OBAMA-CLINTON-TRUMPERnomics WORKS! But only for the SUPER RICH!
A recently completed study by economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman found that the share of national income received by the bottom half of the US population has been reduced from 20 percent in 1980 to 12 percent, while the income of the top 1 percent has risen from 12 percent to 20 percent. In other words, some 8 percent of national income has been transferred from the bottom half of the population to the top 1 percent.
UNDER BARACK OBAMA'S OPEN BORDERS AND TWO LA RAZA SUPREMACIST SECRETARY OF LABORS, 75% OF ALL JOBS WENT TO FOREIGN BORN, BOTH LEGAL AND ILLEGALS
Conducted by Harvard economist Lawrence Katz and Princeton economist Alan Krueger, it found that 94 percent of the 10 million jobs created during the Obama administration were temporary, contract or part-time positions. The proportion of workers engaged in such jobs increased from 10.7 percent of the population to 15.8 percent. At the same time, the study found that under Obama, there were 1 million fewer workers engaged in full-time jobs than there were at the start of the recession.
THANKSGIVING 2016 THE LAST BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
A recently completed study by economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman found that the share of national income received by the bottom half of the US population has been reduced from 20 percent in 1980 to 12 percent, while the income of the top 1 percent has risen from 12 percent to 20 percent. In other words, some 8 percent of national income has been transferred from the bottom half of the population to the top 1 percent.
UNDER BARACK OBAMA'S OPEN BORDERS AND TWO LA RAZA SUPREMACIST SECRETARY OF LABORS, 75% OF ALL JOBS WENT TO FOREIGN BORN, BOTH LEGAL AND ILLEGALS
Conducted by Harvard economist Lawrence Katz and Princeton economist Alan Krueger, it found that 94 percent of the 10 million jobs created during the Obama administration were temporary, contract or part-time positions. The proportion of workers engaged in such jobs increased from 10.7 percent of the population to 15.8 percent. At the same time, the study found that under Obama, there were 1 million fewer workers engaged in full-time jobs than there were at the start of the recession.
THANKSGIVING 2016 THE LAST BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
STAGGERING ADDICTION and POVERTY
IN AMERICA
THE
TWISTED ROAD TO REVOLUTION CAME DOWN WALL STREET
FIRST
OBAMA
–CLINTONOMICS FOR THE SUPER RICH
"Between 2002 and 2015 annual
earnings for the bottom 90 percent
of Americans rose by only 4.5 percent, while earnings for the top
1 percent grew by 22.7 percent, according to the Economic Policy
Institute. Under the Obama administration, more than 90 percent of
of Americans rose by only 4.5 percent, while earnings for the top
1 percent grew by 22.7 percent, according to the Economic Policy
Institute. Under the Obama administration, more than 90 percent of
income gains since the so-called “recovery” began have gone to
the top one percent."
the top one percent."
“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 THEAMERICAN THINKER.com
AMERICAN HAS FOUND MILLIONS OF JOBS FOR ILLEGALS AND BILLIONS FOR WELFARE.... BUT FOR AMERICANS... Nada!
“Behind this year’s surge is a toxic mix of cuts to social services, unemployment, hopelessness…”
Panic at America’s malls: Class tensions at the breaking point
Panic at America’s
malls: Class tensions at the breaking point
By Eric London
28 December 2016
28 December 2016
The scenes of chaos and panic that played out at
more than 15 shopping malls across the United States on Monday convey the tense
and explosive character of social life in America at the end of 2016.
What began as one of the busiest shopping days
of the year ended with large-scale evacuations, dozens of arrests, numerous
injuries and entire malls on police lockdown.
Heavily armed police cleared crowds of youth at
a number of shopping malls, primarily those located in working-class
neighborhoods. Bystander video shows hysterical shoppers running away as police
armed with assault rifles and military helmets move in to subdue large groups
of youth.
Though there is no indication that the
gatherings of young people were coordinated, a remarkable pattern emerges from
what can be pieced together about the separate events.
In the early evening, as the malls reached peak
activity, hundreds of young people began to converge in what the youth billed
as “fights” in social media posts. Small scuffles broke out between individual
young people, most of whom were on winter break from high school, and the
crowds grew larger.
