Excerpt:
Looking ahead, what is wrong with this picture? Would you need to be a highly-paid economist working on Wall Street to draw a correct conclusion?
* Food stamp usage in America continues to climb (with almost 50% more people qualifying for their use since the Fall of 2008).
* Long-term unemployment is at a record high.
* Sales in low-price stores such as Wal-mart are lagging … even declining on a same-store basis in some months. However, the sales of high-end retailers such as Saks and Macy’s are growing strongly.
* The U.S. labor market participation rate has declined sharply (by 2 percentage points). Does this normally occur in a recovery period?
* The sales of luxury goods manufacturers such Louis Vuitton, Burberry … etc. are strong and the auction prices of rare art never really having suffered a downturn.
* As mentioned, real income growth for the average U.S. household has turned negative in the past few months. The same is now true in the UK.
* Corporate profits are now higher (as a share of national income and partially at the expense of household incomes) than before the GFC began.
* The U.S. banking sector is now more concentrated than before (this being a major complication should bail-outs ever be required again).
* The FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization, a division of the United Nations) reports that food costs around the world have soared to all-time highs.
* Profits for the entire financial sector have returned to prior highs, and multi-billion dollar bonus payouts are at new highs.
* Many countries, including the U.S, are heading towards plutocracy (that meaning to be ruled and controlled by the rich). The top 1% of households now control over 44% of income … the highest since prior to the last Great Depression.
Read more.
Sucker-Two Punch: What Next?
Excerpt:
Looking ahead, what is wrong with this picture? Would you need to be a highly-paid economist working on Wall Street to draw a correct conclusion?
* Food stamp usage in America continues to climb (with almost 50% more people qualifying for their use since the Fall of 2008).
* Long-term unemployment is at a record high.
* Sales in low-price stores such as Wal-mart are lagging … even declining on a same-store basis in some months. However, the sales of high-end retailers such as Saks and Macy’s are growing strongly.
* The U.S. labor market participation rate has declined sharply (by 2 percentage points). Does this normally occur in a recovery period?
* The sales of luxury goods manufacturers such Louis Vuitton, Burberry … etc. are strong and the auction prices of rare art never really having suffered a downturn.
* As mentioned, real income growth for the average U.S. household has turned negative in the past few months. The same is now true in the UK.
* Corporate profits are now higher (as a share of national income and partially at the expense of household incomes) than before the GFC began.
* The U.S. banking sector is now more concentrated than before (this being a major complication should bail-outs ever be required again).
* The FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization, a division of the United Nations) reports that food costs around the world have soared to all-time highs.
* Profits for the entire financial sector have returned to prior highs, and multi-billion dollar bonus payouts are at new highs.
* Many countries, including the U.S, are heading towards plutocracy (that meaning to be ruled and controlled by the rich). The top 1% of households now control over 44% of income … the highest since prior to the last Great Depression.
Read more.