Greatest Economy?

When you look around at all the homeless, and are told unemployment is at an all time low, do you scratch your head and wonder how those two "facts" are compatible? When you see all the stores closing or hear about all the layoffs at financial firms, and read that the economy is "the greatest ever" do you even give the seemingly opposites another thought?

You should. Both statistics are Jerry-rigged beyond belief, but I'm just going to be talking about the supposedly booming economy. Because it's not. Far from it, in fact.

Remember way back in 2008-09 when we were introduced to something called "Qualitative Easing" or Q.E? For those of us not familiar with finance-speak, it simply meant the Treasury printed a whole bunch of money and shoveled it at the major players, such as the "Too Big To Fail" banks. It was a temporary, one-time measure to save the economy of the United States from crashing into a full depression. And it worked, for a bit. Remember the "temporary" part though, we'll be coming back to that.

That massive infusion of cash help bring back the market from the precipice, but we didn't use the near disaster as a teaching moment. Despite the best efforts of a few in congress and elsewhere, no measures were taken to prevent banks from gambling with your money. The reality ended up being that the major players on Wall Street being even freer to take risky investment opportunities. To the point that the banks are even more over-leveraged than in 2008! "Over-leveraged" simply means that they have nowhere near the liquidity, or cash in the vaults, to cover the bets they have made. Make no mistake, the stock market is every bit as much of a gambling operation as a horse race betting kiosk!

As Obama's 8 year run was coming to a close, the economy was for all outwards appearances, doing pretty well. Jobs were being added, and the Stock Markets were still climbing. But there were signs of cracks. Wages had still been stagnant, even declining. Investors and hedge funds were getting further into risky areas with nobody to rein them in.

Then comes The Donald into the Oval Office with a Republican Congress salivating to start weilding legislative machetes at any and all "Business Killing" regulations. Particularly any that might have been enacted by the Obama administration.

That, all by itself was enough to stimulate our economy as businesses, particularly the finacial industry, saw it as a green light to splash around lots of cash. But Republicans, seeing they had a tool in the executive office who would likely sign anything they put on his desk, passed the biggest gift to the wealthy and the multi-national corporations ever handed to them: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That massive infusion of free money spurred stock buybacks, driving up the stock markets and giving the appearance of a roaring economy.

But that bucket is dry now. There's nowhere left to go, and the overall economy should be slowing like the brakes are locked up. What's going on? We've seen daily dips in the Dow and NASDAQ that in "normal" times past would have scared hell out of everyone, notably the investment crowd.

Remember Quantitative Easing? The "one time" injection of cash into Wall Street and the "too big to fail" banks? So far we're into Round Three of Q.E.! Plus the Federal Reserve bank has been busily repurchasing bonds and stocks to halt downward spirals from continuing.

This is  the greatest economy in the history of our country? If so, why is it in need of these sorts of finagling?

How about that supposed 3.5% unemployment? Doesn't that figure clash with the exploding problem with homelessness? Simple; the fed monkeys with that statistic as well! It's easy to do when the percentage only relates to individuals actively looking for work. It does not include the thousands who have simply given up on looking for a job. Nor does it figure in those that are underemployed; that is, working a full-time job. According to the Department Of Labor, Full-time means averaging 30 hours a week or more. Sorry, but I don't consider someone who can't even afford to keep a roof over their heads to have a full-time job.

Let's not even get into the definition of a living wage. Anyone working for a paycheck should earn enough to have a decent space to live, put food on the table, support their children, and be able to take a little time off for a vacation every year.

From Franklin Delano Roosvelt: No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.