it's the economy, stupid by 1kiki

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

it's the economy, stupid

POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Thursday, December 1, 2016 10:07
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Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:52 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Extracted and lightly edited from: http://www.salon.com/2016/11/10/bernie-sanders-warned-democrats-he-cou
ld-beat-donald-trump-party-sabotaged-him-anyway/

“The global economy is not working for the majority of people in our country and the world,” Sanders warned. “We must create national and global economies that work for all, not just a handful of billionaires.” Sanders’ words fell on deaf ears. Leaked emails from WikiLeaks showed that, in her private speeches to the financial sector, for which she was paid millions of dollars, Hillary Clinton said she “represented” and “had great relations” with Wall Street.

Sanders was able to tap into voter anger and responded to it with left-wing policy solutions. Trump, on the other hand, took advantage of that same outrage and diverted it toward bigotry, xenophobia and jingoism, distracting from the root causes of problems and misdirecting that rage through demagogic scapegoating.

USA Today found that 76 percent of voters who said their financial situation is worse off today than it was four years ago backed Trump, with just 19 percent behind Clinton. The inverse was also true; 72 percent of voters who said their financial situation is better off today supported Clinton, while 22 percent voted for Trump.

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Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:57 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/103564/view-under-bus

The View From Under The Bus
A visualization of the extreme plight of the saver.
by Adam Taggart

Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 11:20 AM

As the dust settles from the recent presidential election, it's becoming clear that a large part of the sentiment behind the vote for Trump reflects a deep dissatisfaction from middle and lower-class working families. The traditional fruits of prosperity have been rising higher and farther out of reach for them, as their ability to make a living wage has been eroding year-over-year, for decades.

They've now reached the point where they no longer trust the empty promises that have been sold them by a steady stream of politicians -- on both side of the aisle -- who have lined their own pockets with lobbyist money while overseeing a tremendous shift of society's wealth to crony corporations and the top 1%. Trump's victory can largely be summed up as a defiant yelp from the masses decrying: "I may not know what the solution is, but I'm damn sure more of the same ain't it!"

Of course, we here at PeakProsperity.com are in full agreement with that righteous anger. Through borrowing way too much, bailing out rather than prosecuting bad actors, printing trillions of "thin air" dollars, a deliberate pursuit of financial repression and other schemes -- the future prosperity of the "everyday American" has been stolen by those in power and those positioned closest to the trough. Mathematically, this orgy of excess needs to be balanced by severe austerity; an austerity the elites refuse to suffer but are forcing onto everybody else. No wonder the masses are pissed.

Few visuals drive this injustice home better than this one of historical bank CD interest rates. Note how they've been in steady collapse since the mid-1980s:

Back in 1984, savers received around 10% on funds parked in a bank CD. Even the shorter duration 6-month CDs yielded over 9%.

Contrast that to today's rates of practically 0%. A 6-month CD yields 0.16% and a 1-year yields 0.27%. If you're willing to lock up your money for 5 years, you'll enjoy a paltry return of just 0.86% annually throughout the next half-decade.

Back in the mid-80s, if you managed to retire with $500,000 in the bank, you could live quite comfortably on the nearly risk-free income from bank CDs. The $50,000 in annual income you'd receive was over twice the median household income then of $21,000.

Let's say you're lucky enough save up a full $1 million in your bank account today. If you put it all into a 5-year CD, you'll receive only $8,600 per year; less than 20% of today's median household income of $53,000.

The punchline: if you're a saver, if you've worked hard to amass financial wealth to retire on, you've gotten screwed.

And not only has your savings income drastically plummeted over the past few decades, but cost of living expenses over that same time period have skyrocketed -- especially for the essentials like food, medical care, education and housing:

For the increasing few who can still manage to put excess dollars away after expenses, the paltry savings rates offered by safer investments like CDs force them to chase yield in order to get a return (any kind of return!) on their money. And, of course, this reach for yield moves savers further out on the risk curve, into the bubblicious asset classes (notably stocks, bonds and real estate) that the Fed's 0% interest rate policies have blown to nosebleed prices.

The likeliest scenario from here, sadly, is a recurrence of the types of losses (or worse) as seen during 2008, when these asset price bubbles can no longer be sustained. And savers will see their capital stored in these assets vaporize.

In short: the people who can very least sustain these losses will be the ones most ravaged by them.

In past articles such as Sorry Losers!, Our Tone Deaf Elites Risk The Ruin Of Us All, and The Fed Is Destroying The World One Saver At A Time, we've provided the details behind the "how" our elected leaders, the special interests that control them, and the central banking cartel have collectively conspired to throw the everyday American under the bus.

And as the above charts show, the view from down here is pretty damn lousy.

How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Thursday, December 1, 2016 10:07 AM

RIVERLOVE

In the late 70's when Carter ruined the economy it led to stagflation(?) and bank cd's were paying 15%. That was some real money for your savings, and it was FDIC insured. No need to risk money on Wall Street then. Now rates are so low you have no choice but to invest in the market, with all the financial and emotional ups and downs that go with it. I want Jimmah back! I needs my Jimmah!

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