31 Facts Showing How the Rich are Getting Richer and Everybody Else Poorer
by Jon Hellevig for The Saker Blog
There is no hiding anymore, the United States has become an oligarch owned banana republic with nukes, and with a monopoly currency which has allowed it to rig the markets for half a century. But now we are only a couple of hours from curtain – Midnight in America.
With the stock market at all-time highs, virtually no unemployment (or so they say), and brisk GDP growth (supposedly) in the last decade, economic analysts would declare that the US economy is in excellent shape. But, it isn’t. The stock market is a central bank inflated asset bubble, and what GDP growth there has been, is an illusion brought about by the very same financial bubble and by pumping the economy up with record federal borrowings to finance the deficits that America cannot afford. Rigged statistics showing artificially low inflation serve to hold together the Trumped-up American economic narrative. (About the rigged inflation statistics, see this report https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/the-inflation-measurement-scam/?fbclid=IwAR0qmpe4i0sp5Uce9UlyEDt0_NkIv-aiDTSgvzHh5EMfZn5WQboZz_mB-XU). And the low unemployment figure is nothing but a chimera based on misleading statistics.
In reality, the US economy is failing – and the country with it. At least two-thirds of the population has seen dramatic declines in living standards and half are back to levels of developing nations – without the development.
The big story covered up by all the happy macroeconomic figures repeated by rote by the US establishment – everybody from the president to cable television pundits and Trump fanboys – is the gradual impoverishment of the American worker. That’s an inconvenient truth increasingly difficult to hide as the American dream has turned into a nightmare for huge swathes of the population. As the figures we present below show, the rich are really getting richer, the middle class has been decimated, and half of Americans are poor and destitute of any financial wealth. The super-rich are gobbling up an ever-increasing slice of the American pie at the cost of all the rest who get nothing but table scraps on one side and leftover crumbs on the other, if anything. The resulting stratification of society has brought back a medieval servant economy, where the have-nots are doing odd jobs, cleaning houses, fetching groceries, running errands and deliveries for the feudal rich and the remaining shrinking middle class.
Thanks to the Fed (the American oligarch owned central bank) pushing easy money into the hands of the privileged elite, the super-rich Dismal Decimal – the top 0.1% – have by now amassed as much wealth as they had just before the Great Depression that started with the stock market crash in 1929. A lesson not learned. Back to square one. How will it end this time?
This article is based on an Awara Accounting https://www.awaragroup.com/ study titled “Widening Income and Wealth Gap and Stagnating Wages in America.” https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/widening-income-and-wealth-gap-and-stagnating-wages-in-america/ Links and source references to all the facts presented here can be found in said study.
BTW all the data in this report is derived from official US government sources and American experts analyzing them.
During the last decades, the financial rewards from the rigged markets first flew exclusively into the pockets of Top 10%, but later it was increasingly Top 1%, which pocketed most, perfectly illustrated by below charts.
1. The income of Top 1% has grown five times as fast as that of Bottom 90% income since 1970, who now earn double the amount of income than 160 million poor of the lower 50% stratum.
The fortunes of Top 1% and Bottom 50% are now reversed.
2. Top 1% now holds as much wealth as Bottom 50% combined.
Income inequality obviously leads to wealth inequality, but here the figures are yet more striking in showing the magnitudes of the grab at the top. Since 1989, Top 1% captured $21 trillion in wealth, while Bottom 50% lost $900 billion, actually pushing them down to negative wealth, meaning they have more debt than they have assets. On a net analysis, half of Americans own nothing of real value.
3. Until the creeping coup under Reagan, income equality was improving
It was bad enough in 1995 when Top 1% earned as much as Bottom 50%, but today the richest 1% already take 20% of all income leaving the bottom half with only 12%. As the chart shows, back in 1978 – before the neoliberal creeping coup really got going – the trends were reversed. Below chart compares income growth since 1920 of Top 1% to Bottom 90% (that is, all the rest except Top 10%). We see that right after Ronald Reagan entered the presidency with his Chicago School snake oil influenced backers, the income growth of the 1% started its dizzying growth, which is continuing to this date.
4. Back in 1962, the share of Top 1% of America’s wealth at 33% was equal to that of Bottom 90%, but in the early 1980s the share of Bottom 90% started a steep descent and by 2016 their share had dwindled down to 21%. Especially after the Federal Reserve shifted its market rigging low-interest-rate money-pumping policy into high gear from the beginning of 2000s, the superrich have experienced a massive rise in their fortunes, as illustrated by below chart.
But by today Top 1% are losers compared with Top 0.1% – the Dismal Decimal – who are where the music plays.
5. Top 0.1% now holds as much wealth as Bottom 90% combined.
A recent study revealed that the concentration on the top is yet much more pernicious. It’s not any more a question of Top 10%, and not even Top 1%, as it is the Top 0.1% – the Dismal Decimal – that has now concentrated the wealth of the nation (and half the world) in their greedy hands. Top 0.1% now holds as much wealth as Bottom 90% combined. As the below chart shows, we are essentially back to the Roaring Twenties…a lesson not learned. Actually, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, America entered an unprecedented era of four decades of prosperity with a more equal distribution of wealth as Bottom 90% recovered strongly in distribution of wealth at the expense of Top 0.1% parasites.
6. Top 0.1% earnings grew 347% between 1979 and 2017, while Top 1% “only” gained 157% – the rest gained nothing
7. The next chart takes a longer perspective – while widening the sample to Top 10% – and shows their share of the total income since 1910 to 2010. The Roaring Twenties – the period before the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression – experienced the same level of glaring inequality as today’s America. With Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reforms the egregious average income inequality was tamed and stayed relatively low until Reagan’s fatal presidency. And it’s been downhill ever since – or uphill, if we look at it from the perspective of the rich.
8. The only economic figure that has managed to look good is the GDP, but that is so only until you bother to find out where it comes from – from the Federal Reserved fueled asset bubble and massive federal budget deficits financed by record national debts. For an excellent exposé of how rigged and debt-ridden the US economy is, I refer to my earlier report published on the Saker blog: New World Order in Meltdown, But Russia Stronger Than Ever https://10.16.86.131/new-world-order-in-meltdown-but-russia-stronger-than-ever/
Shortly: The US economy must be seen as a giant Ponzi scheme, which will implode sooner or later. And we are getting to that sooner part now.