Word passed and a mood of panic set in. Rumors
of shooting incidents spread rapidly. Jittery onlookers interpreted loud noises
as gunshots. There were many reports of people shouting, “Gun!” People were
injured as thousands sought to flee the crowded malls for the perceived safety
of their cars.
At a mall in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a local news
program reported “chaotic panic and everybody running all at once” after the
sound of a chair slamming into the floor was mistaken for gunfire. An
eight-year-old and a 12-year-old were injured in the evacuation as police
surrounded and entered the mall.
In Garden City, New York, where seven people
were injured, eyewitnesses described a “stampede” after dozens of people called
police, erroneously believing a shooting was taking place. In Newport News,
Virginia, a local news organization reported that people “were running out of
the mall screaming; some people feared for their lives after they heard rumors
that someone was running around the mall with a gun.”
Police cleared two malls in Memphis, Tennessee
and arrested seven youth after fights and false reports of shootings. In
Chattanooga, Tennessee, youth set off firecrackers and “kicked off a wave of
panic,” according to a CNN report. In Brentwood, Ohio, outside Cleveland,
police placed a mall on lockdown and arrested a young person “for attempting to
strike an officer that was dealing with another disorderly patron.” Police used
pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Five young men between the ages of 14 and 16
from Hartford, Connecticut, a largely impoverished city, were arrested at a
mall in nearby Manchester, where officers called in backup from neighboring
jurisdictions and descended on the facility to break up gatherings of hundreds
of youth. Similar events took place in Farmington, Connecticut; Aurora,
Illinois; Fort Worth, Texas; Syracuse, New York; Monroeville, Pennsylvania;
Tempe, Arizona; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Aurora, Colorado, where police
reported that over 500 youth “surrounded an off-duty officer” who was
attempting to detain another youth.
Meanwhile, the city of
Chicago was hit by the most deadly wave of shooting violence in twenty years,
with 53 wounded and 11 killed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. As DNAInfo reported,
“Behind this year’s surge is a toxic mix of cuts to social services,
unemployment, hopelessness…”
Just hours before the mall disorders took place,
and after the devastating weekend in Chicago, Obama was interviewed on CNN by
David Axelrod, his former campaign manager. Amidst much laughter and mutual
flattery, Obama touted his presidential tenure and presented himself as a
fighter for social justice. “I would argue that during the entire eight years
that I’ve been president, that spirit of America has still been there in all
sorts of ways,” he declared.
In his end-of-the-year press conference on
December 16, Obama spoke of “how far we’ve come over the past eight years,”
before adding that “by so many measures, our country is stronger and more
prosperous than it was when we started. That’s a situation that I’m proud to
leave for my successor.”
The mall eruptions expose as a lie the
saccharine picture of America painted by the corporate press and Obama as his
administration draws to a close. That mini-riots took
place in fifteen different locations located
hundreds of miles from one another shows
that something is profoundly wrong with
America.
place in fifteen different locations located
hundreds of miles from one another shows
that something is profoundly wrong with
America.
Monday’s free-for-all in Aurora, Colorado took
place at the same mall where James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70
others in July 2012. Since Obama took office, 122 people have been killed in
school shootings alone. The response of the government has been two-fold: empty
banalities and the militarization of the police.
Though concerns for their immediate safety may
have provoked shoppers to take flight, the underlying anxieties are rooted in
social relations that are dominated by the vast levels of economic inequality
that loom over every aspect of life in the United States.
The outbursts of violence and fear took place
against the backdrop of a holiday season ritualized by the media to conceal the
brutal fact that all human relations are mediated through the buying and
selling of commodities. While this process reaches a fever pitch at
Christmas—the make-or-break period for retail profits—the commodification of
human relations, with the general tension and frustration it produces, is
essential to all social relations under capitalism.
The United States is a country dominated by a
financial oligarchy, both economically and
politically. The vast majority of
the people
have no outlet for expressing their own social
interests. All of the
official institutions,
including the corporate-controlled media, the
two
big-business parties and the trade
unions, are dedicated to stifling social
opposition and generating higher corporate
profits.
