Watch your wallets -- the next crash is coming

[turbinetree]

ROBERT REICH - COMMENTARY
03 SEP 2018 AT 07:45 ET

September 15 will mark the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and near meltdown of Wall Street, followed by the Great Recession.

Since hitting bottom in 2009, the economy has grown steadily, the stock market has soared, and corporate profits have ballooned.


But most Americans are still living in the shadow of the Great Recession. More have jobs, to be sure. But they haven’t seen any rise in their wages, adjusted for inflation.

Many are worse off due to the escalating costs of housing, healthcare, and education. And the value of whatever assets they own is less than in 2007.

Last year, about 40 percent of American families struggled to meet at least one basic need – food, health care, housing or utilities, according to an Urban Institute survey.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/09/watch-wallets-next-crash-coming/

[democratisphere]

1. When the wealthiest have most of the wealth, there is little left

for the majority masses. This situation will only become worse with time.

[Hortensis]

31. :) If it can only become worse, though, what happens when

we the people have 0% of the nation's wealth?

And will then it only continue to become worse from there? What would our having -20% of the nation's wealth look like?

Civic problems build until they force change. The Progressive and progressive New Deal eras were forced changes that, mercifully, were both steered by alliances of (overall) mainstream liberal and moderate conservative leaders. That lead to a wonderful, long era of general wellbeing and prosperity.

Unfortunately, we the people didn't take care of it and let it be taken away. And now the type of change the consequent decline is inevitably leading to is once again uncertain.

Our biggest problem now is that the new hideously wealthy classes read history and have been successfully dividing and conquering (so far) the electorate who defeated their forerunners. Otherwise, it'd be pffft! 200 million voters, 30 thousand of them? The big national question would be the best plan for eliminating centimillionaire and billionaire classes we should never have allowed to rise.

Will we do as well as our grandparents and, courtesy of democracy allied with new productivity levels, usher in the greatest period of prosperity in the history of the world, or will our foes succeed in imposing some form of right-wing, socially conservative authoritarian rule?

Whichever, there's going to be change.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Already got notice of my next rent increase...

[RKP5637]

6. The prices on everything just keep going up and up. Yep, the fallout will be incredible. n/t

[dalton99a]

3. It is inevitable.

[True Dough]

4. We're due

and who's Donny going to blame?

[Iliyah]

7. Mueller, the Democratic Party, Liberals and Progressives,

Pres Obama, HRC and Pres Clinton, all of this opposition but most of all "Witch Hunt" including but not limited to witches, warlocks, demons, angels, et al.

[RKP5637]

8. He'll blame everyone, and if he's out of office, he will say he was the greatest. n/t

[Iliyah]

5. Wages are going down but cost of living is rising

It's already happening.

[RKP5637]

10. Exactly, the math makes absolutely no sense. It's inevitable. n/t

[bluestarone]

9. So true

Prices are really going up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RKP5637]

11. tRump thinks it just great if people are working several jobs to try to survive. He will

say, wow, look at the employment rate ... ignoring many jobs have sh** wages.

[Bengus81]

12. We're just $50B from Trump adding a TRILLION $$$ to the National debt since Jan 1st.....

That will be easily hit in the next 2-3 weeks. After bashing Obama for years about the ND and claiming on the campaign trail how he would cut it in half in 2-3 years it's climbing like one of those FA-18's.

Unlike Obama in Jan 2009,Trump didn't walk into a shit mess and inherit what was almost the second great depression like Obama did. He walked into ultra low unemployment and a stable economy. But...all that did was set the stage for the biggest Corporate give away tax cut ever seen.

Those ridiculous tax cuts are coming home to roost and what does Trump want to do? LOWER the Capital gains tax for another give away to the rich--especially those who make a fortune in the stock market. Trump could possibly raise the ND by $2 trillion by his second anniversary in office.

[Merlot]

15. Any other republican president would have done EXACTLY what trumpft did.

[CrispyQ]

13. We have an economy for the few, not the many.

Our government has been hijacked by jackals who think it should serve them, not The People.

[Cosmocat]

22. Yep

He didnt write the bill, Congress did.

[smirkymonkey]

14. K&R

His lies about the economy will be exposed soon enough. Of course he will blame everyone but himself.

[yallerdawg]

16. Highest gas prices since 2014.

According to AAA the national gas price is up 48 cents from this time last year and it's the highest Labor Day gas prices since 2014.

http://www.waaytv.com/content/news/Gas-prices-increased-this-Labor-Day-weekend--492264691.html

This will all start adding up - and adding on.

[Cary]

17. We are always gettng closer to the next crash

300 years of capitalism teaches that.

Of course venal and craven "conservatives" are atrocious. It's the same battle. Yes consumers must be enabled to consume and too much money to too few megalomaniacs just breeds corruption.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. IOW proceeding as planned

All of that is as the GOP intended. Keep the peasants ignorant and desperate and you can keep them disposable and malleable.

[The Liberal Lion]

19. The economy is an illusion bound to crash

The only question will be who will control the outcome. We can sit back and let the orange anus crash it, and thereby allow the same fraudsters who seem to always get ahead when a crash occur control the outcome (thereby further enslaving the populace), or we can take control and crash the economy ourselves by non-participation, thereby robbing the fraudsters of their power BEFORE the crash and as well taking control of the outcome. The choice is ours. Never say you were not warned.

