We haven’t had any real inflation, net of population growth, in quite some time. For years, I feared the deflationary vortex, which was being worsened by wage stagnation and exportation of high paying jobs, was going to doom us all. The dichotomy between the have and have nots has progressively widened, which hasn’t meant a damned thing for stocks.
Without question, there has never been a wider chasm between Main Street and Wall Street than now. In the past, Wall Street sort of needed Main Street to drive business and produce profits, but not anymore. In a globalized economy, Wall Street merely needs Main Street to stay alive. AI and technology innovation is the main driver for higher profits. Foreign factories and a wide open immigration policy has led to lower wages, or at least stagnated them, in turn leading to higher profits.
Due to the high tax burden, regulations et al, big business has been provided with an impregnable moat that staves off competition. The big media push, via Google, Facebook, Twitter, NY Times and Networks protects these interests and promotes a socialized agenda that only serves to increase the power of the American oligarchy.
In a sense, capitalism is dead in America and has been dead in Europe for a long time. We’ve entered an era of autocracy, led by technocrats, and hardly anyone is aware that it happened.
Central Banks control the flow of money, helping banks earn easy profits that also stops them from putting money to work in the economy. And, through all of this obfuscation, stocks hit record highs, which in turn produces higher tax receipts, in turn helps keep the charade going.
The mechanization of this scheme is impressive and people won’t truly analyze what is going on until it crashes. In the meantime, we buy stocks because it’s easy and those of us who do not are ostracized and hated.
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