Half of all high school students—those fifteen
years of age and younger—have never lived a day when the United States was not at
war. Completely abandoned by the political establishment and hostile to the
wars, poverty, state surveillance and police violence that have dominated their
entire conscious lives, those youth who were old enough to vote in the
Democratic primary contests voted for the self-proclaimed “socialist” Bernie
Sanders by a nine-to-one margin over Hillary Clinton.
In his interview with Axelrod, Obama did not
even address the character of the incoming Trump administration, which is
promising to be the most reactionary in US history. In three weeks, Trump and
his cabal of billionaires, evangelicals, generals, fascists and close relatives
will control the executive branch. The incoming administration has promised a
nuclear arms race, an assault on Social Security, Medicare and public
education, and the deportation of millions of immigrant workers and their
families.
This holiday season, the vast majority of
workers share neither the complacent and cynical optimism of Obama, nor the
blind bullishness of the stock market. What took place in America’s malls on
Monday provides an inkling of the profound social shocks on the horizon for
2017.
The mood that predominates in America as the
year concludes is one of nervousness and frustration combined with an emerging
combativeness that has yet to find a progressive political expression. What is
needed is a movement of the working class to direct the coming social explosion
in a revolutionary and socialist direction.
UNDER THE LA RAZA SUPREMACIST OBAMA, THE MEX
DRUG CARTELS NOW OPERATE BORDER TO
UNDEFENDED BORDER
DRUG CARTELS NOW OPERATE BORDER TO
UNDEFENDED BORDER
Mexican cartel smugglers have taken full
advantage of the system in order to maximize their profits from human smuggling
as well as the smuggling of illegal aliens. In 2014, Mexico’s Gulf Cartel was
able to make
approximately $38 million in a matter of months off human smuggling alone.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/09/obama-floods-americas-open-borders-with.html
JUDICIAL WATCH:
JUDICIAL WATCH:
“Mexican drug cartels
are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the
goal of destroying the United States. Mexican
drug cartels are now
accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in virtually every community
across this country.”
AMERICA: NO LEGAL NEED APPLY
REPORT: The assault to finish off
the American
middle-class is NOT over
middle-class is NOT over
“The report noted that many illegals don't have jobs or have
difficulty in landing good jobs because of local laws.”
“However, it identified several states that have begun easing
employment laws so that illegals can get a job.”
TRUMPERNOMICS:
"The collection of
billionaires, bankers, CEOs, generals and social arch-reactionaries that
will comprise his cabinet and White House inner circle is pledged to
remove all constraints on the ability of the rich to plunder American society
for their own personal gain and profit."
AMERICA:
One paycheck and two illegals away from
homelessness.
One paycheck and two illegals away from
homelessness.
"The economists found that the pre-tax share of
national income received by the
bottom half of the US population has been cut nearly
in half since 1980, from 20
percent to 12 percent, while the income share of the
top one percent has nearly
doubled, from 12 percent to 20 percent."
MEXICO INVADES, LOOTS AND EXPANDS
ITS HEROIN MARKETS IN AMERICA’S OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS
JUDICIAL WATCH:
“The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American
citizens are the Mexican drug cartels.”
Much more here:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-american-border-with-narcomex.html ……post
on your face book
“Mexican drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to
America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug
cartels are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in
virtually every community across this country.”
TRUMP SIGNALS OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS THAT BETTER LOOTING IS UP
AHEAD.
The chief motivating factor behind the rise on Wall Street is the
understanding that the incoming Trump administration will not only carry out
policies to benefit the financial elites, but that responsibility for
implementing this agenda will be in the hands of some its foremost
representatives.
AMERICA DIES YOUNG, POOR AND
ADDICTED!
A Nation Commits Suicide
AMERICA’S STROLL TO CIVIL WAR II
The
emphasis on class warfare, open borders, secularism, and
multiculturalism at the expense of Americanism by not only the
Democratic Party, but by their cohorts in the media and
universities has led to a very divided America with each having a
separate vision for the United States. The Left as represented by the
Democratic Party seeks an open-border stateless America where
anyone who sets foot on our soil is free to practice their branch of
identity within our borders and with no allegiance to American
sovereignty.
multiculturalism at the expense of Americanism by not only the
Democratic Party, but by their cohorts in the media and
universities has led to a very divided America with each having a
separate vision for the United States. The Left as represented by the
Democratic Party seeks an open-border stateless America where
anyone who sets foot on our soil is free to practice their branch of
identity within our borders and with no allegiance to American
sovereignty.
