Al-USA

A Depression and Recovery in Internet Time

"
Asia and Russia are now capitalizing rapidly because there is simply no viable alternative; Communism has failed.
"

The "communism" that failed in the USSR was but a monstrous caricature created by the monster Stalin after Lenin's death. Get your facts straight sir. Regarding Stalin, he would have been a monster in a capitalist system just as well as in a socialist system.

frflyer made some good comments but I will go further but saying that, from the perspective of the working class, capitalism is no longer delivering the goods. It hasn't been delivering the goods for the last 30 yrs or so as evidenced by the average wage of th American working man seeing no increase after inflation. The lack of increasing income was disguised by massive debt accumulation in order just to stay afloat. Of course, the ruling class used debt (leverage) for record profits during that time so, it seems to be, the capitalism has failed the working man.


frflyer said:

Your comments about the 30s depression and WW2 being the only thing that ended it smack of revisionist history in my opinion. No doubt the massive ramp up for the war played a major role in ending the depression, but I hope you aren't part of the crew who wants to rewrite the history of FDRs presidency. FDR turned more economically conservative in his approach to the depression in the late thirties and the recovery slowed as a result. Those who now claim the New Deal was a complete failure are not thinking clearly or are ideologically blinded. There was no such thing as a working middle class until the new deal. The middle class as we know it is a direct result of FDRs policies. Never before were workers so prosperous as they were after WW2. Those who want to rewrite this chapter in history would not be happy living in the robber barron era that came before it, when workers had no rights, no retirement, no vacations, no unemployment, no GI bill so they could go to college or buy a home, no ability to negotiate for better pay, no worker safety, long long hours. The programs like the CCC and the WPA gave people hope, and a sense of worth and provided sustainance and housing while they improved the infrastructure of the country. The depression followed an extreme concentration of wealth in a few hands, just like the situation today.

When, as in in 2005, the top 1% had a far bigger raise in income than the TOTAL income of the lowest 20%, something is seriously out of whack.

When for over 25 years nearly all the growth in wealth has gone to the top 20%, something is seriously out of wack.
89% went to the top 20% between 1983 and 2004. 33% to the top 1% and about 60% to the top 5%
(Reaganomics prevailed even under Clinton)

When corporate executives made 25 times worker pay in 1978, and now make 250-400 times as much, while the average worker makes 12% less in buying power than in 1978, something is seriously out of whack.

When the top 10% of families owns over 71% of wealth, and the bottom 40% of the population owns way less than 1%, something is out of whack.

When the bottom 60% of households possess only 4% of the nation's wealth, something is out of whack.

When real hourly wages between 2001 and 2004 rose only 1.6%
while the price of homes went up 17.9%, something is out of whack.

When in 2004 the top 10% owned 81% of non-home wealth, something is out of whack.

When the top 20% had 84.7% of net worth
and the same 20% owned 92.5% of non-home wealth, something is out of whack.

In 2004, the top 1% owned 44.8% of stocks and mutual funds, the top 10% owned 85.4% of stocks and funds.

Anyone who ignores this in assessing the state of the economy is just plain dishonest, or uninformed.

But hey, we wouldn't want to redistribute wealth right?

"The Pew report also found that many countries-including Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Germany and France have more economic mobility than the United States does."

Yes, all those countries with mixed economies and mostly more social programs than we have. So much for social programs killing off incentive to move up economically.

And somehow the Republicans manage, each election year, to fool millions of working people into believing it's the welfare people who have taken all their money. It helps to throw the word "socialism" around a few times to scare them into voting against their own self interest.

A Depression and Recovery in Internet Time

Writer GMiki has it right...

The FED and its printing or $trillions does not serve the interests of the American people, but rather those of his pals, the ruling class of this courntry, aka the capitalist elites.

I can go on and on but I will instead direct the curious to the following articles:

"THE WALL STREET PONZI SCHEME CALLED FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING"
www.webofdebt.com/arti...

"HOW TO RESOLVE THE CREDIT CRISIS"
www.webofdebt.com/arti...

"What Hank and Ben Are Up to"
www.webofdebt.com/arti...

finally
" CRONY SOCIALISM OR FINANCIAL SOVEREIGNTY"
www.webofdebt.com/arti...

Of all the above links, the most important is the first one, "FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING".

Interesting times call for interesting knowledge folks.

My Eight Themes for 2008 Are Paying Off

It doesn't matter if he "walked the talk", in my opinion. What's important is that he seems to have the ability to ride broad trends. In my book, that's a job well done - keep it up.

Weapons of Financial Mass Destruction

Indeed, long but good.