This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Thoughts On Prosperity In America
Submitted by Erico Tavares of Sinclair & Co.
Thoughts on Prosperity in America
With equity markets at all-time highs, does this mean that prosperity in the US is also at record levels?
The 1980s were a great time for many Americans. Jobs were plentiful. The civilian unemployment rate went from almost 11% in November 1982 to around 5% by May 1989. The number of households making more than $75,000 per year (in today’s money) increased by almost seven percentage points from the low in 1982 to the end of the decade. A new sense of optimism pervaded the nation. The hit song “The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” rocked the airwaves. After enduring some terrible years in the prior decade, America came roaring back.
“The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” by the US band Timbuk3, 1986
The Economist magazine agreed. In its “The World in 1988” publication, the US was ranked as the best place to be born out of 50 countries. It seemed as if American babies back then should all be wearing shades indeed.
So how did things turn out for them and their parents?
By definition, in a truly prosperous country the wealth going around rises and becomes more accessible to an increasing number of people. Stated differently, the percentage of households that earn more than a certain amount steadily rises, drawing in people from the poorer sectors of society.
The US Census Bureau provides information annually on income levels adjusted for inflation in America, with the most recent report (for 2013) published last September. Is there one that we can use as the most representative of a minimal prosperity threshold?
In a 2010 Princeton study, Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton found that making more than $75,000 per year will not significantly improve the emotional wellbeing of American households as a whole. It’s not like you have “made it” once you start making more than that; it’s just that the marginal comfort you get out of most things in life is much less than at lower income levels. OK, there are variations by State given different cost structures and even in attitudes towards money (it might be hard to get a date in New York City earning just that), but this seems like a reasonable demarcation line.
Therefore, we will assume that America is getting more prosperous (or at the very least getting more materially satisfied, according to Kahneman and Deaton) if an increasing percentage of households make more than $75,000 per year, which we will call the “prosperity line”.
Here’s how it looked like going back to the early 1980s:
Households Split by Selected Income Levels (in 2013 CPI-U-RS adjusted dollars)(%): 1979-2013
Source: US Census Bureau.
After the recession in the early part of the 1990s, the prosperity line just kept on rocking through the end of the decade. Not only people were getting richer, but less and less people at all lower income levels were staying poor, as evidenced by the decline in their respective lines.
The boom times were back. Technology was the new rage, promising a whole new era of corporate efficiency and affordable gadgets purchased online. Inflation was a fading memory and the great moderation was in. Equity markets were rising exponentially. Civilian unemployment dropped to levels not seen in thirty years. Everyone was getting rich. It was time to wear shades again.
“Californication” by the US band Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1999
Then the new century came, the tech bubble popped and the economy went south in short order. The ensuing recession turned out to be the deepest in a generation. As the bills came due, that’s when things really started to go wrong for a lot of people, more or less up until today in fact.
After peaking in 1999 at 37%, the prosperity line has gradually declined since, and is now sitting at 34%. In between there was a housing boom and a global financial crash, both with noticeable effects on the line. That decline may not sound like much, but it will take years to rebuild all that wealth – assuming that the economy is moving in the right direction.
Most of the households which left those happier ranks likely ended up in the next level down in the graph, which can be broadly regarded as the “middle class” (if we consider that median income adjusted for inflation has generally gravitated within that interval). While the percentage here stabilized at over 30%, this might mask an awful lot of turnover as other people got pushed down even further.
And it was exactly at the bottom of the earnings scale that things got pretty bad. People earning less than $35,000 per year went from 31% at the turn of the century to 34% today, more or less matching the decline in percentage points at the top of the table. The new century brought a lot more discomfort to a growing number of Americans, fueling a lot of talk recently about income inequality in the country.
“Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor” by the US artist Rob Zombie, considered to be one of the best rock albums of 2013
Therefore, despite all the subsequent economic growth, large fiscal stimulus packages, unprecedented Federal Reserve intervention and booming capital markets, we could say that PROSPERITY IN AMERICA PEAKED IN 1999!
Now there’s something you don’t often hear in the news, especially with the S&P500 at new all-time highs. In fact, record equity markets don’t tell the whole story. There’s a deeper dynamic at work here that is worth considering.
Here’s a graph of the S&P500 expressed in terms of gold, or as the “real money” crowd prefers to call it, the true value of the stock market (presumably as any “artificial” efforts to boost nominal share prices are neutralized by higher gold prices, which in well-functioning markets tend to respond faster to credit-led inflation):
S&P500-to-Gold Ratio (based on end of month data) and the Prosperity Line (%): Dec 1978 - Dec 2013
Source: US Census Bureau, World Gold Council.
A correlation between the S&P500-to-gold ratio and the prosperity line (again, representing the percentage of households earning more than $75,000 per year) can be clearly observed. Both datasets sort of track each other and have peaked roughly at the same time.
This is not really surprising. It is the real (as opposed to just the nominal) value of equity markets that reflects the broader prosperity in society, a point which is often lost in financial commentary. And here the US still has a lot of ground to cover. This also somewhat validates the assumptions we have been using to gauge prosperity levels in the US.
Therefore, as equity markets roar and gold tanks, investors seem to believe that the US is well on its way to regain its peak prosperity, much to the chagrin of the “gold bugs”, which (implicitly at least) are making the opposite bet.
But US investors can also bet on the prosperity of others. And the fact is that other nations have been steadily climbing the prosperity ladder. To get a sense of how the mix has changed since the go-go days of the 1980s, when American babies seemed to have it all, let’s go back to the Economist, which updated the rankings of the best place to be born in late 2012.
This time they included many more countries and used a broader set of indicators, including: material wellbeing (as measured by GDP per head), life expectancy at birth, the quality of family life, the state of political freedoms, job security, climate, personal physical security ratings, quality of community life, governance and gender equality.
