...nonsense...
The Sinister State of the American Economy
(An explanation even a Kardashian can understand!)
A little over twenty years ago, the Soviet Union dissolved.
The popular mythology holds that nothing occurred to the U.S. economy --- that even though David Rockefeller accompanied President Nixon and Henry Kissinger on their trips to Beijing and Moscow, where Rockefeller established banking operations in those two countries dating back to 1973, there was supposed to be absolutely no economic nor financial connections between American and the old Soviet Union.
Gorbachev was honest about the demise of the Soviet Union, but Wall Street was its usual duplicitous self and dissembled about the collapse of the American banking system around the same time.
With the 1990s came an explosion of credit derivatives, what's been referred to as "shadow banking" and created originally to alleviate the S&L meltdown losses --- even than a specious solution.
We'd have to wait until 1996 for Blythe Masters, at JP Morgan, to concoct that insurance fraud instrument, the credit default swap (another credit derivative), and a few more years until its epidemic spread across the globe.
Remember, the USA invaded Iraq when Saddam stopped selling oil in US dollars --- Petrodollars --- but switched to Euros?
Remember when the sanctions and drones and outright aggression began against Iran by America --- after Iran switched from US dollars to Euros for oil exchange?
To remain the world's reserve currency, countries must use American currency to buy and sell oil --- otherwise it loses its value, especially when enough countries begin to dump US dollars with the resultant collapse of the American economy.
That's the cause behind those American attempts on the life of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and the American government's bellicosity against that country (backed by the corporate propaganda network, frequently referred to as "the media").
(America exporting democracy? Tell that to Honduras, Guatemala, Columbia, Ecuador, Bahrain and the Palestinians!)
Now imagine if a neighbor, or complete stranger, broke down your door and invaded your property because they didn't agree with the way you spent your money?
The super-rich varmints and vermin have been dismantling the American economy over the past thirty-some years, leaching as much value and wealth from it as possible; offshoring the manufacturing base, offshoring the jobs in all sectors, and ignoring the country's infrastructure --- or worse --- selling it off!
You really think a "consumer-only economy" can survive?
I've nothing personally against Robert Reich, he seems like a decent enough fellow, but did you really believe Bill Clinton would have appointed such a complete idiot?
A pseudo-economist who doesn't understand arithmetic or large data sets? The author of the pile of crap, The Work of Nations --- the temporary fantasy being pushed by Wall Street, the Peterson Institute and the super-rich while dismantling everything?
The other day Reich said that 70% of the GDP activity is consumption --- but that doesn't mean anything of and by itself --- the important number is the percentage composition of the consumer demographic which is doing the vast amount of consuming. (Answer: the top 15%, used to be the top 20%, but the super-concentration of wealth has accelerated --- and that ain't a consumer-based economy, that's a plutocracy!)
Are you beginning to get an idea of what's taking place?
Please understand, this is basic economics, not even Econ 101, but the pre-Econ 101 course, and the purpose of economics is to justify why that pirate over there has all the money, while you have little or nothing.
A farce based upon a farce.
