UPDATE: Thomas Piketty: ‘Just Ridiculous’ attack on our research:
PIKETTY Response to the Financial Times Criticisms refer to the series in chapter 10 = Not to the other figures and tables presented in the other chapters.
- FT criticism was NOT constructive.
- FT is wrong that mistakes and errors were made.
- I disagree with FT proposed minor changes to my series
- FT changes are for the most part relatively minor
- FT changes do not affect the long run evolutions and my overall analysis
- FT proposed methodological corrections are quite debatable (to say the least)
- FT simply chooses to ignore the Saez-Zucman 2014 study = Higher rise in top wealth shares in US during recent decades than what I report in my book
- My book underestimates the rise in wealth inequality
- For Britain, the FT seems to put a lot of trust in self-reported wealth survey data that notoriously underestimates wealth inequality.
MORE ACCURACY AND TRANSPARENCY IS BETTER: “I have no doubt that my historical data series can be improved and will be improved in the future (this is why I put everything online).” Data sources on wealth inequality are much less systematic than what we have for income inequality. In fact, one of the main reasons why I am in favor of wealth taxation, international cooperation and automatic exchange of bank information is that this would be a way to develop more financial transparency and more reliable sources of information on wealth dynamics (even if the tax was charged at very low rates, which everybody could agree with).
Data on wealth is very diverse and heterogeneous = historical inheritance declarations and estate tax statistics; scarce property and wealth tax data = Household surveys with self-reported data on wealth (lots of under-reporting at top)
Thomas Piketty = FT claim of Data Errors is “just ridiculous.”
Piketty = Dismissed Financial Times (Chris Giles) articles absurd statement, “many unexplained data entries and errors in the figures underlying some of the book’s key charts.”
Piketty = “There’s no mistake or error.”
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman = Questions the Financial Times article by Giles = “Anyone imagining that the whole notion of rising wealth inequality has been refuted is almost surely going to be disappointed.”
UPDATE:
Click for Article Piketty 2.0 by Robert Kuttner – Improving on Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Great Depression + WW II = Losses to financial capital = Powerful era of equality
Piketty 1.0 justly celebrated BREAKTHROUGH book = makes it clear concentration of income and wealth are again approaching Gilded Age levels = 15 Years building the most comprehensive data set on inequality ever assembled = 3-Powers = Precision in Data + Analysis + Prose = Historic Work of Scientific Analysis and Mathematics applied to Economics.
Piketty PROVES that mature capitalism does not distribute its benefits to all of Society
Piketty = Demonstrating that wealth in a mature capitalist economy concentrates wealth and income in the hands of a FEW!
Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS because income on Capital Income tends to grow faster than GDP (Labor). = Interest + dividends + “rents” = 5+% growth for 2+ centuries. = PASSIVE INCOME
Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS because GDP grows at only 1% to 2% = LABOR INCOME
Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS because CAPITAL INCOME TENDS to GROW 2 to 3 TIMES faster than LABOR INCOME!
Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = RICH get RICHER and WEALTHIER = Concentrated in hands of a FEW
Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = Very wealthy are able to realize higher returns than the merely moderately wealthy = Access to well-paid advisers + Insider knowledge (Trading) + Hedge-fund investing + Flash trading + Scams not available to the ordinary small investor.
Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = Inequality of wealth Reinforces MORE WEALTH and GREATER INCOMES in FEWER AND FEWER HANDS
Piketty Proves = Wealth concentrates in FEW HANDS = Demolishing conservative economic MYTHS = LIES OF TRICKLE DOWN + LIES OF SUPPLY SIDE + LIES OF JOB CREATORS + LIES THAT THE VALUE OF CAPITAL INCOME EXCEEDS VALUE OF WORK INCOME. = convenient Conservative myths
Piketty Proves = FALSITY that workers and capitalists are paid according to their skills or the marginal value of their product = convenient Conservative myths
Piketty Proves = The labor market is a Social Construct (by the RICH) using specific rules and compromises to MAXIMIZE CAPITALISTS PROFITS.
Piketty Proves = Education does not solve the problem of rising inequality because education is not its main source.
Piketty Proves = Top executives increasingly have power to set their own SALARIES
FACT = In a market system, monopoly profits are supposed to be competed away.
Piketty Proves = Extreme Wealth = Rigged rules + Exploiting public domain innovations = Bill Gates “enjoyed a virtual monopoly in operating systems” and relied on the research of thousands of unsung scientists and engineers.
Piketty 1.0 = Exception to a relentless wealth concentration was 1914 to 1945 = Can the exceptional period of greater equality be replicated with the right policies = like postwar boom? = 2 WWs, Inflation, Depression, rise of Fascism, Bolshevism, New Deal
Piketty 2.0 = Triumph of the democracies when domestic power alignments EQUALITY-ORIENTED policies more possible than usual. FDR + UNIONS
Piketty 1.0 = Reduced Inequality = Loss of a lot of inherited wealth and the weakening of the finance class. = The destruction of wealth.
Piketty 2.0 = Postwar era = Strengthening of labor and of public institutions dedicated to more generally shared prosperity.