The latest results are presented in the following table, along with the 1988 rankings (only the top 25 countries are shown):
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit.
(1) West Germany in 1988.
(2) Change disregards newcomers to the ranking.
While comparing the two rankings may not be as robust as we would have liked given the change in methodology and inclusion of new countries, some interesting trends can be observed.
Generally speaking, things have really improved in smaller advanced nations, which have shot up to the top of the rankings over the last 25 years. Pristine, tiny, organized and educated Switzerland came out on top. Singapore is an absolute star, jumping 30 places, and as Asia gains prominence it is a strong contender for the #1 spot next time around.
Equally striking is how much the economic “giants” have gone down in the rankings. The US dropped from #1 to #16, or 14 places disregarding newcomers to the list, only closely surpassed here by Japan and Italy, both countries not exactly known for their economic dynamism of late. Germany also struggled (fruit of integrating their Eastern neighbors?) and France did not even make it to the top 25, after ranking #3 in 1988. C’est la vie…
It seems that in a globalized world the creation of prosperity and general wellbeing is much less related to size and, we would venture to say, more to a nation’s ability to finding a niche where they can excel in, educating its people and properly managing its finances. Perhaps there is something to be learned here as people and investors think about future prospects around the world.
As it stands, Swiss babies are currently in pole position for a life of abundance. But if general prosperity does not return in earnest to the US, they may have a hard time beating them “gold bugs”.
»
- 12215 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
I wonder how NAFTA affected us, after Mexico joined. I see no data for 'Meheeko'.
The future is so bright, I don't even need eyes to see it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaHZrmCupzc
The difference is money creation and debt load. Money creation slowed down in the 1990’s, M-2 velocity peaked, when Clinton lowered the percentage of federal spending from 20.7% of the GDP to 17.6%. This placed 3.1% of the economy out of the public sector, which waste 55 cents on the dollar, and into the private sector, where they are forced to make $1 plus profit on the resources.
Total debt passed 250% (2.5 to 1 is considered the cut off for bankruptcy) in 1998. Guess what, when you owe money you, normally, have to pay it back, which means you are not buying shit.
And that is the big difference, we are at 350% today total debt and the federal government spends 21.1% of the GDP.
You want a “fixed” economy. Tell the federal government to default on the $2 trillion of Federal Reserve debt, have the Fed sell a few trillion in assets, crash and liquidated the shit contaminating the bank books. Let banks fail. Cut federal spending to 17% of the GDP.
Fucking simple shit.
It's creepy how the girl blinks, but the other two don't. As for the godtalk, I'll have to pass. God can't help a bunch of people who won't help themselves. Simple as that.
As an 88-born, I'll have to agree that in my little time here on this rock, American prosperity definitely peaked in '99.
For fuck's sake, our family friends took our family of four out to Great America (theme park) with free passes provided by CIsco. Not only did the employees get many extra passes in addition to their family, each employee also got 100 bucks of free theme park money to blow at the place.
I've seen decadence (for free!). Not gonna happen again.
If 2009 was like 1929, then we are in 1934: Depression.
We're it not for EBT cards and absence of military Draft, you'd have many more people begging, and people protesting instead of blogging.
If this is 1934, then "War" is still a few years away. But to some fringe elements, "The End is Near" is always here. Year after year, after year.
TPTB have learned from their past mistakes. Very very well.
I'm not so sure about that
All they ever do is roll out the same playbook 'tricks' generation after generation. The masses keep falling for it because:
a) New generations don't have time or interest to look at history
b) Even if they do, the version of 'history' that they are force fed is revisionist, laundered & repackaged
c) Bread & Circuses are the same, but technology has helped to pacify the massed in ways that weren't possible before
We're probably talking 'semantics' here. IOW ~ I'll grant you your point that TBTB have learned from their mistakes. But really all they've ever done is ADAPT a very old playbook to fresh generations of fools.
Same con game ~ different marks
Had to log in just to give you an up-arrow.
I believe that it's not about mistakes so much as it is about being more refined with the propaganda (more tools + wealth [which gets them the tools] now days): mistakes mean setbacks, and I don't see that TPTB have been setback at all, at any time.
My wife left Manila because she didn't like the corruption. I made myself very clear to her that the greatest corruption exists where there is the most "money," which means the corruption in the US is far greater than in the Philippines. In the US corruption is legalized for the wealthy and it's embodied in laws to such an extent that people think of it more as legal operations than corruption (Edward Bernays gave TPTB the greatest tools).
One comment about the list of countries, Australia? Apparently the author doesn't understand the term "bubble." And, well, EVERYTHING is but a bubble, the up-tick post-80s for the US was but a bubble (oil + financials, then tech).
The demarcation line was in 1971: USD went full fiat; us oil production peaked (shifted from the revenue side of the equation to the expense side on energy); and, trade relations with China was opened up (path paved to shift TPTB's factories to China to squeeze out more $$).
"it is about being more refined with the propaganda"
That sez a lot right there.
The war in the trenches these days becomes how mass media is deployed. You gotta hand it to TPTB for having embraced all the latest distribution mechanisims every step of the way. For instance, plebes may think they've gained the upper hand [after the INTERNET came along], but if you look closer, that may not be the case. In essence, TPTB have stepped up the, [as you say], PROPAGANDA element. They've essentially succeeded in WEAPONIZING the internet. It's a dangerous thing when you BELIEVE yourself to be in control when instead you're being inundated with false information. It takes thinking & common sense to navigate that minefield and sadly those are in short supply.
Whether you want to go all the way back to Rothschild getting involved with AP/Reuters way back when (even before electronic media), or, talk about the CIA & Operation Mockingbird many decades later, we're still only settling into a consolidation mode of all of those things that began a century [& more] ago.