Trump habitually and regularly brags about the stock market reaching another all-time high. But that’s really being out of touch with the electorate. Stock market gains exclusively flow to the rich increasing inequality and the cost of living for the rest. Thing is that, beyond the richest 10% very few Americans have a stake in the stock market. In 2016, the richest one percent held more than half of all outstanding stock, financial securities, and all other sorts of equity. The remainder of those asset categories were held by the rest of Top 10%, who owned over 93% of all stock and mutual fund ownership. What wealth the remaining 90% may own is largely residential housing, the homes where they live. According to Jonathan Tepper, the wealthiest 1% own nearly 50% of stock and the top 10% more than 81%. The so-called middle class owns only 8% of all stock.
This also kills the myth that record highs on the stock market would be good for American retirement savings – with the richest few holding all the shares there’s nothing in it for the overwhelming majority.
A recent report also showed that only 10% of Americans are invested in pension plans. That is down from 60% in 1980. And those who are, are traditionally more weighted towards bonds and money-market instruments, which suffer from the rigged markets with the artificially low interest rates. The pension savers are hence literally paying for the super gains flowing into the pockets of Top 1%. On the other hand the super low interest rates are out of grasp for the all but Top 1% who gobble up the wealth of the nation with that largesse delivered to them by their Federal Reserve. At the same time the common household is paying double-digit rates on their credit card debt traps.
9. Below Top 10% wages and total household income have been stagnant, at best.
10. Average income of the bottom 50% has stagnated at around $16,000 since 1980, while the income of the top 1% has skyrocketed by 300% to approximately $1,340,000 in 2014
11. 45% of Americans earn annually only 18,000 or less. A recent study found that 53 million Americans or 44% of the working age population earn a median average annual salary of only $18,000. Basically then, at least half of the Americans are working-poor.
12. Middle-class households had in 2015 basically the same income as they had in 1979
13. In the two decades from 1997 to 2017, only Top 5% of households saw their income increase
14. For most American workers, real wages have barely budged in decades. By end of 2018, the real inflation-adjusted average wage had about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago.
15. As the below chart illustrates, the real average hourly wage which was $20.27 in 1964 had only inched up to $22.27. David Stockman calculated that the real hourly worker’s wage was in 2019 still at 1972 levels.
16. For full-time employed men real wages have fallen 4.4% since 1973, according to economist Paul Craig Roberts.
The total average income of men at $51,212 in 2015, was lower in real terms than it had been in 1974.
17. As of 2014, the average hours worked per week had fallen from around 39 hours in 1970s to under 34 hours. Economist Mike Shedlock calculated that the actual hours worked and the average hourly earnings would deliver a weekly income of $690, well below its $825 peak back in the early 1970s. If we multiply the hypothetical weekly earnings by 50, we get an annual figure of $35,497. That would in 2014 have translated to a 16.4% decline from its peak in October 1972.
18. All labor productivity growth since the 1970s have gone to the robber capitalists. From 1973 to 2013, hourly compensation of a typical (production/nonsupervisory) worker rose just 9% percent while productivity increased 74%.
19. Nowhere is income inequality and the egregious worsening trend as manifest as in the case of CEO pay. In the 1970s, CEOs made 30 times what typical workers made, but by 2017 the CEOs made 361 times the workers’ pay. According to the Economic Policy Institute CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time.
The Fed fueled financial market orgy is the main cause for the windfall riches of CEOs as stock options and the accompanying share buybacks make up a huge part of CEO pay packages. This rising pay of executives was the main factor in Top 0.1%’s super grab of household income
20. A 2017 study found that 40% of US adults struggle to pay for basic necessities like food, healthcare, housing, and utilities.
21. Most Americans have depleted all their spare resources as a staggering 78% of full-time workers are reported to live from paycheck to paycheck.
22. Nearly 70% of Americans have virtually no savings. Bottom 55% have zero savings, while the following 24% – the core of the former middle class – have only $1,000 stashed away.
23. Correspondingly Bottom 70% of Americans don’t own any real wealth (beyond rapidly depreciating durables).
24. The other side of the (non-existent) coin is that the same 50% of Americans would obviously struggle to come up with $400 for an unexpected expense. By extension, the former middle class – those with the miserly savings of $1,000 – would also have real troubles in coping with any kind of bill for medical treatment without dipping into more debt. Considering the above reported findings (see the chart) only the Top 10% would be financially secure in a medical emergency.
25. According to shocking findings by the American Cancer Society, 137.1 million US residents suffered medical financial hardship in 2018. Americans had to resort to borrow a total of $88 billion in 2018 only to cover for essential medical treatment.
26. A third of young adults, or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34, lived with in their parents’ home because they cannot afford a home of their own.
27. The income and wealth gap pictures get worse yet when we look at the age distribution of wealth. Younger generations are earning less and own next to nothing (that is, if you are not the golden youth of the 10%). Baby Boomers born between the end of the Second World War and 1964 currently hold wealth that is 11 times higher than that of millennials.
Median Income for Younger and Older Families in Inflation-Adjusted Dollars
28. The number of full-time jobs with life-sustaining wages – what economist David Stockman calls breadwinner jobs – have not been growing since 2000, by 2014 their number was still 3.5 million or 5% lower than it was at the peak in early 2001. In the same period 4 million part-time and gig jobs were created.
While the official unemployment figure is presently near historical lows – and at levels what some economists would like to call full employment – there are some big problems with it. 1. Problems with the official unemployment statistics. The officially touted unemployment figure (so-called U3 unemployment) record only those who have been looking for a job during the last 4 weeks, while discouraged long-term unemployed are cleansed from the statistics and left unrecorded as if they would not be in the workforce at all – makes stats look beautiful for the powers that shouldn’t be. 2. The labor participation rate has been falling. 3. New job creation has amounted to only a third of the annual increase in working age population. 4. Part-time and gig jobs count as full-time employment. Any person who takes a part-time or gig job for just a few hours a month is recorded among the employed, although they would rightly be considered unemployed merely clutching at straws. 5. Connected with the previous point, there is also a more general problem with the quality of jobs created. Most jobs created in the last two decades are low-paid low-skill jobs that do not provide a life-sustaining income considering the cost of living in the United States.