TRUMPERNOMICS: Serving the Rich,
the
Greedy and the Crooked.
Greedy and the Crooked.
TRUMP’S CABINET OF STOOGES, LOOTERS
and CRONIES
and CRONIES
Puzder’s nomination is of a piece with Trump’s other cabinet
choices. Betsy DeVos, an enemy of public education, has been selected to head
the Department of Education. Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon known for his
antipathy towards government “interference” in housing regulation, has been
nominated as the Housing and Urban Development Secretary.
ANDREW PUZDER:
ENEMY OF THE AMERICAN WORKER and
ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS
ADVOCATE FOR OPEN BORDERS
TRUMP'S OPEN BORDERS
AND AMNESTY/ NON-ENFORCEMENT POLICIES WILL HELP KEEP THE HAMBURGER INDUSTRY WELL
STOCKED WITH "CHEAP" LABOR ILLEGALS.... The America people will then
be forced to pay the REAL cost of all that staggeringly expensive labor
“Yet Andrew Puzder, the
chief executive of the company that operates Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, has been chosen by President-elect Donald
Trump as labor secretary.”
“Mr. Puzder, however, has been adamantly
opposed to a meaningful increase in the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an
hour. Mr. Trump has said he could stomach an increase to $10, which is still
abysmal.”
“Here is the record at
those restaurants. When the Obama Labor Department looked at thousands of
complaints involving fast-food workers, it found labor law violations in 60
percent of the investigations at Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, usually for failure
to pay the minimum wage or time and a half for overtime.”
HOW MANY HAMBURGER JOINTS HIRE legals????
FIXING
AMERICA’S UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS:
How
many jobs in your community are held by foreign born?
SHOCKING
REPORT!
THE STAGGERING ILLEGAL INVASION:
INVADE, MURDER, RAPE, BREED ANCHOR BABIES FOR WELFARE and VOTE DEM FOR MORE!
The report was apparently completed in May, leading some to suspect
that the Obama administration did not want it released for fear that it
would bolster Donald Trump’s call for a border wall.
This new report, whose full text the Center for Immigration Studies has
now obtained, estimates that nearly half of illegal aliens slip through the
southern border undetected.
TRUMP
VOWS TO KEEP OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS LOOTING
MNUCHIN:
THE FORECLOSURE MACHINE!
The FDIC paid OneWest $1 billion,
which Stein said went to “billionaire investors … to cover the close
of foreclosing on working class, everyday American folks.”
“But the bank came under fire for its foreclosure practices as housing
advocacy groups accused it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling
homeowners. In 2011, dozens of demonstrators descended on Mnuchin's $26.5
million home in he wealthy Bel Air neighborhood to protest OneWest's eviction
tactics, according to the Los Angeles Times.”
TRUMPERnomics:
AFTER
OBAMA-CLINTONIMCS, THE LOOTING OF AMERICA BY THE RICH TO CONTINUE UNDER THEIR
OWN, DONALD TRUMP
TRUMP
FILLS THE “SWAMP” WITH CRONY BILLIONAIRES!
"Far
from Trump’s demagogic claims that he would 'drain the swamp,' the corrupt
nexus between Wall Street and Washington is tighter than ever."
OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS is now the new TRUMPERnomics!
OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS is now the new TRUMPERnomics!
TRUMP VOWS TO SERVE THE RICH WITH
SUPER OBAMA-CLINTONIMCS!
There is a vast chasm between this empty populist rhetoric
and the personnel that Trump has selected to populate his government. The
speech followed a series of cabinet picks, including billionaire asset
strippers, Wall Street bankers, and dedicated opponents of
financial and corporate regulations, public education and Medicare and
Medicaid, to lead the Treasury, Commerce, Education and Health and Human
Services departments.
TRUMP
IMPOSES OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS: Cut Federal Pensions and Medicare to Cover Tax
Cuts For the Super Rich
"Trump
is not the initiator of this class war against working people. It has been
underway for decades, beginning in earnest with the election of
Ronald Reagan in 1980 and continuing under every
succeeding administration, including the eight-year tenures of
Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The colossal redistribution of
wealth and income from the bottom to the top of American society reached
record proportions under Obama, whose legacy of falling
living standards and worsening economic crisis for tens of millions
of workers was a decisive factor in the victory of the fascistic demagogue
and con artist Trump."