Add to all that the power to print money & it's a wonder that the average person stands a chance.
IRONICALLY ~ that is exactly why I have a strong faith in the human spirit. Because ~ when you consider the full court press that has been thrust upon it, I'd still say it has a viable heartbeat.
When's it's about survival, humans being masters of deception, you have to admit that what the US/Fed has done is pure mastery. It's like the beads-for-Manhattan game (well, the origins and technicalities there are open for debate, let's just roll with that "picture" here) just kept going and going and going. We're trading "beads" -PAPER- for REAL stuff, and it's REAL stuff that makes for survival. So, collectively, we're managed to master deception. That deception, however, can only go on as long as people don't catch on- I think that the bulk of humanity is rapidly figuring this out AND that the US/Fed is pretty much now unable to shift the deceptions in order to keep it/us garnering REAL stuff for paper.
Again, when you view it as such you have to marvel at the masterful deception. Eventually, however, the bag of tricks comes up empty, as it does for all empires.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130715/11210223804/anti-propaganda-b...
To be fair to the word, "propaganda" was initially a word based in neutrality. Somewhere along the way (Bernays?) it got shifted into a negative. What amazes me is that if propaganda is "negative" and the govt is so worried about it then why do they think that a negative plus a negative is going to produce a positive?
And down comes the curtain...
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”- Frank ZappaGood post "Balls"! I agree. I was disturbed to read that government and academia have joined hands to "rewrite" the entire Vietnam war history and to package it in books, articles and college history classes. The entire horrible failure is being rewritten as a glorious chapter in American history. The US is now a full on Orwellian State. The Powers that be really are working togther and paying out taxpayer grants to historians to rewrite the ugly, costly, bloody, fuck up called Nam! Future kids will be taught of great victories, herroic acts and America's aid to Vietnam's freedom loving, and proAmerica people's.
Next up. The battle of Grenada! Where outgunned American liberators went into battle against a hardened Cuban occupation army to liberate hostage Americans and free the Grenadan people. Another glorious military victory and freedom spreading. In fact, it is one of America's most fucked up military campaigns in history. Had any real Cuban troops been there, the disaster would have been horrible to witness. As it was, an American army showed itself almost useless against a handful of armed construction workers. I think this was the bottom for the US military. Trillions were spent to correct this failure, and this largely was a success, to a degree. Yet we still can't win Afghanistan. Taliban run the place, we just hide on bases behind trillions in weapons and air forces power.
You go to war with the Democrats you have not those you might ideally like to have.
It ain't much of a con when you dangle cheap money in front of the suckers.
The dumb poor use it for consumption and the smart rich use it to leverage.
Most get poorer while the few get richer.
And the banks make the most because the Govt. got their backs so the only real risk goes to the taxpayer and his descendants.
It's a beautiful con. Simple and elegant.
And it works because people are too stupid to understand that fighting for one's life doesn't mean fitting for someone else's life, especially when that someone else is commanding you to fight for Their lives. The trick is that TPTB get everyone else to die for them, while TPTB don't put themselves up for sacrafice. Flag-waving leads to flag-drapped coffins (as TPTB salute and pocket the profits).
"If this is 1934, then "War" is still a few years away."
The main event yes but the precursor wars had already started around 1934-ish e.g. Japan in China, Spanish Civil War, Italy in Ethiopia etc. We're in that warm up stage imo.
The big difference this time is their insurance against a backlash - preparing diversity and balkanization in advance - which is likely to turn a lot of countries into a fast zombie movie.
OK, which ZH'er is going to step up and buy Tom Cruise's $59 million house in Colorado?
Come on...don't be shy...share the good news with your buddies....
https://homes.yahoo.com/blogs/spaces/tom-cruise-lists--59-million-tellur...
How close is the nearest dispensery? Do they deliver?
For $59 million, it better have an alter to Hubbard and at least a couple of scantily clad nymphettes. And maybe a spaceship. And a volcano generator.
*Celebrity Thetans: extra.
Dam'it.
Can a person of normal height live in a midget's house?
How about a straight guy?
All pertinent questions. But on the other hand, maybe the house deserves better and will payback with good Karma
Who has an EZ $59 mil they could drop without a blink?
1) athletes;
2) Hollywood entertainers/producers, etc;
3) Wall Street Banker Barons; and
4) Foreign money launderers.
Sorry ZH’ers, you’re probably priced out of the market.
I have purchased enough PMs that if they go to the moon, I could lowball them. It could happen. Just that the moon is a few solar systems away....
Actually no, excel spreadsheets don't go that high.
When a country degenerates into a fascist, police state, freedom and democracy are destroyed as is prosperity.
Prosperity cannot thrive without freedom. In the fascist land of the free, the NSA spies on everyone including Congress, Supreme Court and White House. The DHS which costs $60 billion a year is there only to terrorize you. The police can legally liberate you from your cash. Water is flouridated despite countries such as Israel completely banning it. More prisoners in the land of the free than any other country in this world. More female prisoners here than China, Russia and India combined. 250 million arrests in the last twenty years. The police has been militarized. All regulators are captured and financial markets are manipulated to benefit a few. Your president can assassinate you legally now. Independent, free media have been systemically destroyed since the 1950s and Operation Mockingbird. What freedoms are you left with? The freedom to put your hand on your heart and sing land of the free?
The only way to bring prosperity back is to reverse this deep decline into fascism in America.
Fascism, is that was you get when you super-caffeinate civil servants?
“When you have $10,000 being spent at one Starbucks by DHS employees in one city in six months, someone is abusing the purchasing permission that we have given them."
http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Federal-Government-Made-20-B...
Agreed. But that won't change until the "78%" take out the "2%".
And as long as the latter can keep pulling the Jedi Mindtrick on the former, the New Normal will continue.
