Economics
photo: Richard Harris
Here's a list of economic facts that is pretty compelling:
"...Once upon a time, the Chinese economy was a joke and the U.S. economy was the most powerful the world had ever seen. But over the past couple of decades the U.S. economy has decayed and declined while the Chinese economy has skyrocketed. Today, China makes more steel, more automobiles, more beer, more cotton, more coal and more solar panels than we do. China has the fastest train in the world, the fastest computer in the world and they export twice as much high-tech equipment as we do. In 2011, our trade deficit with China was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world, and China has now accumulated more than 3 trillion dollars in foreign currency reserves. Every single day, we lose more jobs, more businesses and more of our national wealth to China. In technical economic terms, China has "taken us out behind the woodshed" and has beaten the living daylights out of us. Unfortunately, most Americans are so addicted to entertainment that they don't even realize what is happening.
If you do not believe that China is wiping the floor with America in front of the rest of the world, just keep reading. The following are 47 signs that China is absolutely destroying America on the global economic stage....
#1 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Today, China's high-tech exports are more than twice the size of U.S. high-tech exports.
#2 America has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.
#3 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.
#4 In 2010, China produced more than twice as many automobiles as the United States did.
#5 In 2010, China produced 627 million metric tons of steel. The United States only produced 80 million metric tons of steel.
#6 In 2010, China produced 7.3 million metric tons of cotton. The United States only produced 3.4 million metric tons of cotton.
#7 China produced 19.8 percent of all the goods consumed in the world during 2010. The United States only produced 19.4 percent.
#8 During 2010, we spent $365 billion on goods and services from China while they only spent $92 billion on goods and services from us.
#9 In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. The final U.S. trade deficit with China for 2011 will be very close to 300 billion dollars. That will be the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.
#10 The U.S. trade deficit with China is now 28 times larger than it was back in 1990.
#11 Since China entered the WTO in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has grown by an average of 18% per year.
#12 According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China.
#13 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.
#14 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
#15 The United States had been the leading consumer of energy on the globe for about 100 years, but during the summer of 2010 China took over the number one spot.
#16 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles. But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.
#17 China is also expected to soon become the global leader in patent filings.
#18 In 2009, the United States ranked dead last of the 40 nations examined by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation when it came to "change" in "global innovation-based competitiveness" over the previous ten years.
#19 China now awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.
#20 China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire planet.
#21 China now has the world's fastest train and the world's most extensive high-speed rail network.
#22 The construction of the new $200 million African Union headquarters was funded by China.
#23 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.
#24 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.
#25 Amazingly, China now consumes 53 percent of the world's cement.
#26 There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.
#27 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.
#28 Chinese solar panel production was about 50 times larger in 2010 than it was in 2005.
#29 Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.
#30 China controls over 90 percent of the total global supply of rare earth elements.
#31 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.
#32 According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China's number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, during 2010 the number one U.S. export to China was "scrap and trash".
#33 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
#34 Back in the year 2000, more than 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs. Today, only about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs.
#35 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.
#36 The average household debt load in the United States is 136% of average household income. In China, the average household debt load is 17% of average household income.
#37 The new World Trade Center tower is going to be made with imported glass from China.
#38 The new MLK memorial on the National Mall was made in China.
#39 A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted a while back found that 61 percent of all Americans consider China to be a threat to our jobs and economic security.
#40 According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day closed down in the United States during 2010.
#41 Overall, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have shut down since 2001.
#42 According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent out of the country over the next two decades.
#43 Over the past several decades, China has been able to accumulate approximately 3 trillion dollars in foreign currency reserves, and the U.S. government now owes China close to 1.5 trillion dollars.
#44 According to the IMF, China will pass the United States and will become the largest economy in the world in 2016.
#45 According to one prominent economist, the Chinese economy already has roughly the same amount of purchasing power as the U.S. economy does.
