Thomas Franks, the Clintons and "phony" Democratic populists in the New Gilded Age

[Armstead]

128. It was when the money started flowing from the bottom to the top

Did you read the article cited in OP? he stated it far better than I.

But in a nutshell, the hollowing out of the productive domestic economy and the siphoning of wealth upward and the concentration of power in the hands of Corporate Monopolies and Wealthy Oligarchs that started with Reagan and Bush 1 kicked into high gear under Clinton in the 90's.

There may have been a glittery surface to distract us (as in the early and mid 80's), but the erosion of the middle class as already well underway and Clinton made it worse wih things like NAFTA and opening the doors to cheap imports from China, and financial deregulation and media deregulation, etc.

yes there was a high-tech boom and an unnatural real-estate bubble. But the process of exporting American jobs and companies accelerated in the 90's, as the did the formation of horrible monopolies.

Perhaps you have a short memory, but along with the stories of upstart Internet companies being valued at Billions a day after their start-up, there were also stories about abandoned factories and crumbling cities and towns across the country.

While unemployment dipped, most of the new jobs were not high-powered tech jobs, but low paying service positions. Middle class jobs were already beginning to shrink.

Clinton could have addressed those problems. But instead, he floated along the bubble, encouraged our delusions and appointed Wall St. Robber Barons and praised charlatans like Alan (Ayb Rand) Greenspan and gave them the keys.