So-called recovery bypassed 90% of American families-who have gained 0 in terms of wealth/income

[kpete]

Robert Reich



The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the most comprehensive source of data on the finances of American families, was released Thursday. Its findings are sobering. The so-called recovery has bypassed 90 percent of American families, who have gained nothing in terms of income or wealth; and the bottom 20 percent are worse off than when the recovery started. Only the rich have done better. Between 2010 and 2013, the most affluent 10 percent of families saw their incomes rise 10 percent, and their wealth increase 2 percent to an average of $3.3 million. (Those in the top 1 percent and top one-tenth of one percent did far better than this.)

Before you say “duh,” you should note that this is the first “recovery” on record that has shown this pattern. Although inequality has been widening for thirty years, the business cycle usually hid it when the economy was expanding, as in the late 1990s. The range of remedies many of us have been pushing for – a higher minimum wage, for example – are necessary but hardly sufficient. The entire economy must be reorganized in more fundamental ways. (I'll be suggesting some larger reforms in coming posts.) You agree, and, if so, what do you think are the biggest changes that are necessary?

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?fref=nf

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[rhett o rick]

30. I wonder if this will quiet down those here that keep boasting about the

recovery.

[Laelth]

32. Our party apparatchiks are in a bind on this one.

On the one hand, they're mostly devoted to reality (to the extent they're liberal), so they probably know that it's really only the rich who have benefited from this alleged recovery. On the other hand, they don't want the continued shrinking of the middle class to reflect badly upon either President Obama or the Democratic Party, so they're inclined to play up good economic numbers even though they know that the numbers don't tell the real story.

That said, I don't think they're likely to quiet down about how well they think the administration is performing until after the mid-terms, and then it'll be "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary" every day. As Molly Ivins was fond of saying, "Things can always get worse."



-Laelth

[rhett o rick]

44. Well maybe we are wrong. Things are going to get worse and yet the nitwits in denial

that think that H. Clinton-Sachs is our savior seem to be happy. Maybe we need to drink the denial cool-aid. Just sayin.

[Laelth]

52. We might be happier, admittedly. n/t

-Laelth

[grahamhgreen]

2. Guess that makes it NOT a recovery for the majority. Yet we need a majority to win.

[rhett o rick]

25. Can it be called a recovery if it only benefits the top 10%?? nm

[Louisiana1976]

38. Not really.

[grahamhgreen]

47. Even when it's a Dem in the White House?

[SammyWinstonJack]

56. Did the top 10% even need a recovery? Did they really need their income to increase at the expense

of the majority of Americans.

[progressoid]

3. It takes time for the recovery to trickle down.

[rhett o rick]

45. No thanks, I don't want any of their "trickle". That's for the nitwits among us that are living

in denial. Things got worse under President Obama and who can honestly say they won't continue to get worse under H. Clinton-Sachs?

Yes, I am asking for a miracle. We need a progressive to step forward.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. All part of the plan, if you ask me.

[jtuck004]

8. Oh, it is, and it's in writing. Just have to get this book and it lays it out:

This economy isn't the result of obstructionism, it is exactly what was proposed and is by design. Timothy McVeigh, I mean Geithner (get my killers mixed up sometimes) lays it all out in this book. It is a plan designed to keep the assets of the wealthy intact on the backs of working people by the Treasury Secretary appointed by and approved of by Obama, who then carried it forward.

While one can deny that until they are blue in the face there still exists this segment in which Jon Stewart interviewing "killer" points out that the administration went to hell and back for the bankers, but not for working people and "killer" tries to re-spin it. It's kinda the Cliff Notes version of the book, and what we are all experiencing.

You can watch an audience of almost certainly more likely to vote,than a broad sample of the general public as they laugh in his face, at him, not with hmi, as he condescends to explain to voters thought and thinks it was and is a good idea to fuck them over, for our economic strength.

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/extended-interviews/z9b8f1/timothy-geithner-extended-interview

When Stewart points out how this fucks every most working people, and suggest the plan should have lived up to the public rhetoric (since most Democrats up until the last few years understood the economy was consumer driver, not 1% driven with scraps for the less fortunate as we have today) Killer says

"You would have thanked me then, but now where would we be"?.

