"Capitalism" always the fall guy.. problem is what we have now is far from "free market capitalism" ... what we have now is more properly termed corporatism.. the deck is heavily stacked against the small businessman and heavily in favor of the megacorporations..
The inequalities that have increased in the US are not created due to lack of taxation of the elite (a factor but not everything) but rather due to "too big to fail", corrupt lobbying .., government in bed with megacorporations.. fed policy at ZIRP which allowed megacorporations to merge like crazy on loads of cheap debt.. right now many mega corporation businessman are trying to buddy buddy up with trump so they can hopefully get favors down the road etc...
You can tax all you want.. as we move further away from free market capitalism and towards globalistic corporatism where the biggest guys get the biggest favors from global goverements/central banking policy.. global inequalities will continue to expand.. and thus increase instability as well..
societies with a strong middle class function the best and the best way to achieve that is via free market capitalism where everybody is treated equally..
Goldman Sachs alum filling up the trump administration 8 short years after they were instrumental in the bubble which led to the last crisis is a much better example of what is wrong with our system/why we have such inequality than taxes.. it's a completely rigged game for the elite regardless of who's in the White House.. left/right obama/trump nonsense just divide and conquer stuff to make the masses believe there is a difference.. all are on the same side ensuring that status quo of rigged elitism at the expense of everybody else continues..
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Why a Regretful Donald Trump Voter Is Now Protesting Goldman Sachs
A demonstrator dressed like a swamp creature holds a sign during a protest outside Goldman Sachs Group Inc. headquarters in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017. "We are here to launch an encampment at Goldman Sachs," said Jonathan Westin, director of New York Communities for Change, leading the crowd in call and response. Trump has enlisted Goldman Sachs alumni for senior government posts after ripping rivals during the campaign for ties to the firm and vowing to "drain the swamp" by ending influence peddling in Washington. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBloomberg via Getty Images
"I'm not sure that was the best decision anymore," he said regarding his vote for Trump
Lucinda Shen
Jan 18, 2017 9:16 AM EST
With most of his home state of Utah, 65-year-old Vietnam veteran Richard Robinson voted for Donald Trump on Nov. 8.
But on Tuesday — with just three days to go until Trump’s inauguration — Robinson took a flight from his home state to New York City for the sole purpose of protesting his presidential pick outside the headquarters of banking giant, Goldman Sachs.
Read more!
Under the watchful eyes of roughly a dozen police officers, Robinson, alongside some 50 other protestors holding up signs and wearing green “swamp monster masks,” decried Trump and his multiple cabinet picks who are Goldman Sachs alumni. Many of the protesters originally supported Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders during the primary.
But Robinson fits squarely into the demographic that helped carry Trump to victory. He is over 45, once worked in the manufacturing industry, and is a white male without a college degree. He said he voted for the President-elect because he thought Trump’s lack of background in politics meant he would bring a breath of fresh air to Washington D.C.
“What I’ve found since his election is that he’s becoming more and more politician-like, where he says one thing, and does another,” Robinson told Fortune during the protest, which was organized by the New York Community for Change and the Resist Trump movement and is the third of its kind.
Robinson noted that while Trump criticized Wall Street on the campaign trail and promised to “drain the swamp,” the President-elect added yet another Goldman Sachs alumnus to his White House circle of week. Anthony Scaramucci joins fellow Goldman Sachs alumni including incoming White House strategist Steve Bannon, and U.S. Treasury Secretary pick, Steve Mnuchin.
While many of the protestors, who plan to stay on the sidewalk outside Goldman until Friday morning, are worried that Trump’s close ties to Wall Street and plans to ease regulation on the industry could result in consumers being exploited — or even another financial crisis — the issue of Goldman Sachs hits a little closer to home for Robinson.
He lives on disability after an accident in 2000. While he and his wife could once make holiday trips to Alaska, Robinson now gets by on one-third of his former salary—$1,538 a month from Social Security. That makes it difficult for Robinson to pay for his home in a community owned by Sam Zell’s Equity LifeStyle Properties, where rent is hiked on an annual basis.
Goldman Sachs in turn owns $53.2 million shares in that company—or 0.8% of Equity LifeStyle as of the third quarter according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Robinson, alongside the other protestors, are also worried about Trump Treasury Secretary pick Mnuchin, who oversaw the bank OneWest during the time it foreclosed on over 36,000 homeowners.
For Robinson, those foreclosures are hard to swallow.
“I saw people in manufacturing — my neighbors — lose their jobs and homes,” he said.
But Robinson, who says he took Trump more seriously than literally, is now regretting his decision. He had largely dismissed Trump’s plans to deport Mexican immigrants and build a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Instead, he took Trump seriously on issues that he thought were doable — like cutting the government’s ties to Wall Street.