#46 According to Stanford University economics professor Ed Lazear, if the U.S. economy and the Chinese economy continue to grow at current rates, the average Chinese citizen will be wealthier than the average American citizen in just 30 years.
#47 Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue."
The tone of the article is shrill but click here for the rest and the links behind each fact.
Here's a list of economic facts that is pretty compelling:
"...Once upon a time, the Chinese economy was a joke and the U.S. economy was the most powerful the world had ever seen. But over the past couple of decades the U.S. economy has decayed and declined while the Chinese economy has skyrocketed. Today, China makes more steel, more automobiles, more beer, more cotton, more coal and more solar panels than we do. China has the fastest train in the world, the fastest computer in the world and they export twice as much high-tech equipment as we do. In 2011, our trade deficit with China was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world, and China has now accumulated more than 3 trillion dollars in foreign currency reserves. Every single day, we lose more jobs, more businesses and more of our national wealth to China. In technical economic terms, China has "taken us out behind the woodshed" and has beaten the living daylights out of us. Unfortunately, most Americans are so addicted to entertainment that they don't even realize what is happening.
If you do not believe that China is wiping the floor with America in front of the rest of the world, just keep reading. The following are 47 signs that China is absolutely destroying America on the global economic stage....
#1 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Today, China's high-tech exports are more than twice the size of U.S. high-tech exports.
#2 America has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.
#3 The Chinese economy has grown 7 times faster than the U.S. economy has over the past decade.
#4 In 2010, China produced more than twice as many automobiles as the United States did.
#5 In 2010, China produced 627 million metric tons of steel. The United States only produced 80 million metric tons of steel.
#6 In 2010, China produced 7.3 million metric tons of cotton. The United States only produced 3.4 million metric tons of cotton.
#7 China produced 19.8 percent of all the goods consumed in the world during 2010. The United States only produced 19.4 percent.
#8 During 2010, we spent $365 billion on goods and services from China while they only spent $92 billion on goods and services from us.
#9 In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. The final U.S. trade deficit with China for 2011 will be very close to 300 billion dollars. That will be the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.
#10 The U.S. trade deficit with China is now 28 times larger than it was back in 1990.
#11 Since China entered the WTO in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has grown by an average of 18% per year.
#12 According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China.
#13 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.
#14 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
#15 The United States had been the leading consumer of energy on the globe for about 100 years, but during the summer of 2010 China took over the number one spot.
#16 15 years ago, China was 14th in the world in published scientific research articles. But now, China is expected to pass the United States and become number one very shortly.
#17 China is also expected to soon become the global leader in patent filings.
#18 In 2009, the United States ranked dead last of the 40 nations examined by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation when it came to "change" in "global innovation-based competitiveness" over the previous ten years.
#19 China now awards more doctoral degrees in engineering each year than the United States does.
#20 China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire planet.
#21 China now has the world's fastest train and the world's most extensive high-speed rail network.
#22 The construction of the new $200 million African Union headquarters was funded by China.
#23 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.
#24 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.
#25 Amazingly, China now consumes 53 percent of the world's cement.
#26 There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.
#27 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.
#28 Chinese solar panel production was about 50 times larger in 2010 than it was in 2005.
#29 Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.
#30 China controls over 90 percent of the total global supply of rare earth elements.
#31 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.
#32 According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China's number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, during 2010 the number one U.S. export to China was "scrap and trash".
#33 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
#34 Back in the year 2000, more than 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs. Today, only about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs.
#35 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.
#36 The average household debt load in the United States is 136% of average household income. In China, the average household debt load is 17% of average household income.
#37 The new World Trade Center tower is going to be made with imported glass from China.
#38 The new MLK memorial on the National Mall was made in China.
#39 A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted a while back found that 61 percent of all Americans consider China to be a threat to our jobs and economic security.
#40 According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day closed down in the United States during 2010.
#41 Overall, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have shut down since 2001.
#42 According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent out of the country over the next two decades.
