Wall St. and Main St.: The Glaring Disconnect

I have long argued that the current “recovery” is only in name, as unemployment has continued higher and any worthwhile economist will tell you that there is no such thing as a jobless recovery. The mirage of a recovery is a short-term phenomenon created by handing the banks Trillions of dollars as well as accounting trickery which allows banks to hide and understate their losses.

It is a glaring disconnect, as Wall Street recovers and generates billions in profits, paying itself millions in bonuses, while around 20% of the American workforce is either unemployed or underemployed. This is Depression-era unemployment with wages declining, foreclosures skyrocketing and working families worried about how to pay the bills. The middle class today is in desperate shape as the gap between the wealthy and everyone else is growing wider.

In the video below, Max Keiser, while sometimes making extreme analogies, runs all over a young bank apologist that continues spewing nonsense that he can’t back up. The key takeaways:

* The banks are engaged in accounting fraud, cooking the books and stealing taxpayer money
* Banks are simply hording the cash and keeping their losses in undisclosed accounts, not providing liquidity
* The banks will come back to Congress next year, demanding another bailout
* Bankers on Wall Street are the equivalent of suicide bombers or financial terrorists threatening to blow up the economy if Congress does not hand them trillions of dollars
* Other countries like Russia and China aren’t buying it, as they are dumping dollars and buying gold
* The housing market has not bottomed, as delinquencies and foreclosures are skyrocketing.

Comments

[davidbdc:]

"If we focus on the upper crust we'll never get there?" If we don't focus on the upper crust and the theft going on then we'll never get there.

I think that Keiser's general sentiment is correct. In the S&L crisis those that brought about the crisis were prosecuted and put in jail - more than 3000 people. I think we've jailed Madoff, some ponzi scheme guy in Florida, and put 2 BS hedge fund guys on trial, and are supposedly charging 24 people in California with mortgage fraud. Not exactly a crack-down now is it?

The retention bonusses being paid to the London staff of AIG that wrote insurance on CDO's with collateral that DID NOT EXIST is beyond belief. They don't need retention bonusses, they need to be lined up and hear the drum roll.....and the word "fire". The governement should just declare all AIG related CDO's null and void. Don't like it - tough.

The whole thing is just pure and utter nonsense. And good for Keiser for calling it that.

Oct 18 09:05 AM

[a. palmer jr.:]

There should have been a crackdown on those Wall Street criminals long before they were allowed to destroy the economy. If I were in charge I'd send policemen into Goldman Sachs and handcuff the whole bunch. There would be one gigantic "perp walk" down Wall Street to their nearest precinct. That would be a live televised event also, no chance for coverups or paper shredding.

Oct 18 09:52 AM

[athena:]

Silly.
You have to send the police to the government first because that is where the Goldman alumni went and started the trouble.


Oct 18 09:52 AM a. palmer jr. wrote:

> There should have been a crackdown on those Wall Street criminals
> long before they were allowed to destroy the economy. If I were
> in charge I'd send policemen into Goldman Sachs and handcuff the
> whole bunch. There would be one gigantic "perp walk" down Wall Street
> to their nearest precinct. That would be a live televised event
> also, no chance for coverups or paper shredding.

Oct 18 10:13 AM

[T.Stamps:]

This administration doesn't care what the majority of the
voters want.

Oct 18 12:53 PM

[T.S. Garp:]

Wearing glasses with round frames does not equate expertise.

Here in Detroit, Michigan the depression is far from over. The great wasteland of rustbelt America is a visable example of the elimination of the middle class. When will the peasants wake up and rise up? Never. Their bobbles and such will be sucked down the memory hole.

Oct 20 08:04 PM