Financialization Era – how banking welfare captured our economy and ravaged the wealth of the working and middle class. Building profits through financial debt leverage.
The American banking system has transformed the economy into one enormous speculative casino with bells and whistles and free cocktails for those that participate. The problem of course is that most don’t have excess income to drop into the financial slot machines. Now banking in better times should be seen as the lubricant of the […]
Economic chicanery – Social Security financial headwinds, another 395,000 Americans added to food stamp assistance in latest month of data, and manipulating the unemployment rate.
The dichotomous American economy is cracking like old paint into two distinct factions. For a few solid decades after World War II we had a burgeoning middle class, a smaller financial elite, and those who still struggled financially. The main objective however was to get as many people into the secure middle class. Today the […]
Federal Reserve punishing savers in low interest rate environment – Since the 1960s 5-year Treasury Bills average 6.5 percent. Today a high yield money market account will get you 1 percent.
Saving money is usually pushed to the background in a debt induced economy built around spending. Marketing firms are designed with the intention of parting you from your hard earned dollar. The housing bubble was a manifestation of a system permeated by easy access to debt and promises to repay current purchases with future dollars. […]
The road least pillaged – S&P 500 up 90 percent from bottom but housing values down 30 percent nationwide. Wealthy store most of their wealth in stocks while most Americans have their net worth in housing. 2010 record year in foreclosures and the upcoming lost decade in housing.
There are few investments in the US that are so heavily subsidized like housing. Residential and commercial real estate included benefit from favorable government policies to increase demand. Some of these policies may have merit but a large part of the housing market has been injected with so many perks that the true value of […]