"Americans more pessimistic; Half say system in need of change or total overhaul" by Charles Babington and Jennifer Agiesta | Associated Press, January 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — Americans enter 2014 with a profoundly negative view of their government, expressing little hope that elected officials can or will solve the nation’s biggest problems, a new poll finds.
They have had their chance. They are the problem.
Half say America’s system of democracy needs either ‘‘a lot of changes’’ or a complete overhaul, according to the poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 1 in 20 says it works well and needs no changes.
Top 1% plus their flunkies in the state apparatus that benefit. A very interesting percentage to keep in mind for later.
Americans, who have a reputation for optimism, have a sharply pessimistic take on their government after years of disappointment in Washington….
People feel somewhat better about their personal lives. Most have at least some confidence that they’ll be able to handle their own problems in the coming year. A narrow majority say they’d do a better job running the country than today’s leaders in Washington.
Can they kill us all?
Local and state governments inspire more faith than the federal government, according to the poll….
Neither does for me, with local being the closest because those scum live here.
When asked to name up to 10 world or national problems they would ‘‘like the government to be working on’’ in 2014, Americans chiefly cite issues that have dominated — and often flummoxed — the White House and Congress for five years. Health care reform topped the list. It is likely, however, that those naming the issue include both opponents and supporters of President Obama’s sweeping health care overhaul.
Jobs and the economy were next, followed by the nation’s debt and deficit spending.
Some issues that draw ample media and campaign attention rank lower in the public’s priorities. No more than 3 percent of Americans listed gay rights, abortion, or domestic spying as prime topics for government action.
I have two issues this year: war and wealth.
Related: US abortion rate at lowest level since 1973
What to Expect for the 2014 Elections
Snowden Was a Russian Spy
Now you know why Snowden is lumped in there, and I can't tell you how dejected I am that Amurkns don't care about total surveillance tyranny (or is my paper lying about our interest there?).
Regardless of the issue, however, Americans express remarkably little confidence that the federal government can make real progress….
What they call progress is a step back. That's why we feel that way. Corporate governance has failed, folks.
This yawning gap between public desires and expectations is one of the poll’s most striking findings….
To some maybe; not to me. The gap that gets me is that the wealthiest philanthropists did not give as much in 2013 as they gave before the Great Recession, even as a strong stock market and better business climate have continued to concentrate American wealth in the top 1 percent of earners.
Americans don’t feel terribly optimistic about their own economic opportunities, although….
But, still, sigh!
--more--"
About that 1 in 20:
"As recovery churns along, firms focus on wealthy; Retailers adapt strategies as middle-class spending falters" by Nelson D. Schwartz | New York Times, February 03, 2014
NEW YORK — As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all.
See: What to Expect for the 2014 Elections
It's all a $hit-show fooley, folks.
The postrecession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away.
If there is any doubt, the speed at which companies are adapting to the new consumer landscape serves as very convincing evidence. Within top consulting firms and among Wall Street analysts, the shift is being described with a frankness more often associated with left-wing academics than business experts.
“Those consumers who have capital like real estate and stocks and are in the top 20 percent are feeling pretty good,” said John G. Maxwell, head of the global retail and consumer practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Are they?
In response to the upward shift in spending, big stores and restaurants are chasing richer customers with a wider offering of high-end goods and services, or focusing on rock-bottom prices to attract the expanding ranks of penny-pinching consumers....
Whatta recovery!
New research by economists Steven Fazzari of Washington University in St. Louis and Barry Cynamon of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis backs up what is already apparent in the marketplace.
Telling us what we already $en$ed it not knew?
In 2012, the top 5 percent of earners were responsible for 38 percent of domestic consumption, up from 28 percent in 1995, the researchers found.
Even more striking, the current recovery has been driven almost entirely by the upper crust, according to Fazzari and Cynamon.
That can only be striking to them.
Since 2009, the year the recession ended, inflation-adjusted spending by this top echelon has risen 17 percent, compared with just 1 percent among the bottom 95 percent.
In other words, the "new richers" are nothing of the sort. My piece of $hit paper of extremely elitist wealth is putting that out to divert attention from their own gluttony.
More broadly, about 90 percent of the overall increase in inflation-adjusted consumption between 2009 and 2012 was generated by the top 20 percent of households in terms of income, according to the study, which was sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a research group in New York.
Most generated by the top 5%.
The effects of this phenomenon are rippling through one sector after another in the US economy, from retailers and restaurants to hotels, casinos and even appliance makers.
Translation: everyone outside the top 5% is getting squeezed or poorer.
And I'm okay with that. I think we should just hand it all over to elite so they can f***ing choke on it. Then we feast on their carcasses, 'cuz I'm hungry!
For example, luxury gambling properties like Wynn and the Venetian in Las Vegas are booming, drawing in more high rollers than regional casinos in Atlantic City, upstate New York, and Connecticut, which attract a less affluent clientele who are not betting as much, said Steven Kent, an analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Oh, I'm so happy he and they are coming here -- and so is the state.
Although spending among the most affluent consumers has managed to propel the economy forward, the sharpening divide is worrying, Fazzari said.
“It’s going to be hard to maintain strong economic growth with such a large proportion of the population falling behind,” he said. “We might be able to muddle along — but can we really recover?”
Muddling along for five years now as the elite have cleaned up.
Fazzari also said that depending on a relatively small but affluent slice of the population to drive demand makes the economy more volatile, because this group does more discretionary spending that can rise and fall with the stock market, or track seesawing housing prices. The run-up on Wall Street in recent years has only heightened these trends, said Guy Berger, an economist at RBS, who estimates that 50 percent of Americans have no effective participation in the surging stock market, even counting retirement accounts.
What retirement account?