Piketty 1.0 = Describes what happened after 1914 is more mechanical spirit of a narrow technical economist. = Concentrated social class and inherited wealth was followed by war and depression which destroyed narrowly help wealth/capital = less Wealth concentration and LESS INEQUALITY. = Jane Austen and Honoré de Balzac Era
Piketty 2.0 = There is much more to the history of capitalism’s era of greater equality Piketty 1.0 ignores. = But Piketty’s research demonstrates that inflation, on average, was almost nonexistent in the century before World War I and that the real returns on capital were stable and predictable, typically about 5%.
FACT: The pre-WW I upper classes were rentiers—the major part of their income came from capital that they had inherited or perhaps added investment interest income, or Rents on physical structures and land, and in rare cases entrepreneurship. = Few fortunes were self-made.
FACT: The gold standard pre-WW I was basis of the world’s major currencies—francs, dollars, pounds, and marks—were freely convertible at predictable rates.
Piketty 1.0 = Refers to Balzac’s novels = Fastest route to affluence and comfort is to win the hand of a rich man’s daughter who is neither pretty nor charming but who is worth a millions. = Could “thus immediately achieve ten times the level of comfort to which he could hope only to aspire years later on a…salary.” = Inherited Wealth over hard work.
FACT: During the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Wealth/Capital = land + stocks + bonds + industrial plants + urban real estate = Maximized wealth and Income concentration in the HANDS OF THE FEW prior to WW I. = Analysis of Original Forbes 400 WEALTHIEST calculated that 341 of the 400 fortunes (85%) were rooted either in inherited wealth, lucky timing, or government contracts.
Piketty calculates = Only 33% of current Forbes fortunes are primarily entrepreneurial.
Piketty 1.0 = When WW I broke out, the stable, reliable world of capital was destroyed. = France’s overseas holdings shrunk. Czarist bonds, a favorite of the rentier class, were soon worthless.
Piketty 1.0 = Massive government borrowing to finance the war triggered inflation, ended the gold standard, and destroyed the secure relationship between capital and income.
Piketty 1.0 = WW II demolished both physical capital and financial capital even more than WW 1 = Reducing Inequality = Compressing the wealth distribution like the wealth had been deliberately confiscated.
Piketty 2.0 = A great deal more occurred to cause the brief and exceptional era of greater equality on both sides of the Atlantic.
Piketty 2.0 = WW I demolished the WEALTH of the Rich in Europe + Then 1920s era was stupid = Deflationary policies + Needlessly high unemployment = Conservatives hapless effort to rebuild the prewar rentier CLASS chased after unpayable war debts + tried to RECREATE PAST CURRENCY VALUES = Result was Deflation + Deepening Austerity + High Unemployment = WW 1 did reduce Wealth of the Rich BUT DID NOT BENEFIT TO MIDDLE CLASSES!
Piketty 2.0 = WW I for US = the world’s dominant industrial and financial power + US wartime policies allowed the RICH to profited handsomely from the war boom + ADDED to extreme WEALTH and INEQUALITY of the Gilded Age grew until 1929 and The Great Crash and the Depression destroy some fortunes.
Piketty 2.0 = WW II + aftermath was more significant era for WEALTH AND INCOME LOSS AND COMPRESSION.
Piketty 2.0 = WW II in Europe was massively destructive of both physical capital and financial wealth.
Piketty 1.0 = Treats the period of 1914-1945 as a single statistical era for purposes of understanding wealth compression in all the major Western nations, the American experience was entirely unlike Europe’s.
Piketty 2.0 = In USA the most interesting years are 1941-1973, not the years bracketed by the two wars as Piketty 1.0.
Piketty 2.0 = In USA 1941-1973 was the most powerful era of equality WW II to Nixon. = WW II was a massive stimulus with full employment + Strong Unions + Investment of public capital. + Repressed private finance in multiple and reinforcing ways = Treasury bonds held at 2.5% maximum + 94% TOP TAX RATE ON HIGH INCOMES + Intensified anti-speculative financial regulation of the New Deal.
Piketty 2.0 = to 1973 lasted until unions were bashed and finance deregulated started with Nixon in 1970s. = The political dynamics changed to Economic Liberalization (DEREGULATION) with Reagan in 1981.
Piketty 2.0 = Reduction of US Inequality from WW II to 1973 was due to the policies pursued.
Piketty 1.0 = The aftermath of WW I led to depression and fascism!
Piketty 2.0 = The aftermath of World War II was followed by a boom of widely shared prosperity. = Reconstruction from 1944-1948 (opposite of 1920 Conservative deflationary policies + austerity) deliberately created domestic full-employment welfare states.
Piketty 1.0 = Said the era of shared growth was simply the shrinkage of inherited wealth of RICH + weakening of financial elites made possible a politics of broad gains for the wage-earning class.
Piketty 1.0 = Europe = 30 glorious years of high growth and full employment while inequality came back strong in late 1940s as capital began recovering its normal place. It was rather high rates of growth, rising real incomes, and the expanding welfare state that made the postwar boom a happy French memory.
Piketty 2.0 = A great nostalgia in the US postwar boom = A period of steadily rising wages and job security—a period of both rapid growth and LOWER INEQUALITY = more equal distribution of Wealth and Income.
Piketty 1.0 = “The significant compression of income inequality over the course of the 20th century was due entirely to the diminished top income from capital.” = 50% of the Story.