So, you see, the REAL solution lies with the real problem: The mindset of the 78%.
To be fair to the 78%, they receive daily propaganda and have been programmed their entire lives to believe that any problem they see is either the fault of 1) the other party/ideology, or 2) their own lack of ability to succeed.
The best slaves are those who are unaware of their slavery. The first step to freedom is to be aware that you are a slave.
Fascism always comes disguised as anti-fascism or patriotism. The oldest scam in the book is to scare the people constantly so they just care about survival and stop caring about freedom:
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken
The degeneration accelerated when the objective standard of value was abandoned.
The most effective way to eradicate the lack of prosperity, the fascism, (sooner rather than later) is to eschew the current counterfeiting system and embrace a monetary system.
As the article identifies, gold is the measure of prosperity not paper.
You got me wondering what DHS cost this last year, Fiscal 2014.
2014 Total Outlays Department of Homeland Security $53.812 Billion
2013 Total Outlays Department of Homeland Security $66.526 Billion
There are some funny receipts, but FEMA was huge expense in 2013
2014 Total Outlays Federal Emergency Management Agency $11.86 Billion
2013 Total Outlays Federal Emergency Management Agency $24.17 Billion
What the Hell did FEMA do in 2013. Talk about a Scam.
2000 FEMA Outlays = $3.9 Billion
1998 FEMA Outlays = $2.9 Billion
Can we get CBO, IG, GAO, FBI, DOJ, Congress, FTC... Someone Look at FEMA. Audit FEMA, then AUDIT the FED.
Prosperity has nothing to do with ideologies.
Read it for yourself:
http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2014/092814_files/TheFateofEmpiresbySirJohnGlubb.pdf
The intensity of the tricks increases as the available resources decrease. If we were all swimming in resources then the masters of control wouldn't likely have much control.
As Glubb's writing above notes, it's a progression, one that's occurred with ALL empires (Western ones that he studied) over thousands of years. He failed, however, to understand the connection to resource depletion: currency devaluation occurs because of diminishing resources (metal content in coins is a good giveaway: http://www.coinflation.com/).
That oppression served up by others is a bad thing is not in dispute here. BUT, stop paying taxes, stop using their currency. Do that and you're going to put them out of business. Problem here is that the System would collapse to such an extent that most would suffer greatly as ALL business activities would be disrupted: as much as I think that I'm more sustainable because I have a farm, I am not- I have to get feed for my animals, and that requires going to the feed mill, which gets their shipments from rail...
AE 9/11 Truth researchers plan lawsuit to seek release of 500,000 documents held by FEMA, NIST
http://wtfrly.com/2014/11/01/ae-911-truth-researchers-plan-lawsuit-seek-...
Remember that the NSA spies on all judges. Since it is all but certain that 9/11 was an inside job, no way will the NSA permit the release of any incriminating documents. The justice system has been compromised in the land of the free.
Nothing will come out of this lawsuit.
There were about 80 cameras monitoring the Pentagon on 9/11. Only a few frames of a single camera have been released, The $2.3 trillion (over $3 trillion in today's dollars) that was missing has never been addressed. In a fascist, police state, you cannot question your overlords - let alone threaten their power and control over you.
Truth is treason in fascism.
A slightly different calculation gives 1978 as the Year of the Good Old Days ..
See
https://www.academia.edu/9059377/The_Good_Old_Days
PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999!
Can't. I'm broke.
Double down
Warning: any charts based in whole or in part on "GDP" may contain traces of hookers, cocaine, and sloshed-around recycled welfare money.
Buy more gold.
Wasn't 1999 and 2001 the Double Bottom years for the beginning of the great Gold Bull Run?
Hmmm...Prosperity is corelated with low Gold Prices. Imagine that.
So they attempt to depress the price of Gold in order to bring prosperity back? LMAO. Stupid humans.
If they want a decline in Gold Prices then maybe they need to adopt policies which will bring prosperity back.
DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH.
And then these IDIOTS think that Gold Bugs want an increase in Gold Prices so that we can trade MOAR of the Fiat for less Gold? As I wrote...stupid humans.
Belgium.....steady as she goes.
Maybe, but I'd pre-date it to 1981. That's when the old money in earnest decided to 'liquidate', sell their shares in companies that their great-great grandfathers founded, made the foundational fortunes that formed a privileged class with very very few members.
The Mellons, who were major shareholders in Gulf Oil, and the Mellon Bank ( an elitist bank of global reach whose Trust and Estates department was and is likely one of the largest in the world, and dwarfed their other departments in credit and deposits) and lesser known corporations that Andrew and Thomas Mellon took huge percentages of to provide credit and other financing for, they sold Gulf to Chevron, rather than making a tender offer to instead be the buyer of Chevron, to "eat" them rather than feed themselves to the West coast behemoth.
The mergers, LBOs and other consolidations began the elimination of hundreds of thousands of jobs, almost immediately. That has been followed by the departure of corporations to southern low rent states and then offshore, which has exacerbated the already perilous job market for millions.
This is what precipitated the eventual decline of prosperity, the reversal that turned back the halcyon days from 1945 till the 1980s. And the stock market in the 70s began its precipitous descent simultaneously, severely/negatively affecting the value of 'stored productivity' captured in pension plans.
Since then there has only been more consolidation.
The answer to halt the decline is a reversal of a nearly 40 yr trend of consolidation, a splitting up of practically everything that can survive or prosper on its own. That is the only thing that will create the millions of good paying jobs that the middle classes need to resume an upward trajectory.