#43 Over the past several decades, China has been able to accumulate approximately 3 trillion dollars in foreign currency reserves, and the U.S. government now owes China close to 1.5 trillion dollars.
#44 According to the IMF, China will pass the United States and will become the largest economy in the world in 2016.
#45 According to one prominent economist, the Chinese economy already has roughly the same amount of purchasing power as the U.S. economy does.
#46 According to Stanford University economics professor Ed Lazear, if the U.S. economy and the Chinese economy continue to grow at current rates, the average Chinese citizen will be wealthier than the average American citizen in just 30 years.
#47 Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue."
The tone of the article is shrill but click here for the rest and the links behind each fact.
photo: Richard Harris
Bernie Sanders:
"A $2.5 trillion deficit-reduction deal brokered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and President Barack Obama is grotesquely unfair. It also is bad economic policy. In the midst of a terrible recession, it will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
At a time when the wealthiest people in this country are doing extremely well, and when their effective tax rate is the lowest in decades, the rich won't contribute one penny more for deficit reduction. When corporate profits are soaring and many giant corporations avoid federal income taxes because of obscene loopholes in the tax code, corporate America will not be asked to contribute one penny more for deficit reduction. On the other hand, working families, children, the sick and the elderly -- many of whom are already suffering because of the recession -- will shoulder the entire burden..."
Click here for the rest - well worth it.
Bernie Sanders:
"A $2.5 trillion deficit-reduction deal brokered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and President Barack Obama is grotesquely unfair. It also is bad economic policy. In the midst of a terrible recession, it will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
At a time when the wealthiest people in this country are doing extremely well, and when their effective tax rate is the lowest in decades, the rich won't contribute one penny more for deficit reduction. When corporate profits are soaring and many giant corporations avoid federal income taxes because of obscene loopholes in the tax code, corporate America will not be asked to contribute one penny more for deficit reduction. On the other hand, working families, children, the sick and the elderly -- many of whom are already suffering because of the recession -- will shoulder the entire burden..."
Click here for the rest - well worth it.
August 05 2011 | Politics - Economics | 0 comments
The Chameleon's Dish: I Eat The Air, Promise-Crammed; You Cannot Feed Capons So
The Chameleon's Dish: I Eat The Air, Promise-Crammed; You Cannot Feed Capons So
photo: Richard Harris
No, I'm not beating a dead horse, at least I hope not, or then it's really curtains.
Paul Krugman's latest:
"In case you had any doubts, Thursday’s more than 500-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average and the drop in interest rates to near-record lows confirmed it: The economy isn’t recovering, and Washington has been worrying about the wrong things.
It’s not just that the threat of a double-dip recession has become very real. It’s now impossible to deny the obvious, which is that we are not now and have never been on the road to recovery.
For two years, officials at the Federal Reserve, international organizations and, sad to say, within the Obama administration have insisted that the economy was on the mend. Every setback was attributed to temporary factors — It’s the Greeks! It’s the tsunami! — that would soon fade away. And the focus of policy turned from jobs and growth to the supposedly urgent issue of deficit reduction.
But the economy wasn’t on the mend.
Yes, officially the recession ended two years ago, and the economy did indeed pull out of a terrifying tailspin. But at no point has growth looked remotely adequate given the depth of the initial plunge. In particular, when employment falls as much as it did from 2007 to 2009, you need a lot of job growth to make up the lost ground. And that just hasn’t happened.
Consider one crucial measure, the ratio of employment to population. In June 2007, around 63 percent of adults were employed. In June 2009, the official end of the recession, that number was down to 59.4. As of June 2011, two years into the alleged recovery, the number was: 58.2.
These may sound like dry statistics, but they reflect a truly terrible reality. Not only are vast numbers of Americans unemployed or underemployed, for the first time since the Great Depression many American workers are facing the prospect of very-long-term — maybe permanent — unemployment. Among other things, the rise in long-term unemployment will reduce future government revenues, so we’re not even acting sensibly in purely fiscal terms. But, more important, it’s a human catastrophe.
