especially when the Obamas can afford the security to live
safely in any neighborhood they choose?
And if the Obamas wanted to live in Southern California, why
choose Rancho Mirage over Ladera Heights, the Black Beverly Hills, a
predominantly black neighborhood as swank as any in America?
Shame on Michelle and Barack Obama. They have the money and
profile to make an important statement on this issue, but they obviously prefer
to live in overwhelmingly white neighborhoods.
Diamond Life: Michelle Obama rents out $23-million Hollywood
Hills mansion for a night
Apparently,
a hotel, even a luxury hotel, was not good enough.
Former
first lady Michelle Obama had to go big, renting out a $23-million Hollywood
Hills mansion for...a night. The New York Post has the pictures of
it here. Several news
accounts explained it as possibly a rental to try and buy, something most
home-buyers don't get to do. Whether she actually paid is also a big
question mark, and if so, whether she paid market value (which would have
cost more than a fancy hotel) or received her night there a
"gift," which presents its own ethics problems.
The Shark House, which is located in the 9200 block
of Swallow Drive, is thus named due to its open air shark aquarium. It also has
a full spa, a humidor room, movie theater and walk-in wine room.
It's on the market, currently listed for a cool
$22.9 million.
A source told TMZ the Obamas may be looking at
real estate in the Hollywood Hills area, but that was not confirmed.
If
they're in the market to buy that, they've got a lot more money than the press
is reporting. We know they're loaded. But not that
loaded. Not Louis XIV loaded, which is about the range for this
sort of place. Or is it a sweetheart deal in the works we're talking
about? Maybe they'll end up buying it for "a
dollar." Don't know yet, but neither possibility makes them
look good.
It's
all part and parcel of the Obamas' long, luxurious post-presidency,
a nonstop vacay that costs taxpayers millions. It's as though
we're financing kings now, not retired presidents. For a while
there, the Obamas were jetting around with billionaires and
staying on private islands. Then they bought that expensive Kalorama
mansion in Washington, D.C., all supposedly for the benefit of their daughter
Sasha, who was finishing high school. Surprise, surprise, it
actually seems to primarily serve as a political watch post for longtime Obama
loyalist and consigliere Valerie Jarrett. They did some audience
tours and hung out with more billionaires. There were those
lucrative Goldman Sachs speeches by the celebrity
president (which certainly weren't based on economics anyone would want to
trade on).
And
all of this has been financed by taxpayers, who pay his $207,000 pension, along with bennies
such as unlimited air travel, transition expenses, office expenses,
presidential library funds, and lifetime Secret Service detail.
Apparently,
to the Obamas, there's no reaching that "certain point" at which
"you've made enough money."
For
Michelle, just call her "Mooch." Is this really what an
ex-presidency is supposed to be like? Hitting the money
jackpot? What he makes on his own is his own business (subject to
bribery laws), but taxpayers shouldn't be financing this level of movie-star
billionaire luxe life. Maybe it's time for some pension reform from
Congress. Would be quite a thing to see that idea presented to the
House's ruling Democrats.
OBAMAnomics:
Billionaire
Class Enjoys 15X the Wage Growth of American Working Class
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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
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.”
DICK
MORRIS:
On America’s First
Family of Crime….. NO! Not the Bushes again!
Clinton global
hucksterism – Selling out America like they sold out the Lincoln Bedroom.
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.
PATRICK BUCHANAN: OBAMA’S ASSAULT ON
AMERICA BEGINS AT OUR BORDERS
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
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.”
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.
POLL: MOST
INCOMPETENT AND DISHONEST PRESIDENT SINCE…. Well, isn’t Obama merely Bush’s
THIRD and FOURTH TERMS??
OBAMA’S
CRONY CAPITALISM
A NATION
RULED BY CRIMINAL WALL STREET BANKSTERS AND OBAMA DONORS
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
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." 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.
In her prepared remarks to Congress last Wednesday and Thursday, Yellen said, “Looking forward, prospects are favorable for further improvement in the US labor market and the economy more broadly.”
She reiterated her assurances that while the Fed would likely begin to raise its benchmark federal funds interest rate later this year from the 0.0 to 0.25 percent level it has maintained since shortly after the 2008 financial crash, it would do so only slowly and gradually, keeping short-term rates well below historically normal levels for an indefinite period.
This was an expected, but nevertheless welcome, signal to the American financial elite, which has enjoyed a spectacular rise in corporate profits, stock values and personal wealth since 2009 thanks to the flood of virtually free money provided by the Fed.
