The Great Divide

Although all of the examples included in the Economic Policy Institute's graphic feature, "11 Telling Charts from 2011," paint a similarly dispiriting picture of our allegedly recovering economy, there are two that seem to sum up the great divide in today's America: the more-than-lucky few, and the many who are basically sh*t-out-of luck [italics mine]:

Wealth: Uneven distribution

Over the last quarter-century, the vast majority (81.7 percent) of increases to wealth have gone to the wealthiest 5 percent, while those in the middle saw declines in their wealth.

Unemployment: Too few openings

The number of unemployed workers far exceeds job openings across industries. This suggests that the unemployment problem is a result of the recession, and is not due to a mismatch between work skills and employer needs.

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[The Great Divide-$ in politics]

Who Owns Our Politicians? Goldman Sachs

You know the old saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words". Hmmm, is there any correlation here to the contributions (purchases) they are making now? Is Romney their new choice for continued unregulated fleecing of America? Perhaps. As Romney says, he is a business man not a Washington insider. But he sure wants to become one and possibly with the aid of large corporate dollars like we are already seeing, he will become the insider.

Not a pretty picture.

Former President Thomas Jefferson, we have a problem.

http://www.goldmansachs666.com/2011/12/who-owns-our-politicians-goldman-sachs.html

[Policy skew benefits minority]

Dear Jamie Dimon,

What we hate are the people who we view as having found their success as a consequence of the damage their activities have done to our country. What we hate are those who take and give nothing back in the form of innovation, convenience, entertainment or scientific progress. We hate those who’ve exploited political relationships and stupidity to rake in even more of the nation’s wealth while simultaneously driving the potential for success further away from the grasp of everyone else.

America hates unjustified privilege, it hates an unfair playing field and crony capitalism without the threat of bankruptcy, it hates privatized gains and socialized losses, it hates rule changes that benefit the few at the expense of the many and it hates people who have been bailed out and don’t display even the slightest bit of remorse or humbleness in the presence of so much suffering in the aftermath.

Nobody hates your right to make money, Jamie. They hate how you and certain others have made it.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/12/dear-jamie-dimon/

[The Lords and the peasants]

Ann Barnhardt Discusses MF Global with Peter Schiff - "There Is No Rule of Law Anymore"

There are some interesting facts brought out in this discussion. I do not necessarily agree with everything she says, and she is obviously outraged, and Peter Schiff is promoting his agenda. This leads to a rather comical exchange between her and Peter towards the end regarding the proposed boycott of the financial industry.

The way the government, the Exchange, the Court, the CFTC and Wall Street treated the MF Global customers after their money was stolen is an absolute disgrace.

And in this perhaps is a cautionary tale for the rest of us who might not have been affected directly by this particular episode.

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2011/12/ann-barnhardt-discusses-mf-global.html

[With government like this who needs enemies?]

Thursday, December 22, 2011
Michael Olenick: The Administration Likes Foxes in Charge of Henhouses – Proof that OCC Foreclosure Reviews Are a Sham

That is, OCC chief John Walsh signed off on hiring Allon to audit her prior work for fraud.

Let’s repeat that; the OCC — an arm of President Obama’s Treasury
Department — signed off, allowing a company founded and managed by the
woman who created Aurora’s foreclosure practices to audit her own firm’s work, and did so pursuant to a consent order
and under the guise of consumer protection. Allonhill, the firm that
promulgated and enforced foreclosure policies, is based less than a mile
away from the address listed for Murrayhill, the firm auditing for
foreclosure fraud on behalf of borrowers.

Until now there has been a mountain of circumstantial evidence that the Obama administration
has been comfortable with foreclosure fraud. There is the conspicuous
lack of prosecutions, unwarranted and unwelcome intervention in the
50-state Attorney General review, and references that infer robosigning
is a “victimless” crime. But, until this disclosure, there has been no
solid evidence the federal government is actively covering up
bank-perpetrated fraud.