“I’m not sure that was the best decision anymore,” he said.
whatever dude trump is different and will change washington!!! Drain the swamp!!!
and yeah for pretty much my entire lifetime it's been shitty ass choices for POTUS regardless of what side of the left/right fence you sit on..
that's what they do .. put up two establishment puppets and paint a divide and conquer picture like it matters who wins.. it don't as they both terrible choices for the average joe..
and yeah for pretty much my entire lifetime it's been shitty ass choices for POTUS regardless of what side of the left/right fence you sit on..
that's what they do .. put up two establishment puppets and paint a divide and conquer picture like it matters who wins.. it don't as they both terrible choices for the average joe..
Globalists ready to pull the rug now that trumpy in the big house?
pretty funny they took it to 19999 and change at the top.. if this does end up being the market top..
than 4 years from now they can point to the stock market and claim a "obama boom" and "trump bust"? To than bring in the next hyper liberal globalist/status quoer...
pretty funny they took it to 19999 and change at the top.. if this does end up being the market top..
than 4 years from now they can point to the stock market and claim a "obama boom" and "trump bust"? To than bring in the next hyper liberal globalist/status quoer...
Trump gonna start a ministry of truth? Already has spokeswoman using the term "alternate facts" after they were butthurt that obama first term inauguration turnout was much better
fun really starts once stagflation sets in under his watch.. granted it has nothing to do with him and everything to do with fed policy.. but he will no doubt take the blame..
globalists gonna yank that rug and laugh.. then usher in a hyper liberal globalist four years from now...
fun really starts once stagflation sets in under his watch.. granted it has nothing to do with him and everything to do with fed policy.. but he will no doubt take the blame..
globalists gonna yank that rug and laugh.. then usher in a hyper liberal globalist four years from now...
70s style stagflation starting the creep into your territory as well eekster.. should hit there first since GBP took such a whacking on brexit..
8 years of global QE/ZIRP policy starting to rear its ugly head.. productivity has been terrible during the "recovery"
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UK economy is overheating and veering towards stagflation | Business | The Guardian
John Butler
Monday 16 January 2017 02.00 EST
The pound devalued sharply following the 2008 financial crisis, as a result of the Bank’s ‘emergency’ measures. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty ImagesThe UK economy performed surprisingly well in 2016. Indeed, when looking across the OECD economies, it is hard to find a better performer on key metrics such as growth and employment. However, when looking beneath the surface, the UK economy is, in fact, overheating. Already on the rise, the result is going to be the largest surge in inflation for many years, squeezing household budgets and placing the Bank of England in a bind largely of its own making.
Already weak prior to the surprising Brexit referendum result, sterling declined sharply thereafter and has not recovered since. Year over year the pound is down about 20% against both the dollar and the euro. Combined with the sharp 70% rise in oil prices over the same time frame, UK energy and food costs are set to soar this year. These developments alone will push up UK consumer price index by 1 to 2 percentage points.
That may not seem so much, especially when CPI is currently only 1.2% year-over-year. But there is an even more troubling trend: following years of low wage growth, unit labour costs began to rise sharply last year. This is due in part to rising wages but also to persistently weak productivity growth. Labour compensation is the single largest contributor to inflation. Thus while some workers will no doubt enjoy pay rises over the coming year, when combined with the food and energy effects it is unlikely that most will keep up with the rising cost of living.
In 2016 the Bank of England found itself persistently on the defensive, including over government claims that its aggressive monetary policies, such as quantitative easing, have exacerbated inequality. While there is evidence to that effect, a sharp rise in the cost of living will only serve to reinforce this perception. The wealthy have ample means to protect their wealth from being eroded by inflation. The middle class and pensioners have little, if any. Anyone living on a salary is in particular trouble unless they receive a commensurate pay rise.
And therein lies the greatest potential problem: workers who sense that they are falling behind are going to demand higher wages. Those in government or in industries such as healthcare and transport, in which competition is limited, are likely to see strikes as an increasingly attractive wage negotiation strategy. Although the public is rightly annoyed by the huge inconveniences that strikes can cause, if they take place alongside a palpable rise in the cost of living then striking workers may find some public compassion. The government may thus find that it has less political leverage to de-escalate and settle strikes on its preferred terms.