More than one third (36%) of U.S. workers are in the gig economy, doing part-time work or side hustles for companies like Uber, Lyft, Etsy, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Freelancer.com, Ebay or just any odd job they can get from time to time.
29. To make up for the shrinking earnings, the regime is pushing the American population into 21st century debt peonage. Ensnared in the debt trap, US households had nearly $14 trillion in outstanding debt at the end of the third quarter 2019. That debt load now equals 73% of GDP. By end of 2019, consumption debt alone (not including asset acquiring mortgages) was up by $2 trillion since 2014.
Since 2004, the weight of the student loan millstone has gone up fivefold from only $250 billion to today’s $1.5 trillion.
That’s due to the huge price inflation in higher education. The cost of both public and private college escalated by 40% over the general consumer price inflation between 2005 and 2015.
30. Because of the huge rise in the last few decades in cost of living in the US, in Russia, you get the same standard of living for a fraction of the American cost. A Moscow average monthly salary equal to $1,600 (annual $19,200) gives the same purchasing power as a monthly salary of $6,000 in Chicago (annual $72,000). Meaning, you live in Moscow (at least as well for a monthly paycheck of $1,600 as you live in Chicago for a paycheck of $6,000. For details, see this report. https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/russia-vs-america-real-income-comparison/?fbclid=IwAR0pHruMMOgILt5w70ybE3oP9EmjKzVYfQF6sB_QepGixe1aIVqlvsyZGk4
31. The present oligarch controlled rigged crony capitalist system has killed the American dream, the belief that anyone, regardless of parents’ social status and incomes can attain success and wealth by hard work and ingenuity. The gates for upward mobility have been shut for the overwhelming majority. The monopolization of practically all sectors of the economy, the ever increasing bureaucratic restrictions on doing business, the extreme concentration of ownership, and the rigged financial markets have made it increasingly hard for people outside the top echelon of penetrating the financial membrane protecting the elites. A 2017 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that the probability that a household outside the top 10% made it into the highest tier within 10 years was twice as high during 1984-1994 as it was during 2003-2013.
The United States is an oligarchy
This concentration of the income and wealth on the top, proves that the United States is an oligarchy. A 2014, study by Princeton University https://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4 demonstrated how the US is a political oligarchy. With this report showing the insanely widening income and wealth inequality, my aim is to show, that the country is an economic oligarchy, too. In fact, economic super riches are the precondition for their political power, too. In America, as always, the oligarchy has achieved their uncontested power in a hermeneutical feedback loop, where the initial wealth of the superrich has bought them increased political power, which has given them increased riches, which has bought them more political power, and so on, until today, when they own practically the whole economy and the entire government. Clearly the source of higher inequality has been Fed policies, which has pushed cheap money into the pockets of the already rich, who have exclusively then benefited from soaring stock and real estate prices.
Fittingly, we got end of 2019 a report revealing that the world’s richest people increased their wealth in the year by $1.2 trillion, a staggering 25%, most of which belong to the oligarchs of the United States.
The question – which I have set to explore in my series of Capitalism in America – is whether there has been a game plan, a long-term strategy or whether intermittent achievements have just spurred the oligarchs on to new economic and political power grabs in the course of establishing their totalitarian rule. I tend to think, there has been a long-term plan ever since the establishment of the Federal Reserve. The economic and political history of the United States provide so much circumstantial evidence, which supports the view that there has been a conspiracy of the Wall Street elite. I shall return to this hypothesis in further installments to this series of Capitalism in America. It is however clear – whether through a long-term plan or by a series of ad hoc interventions – the US financial elite has by now completed a creeping coup, which have delivered them absolute economic and political power.
In my investigation of the oligarchization of America – the creeping neoliberal oligarch coop, which set in full force since Reagan – I have so far completed these instalments:
The first installment was a study showing how all corporate ownership has been concentrated in the hands of the oligarchy, titled Extreme concentration of ownership in the United States http://blogengine.hellevig.net/post/2019/05/13/Extreme-concentration-of-ownership-in-the-United-States-.aspx
The second part was a study revealing how the oligarchy has totally taken over US media, titled The Oligarch Takeover of US Media http://blogengine.hellevig.net/post/2019/05/13/The-oligarchy-wields-totalitarian-control-over-the-media-through-just-a-few-corporations.aspx
The third installment was a report published on the Saker blog titled New World Order in Meltdown, But Russia Stronger Than Ever https://10.16.86.131/new-world-order-in-meltdown-but-russia-stronger-than-ever/
The fourth installment, The Oligarch Takeover of US Pharma and Healthcare https://10.16.86.131/the-oligarch-takeover-of-us-pharma-and-healthcare-and-the-resulting-human-crisis/ was also on the Saker blog.
Next due is a report showing how from point of view of political science the oligarchy has destroyed the social fabric of the US economy and deliberately enacted laws that favor the few over the people. Of particular interest here is how the oligarchy has rigged the political system by institutionally solidifying the mendacious Janus- faced two-party system in order to remove any potential challenge to their rule.
Yes, it would seem miserable times are ahead for the majority, and would seem this reversion to feudalism is believed to be protected by technology/security to avoid the heads on pikes response. It amuses me to see these foolish billionaires wanting to extend their lust for materialism by trying to extend their lives or thinking they can be resurrected from a block of ice in the future, there are reasons they will never circumvent, why it can’t happen.
We all have various beliefs, many that life is a crap game where God lavishes some with exquisite lives of luxury and other to live as dogs…Gods will. The notion of karma and reincarnation would be probably unpopular here, but consider that we simply reap what we sow, at least impartial justice is in constant operation. Evil occurs but balance follows. And if even a remote possibility, then consider those whose greed condemns the many to live in squalor, what sort of life will they have awaiting them in the next round?
Agree.
There is an explicit reason they’re gutting the US economy, and bringing it to its knees, its the same reason they brought China from every poor and lower class and living in the villages, to everyone middle class, and most living in the city’s, in just 30 years. ( I know this cuz I have seen with my own eyes, I have spent the majority of my time the last 40 years in Asia )
While in the same 40 years, America is no longer recognizable. Majority that do have jobs live paycheck to paycheck. I absolutely hate to go to the USA, when I do all I see is shit on the sidewalk and people sleeping in their own shit and wondering the streets like zombies.
