THIS IS HOW JOE BIDEN LIVES:
Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream⎜WHY POVERTY?⎜(Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6niWzomA_So&list=WL&index=19
THIS IS HOW THE REST OF AMERICA WILL SOON LIVE:
Walking Tour of Downtown Seattle in May 2021
Searching for Hope: Homeless in Sacramento
Inflation is Surging as Wages are Falling - People are Unprepared
Is Los Angeles the worst run city in America - Homeless Update
Homeless Woman Doesn't Drink or Use Drugs. In a Tent for 8 Years.
Homeless Woman Has a Masters in Mathematics and Engineering
What are you Spending Money On? - Prices Skyrocket
The Economy is like a Bad Magic Trick - Full of Smoke and Mirrors
MacArthur Park Is a Complete Wreck - Hollywood Homeless Breakdown
Chaos by the Bay: The Truth About Homelessness in San Francisco
City of Roses or City of Homeless? Portland's human tragedy
Meet the Homeless Americans Living in Walmart Parking Lots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1AWLo_fK1U
Living on the brink: One family’s struggle to survive the pandemic
Feeding a family on a food stamp budget
This is life on $7.50 an hour
Living on Minimum Wage
What Happened To The American Middle Class? | Financial Crash Documentary | Business Stories
Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream⎜WHY POVERTY?⎜(Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6niWzomA_So&list=WL&index=19
The close collaboration between the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the multi-billion dollar asset management firm Blackrock in devising the March 2020 rescue operation for Wall Street has been revealed in an article published in the New York Times yesterday.
World’s largest asset management firm was “front and center” of Fed’s Wall Street bailout
The close collaboration between the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the multi-billion dollar asset management firm Blackrock in devising the March 2020 rescue operation for Wall Street has been revealed in an article published in the New York Times yesterday.
According to the article, Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, the world’s biggest asset management firm, was “in frequent touch” with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed chair Jerome Powell “in the days before and after many of the Fed’s emergency programs were announced in late March.”
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The extent of the collaboration is revealed in new emails obtain by the newspaper together with information that has been previously made public.
In one newly obtained email, Fink refers to planning for the rescue measures as “the project” that he and the Fed were “working on together.”
As the article notes, “America’s top economic officials were in constant contact with a Wall Street executive whose firm stood to benefit financially from the rescue,” showing “how intertwined Blackrock has become with the federal government.”
Blackrock’s close collaboration with the Fed and Treasury came at a crucial point in the development of a crisis in financial markets which began with the onset of the pandemic in March and fears in corporate circles over the response in the working class amid walkouts by workers insisting that safety measures be out in place.
The Fed responded to the initial turbulence in the markets by cutting interest rates. But these measures proved to be insufficient and the potential for a major meltdown in the markets emerged in the week ending March 20 when the $21 trillion US Treasury bond market—the bedrock of the US and global financial system—froze.
Instead of providing a “safe haven” for investors it moved to the centre of the crisis as Treasuries were sold off and no buyers could be found as the sell-off extended to all areas of the financial system.
Faced with a disaster when the markets re-opened, Mnuchin, Powell and Fink were engaged in a series of discussions over the weekend of March 21–22 to devise a rescue package. According to the Times report, Mnuchin spoke to Fink five times over the two days, more than anyone else, other than Powell with whom he spoke nine times.
One of the most significant features of the rescue measures announced on Monday March 23 was the decision by the Fed, for the first time ever, to buy corporate bonds which, as the Times noted, “were becoming nearly impossible to sell as investors sprinted to convert their holdings to cash.”
Blackrock had already closely collaborated with the Fed developing its response to the 2008 financial crisis was thereby set to play a key role in the March intervention.
The article pointed out that, while Blackrock signed a non-disclosure agreement on March 22 restricting officials from sharing information about the upcoming measures, the way in which the rescue package was devised “mattered to Blackrock.”