Just as a splitting up the United States into a dozen countries is essential to a vibrancy returning to this part of the north american continent, to break the chokehold the elite represented by the FED has on the 90%, so too should an epidemic, if not pandemic of divorces occur nay, be mandatory for the well beiing of all but the top 10% who have had far too much time feeding like the fatcat gluttons they are, at the trough of prosperity to the ruinous detriment of the 90%.
word
excel
clippy
Yeah, but at least it wasn't Power Point ;-)
...I generally agree with his stuff as he's on the right track.
It is not anti-Semitic to say that many of the international bankers and America’s ruling elite are Jewish and have a worldview that differs from a nationalist view.
It was the bankers and CEOs that orchestrated the hostile acquisitions and mergers of America’s manufacturing base and intellectual capital in the 70s and 80s that paved the way for the outsourcing of American innovation.
And, as Jeffrey Blankfort pointed out in “The Israel Lobby and the Left”: “Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and they were the chief beneficiaries of that decade’s corporate mergers and reorganizations.” Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray wrote in “The Bell Curve” in 1994, “The CEO of 1976 was still disproportionately likely to be Episcopalian but much less so than in 1900—and by 1976 he was also disproportionately likely to be Jewish…”
It was in the 80s that the current wave of offshore outsourcing got underway. And it was in 1965 that the Jewish-orchestrated 1965 Immigration Act began changing the demographics of America, upending the cohesiveness and values of America’s white, Protestant European culture.
These perpetrators of America’s demise call it globalization.
And that’s what globalization is all about, getting the nations addicted to debt and dependent and then managing them for the benefit of the looters. The money manipulators are using the political frames of the Fed, the IMF and World Bank to loot the resources of the world and turn the American republic into a socialist global empire.
As John Perkins writes, they “are high paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortions, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.”
America’s greatness cannot be recreated while her national sovereignty is at stake using massive offshoring, outsourcing, US H1B visa immigration, and open borders. And, as Kirk MacKenzie notes in “Money: Defending Your Prosperity”: “It takes only a little research to reveal the correlation between the names of the international banking elite and the names of those pushing for subordination of all nations to a federal World Government.”
This should be on every TV channel in the world, every newspaper in the world, and in every cereal box.
Especially in light of the GReenspan, Bernanke, and J Yell Jewish monopoly at the FED for over 35 years and counting and then add in Geithner and Lew at Treasury, Gensler at the CFTC, among many others a Jew the head of every single important financial Nexus in the world.
So Cecil Rhodes Round Table and Fabians were the token Anglos allowed in the mix?
It's an ecumenical vision. You got the money and the power that comes with it, you're in. It just depends on what circle you're in and those in the outer circles you control.
Once the world is your market, borders and govt.s are just a nuisance to be eliminated. It's merely a natural progression. You just have to do it slowly as not to spook the farm animal into stampeding from their turf on the farm. They have their spots they favor and like to think they control them.
They use soothing words to move the critters about but they let them see the cattle prod now and then just so they don't forget it's there.
As long as the critters don't figure out there's thousands of them for every prod, thing will be fine on the farm.
Correction: Make that Rhodes-Rothschild Round Table group.
Series Id: LEU0252881900
Not Seasonally Adjusted
Series title: (unadj)- Constant (1982-84) dollar adjusted to CPI-U- Median usual weekly earnings, Employed full time, Wage and salary workers, Men
Year Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4 Annual
1979 412 404 393 395 402
1980 389 377 375 379 380
1981 380 372 364 377 374
2009 388 380 377 382 382
2010 389 372 373 379 378
2011 374 366 365 373 370
2012 372 376 359 380 372
2013 374 369 362 373 369
2014 371 360 366
I think I spotted a Trend. Men, 16 years and older, all industries, all occupations, in constant dollars, are making less than in 1979. But the data only goes to 1979 which was the Top of US Manufacturing. Could be the older data makes this look worse.
Here is some Power:
Paid up to end of Fiscal year, 30 September 2014
2014 Individual Income Tax Revenue: $1.394 Trillion
2014 Corporate Income Tax Revenue: $320 Billion
We, The people, are making this thing run. Monthly Treasury Report, 30 September 2014.
And that doesn't include:
Social Insurance and Retirement Receipts:
Employment and General Retirement (Off-Budget)
Employment and General Retirement (On-Budget)
Unemployment Insurance
Other Retirement
Excise Taxes
Estate and Gift Taxes
"That's when the old money in earnest decided to 'liquidate'"
The laws were changed to make hostile takeovers easier. Old money didn't decide to liquidate. They were liquidated.
Having been in an intimate contact at the time, with the Mellon Bank, I can assure you that the old guard wanted to move to cash. They didn't need any outsice influence.
Hostile takeovers were only one part of the craze, many more were actively or surreptitiously on the market.
But the laws you cite were not only made easier, what they were then and are now is: Completely unenforced.
And yes it is intentional.
Whenever Stock Markets are going up and up and up it means inflation is running rampant.--the value of the currency is falling.
The Clinton administration distorted reality.
Changed how GDP, Inflation, and Unemployment were calculated.
Gave the Banks on Wall Street whatever they wanted.
Bill Clinton betrayed the working class American.
Then came W.
Reality can't be distorted. Plato tried that and Aristotle laughed him back into his cave.
But I know what you mean, there can only be one definition of "what is" but Platonic disciples such as Clinton persuade followers that a distortion is possible and therefore the trickery of recalculations.
Sophistry is the distortion of ones opinion of reality and not of reality itself.
The distortion is really a distraction from the theif stealing your money.
Tyler can you do a post on TSLA? I have the following theory I think will prove correct.
'TSLA needs to offer debt
and they need to create an 'Illusion'
They must offer shares higher than the last offering. This is why Musk tweeted. He knew they couldn't offer them at $290, thus the 'A little to high mention on interviews'. As convertible debt would massively dilute HIS OWN shares at $125.
At $221 the price was too low. As the debt offering would be around $50 lower than this price causing the price to decline over the last issue.'