Those that do make money, are milked and rip-off’d by pharma, insurance, gov, cops, … endlessly making even the middle-class poor.
They’re doing this because they want able bodied people to leave, they know the stupid will die. Look at the opium deaths, this is just self imposed culling.
Carrol Quigley called his last major book “Tragedy & Hope”, the Tragedy was mass murder done by the ANZ since 1700’s 100’s of millions of deaths, the HOPE, is that out of this comes a wonderful disneyland like NWO, but for whom? Quigley was chief historian for the CIA, died in the 1980’s after his last book. Like Deagel, you listen to these people, they know what is going down. Quigley was told not to publish, but he felt that how the Anglo had taken over the world was too important not to be documented, but his audience was intended to be professional historians. Bill Clinton said at inauguration, had Quigley ( his professor ) not introduced him to the ‘right people’ he would have never become POTUS. That’s how important this guy was. He was professor at Georgetown, the UNIV that educates the Elite-Spys for the USA, think state-department, and foreign-affairs.
If you closely follow what they say, and what they do, this is not a return to feudalism, this is ‘tomorrowland’ on steroids.
Just carefully study the deagel reports ( google ‘deagel report’ ) since the 1990’s they have been ‘predicting’ a 90% population reduction in the USA.
Like they say, its not what’s said, its who said it. John Deagel in 1950’s was the chief long term strategist for David Rockefeller, the same guy that brought Mao to power. These people mean what they say, and do what they say they plan to do.
Head’s Up, if you already haven’t gotten out of Israel, Iran, and/or the USA then your on a suicide path.
When the Rothschild/Rockefeller consortium give you a 20+ year head’s up, you listen why is it you think that 100’s of the ‘anglo-billionaires’ have invested in New Zealand? Private planes on standby, diplomatic visa’s already purchased.
Karma, Reincarnation. I wouldn’t want to be punished for something I did 10 years ago let alone 2-3 lifetimes ago. In some channeled material, it is said : time is simultaneous; it’s all happening Now.
This article has confirmed what analysts have been writing for years and what the MSM has, on the whole, done it’s utmost to conceal. The average American knows that something is wrong. However, most do not know how bad things really are. They will discover the truth in a pretty horrific way, when things start collapsing.
United States has become an oligarch owned banana republic with nukes, and with a monopoly currency which has allowed it to rig the markets for half a century. But now we are only a couple of hours from curtain – Midnight in America.
…
That’s funny in the 1990’s Col Beckwith used say that too, Founder of the Delta Force would say “USA is a 3rd world country with Nukes”
So now here we are 30 years later, and what has changed?
Like the old story about taking a dog or pig out for dinner, no matter how your dress them up, they’re still a pig.
If the most elite leader of the US-MIL special forces would publicly tell his troops that the USA is a 3rd world country with nukes, imagine what they say behind doors?
Today’s America is far worse than 1990’s, people shit on the streets, and drug addicts wander all the city’s like zombies
The US Dollar reserve currency still rules the roost.
The thing not said is that nobody wants to be Reserve-Currency, not EU, not China, not Russia. So the only hope of replacing USD is the SDR ( or some basket of currency ran by AIIB ), which would be a partnership of the big country’s; They’re going to call this the ‘big reset’, but its not going to be a good thing, Because the 4th country is Israel, which is why Israel is currently taking out all the EU country’s with their minions. In exchange for the ANZ managing the Goy Russian&China will let Israel control 1/3 of the SDR.
So Israel has destroyed the USA. China has invested heavily in Israel, and made it the leader of Europe.
China&Israel are partners. China trusts Israel to lead the Goy like a dog on a leash. It’s all about business.
Since 1913 with the Federal Reserve fiat free-cash flow the ANZ turned the US-MIL into a Merc Army to kill on its behalf, to capture real estate for the chosen to occupy. MSM Hollywood turned the USA into an LGBT nation of corwards. Created 100’s of three letter agencys to terrorize the US public and rob them blind. They’re doing the same today to the Israel people on the left that support the unions.
Most elite soldier’s in the US-MIL know full well of the purpose of the Rhodes Scholars, the CIA, Anglo-American domination of the earth post 1700’s.
The end of the US Dollar will not bring prosperity or happiness, it will bring a new living hell on earth.
I agree
For quite some time we’ve been on the road into the abyss. Big Data, sophisticated algorithms (unwarranted labeled AI), scoring of people, the usage of facial recognition, nonsensical laws (for example pushing LGBTQ….), attempts to abolish physical money and the ever increasing amount of low quality products (aka obsolescence) is already beginning to make lives harder. You can make lives more difficult with or without the Dollar as US currency. Maybe the end of the US Dollar may add some hardships. Who knows?
Don’t forget about the fantastic “lawn boy” economy where grown adults make an average living manicuring the grounds of the overlords, a first “job” that young boys used to have in the 1960’s (along with newspaper deliveries).
These facts are among thousands of other facts presented in thousands of other articles that go ignored by the Trump sycophants. It doesn’t take a lot of people to fill a TV screen (in an entire state) and cheer the fantastic lies spun by the Trumpster, some of which don’t even pass the “misleading but technically true” statistical test. If 1% of Wisconsin showed up at the last rally it would break an attendance record. Since maybe 10% have some share of the fake prosperity rolling their way, there is ample room for moar buffoonery in every state of the “union”.
The article is great, but the real story is our fake world, our fake economy and our fake money which powers it all. As long as the little people continue to buy and live for the hidden narrative (which they don’t see or understand) that the debt of their fellow man is the measure of their “wealth”, the truth of our derivative world will continue to be unheard, unknown and unprepared for.
https://roacheforque.blogspot.com/2019/05/correctly-thought.html
It seems the end of the line for uncle sham, if this state of affairs persisted, is to become a communist state. It would be a poetic irony.
you are confusing Corporatism with Communism. A very common mistake on the internets, where hundreds of thousands of bots incessantly repeats daily how the Corporatists are Communists.
Corporatism and Communism are total opposites, one is about the 1%, Communism is about the people. That is is why for example there were no beggars or homeless in the communist country I grew up in, but now there is plenty.
