Americans are going to have their wallets rocked in 2016: 7.5 year global business cycle trumps central bank money printing.
Americans are already in the process of having their wallets devoured by shadow inflation and a system that is gutting the middle class like a turkey being stuffed for the oven. We’ve been in recovery according to various money oracles since 2009 but all we got was a drop in the homeownership rate, stagnant incomes, and a middle class that is now a minority. The central banking experiment has simply funneled more money into the non-productive financier class. Regular working families continue on a downward spiral of working poverty and living on the edge of a paycheck to paycheck existence. While central banks feel they are successful all they have done is fueled the flames of low wage capitalism and predatory crony welfare for the connected. What is interesting is that despite all of this intervention into what is suppose to be a “free market†the business cycle is rearing its ugly head. The 7.5 year business cycle is here and it is going to rock your bank account.
The neo-Gilded Age: 62 richest people in the world have the same wealth as half the world. An economy for the 1 per cent.
The Gilded Age was a period in American history where the few had so much while the majority toiled away in pauper like conditions. One of the reasons often cited for the Great Depression was massive wealth inequality. Well today wealth inequality is at levels that rival the pre-Depression era. And for those of you that watched The Big Short, you now realize that Hollywood is even understanding that a large part of the financial sector is designed to fleece the working public. So it is no surprise that wealth inequality continues to grow. A recent report highlights that the 62 richest people in the world have the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity. In other words 62 people have the same wealth as 3.6 billion people living on this planet. Part of the current system is designed to accelerate this wealth inequality. In fact, in the United States the middle class is now a full fledged minority. Welcome to the neo-Gilded Age.
What is a middle class income in America? A lot less than you think and Americans are getting poorer by the day.
Questions around being middle class are coming up a lot in the last few years. This inquiry is coming up because people are grasping at straws trying to maintain a quality of life that reflects a middle class lifestyle but many have incomes that simply do not support their spending. Americans are set to become poorer this year. As we penned an article talking about the destruction of the middle class economy, for the first time in a generation the middle class is now a minority. The economic engine that made us the envy of the world is now rare. In the US we have a small upper-class that is only getting wealthier while the ranks of the poor and working class is expanding. What is a middle class income in America? The answer may surprise you.
The rise of the part-time and disposable employment army: Record number of people now employed in transient labor positions while good paying jobs remain stuck in the mud.
The headline employment numbers present a glamorous picture of the economy but one that is not based on reality. After all, you have over 94 million Americans not in the labor force and this growing army of people is helping to keep the unemployment rate low. And for a growing number of Americans those in the actual workforce, many are being stuck in part-time jobs or are part of the low wage service sector economy. A large number of young Americans graduating with back breaking levels of debt and degrees are finding jobs such as baristas at Starbucks or working the checkout lines at Target. The wages earned here are simply not going to go far enough to cover the massive $1.3 trillion in student debt outstanding. We have traded good paying jobs for bread and circus jobs. Why bread and circus jobs? Because the current economy is largely designed to distract people into mindless consumption while the middle class slowly disappears through the fingers of Americans.