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.
As pandemic death toll approaches
200,000, American oligarchs celebrate their wealth
The United States is
passing through a historic social, economic and political crisis. The death
toll from the coronavirus pandemic is nearing 200,000 and could double by the
end of the year. Democratic forms of rule are breaking down, with the Trump administration
intensifying its open incitement of fascistic violence. Tens of millions are
unemployed and face impoverishment and homelessness. Wildfires are burning out
of control on the US West Coast.
It is impossible to
understand any of these processes outside of the massive levels of social
inequality. The United States is an oligarchy, with a concentration of wealth
that is historically unprecedented.
The release of the
Forbes 400 billionaire report gives a sense of this reality. The richest 400
individuals (0.00012 percent of the population) now possess more than $3
trillion.
The report declares:
“Pandemic be damned: America’s 400 richest are worth a record $3.2 trillion, up
$240 billion from a year ago, aided by a stock market that has defied the
virus.” The surge in the stock market, underwritten by the
multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act passed in March, has filled the already
overflowing coffers of the super-rich, who now hold claim to the equivalent of
15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Even the numbers
provided by Forbes , based on figures from July 24, are a major
underestimation of the current reality. Since that time, the wealth of Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, has shot up to more than $200
billion, while the wealth of Tesla CEO Elon Musk has grown to over $100
billion. Bezos’s holdings are three million times greater than the annual
income of the typical American household.
The staggering level of
inequality reflected in the Forbes list is the central
feature of American society, which is defined by the transfer of obscene and
ever larger amounts of wealth from the working class into the hands of a tiny
financial oligarchy through tax cuts, bailouts, the slashing of wages and the
clawing back of pensions and other benefits won by workers in the struggles of
the 20th century.
The latest rise in the
billionaires’ wealth is not based on any exertion of labor on their part, but
on the inflation of the stock market, with trillions of dollars in debt from
the Federal Reserve and Congress, which will be paid off the backs of the
working class. Everything has been subordinated to ensuring that the Dow and
the S&P 500 rise to new heights.
It would take the
median American, who earns $33,000 per year, 97 million years to earn as much
as is controlled by the wealthiest Americans. Consider what $3.2 trillion could
pay for in a year:
In the 2016-17 school year, $739
billion was spent on public elementary and secondary schools, providing
education for 50.8 million students and employing 3.2 million teachers and
another 3.2 million school employees.
The Congressional Budget Office
projects that the federal government will spend $1.3 trillion on health
care programs this year.
Diabetes cost the US economy
$327 billion in 2017, with insulin accounting for $40 billion of this
total. The average cost of insulin, critical for the survival of diabetes
patients, is up to $6,000 per year and continues to rise.
According to the US Department
of Agriculture, $800 billion was spent by Americans on food and beverages
for consumption at home in 2019. The federal government provided $60
billion of this in food stamps for the poorest and most vulnerable to gain
access to essential nutrition.
The 2018 fire season cost $24
billion, driven by record devastation, including the destruction of the
city of Paradise, California. All told, extreme weather and climate
disasters that year cost $91 billion.
Added up, the wealth of
just 400 people could pay for an entire year of public education, health care,
nutrition and disaster relief for millions of Americans. The UN recently
reported that 132 million more people will go hungry worldwide this year due to
the pandemic, driving the number of undernourished close to 1 billion.
Despite the burning
need to save millions from malnourishment and starvation, the World Food
Program faces a shortage of $5 billion in its effort to deliver food to those
in need. The wealth of the 400 richest people in the US is more than 600 times
this amount.
Every element of
politics is subordinated to the interests of this social layer. It is for this
reason that the danger of the pandemic was initially covered up, the bailout of
Wall Street was organized and the back-to-work and back-to-school campaigns
were implemented.
The systematic looting of society left
the country vulnerable to such an outbreak. The subordination of health care to
the predatory interests of for-profit health care companies and insurance
giants turned nursing homes for the elderly into death chambers and left nurses
and doctors without the necessary personal protective equipment and other
medical equipment—such as ventilators—needed to treat patients.
The drive of the Trump
administration toward fascism and the cultivation of the extreme right cannot
be understood except in relation to the class interests of the oligarchy,
representing that faction of the ruling class that seeks to smash outright any
sign of opposition from the working class. On the other side of the coin, the
Democrats represent the faction that seeks to use the politics of race and
identity to smother the class struggle, while cultivating sections of the
upper-middle class that use the politics of race and gender to fight for access
to positions of power and carve out for themselves a bigger share of the wealth
of the top 10 percent.