The Gospel of John, if I am not mistaken, provides us with a beautiful parable on this path.
“How knowest thou a tree? By its fruits!”
Please keep up your excellent work. It is a dream come true for me to expose the tyrannical system that is taking shape in our world. It is in fact not that difficult.
All we have to do is either follow the money trail or the trail of blood that is being shed in the world. In both cases we arrive at the door of the tyrants.
Al Kiani
You said…
“All we have to do is either follow the money trail or the trail of blood that is being shed in the world. In both cases we arrive at the door of the tyrants.”
Absolutely spot on!!!
The trails have unmissable beacons on both sides…these are impossible to miss except if you are blind or simply don’t want to see them. The elite, 95% of the media and most politicians fall right into this category.
Absolutely the best two sentences I have heard to date on just how easy it is to expose the Hegemon.
Cheers
Col
One point – pensions in the United States are not as bad as Jon portrays them. I think there is a misunderstanding of the retirement provision in the USA.
It is correct that employer offered pensions have declined and the numbers look correct. However, this has been replaced by the 401K provision where uptake now mirrors the decline in the old fashioned pension. One system has replaced the other.
In many cases, the 410K contributions of the saver are supported with some degree of matching contribution from the employer.
Are people saving enough for retirement? In most cases, of course, not. But then that was always the case. In a very large number of cases, intergenerational wealth transfers provide necessary support through inheritance. Again, that’s the same as it ever was – although with increasing wealth the effect and benefit has increased hugely!
Retirement savings are a very large form of citizen investment in the stock market that Jon seems to have overlooked.
Don’t forget that those 401(k) pensions are being routinely liquidated whenever a hedge fund/vulture capitalist takes over a company, loads it up with debt, declares bankruptcy and flees with the money.
In fact, I refer to the facts that only 10% of people are invested indirectly through pension plans in the stock market.
In this article I write: “Trump habitually and regularly brags about the stock market reaching another all-time high. But that’s really being out of touch with the electorate. Stock market gains exclusively flow to the rich increasing inequality and the cost of living for the rest. Thing is that, beyond the richest 10% very few Americans have a stake in the stock market. In 2016, the richest one percent held more than half of all outstanding stock, financial securities, and all other sorts of equity. The remainder of those asset categories were held by the rest of Top 10%, who owned over 93% of all stock and mutual fund ownership. What wealth the remaining 90% may own is largely residential housing, the homes where they live. According to Jonathan Tepper, the wealthiest 1% own nearly 50% of stock and the top 10% more than 81%. The so-called middle class owns only 8% of all stock.”
Note, that I told that all source references are in the original study, which you can find here https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/widening-income-and-wealth-gap-and-stagnating-wages-in-america/
There I wrote: “The real wealth constitutes of real estate, stocks (all forms of business ownership, direct or indirect ownership through funds and trusts) and bonds, and intellectual property rights. Stocks is really where the richest shine. In 2016, the richest one percent held more than half of all outstanding stock, financial securities, and all other sorts of equity, as well as 40% of non-home real estate. The remainder of those asset categories were held by the rest of Top 10, who owned over 93% of all stock and mutual fund ownership.[17] What wealth the remaining 90% may own is largely residential housing, the homes where they live. According to Jonathan Tepper, the wealthiest 1% own nearly 50% of stock and the top 10% more than 81%. The so-called middle class owns only 8% of all stock.[18] Only 10% of Americans own stocks indirectly through pension plans. That is down from 60% in 1980.[19]”
The references are to Jonathan Tepper The Myth of Capitalism. (In mentioned study, wrongly written in my draft form, will be corrected). AND http://www.mybudget360.com/pension-disaster-pension-united-states-percent-underfunded-retirement-plans/
Clearly supports my thesis that only 10% are invested in stocks.
Re 401 (k) penions, see what Bart Hansen writes below.
Citizen investment in the stock market can be wiped out by a 1929 style crash as well.
After the November election and Trump has a commanding majority in both houses of congress, the Federal Reserve is disbanded. The US joins China and starts to issue actual money into the economy instead of debt.
‘After the November election’…
trump is killed, the deepstate msm gets to pin it on iran (revenge for soleimani)
and the necons get to b0mb,b0mb,b0mb iran
usa looses.
financial hell breaks loose and blamed on iran and not the oligarchs.
feudalism is back. wonder how they will call it this time…
Just about 27% of U.S economy (GDP) was according Chinese analysis (y 2014-2015) real economy while 73% was fake virtual economy. Since 1971 U.S real economy has not grown hardly at all. As long i can remember there was hardly any made in U.S consumer products in Nordic Europe even some 50 years ago. Study the case “Nixon’s shock” (August 1971) to understand why.
(My guess: now much less than 25% of U.S economy is real economy)
Notice that item 29 in the list uses the 73% figure, that debt makes up 73% of the US GDP:
29. To make up for the shrinking earnings, the regime is pushing the American population into 21st century debt peonage. Ensnared in the debt trap, US households had nearly $14 trillion in outstanding debt at the end of the third quarter 2019. That debt load now equals 73% of GDP. By end of 2019, consumption debt alone (not including asset acquiring mortgages) was up by $2 trillion since 2014.
The GDP is just smoke and mirrors that revolves around the endless creation of digital currency to monetize debt and prop up markets.
The industrial base has been offshored and the population dumbed down and indebted (due to debasement of the currency and ever higher costs of living not reflected in economic statistics) to the point where it makes it virtually impossible to bring back industry.
A lot of articles out there about “end of the empire.” Most argue for some sort of change in the utter stupidity of current policies but no one expects any change from current regime. The elite are quite satisfied, thank you very much.
This article does not offer much new but here it is:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-end-of-american-empire-wont-be-pretty/
The end result is a classical Marxist blow up where wealth and power is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, with a tiny gilded elite lording it over the feudal serfs, the new lumpen proletariat, stripped of purchasing power in an economy that is simply no longer viable. The collapse of communism removed all restraint from the parasitic rent seeking class.
Add to that the technical destruction of millions of jobs through driverless vehicles, automated fruit picking and the like, and you have the perfect storm. Maybe this will end in war or a new form of super imperialism, or something similar. But it won’t be pretty and it won’t be peaceful. And there is a limit to how much you can insulate yourself from these developments by skulking inside your privileged gated community.
