georgephillip
Senator
Michael Hudson has been writing for years about the negative influence the US FIRE sector (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) has on 90% of American workers. His latest tome, Killing the Host, argues "Asset price inflation is the primary dynamic explaining today's polarization of wealth and income.
"Yet most newscasts applaud daily rises in the stock averages as if the wealth of the One Percent, who own the great bulk of stocks and other financial assets, is a proxy for how well the economy is doing.
"What actually occurs is that financing corporate buyouts on credit factors interest payments and fees into the prices that companies must charge for their products.”
"Where this leads, says Hudson, is that 'Paying these financial charges leaves less available to invest or hire more labor. Likewise for the overall economy, the effect of a debt-leveraged real estate bubble and asset-price inflation is that interest payments and fees to bankers and bondholders leave less available to spend on goods and services.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/01/how-wall-street-parasites-have-devoured-their-hosts-your-retirement-plan-and-the-u-s-economy/
"'The financial overhead rises, squeezing the "real" economy and slowing new investment and hiring.'”
"Yet most newscasts applaud daily rises in the stock averages as if the wealth of the One Percent, who own the great bulk of stocks and other financial assets, is a proxy for how well the economy is doing.
"What actually occurs is that financing corporate buyouts on credit factors interest payments and fees into the prices that companies must charge for their products.”
"Where this leads, says Hudson, is that 'Paying these financial charges leaves less available to invest or hire more labor. Likewise for the overall economy, the effect of a debt-leveraged real estate bubble and asset-price inflation is that interest payments and fees to bankers and bondholders leave less available to spend on goods and services.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/01/how-wall-street-parasites-have-devoured-their-hosts-your-retirement-plan-and-the-u-s-economy/
"'The financial overhead rises, squeezing the "real" economy and slowing new investment and hiring.'”