Well, Killer, 15 million people who have been added to those in poverty during your time in this administration, people who will very likely be in or near poverty for the rest of their lives because of this plan, stand as a testament to your failure, along with the deaths of those who the CDC says died because of what the stress of this economy did to their lives.

Loathsome ass clown.

[ReRe]

43. Thank you.

Loathsome is being nice. I watched this all the way through. Stewart had him at every turn, and I don't know why he was so hospitable to "killer." .

[jtuck004]

48. housing needed (Spokane valley or Spokane area)

...
We are wanting anything a camper, trailer, acerage a house anything. our family will be homeless come Monday morning. we have a little income but am willing to do whatever it takes to put a roof over our 2 girls head. if you have anything to offer please email me. I can do any kind of work u need done or whatever it takes. PLEASE...ANYTHING
...

Not mine. An ad I just saw on Craigslist.

Lots of need for opportunity out there, being squandered on criminals.

[ReRe]

50. It's a shame...

... people have to sell their soul to put a roof over their heads. In America. Hope the fellow isn't taken advantage of. If one has never been in a situation like that before, they don't know where to go or what to do.

[nilesobek]

51. The Inland Northwest economy has been devastated

since the 80s, when speculators realized they could simply sell logs to Japan, who had mega-offshore ships operating as lumber mills. They thought the lumber would never run out. We are basically a vassal state of powerful eastern corporations. There never has been a recovery.

[SammyWinstonJack]

57. The REAL American Dream......begging for anything in order to survive and keep a roof over family.

America....Fuck yeah!

[Enthusiast]

55. A huge plus one!

Loathsome ass clown, indeed. The man actually has shifty eyes. Way to go, Mr. Obama!

[jtuck004]

61. I would like to see him try that spin bs on a family who was foreclosed on and still has yet

to recover.

"Oh, you are homeless and in the street, and your kids will more likely live in poverty all of their lives as well, and it happened during my tenure while I was making sure banks could report record profits after what they purposely took from the economy and ruined millions of lives for decades to come, sure, but that's not the way to look at it, and the banks..."

As far as I am concerned there is a malevolent bastard inside that suit he wears. Ebola might be preferable to him as a neighbor.

[cstanleytech]

5. What recovery?

[abelenkpe]

6. Access to higher education

should not mean 10-20 years of debt. College needs to be more affordable.

Taxes should go back to what they were under Eisenhower.

Unions needs to go global and thrive once again to counter the power and influence of global corporations.

Pensions need to be brought back into vogue and replace BS 401ks that leave individual workers prey to the stock market when it is not their area of expertise.

Offshore tax havens need to be made illegal.

Much much more needs to be done to stop offshoring and return lost jobs and industries to the US. Some sort of tax penalty and/or countervailing tariffs need to be put in place to discourage offshoring and encourage businesses to hire US workers.

Break up massive media, pharmaceutical, energy and financial corporations. We can't be a nation that claims to value competition while also allowing giant corporations to overwhelm and dominate their respective industry.

Publicly financed campaigns. A law that overturns citizen's united.

A law that requires public figures and politicians to wait five years before taking a job on wall street or in the industry they once regulated. No more revolving door baloney.

Stop trying to run the government like a business.

Nationalize all the stuff privatized over the past thirty years. Privatization is and always will be a scam.

Sure there's plenty of other things....

[cascadiance]

24. Also need to get rid of the "free trade" deals and the "guest worker" (indentured servant) programs

... That continue to screw the American worker in terms of access to jobs and higher salaries.

- shut down or severely cap H-1B and H-2B
- NO to TISA, TPP and pull out of NAFTA..

- Restore the taxes on financial trades to shut down the market manipulation with the way stocks are traded now that only rewards insiders and the wealthy instead of average stock holders.

- Put in place something like Instant Runoff voting to empower third parties and not present spoilers as a result. When any good third party candidate can potentially win without forcing people to vote for the "lesser of two evils", you make it that much harder for corporate lobbyists to "buy the field" the way they routinely do today.

- Student debt should also be debt that you can refinance or use bankruptcy law protection with too.

- Single payer health insurance coverage for all that doesn't make health care expenses a factor for people going bankrupt, and perhaps shut down the health insurance companies that are there just to steal wealth from the rest of us.