Tesla has been offering debt about every 6 months and now is that time again. Of course if this is public there's the risk they won't do it. However, in the current macroeconomic environment I don't think they can wait.
ah, the salad days of '99. only that kind of exuberance could have fuelled the .com bubble. we would see EMC double up every week. if you didn't get into house-flipping you were a real chump.
unfortunatlely, it was all based on speculating. instead of shoring up our manufacturing we were being fed lies like this was a brave, new economy, that we didn't need to make things anymore. this new internet vapor would take its place. unbelievably, the housing bubble just kept growing, both before and after the .com debacle.
because all these events are related and take time to develop, it is incorrect to view '99 as anything other than another step to the collapse of the Grand Mirage.
The dollar railled and credit boomed .. the rallying dollar kept inflation in check.. hence why the early mid 80s were so good.
China meanwhile in the 80's was kept in a dark age allowing American to continue to consume it's huge part of pie.
Today, China takes a bigger piece of the pie every year.
early/mid 80s had a lot going for it
boomers were just hitting their stride (leading edge mid 30s) of peak consumption
fedgov running small deficits ... room to cut taxes and pile on debt
cheap oil
Now US old, in debt, and broke
Yeah, but big hair and parachute pants.
1999 ~ The year THE MATRIX came out
I was 39 years old and could still attract hot 19 yo chicks with looks, wit, & charm. I was living in blue pill heaven.
Then I stumbled upon ZH a decade later, swallowed the red pill, and became a mean old billy goat. LOL
Yeah ~ Times have changed [but at least now I rock at JIU JITSU]
Lyudmila Denisova said that, in particular, the Procedure now defines the term “labor service” to mean that the people [will be] involved without mandatory consent, subject to enforcement operations, [in work that is of a] defensive nature, as well as man-made [i.e., war-related] disaster management, natural and military nature, during mobilization and wartime. [The tortured phrasing here might be due to these drafters' desire to avoid amplifying upon that phrase 'without mandatory consent,' which refers to the key new legal feature, the legal application of slavery to regular Ukrainian civilians, to be selected according to vague criteria, which might apply to most of the civilian population.]
The Minister said that the category of persons who may be involved to perform such work, covers all individuals who are self-employed.
In addition, the list of community service performed in wartime, will include types of work that are aimed at ensuring the defense of the state (including repair work conducted at state borders, airfields, and fortifications). Also covered will be other work related to emergencies of an industrial, natural or military nature, as the need arises during the period of martial law (analysis of debris, roads, etc., and work performed in connection with the provisioning of supplies to the Armed Forces and other military formations).
Note:
Community service involves working age population, including persons who are not subject to conscription, who have no age and health restrictions preventing them from work under martial law (in addition to able-bodied persons involved in work in the defense sector and for the sustenance of the population, and enterprises booked for the period of mobilization and wartime to carry out work of a defensive nature), namely:
- Unemployed and other unemployed persons [that's what it says: 'unemployed and other unemployed'];
- Workers operating under martial law in firms that are not involved in the implementation of mobilization assignments (orders) and not enrolled in abnormal (non-military) civil protection units – in order to transfer such workers in an amount that will not lead to a complete stop [of private industrial] production;
- Persons engaged in subsistence agriculture [i.e., small farmers];
- Students in higher education, and students of vocational schools;
- Everyone who is self-employed.
Each of these categories of persons [will be] entered into fixed-term employment agreement.
The official announcement says nothing about pay, nor about labor negotiations of any sort, but only that these people will be “entered into fixed-term employment agreement … without mandatory consent,” and “subject to enforcement operations.” The mystery as to how there can be ‘agreement’ without ‘mandatory consent’ (a beautiful oxymoron, for morons) is not answered, especially since it is “subject to enforcement.” So, the underlying presumption here seems to be that ‘consent’ is not ‘mandatory’ in order for there to be ‘agreement,’ and that the Government has the right to “enforce” that ‘agreement’. This seems Orwellian, but that’s the way it is. America calls itself a ‘democracy’, and yet now imposes this type of government, and condemns Russia as being not ‘democratic’. So, perhaps the Obama team has been teaching its Ukrainian stooges how to be Orwellian.
Stalin might get a belly-laugh. Today’s Russia, however, has improved considerably since Stalin, and even more after it ended communism and became just Russia without the Soviet Union and their economically crippling Marxist ideology. By contrast, the U.S. has recently been heading into fascism, and outdid itself by having installed in Ukraine a regime that’s outright nazi. The U.S. now calls that ‘democratic’, as it spreads ‘democracy’ elsewhere too, such as in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, and Syria.
Then, on September 25th, the world’s great newspaper, the German Economic News, (or Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachtrichten) headlined “On the way into the authoritarian State: Ukraine introduces forced labor,” and reported:
“The new rules announced by the Minister for social policy of labor service would mean the introduction of forced labor, which violates the European Convention on human rights” as[serted] Andrej Hunko, Member of the Bundestag and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. … “Yatsenyuk’s attempt to set forced labour now legally, is a further step towards an authoritarian society and must be stopped. This is the exact opposite of the supposed democratic development of Ukraine, as it is written by the Maidan movement.”
The German newspaper said that this is being done “to absorb the consequences of the civil war.” (Here’s that war.)
Another news bulletin, this one undated, came from the Latvian site http://newstwenty4seven.com/en/news/ukraintsev-zastavjat-ryt-okopy. It’s headlined “Ukrainians Forced to Dig Trenches”; and it opens, actually, with a photo of workers digging a ditch, perhaps for more war, or else for mass-burial (or maybe some other use). This report says:
The Ukrainian government has introduced the citizens’ obligation to work, obliging them to perform tasks of a defensive nature in wartime conditions. This is reported by the press service of the Ministry of social policy of Ukraine, with reference to the head of Department Lyudmyla Denysova.