Piketty 2.0 = The other 50% is that the temporary weakening of capital, financially and politically, gave progressives and social democrats an opening that they successfully exploited for three decades after the war.
Piketty 2.0 = US postwar era (1947-1973) of increasing equality = “The Great Compression,” as economist Claudia Goldin termed it = Partly the top 30% losing its WEALTH and associated INCOME + The greater equality of labor income of that period.
FACT: Sweden’s social democratic era = NO war needed to destroy wealth at the top as labor gained power at the expense of capital. = Used the political process to entrench and redouble its gains using POLICY CHANGES that REALIGNED WEALTH AND INCOME = HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING IN THE WORLD. = Piketty 2.0
Piketty 2.0 = 1930s US was under-employed and underinvested = Overhang of the losses from 1929 and the dynamics of what the economist Irving Fisher termed “debt-deflation” left purchasing power depressed and business with too little appetite to invest.
Piketty 2.0 = Technical breakthroughs like television and commercial aviation were underexploited because of weak Consumer demand. Unemployment 15% + shortfall in investment.
Piketty 2.0 = After Pearl Harbor = First six months of 1942 = $100 Billion War Department orders and the economy roared back to life. = Public investment capital = VIRTUALLY IGNORED PRIVATE BANK CAPITAL!
FACT = Turned out that you did not need to give private capital exorbitant rewards for the economy to prosper.
Piketty 2.0 = Era of the postwar MIDDLE CLASS boom = RICH CLASS (rentier class) suffered with NEGATIVE Real rate of return on capital + Inflation reduced the value of bonds, and the stock market languished.
Piketty 2.0 = Era of the postwar MIDDLE CLASS boom = As low PUBLIC capital costs CREATED A THRIVING ECONOMY = MOST IMPORTANT FINDING!
Piketty 2.0 = To get a MIDDLE CLASS BOOM THEN USE NEAR ZERO% COST PUBLIC CAPITAL to gain FULL EMPLOYMENT AND A BOOMING REAL ECONOMY = TO HECK WITH THE FAKERY OF MULTINATIONAL WALL STREET SCAMMING = MINIMIZES WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY!
Piketty 1.0 = Projects a society in 2030 as unequal as that of the Gilded Age.
Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in a green transition to save the Planet
Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in NEW PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE
Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in 1 Teacher for Every 15 Students
Piketty 2.0 = PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in the frontier of NEW technical possibility.
FACT = Book The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato suggests that this is not necessarily so. Private capital is myopic when it comes to long-term pursuit of technological breakthroughs.
Piketty 2.0 = PATIENT PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in the fruit of UNIVERSITY RESEARCH = LONG-TERM BENEFITS!
Piketty 2.0 = PATIENT PUBLIC CAPITAL invested in increased productivity growth + Skills Development + FULL Employment + Technology frontiers = on an ongoing basis.
Piketty 1.0 = Supports a more progressive income tax
Piketty 1.0 = Supports a quality higher education system everyone can use
Piketty 1.0 = Issues a call for a “social state for the twenty-first century.”
Piketty 1.0 = Each nation impose a “global tax on capital” to fund PUBLIC SPENDING = NO KOCH OR PETERSON OR RUBIN ALLOWED = Should have done this in 2009! But another opportunity is coming!
Piketty 1.0 = Recommends a new repression of finance = Far tighter regulation of banks and hedge funds to reduce them back to pre-1973 SIZES! = Weaken their political power.
Piketty 1.0 = Questions whether increasing concentration of capital ownership is a mutation of “meritocratic extremism” that reflects the ability of executives to pay themselves ever-higher salaries disconnected from what they contribute to the society and take from the economy.
FACT = CANNOT count Wall Street bonuses or corporate mega-salaries as “labor income.” = Reflect and reinforce the extreme inequality and POWER of our age
Piketty 1.0 = WALL STREET class of super-managers = Socially & politically rentiers = NO Salaried and independent professionals and middle managers.
Piketty 2.0 = Understands the important role of unions and shifting power relations. + More inclusive institutions and better regulation policies did promote [postwar] mobility and growth.”
Piketty 2.0 = Favors green transition, led by public capital.
Piketty 2.0 = We need both institutions and politics like that which once undergirded greater equality.
Piketty 2.0 = Yes two World Wars + A Depression reduced inherited wealth = Good news is OTHER POWERFUL OPTIONS EXIST to create a Vibrant Middle Class.
Piketty 2.0 = The effort of both statesmen and organizers and PUBLIC INVESTMENT can maximize the opportunity that history offered for A GROWING MIDDLE CLASS!
FACT = Right-wing intellectually bankrupt GOP OFFERS NO SOLUTIONS to a DECLINING MIDDLE CLASS AND USA #1 IN WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY!
Piketty 1.0 = ENDS REAGAN VOODOO FOR GOOD and EXPLAINS THE POLICIES CAUSING MASSIVE WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY – ESPECIALLY IN USA!
NOW LETS USE PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND GOOD GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO GROW NEW MIDDLE CLASSES AROUND THE WORLD AND ELIMINATE POVERTY, HUNGER, AND MOST DISEASES.