If this unpleasant, “stagflationary” mix of sharply rising prices yet slowing growth sounds a bit like what occurred in the 1970s, that’s because it is. The fact is the UK has been living on borrowed time and borrowed money ever since the financial crisis struck in 2008. Sterling devalued sharply back then as the Bank slashed rates to zero and began QE. These “emergency” measures, now in place for over eight years, have kept the economy on life support by subsidising a huge expansion of debt, public and private, and the associated property bubble. They have not created the necessary conditions for a truly self-sustaining economic recovery. Indeed, the opposite could be argued, that by keeping the monetary spigot open for so long the Bank has encouraged debt-fuelled speculation rather than a salutary economic de-leveraging.
As the Bank finally moves to raise rates in response to sharply higher inflation, bond yields are likely to rise and share prices may well decline or, at a minimum, fail to keep pace with the cost of living. The much-maligned British saver, suffering for years from artificially low interest rates, is only going to find things getting worse as portfolio valuations decline. Borrowers, meanwhile, will find they are tapped out.
They call economics the “dismal science” for good reason. There is no free lunch. With inflation finally on the rise, the QE piper will now need to be paid.
• John Butler is vice president of Goldmoney Wealth
8 years of global QE/ZIRP policy starting to rear its ugly head.. productivity has been terrible during the "recovery"
-----------
UK economy is overheating and veering towards stagflation | Business | The Guardian
John Butler
Monday 16 January 2017 02.00 EST
Already weak prior to the surprising Brexit referendum result, sterling declined sharply thereafter and has not recovered since. Year over year the pound is down about 20% against both the dollar and the euro. Combined with the sharp 70% rise in oil prices over the same time frame, UK energy and food costs are set to soar this year. These developments alone will push up UK consumer price index by 1 to 2 percentage points.
That may not seem so much, especially when CPI is currently only 1.2% year-over-year. But there is an even more troubling trend: following years of low wage growth, unit labour costs began to rise sharply last year. This is due in part to rising wages but also to persistently weak productivity growth. Labour compensation is the single largest contributor to inflation. Thus while some workers will no doubt enjoy pay rises over the coming year, when combined with the food and energy effects it is unlikely that most will keep up with the rising cost of living.
In 2016 the Bank of England found itself persistently on the defensive, including over government claims that its aggressive monetary policies, such as quantitative easing, have exacerbated inequality. While there is evidence to that effect, a sharp rise in the cost of living will only serve to reinforce this perception. The wealthy have ample means to protect their wealth from being eroded by inflation. The middle class and pensioners have little, if any. Anyone living on a salary is in particular trouble unless they receive a commensurate pay rise.
And therein lies the greatest potential problem: workers who sense that they are falling behind are going to demand higher wages. Those in government or in industries such as healthcare and transport, in which competition is limited, are likely to see strikes as an increasingly attractive wage negotiation strategy. Although the public is rightly annoyed by the huge inconveniences that strikes can cause, if they take place alongside a palpable rise in the cost of living then striking workers may find some public compassion. The government may thus find that it has less political leverage to de-escalate and settle strikes on its preferred terms.
UK has been living on borrowed time and borrowed money ever since the financial crisis struck in 2008
In this context, the Bank of England will eventually need to bite the bullet and begin increasing interest rates if it is to keep CPI anywhere near the 2% target. Combined with soaring energy prices, this will place the brakes on growth. While a recession may not be in store in 2017, slower growth almost certainly is.
If this unpleasant, “stagflationary” mix of sharply rising prices yet slowing growth sounds a bit like what occurred in the 1970s, that’s because it is. The fact is the UK has been living on borrowed time and borrowed money ever since the financial crisis struck in 2008. Sterling devalued sharply back then as the Bank slashed rates to zero and began QE. These “emergency” measures, now in place for over eight years, have kept the economy on life support by subsidising a huge expansion of debt, public and private, and the associated property bubble. They have not created the necessary conditions for a truly self-sustaining economic recovery. Indeed, the opposite could be argued, that by keeping the monetary spigot open for so long the Bank has encouraged debt-fuelled speculation rather than a salutary economic de-leveraging.
As the Bank finally moves to raise rates in response to sharply higher inflation, bond yields are likely to rise and share prices may well decline or, at a minimum, fail to keep pace with the cost of living. The much-maligned British saver, suffering for years from artificially low interest rates, is only going to find things getting worse as portfolio valuations decline. Borrowers, meanwhile, will find they are tapped out.
They call economics the “dismal science” for good reason. There is no free lunch. With inflation finally on the rise, the QE piper will now need to be paid.
• John Butler is vice president of Goldmoney Wealth
Here we go chaps. Prepare for sanctions and a trade war, (this Spratley Islands thing is the perfect vehicle for sanctions)
South China Sea: Tillerson says US should block China from new islands
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38593034
China hits back at US over South China Sea claims
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38729207
South China Sea: Tillerson says US should block China from new islands
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38593034
China hits back at US over South China Sea claims
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38729207
