Still Here (After All These Years)

Next week we celebrate the eighth anniversary of this web log.  While eight years of publishing is not such a very long time, in Internet history it is an eon.

What has changed the most is America.  While statistics were already trending in 2006, we have seen so much during the later years of the naughts, and the early years of the teens, that it is rather overwhelming at times.

We stand today in an America hollowed out.  Its industrial might has been hollowed out.  Its Bill of Rights has, in many ways, been hollowed out.  The framework of faith in the American dollar has been hollowed out.

What is left is a confused and muddled picture.  American federal leadership suffers divisions to the point of being nearly dysfunctional.  This is an extremely dangerous situation, full of potential pitfalls.  The poor have been suffering for a long time.  And now the middle class is under duress.  The wealth class, especially the top 1/10th of 1 percent, however, are doing better than they have in ages.

It is this imbalance which is so destabilizing and dangerous.  Even some of the wealthy, such as Warren Buffet are aware of this.  They know if there becomes too much of an imbalance between the haves and the have-nots, rot sets in and the foundations of society cave.

We cannot undo our recent past.  What we can do, however, is get as much information as we can and use that information to oppose the oligarchs and plutocrats wherever they may hide.  

The Musical Patriot: Erudite Traitors Seek to Pervert U.S. Constitution

The Musical Patriot: Erudite Traitors Seek to Pervert U.S. Constitution

The Crash of 2016: Can We Avoid It?

Author Thom Hartmann has presented evidence in his new book The Crash of 2016 that there may be a cycle in history which careens between cataclysmic economic events.  By the point of Chapter 3, the workings of the elites, or Economic Royalists, are becoming clear.  Just by seeing more clearly how the powerful protect and extend their reach over time, hope springs up that something can yet be done in this particular cycle.

It is also becoming clear that certain other powerful individuals, some with money, do not want to see the current reckless profiteering continue.  For one thing the Democratic Governors Association is very active in the effort to elect Democrats in states which seemed to go for Republicans in the tea party revolution of 2010.

In coming days I will have more on these efforts at turning back the tide which is now being called Fascist and foisted on America by the oligarchs and plutocrats of our time.  

The Crash of 2016

In his new book published last November*, author Thom Hartmann lays out a certain history of America in which he says about every eighty years there is a major economic crash followed by a major war.  For my purposes now I am not so concerned about the wars, but I am greatly concerned about the economic crashes.

We are, says Hartmann, headed for another major crash.  And this certainly goes along with other experts such as the writers of Aftershock, already referenced here.  The point Hartmann makes about the Great Forgetting following the Great Depression rings true, sadly.  Those who remember the Great Depression now, though not few in number, are an increasingly smaller proportion of the population and many alive now who do remember the Great Depression were too young to understand its true meaning.  Thus a book like Hartmann's is very important.

Yesterday, I obtained my own copy of this landmark new book and have begun reading it in earnest.  I am very happy with the book so far, grateful for its attention to the economic plight of average citizens and grateful for its clear recounting of such things as the difference of opinion between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as found in their exchange of letters.

The main test of the book and of our times will be how well we learn from history and whether we are able to stem the tide of the march to disaster which at this point seems so inevitable.

In coming days I hope to have more hopeful things to say on this subject.

The Crash of 2016.  Twelve Publishing.  2013

Slow Growth Surprises Prognosticators

The U.S. economy barely grew in the first quarter of 2014, frustrating experts who expected a significantly stronger performance, according to today's New York Times. With growth at a near standstill there is wonderment over the Fed's announced intention to continue pulling back on stimulus measures.

Of course, stimulus measures of the kind the Fed engages in carry their own risks -- such as raising fears of inflation as well as exacerbating worries of a destabilized financial system down the road.  The Federal Open Market committee expressed confidence in their decision to pull back on Treasury and market-backed securities.  Fed chairwoman, Janet Yellin, indicated confidence in the direction the Fed is taking in a recent speech.  She declared the Fed is focused on the right things.

Despite all the talk of confidence in the economy, underlying factors such as a weak labor market remain areas of concern.  Federal Reserve members who have a seat at the meeting table should spend a day at an employment office and really listen to actual applicants seeking work in a tough economic environment.