- Prosecute the bums on Wall Street that caused our meltdowns with their market manipulation and foreclosure BS. Go back even further and prosecute those more that were a factor in the Enron mess, and even the laddering scam bastards on Wall Street that brought us the Dotcom boom and subsequent bust, where only insiders were made wealthy, and many of us working at Dotcoms wound up in the same year having to pay tax on unemployment insurance and Alternative Minimum Tax (that hasn't had its rates adjusted for inflation) on stock options we bought at the wrong time that were later made worthless anyway when we were "allowed" to sell them.

- No more electronic voting and aggregate counting on separate servers, that allowed manipulation in 2004, and perhaps not in 2008 because of Anonymous's "intervention" to prevent it, much to Karl Rove's chagrin.

- No more domestic spying that is primarily done on the 99% and not the 1%, and better protection for security whistleblowers and not treating them as "spies" without access to a reasonable defense in trials that has people like Snowden needing to seek asylum to do proper whistleblowing over wrongdoing by our government.

- no more big tax breaks for "capital gains". They should be taxed like regular income.

- get rid of tax deductions for shutting down plants and moving them overseas.

- restore Glass Stiegel

- Reinforce Net Neutrality by declaring the internet space and its carriers subject to "common carrier" restrictions.

[RKP5637]

26. How will this come about? We campaign, we vote and much stays the same! R=I=D when it

come to $$$$$. There seem to be no priorities/initiatives to fix any of these items. If corrected, it would be a great country for all, but the controllers have wormed their way into the government and here we sit. And so many Americans are so DUH that they often side with those doing them in. So many Americans are so damn clueless, naive and gullible.

[Lobo27]

7. Before 08 my Uncle was a Foreman at a welding shop.

He was making around 55k a year, and now at different company. Same position he is barely making 24k. Same hours etc...

[logosoco]

9. I think a raise in minimum wage would help the lower and working class.

Businesses seem to be making great profits at a time when regular people are struggling. Small business owners don't seem to like the idea, but they forget that when Joe Schmoo is making more, this means more potential customers for them.

I am getting annoyed with people who say "well, you aren't supposed to work minimum wage jobs forever". Where exactly is there to move up to these days? When we made stuff here, it was a lot different. (And I am speaking as someone married to someone who works in a factory, where every year we are relieved it has not moved to China or Mexico).

There are a lot of people and not as many good jobs.

A rising tide lifts all boats. Hopefully soon companies will remember what Henry Ford had in mind when he paid his workers enough so they could actually afford the things they were producing.

I am the farthest thing from an economist. I am just a person who uses common sense. Not the same common sense they use in businesses today, apparently.

[Doctor_J]

17. two problems with that

1. The piddling $10.10 proposed by the democrats isn't nearly enough
2. Even that isn't going to happen

[Louisiana1976]

39. True.

[progree]

10. "Between 2010 and 2013". But that leaves out 2014, a great year for the bottom half

Last edited Sat Sep 6, 2014, 02:58 PM - Edit history (1)

[font color=gray, size = 1]sarcasm thingy[/font]

[DontTreadOnMe]

11. So WHAT is the 90% going to do about it?

seriously.. are we going to just let this happen?

[daleanime]

12. Very first step....

is to separate money and politics.



Not going to be easy, but nothing else will be accomplished until that's done.

[DontTreadOnMe]

13. BUT the money is exactly HOW TO BUY politicians.

So the people with the MONEY will never let that be stopped.

[daleanime]

14. So which is more powerful....

300 million dollars or 300 million people?

[DontTreadOnMe]

15. how many of the 300 million vote?

and the money involved is more like 300 Billion.

[DFW]

16. That depends on whether or not all 300 million vote

...and vote their best interest, not what Fox Noise tells them to vote.

[Dustlawyer]

19. We need a strong leader to organize and educate and motivate

those same masses to demand and fight for Publicly Funded Elections! Hell yea they will fight to maintain their control of out government, courts and media. Out system is completely corrupt and this is the only way I see out of it.

[leftstreet]

20. Been there, done that

[former9thward]

41. Well that strong leader rejected publicly financing of elections.

In both 2008 and 2012. That set the precedent so that no candidates will do public financing in the future.