AMERICA
THE ADDICTED: 1 in 7 are addicted
CAUTION:
GRAPHIC IMAGES!
MEXICO’S
BIGGEST EXPORTS TO U.S.: Heroin, Criminals, Anchor baby breeders for 18 years
of gringo-paid welfare.
1
in 7 are addicted
AMERICA’S LAST DAYS AS THE MEXICAN
DRUG CARTELS’ OPEN BORDERS MARKET
BE PREPARED!
THE FASTEST GROWING POLITICAL
PARTY IN AMERICA IS THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA. IT IS AN AMERICAN TAX
SUPPORTED POLITICAL PARTY.
15 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LA
RAZA “THE RACE”
by Michelle Malkin
"The American Southwest seems
to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single
shot." --- EXCELSIOR --- national
newspaper of Mexico
THE GIG JOB ECONOMY
…. To keep wages DEPRESSED
As Barack Obama invites hordes to jump our borders jobs, welfare
offices and voting booths…. WHAT IS LEFT FOR THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS HE HATES
SO MUCH?
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-gig-economy-america-no-legal-need.html
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/bill-and-hillary-clintons-global.html
Transcripts released by
WikiLeaks of Clinton speeches to Wall Street bankers, for which she
received six-figure paychecks, show her praising the
recommendations of the 2010 Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction
commission, which called for sweeping cuts to Social Security,
Medicare and Medicaid; the elimination of 200,000 federal jobs; a
tax on employees’
Wikileaks exposed!
BARACK OBAMA AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF CRONY BANKSTER LOOTING…. And not one
went to prison!
“Citigroup’s recommendations came just
three days after then-President George W. Bush signed into law the
Troubled Asset Relief Program, which allocated $700 billion
in taxpayer money to rescue the largest Wall Street banks. The single
biggest beneficiary was Citigroup, which was given $45 billion
in cash in the form of a government stock purchase, plus a $306
billion government guarantee to back up its worthless mortgage-related
assets.”
MUCH MORE HERE:
“As president, Obama not
only funneled trillions of dollars to the banks, he saw to it that not a
single leading Wall Street executive faced prosecution for the orgy of speculation and
swindling that led to the financial collapse and Great Recession, and
he personally intervened to block legislation capping executive pay at bailed-out
firms.”
“So
when Clinton was hobnobbing with Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein in 2013,
while investigations of wrongdoing by Goldman and the other
Wall Street banks were still ongoing, she was consorting with a man
who belonged in prison.”
THE CONSPIRACY:
The Democrat Party and the Mexican Fascist Party
of LA RAZA…. Partnered to finish off white American middle class.
HOW MEXICO KILLED AMERICA FROM BORDER to OPEN
BORDER…. By invitation of the Democrat Party
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/how-mexico-killed-america-from-border.html
THE MASSIVE CYBERATTACK EXPOSES AMERICA’S
GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, BANKSTER LOOTING AND THE SURRENDER OF U.S. BORDERS TO
NARCOMEX.
WARNING!
VERY GRAPHIC IMAGES
OF AMERICA UNDER LA RAZA MEX OCCUPATION:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/america-la-raza-mexicos-wide-open.html
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY’S
SURRENDER OF OUR BORDERS TO LA RAZA, AND THE MEX DRUG CARTELS.
Even
though it has gone virtually unreported by corporate media, Breitbart News has
extensively documented the Clintons’ longstanding support for “open
borders.” Interestingly, as the Los Angeles Times observed
in 2007, the Clinton’s praise for globalization and open borders frequently
comes when they are speaking before a wealthy foreign audiences and donors.
OPEN BORDERS:
HOW THE BANKSTER-FUNDED DEMOCRAT PARTY
NEARLY DESTROYED THE GOP, THE AMERICAN WORKER and then AMERICA!