And why should we be surprised at this catastrophe? Where was growth supposed to come from? Consumers, still burdened by the debt that they ran up during the housing bubble, aren’t ready to spend. Businesses see no reason to expand given the lack of consumer demand. And thanks to that deficit obsession, government, which could and should be supporting the economy in its time of need, has been pulling back.
Now it looks as if it’s all about to get even worse. So what’s the response?
To turn this disaster around, a lot of people are going to have to admit, to themselves at least, that they’ve been wrong and need to change their priorities, right away.
Of course, some players won’t change. Republicans won’t stop screaming about the deficit because they weren’t sincere in the first place: Their deficit hawkery was a club with which to beat their political opponents, nothing more — as became obvious whenever any rise in taxes on the rich was suggested. And they’re not going to give up that club.
But the policy disaster of the past two years wasn’t just the result of G.O.P. obstructionism, which wouldn’t have been so effective if the policy elite — including at least some senior figures in the Obama administration — hadn’t agreed that deficit reduction, not job creation, should be our main priority. Nor should we let Ben Bernanke and his colleagues off the hook: The Fed has by no means done all it could, partly because it was more concerned with hypothetical inflation than with real unemployment, partly because it let itself be intimidated by the Ron Paul types.
Well, it’s time for all that to stop. Those plunging interest rates and stock prices say that the markets aren’t worried about either U.S. solvency or inflation. They’re worried about U.S. lack of growth. And they’re right, even if on Wednesday the White House press secretary chose, inexplicably, to declare that there’s no threat of a double-dip recession.
Earlier this week, the word was that the Obama administration would “pivot” to jobs now that the debt ceiling has been raised. But what that pivot would mean, as far as I can tell, was proposing some minor measures that would be more symbolic than substantive. And, at this point, that kind of proposal would just make President Obama look ridiculous.
The point is that it’s now time — long past time — to get serious about the real crisis the economy faces. The Fed needs to stop making excuses, while the president needs to come up with real job-creation proposals. And if Republicans block those proposals, he needs to make a Harry Truman-style campaign against the do-nothing G.O.P.
This might or might not work. But we already know what isn’t working: the economic policy of the past two years — and the millions of Americans who should have jobs, but don’t."
No, I'm not beating a dead horse, at least I hope not, or then it's really curtains.
Paul Krugman's latest:
"In case you had any doubts, Thursday’s more than 500-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average and the drop in interest rates to near-record lows confirmed it: The economy isn’t recovering, and Washington has been worrying about the wrong things.
It’s not just that the threat of a double-dip recession has become very real. It’s now impossible to deny the obvious, which is that we are not now and have never been on the road to recovery.
For two years, officials at the Federal Reserve, international organizations and, sad to say, within the Obama administration have insisted that the economy was on the mend. Every setback was attributed to temporary factors — It’s the Greeks! It’s the tsunami! — that would soon fade away. And the focus of policy turned from jobs and growth to the supposedly urgent issue of deficit reduction.
But the economy wasn’t on the mend.
Yes, officially the recession ended two years ago, and the economy did indeed pull out of a terrifying tailspin. But at no point has growth looked remotely adequate given the depth of the initial plunge. In particular, when employment falls as much as it did from 2007 to 2009, you need a lot of job growth to make up the lost ground. And that just hasn’t happened.
Consider one crucial measure, the ratio of employment to population. In June 2007, around 63 percent of adults were employed. In June 2009, the official end of the recession, that number was down to 59.4. As of June 2011, two years into the alleged recovery, the number was: 58.2.
These may sound like dry statistics, but they reflect a truly terrible reality. Not only are vast numbers of Americans unemployed or underemployed, for the first time since the Great Depression many American workers are facing the prospect of very-long-term — maybe permanent — unemployment. Among other things, the rise in long-term unemployment will reduce future government revenues, so we’re not even acting sensibly in purely fiscal terms. But, more important, it’s a human catastrophe.