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UPDATE:
SOLUTIONS = To Really Rein In the Super Rich
Piketty proved inequality is on the rise = Documented with meticulous detailed data
Why Jefferson would like Pope Francis (but not Ted Cruz) Salon.com
Pope Francis = Jeffersonian = “Although not identifying themselves as followers of any religious tradition, [they] are nonetheless searching for truth, goodness and beauty, the truth, goodness and beauty of God. They are our valued allies in the commitment to defending human dignity, in building peaceful coexistence between peoples and in safeguarding and caring for creation.” — Pope Francis
FACT: Era of extreme inequality where a few dynasties amass great fortunes through inheritance and everyone else withers and suffers = Such gross inequality
FACT: Everyone agrees gaping inequality is a massive problem in the world
FACT: Pope tweeted, “Inequality is the root of social evil.” Builds on Piketty Facts
SOLUTION = Get Wall Street out of Washington to Shift the Status Quo
SOLUTION = 1% to 3% TAX ON WEALTH = Mutually agreed global wealth tax collected by each Nation to PREVENT TAX DODGING FRAUD.
SOLUTION = A Strongly progressive income tax like 1945 to 1980
SOLUTION = Trade Speculation and High Frequency Trading TAX
SOLUTION = A MINIMUM TAX ON ALL WEALTH
SOLUTION = TAX INHERITANCE ON ALL ESTATES OVER $5 MILLION
Piketty = Majority of American voters = Tax the wealthy to spread opportunity to the poor and working class.
SOLUTION = CHANGE the Rules of the GAME that currently incentivize unequal distribution = CHANGE THE POWER STRUCTURE
SOLUTION = REMOVE ALL CORPORATE WELFARE (VISIBLE AND HIDDEN)
SOLUTION = REMOVE ALL OF THE 14,OOO LOOPHOLES USED BY THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS TO PAY ALMOST NO TAX.
SOLUTION = “We need a new political system, one that takes money out and puts people in.” — Tolbert = Campaign finance reform and reducing barriers to voting
SOLUTION = BANKING AS AN AUTOMATED PUBLIC UTILITY – BANKERS NEAR ZERO% RATES FOR ALL WHO QUALIFY ONLINE
SOLUTION = PEOPLE REPRESENTED = “We represent every race, every gender, every sexual orientation—in fact, we represent America better than the people who are running it.”
Until Bobby Tolbert and other everyday people like him are included in the discussion and political process, nothing will truly change.
BIG FIX = Congress Rigs the Rules
“The game is rigged and the American people know that. They get it right down to their toes.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren
PACKAGE of CORPORATE TAX LOOPHOLES = “EXTENDERS” every year or two for decade+ = Committee plans to make many of them permanent = WELFARE
$300 BILLION COST TO MIDDLE CLASS TAXPAYERS = “EXTENDERS” / Decade
CONGRESS PLANS TO KEEP THE 14,OOO TAX LOOPHOLES FOR CORPS
$300 billion Giveaway TO RICH & THEIR MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS
CORPS + RICH = WILL DEMAND CUTS TO PEOPLE PROGRAMS + NO INFRASTRUCTURE + NO JOBS PROGRAMS
Loopholes for multinational companies and banks TO SHIP JOBS OUT and report profits abroad to avoid an estimated $80 billion in taxes over a decade. = “active finance exception” + “CFC look-through rule — the General Electric tax dodges.”
GE = Profit of $27+ Billion/ 5 Years
GE = PAY $0 TAXES
GE = Pocketing tax refunds $3+ Billion.
MOM & POP + MIDDLE CLASS = GET SCREWED BY $300 BILLION
GOP = REFUSE UNEMPLOYMENT + FORCE AUSTERITY ON AMERICANS
GOP = LOVES $BILLIONS FOR MULTINATIONALS AND RANCHERS AND BANKS
GOP = LOVES ASIAN SLAVE LABOR
GOP = REFUSES MIN WAGE INCREASE = HURTS CORPORATE WELFARE
GOP = LOVES OFFSHORE TAX DODGES FOR RICH AND MULTINATIONALS
GOP = REFUSES FEEDING POOR CHILDREN OR EDUCATING THEM
GOP = MAKES SURE THE POWERFUL GET THE GOLD
GOP = MAKES SURE WORKERS GET THE SHAFT
AMERICANS HATE THIS BRIBED AND INSENSITIVE CONGRESS = 95+% HATE
AMERICANS = INCENSED AT MULTINATIONAL WELFARE TO SHIP OUT JOBS
AMERICANS = INCENSED AT MULTINATIONALS TAX DODGING OFFSHORE
AMERICANS = INCENSED AT BANKS PAYING LOWER TAXES THAN SMALL BUS
AMERICANS = SURLY ELECTION YEAR MODE FOR CHANGE OF REPS
AFTER a Review of the Piketty Book:
Morning Joe = USA should have a MINIMUM TAX ON ALL INCOME OF 25% TO 28%
GOP Representative = Joe Joe Scarborough = MAKE RICH PAY 25% to 28% MINIMUM of ALL INCOME IN TAXES.
Multinational Billionaires = AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS LIVES SHIPPED OUT FOR BILLIONAIRE LOOTING!
WE ARE #1
WE ARE #1
USA = #1 IN WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY!