MEXICANS JUMP AMERICA’S OPEN & UNDEFENDED BORDERS AMNESTY
"Even though it has gone virtually unreported
by corporate media, Breitbart News has extensively documented the Clintons’
longstanding support for “open borders.” Interestingly, as the Los Angeles Times observed in 2007, the Clinton’s praise for globalization and open borders frequently comes when they are
speaking before a wealthy foreign audiences and donors."
WAKE UP, FOOLS! It’s already
here!!!
AMERICA’S TWISTED ROAD TO REVOLUTION:
Fighting back Wall Street’s Looting and Rule
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/09/america-nation-ruled-wall-streets.html
THE CRIME DUAL OF
HILLARY & BILLARY, THE “HOPE & CHANGE”
HUCKSTER OBAMA
"But the Clintons personify this corruption just as much as
Trump, even if they made use of a different mechanism and on a somewhat smaller
scale. They amassed a fortune exceeding $150 million in the decade after Bill
Clinton left the White House, mainly through six-figure fees for addressing
corporate and Wall Street audiences. Barack Obama will shortly take a similar
path, reaping his reward from the financial aristocracy whose interests he safeguarded
so assiduously over the past eight years."
OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS-TRUMPERNOMICS:
THE FINAL TRANSFER OF AMERICA’ ECONOMY TO THE SUPER RICH!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/09/barack-obama-and-his-crony-bankstershow.html
THE GREAT DEPRESSION IS JUST AROUND THE/ALL CORNERS!
AMERICA’S
ECONOMIC ARMAGEDDON – The Impact of Obama-Clintonomics
Under Obama-Clintonomics, the rich became VERY rich
and we got the tax bills for their bailouts and crimes!
THE
CLINTON MAFIA:
IN
THE IMAGE OF THE “HOPE & CHANGE” HUCKSTER BARACK OBAMA, REDEFINING POL
CORRUPTION!
When asked to compare Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, D'Souza
said no contest. "She is basically Obama plus gangsterism. The
Clintons are like Bonnie and Clyde. Their goal is to steal America.
THE OBAMA DOCTRINE:
Let the
Mexicans Destroy America
…. Amnesty will destroy the GOP, white and black
middle America, keep wages depressed and build the LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEMOCRAT
PARTY
MURDER, RAPE, LOOT and VOTE DEM FOR MORE!
EACH ILLEGAL WILL COST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE $640,000
and then they go breed anchor babies for more!
AMERICA STUDENTS STARVE:
Report on the impact of
OBAMA-
CLINTONOMICS
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/10/uc-workers-starving-in-state-that-hands.html
World’s richest
increased their wealth by $237 billion in 2016
By Nick Beams
29 December 2016
29 December 2016
The world’s
wealthiest 200 billionaires increased their net worth by $237 billion in 2016,
taking their total wealth to $4.4 trillion as of the close of trading on
Tuesday, an overall increase for the year of 5.7 percent, according to
calculations by Bloomberg.
The major factor in
the wealth increase is the surge in the US stock market since the election of
Donald Trump on November 8, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average heading
towards 20,000, an increase of close to 9 percent in seven weeks, or 69 percent
on an annualized basis.
At the top of the
rich list is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose net worth is $85.9 billion.
As the Bloomberg report noted, without taking into account any interest
payments or other wealth-enlarging factors, he would have to spend $2.3 million
every day for the next 100 years to run down this vast fortune.
The biggest gainer
for the year was Warren Buffett, whose investment firm Berkshire Hathaway saw
its net worth increase by $11.8 billion, largely on the back of holdings in
airlines and banks, whose stock values have soared since the election of Trump.
His total wealth has risen to $74.1 billion, an increase of 19 percent for the
year.
US billionaires have
increased their wealth by $77 billion since the Trump victory based on
expectations that his commitment to end corporate regulations and carry out
both corporate and personal income tax cuts will boost profits.
That perception has
been reinforced by Trump’s appointees to key cabinet posts, including
billionaire Wilbur Ross to head the Commerce Department and former Goldman
Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.
Summing up the
post-election euphoria in ultra-wealthy circles, hedge fund billionaire Ray
Dalio, who ranks 63rd on the top 200 list, said last week that Trump had lifted
the “animal spirits” of capitalism and the market could rise even further.
Simon Smiles, the investment manager for ultra-high-net-worth clients at UBS
Wealth Management, said, “2016 ended up being a spectacular year for risk
assets.”
