Back during the Great Heist of 2008, the 'theory,' was that saving the banks would save the country. The first part worked out splendidly, the second part was the biggest joke and scam ever played on the people of the United States by their Corporate Overlords, complicit and fully corrupt government and now we are finding that instead of the Banks or the Corporations, or out own government giving a shit, they are now doubling down on stripping the what is left of the carcass of the Middle Class and poor and the final safety nets, such as Medicare and Social Security.
Indeed we are in fact on the verge of a great, great depression regardless of the soaring profits on Wall Street. And neither the Democrats or the Republicans are the slightest bit serious about a honest effort towards a real jobs program, or are they interested in dealing with the crashing housing market, as the FRAUD is still being ignored throughout out nation.
This is the new face of America people, this is the legacy of exactly what has happened as AG Eric Holder has repeatedly refused to hold one of the major players accountable for the home owners of this nation:
Corruption always has a price, and regardless of how many times the American people have paid, and paid and paid, it is never enough for these greedy bastards who will not (or cannot) stop themselves for even on single second to understand or care, what they have done and continue to do to families all over this nation.
The news that frequent CNBC guest Peter Yastrow of Yastrow Origer (and formerly with DT Trading) told CNBC that “We’re on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it” is going viral today.
As I noted in January, the housing slump is worse than during the Great Depression.
As CNN Money points out today:
Wal-Mart’s core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.
“We’re seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure,” Duke said at an event in New York. “There’s no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact.”
Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.
Lately, they’re “running out of money” at a faster clip, he said.
“Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year,” Duke said. “This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.
And – in case you still think that the 29% of Americans who think we’re in a depression are unduly pessimistic – take a look at what I wrote last December:
The following experts have – at some point during the last 2 years – said that the economic crisis could be worse than the Great Depression:
To see the rest of this great article go here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/...
And it would appear, that Wall Street, is heading towards a near panic state: (poor wallllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Street, boo, hoo, hoo.)
Wall Street is having a hard time figuring out what to do now that the U.S. economy appears to be sputtering and yields are so low, Peter Yastrow, market strategist for Yastrow Origer, told CNBC.
"What we’ve got right now is almost near panic going on with money managers and people who are responsible for money," he said. "They can not find a yield and you just don’t want to be putting your money into commodities or things that are punts that might work out or they might not depending on what happens with the economy.
snip....
"We have many, many homeowners that are totally underwater here and cannot get out from under. The technology frontier is limited right now. We definitely have an innovation slowdown and the economy’s gonna suffer." However, he said he wouldn’t sell stocks. "Any bears out there better be careful because the dividend yields on these stocks look awesome relative to all the other investment vehicles out there," Yastrow said. "So bears are going to have to find a new way to express their discontent with the U.S. economy."
http://www.cnbc.com/...
I find this statement by this Wall Street geek to be simply stunning. These are the same people who robbed Americans blind, fully crashed our economy, got paid off for doing so, and here this idiot is, talking about how 'baffled,' Wall Street is.
What did these fucking idiots think was going to happen, after they all took turns choking the Golden Goose (the Middle Class) to death? Guess what buddy, here is clue: if you cut off the legs of a horse, you can't ride the fucking thing anymore. That is why that old Italian saying ring so true here: 'You don't shit where you eat.'
And as the truth is finally dripping out, no one can pretend any longer that Timothy Geithner (nor President Obama) understood the full ramifications of allowing the corruption to swallow our nation up, chew it up, and here we are today:
What was Timothy Geithner thinking back in 2008 when, as president of the New York Fed, he decided to give Goldman Sachs a $30 billion interest-free loan as part of an $80 billion secret float to favored banks? The sordid details of that program were finally made public this week in response to a court-ordered Freedom of Information Act release, thanks to a Bloomberg News lawsuit. Sorry, my bad: It wasn't an interest-free loan; make that .01 percent that Goldman paid to borrow taxpayer money when ordinary folks who missed a few credit card payments in order to finance their mortgages were being slapped with interest rates of more than 25 percent.
One wonders if Barack Obama was fully aware of Geithner's deceitful performance at the New York Fed when he appointed him treasury secretary in the incoming administration. The president was probably ignorant of this particular giveaway, as were key members of Congress. "I wasn't aware of this program until now," Barney Frank, D-Mass., who at the time chaired the House Financial Services Committee, admitted in referring to Geithner's "single-tranche open-market operations" program. And there was no language in the Dodd-Frank law supposedly reining in the banks that compelled the Fed to reveal the existence of this program.
It was merely one small part of that reckless policy of throwing mad money at the banks while ignoring the plight of homeowners whom the banks had swindled, a plan pursued by both the Bush and the Obama administrations that set the stage for the current slide into a double-dip recession. On Tuesday it was reported that home values have continued an eight-month decline back to their lowest point since the recession began. With housing in deep trouble there can be no rebound of consumer confidence or job creation, and the first-quarter growth rate was an anemic 1.8 percent even as Wall Street profits and bonuses flourished. Wages are stagnant, unemployment claims have recently risen and, as the Wall Street Journal headlined on Tuesday, "Economists Downgrade Prospects for Growth." That same edition of the Journal reported that 44.6 million Americans now survive on food stamps, an 11 percent increase in that misery index over the past year, while Geithner's friends at Goldman are doing quite well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Imagine if you could, being on your last legs of unemployment, having been foreclosed upon with a family for 4 or 6, with no health insurance, living on a monthly benefit of $ 133.24 for food stamps.