Piketty = DEBUNKS Trickle-Down BS = DEBUNKS Rising tide lifts all boats = DEBUNKS SUPPLY SIDE BS = DEBUNKS JOB CREATOR MYTH
GOP + MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES SALES JOB = DESTROYED MIDDLE CLASS
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Thomas Piketty # 1 On Amazon 700-page book = rising inequality and the state of modern capitalism.
Similar message from POPE Francis
USA = #1 in Wealth Inequality in Developed World
USA = #1 in Income Inequality
GOP = PILGRIMAGE to VEGAS = Of, by, and for Multinational $Billionaires
Piketty + POPE + Michael Lewis = WAR ON ELITISTS SCAMMERS AND TAKERS
Piketty = NYT best-seller = Challenges TRICKLE DOWN BS + JOB CREATOR BS
Piketty = DEBUNKS Trickle-Down = DEBUNKS Rising tide lifts all boats = DEBUNKS SUPPLY SIDE BS = DEBUNKS JOB CREATOR MYTH
Piketty = Backed by centuries of data on wealth and economic growth
Piketty = Typical outcome of unfettered capitalism = HIGH WEALTH INEQUALITY
Piketty = EQUALIZED GLOBAL TAX ON WEALTH (CAPITAL) = EACH COUNTRY SAME RATE OF TAX ON WEALTH
Piketty = Income inequality = getting started = CAUSED BY WEALTH INEQUALITY = RETURN OF WEATH OF AN ARISTOCRACY
Piketty = DEBUNKED ENTIRE REAGAN-BUSH GOP REVOLUTION
Piketty = 21st Century = MONARCHAL deeply unequal 18th and 19th centuries
GOP 30+ YEARS of RESTORING A MONARCHY OF THE RICH = 18th CENTURY GOP
Piketty = NYT calls his book a “blockbuster” = “the most important economics book of the year.”
Piketty = Nobel Prize economist Krugman hailed Piketty’s work = Revolutionary
Piketty = MAKES us all care about the rise of the so-called “O.O1 percent.”
FACT: Laissez faire free market conservatism = Thrives only if the poor and middle class are kept ignorant.
GOP = THRIVES ON MIDDLE CLASS VICTIMS = MULTINATIONAL DEMS
FACT = Middle Class and Poor are being EXPLOITED by Wealthy
FACT = Wealthy own the only sources of main stream “information”, the media.
FACT = Wealthy by deliberate design, locked out understanding of how an economy should work to give everybody a fighting chance.
FACT = US education system only works for the entitled elitists.
FACT = US Political system Bought by $Billionaires = ZERO regard for 99.99% of Americans
FACT = Billionaire Owned Media = Sets us up to think the way they wants us to think
FACT = We are fed a world of jingoistic LIES repeated OVER AND OVER AGAIN
FACT = Use words like patriotism and FAKED WMDs to follow the RICH into USELESS WARS DRAINING THE MIDDLE CLASS!
FACT = USA GOV = Owned by a few Billionaires = LAWS FOR THEM NOT 99%
FACT = WEALTH tells us to USE DIRTY FUELS destroying the environment = SCAM
FACT = US has millions of its children go to bed hungry every night
FACT = US MULTINATIONAL WELFARE in $TRILLIONS from Middle Class Pockets
FACT = US gives profitable MULTINATIONALS Middle Class LOOT to EXPORT JOBS
FACT = 12+ MILLION US MIDDLE CLASS JOBS =our futures shipped to 3rd world slave labor nations.
FACT = BILLIONAIRES don’t care if the US middle class implodes
FACT = Billionaires see BILLIONS IN NEW CHINA-INDIA middle class TO EXPLOIT
FACT = AMERICAN Corporations = Part of the BILLIONAIRES MULTINATIONALS = NO LOYAL TO 99.99% OF AMERICANS or AMERICA
FACT = MULTINATIONALS squeeze out MAX LOOT at lowest cost = ANYWHERE
FACT = US POLICIES giving WELFARE to Walmart/BIG BOX = ENDED mom & pop stores
FACT = WEALTHY EXPLOIT LOW MIN WAGES = Sell useless, cheap slave factories PRODUCTS AT MASSIVE GAINS.
FACT = MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES CONSIDER US Middle Class OBSOLETE = SEEK TO END THE MIDDLE CLASS TO EXPLOIT THE NEW POOR
FACT = MULTINATIONALS USE MONOPOLISTIC PRICING TO EXTRACT WEALTH FROM MIDDLE CLASS
FACT = WEALTHY CARE ONLY ABOUT BEING MORE WEALTHY
FACT = FAKED IRAQ = $TRILLIONS PAID BY MIDDLE CLASS TAXPAYERS WHILE PROFITEERS BECAME BILLIONAIRES WITH 177,525% MARKUPS BY BOEING
FACT = MIDDLE CLASS CONTINUES TO PAY FOR $TRILLIONS FED RESERVE GIVES AT NEAR ZERO% TO WALL STREET SCAMMERS AND FRAUDS
FACT = WALL STRRET UNPUNISHED FOR THEIR MASSIVE LIFE DAMAGING CRIMES = POWER AND CONTROL OVER GOV.
