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Dear Reader, |
I write often about the woes of the middling classes. Today I write about them again. |
Reports the Kobeissi Letter: |
The US middle class is disappearing: |
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US households with incomes greater than $150,000, adjusted for inflation, now make up a record 34% of all households, rising +29 percentage points since 1965. |
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At the same time, the middle class has shrunk -11 percentage points, to 45%, the lowest on record. |
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To put this differently, the middle class is shrinking as many households have joined the upper-middle class. |
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However, living costs for a basic family budget are now between $130,000 and $150,000. |
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This comes as costs of childcare, housing, healthcare, and taxes have risen far faster than wages, leaving even two full-time earners struggling to reach stability. |
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The wealth gap in broadening. |
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I must agree. The wealth gap is broadening. |
I am not against wealth gaps. The wealth gap between a neurosurgeon and an orderly is a chasm — and for cause. |
Yet I am heart and soul against artificially induced wealth gaps engineered by central bank manipulation. |
More about which shortly. |
Let Them EatMcDonald's! |
Meantime, NBC News informs us that "From fast food to beverage giants, brands see rising income inequality among customers." |
Thus McDonald's chief executive officer Chris Kempczinski claims our is an increasingly "two-tiered" economy. |
"Traffic for lower-income consumers is down double digits," he laments. |
I am not one whit surprised. A medium-sized carton of McDonald's french fries presently fetches an average $4.19. |
The identical medium-sized french fry carton cost an average $1.79 in 2019. |
A McDonald's cheeseburger was yours for approximately $1 in 2019. Today you must ladle out an average $3.15 for the identical item. |
I am not a regular devourer of McDonald's cheeseburgers. Thus I am no expert in them. Yet I hazard the price increase far exceeds the quality increase. |
Regardless… are you over three times wealthier today than in 2019… so that you can afford McDonald's 2025 cheeseburger? |
If so, you have my heartiest congratulations. Yet I believe you are truly rare. |
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The President's Financial Disclosures Revealed A Gold Secret on Page 57. I'm Sharing It Until December 10th
| My rich dad always said, "The rich leave clues." The biggest clue is on page 57 of the President's financial disclosures. It's how patriotic Americans are profiting from the gold boom without buying gold, and making up to $52,000 a year. After December 10th, this secret will be worthless. The time to act is now. | |
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Out of Reach |
Of course fast food is not the sole subject of escalating costs. |
The average cost of a freshly minted automobile presently nears $50,000. |
Not long ago $50,000 could place you behind the steering wheel of an exotic vehicle. |
And the cost of the median house? |
Let us first consider the cost of the median rural house. |
Prior to the plague year of 2020, an annual salary of $36,206 could fetch you the median rural house. |
Today you require a salary of $74,508 to carry the same median rural house. |
And if you are a suburbanite? |
Before 2020, an annual salary of $53,482 could secure you the median suburban house. |
Today you require an annual salary of $102,120 — a 91% increase. Handsome! |
And if you are an urbanite, an annual salary of $63,103 could fetch the median urban house before 2020. |
You presently require an annual salary of $118,300. |
That is an approximate 88% increase. |
The New Appeal of Socialism |
Is it any wonder that youthful Americans — who lack the wherewithal to purchase houses — are wagering their futures upon socialistic economic policies? |
It is no wonder whatsoever. That is because they believe the existing system has failed them. |
Are socialistic economic policies largely crackpot? I believe they are, yes. |
Do socialistic economic policies "work?" I do not believe they do, no. |
Yet socialistic economic policies excel in one aspect. |
They seduce the aggrieved… or at least the self-perceived aggrieved. |
What have they to lose but their chains, real or imagined? |
And so you have a charlatan messiah recently elected mayor of New York City. |
I hazard others like him will proliferate… like crabgrass in a disordered and poorly kept garden. |
Meantime, financial service provider Primerica reports that a mere 21% of middle-income Americans believe their financial fortunes will wax next year. |
34% believe their financial fortunes will wane next year. |
Thus Pelion heaps upon Ossa. |
Hope! |
Yet today I dangle hope in front of the aggrieved. That is because Federal Reserve Chairman Powell is on the case. |
He feels their pain: |
There is a bifurcated economy… consumers at the lower end are struggling and buying less… But at the top, people are spending… So, we think there is something there [concerning the bifurcated economy]. |
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And so the hangman sobs for the hanged man he himself has hanged. |
Who is more responsible for the bifurcated economy than Chairman Powell and his predecessors? |
Who has slanted the game board more in the one percent's direction than they? |
The answer is no one. |
Down With False Capitalism |
In these pages, I have cited hard data upon hard data. |
I have argued that Federal Reserve policies have fattened the topmost classes. And that those same policies have enfeebled the middling and lower classes. |
Mr. David Stockman, in summary of that data: |
The implicit thrust of Fed policy has been to severely punish savers, who, after taxes and inflation, have been badly crushed, and reward borrowers and speculators. |
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The latter have essentially been offered free money on a short-term basis to fund their leveraged speculations via rolling over the Fed's cheap overnight money day after day for years running. |
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As I have argued before: Equalizing capitalism is not to blame for the bifurcated economy. |
The false capitalism spawned by the Federal Reserve is to blame for the bifurcated economy. |
I have also argued that it is time to clear capitalism of all charges, and restore its blackened name. |
And that it is time to haul false capitalism into the dock. |
More precisely, it is time to haul the Federal Reserve into the dock. |
Regards, |
Brian Maher |
for Freedom Financial News |
P.S. Wall Street is anchoring you to $10,000 so you miss the real move. The math proves gold is headed to $100,000. Click here to see the simple math they don't want you to know. |
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