Another major
beneficiary was oil industry mogul Harold Hamm. His wealth more than doubled,
rising by $8.4 billion to reach $15.3 billion, on the expectation that a Trump
administration will slash regulations on the extraction of fossil fuels.
Overall, the 49 energy, mining and metal billionaires saw the biggest increase
in wealth of any category, recording an increase of $80 billion after a decline
of $32 billion in 2015.
Other major
beneficiaries were Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder
of Facebook. Bezos, who doubled his wealth in 2015 to $60 billion, increased it
by a further $7.5 billion this year, while Zuckerberg added $5.4 billion.
The accumulation of
wealth at the heights of society is mirrored in income statistics. A recently
completed
study by economists Thomas Piketty,
Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman
found
that the share of national income received by
the bottom half of the US
population has been
reduced from 20 percent in 1980 to 12
percent, while the
income of the top 1 percent
has risen from 12 percent to 20 percent. In
other
words, some 8 percent of national
income has been transferred from the bottom
half of the population to the top 1 percent.
This trend has been
accelerating not least because of the spread of part-time and contract working
under the Obama administration, as revealed in a major study released this
month. Conducted by Harvard economist
Lawrence Katz and Princeton economist
Alan
Krueger, it found that 94 percent of the 10
million jobs created during the
Obama
administration were temporary, contract or
part-time positions. The
proportion of
workers engaged in such jobs increased from
10.7 percent of the
population to 15.8
percent. At the same time, the study found
that under Obama,
there were 1 million fewer
workers engaged in full-time jobs than there
were at
the start of the recession.
The growth of this
type of contingent work provides a significant boost to profits. Employers of
part-time labour are not required to provide benefits for employees. Young
workers have been the hardest hit by the growth of contract labour and were the
largest proportion of such employees. The study found that they generally do
not receive any benefits, even when they are employed on a full-time basis.
Krueger, a former chairman
of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said he was surprised by the
findings of his own study, noting that the loss of full-time work has hit every
demographic. “Workers seeking full-time, steady work have lost,” he said.
Together with the growth
of fabulous wealth for the upper echelons and the figures on rising income
inequality, the Krueger-Katz study further punctures the hype of the outgoing
Obama administration that it has organised an “economic recovery” benefiting
the mass of ordinary workers and their families.
These trends are
reflected internationally. A report released by the International Labour
Organisation earlier this month found that wage growth worldwide has
decelerated since 2012, falling from 2.5 percent to 1.7 percent. If China,
where wage growth has been faster than elsewhere, is excluded, the growth in
global wages drops from 1.6 percent to just 0.9 percent.
The ILO study also
pointed to the rise of social inequality, noting that in Europe, the top 10
percent of employees take home 25.5 percent of total wages, while the bottom 50
percent get 29.1 percent.
This year has been
characterised economically by a further increase in wealth and income for the
top layers of society, continuing the trend since the global economic crisis.
This redistribution of wealth and income from the bottom to the very top has
been fuelled by the provision of trillions of dollars in ultra-cheap money to
the banks and financial speculators.
Politically, it has
been marked by a shift in the other direction, with the growth of social
opposition.
This has taken the
form of intensifying hostility to the entire official political establishment,
reflected most notably in the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom and the US
presidential election, not only in the support for Trump but more directly in
the support for the self-proclaimed “socialist” Bernie Sanders.
At present, however,
the political situation is marked by a profound contradiction. While the growth
of social opposition is being driven by growing anti-capitalist sentiment, so
far it has resulted in political gains for right-wing political forces, a
contradiction that finds its sharpest expression internationally in the
election of Trump and his installation of a cabinet of billionaires, military figures
and ultra-right-wing and fascistic demagogues.
The responsibility
for this situation rests
entirely with the official “left” parties and the
trade unions, which have functioned as the
chief enforcers for all the attacks
on the
wages and social conditions of the working
class in the US and worldwide
since the crisis
of 2008.
But while right-wing
political tendencies have been the initial beneficiaries, the social crisis
will intensify and assume ever more explosive forms, posing the necessity for
the resolution of the present political impasse through the development of a
mass socialist movement armed with a revolutionary perspective for the conquest
of political power by the working class.
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