The government, according to Denisova, made changes in the recruitment of able-bodied persons to “socially useful work in conditions of martial law”. In particular, they defined the term “labor service”, which involves citizens in forced execution of jobs of a defensive nature, and emergencies in time of war, without their required consent.
“Socially useful work” refers to work at the state border, airfields and military fortifications, as well as [clearing] rubble, “the performance of work-related needs of the armed forces and other military formations”.
To forced labor, it is planned to bring, in particular, the unemployed, students, farmers and individual entrepreneurs.
That news-source linked to the official Ukrainian announcement.
The background of this Ukrainian Government decision is that Ukraine is now bankrupt. It was so, even before the civil war, but the additional $17 billion that was recently lent to that Government by the IMF, in order to enable them to pay their soldiers and buy weapons and bullets to slaughter the people in the regions that didn’t accept the legitimacy of the coup-imposed government, has only placed the Government even deeper into hock. The cost to Ukraine in order to achieve ‘democratic’ electoral stability by mass-murdering the population in the regions of the country that oppose the Obama-installed group and that had voted overwhelmingly for the man Obama overthrew, has turned out to be too high for it to be continued. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why slavery is now being resorted to — to cut costs, so that the Ukrainian Government can repay at least a portion of the money they were loaned by the IMF, U.S. and EU.
So, that’s why the civil war that was started by Obama’s February 2014 overthrow of Ukraine’s President, toppling a man who was democratically elected in Ukraine’s final nationwide vote, produced a new Government that is now collapsing. Since the West won’t continue lending it money, the Government there will, it seems, now be enslaving some of its own citizens, in order to get done what the appointed rulers want to be done, such as to continue killing people who won’t vote for them. If the enslavement of their own civilian population becomes too big and widespread to ignore, then perhaps The New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, etc., will report about it, because they’ll then be forced to. What’s particularly interesting at the present early stage is that the people whom the Obama team placed in charge of Ukraine, want to do this, and that they think that by using such tortured vague language, very few people in the U.S. and EU will get to know that they’re doing this. But already it’s news on a German site, and also on a Latvian site. Perhaps the American public will be the last to find out, except for the few individuals that read about it here. At this news site, it’s part of the “News That’s Fit To Print,” regardless of whether Big Brother feels that way about it, or maybe even because Big Brother doesn’t feel that way about it.
Chuck:
PLEASE post any and all links pertaining to your post discussing forced labor/enslavement and other fascist developements pertaining to the situation in Ukraine.
I VERY MUCH desire to disseminate this information.
The average American Citizen is painfully ignorant of the situation in Ukraine due to the captured MSM.
http://12160.info/forum/topics/ukraine-government-officially-introduces-...
Eric Zuesse submitted the September 26th news-report to all U.S. and UK major ‘news’ media and to almost all of both countries’ ‘alternative’ news-media, including all of the well-known ones, and including both liberal and conservative news-sites. (I do that with each of my news-reports.) The only ones that published it were the usual few that publish my news-reports about U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, and about the English-language press-coverage of Ukraine, these being the following seven general news-sites:
http://rinf.com/alt-news/featured/ukraine-government-officially-int...
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/09/ukraine-government-officiall...
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Ukraine_Government_Officially_Introd...
http://www.infowars.com/ukraine-government-officially-introduces-sl...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ukraine-Government-Officia-by-Eric...
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-zuesse/58555/ukraine-gover...
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/News.php/2014/09/26/ukraine-gov...
Someone submitted that September 26th piece at reddit, but an administrator there removed it.
Did Zero Hedge post an article? I don't recall seeing it.
The links above will take you to sites addressing this matter.
+1000, Chuck! I subscribe to all the sites you've cited here. Great minds, huh?
Prosperity Thru Poverty
Prosperity Thru Slavery.
Maybe Ukraine is a test case for Europe and America.
Ethnic cleansing, paid for by the American taxpayer, is never any good.
I tend to think globalisation was the beginning of the end to the carefree western level of lifestyle.
Jobs became more and more a global pool, corporations less nation bound and more stateless. Inevitable many western jobs would move to cheaper places. To compete wages had/have to remain competitive lest more 'factories' go to cheaper countries.
And enriching the poor nations created new markets and consumers for corporations.
There used to be tariffs and quotas to protect western industry and jobs.....but corporations saw that there was much more to be made dumping that model....and making the west compete with the then poorer nations.
On the path to become a poorer nation itself....the new normal.
Western lifestyle has been funded by increasing personal debt, credit becoming easier and easier....until the tank was full everywhere. Those days are gone....the days of personnel deleveraging and bankrupticies is upon us....just surviving on low wages.
Dont think there is much growth in the American consumer society now for a long while, and the good old days are gone....a lower level of lifestyle the new normal everywhere in the west.
Australia got lucky.....decades of debt fueld growth around the world.....meant decades of raking in billions from commodities. They will take a breather eventually, have a bit of reset somewhere along the line...housing prices and bank bad debt problems to then be worked through....though eventually growth in Asia SE Asia... will stoke the fires some more, and a low AUD help along the way.
(Unfortunately for a decade there Australia had the Howard government, who during that period squander over $340bn AUD in middle-class welfare and the like, to keep buying themselves into power. Just pissed up against the wall, gone for ever. Huge opportunities missed under that govt. At least they had the commonsense to set money aside for Public servant pensions....some $100bn+ now in a 'future fund' for that purpose)
growing wealth disparity supports your arguement
I miss the 80's...miss the real rock music, miss the hot, thin, blonde women, miss my 1987 Buick Grand National with T-tops that got totaled, miss my good paying job, miss the freedom we had, miss the good times. I would trade my best day now for the worst day back then.
ah, the days of festival seating
remember going to a Van Halen concert ... close enough to stage for one of the friends i was with to hand david lee roth his hat ... wore it for a couple of songs ... good times
I miss the Wall Street life before electronic trading.
dup
I'd miss all of that too if I had a GNX!