As only the latest
example, the racially fixated New York Times published its
“Faces of Power” list this week, noting that too many people in “influential
positions” are white. What difference would it make if everyone one on the list
were black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American? In fact, the report found that
a majority of police chiefs in the largest cities are black or Hispanic: Cold
comfort for the young black men who are disproportionately killed by police.
The obsession among
upper-middle class academics and journalists on race and gender is a
distraction from the grotesque levels of wealth that define social relations in
American society. This form of politics has nothing to do with the interests of
the working class. Instead, it seeks to harness anger over racism and social
inequality to advance the interests of a small layer of minorities in the top
10 percent who want a larger piece of the pie hoarded by the top 1 percent.
At every point,
science, reason and human solidarity collide with the economic interests of the
current rulers of society—the oligarchs, the parasitic masters of finance
capital. It is impossible to defend democratic rights or save lives without
confronting this issue.
Mass problems such as
the COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly deadly fires fueled by climate change and
global hunger require mass solutions. The problems of mankind cannot be
resolved without breaking the stranglehold of the capitalist oligarchy in every
country. Its wealth must be expropriated and directed toward meeting social
needs. The large corporations and banks must be transformed by the working
class into democratically controlled institutions oriented to meeting human
need and not private profit.
The social inequality
that characterizes capitalist society—and all the policies that flow from
it—are fueling an immense growth of social anger and working class struggle.
These struggles must be organized and united on the basis of a conscious,
revolutionary and socialist program.
ALL BILLIONAIRES ARE GLOBALIST DEMOCRATS. ALL
BILLIONAIRES WANT AMNESTY AND WIDER OPEN BORDERS. ALL BILLIONAIRES WANT NO CAPS
ON IMPORTING CHEAPER FOREIGN WORKER.
Further, the dubious
choice of Kamala Harris as the vice presidential nominee was made solely to placate and reassure Wall
Street and the wealthy, as she was viewed by them as being very deferential to
the mega-rich class based on her days in California.
Millionaire
Democrat Donor Says Joe Biden Will Be Good for Wall Street
Scott Olson/Getty Images
JOHN
BINDER
15 Sep 2020 395
2:53
A millionaire Democrat donor, who was
once listed as a billionaire by Forbes , says Democrat
presidential candidate Joe Biden will be good for Wall Street in the long run.
Michael Novogratz, the
former Goldman Sachs executive and hedge fund manager, told CNBC in an interview
that while a Biden win against President Donald Trump may initially drag the
market down, Wall Street will stand to benefit.
“I think Biden’s going
to win. I hope Biden wins,” said Novogratz, who now runs an investment firm.
“But if he wins, I think the market will go down, at least initially because
he’s going to raise capital gains tax … he’s going to raise corporate taxes
some and he’s going to raise personal income tax.”
“I think it’s probably
better for the markets [if Biden wins] because the chaos Trump brings
every week, every day just gets tiring,” Novogratz said.
Novogratz donated $200,000 to the
Biden Action Fund in June.
Despite endorsements
from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Novogratz said
Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-CA) platform “sounds a lot more
conservative than the Republican team when you’re talking about their plans.”
“There’s going to be so
much pressure to start redistributing wealth whether it’s paying for college,
paying for loans, if it’s Medicare for All,” Novogratz said. “Those are things
the Democrat Party cares about and there’s going to be pressure and maybe we’re
not going to get all of those but we’ll be heading in that direction. So I
don’t see our deficits miraculously collapsing.”
Biden and Harris have
sought to distance themselves from their large Wall Street backing in recent
weeks. Although Biden blasted Wall Street executives in a town hall with the
AFL-CIO union, a new report revealed that the former
vice president’s campaign has assured Wall Street donors that his
administration will maintain an economic status quo to their benefit.
This month, Biden touted Wall Street’s
support for his plan to abolish America’s suburbs by seizing control of local
zoning laws to construct housing developments and multi-family buildings in
neighborhoods. Likewise, Wall Street is fully behind Biden’s plan to
hugely expand legal immigration
levels, beyond already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4
million visa workers a year.
The Biden-Harris ticket
has elated Wall Street so
much that for the first time in a decade, more financial executives are
donating to the Democrat candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for
Responsive Politics analysis reveals .
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart
News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder .
