Mind you, the reason for this disparity is the horrific decisions made by the Obama administration that have done little to fix anything that has gone wrong with this country. Part of that is because the idiot Congress can't get anything passed like Obama's jobs bill that most economists agree would do something to help the economy, although it's effectiveness is in debate. It is a far cry from the Republican plan which everyone agrees is thoroughly worthless, much like they are. People need to wake up and realize that as bad as democrats are, the Republican party is far far worse. With both sides with no real solutions, things are spiraling out of control. How bad is it?
Someone thinks the economy is about to tank after a massive jump in put options last week. Stocks in companies like Harley Davidson, Verizon, EI DuPont, Herbalife and a dozen others saw their daily put volume increase by as much as 800%. Some have erroneously claimed that this hasn't happened since 9/11 but that is not true. In October last year, somebody or group of somebodies had bet over a billion dollars in put options in various companies for a stock market crash that never occurred. The losses for that miss were staggering. This is not to say that something might not occur in the next few days. perhaps the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, as high put options were also seen right before 9/11, but this kind of gambling is happening more than most people realize and if I am right and secret trillionaires do exist, losing a billion dollars may be like one of us dropping a penny.
We keep hearing about how the recession ended in 2009 but both the government and press keep saying we are just coming out of it. How can something which ended three year ago be still affecting us unless it never really ended? It can't because the government is fixing the data they use to make things look a lot better than they really are. Unemployment is not 8.3% but at least 22.5% according to shadowstats.com and has been at that rate for more than five years, beating the Great Depression whose unemployment rate was only that for three years. The real estate collapse has been worse than the Depression as well with median house prices down 34% in contrast to the 31% of the 1930's.
Foreclosures are at a record high and banks are still sitting on millions of homes so as not to flood the market and completely destabilize it. New home sales are at record lows and most of those being bought are being used as rental properties, not as starter homes. This does not help the economy. Manufacturing is at the lowest levels ever, despite the country having more people in it, due to lax labor laws that allow corporations to move their work force overseas for pennies on the dollar. This is leading to steep decline in wages in this country and a collapse of the middle class. Our 401Ks suck even though the Dow continues to rise, pensions are going bye bye as I have warned people for years that the governments have stolen all of that money and are now telling their constituents "too bad, we needed that money to fund the drug war that is failing miserably but making us very rich in the process."
Since 1980, the rich have taken more and more and given less to the rest of us. The elites went from 9% of total income in the US in 1980 to 23.5% by 2007. CEO pay increased from 40 times the average worker to 350 times while at the same time worker pay decreased dramatically. We are making less money now that if we had a full time job in 1970 without the benefit of 1970 prices. Unions are making more and more concessions as unions are dying, especially thanks to the GOP who would love to see them all disappear so slave wages can really take hold.
Meanwhile taxes on the middle class and poor keep rising in the form of sales tax, especially on sin items like booze or cigarettes, higher payroll taxes, which the rich don't pay, and property taxes which unfairly burden those on fixed budgets like the elderly. As all this occur, the super rich are making billions off of loopholes, legal tax dodges and shell companies to hide their vast wealth from all prying eyes including the worthless IRS. Apparently they are too busy shutting down pot dispensaries for tax issues which goes beyond what the IRS was set up for. Fuckers.
Declining taxes on the "job creators" has been the number reason why our roads aren't getting paved, our school system sucks (which the rich don't use so why should they pay for it mentality) and our government is falling apart. Without unions we are all doomed to revert back to the horrific conditions of the late 19th century and only the Tea Party and the super rich want that.
Paul Ryan is being thrown around as the best candidate for VP. The Ryan plan has been eviscerated by every major economist as a way of taking from the poor to give to the rich in a reverse Robin Hood scam, or as Obama cleverly put it the other day, Romney Hood. I am hoping he will be the nominee as that plan was REALLY unpopular even among die hard Republicans. He may get some support from brain dead Americans but I have a feeling few independents will be flocking towards that sheer cliff the GOP will take us down with Ryan as co-captain. Obama is still way up in most states and Romney's popularity is somewhere between Sarah Palin and the guy who ran over your cat. He has a lot of ground to cover and not having a real plan to fix this mess we are in is not going to win many converts.
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