Mentions Q in the middle – LTSD. (s)
——————–
When the author asked ‘How does this end’? I almost started laughing, although it isn’t a laughing matter. I don’t believe there is going to be a ‘reset’. This everything bubble that is being hyper-inflated is going to do a massive meltdown. There will likely be a lot more tent cities, starving and sick people, violence and theft and war. There are going to be a huge number of fatalities. It seems to me this has all been planned. It is much easier to control a lot fewer people and frankly, the greedy billionaires don’t really need us much. Robotics will replace segments of the workforce and they make no demands. I can’t see a robot crawling under a sink to connect water and drain lines. There will still be plumbers. There will still be trades. But how many tradesmen will be needed? Not so many.
All those diehard Trump supporters who have called me names because they have accepted the lie that the economy is the greatest in history will be in for a shocking surprise, to say the least. And all the silly people who hung on every cryptic word from some secret entity called ‘Q’ telling us to trust the plan, and the 5D chess player, pumping the story that there are over 1000 sealed indictments and they are against all the politician’s people love to hate. They are all being brought to justice, they think. Stupid! You have all been fooled again this time by a reality TV personality who cannot seem to tell the truth.
I guess all I can suggest is try to store up some food, on sale if you can find it. Rice and beans are still within reach. And when you do so, do it with the understanding that you will probably be sharing it with someone who has zilch. And how could someone turn away another who is starving? I can’t. I won’t. Otherwise, I will carry on with life, day today. I will look for God in all around me. As surely as the Most High sees all who suffer, and does often bring a miracle if only we would recognize it, He also sees what the greedy oligarchs are doing. I need to learn quickly to live my life above nasty because what is coming is going to be just that: Nasty!
I found this to be an excellent overview of the current situation in the US. The author correctly identifies the fraudulent inflation figures, but IMO he ought to have also spent more ink describing a similar dishonesty with the unemployment numbers.
They are now engaged in financial wars with each other – trying to steal from the “barely rich” people. And there is still the residual “middle class” to be grabbed. Opinion time: one of the techniques they’re beginning to use is to stir up resentment among the folks who have nothing against those who still possess a few resources. “Hey Boomber” is hardly an innocent slur. We’re already seeing proposal to do “means testing” of Social Security”. News and blog stories ask “Why should people with a net worth of $100,000 be drawing down on the “dwindling” SS Surplus?” And so on. A generation war of young vs old is very much in the interests of the Super Rich.
One other technique available to wipe out the people with a few thousand dollars in the bank is Hyperinflation. Obama inflated the money supply by several trillion dollars, and from all accounts Trump is following the same pattern. I’m not saying Trump is smart enough to know this, but it’s certainly happening while he is goofing off in the White House and on his golf courses.
What can be done to prepare for a possible Hyperinflation? Buying Gold isn’t practical for 95% of the population – they don’t have the money. If I could somehow manage to purchase 10 ounces of gold, I’ve got the problem of theft. Forget about Safety Deposit Boxes – they’d be the first things locked down and looted by the agents of the Super-Rich. Suppose I somehow safely secured my 10 ounces of gold, what am I going to do when a letter arrives in the mail demanding I sell it to the “Government” for a nominal sum. This has already happened once! I can’t detect counterfeit gold, and selling it would be a nightmare – totally a buyer’s market.
I-Bonds. Within recent memory a person could go to his bank and purchase up to $30,000 per year. The Government would send you Paper Certificates you could put away to prove your ownership. Things are different in early 2020 – there is now a limit of $10,000/year, and the purchase must be done online! The managers of the Hyperinflation could start howling “Russian/Chinese/Iranian” hackers, and pretend that they’d need years to sort out who truly had ownership of the I-Bonds. In the meantime, the desperate holders of the invisible/intangible Digital I-Bonds would have the choice of holding them, or selling them to speculators for a fraction of their worth to keep alive. (remember the history of the Continentals and Greenbacks!) Only one path remains to the Paper I-Bonds, and that’s in a federal tax refund. But how many ordinary people get refunds of $5,000?
We take “money” to the grocery store and buy food. If a gallon of milk suddenly costs $400 and a loaf of bread $200, you’re going to do what others have in previous Hyperinflation events. You’re going to start selling what few tangible items you still own. The jackals who are buying them will clean you out in short order. Guns. Cars. Clothes. Jewelry. Furniture. The virtue of your wife or daughters.
Even the poorest of Americans can build a small food cache by adding a couple “somethings” with every grocery store visit. Large bags of rice from the Big Box store. Canned foods. Shortening/oils. Spices. IMO it’s essential to have stock of seeds ready to plant at the start of the next growing season. A garden plot CAN be worked up with a shovel. (buy a shovel) It is neither pretty nor easy, but it can be done. If you have nothing else to plant, put popcorn in the ground. Soup beans germinate just fine. If grocery-store potatoes sprout, they will grow. Desperation stuff for sure, but taking some minimal precautions is relatively painless.
I’ve uploaded an article from the 1/1923 National Geographic magazine about the situation in Vienna during the German Hyperinflation. Sorry about the size, but 17 meg was about the best I could manage from the scan to get decent viewing quality.
http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php?file_id=31175983906716480690&t=3117598390671648069091108
Thanks Zachary, I spent more time on unemployment and the labor force participation rate in the original study that was the basis for this more candid criticism of the system, wanted to keep it as short as possible.
The original is here https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/widening-income-and-wealth-gap-and-stagnating-wages-in-america/
Long before those costs rise you’ll see theft of items at the stores become an option for the dwindling middle class. The min wage folks already have a system in place and so we dont hear a lot of complaints from them, if they double their income or reduce their costs of goods by 1/2, they are a happy lot.
But the middle class is going to be split down the middle, some will just off themselves to reduce the pain, and some will resort to some kind of theft, and a portion of those will get caught and spend time in jail, this is where we are headed in the short to med term, like 10-30 years.
There is no human solution to the worlds economic problems because the robber baron bankster elites over there in the city of London have been moving all the wealth upward to themselves from the middle and lower classes by means of their central banking systems and with the full complicity of the governments who’ve been bought off by these mobsters and have no loyalty to their citizens.