The decision of the Fed to buy corporate bonds and provide an underpinning for the market was significant and involved two key areas of Blackrock’s operations. One of the ways it makes profit is by managing money for clients charging a preset fee. But assets under management were contracting as investors went for cash and its business model was under threat.
Blackrock is also a major player in the short-term debt markets which were coming “under intense stress” as investors moved their holdings to cash.
Electronic Traded Funds (ETFs), which track market indexes but which trade like a stock, were also severely impacted.
In the words of the Times article: “Corporate bonds were difficult to trade and near impossible to issue in mid-March 2020. Prices on some high-grade corporate ETFs, including one of Blackrock’s, were out of whack relative to the value of the underlying assets.”
As Gregg Gelenzis, associate director for economic policy at the Center for American Progress told the Times: “This was the first time that ETFs came under stress in a really systemic way.”
In the rescue package the Fed committed itself to buying already existing debt as well as new bonds and also decided it would purchase ETFs with the result that the “bond market and fund recovery was nearly instant.”
As the Times article notes, while practically all of Wall Street benefited from the Fed’s intervention, and other financial firms were “consulted” apart from Blackrock “no other company was as front and center.”
The closeness of the relationship between Blackrock and the financial and economic arms of the state, the US Treasury and the Fed, were highlighted in a comment by William Birdthistle, of the Chicago-Kent College of Law and the author of a book on funds, cited in the article.
He said Blackrock was “about as close to a government arm as you can be, without being the Federal Reserve.”
The Fed makes every effort to cover up that relationship in order to try to preserve the fiction that it is not beholden to Wall Street and operates as an independent public authority concerned above all with the state of the economy and the welfare of the population.
The Times article recalled a news conference in July 2020 in which Powell was asked about the discussions with Fink.
“I can’t recall exactly what those conversations were,” he said, “but they would have been about what he is seeing in the market and things like that.
He said there were not “very many” conversations and that the Blackrock chief was “typically trying to make sure that we are getting good service from the company he founded the leads.”
Powell’s claim that, in the midst of the most significant crisis since the meltdown of 2008—with a potential to go even further, as the freeze in the Treasury market showed—he could not recall those conversations simply does not pass muster.
The value of every crisis, it has been rightly said, is that it reveals the real relations that are obscured and covered over in “normal” times.
And that is the case here. The economic arms of the capitalist state are not some independent authority but function every day in the interests of the corporate and financial oligarchy, servicing its needs and interests above all else.
The elite wall street investment banks smashed earning expectations on Tuesday, while the American worker struggles with rising consumer good prices due to President Joe Biden’s inflation.
JPMorgan Chase posted “second-quarter earnings of $11.9 billion, or $3.78 per share, which exceeded the $3.21 estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv,” CNBC reported.
Goldman Sachs also “reported second-quarter earnings of $15.02 per share, topping analysts’ expectation of $10.24 earnings per share,” CNBC continued, “The bank posted its second-best ever quarterly investment banking revenue as a rush of IPOs hit Wall Street last quarter.”
The investment banks shattering expectations comes as the American worker is shouldering inflation at a 13 year-high.
The Labor Department on Tuesday released its Consumer Price Index for June, showing that prices rose 0.9 percent in the past month. The price hike in June marked the largest 1-month increase since June 2008.
Breitbart News also reported the the consensus forecast was for a 5.0 percent gain when measured against June of 2020, which would have been tied with May, the hottest reading since skyrocketing energy prices pushed up the index in the fall of 2008.
Inflation has outrun expectations for three months in a row. The June monthly figure is the highest since June 2008, when prices increased 1 percent in a single month.
Sarah House, senior economist for Wells Fargo’s corporate and investment bank, said “inflation pressures remain more acute than appreciated and are going to be with us for a longer period.”
“Bringing back the bad memories of the 1970s, inflation has reached a three-decade high,” the CNBC continued. “The past two years’ ’emergency’ spending packages, bond buy-backs, and printed money are repeating the worst mistakes of the Carter era.”
