http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-warren-buffet-economy-how-central-bank-enabled-financialization-divided-america/
An article surveying how the entrenched, vested and powerful establishment class pillaged America and the World via fiat money and interest-rate repression. The free market does not exist today.
Some excerpts:
- "During the 29 years after Alan Greenspan became Fed chairman in August 1987, the balance sheet of the Fed exploded from $200 billion to $4.5 trillion. ...a 23X gain....Warren Buffett’s net worth was $2.1 billion back in 1987 and it is now about $73 billion. Call that 35X. During those same years, the value of non-financial US corporate equities rose from $2.6 trillion to $36.6 trillion. That’s on the hefty side, too. Call it 14X and take the hint about the idea of financialization. The value of corporate equities rose from 44% to 205% of GDP during that 29-year interval. Needless to say, when we move to the underlying economy which purportedly gave rise to these fabulous financial gains, the X-factor is not so generous. ...nominal GDP rose from $5 trillion to $18 trillion during the same 29-year period. ... only 3.6X. Next we have wage and salary disbursements, which rose from $2.5 trillion to $7.5 trillion over the period. ... 3.0X. Then comes the median nominal income of US households. That measurement increased from $26K to $54K over the period. ... 2.0X. Digging deeper, we have the sum of aggregate labor hours supplied to the nonfarm economy. That fairly precise metric of real work by real people rose from 185 billion hours to 240 billion hours during those same 29 years. ... 1.27X. ...we have the average weekly wage of full-time workers in inflation adjusted dollars. In constant 1982 dollars that was $330 per week in 1987 and is currently $340. ... 1.03X. Finally, we have real median family income. At about $54,000 then and now, call it a three decade long trip to nowhere if you credit the BLS inflation data."
- "The real truth is that Alan Greenspan and his successors turned a whole generation of financial gamblers into the greatest lottery winners in recorded history. They turned redistribution upside down——-sending unspeakable amounts of windfall wealth to the tippy top of the economic ladder."
- "The simple truth is, the Fed’s long-running interest rare repression policies have caused systematic, persistent and massive falsification of prices all along the yield curve and throughout all sectors of the financial market."
- "The single most important price in all of capitalism is the money market rate of interest. It sets the cost of carry in all asset markets and on options and futures pricing. It therefore indirectly fuels the bid for all debt, equity and derivative securities in the entire global financial system."