STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 24 July 2012

[bread_and_roses]

17. "Three Big Lies Perpetuated by the Rich"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/23-1

1. Higher taxes on the rich will hurt small businesses and discourage job creators

A recent Treasury analysis found that only 2.5% of small businesses would face higher taxes from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

As for job creation, it's not coming from the people with money ... The Mendelsohn Affluent Survey agreed that the very rich spend less than two percent of their money on new business startups.

2. Individual initiative is all you need for success.

... If anything, it's harder than ever today to ascend through the ranks on one's own. As summarized in the Pew research report "Pursuing the American Dream," only 4% of those starting out in the bottom quintile make it to the top quintile as adults, "confirming that the 'rags-to-riches' story is more often found in Hollywood than in reality."

3. A booming stock market is good for all of us

But the richest 10% of Americans own over 80% of the stock market. What Mr. Gross referred to as the "democratization of the stock market" is actually, as demonstrated by economist Edward Wolff, a distribution of financial wealth among just the richest 5% of Americans, those earning an average of $500,000 per year.

... There's yet more to the madness. The stock market has grown much faster than the GDP over the past century, which means that this special tax rate is being given to people who already own most of the unearned income that keeps expanding faster than the productiveness of real workers.

Nothing particularly new to anyone here, but thought I'd add it on the systemic fraud piece. Let's see: we know that the financial system is basically operating as a criminal cartel for the Oligarchs, workers are being systemically robbed of the value of their work, racial and gender discrimination is rampant and systemic, there are more poor and near-poor in this Country than since the Great Depression, the Oligarchs don't create jobs, wealth does not "trickle down," and "social mobility" has become a myth. Not to mention the little matter of destroying the ecosystem and thus our and other creatures' ability to live on this earth.

Yet the exact opposite is trumpeted from the Halls of DC to your local radio station. Forget "Groundhog Day." We are replaying 1984 since - oh, gee, right about 1984.