And why should we be surprised at this catastrophe? Where was growth supposed to come from? Consumers, still burdened by the debt that they ran up during the housing bubble, aren’t ready to spend. Businesses see no reason to expand given the lack of consumer demand. And thanks to that deficit obsession, government, which could and should be supporting the economy in its time of need, has been pulling back.
Now it looks as if it’s all about to get even worse. So what’s the response?
To turn this disaster around, a lot of people are going to have to admit, to themselves at least, that they’ve been wrong and need to change their priorities, right away.
Of course, some players won’t change. Republicans won’t stop screaming about the deficit because they weren’t sincere in the first place: Their deficit hawkery was a club with which to beat their political opponents, nothing more — as became obvious whenever any rise in taxes on the rich was suggested. And they’re not going to give up that club.
But the policy disaster of the past two years wasn’t just the result of G.O.P. obstructionism, which wouldn’t have been so effective if the policy elite — including at least some senior figures in the Obama administration — hadn’t agreed that deficit reduction, not job creation, should be our main priority. Nor should we let Ben Bernanke and his colleagues off the hook: The Fed has by no means done all it could, partly because it was more concerned with hypothetical inflation than with real unemployment, partly because it let itself be intimidated by the Ron Paul types.
Well, it’s time for all that to stop. Those plunging interest rates and stock prices say that the markets aren’t worried about either U.S. solvency or inflation. They’re worried about U.S. lack of growth. And they’re right, even if on Wednesday the White House press secretary chose, inexplicably, to declare that there’s no threat of a double-dip recession.
Earlier this week, the word was that the Obama administration would “pivot” to jobs now that the debt ceiling has been raised. But what that pivot would mean, as far as I can tell, was proposing some minor measures that would be more symbolic than substantive. And, at this point, that kind of proposal would just make President Obama look ridiculous.
The point is that it’s now time — long past time — to get serious about the real crisis the economy faces. The Fed needs to stop making excuses, while the president needs to come up with real job-creation proposals. And if Republicans block those proposals, he needs to make a Harry Truman-style campaign against the do-nothing G.O.P.
This might or might not work. But we already know what isn’t working: the economic policy of the past two years — and the millions of Americans who should have jobs, but don’t."
photo: Richard Harris
The BCG just came out with their Global Wealth 2010 Report and part of that report includes a listing of countries by percentage of the population that are millionaires. Of the top ten countries, seven are in Asia, two are in Europe and one is in North America. The US comes in at #7 and Belgium (big surprise to me) comes in at #8. The report also points out that millionaires represent less than 1% of the world's population but control 38% of the world's wealth and that this concentration of wealth is ever increasing.
The BCG just came out with their Global Wealth 2010 Report and part of that report includes a listing of countries by percentage of the population that are millionaires. Of the top ten countries, seven are in Asia, two are in Europe and one is in North America. The US comes in at #7 and Belgium (big surprise to me) comes in at #8. The report also points out that millionaires represent less than 1% of the world's population but control 38% of the world's wealth and that this concentration of wealth is ever increasing.
"Since the recession began in late 2007, we've lost 8.4 million jobs. Over 2 million of those were manufacturing jobs, the kind of jobs that have traditionally delivered American families into the middle class -- and kept them there. We lost 1.2 million manufacturing jobs in 2009 alone. And while job numbers go up and down, the loss of these blue-collar jobs has been going on for decades.
In 1950, manufacturing accounted for more than 30 percent of non-farm employment. As of last year, it's down to 10 percent. Indeed, one-third of all our manufacturing jobs have disappeared since 2000. This devastating downward trend has contributed greatly to the erosion of the middle class.
There have been a number of recessions over the last few decades. And our economy rebounded after each one. But each time it has bounced back in a way that made it harder for those in the middle class to stay there -- and even harder for those aspiring to become middle class to get there.