Yes, a reset is coming in the form of God’s Kingdom when it puts out of existence every vestige of human government and institutions that have oppressed humanity over the millennia. This is the only valid and fast approaching solution to the problem, however the majority of mankind will reject such a “fairy tale” notion, and continue to debate and fawn after phantom human fixes.
You got the solution right, but the timing is way off. We are, or should I say say the gods are, looking at min 50+ years before they are able to exert the planed solution, b/c there is no god anywhere that has a control of its own destiny, they are holy dependent on humans to do their bidding, and they require a lot of bidding.
There have been various revelations in the past about the economic problems we Americans face in these dire times of today such as this excellent article written by Mr. Hellevig.
Unfortunately the public is under a constant barrage of consumption induced distractions like flies buzzing around their collective heads that focus their attention on clever marketing and advertising schemes to lure them into expensive possessions such as automobiles, homes they cannot afford to own and maintain or the ubiquitous liberal arts degrees from institutions of higher education they will pay for the rest of their lives. Add to that, the latest “technowiz” gadgets like feature-rich smart-phones, AI devices that control their minds to service group-think or watch their favorite video entertainment in the palm of their hands.
America today has become the Orwellian nightmare that Eric Blair wrote about. The powerful elite uses the psychology of “self-pleasure and want” to maximum effectiveness in every industry of the new era of uber-fascism; a modern day Sodom and Gomorra has been given birth and Lucifier is pleased the masses no longer worship God but the synagogue of Wall Street.
“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10 KJV 1611)
Saint Paul’s verse in his letter to Timothy rings the bell of truth of all who worship at the Temple of Wall Street administered by the Pharisee rabbis. Even the former head of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein admitted in a New York Times article back in 2009:
“Is it possible to make too much money? “Is it possible to have too much ambition? Is it possible to be too successful?” Blankfein shoots back. “I don’t want people in this firm to think that they have accomplished as much for themselves as they can and go on vacation. As the guardian of the interests of the shareholders and, by the way, for the purposes of society, I’d like them to continue to do what they are doing. I don’t want to put a cap on their ambition. It’s hard for me to argue for a cap on their compensation.”
So, it’s business as usual, then, regardless of whether it makes most people howl at the moon with rage? Goldman Sachs, this pillar of the free market, breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe will go on raking it in, getting richer than God? An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face. Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you will. He is, he says, just a banker “doing God’s work.” See: https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/goldman-chief-says-he-is-just-doing-gods-work/
By his own blasphemy, we have confirmation from one of the high priests of Wall Street that his former company is a “breeder of super-citizens” and God inspired. Blankfein is another descendant of the Pharisee moneychangers that Jesus Christ cursed as the children of Satan for their avarice.
Only external forces of a catastrophic nature can change this epoch in America; until that happens life will continue to degrade in personal liberties, wealth and morality.
Is it the company, which you say he says, that breeds this line, or is it their upbringing, private tutors, business school,etc.?
I can find Lord Blank Mind’s Hah-vahd student card online in a search.
Also, as to who they all work for, none excepted, someone obviously knew or figured it out when they created this direct hit:
https://antennawilde.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/pope-trump.png?w=648
Just today another egregious example of this with Mr. T(witter) openly touting the banks specifically!!
(usually he sticks to touting the general stock market).
So he’s telling u with this latest news about the FED days ago, released through their mouthpiece WSJ, that the FED now has everyone’s back (but not the schlubs–only anyone/everyone in the financial sphere!).
So what can go wrong?
Look up unam sanctam papal bull November 1302 “Saint” Boniface.
Notice in all this, since their late 2001 entry into WTO, that the China oligarchs are also playing well the part of fat, dumb, & happy (and RICH!) and perfectly willing to stay onside the worlders, suck the last industrial life out of USSA & carry the system on till it collapses, letting others do all the work & heavy lifting & fighting & dying.
By pure accident just the other day I was watching a u-tube dude who does on-site tours of old west USA historic sites, &he remarked how many parks, undeveloped hinterlands just outside cities, & cemeteries are lived in by the homeless permanently (till evicted/shutdown). Vid saying this was dated mid-2016.
Just example, anyone note that this hugely touted several hundred page Phase I trade deal signed yesterday 15th is another big fat nothing burger pimped to the stars, not even attended by Xi.
Updated to-the-day comments & charts good synopsis about the details of events since SEPT 17/2019 when the FED introduced “not QE4”, & its “bailance” sheet clearly shows the $400B 11% increase in its bailouts to its buddies since.
Now FED will be backstopping dealers, small banks & hedgies,according to wsj.
Remember the Buzz Lightyear slogan? To oblivion & beyond LOL.
The Fed created the problem in the first place by holding interest rates artificially low and leaving several trillion of its first series of QE operations in the banking system. This in turn fostered a catastrophic level of morally hazardous investing by banks and hedge funds. Now the Fed will try to monetize this – it has already hinted that the “repo” bailout will be extended now to April. Absence this Fed intervention, 2008 x 10 will ensue – which will happen eventually anyway.
https://investmentresearchdynamics.com/the-fed-is-going-all-in-to-keep-the-system-from-collapsing/.
I agree with most of what the author says. After reading through the comments, I’d offer only a few fresh observations:
First, pointing to Trump as the cause of all of this is absurd. The decline began long, long before him. What he has failed to do is address the imbalance, which puts him on par with all of his peers.
Second, it will come to a close when the dollar standard era is over. That’s already in progress. The only reason there hasn’t so far been a massive reset of currency valuations is because nearly every other major currency in the world is playing the same game as the USA vis-a-vis devaluation. It’s a race to the bottom, and, try as the USA might, even unintentionally, there are others printing even more money and falling faster. This will come to an end when there’s no longer any reason for the rest of the world to support the US economically just because they are massive over consumers…they will be supplanted by an even more massive economy (China).
At that point, either China becomes the world’s newest hegemonic dictator, which I find unlikely, or we enter into a multipolar universe (likely), or complete chaos (also likely). In any of those cases, it will be very bad indeed if you live in the USA for the average citizen. The oligarchs, of course, will be unharmed, as usual, and will move on to a new host society that is more profitable for them.
There is one wild card to all of this: cryptocurrencies. Though I place the odds heavily against them, there’s a small chance that non-government issued cryptos become the de facto “coins of the realm”, the realm being the entire world. IMO that would be a very, very good thing for mankind.