Related: A guide to Obama’s plan for retirement savings
Thankfully, the Globe is looking out for my interests!
Regardless, affluent shoppers like Mitchell Goldberg, an independent investment manager in Dix Hills, N.Y., say the rising stock market has encouraged people to open their wallets and purses more.
They make my point for me.
“Opulence isn’t back, but we’re spending a little more comfortably,” Goldberg said. He recently replaced his old Nike golf clubs with Callaway drivers and Adams irons, bought a Samsung tablet for work, and traded in his minivan for a sport utility vehicle.
And although the superrich garner much of the attention, most companies are building their business strategies around a broader slice of affluent consumers....
In other words, the top 5%.
At street level, the divide is even more stark.
Sears and J.C. Penney, retailers whose wares are aimed squarely at middle-class Americans, are both in dire straits. Last month, Sears said it would shutter its flagship store on State Street in downtown Chicago, and J.C. Penney announced the closings of 33 stores and 2,000 layoffs.
Investors have taken notice of the shrinking middle....
Finally!
Bargain-basement chains like Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Stores have more than doubled in value over the same period.
Your mi$ery is good for the $tock price.
About that 1 in 20:
"As recovery churns along, firms focus on wealthy; Retailers adapt strategies as middle-class spending falters" by Nelson D. Schwartz | New York Times, February 03, 2014
NEW YORK — As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all.
See: What to Expect for the 2014 Elections
It's all a $hit-show fooley, folks.
The postrecession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away.
If there is any doubt, the speed at which companies are adapting to the new consumer landscape serves as very convincing evidence. Within top consulting firms and among Wall Street analysts, the shift is being described with a frankness more often associated with left-wing academics than business experts.
“Those consumers who have capital like real estate and stocks and are in the top 20 percent are feeling pretty good,” said John G. Maxwell, head of the global retail and consumer practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Are they?
In response to the upward shift in spending, big stores and restaurants are chasing richer customers with a wider offering of high-end goods and services, or focusing on rock-bottom prices to attract the expanding ranks of penny-pinching consumers....
Whatta recovery!
New research by economists Steven Fazzari of Washington University in St. Louis and Barry Cynamon of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis backs up what is already apparent in the marketplace.
Telling us what we already $en$ed it not knew?
In 2012, the top 5 percent of earners were responsible for 38 percent of domestic consumption, up from 28 percent in 1995, the researchers found.
Even more striking, the current recovery has been driven almost entirely by the upper crust, according to Fazzari and Cynamon.
That can only be striking to them.
Since 2009, the year the recession ended, inflation-adjusted spending by this top echelon has risen 17 percent, compared with just 1 percent among the bottom 95 percent.
In other words, the "new richers" are nothing of the sort. My piece of $hit paper of extremely elitist wealth is putting that out to divert attention from their own gluttony.
More broadly, about 90 percent of the overall increase in inflation-adjusted consumption between 2009 and 2012 was generated by the top 20 percent of households in terms of income, according to the study, which was sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a research group in New York.
Most generated by the top 5%.
The effects of this phenomenon are rippling through one sector after another in the US economy, from retailers and restaurants to hotels, casinos and even appliance makers.
Translation: everyone outside the top 5% is getting squeezed or poorer.
And I'm okay with that. I think we should just hand it all over to elite so they can f***ing choke on it. Then we feast on their carcasses, 'cuz I'm hungry!
For example, luxury gambling properties like Wynn and the Venetian in Las Vegas are booming, drawing in more high rollers than regional casinos in Atlantic City, upstate New York, and Connecticut, which attract a less affluent clientele who are not betting as much, said Steven Kent, an analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Oh, I'm so happy he and they are coming here -- and so is the state.
Although spending among the most affluent consumers has managed to propel the economy forward, the sharpening divide is worrying, Fazzari said.
“It’s going to be hard to maintain strong economic growth with such a large proportion of the population falling behind,” he said. “We might be able to muddle along — but can we really recover?”
Muddling along for five years now as the elite have cleaned up.
Fazzari also said that depending on a relatively small but affluent slice of the population to drive demand makes the economy more volatile, because this group does more discretionary spending that can rise and fall with the stock market, or track seesawing housing prices. The run-up on Wall Street in recent years has only heightened these trends, said Guy Berger, an economist at RBS, who estimates that 50 percent of Americans have no effective participation in the surging stock market, even counting retirement accounts.
What retirement account?
Related: A guide to Obama’s plan for retirement savings
Thankfully, the Globe is looking out for my interests!
Regardless, affluent shoppers like Mitchell Goldberg, an independent investment manager in Dix Hills, N.Y., say the rising stock market has encouraged people to open their wallets and purses more.
They make my point for me.
“Opulence isn’t back, but we’re spending a little more comfortably,” Goldberg said. He recently replaced his old Nike golf clubs with Callaway drivers and Adams irons, bought a Samsung tablet for work, and traded in his minivan for a sport utility vehicle.
And although the superrich garner much of the attention, most companies are building their business strategies around a broader slice of affluent consumers....
In other words, the top 5%.
At street level, the divide is even more stark.
Sears and J.C. Penney, retailers whose wares are aimed squarely at middle-class Americans, are both in dire straits. Last month, Sears said it would shutter its flagship store on State Street in downtown Chicago, and J.C. Penney announced the closings of 33 stores and 2,000 layoffs.
Investors have taken notice of the shrinking middle....
Finally!
Bargain-basement chains like Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Stores have more than doubled in value over the same period.
Your mi$ery is good for the $tock price.
--more--"
I'm sorry, folks, but I think I came down with something.
Must have got it reading the Globe.
I'm sorry, folks, but I think I came down with something.
Must have got it reading the Globe.