Yet the loss of middle class jobs is rarely talked about in Washington. Neither is the way that the useful section of our economy is being replaced by the useless section of our economy. But the numbers don't lie: the share of our economy devoted to making things of value is shrinking, while the share devoted to valuing made up things (credit swap derivatives, anyone?) is expanding. It's the financialization of our economy, and its symptoms were described by Andrew Ross Sorkin on Charlie Rose last week:
'When you think about what a synthetic CDO is -- [as with] so many of these instruments on Wall Street, it's really just a casino, there is no underlying assets, they don't actually own these mortgages, people aren't getting mortgages because of this... What is the social utility of that?'
According to Thomas Philippon, professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, in 1947, the financial industry made up 2.5 percent of America's GDP. By 1970, it had grown to 4 percent. By 2006, just before the meltdown, it was 8.3 percent.
The trend is even starker when you look at the financial sector's share of U.S. business profits. As Simon Johnson recounted last year in The Atlantic, between 1973 and 1985, the financial industry's share of domestic corporate profits topped out at 16 percent. In the 1990s it spanned between 21 percent and 30 percent. Just before the financial crisis hit, it stood at 41 percent.
That's right -- over 40 percent of the profits of the entire U.S. corporate sector went to the financial industry."
Read the rest of the article here.
As we watch the seemingly mindless mayhem in the Senate between Democrats pushing a toothless financial reform and Republicans filibustering that same toothless reform, it is not hard to understand why the general American public is feeling abandoned by its "leaders."
In this final sprint in the Great American Capitalism Race it is clear that the concept of social solidarity, at best a weak concept in the US, is just about extinct. As they used to say in certain radio ads in the NY area in the Sixties "Money talks and nobody walks!!!" Never understood the words, but the attitude was clear.
In 1950, manufacturing accounted for more than 30 percent of non-farm employment. As of last year, it's down to 10 percent. Indeed, one-third of all our manufacturing jobs have disappeared since 2000. This devastating downward trend has contributed greatly to the erosion of the middle class.
There have been a number of recessions over the last few decades. And our economy rebounded after each one. But each time it has bounced back in a way that made it harder for those in the middle class to stay there -- and even harder for those aspiring to become middle class to get there.
Yet the loss of middle class jobs is rarely talked about in Washington. Neither is the way that the useful section of our economy is being replaced by the useless section of our economy. But the numbers don't lie: the share of our economy devoted to making things of value is shrinking, while the share devoted to valuing made up things (credit swap derivatives, anyone?) is expanding. It's the financialization of our economy, and its symptoms were described by Andrew Ross Sorkin on Charlie Rose last week:
'When you think about what a synthetic CDO is -- [as with] so many of these instruments on Wall Street, it's really just a casino, there is no underlying assets, they don't actually own these mortgages, people aren't getting mortgages because of this... What is the social utility of that?'
According to Thomas Philippon, professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, in 1947, the financial industry made up 2.5 percent of America's GDP. By 1970, it had grown to 4 percent. By 2006, just before the meltdown, it was 8.3 percent.
The trend is even starker when you look at the financial sector's share of U.S. business profits. As Simon Johnson recounted last year in The Atlantic, between 1973 and 1985, the financial industry's share of domestic corporate profits topped out at 16 percent. In the 1990s it spanned between 21 percent and 30 percent. Just before the financial crisis hit, it stood at 41 percent.
That's right -- over 40 percent of the profits of the entire U.S. corporate sector went to the financial industry."
Read the rest of the article here.
As we watch the seemingly mindless mayhem in the Senate between Democrats pushing a toothless financial reform and Republicans filibustering that same toothless reform, it is not hard to understand why the general American public is feeling abandoned by its "leaders."
In this final sprint in the Great American Capitalism Race it is clear that the concept of social solidarity, at best a weak concept in the US, is just about extinct. As they used to say in certain radio ads in the NY area in the Sixties "Money talks and nobody walks!!!" Never understood the words, but the attitude was clear.