"But as Yellen’s remarks and the Fed report indicate, the explosion of asset values and wealth accumulation at the very top of the economic ladder has occurred alongside an intractable and continuing slump in the real economy."
In her prepared testimony to the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen noted the following features of the performance of the US economy over the first six months of 2015:
* A sharp decline in the rate of economic growth as compared to 2014, including an actual contraction in the first quarter of the year.
* A substantial slackening (19 percent) in average monthly job-creation, from 260,000 last year to 210,000 thus far in 2015.
* Declines in domestic spending and industrial production.
In her July 10 speech to the City Club of Cleveland, Yellen cited an even longer list of negative indices, including:
* Growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) since the official beginning of the recovery in June, 2009 has averaged a mere 2.25 percent per year, a full one percentage point less than the average rate over the 25 years preceding what Yellen called the “Great Recession.”
* While manufacturing employment nationwide has increased by about 850,000 since the end of 2009, there are still almost 1.5 million fewer manufacturing jobs than just before the recession.
* Real GDP and industrial production both declined in the first quarter of this year. Industrial production continued to fall in April and May.
* Residential construction (despite extremely low mortgage rates by historical standards) has remained “quote soft.”
* Productivity growth has been “weak,” largely because “Business owners and managers… have not substantially increased their capital expenditures,” and “Businesses are holding large amounts of cash on their balance sheets.”
* Reflecting the general stagnation and even slump in the real economy, core inflation rose by only 1.2 percent over the past 12 months.
The Monetary Policy Report issued by the Fed includes facts that are, if anything, even more alarming, including:
* “Labor productivity in the business sector is reported to have declined in both the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015.”
* “Exports fell markedly in the first quarter, held back by lackluster growth abroad.”
* “Overall construction activity remains well below its pre-recession levels.”
* “Since the recession began, the gains in… nominal compensation [workers’ wages and benefits] have fallen well short of their pre-recession averages, and growth of real compensation has fallen short of productivity growth over much of this period.”
* “Overall business investment has turned down as investment in the energy sector has plunged. Business investment fell at an annual rate of 2 percent in first quarter… Business outlays for structures outside of the energy sector also declined in the first quarter…”
The report incorporates the Fed’s projections for US economic growth, published following the June meeting of the central bank’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. They include a downward revision of the projection for 2015 to 1.8 percent-2.0 percent from the March projection of 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent.
That the US economy continues to stagnate and even contract is indicated by two surveys released last week while Yellen was testifying before Congress. The Fed reported that factory production failed to increase in June for the second straight month and output in the auto sector fell 3.7 percent. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales unexpectedly fell in June, declining by 0.3 percent.
These statistics follow the employment report for June, which showed that the share of the US working-age population either employed or actively looking for work, known as the labor force participation rate, fell to 62.6 percent, its lowest level in 38 years. During the month, some 432,000 people in the US gave up looking for a job.
The disastrous figures on business investment are perhaps the most telling indicators of the underlying crisis of the capitalist system. The Fed report attributes the sharp decline so far this year primarily to the dramatic fall in oil prices and resulting contraction in investment and construction in the energy sector. But the plunge in oil prices is itself a symptom of a general slowdown in the world economy.
Moreover, a dramatic decline in productive investment is common to all of the major industrialized economies of Europe and North America. In its World Economic Outlook of last April, the International Monetary Fund for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis acknowledged that there was no prospect for an early return to pre-recession levels of economic growth, linking this bleak prognosis to a general and pronounced decline in productive investment.
The American phenomenon of record stock values fueling an ever greater concentration of wealth at the very top of society, while the economy is starved of productive investment, the social infrastructure crumbles, and working class living standards are driven down by entrenched unemployment, wage-cutting and government austerity policies, is part of a broader global process.
The economic crisis in the US and internationally is not simply a conjunctural downturn. It is a systemic crisis of global capitalism, centered in the US. A defining expression of this crisis is the dominance of financial speculation and parasitism, to the point where a narrow international financial aristocracy plunders society’s resources in order to further enrich itself.
While the economy is starved of productive investment, entirely parasitic and socially destructive activities such as stock buybacks, dividend hikes and mergers and acquisitions return to pre-crash levels and head for new heights. US corporations have spent more on stock buybacks so far this year than on factories and equipment.
The intractable nature of this crisis, within the framework of capitalism, is underscored by the IMF’s updated World Economic Outlook, released earlier this month, which projects that 2015 will be the worst year for economic growth since the height of the recession in 2009.
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