[SammyWinstonJack]

58. Exactly!

[marym625]

22. trying hard to get everyone to call their Senators

About the vote on the 8th for the Constitutional Amendment that would overturn Citizens United.

Not the full answer but a good start.

http://www.commoncause.org/

[DFW]

23. There is only one way to get publicly funded elections

Ironically, that is to win elections as we hold them now, and elect congresspeople who will vote to change the system. Republicans will never do that, since their money supply is guaranteed, and it's something they'll never have to fight and/or beg for. So it's up to us to GOTV.

Whatever excuse anyone has for not at least attempting to exercise their right to vote, it is inadequate.

[RKP5637]

28. I do wonder. It seems consistently money is far more powerful than "we the people." We

talk about turning things around, but I have never seen a path delineated with any traction. And far too many Americans are totally aloof and disinterested IMO. Everyone whines, but nothing happens!

[whereisjustice]

34. Both parties are laughing their asses off at the hapless middle class. Meanwhile,

we've got wars to pay for and bankers to pay off.

[L0oniX]

18. We don't need Captain Obvious for a reality check on the 90%.

Local closed small and medium businesses abound. No jobs except some minimum wage toilet cleaning jobs. Local entertainment is way down. Local boating is way down. Theater attendance down. Restaurant prices are up and patrons are down. The only thing increasing is auto accidents from texting which only benefits lawyers ...and there plenty of ambulance chasers here. Cable and Sat subscribers are down due to digital antenna and Netflix ....and of course the high cost for crap.

[RKP5637]

29. What I see are prices always going up, wages stagnated and jobs scarce or shit jobs with low pay.

This model is eventually going to cave in on itself. Maybe then something will happen. And basically, all we did was prop up the failures so they can repeat the same. IMO, the recovery was poorly handled all the way around! ... except, wealth made out like bandits, apparently "that" was the plan.

[marym625]

21. Here's an excellent lecture

On the subject.

http://www.rdwolff.com/content/global-capitalism-june-2014-monthly-update

[RKP5637]

31. Thanks for posting this! Got it saved for later! Thanks! n/t

[marym625]

35. You're welcome!

It's about an hour long but really great stuff. But what else would it be with Professor Richard Wolff ?

[WillyT]

27. K & R !!!

[whereisjustice]

33. Rich people get sprayed with money, the non-rich get sprayed with tear gas

[Ned Flanders]

36. a bogus recovery based upon bogus indicators

I'm fricken sick of hearing about how the economy is recovering, because it certainly hasn't trickled down to me and those around me.

Why do we continue to base recovery upon such things as the Dow Jones and deceptive unemployment rates? The wealthy appear to be doing great, but us, the lower middle class? WTF?! This is with a two earner home, one of whom is a fire captain, supposedly a decently paying job. NOT!

[blkmusclmachine]

37. Recoverless "recovery." Just as planned, I suspect.

The 99% is NOT "Too Big To Fail."

[Louisiana1976]

40. We need a socialist government that would tax the rich majorly and redistribute the wealth.

[man4allcats]

42. It definitely bypassed me, that's for sure. n/t

[De Leonist]

46. I am now convinced....

We will see a popular uprising the likes of which has not been seen in decades in this country. One large enough to even dwarf the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s.

[jamzrockz]

49. haha.

the people are so divided that any kind of "popular" uprising is going to fail. We are going to need to come to some type of agreement before any uprising can start

[De Leonist]

60. I don't think so....

Anyone who has made even a modest attempt to keep an eye on our political situation knows that the vast majority of Americans feel as if their being increasingly ignored and exploited. Republicans feel this way, Democrats feel this way and independents feel this way. Just that alone could be a powerful starting point. Another area of shared agreement with most of the country whether Left, Right, or Center is getting money out of the political system. A popular uprising with these two issues at it's core could push for some real change.

[littlemissmartypants]

53. Thanks for your post, kpete.

This is going to make me a real smartypants when I am out talking to the public, working my corner in my neighborhood.

GOTV14

Love, Peace and Shelter.

[SonofMarx]

54. Reich deliver the truth, bad as is.