FACT = MULTINATIONALS USE WEALTH TO INCREASE WEALTH AND MAXIMIZE PAIN ON MAIN STREET
FACT = MULTINATIONALS Loot the world’s economies + Exacerbated poverty + INCREASE their vandalism + MAXIMIZE INEQUALITY
FACT = Get rich quick greed = The fall of World Economies = GOAL MULTINATIONAL RULERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html?_r=0
MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES’ 30+ YRS GREED = MADE US Middle Class = #2
FACT = MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES WEALTH GROWS LIKE SCROOGE Mc DUCKS
FACT = 30+ YEARS SINCE REAGAN VOODOO = Americans (NYT Analysis) FAR LOWER WAGES over other advanced countries = Canada AHEAD OF USA
FACT = The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.
FACT = MULTINATIONAL MONOPOLIES = CHARGE American families MORE steep prices than elsewhere = Causes rising WEALTH-INCOME inequality.
FACT = 9O_% of all US Economic Growth goes to MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES
FACT = Canadian Median income = NOW Exceeds US median income (2010)
FACT = US struggles of the poor are even starker than those of the middle class.
FACT = 20th percentile US Family income = Significantly less than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands. = 35 year reversal.
FACT = US’s once-strong middle class is shrinking = Median income after taxes
FACT = AMERICAN DREAM KILLED BY MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRE GREED
FACT = US maintains its lead as World’s richest large country = O.O1% BENEYS
FACT = US Income gains flow to a relatively small O.O1% slice of RICH FAMILIES
FACT = 95+% of Americans = Keeping falling farther behind their counterparts around the world.
“The idea that the median American has so much more income than the middle class in all other parts of the world is not true these days. In 1960, we were massively richer than anyone else. In 1980, we were richer. In the 1990s, we were still richer.”
— Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist – No longer US LEAD
FACT = US educational attainment far LOWER than in MOST industrialized world
FACT = Americans 55 and 65 = HIGHER literacy, numeracy and technology skills THAN REST OF WORLD
FACT = Younger Americans FALLING BEHIND literacy, numeracy and technology skills THAN REST OF WORLD = Those 16 and 24 rank near the bottom
FACT = NO TRICKLE DOWN = US MULTINATIONALS distribute a smaller share of their bounty to the middle class and poor than similar companies elsewhere.
FACT = Top US Executives make FAR MORE THAN Executives in other wealthy countries. 100+ TIMES MORE IN SOME CASES.
FACT = US MIN WAGE is lower than other Countries
FACT = US Labor unions are weaker than other Leading Countries
FACT = GOVS in Canada and Western Europe FAR more aggressive steps to raise the take-home pay of low- and middle-income households by redistributing income.
FACT = US RICH PAY LOWEST TAXES IN DEVELOPED WORLD
FACT = US does not redistribute as much income to the poor as other countries do.
FACT = WEALTH + INCOME INEQUALITY has left 70% of Americans dissatisfied.
FACT = POVERTY LEVEL JOBS GROW IN AMERICA = WIDER INEQUALITY
FACT = COUNTRIES in EU have seen continuous MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS
FACT = MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES leave Middle-class families around world wondering = How to pay for college + Loss of Futures for Children + Rapidly lower Quality of Life and Living standards + Paying monthly phone and Internet bills + Unemployment.
FACT = AMERICANS = FAR MORE SOUR MOOD than Canada and Northern Europe. = Scandinavians are MOSTLY VERY HAPPY = 5 weeks of vacation and comprehensive health benefits + 3 years of paid leave for parents + children attend a subsidized child-care center (3% of family income) + HIGH GDP GROWTH + Sharp increases in # of college graduates = Growth of high-skill jobs
FACT = Tax records collected by Thomas Piketty = US no longer highest average income among bottom 90% of earners.
FACT = US POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS HURT BY GREED and WEALTH HOARDING BY RICH since 1980 REAGAN VOODOO = ZERO TRICKLE DOWN
Annual subsidies approved by the GOP:
Agriculture subsidies – $20 billion
Financial industry – $3.7 billion
Gas & Electric – $3.1 billion
Telecommunications – $3 billion
Aerospace – $1.3 billion
Retail trade $1 billion
Food/Beverage/Tobacco – $800 million
Bill Moyers:
“Average American Families Pays $6K a Year in Big Business Subsidies”
http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/24/average-american-family-pays-6k-a-year-in-subsidies-to-big-business/
But heaven forbid a poor person get something from the government.”
NATO NATIONS = AGREE ALL MEMBERS WILL TAX ALL FORMS OF WEALTH AT 2%
MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES’ 30+ YRS GREED = MADE US Middle Class = #2
FACT = MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES WEALTH GROWS LIKE SCROOGE Mc DUCKS = QUEEEEN VICTORIA
GOP EMPIRE OF LIES = ENDS WITH PIKETTY RESEARCH
BYE BYE TRICKLE-DOWN + BYE BYE FAKED WMDs”
TAX THE CROOKS!
MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES’ 30+ YRS GREED = MADE US Middle Class = #2
TAX WEALTH AT 2% PER YEAR ON ALL FORMS OF WEALTH OVER $5 MILLION
FACT = US POLICIES giving WELFARE to Walmart/BIG BOX = ENDED mom & pop stores = WEALTHY EXPLOIT LOW MIN WAGES = Sell useless, cheap slave factories PRODUCTS AT MASSIVE GAINS.
