Panskeptic

Are Subsistence Wages Killing the US?

I have no sympathy with the argument that it's the unions' fault. The unions represent a small sliver of the workforce and it's diminishing all the time. They get no positive press, not even from unionized news sources, and they're a convenient whipping boy for the greed and poor decisions of their employers.

In fact, the real villains of the piece are Reagan and Friedman and Greenspan, who presided over a massive redistribution of wealth upwards. The numbers are irrefutable: a small clique of oligarchs at the top of our pyramid hold ever-increasing wealth subsidized by transfers from below. As long as we narcotize ourselves with economic royalism and false, meaningless slogans like "the magic of the market," we'll be unable to do anything at all for the majority of Americans whose prospects are diminishing day by day.

The Golden Rule is "them's with the gold, makes the rules," and I for one am disgusted with their whining, faulty judgment and irresponsibility.

A Contrarian Strategy For Quick Capital Gains

Dividends have always been a major part of total return. The fact that people have woken up to the importance of dividends as part of the tech wreck hangover does not make it untrue. And even CNBC can get it right occasionally, even if by accident.

However, the orthodox religious doctrine that everybody knows everything and therefore it is impossible that a stock can be mispriced is patently untrue. Every transaction implies a difference of calculation concerning price.

As Mark Twain said, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so."