Biden’s Billionaires
By Steve McCann
Many years ago, while
participating in a voter registration drive, I came upon a grizzled and
disheveled old man sitting in the overgrown and weed-infested yard of his
paint-starved house calming smoking his pipe. Despite his gruff demeanor,
Ully (Ulysses) was very pleasant and loquacious as we talked for over an hour
on topics ranging from the weather to the innate foibles of mankind. It
turned out that he had to leave school after the fourth grade in order to work
in the fields to help support his family and had toiled in a variety of menial
and labor-intensive jobs ever since. Yet, he had a deep and thorough insight
into human nature. Among his comments about the rich and ostensibly
well-educated was: “All the money in the world cain’t buy a fool a lick of
common sense.”
I was reminded of that
observation after reading an article describing the 131 billionaires who are pouring
millions into the coffers of the Democrat party and Joe Biden’s campaign in
their mindless obsession to defeat President Trump in November. Among the
prominent names are Jeff Skoll, a founder of eBay who has contributed $4.5
million; Laurene Powell Jobs of Apple and
owner of The Atlantic magazine has donated $1.2 million,
and Josh Bekenstein , Chairman of Bain
Capital (co-founded by Mitt Romney), $5 million.
Far more Wall Street
financers have also jumped on the Biden/Democrat party bandwagon than are
supporting Donald Trump, whose policies have overwhelmingly revived the economy
after the stagnation of the Obama-Biden years. The tech billionaires , not content to simply
cough up untold millions in direct political contributions, are also funding
massive voter drives, promoting mail-in balloting, creating divisive partisan
news sites, aiding and designing the Democrat party’s digital campaigns and
unabashedly censoring the social media accounts of the Trump campaign and
innumerable conservatives.
The political party
they are gleefully underwriting in order to oust Trump is no longer the party
of the middle and working class (which is now one and the same) but a two-tier
assemblage in which the prey is sleeping with the predator. The witless
wealthy and socially aware are in bed with the avowed socialists and militant
Marxists. What is holding this marriage of convenience together is a
mutual hatred of Donald Trump and the undoable promises made by Joe Biden and
the Democrat party hierarchy.
In a 2019 meeting with
100 super-wealthy potential donors, Biden assured the gathering that he would
not demonize the rich and would only increase their taxes slightly while
ensuring that their standard of living would not be affected by any of his
policies. He also stated: “I’m
not Bernie Sanders. I don’t think 500 Billionaires are the reason
why we are in trouble”. Further, he unabashedly emphasized that the
wealthy are not the reason for income inequality and “If I win this
nomination. I won’t let you
down. I promise you .”
Further, the dubious
choice of Kamala Harris as the vice presidential nominee was made solely to placate and reassure Wall
Street and the wealthy, as she was viewed by them as being very deferential to
the mega-rich class based on her days in California.
When the time came to
deal with the Marxist/socialist wing of the Democrat party’s anti-Trump
coalition, policy commitments, many diametrically opposite of what was promised
the wealthy donors, were also guaranteed with a non-verbal pledge of we won’t
let you down.
The first step was a de
facto party platform. The 110-page Biden-Sanders Manifesto which includes,
among other commitments, a massive job killing $2+ trillion climate agenda to
phase out fossil fuel usage within 15 years, the elimination of cash bail,
redirecting (i.e. cutting) funding for the police, dismantling all border
protections, legalizing virtually all illegal immigrants and massively raising
corporate and individual tax rates on the wealthy. This manifesto is a
socialist screed that would destroy the middle class and permanently neuter the
economy and nation.
An effusive Bernie
Sanders proclaimed to the world that Biden and the Democrats have embraced his
socialist agenda and that Biden would be the most progressive president since FDR.
Sanders exposed not only the behind the scenes reality of today’s Democrat
party but Biden’s figurehead role.
Further confirmation of
the radicalization of the Party came about unexpectedly as the militant Marxist
faction of the Sanders coalition forced the issue. Impatient and
unwilling to wait until after the 3rd of November, Antifa and Black Lives
Matter used the death of George Floyd as a pretext to take to the streets and
begin their long-hoped for revolution. They claimed that rioting,
looting, committing arson and attacking law enforcement was a necessity as this
was a systemically racist country. Yet, they openly demanded immediate
changes rooted in their radical Marxist ideology of class warfare not so-called
systemic racism. As two of their preferred chants and graffiti
slogans “eat the rich” and “abolish capitalism now” confirms.
Biden, the Democrat
party hierarchy as well as virtually all Democrat elected officials refused to
address the violence and those responsible. Thus, they tacitly approved
of the lawlessness and by doing so flashed a green light to continue the
riots. When forced to acknowledge the reality on the streets of the
nation’s cities, they instead blamed Trump, the police, white supremacists and
even the Russians. Due to their spinelessness, the armies of anarchy and
revolution Biden and the Democrats unleashed will never be defeated or
mollified by them.