Since President Joe Biden has taken office, prices for consumer goods have dramatically risen:
- Used Cars (29 percent)
- Strawberries (26 percent)
- Blueberries (15 percent)
- Baguette (11 percent)
- Furnature (9 percent)
- Olives (6 percent)
- Takeout/fast food (6 percent)
- Tampons (5 percent)
- Flowers/plants (5 percent)
- Dog treats (4 percent)
- Rose wine (3 percent)
- Computers (2 percent)
- Craft beer (2 percent)
- Milk (1.6 percent)
- Bread (1.3 percent)
New York City flooding exposes failing infrastructure
During the afternoon of Thursday, July 8, a series of powerful thunderstorms moved across the New York City area. These storm cells produced heavy downpours which in turn led to localized flooding in northern Manhattan, the Bronx and suburban Westchester County. The storms also resulted in thousands of homes without power in nearby New Jersey.
These storms are not unusual in the northeastern US during the summer months, although a number of scientific reports have suggested that such weather may become more frequent and more severe in the years ahead due to climate change. What is significant is how quickly vital infrastructure failed under the pressure of a routine weather event.
As the storms hit, social media was quickly filled with disturbing images. One post on Twitter which has nearly 5 million hits, shows desperate commuters wading through filthy, waist-deep water in an underground passageway which serves as an entrance to the 157th street train station.
Other images depicted flood waters rushing across station platforms as commuters tried to board trains and water cascading down stairways and falling from ceilings in stations creating unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
Only about half of New York City households have an automobile, which means many people have no alternative to public transport. Those wading through waist-deep water likely had no other means to get home and thus felt compelled to take the risk.
In addition to creating unsafe conditions in subway stations, the flooding resulted in massive rush-hour delays throughout the aging subway system which is among the busiest in the world.
The Major Deegan Expressway, an important highway connecting New York City to points north was closed, as were several other north-south arteries including Harlem River Drive which connects to the George Washington Bridge, the city’s busiest Hudson River crossing. Images on social media showed stranded motorists standing atop stalled vehicles in water up to the vehicle’s roof, as rescue crews helped them to safety.
This comes nearly a decade after so called “super storm” Sandy caused widespread flooding to low-lying areas across the New York/New Jersey region. Following Sandy, Democratic politicians pledged billions to harden and upgrade infrastructure to make it more resilient. One organization charged with doing much of this work is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority or MTA which operates subways, commuter rail services, vehicular tunnels and bridges.
According to the New York Times, the MTA has spent roughly $2.6 billion since Sandy to protect against flooding. Given these recent events, some questions arise: Is this level of funding sufficient to protect one of the largest transit systems in the world, with 472 subway stations alone? What work has been done thus far? Have the private contractors performing much of the work met storm standards? Why is the work taking so long?
The MTA, which is beholden to bondholders and thus the dictates of Wall Street, continually claims there is “no money” for projects needed to bring the system up to level where it can meet the needs of the population. In the last few years, trillions of dollars have been made available to Wall Street by the federal government, dwarfing the sums allotted for mass transit, or for disaster recovery and protection.
To put the $2.6 billion spent over the last decade since Sandy in perspective, a single new station, built for the extension of the Number 7 line one mile to the Hudson Yards development in Manhattan in 2015, cost $2.4 billion. When it was determined by the Bloomberg administration that the $25 billion Hudson Yards real estate project, largest private development in American history, could not move forward without a transit hub, the money was quickly found to build it.
The $2.6 billion spent on storm resiliency in the nation’s largest city is only one sixth of the $12.4 billion expended by the Pentagon building a single new Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carrier. To meet social need, we are told there is “no money,” while nearly unlimited resources are available for the military projection of power on behalf of American imperialism.