And there are no jobs on the horizon by either party, its a fact Jack:
How Offshoring Has Destroyed the Economy
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
These are discouraging times, but once in a blue moon a bit of hope appears. I am pleased to report on the bit of hope delivered in March of 2011 by Michael Spence, a Nobel prize-winning economist, assisted by Sandile Hlatshwayo, a researcher at New York University. The two economists have taken a careful empirical look at jobs offshoring and concluded that it has ruined the income and employment prospects for most Americans. To add to the amazement, their research report, “The Evolving Structure of the American Economy and the Employment Challenge,” was published by the very establishment Council on Foreign Relations.
For a decade I have warned that US corporations, pressed by Wall Street and large retailers such as Wal-Mart, to move offshore their production for US consumer markets, were simultaneously moving offshore US GDP, US tax base, US consumer income, and irreplaceable career opportunities for American citizens.
Among the serious consequences of offshoring are the dismantling of the ladders of upward mobility that made the US an “opportunity society,” an extraordinary worsening of the income distribution, and large trade and federal budget deficits that cannot be closed by normal means. These deficits now threaten the US dollar’s role as world reserve currency.
Read the rest of the story, here: But stop confusing the issues: Our jobs are being out sourced by BOTH PARTIES, AND THAT IS WHY WE HAVE NO JOBS.
http://www.counterpunch.org/....
My only hope at this point is the Richard Trumka and the Unions finally get fed up with the fact that the only way America is going to change again, is for the Unions to form their own Labor Party, strengthen that party, and put 'Boots on the Ground,' throughout our nation to stop 'the madness.'
Until our own Democrats deal with our jobs, and the crashing housing market, along with the corruption, nothing in our nation will ever change and we will continue to be nothing more than the 'suckers,' that we are as we sit back helplessly and watch as the likes of the Cat Food Commission and the Gang of Six (and others like them) have the temerity to tell our party, 'that they have no other choice, but to cut Medicare and Social Security,' and to once again pretend that they are all being held 'hostage,' by the Republicans.
That old story has worn down very thin, very quickly in our nation, as the Endless and 'dumb,' meaningless Wars continue, has have all the excuses by our government to not address the controlled FRAUD in our key financial markets.
The only people who are being held 'hostage,' are the very same American people that bailed Wall Street and the Banks out, only to find that no one gave a rat's ass about them in the first place, and no one in our government does today.
Finally, to fully understand how devastated our housing market 'crash,' has effected our nation (with absolutely no help on the horizon): please see this excellent article:
One of the people who I admire deeply as a truth teller and great writer, is Charles Hughes Smith. He wrote an amazing article that I wanted to share in full with all of you, because it provides the figures, the analysis and the evidence to exactly how deeply destroyed the Middle Class has become as a result of the housing bubble.
Mr. Smith was kind enough to give me permission to include this entire article on DailyKos and I will be happy to send to any of the administrators on this site, the email Mr. Smith sent to me, should they ask for it.
You can reach Charles Hughes Smith on his blog and website at:
http://www.oftwominds.com/....
The Housing Bubble Broke the Middle Class (April 27, 2011)
The bursting of the housing bubble wiped out half of the net worth of the Mortgaged Middle Class.
On the face of it, American households were not that affected by the bursting of the housing bubble. If we look at the Fed Flow of Funds report, the Balance Sheet of Households and Nonprofit Organizations, we find that net worth only declined by about 11% ($7.3 trillion) from 2007 to 2010: a $2.9 trillion decline in financial assets and a $4.9 trillion decline in tangible assets, i.e. real estate and consumer durable goods.
Here are the basic numbers, rounded, in trillions:
total assets:
2007 $78.5 trillion
2010 $70.7
Liabilities:
2007: $14.4
2010: $13.9
Net worth:
2007: $64.2
2010: $56.8
Financial assets:
2007: $50.5
2010: $47.6
Tangible assets:
2007: $28.0
2010: $23.1
Most of the decline in assets results from the popping of the real estate bubble: $6.3 trillion of the $7.3 trillion decline is housing:
Real estate:
2006: $22.7
2010: $16.4
Despite massive write-offs from millions of foreclosures, mortgage debt barely budged:
Mortgages:
2007: $10.5
2010: $10.0
Ditto consumer credit, essentially flat: no deleveraging here:
Consumer credit:
2007: $2.55
2010: $2.43
This is a better reflection of the true devastation left by the bubble: I will explain why below:
Owners equity as percentage of real estate:
2006: 56.5%
2010: 38.5%
Despite the 100% rally off the March 2009 low, stocks and mutual fund assets are still down by a trillion dollars:
Corporate equities and mutual fund shares:
2007: $14.2
2010: $13.2
Households pulled money out of stocks and put it into Treasury bonds. Yeah, the public really bought the stock rally....
