JOE BIDEN’S GLOBALIST AGENDA: BANKSTERS, BAILOUTS and a BORDERLESS AMERICA
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2020/11/joe-biden-frames-his-globalist.html
That baleful presence of
George Soros, all over the Biden 'transition' team
Big Tech and
Wall Street, for sure, are getting their influence and power. But where
the mask is really off, revealing at last who he's really fronting for
is leftist billionaire George Soros. MONICA SHOWALTER
Consumer Sentiment Unexpectedly Falls as Hope Fades Following Election
Consumer sentiment unexpectedly dropped in early November as Americans witnessed the presidential election and surging coronavirus infections.
The University of Michigan’s mid-month read of consumer sentiment showed a sharp decline in consumer outlook and a small dip in current conditions, indicating that consumers are increasingly wary about the near-term future.
The Index of Consumer Sentiment fell from 81.8 to 77. Economists had forecast an improvement to 82.
The gauge of current economic conditions ticked down to 85.8 from 85.9. The measure of expectations dropped nearly 8 points from 79.2 to 71.3.
“The outcome of the presidential election as well as the resurgence in covid infections and deaths were responsible for the early November decline,” said Richard Curtin, the chief economist of the survey.
Curtin said that interviews conducted following the election recorded a substantial negative shift in expectations of Republicans, but recorded no gain among Democrats. Curtin said it is likely that fears about the pandemic had overwhelmed any positive feelings about Democrats following the election.
This contrasts starkly with the reaction of consumers following the 2016 election. Following Trump’s victory, the index jumped 4.4 points to 91.6 in the mid-November reading, more than a full point above the consensus forecast. The final November reading was even better, hitting 93.8.
“The initial reaction of consumers to Trump’s victory was to express greater optimism about their personal finances as well as improved prospects for the national economy,” Curtin said at the time.
That reaction was in part due to Trump’s populist message. By contrast, Joe Biden was strongly backed by Wall Street, Democrat special interest groups, and leftwing activists and ran on an agenda seen as friendlier to the economic, political, and cultural establishments in the U.S.
In 2016, there also appeared to be an improvement in expectations due to relief that the election was in the past. That is not evident in the November 2020 survey, perhaps because the results of the election are still being contested.
Democrats are fare more likely to say that the pandemic is having an impact on their lives. According to the survey, 59 percent of Democrats reported that their normal life had changed to a great extent due to the coronavirus compared with just 34 percent among Republicans.
This
process was sped up by the 2008 financial crisis, in which the Obama
administration took measures to gut autoworkers’ pay while funneling trillions
of dollars to Wall Street.
According
to a Bloomberg analysis of the data, the richest 50
Americans now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the population. The
increased concentration of wealth at the top in the course of 2020 is the
result of the unprecedented injection of money into the stock market by the
Fed, which has led to an explosive growth in the fortunes of moguls such as
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla chief Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Richest 50 Americans now have as much
wealth as bottom 165 million
The
Federal Reserve released data this week on US household wealth that documents
the acceleration of wealth inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In
the second quarter of 2020, the bottom 50 percent of households—some 165
million people—held $2.08 trillion, or $12,600 per person, while the richest
one percent of the population controlled $34.2 trillion, i.e., over $10.4
million per person. In percentile terms, the top one percent of the population
held 30.5 percent of all wealth, while the bottom 50 percent controlled only
1.9 percent.
According to a Bloomberg analysis of the
data, the richest 50 Americans now have as much wealth as the bottom half of
the population. The increased concentration of wealth at the top in the course
of 2020 is the result of the unprecedented injection of money into the stock
market by the Fed, which has led to an explosive growth in the fortunes of
moguls such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla chief Elon Musk and Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg.
The
divide in wealth appears even more gigantic when one looks at the top 10
percent of the population as a whole. Combined, the top one percent and next
nine percent held 69 percent of the nation’s wealth at the end of the second
quarter of 2020, a total of $77.32 trillion.
Between
the first and second quarter of 2020, the top one percent of the population
increased its share of the country’s wealth from 30 percent to 30.5 percent.