[strangedaysindeed]

20. We are always getting closer to the next crash because

the 'powers that be' for the last 30+ years have been doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

They're going to run into their brick wall AGAIN, and unfortunately we'll all be along for the ride.

Pathetic!

[blue-wave]

25. Yes, they keep repeating the same 'ol same 'ol

because they make money, lots and lots of it, off of every crash. There is a method to their madness.

[dameatball]

21. 2013, I had one of the large box stores come out and install new padding and carpet in a bedroom

and closet. Paid a approximately $375 - $400 for everything...installation, haul the old stuff away, etc.

Last week I went back to the same store and got a price quote for a slightly smaller room and closet. Same materials. They wanted $618.00. I said no way it could have gone up that much in 5 years. They claimed cost of materials, changed installers, blah, blah.


I said no way. Yesterday they called and adjusted the cost down to $558. I'm still thinking about it.

But yes. Keep an eye on your wallets.

[marylandblue]

28. I just installed new floors

When I've done it in the past, the quote was good for a few months. This time they said it was only good for two weeks because new tariffs were about hit imported flooring.

[dameatball]

36. Interesting. today was my 4th visit to this store. First was to get someone out to take measurement

The first quote was $618, I said I'll think about it.

second quote was $552. I said I'll think about it.

Today they said $416. I said okay....

I never knew you could negotiate with these national chains.

Maybe I will write a book called "The Art of the Deal." I hope no one has taken that name yet.

[marylandblue]

37. You can always negotiate.

Sometimes I tell them I got a lower quote elsewhere. Sometimes that is even true. Other times I say that my budget is fixed at $X and if you can't meet that price, I can't do it.

[dameatball]

38. I did the budget thing....retired....fixed income......seems like it worked.

[treestar]

23. But The Orange Fuehrer is building a wall

and kicking the illegal brown people out! That's what matters!

[Ford_Prefect]

24. Just try buying groceries on a fixed income...!

Prices have soared over the last 18 months and continue to rise with fuel costs, threatened trade sanctions and the never-ending policy spew of twitler and his minions.

[WePurrsevere]

30. Prices going up, combined with inflation by deflation...

(package sizes/amounts getting smaller) and what little we get doesn't go nearly as far as it did. Oh, we'll get a small increase for next year (and no Medicare increase to wipe it out) but I can guarantee it won't be enough to cover the reality of our growing costs.

[llmart]

32. Not just groceries either...

The one thing we're not talking about also is that us baby boomers are retiring/getting kicked out of the labor market in vast numbers and all of us will be living on a fixed income. I've had just about everything I have as a monthly bill go up in addition to groceries. My property taxes increased, water, gas, electric and phone bill too. Mind you, these are fixed expenses that I do my very best to keep as low as possible short of moving to a tiny house and living off the grid. Every time Social Security gets a minor increase it's eaten up by the increase in Medicare.

The affect of having thousands of us not having any extra disposable income won't help the economy one iota.

[blue-wave]

26. I believe we are close,

so very close to the next crash. It could happen any day now. The republicon fools and their wall street buddies led us down this path again. Frankly, it might be why so many of them are retiring. They want to get outta Dodge before the fireworks start. I hope our country survives.

[duforsure]

27. When you transfer so much wealth

Over to the wealthiest people from the middle class and poor from a tax scam , take away health care and social programs, deport immigrants working, start stupid trade wars, then piss off all allies all costing us trillions , yes a crash from their policies is coming, no matter what he says, claims or who else he blames, its just a matter of time. That's exactly what putin wants him to do to us also. It could be a matter of weeks, or a year or two but it will happen not from President Obama's policies , which has had it getting better for a while now, its entirely from trumps policies designed to enrich himself and the super wealthy. What supporters of his will think that's good, or believe his excuses which he always gives blaming others with? He's caused it, and this is all his doings. Its coming. We've seen this before , just not this extreme and the KGOP are again behind it all for what they're doing.

[global1]

29. Yet If You Listen To The Talking Heads On The Cable Channels.....

the economy is just churning along merrily and everything is hunky dory. Trump - at his rallies - keeps talking up the economic numbers and is taking credit for the work that Obama did to crawl us out of the great recession.

The comments in this thread say different. Things are really shaky out there and the masses are feeling the heat - yet that's not what we hear in the reporting.

The MSM needs to start putting out the warnings now about the shakiness of the economy and what might be coming - and they need to put the onus on Trump and the Repugs - so that come the coming crash - they don't blame it on the Dems that - with the Blue Wave in Nov - take over Congress.

Timing is such that just as the Dems take over Congress (the House and maybe the Senate) this crash will meet them square on and Trump and the Repugs will blame any of the economic problems on the Dems that will be taking over.

Upon Edit: It's almost like the Repugs planned this to happened. That they are purposely ceding control to blame the Dems. Maybe this was their plan all along. Maybe this is how they thought they would still be a viable Party after they wreaked havoc on this country. I could hear them saying - hey people - things were going along just ducky while we were in charge and see what happened - you voted in the Dems and look what they did to the economy.

[Uncle Joe]

33. An excellent analysis by Robert Reich

Thanks for the thread turbintree.

[turbinetree]

35. Your welcome

[Norbert]

34. And the sad part is the out of touch orange shitgibbon

He has probably not been inside a grocery store since he tagged along with the domestic help when he was 5 years old. What does he care that the price of a can of beans goes up another 15 cents.