over 100 years ago we used to have a depression and boom cycle every 10-5 years, and the smart people learned how to ride those cycles, the progressive era sought to control the natural cycle with dangerous results one of them being the great depression.
We are so disconnected from the real economy, one day we will be forced to commune with it once more and it won’t be pretty.
“We are so disconnected from the real economy, one day we will be forced to commune with it once more and it won’t be pretty.”
Agree; won’t be pretty at all. There’s a little something percolating below the radar is what’s referred to as negative interest rates. The Fed and the big banks are considering this. The Fed wants to do this so to force spending over saving as it’s pretty much exhausted all its other tools. What this means is savers will be charged a fee (penalized) for bank savings. Thereby, causing savers to spend. So, you are thinking ok, I’ll just pull my savings out and keep it in cash in a safe at home. Well, the Fed is ahead of you and has anticipated your move. To make hoarding cash difficult or cumbersome the Fed is considering discontinuing the $50 and $100 bills. Their objective is to force Americans over to a cashless economy so your every purchase can be tracked.
...We are so disconnected from the real economy...
The article seemed to me little more than a mindless leftwing rant. Examples:
For everyone but the top 1 percent of earners, the American economy is broken.
Straight from the bowels of OccupyWallStreet --the evil haves are exploiting the nobel masses.
the U.S. economy more than doubled in size during the last three decades while middle-class incomes and buying power have stagnated.
Not quite. Overall GDP did double, but if anyone here cares the actual numbers show median household incomes (per Census Br.) since 1986 have not been stagnant, but rather soared for two decades and then proceeded to lose almost half the gains the minute Obama came to Washington and the Dems took over gov't spending. Speaking of which, during this time real income for the federal government doubled just like the economy but average real personal percapita incomes (per BEA) came up 60%.
...great wealth is created on Wall Street with products like credit-default swaps that destroyed the wealth of ordinary Americans" and yet we count this activity as growth?
Ah yes, if logic fails then go for foggy big words. Once again, if anyone cares this is what a credit-default-swap is:
cred-it de-fault swap
noun Finance
Insurance does not destroy wealth, it minimizes loss of wealth, but that's not the issue. What's going on now is that a decade of socialism has failed America, and now the left rewrites economic history to explain it. In the early 70's after the failure of the War on Poverty the call was that "we need a quality of life, not a standard of living". In the '90's as Cuba collapsed the U.N. changed their econ development methodology to show what they called "well-being". Their new index 'proved' Cubans were better off than Americans.