VS Russian ideology:
http://y2u.be/QrU1hZxSEXQ
We were warned NAFTA would do this, along with dollar devaluation for competiveness, and of course my personal favorite, global warming, er i mean climate change which allows EPA to control every drop of water in the US and an uncounted number of superfluous regulations which require millions of rounds of ammuniton to be purchased by even the likes of the US postal service. In closing, of course the super wealthy including igay who can spend millions, more than 90% of us make in a lifetime just pushing their personal agenda with pocket change. Everyone knows the playing field has never been more uneven, not counting slavery, but then again slavery takes many forms, including self induced from race baiters and the debt kind from institutions popping degrees for everyone whether we need it or not. Common sense has left the country and the political reverence of "Our first black president" has left our nearly defenseless against the reality of virus propagation as well as the mathematics of ever encroaching communism. Curious how when the Berlin wall came down Russia was a facade of a country and now the US is. . . . well nevermind, you get the idea.
Debt-pushing front-loads prosperity and then destroys it as debt saturation eradicates disposable income. The banking mafia have been doing this for 3000 years.
edit: It's effectively mass long term loan sharking - easy credit at first to get people hooked on debt and then the claw back as the banking mafia take every last penny - only problem with it is an economy literally can't funtion if the banking mafia have all the money and will always collapse and then stagnate. If they didn't lie to themselves about their history they'd know this from all the other times in the past they've done exactly the same thing.
Me thinks that the heightened immorality amongst large swathes of people in both public and private life has been a contributing factor to the down trend. Consuming empty calories, high divrce rates, increasingly high numbers of divorces as well as increasing numbers of children born out of wedlock combined with consumerisn, questionable entertainment etc are all signs as well as drivers of a dangerous immorality that can bankrupt not only financially but also spiritually.
You're right on that the cultural icon barometers are effect not cause.
What we have is the rise of China and the decimation of America through the expansion of the welfare class and the mass influx of illegals from Central America. This was allowed to happen so the upper class could profit massively from the demise of America. Stock markets only represent the effectiveness of the raping and pillaging of a society. The greater the theft, the higher the index. Recessions are actually the periods when the common people have a chance to prosper. Which is why downturns are combatted with insane monetary policy. A period that requires true effort and sound business to survive will not result in massive wealth for the upper class. They have no ability to actually work.
One company I worked with paid a CEO $2 million a year to work for about 12 hours a week because he was a CEO of a few billion dollar corporations. He did nothing but steal money and ran up almost $20 million in personal expenses in two years. Like hotel penthouses, personal chauffeur, $500 plate dinners. In the end the company got nothing and he took a golden parachute and moved on to the next sucker. The reason why the company hired him was because the board believed he could help take them public and allow them to cash out. If the possibility of an IPO never existed the company would have focused on real business and sales instead of the fraud that leads to an IPO filing.
The new common prosperity in China is incredible. Like what was going on in America decades before. Factory owners are real millionaires from true profit, not paper stock. Line managers live in nice apartments and drive nice cars. QC controllers make the equivalent of $150k a year. The average factory worker doesn't live much better than the average welfare recipient in America, but at least they have to work for their money. Most are working for the experience so they can move up. Moving up in the projects of America means popping out more babies the government will give you more cash for.
I met three 38 year olds in China who all started their own businesses over the past three years and built or bought factories. Each of them is now a millionaire. They told me that not everyone is successful, some start factories and fail. AMAZING, BUSINESSES ARE ALLOWED TO FAIL! natural business selection. Only the strong and productive survive.
The biggest problem with China is the stock market. Many Chinese are starting to believe that going public and investing is the path to wealth. They see an ugly communist cock sucker like Jack Ma instantly become China's richest man overnight after the Alibaba IPO and think that is the way to do it. If that mentality takes hold it will be the end of the China miracle and instead of millions escaping poverty they will drop to a level that will make the era of the communists look like a golden age.
The enemy of prosperity has always been the fascist stock market run by the tribe of banksters. You let them add $1 to your economy and you've already taken a lethal dose. It is lethal, the only cure is death. Whatever existed before will never come back. Something new needs to be built on the ashes. Hopefully right on top of the ashes of the tribe that caused the destruction. Problem is they always seem to escape.
I used to chuckle when people would say financial markets were the work of the devil, but as someone who trades pretty aggressively, reads ZH and pays attention to all markets and business cycles, I am starting to believe them.
Financialization is just the modern day slave trade. They even have college degrees dedicated to it .."finance and economics"
Really, Sweden at # 4 on the best county to live in list? Maybe if you are a non-white "immagrant". Otherwise, let the murders and rapes for the indigenous people continue unabated and oh yeah, they also get to pay for it all through high taxes.
Decline? No way!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/number-of-global-billio...Prosperity, as measured by disposable income and buying power, peaked in this country in 1968. Since then, when all of the "book cooking" done by the government is taken into account (see shadowstats.com) the U.S. economy has either been declining, stagnating, or enjoying very brief periods of recovery (but never enough to bring the average American's disposable income and buying power back to where they were in 1968). Reports in 2008 lauding the fact that the average American household made 130% of what it had made in 1968 forgot to mention that the average American household in 1968 had only one adult working full time outside of the home compared to two adults having to work full time outside of the home in 2008. That means that though the average American household had doubled the number of its members working full time outside of the home it only saw a 30% increase in income! Don't you love how the government and "news" media "spin" data?
pretend you only care about money
.
it works bitchez
Living the Weimar dream, now folks!