Almost three years after the initial crisis of the financial markets, the crash of the housing market, the crash of the stock market, and the astronomical rise in unemployment, we seem to still be listening to Mr. Ben Bernanke and government representatives telling us it’s all getting better. We are also getting ready to play the pre-election, finger-pointing blame game, as many Americans ramp up, and prepare to repeat the mantra “it will all get better if we just elect…” You fill in the blank. But…
I suspect everyone knows that over 22,000,000 Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work, and that we continue to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. And no matter how many jobs are added to the failing economy to balance the employment deficit, we are still woefully in the red, and continue to slide down that slippery slope. If the unemployment numbers appear to be getting better, it is only because we are now ignoring the 99-weekers that have fallen off and are no longer receiving benefits. These people haven’t suddenly and miraculously found employment, they’ve just been moved to another equally horrifying statistical category: The Poverty Stricken.
I suspect everyone also knows that better than 44,000,000 people are on food stamps, that housing prices continue to fall – this time by a mere 4.2 percent the first quarter of 2011 – and that food and fuel inflation is kicking us all right in the teeth. But what are we told? Mr. Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chair, and the last word in all things economic, tells us that the growth of the housing market is “somewhat slower than expected,” and the unemployment recovery has “lost some momentum.” What is he saying that’s new? The question is not now “should we believe him?” But rather, “Why in the world are we still listening to him?”
The fact of the matter is that Middle America has all but disappeared. And even if you try to dig deep to catch glimpses of what was once a vibrant and viable Middle Class, it’s no longer visible. We’ve lost our homes, our savings, our jobs, our benefits, our healthcare, and our retirement, and after all of that, we’ve been hit with hyper-inflated food and fuel costs. But, let’s be fair… right along side of Mr. Bernanke, are the government officials telling us that food inflation is illusionary, and that even though fuel inflation is difficult to live with, they are doing everything in their power to control it. And none of it matters anyway because we ARE Americans, gosh darn it, and we can handle any kind of suffering that comes our way. Slick hype, huh? Gotta love Madison Avenue.
What we forget is that inflation is manipulated, it is not a naturally occurring phenomenon associated with a free market and a gold-backed, or asset-backed currency. It is the result of the purposeful and intentional shifting of wealth. And if you want to know how effective inflation is at confiscating your money, remind yourself how much a loaf of bread cost 5 years ago and compare it to what it costs today. Then ask yourself if your wages have increased by that same percentage. No? Hmmm…
The Financial industry didn’t “crash,” its players over leveraged and hedged their bets by insuring the fortunes against both loss AND gain. “Heads I win, tails you lose.” Then they yanked, twisted and turned the bets over so many times they had no idea what they or anyone else was holding, and it turned into one, big push. Stalemate. Immobility. Bailouts saved the “too big to fails” just in time for them to place their next round of bets and show a huge digital profit.
The Housing Market didn’t “crash,” it was intentionally dismantled and the wealth gleaned off through the banks, which are the largest holder of property in the world. And for those of us that are “underwater” and still trying to duke it out to keep our homes, forget about it. They are kicking us while we are down and are laughing, as they say, “all the way to the bank.”
The stock market didn’t “crash,” it was also intentionally dismantled, the wealth remove and redistributed, and was then replaced with a model that acts more like a rotating charge card thanks to “market makers” such as Goldman Sachs and high frequency trading. Once it could be counted on to mirror the minds, moods, wants and desires of the backbone of the economy, now it is only a reflection of itself. Wall Street, the greatest casino ever designed, is on the take, and everyone knows the house always wins.
In the meantime, the primary focus of mainstream media is the deficit. Forget housing, foreclosures, unemployment, bailouts, and too big to fails… that’s yesterday’s news. Now, it’s the deficit. How many different ways can we say, “bankrupt?” How many times can we dance around the subject, debate the subject and pretend that it can all be fixed by eliminating extraneous expenditures such as Social Security? You know, the fund you’ve been paying into all of your life? Yes, that extraneous expenditure.
Oddly, it won’t make much difference if Social Security is solvent or not. By the time Mr. Bernanke is through with quantitative easing, you’ll still get your $2,000 monthly check no problem, they’ll even deposit it automatically into your account, it just won’t be worth more than a buck seventy-five. And that’s the name of the game… inflate the “bad debt” away.
So it goes, the Middle Class is dying in America, as it is in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal... But, don’t worry. It appears as if the large corporations, financial institutions, and all manner of government can get along without us just fine.