Treasury securities:
2007: $255 billion
2010: $1.0 trillion
Cash clicked up a bit:
Savings and money market funds:
2007: $7.2
2010: $7.5
On the surface, this rise in income looks good, too bad the increase is mostly Federal transfers of borrowed money:
Disposable personal income (SAAR):
2007: $10.4
2010: $11.5
If we look beneath the surface at the distribution of wealth, the picture isn't so benign. Over the years I have often posted the basic facts of wealth distribution and housing in the U.S., for example Will Delinquencies Trigger a New American Revolution? (April 7, 2008).
The numbers have changed from 2008, of course, but the basic outlines and percentages have not.
Beneath the surface, most of the income and wealth is held by the top 10% of households. Over a quarter of households are at or below the poverty line; they have no appreciable assets and depend heavily on government transfers.
Almost half of the total income (47%) goes to the top 10%, and 21% flows to the top 1%.
Over 18% of personal income is transfers from the Federal government, most of which is borrowed, of course: Reliance on Uncle Sam hits a record :
A record 18.3% of the nation's total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs in 2010. Wages accounted for the lowest share of income — 51.0% — since the government began keeping track in 1929.
From 1980 to 2000, government aid was roughly constant at 12.5%
If we extrapolate the additional 6% increase in transfers, that comes to $700 billion. So roughly 70% of the increase in personal income was simply money borrowed by the Federal government (recall the $1.6 trillion annual Federal deficit) and distributed to the citizenry. In other words, people aren't making more money--the Central State is simply borrowing more and it's being counted as "income" when it's distributed.
There are about 105 million households in the U.S. and about 72 million owner-occupied dwellings. Roughly 25 million are owned free and clear, and 48 million have a mortgage.
Let's look at homeowner's equity, which stands at 38.5%. Equity is what's left if you sell your house and pay off the mortgage.
About 27% of all homeowners (13 million) are underwater, i.e. their house is worth less than their mortgage. This is called negative equity, but in practicality it means zero equity.
Since a third of all homes are owned free and clear, then their equity is 100%. Assuming a broadly even distribution of these homes owned without mortgages (most likely, the majority are owned by elderly people who paid off their mortgages), then we can conclude that 33% of total owner's equity resides in these homes owned free and clear.
That leaves 5.5% of total equity spread among the 35 million mortgaged homes which are not underwater.
Calculated another way: household real estate is worth $16.4 trillion, and there is $10 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt, so total equity is $6.4 trillion. One-third of homes are owned free and clear, so one-third of $16.4 trillion is $5.4 trillion. $6.4 trillion - $5.4 trillion = $1 trillion in equity spread over 35 million homes.
That's not much--roughly 1.8% of all household net worth.
The family house was the traditional foundation of household wealth. As for all those trillions in financial wealth--as we all know, 83% is owned by the top 10%.
So here's the reality: over one-fourth of all households are at or below the poverty line: 28 million.
The top 10%--10.5 million households--own the vast majority of the financial assets ($45 trillion)(the total owned by non-profits is not broken out).
The next 10% own 10% of this wealth, or about $4 trillion. So the top 21 million households own 93% of all financial wealth.
The Great Middle Class between those in poverty and the top 20%--56 million households-- owns about $2.7 trillion in financial wealth, and the millions with mortgages own an additional $1 trillion in home equity. That comes to $3.7 trillion, or about 6.5% of the total household net worth.
Consumer durables--all the autos, washing machines, jet-skis, etc.--are worth about $2.2 trillion ($4.6 T = $2.4 T in consumer debt). Add the durables and the other wealth, and the Great Mortgaged Middle Class holds about 10% of the total household wealth ($5.9 trillion).
Before the housing bubble, households owed about $5 trillion in mortgages. The housing bubble came along, introducing the fantasy of home-as-ATM-cash-withdrawal-machine, and mortgages ballooned to over $10 trillion.
Back at the top of the bubble, the middle class had $6 trillion more assets on the books. Considering the Mortgaged Middle Class now owns about $6 trillion in net assets, then the bursting of the housing bubble caused their net worth to drop by 50%.
I'm not making any political statement here--these are the numbers.
http://www.oftwominds.com/....
Just the facts, Jack.
What to do something about it? Support this bill, and do as many diaries as you can to support the Democrats who are behind this:
H.R. 1489:
Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011
112th Congress
2011-2012
See H.R. 1489 on THOMAS for the official source of information on this bill or resolution.
To repeal certain provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and revive the separation between commercial banking and the securities business, in the manner provided in the Banking Act of 1933, the so-called "Glass-Steagall Act", and for other purposes.
Sponsor:
Rep. Marcy Kaptur [D-OH9]show cosponsors (13)
http://www.govtrack.us/...
Thanks as always.
Ms. B.