Considering the vast
dichotomy in the litany of promises made and actions taken, it is inevitable
that either the moneyed elite or the mob of passionate true believers will be
betrayed. There is no middle ground. Who will prevail?
Will it be the elites whose
only weapon is money and fleeting political influence or the passionate mob
whose weapons are unconstrained violence and intimidation? Will it be
those who believe a revolution could never happen here or those who are
currently inciting revolution with the implicit blessing of a major political
party? Will it be those who believe that Biden and the Democrats, if
elected, will be able to forcefully deal with the insurgents or the insurgents
who now know that riots and extortion causes Democrat politicians to cower in
the corner?
Beginning with the
French Revolution and throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, history has
recorded that passionate mobs always prevail when dealing with a feckless
ruling class or party. And the first casualties have inevitably been the
wealthy elites.
I can envision sitting
with my old friend, Ully, and asking him if he thought the wealthy elites,
indiscriminately tossing money at the Democrats for the sole purpose of
defeating President Trump, understood the pitfalls involved. He would
lean back, slowly exhale a puff of smoke from his well-worn pipe and with
uncontrollable anger in his eyes would say: “Nope. Those damn fools ain’t
got a lick of common sense.”
Report: Joe Biden Promises Wall Street Donors the Status
Quo in Private Calls
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images
JOHN
BINDER
8 Sep 2020 343
3:50
Democrat presidential
candidate Joe Biden is promising Wall Street donors the economic status quo
that they became used to before President Donald Trump’s administration,
according to a report.
An investment banker on
Wall Street told the Washington Post that in private calls
with financial executives two months ago, Biden’s campaign assured them that
talk of populist reforms on the campaign trail was nothing more than talking
points.
The Post reports :
When Joe
Biden released economic recommendations two months ago, they included a few
ideas that worried some powerful bankers : allowing banking at the post
office, for example, and having the Federal Reserve guarantee all Americans a
bank account. [Emphasis added]
But in
private calls with Wall Street leaders, the Biden campaign made it clear those
proposals would not be central to Biden’s agenda. [Emphasis added]
“They basically said,
‘Listen, this is just an exercise to keep the Warren people happy, and don’t read
too much into it,’” said one investment banker , referring to liberal
supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The banker, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to describe private talks, said that message was
conveyed on multiple calls. [Emphasis added]
In a statement to
the Post , Biden’s campaign downplayed the influence of Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — left populists on
trade and economic policy — on the former vice president’s agenda.
“The Biden-Sanders task
forces made recommendations to Vice President Biden and to the [Democrat
National Committee] platform drafting committee,” Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo
said. “This anonymous source appears to be confused and uninformed about this
very basic distinction.”
The report comes as
Biden told AFL-CIO members on Labor Day that he will be the “strongest labor
president” union workers “have ever had.”
“You can be sure you’ll
be hearing that word, ‘union,’ plenty of times when I’m in the White House,”
Biden pitched. “The words of a president matter. Union. We’re going to empower
workers and empower unions.”
In the Democrat
presidential primary, Biden told a group of rich Manhattan donors at a private
fundraiser that “nothing would change” for them or their wealthy lifestyles if
elected.
“I mean, we may not
want to demonize anybody who has made money,” Biden said at the June 2019
fundraiser.
“The truth of the
matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done.
We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within
our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished,” Biden said. “No one’s standard
of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.”
Like failed Democrat
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Biden has enjoyed a cozy relationship
with Wall Street executives, along with his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris
(D-CA).
Most recently, Biden touted Wall Street’s
support for his plan to abolish America’s suburbs by seizing control of local
zoning laws to construct housing developments and multi-family buildings in
neighborhoods. Likewise, Wall Street is fully behind Biden’s plan to
hugely expand legal immigration
levels, beyond already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4
million visa workers a year.
The Biden-Harris ticket
has elated Wall Street so
much that for the first time in a decade, more financial executives are
donating to the Democrat candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for
Responsive Politics analysis reveals .
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart
News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder .
As Bloomberg pledges $100 million, Wall Street
boosts Biden campaign
15 September 2020
Billionaire Michael
Bloomberg has pledged to spend at least $100 million to support the campaign of
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Florida. This announcement
Sunday is only the largest pledge of support from the financial oligarchy for
the Democratic campaign.
Bloomberg aide Kevin
Sheekey said the pledge of virtually unlimited financial backing to Biden in
Florida, the most critical “battleground” state in the 2020 election, “will
allow campaign resources and other Democratic resources to be used in other
states, in particular the state of Pennsylvania.”