The issues facing New York City are no by no means unique to that city nor are they limited to subways and highways. Public infrastructure across the US, and indeed around the globe, is starved so that money can be funneled to the financial oligarchy. In Detroit, flooding damaged homes and closed highways after pumping stations failed. Power grids have failed, notably demonstrated in Texas earlier this year. Parts of the Southwest are being devastated by drought and aging water infrastructure. The collapse of a residential condominium in Florida leading to numerous deaths.
Politicians at all levels of society have been weighing in. Eric Adams, the likely successor to Bill de Blasio as mayor of New York City, used the flood to call for a congestion pricing, a scheme for charging motorist fees to drive into the city’s central business district. In Michigan, Governor Whitmer acknowledged “decades of underinvestment,” then sidestepped the issue, deferring to the federal government. President Biden’s highly publicized infrastructure bill is a handout to corporations that does little to meet social needs.
The numerous high-profile infrastructure failures in recent months are not mere accidents. They are an indictment of the irrational capitalist profit system which places the accumulation of private wealth in the hands of a financial elite above the social needs of the vast majority of working people.
As climate change and environmental degradation exacerbate existing conditions caused by failing infrastructure, capitalist politicians offer no way forward. The only way for humanity to marshal the resources to contend with these issues is to eliminate the profit system and replace it with a planned socialist economy.
40 Shot, 11 Killed, During Weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago
Forty people were shot, 11 of them fatally, during another violent weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago.
ABC 7 / Chicago Sun-Times reports the first fatality occurred just before 5:30 p.m. Friday night, when 47-year-old Shawn Young was shot dead “in the 11800-block of South State Street.”
Approximately one hour later a 39-year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting in Roseland.
Other fatalities over the weekend included two other people–a 20-year-old and a 33-year-old–who were killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday afternoon. And 31-year-old Londre Sylvester was shot and killed Saturday night at 8:50 p.m. while walking “in the 2700-block of West California Boulevard.”
Sylvester was walking with a woman when the shooting occurred. She was also struck by gunfire by was hospitalized in good condition.
A 22-year-0ld man was shot and killed Sunday morning at 3:45 a.m. He was “walking in the 2100-block of South Oakley Avenue” when someone inside a vehicle opened fire.
Breitbart News noted that nearly 100 people were shot over the long Fourth of July weekend in Mayor Lightfoot’s Chicago. Thereafter, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) came under pressure from community leaders to declare a “state of emergency,” regarding Chicago gun crime.
The Chicago Tribune points out that 2,021 people were shot January 1, 2021, through July 7, 2021, in Chicago. The Tribune explained that 364 people were killed in Chicago during the same time.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
Nearly 100 people were shot, 17 fatally, Friday night through Monday night in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago.
BLACKS HAVE LONG FELT IT WAS THEIR INALIENABLE RIGHT TO LOOT AND MURDER. NOTHING HAS CHANGED BUT THE NUMBERS
Biden Offers to Send a ‘Strike Force’ Against Chicago Gun Crime
President Joe Biden offered to send a “strike force” into Chicago Thursday in order to help Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) stem the tide of shootings occurring daily in the city.
ABC 7 reports that a “strike force” would focus on gun trafficking.
Lightfoot responded to Biden’s offer by saying, “My hope and expectation is that they’re going to be coming relatively soon. I’ve made not secret of the fact that this is a matter of incredible urgency and I think the president’s plan is to make a difference in localities like Chicago this summer.”
On July 7, 2021, the Chicago Tribune noted that the city has witnessed 2,021 shooting victims this year. That figure represents victims in fatal and non-fatal incidents combined.
The Tribune maintains a second table of data focused solely on homicides, and it shows that 364 have been killed in Chicago so far this year.
Chicago, like all of Illinois, has a 72-hour waiting period on gun purchases, a red flag law, and a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card requirement for would-be gun purchasers. The process for acquiring a FOID card involves a background check.
Moreover, Cook County, the county in Chicago is located, has an “assault weapons” ban.
Yet gun crime in Chicago continues to rage.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