This arrangement clarifies that the Federal Government, at the
highest levels, are comfortable, or even arguably complicit, covering up
foreclosure fraud.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/michael-olenick-the-administration-likes-foxes-in-charge-of-henhouses-%E2%80%93-proof-that-occ-foreclosure-reviews-are-a-sham.html

[Divide a meal and stop complaining]

A Christmas Message From America's Rich

It seems America’s bankers are tired of all the abuse. They’ve decided to speak out.

True, they’re doing it from behind the ropeline, in front of friendly crowds at industry conferences and country clubs, meaning they don’t have to look the rest of America in the eye when they call us all imbeciles and complain that they shouldn’t have to apologize for being so successful.

But while they haven’t yet deigned to talk to protesting America face to face, they are willing to scribble out some complaints on notes and send them downstairs on silver trays. Courtesy of a remarkable story by Max Abelson at Bloomberg, we now get to hear some of those choice comments.

Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, for instance, is not worried about OWS:

“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?”

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/a-christmas-message-from-americas-rich-20111222#ixzz1hHrlYSjJ

[GoneWithTheWind]

The unequal distribution of wealth did not cause our economic problem and redistributing wealth won't fix our problem. Our problem is simple; our government spend more then they take in. Overspending is the cause of our economic woes, pure and simple. What do we overspend on? For the most par the federal government and the state governments overspend in two specific areas. Welfare programs and a fat bureaucracy. Most of the welfare programs are nothing more then thinly disgused efforts to buy votes. They don't cure poverty and in fact create more poverty since they are so attractive people choose to live under welfare then work for themsleves. The huge and growing bureaucracy is mostly tied to the huge and growing welfare system but it overflows into other areas as well. The only solution that can work is to decrease the welfare and limit the size of government. If we don't do this we will probably waste a couple of decades in a no or slow growth depression/recession until we can no longer prop up the failing system. Our choice is to either fix it now and maybe save the middle class or wait until after a total collapse and go through a very long rebuilding process.

[Candy's dandy but funny money is as sweet as honey]

@gonewiththespin..The unequal distribution of wealth did not cause our economic problem and redistributing wealth won't fix our problem. ? Debts that can't be paid won't be paid...
see
If Being Totally, Disastrously Wrong Were a Virtue, Bernanke and His Fed Mates Should Be Sainted
Capitalism's primary characteristic is that capital is put at risk for a gain/loss. If risk is off-loaded onto the Fed's bottomless balance sheet and the taxpayer via government-funded bailouts and guarantees, then capital is not actually at risk. Thus what we have isn't capitalism, but cartel crony-capitalism, a phony version of the real thing which guarantees private banking profits and socializes banking losses.

The Fed was recently revealed as having arranged billions in private gain via secretly backstopping the banks with $7.7 trillion. This highlights Bernanke and his buds' second catastrophically wrong policy, that of systemic opacity.

The acme of open markets is transparency. Without transparency, markets are not free or open, they are manipulated-- both to hide those who are benefitting from the destruction of transparency (monopolies, cartels, fiefdoms, kleptocracies, oligarchies, etc.) and to manipulate the market as part of a permanent propaganda campaign to "manage perceptions:" the market's up, everything's dandy.

Bernanke and his faithful banking-sector lackeys have destroyed transparency at every turn, refusing an audit (an audit smacks of--sniff--democracy--how distasteful), masking the $7.7 trillion in backstopping, and hiding the toxicity of the Fed balance sheet, which is loaded with over $1 trillion in distressed mortgage securities that the Fed lovingly took off the bankrupt balance sheets of its craven masters, the banks.

In other words, the Fed has massively rewarded the reckless and rescued the incompetent from the consequences of their actions. If that isn't the perfection of wrongheadedness, what is?

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec11/Bernanke-wrong12-11.html

[Doable Finance]

The Haves have more haves and say than the Have-Nots. We all know that. The politicians seem to think it's of no use to listen to the have-nots. They have nothing to gain, so why bother. The have-nots seem to be the have-nuts in the political spectrum of the United States.