The biggest losers were those in the 50 to 90 percentile range of wealth
holders, who saw their overall share shrink from 29.7 percent to 29.1 percent.
The 90 to 99 percentile and the bottom half remained largely unchanged.
While
these changes may appear slight, they actually represent a substantial shift in
a short period of time. The top one percent of the population substantially
increased its share of the country’s wealth as the Fed effectively printed over
$3 trillion and injected it into the financial markets. Better-off sections
of workers, who, unlike the bottom half of the working class, have some level
of savings, retirement funds or other assets, saw their wealth share decline,
as they were forced to draw on savings amidst the global downturn.
One
explanation for this sharpening division between, roughly, the top 10 percent
of the population and the bottom 90 percent of the population is the
disproportionate ownership of stocks and mutual funds. The top one percent of
the population owns 52.4 percent of all corporate equities (stocks) and mutual
funds, the next nine percent owns 35.8 percent.
Combined,
88.2 percent of the US economy, as represented in corporate equities and mutual
funds, is owned by just 10 percent of the population.
While
the bottom half of the population has for the last several decades held only
one percent of the nation’s stocks, better-off sections of the working class,
the 50th to 90th percentiles, held 21.4 percent of this wealth in the early
2000s. However, today this share has fallen to just 11.2 percent. In other
words, better-off sections of the working class, less connected to the
financial markets, have seen their fortunes move in an opposite direction to
those in the top 10 percent of the population.
Another
interesting feature of the Fed data is its breakdown by age group. The
Millennial group—those born between 1981 and 1996—is today the largest share of
the American workforce, accounting for 72 million workers. However, Millennials
own just 4.6 percent of US wealth.
In
contrast, the data shows that in 1989, when the typical member of the Baby
Boomer generation was 34, that generation controlled about 21 percent of
wealth.
This
contrast between the wealth of Millennials and that of Boomers at similar times
in their life cycles reflects the incredible difficulty that young people today
face in landing a decent-paying job, paying for college and paying for health
care, let alone taking out a mortgage, raising a family and saving for
retirement.
The
Fed data comes on top of several other recent reports and announcements about
social inequality, including:
- A UBS report showing that the world’s
billionaires have increased their wealth by over $1.3 trillion, more than
10 percent, in just three years.
- An announcement by the World
Bank that the fallout from COVID-19 will push as many as 150 million
people into what it classifies as extreme poverty (living on less than
$1.90 per day) by 2021. This is the first time the number of people in
extreme poverty has increased since 1998.
- A Wall Street Journal report
that, using Labor Department data, demonstrated the divergence of fortunes
for educated and noneducated workers amid the pandemic. The Journal found
that, while those with college degrees have nearly recovered from COVID-19
job losses (which were smaller), high school dropouts still have 18
percent fewer jobs.
- A RAND report that found the bottom 90
percent of Americans would be making 67 percent more without last four
decades of deepening inequality.
The
ever-growing concentration of wealth at the top of the population weighs like a
malignant tumor over society. No social problem, whether it be inequality,
global warming, education, health care, retirement or the pandemic, can be
solved without mobilizing these vast fortunes at the top and placing them under
the democratic control of the broad majority of the population.
The
process of extreme class restructuring, and the decimation of the ranks of the
better-off, “middle-class” workers depicted in the Fed data, has been underway
for at least 40 years. Under Democratic no less than Republican leadership,
president after president, Congress after Congress, policies have been carried
out that inflated the wealth of the ultra-rich while degrading the conditions
of the working class.
This
process was sped up by the 2008 financial crisis, in which the Obama
administration took measures to gut autoworkers’ pay while funneling trillions
of dollars to Wall Street.
Now,
a similar but even more drastic social restructuring is underway in response to
the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions have been thrown into long-term joblessness and
poverty, while $3 trillion have been injected into the financial markets and
hundreds of billions of dollars given out to major corporations under the
bipartisan CARES Act.
The
needs of the working class—the broad majority of the population—stand in direct
conflict with the interests of the parasitic financial elite. The major banks
and corporations, which control nearly every aspect of global life today, must
be placed under the democratic ownership and supervision of the working class
so that that the needs of the population can be met.
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