Florida has 29
electoral votes, the most of any closely contested state, following California
with 55, overwhelmingly Democratic, and Texas with 38, leaning Republican. New
York state, also with 29 electoral votes, is heavily Democratic.
Only once in the last
60 years—Bill Clinton in 1992—has a candidate won the presidency while losing
Florida. The last Republican to lose Florida and still win the White House was
Calvin Coolidge in 1924, when the state was lightly populated swampland.
Early voting begins in
Florida September 24, and Bloomberg’s money will pay for massive campaign
advertising on behalf of Biden, in both English and Spanish. Campaign officials
said the funds would be devoted almost entirely to television and digital ads.
Even before the
Bloomberg commitment, the Biden campaign and supporting Democratic groups had
outspent Trump and the Republicans by $42 million to $32 million. The flood of
cash from the billionaire media mogul will give the Democrats a three- or
four-to-one advantage over the final seven weeks of the campaign.
The efficacy of
Bloomberg’s huge financial commitment is open to question. The media
billionaire spent $1 billion (a mere one-fiftieth of his gargantuan personal
fortune) on his own pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination. He
launched his campaign at a time when he believed Biden’s candidacy was near its
demise, hoping that his money might forestall the nomination of Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders.
The sudden revival of
Biden’s campaign with his victory in South Carolina in February and then in the
Super Tuesday primaries on March 3 led Bloomberg to abandon his own efforts and
endorse the former vice president, since their right-wing views on a range of
topics, and particularly on foreign policy, were virtually identical.
Since then, Bloomberg
has transferred $20 million from his abortive presidential campaign to the
Democratic National Committee, as well as pumping in another $120 million to
local, state and congressional campaigns, making him by far the largest single
backer of the Democratic Party.
Florida is only the
most glaring example of the general trend in the 2020 election, in which the
financial oligarchy and Wall Street have indicated a distinct preference for
Biden and backed it up with heavy financial commitments.
During August, the
Biden campaign broke all records for fundraising in a single month, raking in
$365 million, nearly double the previous record of $203 million set by the
campaign of Barack Obama in September 2008, and more than Hillary Clinton and
Trump combined to raise, in August 2016, $233 million. The Trump campaign also
broke the Obama record, but its total of $210 million in August was far behind
the pace set by the Democrats.
Approximately $205
million of the $365 million came through online donations, including 1.5
million new donors. This is more an indication of the widespread hostility to
Trump among millions of working-class and middle-class people than any
groundswell of support for Biden, who personifies the corrupt US political
establishment, having spent 36 years in the Senate before his eight years as
Obama’s vice president.
That means that $160
million—a near-record amount by itself—was raised through large donations from
wealthy supporters of the Democratic Party. While Trump continues to
rake in the lion’s share of support from industries such as oil and gas, mining
and real estate, Biden has collected the bulk of financial backing from the
banks, hedge funds and insurance industry.
Under rules set by the
Federal Election Commission, a wealthy donor can now give as much as $830,600
to support a presidential candidate, routing much of the money through federal
and state party committees rather than the candidate’s own campaign.
The result of the
disparity in fundraising throughout the summer is that the Democratic
presidential campaign has now caught up with and even surpassed Trump’s war
chest. The Trump reelection campaign, despite raising an unprecedented $1.1
billion, has less cash on hand for the fall than the Biden campaign. According
to press accounts, more than one-third of the money raised by the Trump
campaign was used to pay the expenses of fundraising itself.
There were several reports last week
that the Trump campaign was experiencing a “cash crunch,” and was unable to
sustain advertising in all 15 of the so-called battleground states. Both
the Washington Post and Bloomberg News reported that Trump
campaign manager Bill Stepien has halted television advertising in Michigan and
Pennsylvania at least temporarily, and that Biden was outspending Trump in
nearly every closely contested state.
Stepien replaced Brad
Parscale as campaign manager in July, at least in part because of concerns that
Parscale had squandered Trump’s substantial initial fundraising advantage.
According to the media
tracking firm Advertising Analytics, the Biden campaign spent $17 million in
television and digital advertising in nine battleground states during the week
of September 3, compared to $4 million by the Trump campaign.
The Clinton campaign
outspent Trump by similar margins in 2016, but Trump campaign aides had boasted
they would not face such a deficit in 2020. Trump has hinted he would seek to
make up the difference from his personal fortune, but there has been no sign
yet of any direct outlay by the billionaire to back his own campaign.