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La Sistema:
The Rich Get Richer
by MIKE WHITNEY
CounterPunch, May 6, 2015
EXCERPT...
More borrowing, more risk taking, more financial instability. And it’s all the Fed’s doing. If rates were neutral, then prices would normalize and CEOs would not be engaged in this reckless game of Russian roulette. Instead, it’s caution to the wind; just keep piling on the debt until the whole market comes crashing down in a heap like it did six years ago. And that’s the trajectory we’re on today, in fact, according to TrimTabs Investment Research, February saw buybacks in the amount of $104 billion, ” the largest monthly figure since these flows were first tracked 20 years ago. ”
So things are getting worse not better. Bottom line: The Fed has led the country to the cliff-edge once again where the slightest uptick in interest rates is going to send the economy into freefall.
But why? Why does the Fed keep steering the country from one financial catastrophe to the next?
That’s a question that economists Atif Mian and Amir Sufi answer persuasively with one small chart. Check it out:
“Here is the distribution of financial asset holdings across the wealth distribution. This is from the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances:
The top 20% of the wealth distribution holds over 85% of the financial assets in the economy. So it is clear that the direct income from capital goes to the wealthiest American households.” (Capital Ownership and Inequality, House of Debt)
CONTINUED...
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/06/the-rich-get-richer/
Even when it fails the nation, "The System" works for those intended.
The Rich Get Richer
by MIKE WHITNEY
CounterPunch, May 6, 2015
EXCERPT...
More borrowing, more risk taking, more financial instability. And it’s all the Fed’s doing. If rates were neutral, then prices would normalize and CEOs would not be engaged in this reckless game of Russian roulette. Instead, it’s caution to the wind; just keep piling on the debt until the whole market comes crashing down in a heap like it did six years ago. And that’s the trajectory we’re on today, in fact, according to TrimTabs Investment Research, February saw buybacks in the amount of $104 billion, ” the largest monthly figure since these flows were first tracked 20 years ago. ”
So things are getting worse not better. Bottom line: The Fed has led the country to the cliff-edge once again where the slightest uptick in interest rates is going to send the economy into freefall.
But why? Why does the Fed keep steering the country from one financial catastrophe to the next?
That’s a question that economists Atif Mian and Amir Sufi answer persuasively with one small chart. Check it out:
“Here is the distribution of financial asset holdings across the wealth distribution. This is from the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances:
The top 20% of the wealth distribution holds over 85% of the financial assets in the economy. So it is clear that the direct income from capital goes to the wealthiest American households.” (Capital Ownership and Inequality, House of Debt)
CONTINUED...
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/06/the-rich-get-richer/
Even when it fails the nation, "The System" works for those intended.
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