Still scraping by while the bankers celebrate

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

TEN YEARS ago, the Great Recession shook the world financial system, setting off a panic in corporate boardrooms and ravaging the household finances of millions of working-class families.
Today, America’s corporate executives are rejoicing in the new Trumpian era of deregulation and corporate pillaging — but ordinary people are still struggling to get by from week to week, and living in fear of a disaster that will plunge them into destitution.....

Meanwhile, on Main Street, more than four in 10 American households struggle on a monthly basis to afford housing, child care, food, transportation and health care without going into debt, according to a recent report.....

But it is also a time of record debt for both consumers and corporations, and despite the steady increase in official employment levels since the Great Recession, wage growth has remained stagnant, meaning continuing hardship for workers and the poor.

To read more:

https://socialistworker.org/2018/05/29/still-scraping-by-while-the-bankers-celebrate

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Increasing debt is already a major stumbling block and is already impacting the ...

economy in a negative way when too much goes into paying interest on that debt.

Difficult to achieve growth in the economy when so much goes to fed the debt load and ties up funds for other purposes, thus leading to slower growth of the economy (e.g., just like student loan debt doing a number on the kids coming out of school and unable to afford a home (living w/ Mom and Dad still)).

This is especially a shame when you see the fed. reserve rate still set relatively low, and the interest rate(s) charged on various types of loans set at multiples of what it cost the banks and other lending institutions. The interest rates being paid on CDs and so forth are also at low levels and a lot of retirees banking on this interest income aren't seeing what they thought they would see, in earnings.

[guillaumeb]

2. When wages are stagnant,

as they have been since the 1980s, the average worker can take on debt or work more hours.


But the large number of workers who work at McJob type labor cannot work enough hours to get ahead.

The banks, especially the Federal Reserve system, essentially give money away to other banks so those banks can speculate with the free money, and the same banks pay almost nothing in interest to average workers.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Yes...

[NCTraveler]

4. Not much depth and some empty sloganeering but it's a solid read. K&R

[guillaumeb]

5. I think that it is a brief summary of the issue. eom

[tazkcmo]

6. Lost everything

I was in the remodeling business and it hit us hard. Had to sell all my tools just to get by the next 3 months while I looked for a the job because there was no remodeling going on anymore. I consider myself lucky to have found a job at $8.50 an hour even though I hadn't worked for that wage since before 1990.

Yay poverty

[guillaumeb]

7. I am sorry to read that.

The new America?

[tazkcmo]

8. Thanks

Living the dream, baby!