Jon, again a highly detailed takedown; with ample proof provided, of where Neoliberalism is taking the vast majority of us.
Into the gutter of destitution and misery.
I too believe all this has been a long term strategy, going back to the origins of the Mont Pelerin Society.
That almost 70% have no savings at all, and 36% of workers rely on the gig economy, coupled with the massive amount of US household debt is a pretty damning indictment of our present economic system.
And the sad reality is that so many still lap up the insidious propaganda, and believe they too can ‘make it’ with a good dose of hard work.
The evidence you provide is both damning and sobering.
Marvellous analysis. Gold star, go to the top of the class.
I keep hearing the things started going South for ordinary Americans in the 1980s, “with Reagan”. This strangely coincides with with another event – the breakup of the USSR. Is it possible that in the 1980s, the Western plutocrats felt they no longer had to keep the masses in the US (but also in other “developed” capitalist countries that also started to administer various “austerity” programs) as fat and happy because there no longer seemed to be any real, visible alternative to Western-style capitalism?
Is the recent economic rise of China the new “alternative” that is motivating the Western plutocrats to give support to “populist” politicians such as Trump and Sanders to alleviate some of the excesses of capitalism of the past 40 years?
It really began in full w/Carter when he was coerced to eliminate the cap on interest on borrowed money at 10% where it had been for nearly 2000 years. The U.S. had until the 73 oil crisis, been keeping the balance of oil profits on its books, and once that was removed all they could do was force opec to trade in dollars.
The country needed money to offset the loss of oil revenue and the answer became to increase the interest rates on borrowed money, once Carter signed what became the fiscal rape of America
http://www.planetaryhq.com/rapeamerica.htm
the prime rate shot up to 21% and it was off to the races for any president who had to follow after that. Nothing could be done and people warned about financialization of the economy and what would occur in 30 years when those bonds came due, it became the crisis of 08, we had to start paying off that money or default on the loans.
The Fed was reluctant to raise rates after that, plus the national debt couldn’t afford to be serviced w/o keeping rates low for an extended period of time that continues to this day. Just to pay today’s and tomorrows unfunded obligations has the Fed taking extra ordinary means that amounts to a mini hyper inflationary event continueally increasing the cost of living for the forseeable future.
There really is no hope for people who have no money b/c most begin with an unpayable debt, and then have to service their everyday high living costs. It means taking far reaching measures like numerous roommates or like today’s live at home youth don’t even want to own anything, a car or a house. Their American dream has become simply traveling and seeing America, ownership is a thing of the past and this will not change well into the future if at all. Probably not at all.
Excellent analysis. Other economists have been saying the same things, but the grim statistics make for a serious read. The Globalists are trying to use the US military/Intel to make all other countries have a privately owned central bank reporting to the BIS. It looks like the austerity policies favoring the 1% are causing socital collapse all across the New World Order countries.
Whats even worse is most of those people are among the elderly, and I have already proved as people age they care less about others and a lot more about preserving themselves, and their money. So dont expect this pattern to change or these same people to care about the situation of those not as fortunate. They really don’t want to even talk about it, they just want to talk about preserving the system as it is.
Within twenty years most of the old greedy oligarchs will be dead.
Forever.
Being dead.
The great leveller.
Old greedy oligarchs are wealthy, not rich. Know the difference? Thier wealty and influence lives on after they die. Anyone can become rich and the wealthy can take those riches away, wealth being something that is amassed over generations, not dot com flash in pans.
When my Economics Professor promised us we’d never have another Great Depression ever again because the Fed now has all the tools (liquidy) to prevent one I ran out of class and puked up all the demons that had just entered my soul.
Satanomics 101
Wow! An excellent detailed summary of the current economic symptomology, the real economy’s increasing signs of sickness.
Yes, it’s a creeping coup conspiracy but not necessarily a conscious one…it’s just the natural instinctive life drive to seek higher power working out in the variable-space of geographic and technological factors at play in the US, a mega-scale social entity. It now most likely has to run its course toward a more or less abrupt collapse. The US people and their government failed to keep power growth in check.
Another way of looking at it, a warning from VP Wallace in 1944 regarding creeping corporate fascism:
https://truthout.org/articles/the-dangers-of-american-fascism/
Wallace foresaw this as Ike foresaw the MIC’s development, the MIC being a major adjunct or component of the overall creep toward corporate fascism/plutocracy.
At this point it just feels like the best we can do is play Monday morning QB. The power position held by the US at the end of WW2 set the stage for the corruption that followed…power begets power, begets corruption, begets more corruption.
By the way, here are a couple of websites that follow along the same vein as Hellevig:
Charles Hugh Smith… https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
Bill Bonner… https://www.bonnerandpartners.com/bill-bonner-diary/
Good article, and I dispute nothing. I worked in financial markets from mid 80s to 2002. I left and moved out of NYC shortly after 9/11, my apartment was 4 blocks from ground zero.
I recently ran a detailed analysis of middle class income verses lifestyle and purchasing power. To have the same lifestyle, purchasing power, and savings rate in 2019 versus 1970 a middle class household would need $ 425,000 of pretax income.
In 1970 most households were one-earners and 2018 most households were two-earners, another intangible lifestyle loss you can thank the Federal Reserve and US Gov for.
In my opinion, a large exodus of cash from stocks will occur sometime in the near future, that cash will enter the ‘Main Street economy’ primarily into real estate and other hard assets that will produce a specific inflation that will have some additional devastating impact on the middle and lower class lifestyles (not to mention those suffering a loss of retirement savings invested in stocks if they did not exit or restructure investments timely).
So much for the spin that Globalism is good and is a cure all.
The next phase after Trump will be someone else of the same mindset will fill his shoes because the old system will continue to fail. The Globalist agents in the Democrats & Republicans dont seem to understand that the game is up – it not just an issue of removing Trump and thinking that his mindset will disappear, because it wont. 40 years of experimentation has resulted in serious problems as outlined above.
Damage has been done to US EU UK etc… and second and third world countries too.
A complete rethink of the system is required.
And the stk mkt gains held by the rich are an illusion because none would be able to liquidate those holdings at peak prices. Mkt is at their possible peak now – so watch out.