FACT = MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES CONSIDER US Middle Class OBSOLETE = SEEK TO END THE MIDDLE CLASS TO EXPLOIT THE NEW POOR
FACT = MULTINATIONALS USE MONOPOLISTIC PRICING TO EXTRACT WEALTH FROM MIDDLE CLASS
FACT = WEALTHY CARE ONLY ABOUT BEING MORE WEALTHY
FACT = FAKED IRAQ = $TRILLIONS PAID BY MIDDLE CLASS TAXPAYERS WHILE PROFITEERS BECAME BILLIONAIRES WITH 177,525% MARKUPS BY BOEING
FACT = MIDDLE CLASS CONTINUES TO PAY FOR $TRILLIONS FED RESERVE GIVES AT NEAR ZERO% TO WALL STREET SCAMMERS AND FRAUDS
FACT = WALL STRRET UNPUNISHED FOR THEIR MASSIVE LIFE DAMAGING CRIMES = POWER AND CONTROL OVER GOV.
FACT = MULTINATIONALS USE WEALTH TO INCREASE WEALTH AND MAXIMIZE PAIN ON MAIN STREET
FACT = MULTINATIONALS Loot the world’s economies + Exacerbated poverty + INCREASE their vandalism + MAXIMIZE INEQUALITY
FACT = Get rich quick greed = The fall of World Economies = GOAL MULTINATIONAL RULERS
FACT = 12+ MILLION US MIDDLE CLASS JOBS =our futures shipped to 3rd world slave labor nations.
FACT = BILLIONAIRES don’t care if the US middle class implodes
FACT = Billionaires see BILLIONS IN NEW CHINA-INDIA middle class TO EXPLOIT
FACT = AMERICAN Corporations = Part of the BILLIONAIRES MULTINATIONALS = NO LOYAL TO 99.99% OF AMERICANS or AMERICA
FACT = MULTINATIONALS squeeze out MAX LOOT at lowest cost = ANYWHERE”
FACT = USA GOV = Owned by a few Billionaires = LAWS FOR THEM NOT 99%
FACT = WEALTH tells us to USE DIRTY FUELS destroying the environment = SCAM
FACT = US has millions of its children go to bed hungry every night
FACT = US MULTINATIONAL WELFARE in $TRILLIONS from Middle Class Pockets
FACT = US gives profitable MULTINATIONALS Middle Class LOOT to EXPORT JOBS
FACT = Middle Class and Poor are being EXPLOITED by Wealthy
FACT = Wealthy own the only sources of main stream “information”, the media.
FACT = Wealthy by deliberate design, locked out understanding of how an economy should work to give everybody a fighting chance.
FACT = US education system only works for the entitled elitists.
FACT = US Political system Bought by $Billionaires = ZERO regard for 99.99% of Americans
FACT = Billionaire Owned Media = Sets us up to think the way they wants us to think
FACT = We are fed a world of jingoistic LIES repeated OVER AND OVER AGAIN
FACT = Use words like patriotism and FAKED WMDs to follow the RICH to USELESS WARS DRAINING THE MIDDLE CLASS!
GOP = THRIVES ON MIDDLE CLASS VICTIMS = MULTINATIONAL DEMS”
GOP 30+ YEARS of RESTORING A MONARCHY OF THE RICH = 18th CENTURY GOP
GOP GOP GOP = Wake up these politicians = Care NOTHING about Americans
REAGAN to BUSH VOODOO SCAMS
Piketty = 21st Century = MONARCHAL deeply unequal 18th and 19th centuries
GOP EMPIRE OF LIES = ENDS WITH PIKETTY RESEARCH
https://concisepolitics.wordpress.com/category/gop-empire-of-lies/”
PIKETTY RESEARCH = “If people read the book and think closely about his economic history and what the impact of this research means….maybe people will finally wake up”
Piketty = Typical outcome of unfettered capitalism = HIGH WEALTH INEQUALITY
Piketty = EQUALIZED GLOBAL TAX ON WEALTH (CAPITAL) = EACH COUNTRY SAME RATE OF TAX ON WEALTH
Piketty = Income inequality = getting started = CAUSED BY WEALTH INEQUALITY = RETURN OF WEATH OF AN ARISTOCRACY = REAGAB-BUSH GOP REVOLUTION
Piketty = DEBUNKS Trickle-Down BS = DEBUNKS Rising tide lifts all boats = DEBUNKS SUPPLY SIDE BS = DEBUNKS JOB CREATOR MYTH
GOP + MULTINATIONAL BILLIONAIRES SALES JOB = DESTROYED MIDDLE CLASS
WE ARE #1
WE ARE #1
USA = #1 IN WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY!
Multinational Billionaires = AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS LIVES OUT FOR BILLIONAIRE LOOTING!
Multinational Billionaires SHIPPED 58,OOO+ FACTORIES to SLAAAVVVE LABOR COUNTRIES
INEQUALITY = GOP LOVES IT!
https://concisepolitics.wordpress.com/category/fix-inequality-change-the-incentives-and-disincentives-to-favor-productive-investment-and-innovation-rather-than-financialization/
Piketty + POPE + Michael Lewis = WAR ON ELITISTS SCAMMERS AND TAKERS
Piketty = NYT best-seller = Challenges TRICKLE DOWN BS + JOB CREATOR BS\
Piketty + Michael Lewis = WAR ON ELITISTS SCAMS AND TAKERS
GOP = PILGRIMAGE to VEGAS = Of, by, and for Multinational $Billionaires
Thomas Piketty # 1 On Amazon 700-page book = rising inequality and the state of modern capitalism.