As it turns out, financial institutions and central banks run through economic systems, accumulating electronic digits, sucking the populace dry, building, destroying, rebuilding and moving on with such self-perpetuating momentum that it couldn’t be stopped even if 7 ½ billion lives depended on it. It leaves behind one ravished Middle Class after another, so bewildered and confused that there is literally no hope of understanding what has happened before the next on the list is hit. Now that the Western World has been efficiently pillaged and raped, it’s time to move on to better places, the emerging markets. Folks “in the know” are placing their bets on China, Russia, Brazil, and India, with some anticipation for profits from Germany, the most recent to jump into bed with the BRIC Bloc.
But here is where the fallacy lies in the mirage – the image, hope and anticipation of wealth placed in “emerging economies” has only one flaw: with climate change and without cheap oil, cheap food, and cheap labor to sustain it, the new economies will never develop a sustainable Middle Class, and without them, no economy, emerging or other wise, will have a snowball’s chance.
Pandering to a shrinking Middle Class that hasn’t an extra penny to spend is pointless. Investing advertising dollars into an economy that is no longer producing, and has no great or immediate hope of recovery, is simply a waste. As a result, look for the advertising buck to stop at the top, leaving the rest of us behind and long forgotten. The big guys with the big bucks now drive production simply because they now control consumption. Those of us that have fallen out of favor can look forward to Wal-Mart quality goods, cheap and unhealthy food, poor or non-existent housing, and minimum wage jobs… at least until we wake up, that is.
So Bernanke, fool on a fool’s errand, or a great mastermind? It is easy to say that the man is blind, doesn’t have a clue about what Americans are facing, but I suggest that he does understand - FULLY. He is beautifully placating the American people, eliminating debt through inflation and all the while saying little to nothing. In all fairness, there is only one of two things happening here. Either he knows what is going on or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t we are in deep stuff, if he does, we are in even deeper stuff, and there is no in-between. Central Bankers, ya gotta love them.
Economic manipulation is disaster. A non-existent free market is disaster. Listening to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is disaster. Listening to politicians is disaster. Being placated with food stamps, unemployment insurance and welfare is disaster. Holding on to homes that are underwater is disaster. Trying to return to happier days driven by cheap oil is disaster. Worst of all… moving through the crisis warily or refusing to wake up entirely is death. We have done one thing quite effectively however; we have put off the inevitable.
So, how do we remedy this mess? Since anger and rebellion comes with the territory, we always have the option of revolution. It seems to be how the rest of the world has chosen to handle their hunger and unemployment. We can also continue as we have and hope they don’t take our last dime. The only reassuring aspect of all of this is that there are still “last dimes” out there. Unless and until everyone is in the same boat – dimeless – there is only the proverbial “hope” that we may escape our fate. Unfortunately, “hope” sedates action, and encourages greed. Finally, we can continue to do what I think we’ve been doing all along: adapting to the paradigm shift, leaving them out in the rain, and rebuilding a simpler, easier America away from the hype and lies. History tells me that this WILL happen one way or another, but since power vacuums tend to suck in the worst of the worst first, I don’t see much of a chance for its long-term survival – no matter what we try to make it look like.
There are only two suggestions I’d like to lay on the table for your consideration as the Middle Class continues to crumble, and slowly takes on the task of rebuilding itself. First, governments tell us that we “need” them, we couldn’t live without them, and they are vital to our survival. I suggest we don’t need them at all, but if there is a place for them, it is only to provide a functioning, gold or asset backed monetary system and interest free loans, period. Everything else can be handled privately and locally. Second, Usury in any manner, shape or form should never be permitted to exist under any circumstances, for any purpose no matter how hard the powers that be tell us how necessary it is. It isn’t.
Think about it.
I agree 100 percent. In my opinion the wealthiest investors, if thats what you wish to call them, or lets call them manipulators, encouraged the sub-prime lending and the adjustable rate mortgages back in the 1980's to attract individuals who with less than perfect credit truly could not afford to take on some of the risk which they assumed and when the timing was right they yanked the carpet out from under them by inflating the interest rates to levels the American middle class would never be able to repay thus causing the housing market to plunge to its death. This was an intentional act. In my opinion considering the fact that the good ole USA has always been a Superpower hated by many for its' Capitalism lifestyle, those unable to defeat us with their armies found another way to destroy the American Dream. They took what was most important to all Americans away from them by creating this easy avenue of financing and available credit and offering it to all of those people eager to have a lavish lifestyle and relishing in the desire to own their own home and they burned the American people with it causing their dreams to come crashing down. This was a well-planned and well manipulated attack against the American People....Only the American People are too blind to see it or believe it. It's time to take it back. Use your children whose credit has not been destroyed and show them, teach them, educate them with the right tools to go back out there while the market has plunged and buy back the land while it is at its lowest. I dont see any other way for us to win if we dont use what they did against them and to our childrens advantage to save what is the American Dream!
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