Similar message from POPE Francis
USA = #1 in Wealth Inequality in Developed World
USA = #1 in Income Inequality
Financialization = Leverage of information INEQUALITY = Wealth creation by ADVANTAGE
http://www.globalresearch.ca/whats-the-primary-cause-of-wealth-inequality-financialization/5374930
Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty = Economists devoted to deepening our understanding of INEQUALITY.
Emmanuel Saez = Documents widening gulf between the top 1% and the bottom 90% from 2009 to 2012 = Chart of top 10% share of income in red marking the beginning of financialization in 1982
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2012.pdf
Profits from Leveraging and betting on Financialization = Far exceed wealth generated by creating products and services = The economy is soon hollowed out
Financialization and Betting = Perverse incentives start driving every business decision and strategy ending innovation and productive investment
Coming out of Great Recession in 2009 = BEST SCAM EVER
Great Recession = MAXIMIZED Inequality = Opposite of Great Depression
MAXIMIZED Inequality = Investment returns exceed economic growth = Rich get richer QUICKER + Tax laws that allow virtually unlimited inheritances to pass from generation to generation. = like 18th and 19th century France reversed only by sharp-edged popular responses.
MAXIMIZED Inequality = When an REAL economy grows at 1% / Year but investment returns are 5% = Already very wealthy need to reinvest only a 20% of their gains for their fortunes to grow at the same rate as the overall economy. The rest can be spent on a sumptuous lifestyle.
Tiniest sliver of the wealthiest and highest-earning = Do not need to consume 80% of their incomes = Reinvest the 80% of gains in the market. Over time this snowballs into GREATER WEALTH!
REAGAN-THATCHER BEGAN VOODOO WEALTH TRANSFER TO TOP O.O1%
FACT = US Workers Produce More But The Gains Go Top O.O1%
2%/Year = Average Productivity Growth over past 63 years
-0%/Year = Average Wage Growth for US WORKERS since REAGAN 1980s = 13% OVERALL DROP
INDEX OF LABOR SHARE
1980 = 105 – Reagan
2007 = 92 = 13% drop since 1980
Top 10% Share of National Income
1980 = 34% – Reagan
2007 = 50% = 16% JUMP since Reagan
REAGAN-THATCHER BEGAN VOODOO WEALTH TRANSFER TO TOP O.O1%
Workers Compensated For Loss Of Income = Spent their Savings to Survive
Middle Class Savings Rate DROPS TO NEGATIVE REAGAN to BUSH
1950 = 6.0%
1980 = 10.0% – BEFORE Reagan
1990 = 7.0%
2006 = -1.1% = Negative = withdrawal from savings
Workers Borrowed to SURVIVE = BIG BANKS GROW AND GROW
% Household Debt versus GDP
1980 = 50% – Reagan
2007 = 95% = 45% increase after Reagan
MIDDLE CLASS MAX OUT DEBT TO SURVIVE = MULTINATIONAL BANKS GROW TO 70% OF MARKET VALUE
REAGAN-THATCHER BEGAN VOODOO WEALTH TRANSFER TO TOP O.O1%
US Economic Growth Rates Fell After Reagan from 9.8% to 3.5% under BUSH
GDP Growth ROSE until REAGAN 1980
GDP Growth DECLINED since REAGAN to BUSH
1965: 5.5%
1980: 9.8% REAGAN BEGINS VOODOO
2000: 5.8%
2008: 3.5% = REAGAN-THATCHER-BUSH VOODOO FAILS
REAGAN-THATCHER-BUSH = ALL LIES TO TRANSFER WEALTH TO TOP = TRICKLE DOWN LIES + SUPPLY SIDE LIES + JOB CREATOR LIES + LAFFER CURVE LIES
REAGAN-THATCHER BEGAN VOODOO WEALTH TRANSFER TO TOP O.O1%
Country Was Sold To The Chinese = MAXIMIZE US trade DEFICITS Since Reagan
1980 = $365.5-billion SURPLUS – Pre -Reagan
1990 = -$223.4-billion Deficit
2000 = -$1.330-trillion Deficit
2007 = -$2.441-trillion DEFICIT = REAGAN-THATCHER-BUSH DESTROYED THE US POWERHOUSE IN MANUFACTURING
REAGAN-THATCHER-BUSH = $2.8-trillion/YEAR HARM TO TRADE DEFICIT
1 = ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/pf/totalf1…
1 = https://www.clevelandfed.org/Research/PolicyDis/N…
1 = http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Zh1bveXc8rA/SuddUhLWUaI…
2 – http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog/09/04/27/Congr…
3 = http://www.demos.org/inequality/images/charts/usp…
3 = http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/TableView.asp…
4 = http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/household-se…
4 = http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current…
5 = http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4700714208_cc…
6 = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nettoauslandsve…
6 = http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2008/07%20July/0708_ii… Overview = http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010062415/re…”
Concise Politics -- Your Time should NOT be wasted. 